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Myeong Lee
Geographical Disparities of Incidence and Prevalence of Triple-negative Breast Cancers: Multistate Study Data Analysis
Higher prevalence of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in black women with associated poor outcomes due to various disparities is well documented within a single state. We examine multiple states to better understand the state effect on such differences in incidence and prevalence of TNBC in black women.
Female patients of ages 19 years old and above with breast cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program across 13 states (608 counties) from 2015 (n = 66,444) and 2016 (n = 66,122) were examined. The relationships between the proportion of black and white women and the rate of patients with different tumor subtypes (luminal A, luminal B, HR-HER2+, and triple negative) were examined at the county level using ordinary least-square regression models. In parallel, due to consideration of various state-specific healthcare policies, socio-cultural norms, and socio-economic disparities, multi-level regression models were applied to examine the nested, random effect of each state on TNBC prevalence in each county. Bonferroni correction was applied to reduce the Type I error caused by repeated use of the same variables in multiple tests.
The baseline breast cancer rates between black and white women were similar in the population (0.171% for black and 0.168% for white). Consistent to previous studies, we demonstrate a significant positive correlation (p < 0.001) in TNBC in black females in both years. Surprisingly, when accounted for the random effects on states, 38.2% (2015) and 34.3% (2016) increase in incidence of TNBC in black females were seen, suggestive of state-specific disparity affecting race-specific health. In 2015, other subtypes of breast cancer in both black and white females did not result in significant relationship. Interestingly, in 2016, there was a significant relationship seen between the TNBC rate in white females and the white female population rate only after adjusting for the state effect (p = 0.026). This indicates the impact of non-biological factors such as state-wide health policies. Additionally, HR-HER2+ black females had a significant relationship against respective population rate only after adjusting for the state effect as well (p = 0.0394). For luminal A white females, a 15% decrease in incidence was seen after adjusting for state effect (p = 0.0424).
This is the first known across-state examination of breast cancer subtypes by race with random effects on state. This study shows the role of state-specific factors affecting incidence in black and white females and potentially indicates the importance of state-level management for breast cancer on health disparities in addition to race-driven effects. Further studies are needed to elucidate comparable differences between states affecting the rates of various subtypes of breast cancer and thus health outcomes.
Journal of Clinical Oncology. e12599. 39(15_suppl). In ASCO '21 (June 4-8)
Hyein Jeon
Mohammed Jaloudi
https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JCO.2021.39.15_suppl.e12599
Jeon, H., Lee, M., & Jaloudi, M. (2021). Geographical disparities of incidence and prevalence of triple-negative breast cancers: Multistate study data analysis. Journal of Clinical Oncology. e12599. 39(15_suppl). DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2021.39.15_suppl.e12599
Community Informatics
Quantitative Study
Extended Abstract
© Designed and implemented by Myeong Lee


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"Чинечита̀" ( – Киноград, Град на киното) е световноизвестна киностудия в Рим, Италия.

Разположена е в югоизточно римско предградие (на около 9 km от центъра на града), на Тускуланския път (Via Tuscolana), на площ 400 декара (400 000 m²).

Студията е основана през 1937 г. от Бенито Мусолини, сина му Виторио и ръководителя на кинодирекцията на Мусолини Луиджи Фреди под лозунга "Il cinema è l'arma più forte!" ("Киното е най-мощното оръжие!"). Целта е не само да служи на пропагандата, но и да се увеличат възможностите на италианската киноиндустрия, която тогава е в криза. Мусолини лично открива студията на 21 април 1937 г. Първите филми, като едноименния филм за Сципион Африкански (1937) и "La corona di ferro" (1941) демонстрират добро технологично състояние на студията. Седем хиляди души вземат участие в снимките на баталните сцени от "Сципион", и живи слонове са превозени за част от инсценировката на битката при Зама.

По време на Втората световна война студията е бомбардирана.

До 1943 г. в студията са снимани около 300 филма. През 1950-те години на площадките на студията са снимани американските пеплуми, такива като "Бен Хур" (1959) на режисьора Уилям Уайлър и "Камо грядеши" на Мервин Лерой. След 1964 г. тук се снимат италиански уестърни.

През 1980-те години киностудията е на границата на банкрут и италианското правителство я приватизира.

През 1991 г. на територията на киностудията се провежда конкурсът "Евровизия"; през 1995 г. – изложба, посветена на 100-годишнината на кинематографа. През 2006 г. Маурицио Костанцо () и Стефано Чикарини () откриват комплекса "Cinecittà Campus", станал впоследствие школа за актьорско майсторство под името Eutheca – European Union Academy of Theatre and Cinema (Академия за театър и кино на Европейския съюз).

Към киностудията има едноименен тризвезден хотел.

Източници

Външни препратки
 Официален сайт на студията

Филмови компании
Италианско кино
Компании в Рим
Култура в Рим

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Spicy's Soundtrack
Bar Raised
The Cocktease
Look At This Fucking Dish
Nightlife + Fashion
Party Pics
TV + Film
Forechecking
Asshat of the Week
Humor Us
DTX Selects
Song Of The Day: Nicole Marxen — "Tether"
Spicy's Soundtrack To Social Distancing Volume 40.
Song Of The Day: David Morgan – "Saturday (feat. Maurice)"
Dallas' Most-Anticipated Restaurant Openings Of 2021.
The Spread: Khao Noodle Shop Closes Temporarily.
Gabe Sanchez Saunters Over To The Midnight Rambler.
The Whippersnapper Announces 'Breaking Bad' Pop-Up.
Dallas' Most Iconic Christmas Eve Party Is No More.
Two Years Later, Remembering Tre'Shun Miller.
Was The Worst Porn Of All Time Filmed In Dallas?
Would You Rather: Are You Eating Or Drinking Your Feelings?
COVID Briefs: Dallas County Passes 200,000 Cumulative Cases.
[Q&A] Exploring Mexico's Riches With César Mascorro.
Rest In Peace.
New Tricks.
Cory Graves February 19, 2014
Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken Tells Us Why Sounding Just Like The Beatles Isn't A Bad Thing.
For the past decade or so, Philly throwback rockers Dr. Dog have been a rather consistent lot. From 2002 to 2006 they released six LPs, three EPs, and a handful of special edition 7-inches and compilation albums. And for the most part each of these lo-fi recordings were done at the no-frills Meth Beach rehearsal space/studio that's essentially served as the band's home base for eight of the last ten years.
But when it came time to record last fall's B-Room LP, the band decided a change of scenery was in order. So when the lease on Meth Beach expired, the boys began renovating an old silver mill on the outskirts of town into a legit studio they later dubbed Mt. Slippery. And immediately following the completion of that months-long construction project is when the band began recording their most recent album.
That in mind, we recently caught up with Dr. Dog lead guitarist Scott McMicken, who told us about the band's newfound ability to incorporate hi-fi elements into the band's records for the first time in its career and how the derivative nature of the band's sound will affect its legacy.
A lot of the press materials for your new album focus pretty heavily on the fact that you guys built yourselves a new studio just prior to recording this album. Why did you guys feel like a change of scenery was in order this time around?
On the most basic level it's just a change of scenery for the sake of changing scenery. We've been working out of our old studio since about 2004; almost ten years, really. As cool as it was — and as excited as we were to have it — the huge amount of time made it where everybody was interested in trying something new.
More specifically we wanted more room. Our old studio was one big room. We wanted multiple separate rooms to enable people to be working simultaneously on different things. We also wanted to be able to accommodate those of us in the band who move into the studio when it's time to record, so we wanted to have a kitchen and a bathroom and showers and beds. We also wanted to get kind of out of the city, as much as we could without having to do too much driving to the studio. It's a slightly more remote location other than the urban, blown-out wasteland where our old studio was.
Most of those aspects also were creatively aligned with what we wanted to do on this album, which is to be able to track more as a live band. At our old studio, on a technological level, it was difficult to do that. There was very little isolation you could gain between sounds. There was no isolation room and tracking room set up –it was all one room. The tape machine and the console and everything was in the same room as the musicians. It was really hard to get something that sounded cool with everyone playing at the same time. We knew before we decided to move out of the studio that with each record that was becoming more and more our preferred method of recording.
And you guys built the studio yourselves, is that right? Does that include all the construction stuff? Do any of you guys have construction backgrounds?
We all built it together and we recruited a few friends. We just took our whole recording budget from ANTI- Records and spent it at Home Depot. We got so much stuff to build with. The combined experiences of everyone made us a pretty legit construction crew. Everyone has worked in various aspects of that over the years, some more than others. But everyone has a taste for it. Most of the band's members now own a house so we've all experienced home renovating and stuff like that for our own purposes beyond employment. [Bass guitarist] Toby [Leaman's] brother Tad and [another one of our oldest friends] are pretty much professionals. My cousin Jim is a professional carpenter. The only thing we hired out was the sheetrock because there was so much of it. The space that we got was an old mill building and it's a 5,000 square feet, open floor plan. In the middle of that 5,000-square-foot rectangle we built two rooms. We put rooms within the rooms. One is the tracking room and the other is the control room. The perimeter of the place is lined with these smaller rooms, two bedrooms, an office, the b-room in the corner, and then a shower and a bathroom. That kind of wraps an L-shape around the perimeter. But we did it all other than the sheetrock. Those experienced sheetrock guys will come in and bang out hundreds of square feet of sheetrocking in a day, whereas we would have taken two weeks to do that. But it felt very rewarding. I feel like when it came time to record music in there we were already spending 17 hours a day in there, seven days a week together working on something, so the relationships and ease of collaboration was very much already present. It was a nice way to segue into making music together. I think for all of us we found a startling similarity in the construction process to the music making process.
It's interesting you bring that up. Do you guys hang out a lot outside of band-related activities? Was that a good way to have some non-musical hang time?
Oh yeah, for certain. We're very much a part of each other's lives on the road and off. It has gotten a little tougher the last few years because one of our members lives in Arizona. One guy lives in Delaware, which is really only 20 minutes from Philly. Eric is going to move to North Carolina to get a change of scenery. As the years have gone on it's required a little extra effort to see everybody. But the truth of it is, we spend so much time together on the road and we spend so much time working on stuff — even non-album-making related stuff. This last break, for instance, over Christmas, we were together that entire time anyway because we were working on a few different recording projects for TV shows, and we shot a video. So the band keeps us together and keeps us seeing each other a lot.
Now with the new studio do you see yourselves ever recording other bands in there?
Absolutely. That was sort of the side thought we had going on. We wanted to make it, of course, suit our vision of a place we'd like to work in, but we also wanted to have the basic offerings of an industry standard in studios. The door is open now and word is starting to spread around. We have a couple of engineers who are willing to take it over and manage the place when we're away. More or less we'll use it for rehearsal, and then once a year we'll block it out to make an album. But all of the other time there are engineers and producers that can consider it their own place and can keep bands coming in here. Nick Krill — the lead singer of The Spinto Band, and a really great engineer — used to run his own studio not far from where ours is now. He coincidentally decided to close it down around the time that we built ours. It's been a nice transition to know that Nick, who has been slowly bringing over lots of cool gear, will be there and will be working. Long story short, we're very much making it available as a place for public usage.
What goes on in the b-room? Why did you guys choose to name your album after that room specifically?
In a nutshell: we've been a band for a really long time and we've known each other a long time, and we've gotten to know each other over a really long time — not just as individuals, but in how we work and how we've done things historically. Despite that, we've grown a lot and evolved a lot. We're eager to try things we've never tried before, more so now than ever. The new studio is a symbol of who we've always been, what we've always been about, and what we've gained through the years many years of doing this thing we do. The b-room was kind of to balance the scales. We built this nice, and what we consider big, beautiful studio that's fully equipped and very professional. However the b-room is back there in the corner as well, and the b-room is very much the same type of studio setup we recorded our first album on ten years ago. That lo-fi, low budget, home recording style is very much a part of what we do when we get together to make music. The studio is actually called Mt. Slippery, but b-room is back there in the corner, and b-room is the old school way for us. The rest of this place is about the new school way for us. Those two worlds are very cohesive. You can work in both those realms even when your ambition grows beyond what you can do on cassette four-track or quarter-inch eight-track. With the way technology now enables you to fuse so many different methods and pieces of equipment into one way of working, there's no real reason to set aside those old, maybe archaic, recording methods. Now more than ever you can get a whole lot out of that. The b-room is just kind of the foil to the new scene we've got going on with Mt. Slippery. B-room was all about that shitty, basement vibe. We spent a lot of time and money really beautifying and legitimizing so many aspects of the studio, but when it came to the b-room we left it really raw. We fashioned this identity around the b-room as this real work-a-day, utilitarian, 1950's-style studio. If you've ever seen pictures of the early days of Motown it looks like a raw basement, and about all they had to enhance the sound quality of the room was to stick a mattress over the window. In truth, there's so much beauty that comes out of those types of limitations, and we all know that. We don't need those limitations anymore, but we still prefer them. That's why the b-room means so much to what the new studio is, even though it's just a fraction of what the place is all about.
I know you guys have used a Dallas artist, Andrew Kendall, to do a lot of your tour posters and artwork over the years. How did that relationship develop?
I know all about Andrew Kendall. He's become a close friend of ours over the years. I'm a huge admirer of the ways he works and the things he does. He has truly hooked us up. I have a lot of [his posters] hanging up in my living room. He's given us a lot of posters over the years, certainly band-related ones, but sometimes non band-related ones. Basically he presented himself to us several years ago. He just showed up to a show and he had made a bunch of posters and asked if we'd be inclined to sell them. Of course we were because they were so beautiful. Every time we pass back through there he comes by and says hi, so over the years we've gotten to know him pretty well. He's just given us lots and lots of beautiful artwork over the years. The things he'll use in order to come up with his images and the things he'll put his images on are really inspiring, and kind of have readymade aspects to them creatively. It has just that nice lens on it that I think we all appreciate so well. He's just been a really nice fit for us as an artist.
While a lot of the reviews of your albums are generally favorable, most allude to the fact that your music is pretty derivative of the Beatles, Beach Boys, and other '60s acts. First of all, do you ever read your own reviews? And secondly, do you think the ability of your catalog to stand the test of time is at all negatively impacted by how heavily indebted to the past it is?
I read reviews. Most of us do. We have a pretty insular amount of confidence in the things that we do that, at the end of the day, the true merit of what we do is measured by us solely. We take that attitude into every song we write and record and every show that we play. So much so that I don't care if every person in the crowd says that's the best show we've ever played, if I didn't think it was a good show then that good news from the audience won't help. It goes both ways. There's a vulnerability that comes with being that self-propelled by what you do. That's the thing that ultimately guides us from getting too bummed out about the critics. However, there are certain moments where you wonder — there are levels of quality within journalism just like everything else. It's OK for people to think and feel whatever it is they want. Once we do our thing and it comes back to that side we're fine with whatever people think. Sometimes I think when it does hurt you is when you can tell the level of insight going in was very base level and very superficial. I think those kind of reviews are the ones that'll make you go, "This is bullshit." But we've been at it long enough to know the dangers of letting yourself be susceptible to whatever people think. The other thing that's really helped us with that over the years is our fans. They're super cool. I'm realizing that now more than ever. Our fans are so supportive. You might spend all morning reading shit reviews about your band, but then it's like, alright, we're on. And you go out there and it's very apparent that the people there are very happy and the people you talk to are super happy. I sort of like the fact that we're liked by people and not by critics. There's something almost Bad News Bears about it that I like. Of course it's easy to be like, "I get it, we sound like the Beatles. Duh." I don't know what else to say. I trust what we do.
As far as your second question, no, I think probably that fact that gives it more of a chance. There's something sort of proven about older music in that for us to be standing here talking about it now proves that it's already stood the test of time. If we're representing attributes of that I'd say it gives us a better chance at standing the test of time than if our sound was full of gated snare drum, reverb from the '80s that everybody knows. That sound was exciting for a minute and quickly did not stand the test of time. We're the blue jeans of music or something, hopefully. We don't not see ourselves as part of the tradition. We don't see ourselves as separate from the past. We see ourselves as part of a stream, a narrative of music, that is continuing to respond to itself through various different insights, understandings, and individuals coming into the same 12 fucking notes and three chords. That's the world we live in. Likeness to the past is not a taboo notion for us at all. In fact, just slightly, it becomes a point of pride.
Dr. Dog performs Saturday, February 22, at Trees.
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Cory Graves
Cory Graves is the Associate Editor at Central Track. He enjoys not only writing about Dallas and its local music scene, but being a part of it as a member of the band Vandoliers. Courtney Love once referred to him onstage as "my fucking therapist," which he immediately put on his resume.
Pete Freedman January 15, 2021
Alec Spicer January 14, 2021
Jessi Pereira January 14, 2021
Song Of The Day: Paris Pershun — "Paris Pen 2"
White Noise: Erica Banks Enters The National Spotlight.
Song Of The Day: P.P. – "All Weak"
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Basla to Replace Lord as Air Force CIO
Written by David Stegon
Jan 10, 2012 | FEDSCOOP
Lt. Gen. Michael Basla will become the Air Force's chief information officer when Lt. Gen. Bill Lord retires this summer, the Air Force confirmed to FedScoop.
Basla is currently vice commander of the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, where he assists the commander in organizing, equipping, training and maintaining mission-ready space and cyberspace forces and capabilities for North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Strategic Command. He also supports the other functional and geographic combatant commands with missile warning, positioning, navigation and timing, communications and cyber capabilities.
Prior to his current assignment, Basla was vice director for C4 Systems for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.
Watch Basla address the University of Albany football team where he played offensive tackle as an undergraduate:
Lord has served as Air Force CIO since July 2009 and will officially retire from his position on July 31.
Among his major accomplishments is building a communications framework for network-centric operations that will help the Defense Department in its quest for interoperability.
Lord also designated a federated Air Force enterprise architecture that was the first to be certified by the Defense Department's Architecture and Standards Review Group, along with leading the development of a comprehensive aerial layer network that will support joint, real-time communications on the battlefield.
Lord pushed the development of department-wide IT standards that will establish the price of admission for joint warfighting and industry partnerships in cyberspace.
In 2011, he took part in FedScoop's FedMentors program:
Basla's bio:
Lt. Gen. Michael J. Basla is Vice Commander, Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. He assists the commander in organizing, equipping, training, and maintaining mission-ready space and cyberspace forces and capabilities for North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Strategic Command and the other functional and geographic combatant commands with missile warning, positioning, navigation and timing, communications and cyber capabilities. The command oversees Air Force network operations; manages a global network of satellite command and control, communications, missile warning and space launch facilities; and is responsible for space system development and acquisition. The command comprises more than 46,000 space and cyberspace professionals assigned to locations worldwide and deployed to an additional 35 global locations. General Basla also directs and coordinates the activities of the headquarters staff.
General Basla is a native of Syracuse, N.Y., graduating from Bishop Grimes High School. He received his commission in 1979 as a distinguished graduate of Officer Training School. General Basla has served in five operational communications units including commands at detachment, squadron and group levels. He has extensive joint experience including a tour as Director for C4 Systems, Joint Task Force Southwest Asia in Saudi Arabia where he delivered integrated network operations in support of United Nations security resolution enforcement against Iraq. He has served on the staffs of the Joint Staff, U.S. Transportation Command, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Air Mobility Command and Air Force Communications Command. In 2005, General Basla received the Eugene M. Zuckert Award, which honors outstanding management achievements by a Department of the Air Force Manager.
Prior to his current assignment, he was Vice Director for C4 Systems, Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., where he supported the Director of C4 Systems in supporting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in carrying out his duties as principal adviser to the President and Secretary of Defense and developing and providing guidance to the combatant commands on C4 systems and information capabilities as key enablers of combat forces.
EDUCATION 1975 Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, University of New York, Albany 1984 Squadron Officer School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. 1985 Master of Science degree in teleprocessing science, Air Force Institute of Technology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg 1990 Air Command and Staff College, by correspondence 1992 Distinguished graduate, College of Naval Command and Staff, Naval War College, Newport, R.I. 1996 Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C. 1998 Seminar XXI, Foreign Political and International Relations, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 2003 Senior Executive Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 2009 Senior Joint Information Operations Course, Air University, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
ASSIGNMENTS 1. March 1979 – March 1980, student, Basic Communications-Electronics Course and Communications Computer Programming Course, Keesler AFB, Miss. 2. March 1980 – November 1982, Automatic Digital Network systems analyst, later, Chief, AUTODIN Switching Center, 2049th Communications Group, McClellan AFB, Calif. 3. November 1982 – February 1984, Commander, Detachment 2, 2186th Communications Squadron, Menorca Radio Relay Location, Spain 4. May 1984 – March 1985, student, Telecommunications Staff Officer Course, Keesler AFB, Miss. 5. March 1985 – August 1985, student, Air Force Institute of Technology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg 6. August 1985 – June 1988, command and control systems integrator, later, aide-de-camp to the Commander, Air Force Communications Command, Scott AFB, Ill. 7. July 1988 – July 1991, Commander, 2143rd Communications Squadron, and Deputy Commander for Communications-Computer Systems, 26th Training Wing, Zweibrucken Air Base, Germany 8. August 1991 – June 1992, student, Naval College of Command and Staff, Naval War College, Newport, R.I. 9. July 1992 – June 1995, action officer, Directorate of C4 Systems (J6), Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. 10. June 1995 – June 1996, student, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Washington, D.C. 11. July 1996 – July 1998, assistant for senior officer matters, later, Chief, Force Management Division, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Information, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. 12. July 1998 – April 2000, Commander, 96th Communications Group, Eglin AFB, Fla. 13. April 2000 – May 2001, Director, C4 Systems (J6), Joint Task Force Southwest Asia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 14. June 2001 – April 2002, Director of Information Technology Enterprise Operations, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Information, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. 15. May 2002 – June 2004, Director of Communications and Information, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill. 16. June 2004 – December 2005, Deputy Director, Operational Support Modernization Program, Deputy Chief of Staff for Warfighting Integration, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. 17. December 2005 – June 2007, Director, Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems (TCJ6), U.S. Transportation Command, Scott AFB, Ill. 18. June 2007 – August 2009, Vice Director, Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems (VJ6), Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. 19. August 2009 – present, Vice Commander, Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colo.
SUMMARY OF JOINT ASSIGNMENTS 1. July 1992 – June 1995, action officer, Directorate of C4 Systems (J6), Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., as a major and lieutenant colonel 2. April 2000 – May 2001, Director, C4 Systems (J6), Joint Task Force Southwest Asia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as a colonel 3. December 2005 – June 2007, Director, C4 Systems (TCJ6), U.S. Transportation Command, Scott AFB, Ill., as a brigadier general 4. June 2007 – August 2009, Vice Director, C4 Systems (VJ6), Joint Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., as a brigadier general and major general
MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS Defense Superior Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster Defense Meritorious Service Medal Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters Air Force Commendation Medal
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS Outstanding Young Men of America Life member, Air Force Association Life member, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Life member, Naval War College League
EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION Second Lieutenant March 20, 1979 First Lieutenant March 20, 1981 Captain March 20, 1983 Major Dec. 1, 1988 Lieutenant Colonel March 1, 1994 Colonel Sept. 1, 1998 Brigadier General Sept. 1, 2005 Major General Nov. 24, 2008 Lieutenant General March 2, 2011
Air Force, Bill Lord, Department of Defense (DOD), Departments, Michael Basla, Military
DISA takes over cloud...
JADC2, but for medics:...


From March 2017 to present, CrowdHEALTH has been represented in more than 28 conferences. (e.g. GECON 2017, ISCSIC 2017, EMCIS 2017, ICIMTH 2017, DeSE 2017, CeBIT, VLDB, DigEnlight,MIE2018) with workshops ,posters and oral presentations.
The definition of what is a Health Policy may be difficult since it depends on the profile and the experience of who defines it. In the framework of the CrowdHEALTH project, we mainly follow and broaden general definitions by Buse and Smith [Buse et al. 2012, Smith et al.
The multitude of data sources in the healthcare domain highlights a unique opportunity: data to be exploited for effective and targeted policy making, development of personalised medicine, prevention of diseases and health promotion in general.
CrowdHEALTH will deliver a ground-breaking approach reflected in its integral big data platform, which will incorporate techniques addressing the complete data path – i.e. modelling and interpretation, cleaning and collection, automatic interrelation, distributed storage, and real-time analysis of health information.
CrowdHEALTH also introduces the concept of Holistic Health Records to take health information to the next level through the inclusion of additional health determinants (e.g. genomics, nutrition, lifestyle, environment, etc).
Welcome to our CrowdHEALTH blog!
This is our first blog post! We are now reaching the 10th month of the CrowdHEALTH project and our compromise is to write in our blog least once per month, to inform about the project's progresses.


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turn to ted
Couple on COVID-infected ship Turns to Ted for refund on future trips
By Ted Oberg and Sarah Rafique
Couple on COVID-infected ship Turns to Ted for refund
SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) -- Bob Porter and Joy Shiller opened a bottle of over-the-counter pain relievers and started counting.
The couple knew they had eight pills left. What Shiller said they didn't know was how much longer they would be trapped at sea on the "cruise from hell," as Porter began developing symptoms of COVID-19.
Porter and Shiller left for the Coral Princess cruise to Santiago, Chile, on March 4, 2020 - the same day Fort Bend County announced Texas' first COVID-19 case.
Bob Porter and Joy Shiller post in the Falkland Islands during their cruise last March. (Courtesy photo)
For everyone else, the weeks that followed were filled with mask mandates, schools shifting to online learning and non-essential businesses closing. For the couple, it was learning to live at sea in a 182-square-foot room.
READ ALSO: Royal Caribbean plans first fully vaccinated cruises from Israel
Their cruise was supposed to last just 14 days. They weren't able to leave the ship until the 35th day at sea as ports in the Falklands, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina denied them entry while fear of the coronavirus heightened.
At first, Shiller said it felt like an extended vacation. Soon, they learned the virus was aboard and the ship would be quarantined indefinitely off the coast.
"He was getting sick before they put us in quarantine and I knew something was wrong," Shiller said. "He was coughing. He had this dry cough, and then he spent a whole day in bed. He didn't feel well, but we didn't know what was going on in the ship."
Shiller said the medical center on board was inundated with sick passengers that Porter didn't bother calling for help. She said she texted with fellow passengers and learned it could take four hours to get just one Tylenol.
They started rationing their pills.
"Joy had hurt her knee and had taken a number of them before all this happened, which we really didn't think anything about," said 74-year-old Porter. "Then when we were quarantined. We counted them and there were eight, and so I didn't want to take them not knowing whether she was going to get it and so I wanted to save them for her."
Joy Shiller said staff on the Coral Princess left food outside their doors in March 2020, during the start of the pandemic. (Courtesy photo)
The only way the couple knew how serious COVID-19 was for the rest of the world was by watching the limited channels they had on TV.
"I think we had three news channels and a couple of sports channels, and that's all we could get. So that's how we got most of our information," Porter said. "By the time it got to when we were quarantined, the country was really going crazy about [COVID-19] and it was wall-to-wall coverage."
The ship's captain delivered more ominous news every day, including an announcement on April 4, 2020, when they were woken up at 6 a.m. to news that two of their fellow passengers died overnight.
That same day, the captain also announced the mayor of Miami allowed them to dock. In a journal she kept during the cruise, Shiller recalls seeing the Miami skyline in the distance and excited to be close to home for the first time in 31 days.
But, it was still another four days before they disembarked the ship and got transportation to Houston, then Sugar Land.
"They had the water patrol in front of the ship, Miami police in the water, back and forth in front of the ship, because I was ready to jump," Shiller said. "I thought if I could just jump, I would. I'd swim."
Bob Porter and Joy Shiller look through photos and summaries of their time aboard the Coral Princess in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. (Courtesy photo)
On April 7, 2020, the couple took a small chartered plane to Houston, wearing masks the entire time. When they arrived in Sugar Land, they both got COVID-19 tests, which confirmed Porter had the virus. Within days, they cancelled three of their upcoming cruises.
"I thought I will never be able to get on a cruise ship ever," Shiller said. "Just the thought of what we went through. I'll relive all that."
Shiller said she easily received refunds from two of their cancelled cruises, but were still waiting on a $4,436 refund from Crystal Cruises.
Seven months later, when the December date of the cancelled cruise passed, the couple Turned to Ted for help with the refund.
When we reached out to the company in January, Crystal Cruises said it knows the refund process can cause "frustration and angst" for guests.
"While we have made significant progress over the past few months in processing refunds, we know that some guests have not received their refund by our original good faith estimate in March of up to 90 days," the cruise said in a statement to ABC13.
Crystal Cruises said it "remains committed to honoring our contractual obligations with our guests, including the processing of refunds." The company said it has "refunded more than $140 million since our voluntary fleetwide cancellations began."
Joy Shiller and Bob Porter say they've been going on cruises together for decades. (Courtesy photo)
Shiller and Porter have been going on cruises for about 20 years. One year after they were stuck at sea for weeks, the couple says they hope to cruise again.
"I was a basket case when we got back. If someone looked at me the wrong way, I'd start crying, but everything's fine now," she said. "Time heals and I'll cruise again."
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As you age, your skin will show damage if you do not properly take care of it during your youth. The more attention you pay to your skin when you are young, the nicer it will look and feel when you are older. The following article will give you the information that you need to take care of your skin in the best manner possible.
Instead of only washing your skin, try exfoliating occasionally to remove dead skin cells. Remove dead layers of skin with a granulated sugar scrub, an apricot scrub or an exfoliating glove. Doing this more than twice weekly can cause damage and irritation.
Your lips require protection as much as any other part of your body. The humidity is usually lower in the winter. If you don't take care of your lips with balm or moisturizers, you can end up with painful dry and cracked lips.
You should consult a dermatologist if you have skin ailments that do not improve or you see a big difference in your skin. Not seeking professional help can aggravate important skin issues and cause more damage.
Getting enough sleep is a vital part of skin care. Not getting enough sleep will show on your pores and your skin. It is recommended that you get around eight hours of sleep each night in order to maintain a nice glowing skin and a reduced level of stress.
Use aloe vera on any scars you want to rid yourself of. The plant is packed with skin-loving vitamin E and amino acids. Rub it into the scars after bathing. The newer your scar, the better your chances of removing it with aloe vera treatment.
Eat a diet rich in antioxidants to control the condition of your skin. Some of these types of foods and beverages include green tea, dark chocolate and fresh fruit. Free radicals are caused by many factors such as stress, cigarette smoke, and UV rays.
When you purchase a sunscreen, be sure to study the label. There are many different ingredients in sunscreen. The best sunscreens for UV protection ought to include no less than one broad-spectrum component like zinc or titanium oxide, or perhaps avobenzone. Check the label carefully to be sure there are no ingredients which irritate your skin.
Skin care is very simple when you have the know how. Having healthy, beautiful skin depends on how you care for it, both internally and externally. As long as you read this article, you'll be able to stay on top of your skin's health.
Exfoliate to remove dead skin. Remove dead layers of skin with a granulated sugar scrub, an apricot scrub or an exfoliating glove. This should only be done a few times a week as more frequently can cause redness.
Homemade masks can give you great results for your skin. You would grind raw almonds together with olive oil and milk to form a semi-smooth paste. Once you have this paste, stir in some orange zest. Gently apply this to your face, and let it set for about a quarter of an hour. Gently cleanse your face with a washcloth and sooth the skin with an ice cube for a couple of minutes.
Never go to bed with any makeup on. By the end of the day, your face is pretty dirty so it is important to wash it good and get all of the makeup off. Closed pores all night does not allow your skin to breathe and repair. Take it off before bed.
Consider using a honey mask as your soothing mask for the week. Honey is great at keeping redness at bay while making your skin look more vibrant. A honey mask will make you look better if you use it again and again, and you will see less acne.
If your skin is unusually dry and flaky, use an exfoliating cream to open up your pores and prevent unsightly acne. Exfoliation also helps you shed dead, dry skin cells all over your body's skin surface. Once these cells are gone, new cells move to the top and give the skin a vibrant appearance.
If you wear eyeglasses every day, they should be cleaned on a weekly basis. Bacteria left on the bridge can clog up pores on your nose. Cleaning the nose piece with soap and water is a simple way to get this done.
Here are a few things you can do to help alleviate some of your eczema symptoms. First, eczema sufferers should avoid products that contain perfume. Second, wear clothes that are made of cotton. Wool and synthetic fabrics sometimes cause a bad reaction with eczema. Third, use natural makeup that is free of dyes. If you follow the tips given here, you will surely see an improvement in your eczema symptoms.
It is important to shield your skin from ultraviolet rays each time that you venture outdoors. Apply a sunscreen with UVB ray protection about half an hour before going out in the sun. Choose the best SPF that you can find for the area in which you live. This helps to protect your skin from sunburn and sun damage, which can lead to premature aging.
These tips are just a start for better skin health. Our skin makes the first impression on people we meet. You will feel a lot better about yourself and your self-confidence will open new doors for you. Use these tips to improve the health of your skin right away.
Your daily routine should include proper skin care. Don't think of skin care as something frivolous or unnecessary. Good skin care is essential to creating your youthful and healthy appearance. In this article, we'll share some excellent tips to help you have beautiful skin.
Instead of only washing your skin, try exfoliating occasionally to remove dead skin cells. Remove dead layers of skin with a granulated sugar scrub, an apricot scrub or an exfoliating glove. Reduce skin irritation and damage by limiting this procedure to one or two times weekly.
Rub a drop of cider vinegar into your blemishes. Although the smell is quite strong, this treatment will moisturize the area making it easier for the blemish to heal. Use this treatment during the day because apple cider vinegar has a strong smell that you want to avoid getting on your bedding.
To get fully moisturized, totally healthy skin, be certain to warm your moisturizing products before using them. When warmed, it is more easily absorbed by the skin. You can warm it by placing a small amount in the microwave for a few short seconds. Another thing you can try is putting the moisturizer into a bowl filled with warm water to warm it up.
Exfoliation is good for all skin types, but is especially important for people with dry skin as it can help unclog pores and remove certain blemishes. Exfoliating helps remove the dead and dry skin cells that are on the surface. This can make your skin look great, and give it a glowing effect from the exposure of fresh skin cells.
Avoid alcohol if you want to improve your skin condition. Over-consumption of alcohol has negative effects on skin quality just as it does on the rest of your physical health. The effects of alcohol will end up making your skin appear unhealthy and damaged, as your pores will become clogged and skin will be more prone to break-outs.
A healthy glow is what everyone seeks. If you establish an efficient daily skin care regimen, great skin can be yours. Use the tips you just read to find the path to youthful, glowing skin. It's important for both you, as a person, and your skin.
Are you stressed out by the demands of skin care? Are you frustrated because the techniques you are using to get youthful looking skin seem ineffective? You should be doing what you need to in order to take care of the skin. The article below has the information you need to achieve healthy-looking skin.
To help remove dead skin from your face more than regular washing can, try exfoliating. Remove dead layers of skin with a granulated sugar scrub, an apricot scrub or an exfoliating glove. Ensure you are exfoliating twice per week to prevent skin irritation and damage.
Consider using alpha-hydroxy therapy to achieve gorgeous skin. Naturally occurring alpha-hydroxy is found in wines, milk and some fruits. Alpha-hydroxy acids help break up the proteins that hold onto dead skin. By breaking these bonds the dead skin cells can be scrubbed away and healthy, glowing skin will be revealed.
It is important to shower after working out. Using a washcloth to rinse off your face won't remove all of the pore-clogging oil and bacteria that comes with sweat. Also, make sure that your water is warm, not hot when using the shower.
For better moisturized skin, warm the moisturizer prior to applying it. The warm moisturizer will help to open your pores, allowing your skin to absorb it much better. It only takes a few seconds in the microwave to heat the moisturizer up. Place your container of moisturizer inside warm water.
You can achieve better skin. Follow the directions given in this article to greatly improve the look and health of your skin. You do not have to tolerate a dull and uninspired look. Make the most of your time and take care of your skin. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if you think your skin looks good, so will others.
The skin care tips you learn today will positively affect the appearance and condition of your skin from now own. Taking the time to nurture your skin in your younger years will pay off in a big way as you progress in age. These tips will put your best face forward in the future.
Exfoliate regularly to remove dead skin cells from your face. Remove dead layers of skin with a granulated sugar scrub, an apricot scrub or an exfoliating glove. To prevent skin damage and irritation, only do this one or two times a week.
You can protect yourself from sun exposure with extra efficiency by purchasing pomegranate pills at a health store. Pomegranate pills help your skin to adapt to the UV rays and resist burning. They're natural and completely safe. They simply work to give you healthier skin.
Avoid sun damage by always wearing SPF 15 or higher sunscreen. Sunscreen will protect you from sunburns and wrinkles. You can slow the aging process significantly by using a daily sunscreen. It slows the formation of tiny lines and keeps the skin smooth and soft.
Moisturize your skin with a lotion containing jasmine extract. Apply jasmine extract daily and you will develop a warm and healthy glow to your skin. This extract is chock full of antioxidants and soothes your skin instantly. However, it is more difficult to find jasmine extract than more traditional moisturizers. It may also cost more money than other moisturizers.
Lemon juice is as effective at bleaching skin blemishes as it is at bleaching your hair. Break out the lemon juice and watch your scars, dark spots, and blemishes fade into the background. Although the lightening is not permanent and you must reapply the juice on a regular basis to see results, it is still much better than using harsh, damaging chemicals.
Keep stress at bay for skin and body health. When your stress level rises, your body produces extra hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. All three of these hormones are your skin's enemy. They can exacerbate acne, eczema, and psoriasis. The more relaxed you are, the less aggravated your skin conditions will be.
If you are out in the sun too often, you will damage your skin and perhaps cause skin cancer. You should make sure to wear sunscreen any time you are exposed to the sun.
People with dry skin should not wash with regular soap. Research different body washes and choose one that is safe for your skin and had added moisturizers in it, since soaps can dry skin out. If you enjoy taking baths, do your best to avoid bubble baths. While they are relaxing, they tend to dry out your skin and cause further problems. An oatmeal or oil based body wash followed by bath oil will moisturize your dry itchy skin. Patting yourself dry helps your skin to retain moisture. After you are dry, do not forget the lotion; it helps replenish moisture lost during bathing.


text:
By James Southall Sunday March 17, 2013
Intrada / 2013 / 37m
A largely-forgotten boxing movie from 1992, perhaps Gladiator had a bit of a boost on home video by people buying it in error rather than Ridley Scott's somewhat more successful film of the same name. Those people who did see the film witnessed a score by Brad Fiedel; but as the note on the back of this CD case points out, "This album does not contain original score by Brad Fiedel." I propose that from now on, all albums that don't feature original score by Brad Fiedel should be so marked. Before the Terminator composer came on board, the film had actually been scored by the great Jerry Goldsmith, who had the ignominy of his music being dumped. Listening to his bright, breezy, drum machine-infused music – and contrasting this with the apparent gritty, realistic tone aimed for by the film – then, much as it pains me to admit it, it's not really hard to understand why there was a parting of ways.
On its own terms, the music isn't without merit. The main theme used for the fight scenes is cheerfully heroic, not dissimilar to Hoosiers, though the melody isn't as memorable (and the synths sound horribly out of date bearing in mind the film was released in 1992). By far the most satisfying of these sequences is the extended finale, spread over two cues. Another theme – slightly funkier and used in the opening cue along with many other places – is also enjoyable enough, but does rather sound like an old white man trying to write young black men's music. The most attractive music here is the love theme, heard frequently for saxophone with keyboard accompaniment – it's a bit like The Russia House, but with drum machines. I'm a died-in-the-wool Goldsmith fanatic and so I can find enough here to keep me entertained, misguided though the music seems to be, but anyone who isn't in that category might struggle to take it too seriously. In terms of this composer's music for sports movies, it's at the Mr Baseball end of the scale.
Rating: ** 1/2
Tags: Gladiator soundtrack review, Intrada, Jerry Goldsmith
ANDRÉ - CAPE TOWN. (Reply) on Sunday 17 March, 2013 at 21:07
I love Jerry, but his banal MR. BASEBALL is at the bottom of a pile of mediocre Goldsmithian CDs > & if GLADIATOR, as your review indicates, is similar in content to BASEBALL, I might give it a miss. I'm pleased MOVIE-WAVE is back on line after a 2-week hiatus as your reviews and readers comments were missed. About that time I sent an enthusiastic response to PROMETHEUS RECORDS release of the newly recorded & expanded HOUR OF THE GUN. Regretably, my comments were lost in the virtual sites of Movie-Net… the 3rd time this has happened. The Hour of the Gun CD also features a Concert Suite of THE RED PONY orchestrated by Alexander Courage > the result is wonderful. This time round, the score sounds Goldsmithian, whereas the original recording (conducted by Goldsmith on Varese Sarabande) is dominated by 'COPLANDESQUE CLICHES'. Do listen to the CD James, the sound and performances are stunning – I'm looking forward to your critique.
James Southall (Reply) on Sunday 17 March, 2013 at 21:31
Thanks for the tip about The Hour of the Gun, Andre. I haven't bought that album yet.
Sorry about the two-week hiatus, too – it has taken a while to resolve some technical problems. Unfortunately all comments people may have added during the period have been lost, for which I apologise.
Elfenthalsmith (Reply) on Sunday 27 April, 2014 at 14:55
I like how Jerry Goldsmith never let a good idea go to waste. The theme heard in "Good Luck / The Real Thing" is pretty much note-for-note the love theme from The Vanishing one year later, and the more suspenseful material is a first draft to the suspense theme in The Russia House.
A good thing, since while not exactly unforgettable, The Vanishing and The Russia House are films more deserving of such musical ideas (just like The Russia House deserved that fantastic love theme MUCH MORE than Alien Nation).


text:
Tears for Sale, also known internationally as Charleston & Vendetta or also as Funeral Brides (original title in , literal translation Charleston for Ognjenka, ), is a 2008 Serbian drama film.

Directed by Uroš Stojanović, it stars Sonja Kolačarić, Katarina Radivojević, Nenad Jezdić, Stefan Kapičić, and Olivera Katarina.

It was released in Serbia following a January 30, 2008 premiere at Belgrade's Sava Centar. Made on a budget that exceeds €4 million, the movie was shot during summer 2005 as the most expensive Serbian movie ever (until St. George Shoots the Dragon surpassed it a year later). It then went into a long post-production due to specific CGI requirements.

Featuring 40 minutes' worth of special effects and over  of film, around five times more than the average used in Serbia, from the technical point of view the film turned out to be one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of Serbian cinematography. The musical score was done by Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi. Luc Besson's production and distribution companies Blue Pen and EuropaCorp hold the film's foreign market distribution rights.

In September 2008, the film was shown at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, where it had three screenings as part of the festival's Vanguard programme. It was shown at the Santa Barbara 2009 International Film Festival (22 January – 1 February). In August 2009, it premiered in France.

Plot
The movie's plot is set during the 1920s in post-World War I Serbia. Rebuilding after a gruelling armed conflict in which it lost a sizable part of its young male population, the nation is struggling to recover demographically. The situation is especially visible in certain rural parts where this shortage of men threatens to extinguish life completely.

Two sisters, Ognjenka and Mala Boginja from a fictional village that has no males of marrying age, set off for the city in search of good men to bring home.

Reception and reaction

Serbia
Despite a lot of hype, Charleston & Vendettas reviews in the Serbian media were a mixed bag.

Web magazine Popboks called it a cross between an A movie and a B movie. According to their reviewer Vladislava Vojnović, despite being clearly conceived as an A movie "with production whose plenitude is on full display—from glamorous make-up, costume design, and cinematography over to impeccable picture & sound quality and last but not least Sonja Kolačarić's fascinating portrayal—Charleston & Vendetta also contains many B movie liabilities like a subpar screenplay with plenty of holes".

In similar vein, Politikas film critic Dubravka Lakić praises the movie's look, but has problems with its screenplay oversights, all the while feeling this "postmodern cheerful fairy tale for adults" is "more of a glamorously packaged oversized trailer than a story-based product with coherent beginning, middle and end".

The review penned by B92's Gavrilo Petrović was more of the same, extolling the film's "magical look that brings certain French blockbusters to mind" with "brilliant photography, grandiose sequences and costumes, opulent cinematography, mostly impeccable editing, and computer generated imagery that stands up to anything seen in other great-looking movies" while criticizing "the way dramaturgy takes a back seat to aggressive spectacle sometime into the film with two initially likeable heroines suddenly turning into detached fashion models while all that is required from the multitude of supporting actresses is to look good in slow-motion".

NIN magazine's Saša Janković was very critical, calling the film "an example of Serbian megalomania" and adding that "its screenplay is incomplete while the direction is at times fairly arbitrary".

On the other hand, the film got its most glowing review from Blics Milan Vlajčić, who called it "an extraordinary moment for new Serbian film". In between praises for the whole cast, Vlajčić especially notices director and writer Uroš Stojanović, "whose debut showed maturity in stylistic composition of a comedy that contains patterns of quite a few genres—from melodrama to fantasy".

Croatia
Before general release, the movie premiered at the 2008 Motovun Film Festival on July 28, 2008.

2008 Toronto International Film Festival
After the screenings held on September 8, 10, and 13, the film, which was shown under the title Tears for Sale, attracted some attention in the English-language media gathered at the festival.

Now magazine gave it a very poor one-star mark, with its reviewer referring to it as "a demented Serbian fantasy". He continued with describing it as "a Serbian version of Amélie, if you think Amélie is a movie about hot ladies with prominent facial features interacting with a series of expensive digital effects" before exclaiming: "I'm tempted to hail this as one of the fest's must-see movies—you really must see it to understand the depths of its batshit craziness".

Todd Brown of showcase.ca and twitchfilm.net, on the other hand, loved it, calling it "a remarkable film on a number of levels that manages what seems like an impossible task: balancing the tragic history of its home nation with a sense of legitimate magic and wonder". He has further praise for director Stojanovic and the "stunning visuals". Finally, he glows about the movie feeling like "a Grimms' fairy tale come to life, a world where magic exists but is also accompanied by darkness, death, sex and more".

Movie City Newss David Poland penned a generally affirmative review, summing up the movie as "a fairy tale filled with dark jokes, estrogen, sex, and explosions". He further notices the film's style "that reaches beyond Gilliam with a profoundly Eastern European sensibility and a fascinating approach to the idea of the feminine" as well as predicts that with this film Stojanovic has become one of the "next hot candidates for a Hollywood slot".

United States
Very soon after the satisfactory buzz and attention Tears for Sale got at the Toronto International Film Festival, news appeared that the movie would get a theater release in the United States.

The film's promotion in the United States began months earlier in March 2008, without it even being available for viewing in American cinemas or festivals. Its main selling point at that stage was the political upheaval in Serbia at the time with parliamentary elections being held following a government's fall after the independence of Kosovo, all of which led to the Los Angeles Times publishing a large piece about the movie written by its staff writer Tracy Wilkinson.

In June 2008, another American publication took notice. The review in Variety by Alissa Simon also touches on politics as she sees the movie as "a postmodern allegorical tale" which "succeeds in poking fun at various Serbian national myths and symbols with its strong, lusty, independent women, eager-to-fight men and sacrilegious shenanigans in a hearse and among tombstones". Among praises for the visuals and special effects, she admits that the movie "will require careful handling and critical support to reach international audiences".

American audiences had a chance to see the movie on January 27, 2009 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film also won a general admiration at the Syracuse International Film Festival (Syracuse, New York) on April 28, 2009.

France
On August 12, 2009, the movie had its theatrical release in France. It was shown with the name Charleston et Vendette, under the slogan "La chasse a l'homme est ouverte!" (The hunt for men has begun!).

The reviews in the French press were somewhat reserved. Le Monde praised "the spellbinding atmosphere with flights of poetry, boisterous jubilation, and Yugoslav frenzy that brings the fever of Emir Kusturica to mind", but has issues with the "chaotic screenplay arcs drawn from Serbian folklore, culture, and history with codes that escape us".

Box office
As of September 2008, Serbia is the only country where Tears for Sale has gone into general theater release.

Despite the lukewarm reviews, Serbian audiences have responded to the movie in large numbers. Shown on twenty screens during its first weekend in general release (February 1–3, 2008), Charleston & Vendetta took in a gross amount of US$80,699. Its second weekend (February 8–10, also on twenty screens) in Serbian theaters was even more successful, with US$92,377 earned. During the calendar year 2008, Tears for Sale was the most watched movie in Serbian cinemas with a total gross of US$634,620.

In France, the move had very modest box-office take of US$19,314 during its short theatrical run.

DVD release
The film is set for DVD distribution in Australia and the United Kingdom through Icon Entertainment International, a subsidiary of Icon Productions.

See also
List of most expensive non-English-language films

References

External links

Časkom za Ognjenku, Press, December 24, 2007
Olivera Katarina: "Ukleta" žena igra čarlston, MTS Mondo, January 11, 2008
Čarlston za Ognjenku za sada najgledaniji, MTS Mondo, February 6, 2008
Čarlston za Ognjenku videlo 115.000 ljudi, MTS Mondo, February 25, 2008
Svetska publika nestrpljivo čeka "Čarlston", MTS Mondo, March 27, 2008
Carlsto za Ognjenku at 2008 Toronto International Film Festival

2008 films
2000s fantasy comedy films
Serbian fantasy comedy films
2000s Serbian-language films
Films scored by Shigeru Umebayashi
2008 comedy films
Films set in Serbia
History of Serbia on film
Cultural depictions of Serbian people
Films shot in Serbia
Films set in the 1920s


Insurance has always been one of the most controversial subjects in the auto world. Of course, we appreciate the fact that it's compulsory in all the 50 states. Because otherwise, imagine paying your medical bills, and probably even compensating other victims after an accident.
On the flipside, it seems like players in the insurance industry are having a ball, now that it's impossible to avoid car insurance. Even with over 4.5 million vehicle accidents resulting in property damage, 1.7 million injuries, and 32,000 annual fatalities, insurance companies are still raking in huge profits.
Between the year 2011 and 2015, companies in the auto-insurance space lost more than $145 billion, mostly due to insurance fraud. But, it barely made an impact in the industry. Insurance firms are still pouring billions of dollars every year in television ads and digital media. Everyone is loving the status quo- except you, the consumer.
If you've had that feeling in the pit of your stomach that auto insurance companies are probably taking advantage of you, you're right. You're only slightly wrong on the part about auto insurance companies. Because it's not just them. It spreads across the board.
Everyone is ripping you off- from insurance companies, to vehicle repair shops, property agents, and even medical providers. While some blatantly defraud you, most of them are ripping you off legally. They capitalize on some interesting loopholes in the current legislation.
Take Michigan Auto Insurance Policy laws, for instance. Vehicle owners in this state pay the highest premiums in the country, so medical providers can pretty much charge exorbitantly for their services.
Whichever way you look at it, that has been how the bulk of their claims have been ending up.
Because of such cases, a third of millennials and 28% of vehicle owners in the U.S. believe that they are paying way too much for their auto insurance. The insurance companies are particularly fond of leaching off high-income earners since they are not frequent complainers.
Only 24% of vehicle owners earning more than $75,000 per year are not happy with their rates. Compare that to 37% of modest income drivers with income ranging between $50,000 and $75,000 per annum.
There are many interesting facts behind the smoke and mirrors. That's why we've prepared the following guide, to help you finesse your way out of possible rip offs.
Unless you're rocking an exceptional classic car, the value of your vehicle is consistently losing value with time, and every mile driven.
But some insurance companies don't see it that way. You still continue paying the same premiums, even after your car has lost half its value.
Insurance agents who support this concept argue that aging and increased mileage translates to more frequent repairs, and increase the risk of accident due to mechanical failure.
Well, of course, that's laughable because, in actual sense, repair costs decrease with increase in a car's age. Parts become readily available and mechanics continue to familiarize themselves with engine intricacies.
The best and most efficient way to beat this system is switching to ask your insurance agent to revisit your policy. Don't waste your time, allow an independent agent to shop for your insurance.
Your independent agent will have multiple insurance companies assess your vehicle and charge you cheaper premiums according to its age. sticking to one insurance provider could have you losing way too much in 12 months, let alone 5 or 10 years.
If you assumed insurance providers hate car accidents, think again. Of course, they lose money by paying out claims.
But they immediately start recovering their losses by increasing your rates. And sometimes they even make more off you after an accident.
It's a continuous, unending cycle. Insurance firms make a lot of money off your premium payments.
Then you'd be mistaken to assume that you've won the battle, when you receive compensation from cumulative payments. But when that is over, they increase rates as soon as you get behind the wheel again.
All things considered, this may be fair, since it covers an insurance company's risk of insuring accident-prone drivers. But, in some cases, rates do not climb over time.
They shoot through the roof, punishing you for the accident. It may apply even to incidents which may not even have been your fault in the first place.
This game is especially common among insurance providers who offer very cheap rates at the beginning. And you since you'll assume that they are still the cheapest around, you'll stick with them despite the high rates.
The only way around this is comparing rates offered by different insurance providers. Some companies may be lenient enough to provide coverage at way cheaper rates.
While this may seem like a pretty obvious thing to do, 38% of vehicle owners have not bothered to compare their auto insurance premiums within the last 3 or more years.
That's according to NerdWallet, a personal finance website that sampled motorists across the country. Even more surprising is the fact that 17% of these drivers have never checked at all.
As a result, they are missing out on an average of $417 of savings per year. This is silly considering an insurance agent could do the legwork for effortless savings.
If there's one outrageously ridiculous thing about insurance pricing evaluation, it's the fact that it's partly based on credit score. This is one area that you may end up mistaking an insurance company for a bank. They act like insurance claims are loans and financial grants.
Even a good and careful driver may end up paying high rates for a poor credit score. It's even more amusing when you discover that poor, careless drivers with good credit scores pay lower insurances rates.
And no, this doesn't just bump the rate up by a few bucks. Going by figures published by Consumer Reports, penalties for poor credit scores are staggering.
Crunching the numbers across the top five national insurers, they established that motorists with excellent credit scores were paying an average of $1409 annually, while good credit score drivers were shelling out $1712. Individuals with the poorest credit scores were paying an astonishing $3826 every year.
Unfortunately, apart from improving your credit score, there's no other way of finessing your way out of this. It's almost like the United States is hell-bent on basing everything on credit score. Soon they may even start issuing driving licenses according to creditworthiness.
The subject of pre-existing conditions and injuries is not limited to auto insurance policies. All insurance providers, across all industries, always have a clause on pre-existing conditions. No company wants to be held liable for past injuries.
In layman terms, they don't see themselves making a profit. And that's understandable. Because whichever way you look at it, insurance is still a business.
But, there is a rather interesting grey area in this. Imagine an accident that aggravates a past injury or condition.
Consider a person paralyzed from the waist down for instance. A car accident may snap his spine further, causing paralysis from the chest down.
Now, of course, most auto insurance firms would counter the resultant claim, citing the clause on past injuries. If he's not keen in following up, the victim may end up with zero compensation.
Fortunately, insurance legislation addresses this, through the "Glass Plaintiff" rule. The frailty of a victim is not a defense in a claim case.
That means you are entitled to full compensation if a vehicle accident aggravates a pre-existing injury.For fair compensation in future, have your doctor comprehensively document current injuries that your insurance company is aware of. In case of an accident, your insurance provider will have a hard time rejecting a claim on grounds that pre-existing injuries were not affected.
If you've rented a car before, chances are salespeople pressured you to cough up extra cash for insurance. At first, it may seem like they are trying to protect their vehicles, or they care about your safety.
Sadly, it can never be further from the truth. Rental car salespeople get commissions from insurance companies for every cover sold.
That's why they'll never reveal that you won't actually benefit much from most their insurance covers.
As a matter of fact, most salespeople continue pressing, and persistently offer alternative insurance plans if you reject their propositions. In the end, you're forced to cave in and say yes because extra cover would hurt, now would it?
Reviewing and researching on such insurance covers would ultimately reveal that you probably didn't even need them. You would have bought useless insurance, at rates higher than standard market premiums.
If you own a car with its own insurance plan, don't even entertain the thought of insurance for rented vehicles. You're already adequately covered.
Liability Insurance at $5 to $15 a day. It should cover damages to third party vehicles and people caused by the rental car.
Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) at $10 to $20 a day. It should cover the damages you might cause to the rented car.
Of course, these are very much essential to rented cars. We are not suggesting that you proceed to get a rental without both. However, your car insurance plan extends to cover these two.
They come with most auto insurance plans and adequately apply to rentals.
So, to avoid paying for unnecessary coverage, check with your current policy and confirm its boundaries and exceptions before approaching a rental car company. That way, you'll be able to discern factual information from sales jargon by the attendants.
Even with over 4.5 million vehicle accidents resulting in property damage, 1.7 million injuries, and 32,000 annual fatalities, insurance companies are still raking in huge profits.
Between the year 2011 and 2015, companies in the auto-insurance space lost more than $145 billion, due to insurance fraud.
Everyone is ripping you off- from insurance companies to vehicle repair shops, property agents, and even medical providers.
A third of millennials and 28% of vehicle owners in the U.S. believe that they are paying way too much for their auto insurance.
Only 24% of vehicle owners earning more than $75,000 per year are not happy with their rates.
37% of modest income drivers making between $50,000 and $75,000 per annum complain about their insurance rates.
Get quotes every 6 months to a year from multiple insurance companies. Contact our independent insurance agents if you don't have time to do it yourself.
Insurance companies start recovering their losses by increasing your rates immediately after compensation. And sometimes they even make more off you after an accident. Shop for a new policy or have an agent do this for you to minimize the increase in your premium.
38% of vehicle owners have not bothered to compare or have an agent compare their auto insurance premiums within the last 3 or more years. As a result, they are missing out on an average of $417 of savings per year.
Even a good and careful driver may end up paying high rates for a poor credit score.
If you have bad credit, you are paying 2.7 times more than a driver with excellent credit.
Through the "Glass Plaintiff" rule, the frailty of a victim is not a defense in a claim case. That means you are entitled to full compensation if a vehicle accident aggravates a pre-existing injury.
If you own or lease a car, your insurance covers your rental.
Although we've covered the major rip-offs, the auto insurance industry is extensive. And so are the laws regulating it. Different stakeholders continue developing new tactics to capitalize on the loopholes. So please feel free to share the ones we've not mentioned.


I've just finished reading Love Wins, a book by Rob Bell that has stirred considerable controversy among evangelicals because of Bell's suggestion (coyly framed more in questions than in direct statements) that hell doesn't exist and everyone (possibly with a few rare exceptions) will be accepted by God.
I read much of the book in a Borders in Augusta, Georgia (alas, several weeks before the Masters started), and the rest in a Borders outside of Philadelphia. The second Borders has a sign on the door saying "Rumors of our demise are exaggerated. Our landlord rocks. We aren't going anywhere." I didn't want to buy the book, so I tried to offer a little support for Borders by buying a few extras with my coffee—mostly cookies.
In my view, Bell rightly criticizes the suggestion that the rest of a person's life is irrelevant so long as she asks Jesus for forgiveness, and the tendency to assume we can know a person's eternal destiny (Gandhi, in this case). But his story doesn't seem quite true to Scripture.
Bell's exegesis of the parable of the Prodigal Son nicely summarizes the perspective that runs through the book. According to Bell, the prodigal son had one story for his life—he had squandered his inheritance and didn't deserve his father's love; while the father had another story—that he would never stop loving the son and would welcome him back with open arms. Bell seems to suggest that that we should simply discard the first story and embrace the second, and that hell is the misery we experience if we refuse to accept God's retelling of our story.
In my view, treating the two stories are unrelated misses an important dimension of the beauty of the salvation offered to us in Christ. The first story isn't irrelevant. It's true. We don't deserve the Father's love. But so is the second story, that the Father loves us nonetheless.
The same point can be made in another way, using the language of debt that Jesus so often used. Suppose I learn that a major debt of mine has been forgiven. If it turns out I didn't really owe the debt (I was mistaken about the obligation, say, or I was defrauded into incurring it), this is nice news. But it's nicer by far, almost too good to be true, if I truly owe the debt, but someone (perhaps the creditor himself) decides to pay it on my behalf.
If our sins were "simply irrelevant," as Bell says in the same chapter, the love the Father offers us would be sweet. But how much sweeter it is when we know both that our sins do matter, and that the price has been paid by Jesus.
In my experience, travelers fall into two camps: those who always assume they'll be back, or act as if they do, and those who don't. For those who assume that each visit is one off, the best experiences are no doubt especially vivid and intense.
I fall squarely into the other category. The odds that I will ever travel to Australia again are not great, yet when my family and I visited a decade ago, I noted which things might or might not warrant a closer look, as if the visit were simply a scouting trip.
Our attitudes toward travel surely have parallels elsewhere in our lives as well. I suspect that those of us who assume that we will be returning find it harder to say goodbye, and experience loss as a series of small, sad epiphanies rather than a single devastating blow.
It is especially sweet for those in my camp to find ourselves back in a special place we've imagined returning to. Yesterday morning, at the end of a three day stay in Florence for a conference on the Eurozone crisis, the vagaries of Italian opening hours gave me just enough time to visit two of my favorite places in Florence: San Marco, the museum in the monastery where Fra Angelico lived; and the Church of the Ognissanti, which has an enormous painting of the Last Supper by Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo's teacher.
The Fra Angelico paintings in San Marco can only be seen in person there. Each small, white-washed, chapel-like cell on the second floor of the monastery has a single devotional fresco. In the annunciations [here is one], Gabriel is as modest and abashed as Mary; Judas is half hidden—only his lead-colored halo giving him away—as the apostles listen to Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount [here]. Even the crucifixions—the dominant motif—are almost unbearably elegant.
Ghirlandaio's Last Supper takes up an entire wall of the convent adjoining the Church of the Ognissanti, and is only open Monday, Tuesday and Saturday mornings (for the happy reason that the church and convent are still actively used for worship). The Ghirlandaio fresco is much more psychologically complex than Fra Angelico. Judas sits on one side of the long table facing Jesus and the other apostles, who interact in a multitude of attitudes: John evidently drowsy (no doubt he will be the first to fall asleep in Gethsemane), Peter with a thumb in the air and knife in his hand, others busily conversing or, in one case, brooding.
In The Stones of Florence, Mary McCarthy identifies both Fra Angelico and Ghirlandaio with the "Maytime" mode of Florentine painting, which she contrasts with the more severe, autumnal tendencies of Masaccio or Michelangelo. I'll admit that neither alone is altogether satisfying. Nor would the world be quite so rich if there were only one kind of traveler, those who think they'll be back, or those who accept that they're leaving.
The FDIC has just released a report speculating about how Lehman's crisis would have been handled if the Dodd-Frank Act had been in place in 2008. As the report imagines it, the FDIC would have intervened early in the crisis, and guided Lehman to a soft landing that got the utmost value for the business. The FDIC "could have participated in a meeting in the spring of 2008, together with [other regulators], to outline the circumstances that would lead to the appointment of the FDIC as receiver." The FDIC could have parachuted in and conducted on-site oversight on Lehman's premises from that point forward. The FDIC could have prodded Lehman to sell itself or, if "Lehman were unable to sell itself, the FDIC would have commenced with marketing Lehman." Once Lehman was taken over pursuant to the new resolution rules, the FDIC "would have minimized losses and maximized recoveries," assuring that Lehman's general creditors recovered roughly 97% of what they are owed—as compared to the roughly 20% they are likely to get in the actual bankruptcy case.
Heroic assumptions abound, such as an assumption that the counterparties to Lehman's derivatives would have been fully collateralized. Most heroic of all is the suggestion that the FDIC would have deftly nudged Lehman to plan for its demise, and that the FDIC would be able to handle a resolution on this scale. The Dodd-Frank Act does include provisions that could improve regulators' oversight in the future, such as its requirement that systemically important institutions prepare a "living will" (or "rapid resolution plan," in Dodd-Frank terminology) that explains how the institution would respond to a crisis. But the claims that regulators will intervene early in a future crisis rather than delaying the inevitable (that "next time will be different," to paraphrase the title of a recent book on financial crises), and that they'll foreswear future bailouts because Dodd-Frank says they aren't supposed to do them, are wildly implausible.
Perhaps the most interesting question is why the FDIC would write a report that could prompt guffaws from financial experts. Two possible reasons come to mind. First, the FDIC made these kinds of claims throughout the debates that led to Dodd-Frank, and somehow they worked. The FDIC was given extraordinary new powers under the new resolution rules, even though the FDIC's track record in handling large cases is not good. Second, the FDIC has been floundering in its efforts to implement Dodd-Frank's new requirements. It may be that the report is designed to distract attention away from growing fear that the living will requirement will not be effectively implemented, and that the resolution rules are a disaster.


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The MountainMutt Closet For YOU!
Our newest addition to the MountainMutt Closet is a leather neck gaiter lined with warm fleece. We made it for a friend who's a snow boarder and wanted to protect his neck from wind and water.
Since then we've sold the leather neck gaiter to hunters who need to stay warm for long periods of time.
Available in black leather with the lining color of your choice.


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Why Is Under Armour Inc Getting Into NASCAR?
Under Armour is attaching its brand to NASCAR. What's the company's underlying goal?
(JakeMann)
Apr 4, 2014 at 7:34AM
When most people think of Under Armour (NYSE:UAA), they likely imagine the apparel-maker's football jerseys, its baseball gear, and during Olympic season, its speedskating suits. One sport the company isn't synonymous with is auto racing, but that may soon change. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Under Armour is attaching its brand to NASCAR.
The details of the deal
Although the financial details of the deal remain unknown, it could have a lasting impact on both sides. Under Armour will reportedly sponsor two racing teams: Michael Waltrip Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. Both are multiyear deals, and as SBJ's Tripp Mickle explains, they'll clothe "everyone from the pit crew to the front office."
Image via The U.S. Army, Flickr.
Unlike some NASCAR sponsorships, Under Armour won't outfit team drivers or cars -- Hendrick has Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Kasey Kahne, for example -- but it can use their likenesses on gear.
Under Armour's strategy
So will we see a race-themed line of apparel? It's certainly possible, and because the average auto enthusiast is different from the company's normal customer base, it provides new marketing opportunities. Mickle notes the deal could help Under Armour improve sales of its outdoor apparel -- "NASCAR fans are more likely to hunt and fish than other sports fans," he writes -- and the advantages don't stop there.
As Nielsen's most recent "Year in Sports Media" report reveals, NASCAR's demographics are unlike any of the other major North American sports.
Nielsen "Year in Sports Media" report, 2013.
By the percentages, NASCAR has a larger female representation than golf, hockey, baseball, basketball, soccer, and football. And with nearly half of all viewers above the age of 55, auto racing's fan base is older than every sport except golf and professional football.
Diversity does continue to be a problem, but it's something NASCAR is working to fix by boosting its digital footprint -- it introduced a Twitter-focused social media campaign this winter, and launched NASCAR Connect, which lets fans make race predictions on Apple iOS devices, last month.
The business side of things
While Under Armour doesn't report financials by product type, its latest annual report cites training and hunting gear as a significant driver of recent expansion. In 2013, the company's net sales rose by nearly 30% to $2.2 billion -- the quickest growth in two years.
It's impossible to know exactly how much it's paying Michael Waltrip Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. But remember, Under Armour's NCAA football apparel deals typically range between $2 million and $9 million a year, and its entire annual sponsorship portfolio is likely at least $200 million. Given that, it's reasonable to think the company is willing to pay seven figures per year to get the UA logo into NASCAR.
At the end of the day, that's a small price to pay for a fan demographic unlike any other. NASCAR's efforts to inject youth into auto racing should appeal to current Under Armour customers, while the sport's existing fans -- especially those who are older -- should snatch up more outdoor apparel: a win-win for the company.
Jake Mann covers sports, economics and politics for the Motley Fool.
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Contemporary American society has more "stuff" than any other society in human history, and yet we are not any happier for it; and the pursuit of stuff can leave us feeling miserable and unfulfilled; not to mention that it is completely unsustainable. This Sunday we reevaluate our relationship to the stuff in our lives, and bring our focus back to the things that really matter.
Grief is a normal part of what it means to be human, and manifests itself in many different ways. Yet our society sends signals that there are right and wrong ways to grieve, appropriate lengths of time for grief, and that there are appropriate and inappropriate things to grieve for. All this can make us feel self conscious about our own grieving process, and sometimes leads to healthy grief being pathologized. This Sunday we will honor and reclaim that process as our own way of expressing not only our sadness but our love.
Service offered by Matthew McHale, Intern Minister Nobody likes to be told that their behavior was out of line, or that they hurt or offended someone. Yet hard truths like these are often the most important for us to hear. They give us insights into how we show up in the world and how our actions actually impact others. In this service, we will ex- plore how we can be less defensive and more receptive to these hard truths, so that we can learn and grow.
Living in a world faced by climate change and ecological destruction, which is already threatening life as we know it, what kind of future are we leaving for our children? For our children's children's chldren? Our new Intern Minister, Matthew McHale, will share how his call to ministry as been shaped by these realities, and how we can help make it right for future generations.


Today's political and social milieu is worrying to say the least. Yes, we're making a lot of progress in a lot of ways, yet we live in times marked by inequality in extensive forms. Between topics like Brexit and the ongoing mess of US politics, it is becoming easier for problems closer to home such as mass poverty, discrimination, and marginalisation to be overlooked and ignored by the media and politicians alike. Not to mention, the mental strain of trying to figure out whatever the hell is happening is one of the most disconcerting effects brought about by present political discourse.
As a result, 2019 has already created a market and a need for a fusion of politics and pop culture in the music industry to show that sometimes, even if people in power don't appear to be listening, artists certainly are.
Musicians are becoming increasingly vocal in lamenting political worries and woes. Artists are using their platform to be critical, reminding us that a lot of the time, they share a lot of the concerns affecting the masses.
Lana Del Rey is the epitome of musical development in this sense. Her hit single 'Video Games', released in 2011, depicted an idyllic, dream-like world of "blue-dark" starry nights. Lana now delves into illustrating the antithesis of the world she once described. Lana daringly asks in 'When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing', "Is this the end of America? Is this the end of an era?", following the Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017.
Lana Del Rey's 2017 album Lust for Life is full of political sentiments which, two years after initial release, are still relevant in today's political climate. In 'Get Free', Lana sings about her "modern manifesto" as a "commitment" to fight for what she believes in, stating "I'm doin' it for all of us, / Who never got the chance". The artist, once characterised as a melancholy voice, devoid of optimism, has become a beacon of hope. Lana uses 'manifesto' as a commitment to fight for what is right instead of something symptomatic of an empty promise, manipulated as political propaganda in the hope for unbridled power.
Undeniably, Lust for Life also reflects Lana's personal growth. In her song 'Change', Lana reveals that in the past, she did not fully realise the potential she had to address the political and societal troubles she now confronts. The song highlights the artist's previous belief that 'it's just someone else's job to care', which can be a pretty common attitude due to the exhaustion that comes with trying to comprehend everything that is going on. But now, Lana has come to the realisation that, 'Change is a powerful thing, people are powerful beings' which is not only the central message of the album, but also the artist. Lana is now aware of her responsibility, not as a singer, but as a human being to better herself and the world around her, an awareness that, unfortunately, a lot of us could, but still don't have.
Lana isn't the only musician to adapt her music to help us try and navigate recent political circumstances. The 1975 are currently touring with their latest album A Brief Enquiry into Online Relationships which includes songs such as 'Love it if We Made It' which, in an interview with Genius, lead singer Matty Healy labels a "gem of hope", amongst the profound depiction of immigration, substance abuse and misogyny. The music video presents us with burning buildings, guns, and mob mentality, which not only echoes sentiments of chaos and disillusionment that we might currently feel, but also highlights what we really need to be focusing on for a better future.
However uncomfortable it might be for us to acknowledge these issues, The 1975 don't stop there. The music video graphically presents us with ideas of self-destruction not only of ourselves, but also of our planet. As Healy laments "We're just left to decay, Modernity has failed us". But of course, issues of global warming are currently being hidden behind the current rhetoric produced by the press concerning deals, no deals, referendums… the list goes on. It seems that amongst everything it is easy to forget that we have a planet and that we are, ultimately, destroying it.
Consequently, artists continue to indicate that 2019 will also be a year in which music is imperative as a port of call for salvation amongst all this confusion. Within Lana Del Rey's latest single 'hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it', she not only hints at a new album which deliberates female empowerment versus misogyny, but also pleads for hope and faith among her listeners.
Still, the market for songs, centred around political protest have been present for decades. Tracy Chapman's song 'Talkin' Bout a Revolution' in 1988 is founded on an upbeat, revolutionary tone whilst simultaneously depicting the tragic reality of the American working class 'standing in the welfare lines'. This blatant depiction of poverty in a society 'crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation' provides relief and hope for the oppressed that change, like the revolutionary discourse of Chapman's song, is imperative.
Yet, the song possesses stark parallels with the working class in present day society both in the United States and elsewhere in the world as many can still resonate with the bleak reality painted by Chapman. Current unemployment rates, homelessness and unequal wages suggest that despite Chapman's implication that in 1988, the tables were 'starting to turn', these societal and political problems are still not being dealt with effectively, as shown by their continued resurrection within pop culture.
And so, despite the apparent apathy of many of those in power to often deal with these profound themes illustrated within music, artists have constantly provided a voice to unite, educate and aid the masses. However, with the continued need for and thus production of music centred around prominent issues, it is important to consider whether 2019 hints at any solutions for the internal turmoil that present-day society and politics brings us. Not right now perhaps, but hopefully not too far ahead.