Adjoining the seaside setting for the annual Vancouver Folk Musical festival, there is a park bench on the seawalk with a modest plaque that appropriately commemorates Hilda and Phil Thomas, the Pete Seeger of B.C. Having spent most of his adult life both singing and collecting indigenous songs, Thomas compiled the most essential book on the folk music of the province, Songs of the Pacific Northwest (1979).
Until he died at age 85 in 2007, Phil Thomas remained active as a banjo player, singer and composer in the Alma Y Folk Circle, an organization that he and his wife Hilda Thomas co-founded with others in 1959. It later became the Vancouver Folk Song Society.
Born in 1921, Phil Thomas was a WWII veteran forced to take a teaching job in Pender Harbour in 1949 when he was suspected of being a communist by the Delta School Board. He taught grades six to ten in a small school where his students were mostly the children of fishermen and loggers.
Thomas' neighbour in those days was the author and fisherman Bertrand Sinclair who inspired Thomas to collect distinctly British Columbian songs. In the early 1950s, Thomas first adapted and augmented Sinclair's lyrics for a song, "The Bank Trollers," about commercial fishing (as distinguished from gillnetting and seining). A CD entitled Phil Thomas and Friends: Live at Folklife Expo 86 includes the song "Bank Trollers" which was first published in Thomas' Twenty-Five Songs for Vancouver 1886–1986 (1986).
While Hilda Thomas was always involved in politics until she died in 2006, once running unsuccessfully for the provincial NDP in the Point Grey riding where they resided, collecting and field recording original B.C. material was Thomas' lifelong passion.
Much influenced by the song-collecting of Edith Fowke in Ontario, Thomas contributed songs to some of Fowke's books and to a 16-part CBC radio series entitled The Songs and Stories of Canada. Thomas' best-known song, "Where the Fraser River Flows," was written by Joe Hill and first sung in 1912. Where the Fraser River Flows was also the title of a CD made by Thomas.
Thomas' book Songs of the Pacific Northwest was revised and expanded in 2006. It included a dual-CD compilation from Cariboo Road Music, Songs of the Pacific Northwest: A Tribute, drawn primarily from songs Thomas had gathered through his field recordings and research. The audio collection features Thomas' final public performance as well as 40 other Northwest musicians singing 37 songs, 28 of which are in the book.
In 2003, Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebesaat released a CD drawn from Thomas' collecting work from the early 1950s to the late 1970s, The Young Man from Canada: BC Songs from the PJ Thomas Collection.
The approximately 500 songs in the P.J. Thomas Collection in the Sound and Moving Image Division of the Royal B.C. Museum mainly showcase indigenous songs of fishing, mining, logging and homesteading. Most were donated in 1975.
Rare Books and Special Collections at UBC has 7,240 items in its Philip J. Thomas Popular Song Collection.
In Pender Harbour, Thomas' neighbour was the legendary B.C. author and fisherman Bill Sinclair who inspired Thomas to collect distinctly British Columbian songs. Sinclair's song 'Bank Trollers' is adapted from Sinclair's words [See Bertrand Sinclair entry]. Thomas has recalled: "My neighbour in Pender Harbour in 1951, the author-fisherman Bill Sinclair, wrote a 147-line narrative verse. The poem was published on the centre-fold of a 1953 pamphlet of the Vancouver Peace Assembly. In 1978 using the form and text of Sinclair's first three stanzas, I made this 47-line adaptation as a song, which I sang at the first Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Trolling is to be distinguished from gillnetting and seining." Thomas introduced the Japanese fishermen into Sinclair's lyrics. Although Thomas had sung the song for many years, a published version of the Bank Trollers first appeared in Twenty-Five Songs for Vancouver in 1986. Thomas later added it, along with eleven others, to an expanded version of Songs of the Pacific Northwest (1979), when that book was revised in 2006. The enlarged edition of Songs of the Pacific Northwest, edited by Jon Bartlett, was made available in its second printing from Hancock House Publishers Ltd. and Rainshadow Gallery. An audio companion to the book was also made available from Cariboo Road Music entitled Songs of the Pacific Northwest – A Tribute. The materials on this dual-CD compilation were drawn primarily from the collection of songs Thomas gathered through his field recordings and years of research. The audio collection features Thomas' final public performance as well as 40 other Northwest musicians singing 37 songs from the PJ Thomas Collection, 28 of which are in the book.
In 2003, musicians Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebesaat released a CD drawn from Phil Thomas' collecting work from the early 1950s to the late 1970s, The Young Man from Canada: BC Songs from the PJ Thomas Collection. Folklorists and teachers, Bartlett and Rubesaat perform at folk festivals and are members of the Vancouver Folk Song Society. The approximately 500 songs in the PJ Thomas Collection at the Aural History Archives of the Royal B.C. Museum mainly showcase indigenous songs of fishing, mining, logging and homesteading. Most were donated in 1975.
Thomas was influenced by the song-collecting of Edith Fowke in Ontario. He contributed songs to some of her books and to a 16-part CBC radio series entitled The Songs and Stories of Canada. Songs he gathered were reprinted in British Columbia Library Quarterly (July 1962), More Folk Songs of Canada (Waterloo 1967), Canadian Folk Songs for the Young (Vancouver 1975) and Singing Our History (Toronto 1984). Thomas' best-known song, Where the Fraser River Flows, was written by Joe Hill and first sung in 1912. Where the Fraser River Flows was also the title of his own CD. The CD entitled Phil Thomas and Friends: Live at Folklife Expo 86 includes the song Bank Trollers.
Until he died at age 86 on January 26, 2007, Phil Thomas remained active as a banjo player, singer and composer in the Vancouver Folk Song Circle, an organization that he and his wife Hilda Thomas (who died in 2006) co-founded with others in 1959. It later became the Vancouver Folk Song Society.
Heritage Society of British Columbia's Personal Achievement Award.
[Dale McIntosh of the University of Victoria published History of Music in British Columbia (1989), a reference guide to B.C.'s musical ensembles and major musical personalities from 1850 to 1950. With ethnomusicologist Wendy Bross Stuart, John Enrico published a 519-page study, Northern Haida Songs (1996), which situates Haida music in the context of the Northwest Coast and presents a collection of 128 songs, fully transcribed and analyzed, representing some 20 types of songs. For other B.C. authors who have written about music—from Mart Kenney and Dal Richards to Will Millar and Joey Shithead—see abcbookworld entries for Adams, Bryan; Adaskin, Harry; Anstey, Robert; Armstrong, John; Bachman, Randy; Baldry, Long John; Bates, Morris; Becker, John; Bradshaw, M. Doris; Brown, Heide; Bruneau, William; Campbell, Amy; Case, George; Cavoukian, Raffi; Chesher, Deborah; Chesterman, Robert; Childerhose, Buffy; Chong, Kevin; Clyne, Dorothy; Crich, Tim; Cunningham, Rosemary; Densmore, Frances; Duke, David Gordon; Forbes-Roberts, Ron; Gati, Laszlo; Giese, Rachel; Gothe, Jurgen; Gray, Martin; Gregory, Hugh; hagarty, britt; Halpern, Ida; Headrick, Paul; Hendrix, James Al; Hicks, George; Hryniuk, Angela; Hughes, Mary E.; Jackson, Lorna; Keithley, Joe; Kendy, Emily; Kenney, Mart; Kivi, K. Linda; Konieczny, Vladimir; Le Bel, Pauline Eulalie; Lee, David; McGuire, Ra; McLaren, Jean; Millar, Will; Mitchell, Joni; O'Connell, Sheldon; Pearce, Christian; Potter, Greg; Reid, Jamie; Richards, Dal; Robinson, Red; Saidman, Sorelle; Salloum, Trevor; Schafer, R. Murray; Schwartz, Ellen; Setterfield, Gwenlyn; Slim, H. Colin; Slyne, Dorothy; Smith, Bill; Soret, Mike; Stevenson, Richard; Swanton, John; Tenzer, Michael; Thomson, Robert S.; Thrasher, Alan; Tidler, Charles; Truax, Barry; Tyson, Ian; Varty, Alex; Walker, Carl Ian; Walter, Chris; Wooton, Carol.] @2010.
This CD features the collecting work of Phil Thomas, a folklorist deeply attached to the historical and cultural roots of his native province. The PJ Thomas Collection, now housed in the Provincial Sound Archives, comprises the material he himself collected between 1954 and 1975. Some of the material saw print in the publication of Songs of the Pacific Northwest (Saanichton: Hancock House Publishers, 1979) and more was released on his LP, "Where the Fraser River Flows" (1980).
The European development of BC occurred very late in the history of traditional folk music, and much of the material Thomas collected was not at first glance folk music at all. Where were the Child ballads and the love lyrics, so ubiquitous in the eastern provinces? In their place, Thomas presented a mélange of Tin Pan Alley and hymn tunes, with textual reworkings from the same sources, often so full of technical talk (see "Taku Miners") as to be all but incomprehensible.
But what Thomas showed in his collection was that the history of folk song in this most westernmost province was a history of struggle: the struggle to harvest and mine the natural resources (fish, timber, coal and metals), the struggle between the early capitalists and their work forces, and the struggle with the landform itself, allowing such easy access from the south and resisting it from the east.
That this material was "folk song" was not quickly accepted, and Thomas argued that the same characteristics (anonymity, wide dispersal, variant texts) are found both in traditional "folk song" and in the songs he himself collected in BC. He looked to the functional reasons for these characteristics: a work force that was mobile, that was more attuned (because of its mobility) to industrial organization than what the Wobblies called the "home guard", and that was familiar with the world of commercial song. It was natural that they should themselves remake these songs to speak of new conditions.
The songs in his collection are in the main from logging camps, from fishermen and from the constantly roaming hard rock miners, men who until just yesterday formed the overwhelming majority of the male working population. To these categories might be added songs of transportation—of railways, tugboats and wagon roads—songs of the armed forces (mostly rude squibs about military conditions) and songs made by Wobblies (the BC name for the Industrial Workers of the World, a union/party made by and for those who did not fit the polite labour unionism of the time). The songs he collected are overwhelmingly male-made and -sung. If there was ever a body of material made by women of their equally hard but much more lonely work, Thomas never found it.
SONG LYRICS ARE LITERATURE. ALMOST all of the song lyrics we hear in British Columbia are imported. But the Vancouver Industrial Writers Union has marked its tenth anniversary by joining forces with Fraser Union, a folk music ensemble, to release Split Shift: Songs and Poems of the Workplace (Octopus Books, $10), a cassette of mostly British Columbian songs and poems about daily working lives.
Four of the songs were adapted or collected by B.C. folklorist and author, Phil Thomas, including the Pender Harbour fishing shanty, 'Bank Trollers', with lyrics by Bill Sinclair. As the Pete Seeger of B.C. musical history, Thomas has done more to collect and preserve indigenous B.C. lyrics than anyone in the province.
Born in Victoria, World War II veteran Thomas was suspected of being a communist while teaching at Delta Senior High School in 1949. It turned out to be a very lucky break for the history of B.C. musical literature. Forced to take a remote teaching job in Pender Harbour, Thomas befriended his next-door neighbour, the once famous. B.C. novelist Bertrand 'Bill' Sinclair. Although Sinclair had achieved unprecedented sales with set-in-B.C. novels like Poor Man's Rock, he had taken up full-time commercial fishing in 1932.
Thomas, on the lookout for meaningful music to teach local students, wrote down the lyrics to one of Bill Sinclair's sea shanties. Twenty-five years later Phil Thomas found himself donating an invaluable collection of 5OO made-in-B.C. folk songs to the provincial archives. Included in his archives were more Sinclair manuscripts and the original lyrics Sinclair had printed in B.C. Fisherman magazine. As B.C.'s leading folk music historian, Thomas also published two books, Songs of the Pacific Northwest (1979) and Twenty-Five Songs for Vancouver, 1886-1986 (1985).
It wasn't always easy. Some of the singers needed to be reassured that Thomas wanted their music for the right reasons. And many of the working class composers were migrant workers, habitually moving from one job to the next. Once, in a Windermere beer parlour Thomas heard about a celebrated local singer named Buster Tegart. A fishing guide and mountain man who organized pack trains, Tegart lived deep in the Rocky Mountains.
After a long and arduous drive, Thomas found the local singer, only to discover Tegart was too inebriated to sing a note.
Thomas says that the richest folksong tradition in B.C. probably lies with the native peoples. Other non-English speaking groups such as the Doukhobors and the Finnish settlers of Sointula have also continued and developed extensive musical cultures.
To mark its 30th anniversary this year, the Vancouver Folk Song Circle is hosting a celebration on September 20th at the ANZA club, at West 8th and Ontario in Vancouver. It's open to the public, by donation.
Coincidentally Dale McIntosh of the University of Victoria has published History of Music in British Columbia (Sono Nis $27.95), a reference guide to B.C.'s musical ensembles and major musical personalities from 1850 to 1950. Last year Ellen Schwartz also published a book about the lives of seven Canadian female singer-songwriters, Born a Woman, (Polestar) which includes interviews with Rita MacNeil, Sylvia Tyson, Ferron, Connie Kaldor and others.


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Turkey Threatens PKK In Iraq With Military Actions 2.8571428571429 out of 5 based on 7 ratings. 7 user reviews.
On March 28, the Turkish National Security Council warned during a meeting, which was headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that Turkey will "take action" if Iraq failes to halt activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in its territory, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
This threat came only two days after the withdrawal of the PKK from the area of Sinjar in northern Iraq. This allow some experts to suggest that fighting the PKK is not the only goal of Turkey in northern Iraq.
In response, Abbas al-Bayati, a member of Iraq's State of Law political coalition, warned Turkey from violating Iraq's sovereignty under any pretext.
"Turkey cannot cross into Iraqi territories as our country enjoys sovereignty and independence," al-Bayati said during an interview with the Iraqi news agency Baghdad Today.
Turkey appears to be more than willing to intervene in northern Iraq, even if the PKK fully withdrawa from all of its positions there. Iraqi pro-government activists argue that Turkey's main goal is to establish a foothold for its army in northern Iraq, like it has done in Syria over the last three years.
Do not let them cross at all cost. Iraqis will soon trouble themselves in dislodging US coalition forces from it's territory and addition of NATO second biggest army will increase the complexity and difficulty of the tasks. Do not let Iran cross either since it will also increase the complexity. Iraq however can officially announced joint anti terror task forces with Syria and to move in cooperation with them in combating all the US thrown away proxies.
Turks have been behaved as "prostitutes" for zionist rulers in the whole history. Most of prostitutes in Europe come from Turkey. Hopefully russians give Kurds A-Bombs to destroy Turkey.
You are living in a different universe.
You have mental issues. Seek help.
PKK did not withdraw from Sinjar. If Iraq fails to clear Sinjar off of PKK then Turkey must launch a military operation to clear the area. Abbas al-Bayati says Iraq is independent lol. So independent that they can't clear PKK from its territories.


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"As you probably know by now, there are questions and assumptions swirling in national and global news." We heard!
The Spokesman Review in Spokane reported Saturday that the black man she claims is her father implied otherwise in a brief telephone interview. Albert Wilkerson Jr. said that he has "nothing negative to say about Rachel" and was reluctant to get involved in the controversy.


#090D15 Hex Color, Includes conversions, schemes, html color codes and much more.
This page lists many detailed information about the hex color #090D15. Its Hexadecimal code is 090D15. In a RGB color space, which is consist of 3.53% red, 5.1% green and 8.24% blue, and that corresponding RGB values are 9, 13, 21. In a CMYK color space, it is consist of 57.1% cyan, 38.1% magenta, 0% yellow and 91.8% black, whereas that corresponding CMYK values are 0.57, 0.38, 0, 0.92. Other more information such as degree, lightness, saturation, please browses the following content.


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/* ===-- udivdi3.c - Implement __udivdi3 -----------------------------------===
 *
 *                    The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure
 *
 * This file is dual licensed under the MIT and the University of Illinois Open
 * Source Licenses. See LICENSE.TXT for details.
 *
 * ===----------------------------------------------------------------------===
 *
 * This file implements __udivdi3 for the compiler_rt library.
 *
 * ===----------------------------------------------------------------------===
 */

#include "int_lib.h"

du_int COMPILER_RT_ABI __udivmoddi4(du_int a, du_int b, du_int* rem);

/* Returns: a / b */

COMPILER_RT_ABI du_int
__udivdi3(du_int a, du_int b)
{
    return __udivmoddi4(a, b, 0);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


At 21 I opened my first restaurant and bar on the campus of Cleveland State University.
I started drinking craft beers like Harpoon IPA and Long Trail Ale back in the day.
I truly enjoy the sense of camaraderie in this industry.
We're partnering with local brewers and Audubon Arizona to raise awareness about the serious water situation in the Western states.
Brewery: Prairie Street Brewing Co.
I love seeing our products be a part of so many great events and gatherings.
Working together to drive common goals is one of the greatest aspects of the independent brewing community.
Like so many of us, my husband and I started brewing in our garage.
I started as a homebrewer in 2000 and followed my dream.


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COTFG: Thinking Plague
Presented by Church of the Friendly Ghost at Salvage Vanguard Theater, Austin TX
COTFG: Thinking Plague w/Stop Motion Orchestra
Thinking Plague is a United States avant-garde progressive rock group founded in 1982 by guitarist/composer, Mike Johnson, and bass guitarist/drummer, Bob Drake. Based in Denver, Colorado, the band has been active off and on since 1982, taking on a number of musicians over the years. They have made six studio albums between 1984 and 2012, and released one live album recorded at NEARfest in 2000.
Their music is a mix of rock, folk, jazz and
Their music is a mix of rock, folk, jazz and 20th-century classical music. Music dot com remarked that "…Thinking Plague stand out as a shining example of avant-garde music blended with just enough rock for it to be called progressive rock.
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/thinking.html
http://friendlyghost.org/event/thinking-plague-stop-motion-orchestra/
Email: cotfg.assistant@gmail.com
Salvage Vanguard Theater
2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722
CONNECT WITH Church of the Friendly Ghost

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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NC Officially Joins NICA, Avery County Composite Cycling Club is One of Inaugural Teams
Published Monday, April 3, 2017 at 12:20 pm
Zach Clark AC4 team member and Matthew Owen AC4 Head Coach.
On Sunday, North Carolina officially became part of the growing National Interscholastic Cycling Association, (NICA) as the 19th state to begin middle and high school mountain biking. The High Country was represented by Zach Clark of Cranberry Middle School with the Avery County Composite Cycling Club.
With 200 total racers present for the day of racing, 100 were middle school students with 50 racing in the eighth grade race with Zach. NICA has opened up so many opportunities for youth to learn how to ride and participate in a bike race. Their motto is "more kids on bikes."
The Avery County Composite Cycling Club is one of the inaugural teams in the NC league. Having NICA in the Avery School system has created some amazing opportunities for our local youth. Once the school system was presented with the new league, Dr. Burleson agreed to make the team a school sanctioned club. When we presented the need for a practice facility, the open land at Banner Elk Elementary school was offered as a possible location.
The Cycle4Life Bike Park was started and now includes 20 wooden features, dirt berms, and 1.5 miles of trail. The trail is divided into three ½ mile loops. Including rock gardens, log piles, wooden pallets features, table tops, creek crossings and bridges. Because the park is built on school property, the park is open to the general public whenever school is not in session. That includes; evenings, weekends, holidays and all summer long.
Dr. Burleson and the Avery School system opened up the trails for the Banner Elk students to ride as part of their Physical Education program, headed up by Benny Wellburn. The program was such a hit that we have now begun a park and trail system at Riverside Elementary School. Benny is excited about also including cycling into the PE program at Riverside. This will allow us to teach mountain biking skills at two elementary schools in our county.
It is possible that we could be the only school system in the country that offers this opportunity to our students, with trails right on campus. It is our vision to first build a park at each elementary school so we can get our 3, 4 and 5 grade students on bikes. Then we hope to get a trail built at each school in our community.
With the new NICA league offering opportunities for Middle and High School students, we have now created a program that will help to develop our youth in the skills of mountain biking from 3 to 12th grade. With the parks at our county schools we now have safe places for our youth to ride their bikes. Exciting times for cycling and our youth in the NC High Country.
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Watauga, Avery Obituaries – January 19, 2021


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The family-run brick-and-mortar brought to you by local indie press Two Dollar Radio!
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Emily as Sometimes the Forest Wants the Fire
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Author: Darren Demaree
Publisher: Harpoon Books (May 23, 2019)
"This whole collection is a love poem—tender, sexy, funny, meditative, and insightful."
—Maggie Smith, author of Good Bones
"In searching narratives, in plain language, in short lines, in the exploration of what it means to be in love over time, Darren C. Demaree's poems quietly soar with the beauty of the ordinary: the natural world, the daily mess, the child-rearing struggles of sweethearts in an Ohio town. The revelation of these poems is that the search begins and ends with Emily, and the shared history the couple has built a life on, which cements the speaker "in the panic of the living." With a near-religious fervor, these poems are odes to a woman whose name becomes an incantation for love, unapologetic and unyielding, summoning the belief that love can be enough to sustain us."
—Chelsea Dingman, author of What Bodies Have I Moved
Darren C. Demaree is a graduate of the College of Wooster, Miami University (MA), and Kent State University (MLIS). He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children. "Emily As Sometimes the Forest Wants the Fire" is his eleventh collection of poetry.
Not on Fire, But Burning
With the Fire on High
Everyone Wants to be Ambassador to France
1124 Parsons Ave Columbus, Ohio 43206 United States of America
Two Dollar Radio Headquarters ©
Two Dollar Radio Headquarters (HQ), a locally owned and operated family-run shop, is an indie bookstore, performance space, bar, coffeehouse, and fully vegan cafe located on South Side of Columbus, Ohio. Our family-friendly space offers plenty of comfy seating as well as a dedicated kids' corner with a rug, small chairs and table, coloring activities, books for playing with, and rotating toys. We also have stacks of board games, cards, and puzzles available for use. As a bookshop, we carry an exciting, carefully curated list of titles almost exclusively devoted to independently published literature. Our bar serves cocktails, wine, and draft beer, and our cafe serves locally roasted coffee, house-made vegan meats and cheezes, sandwiches, salads, pizzas, dips, and more. Our performance space features a wide range of offerings from panel discussions, local and touring author readings, musicians, magicians, trivia, themed storytelling, poetry open mics, and more! Read more about us here.
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Six in-depth clinical interviews, involving six elderly female patients (aged 60+) and one female psychiatrist, were recorded and analysed for a number of prosodic accommodation variables. Our analysis focused on pitch, speaking time, and vowel-space ratio. Findings indicate that there is a dynamic manifestation of prosodic accommodation over the course of the interactions. There is clear adaptation on the part of the psychiatrist, even going so far as to have a reduced vowel-space ratio, mirroring a reduced vowel-space ratio in the depressed patients. Previous research has found a reduced vowel-space ratio to be associated with psychological distress; however, we suggest that it indicates a high level of adaptation on the part of the psychiatrist and needs to be considered when analysing psychiatric clinical interactions.


Drissa has a medical doctor degree, a PhD degree in medical parasitology and entomology. He started working on malaria research programs since 1995.
He has been associate investigator or principal investigator for various epidemiological studies and for malaria vaccines clinical trials including pediatric trials. Despite the decline of malaria incidence consecutive to the scaling up of malaria controls strategies, it remains a public health concern in endemic areas particularly in the sub Saharan Africa. Recently the Malian National Malaria Control Program scaled up the seasonal malaria chemoprevention strategy and the Indoor Residual Spray strategy is foreseen in the Mopti region including Bandiagara health district. For the three coming year, as part of his MARCAD fellowship, Dr Coulibaly work will be focus on the updating of malaria epidemiological parameters including space and time characterization of symptomatic and asymptomatic malaria to better guide and optimize malaria control efforts. He will conduct a cohort study of 300 children aged 0 to15 years old.
Dr Coulibaly obtained the Fogarty International Center/ Ellison Medical Foundation fellowship in 2003; the Advanced Vaccinology course/ Mérieux Foundation fellowship in 2011, the International Advanced Course on Vaccinology in Asia-Pacific regions fellowship in 2013 and the MARCAD post doc fellowship in 2017. He has more than thirty publications in peer-review journals.


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This week, we have a guest post from Tuesday Serial contributor Kristen Brand. The best way to improve at something is by studying the masters and Kristen points us to three works of serial fiction, along with some critiques of each. Welcome, Kristen!
What did people do before the internet? Those were dark times, but back before ebooks and web fiction (and TV), people read stories serialized in magazines and newspapers. The phrase "reading the classics" probably gives you flashbacks of your high school English class, but here are three classic works of serial fiction that are actually pretty awesome.
First serialized in All-Story Magazine in 1912, A Princess of Mars is about Civil War veteran John Carter and his adventures after getting accidentally transported to Mars. (If you were one of the few people who saw John Carter in theaters, this is what that movie's based on.) He travels across the harsh desert landscape, gets into a ton of swordfights, and falls in love with the eponymous princess, Dejah Thoris.
Burroughs is a master of pacing. Even when he's not ending chapters on a cliffhanger, his stories have a forward momentum that leaves the reader eagerly turning the page. John Carter barely has time to explore the strange world of Mars before he's fighting giant ape monsters and getting embroiled in political intrigue. There are gladiator fights, clashing armies, and daring prison escapes, but it's perfectly balanced with enough pathos and character moments to make you care about the stakes.
A Princess of Mars is the first book in the Barsoom series, and in my opinion, it's the best. I'd recommend you read the sequel, The Gods of Mars, if only to see the conclusion to John Carter and Dejah Thoris's story, but I wouldn't say you need to read further than that. A Princess of Mars features two Martian races: the humanlike Red Martians and four-armed, 15-foot-tall Green Martians. But further books in the series introduce the Black Martians and the Yellow Martians, and that's where things get…awkward, to say the least.
Anybody who likes science fiction. A Princess of Mars is credited with influencing tons of later science fiction authors and directors. You should definitely check it out if you saw John Carter and were intrigued. And if you saw John Carter and hated it, you should still read the book, because it's better than the movie.
First serialized in 1859 in All the Year Round and Harper's Weekly, The Woman in White is about drawing teacher Walter Hartright, who falls in love with orphaned heiress Laura Fairlie. But Laura is already engaged to a sketchy rich guy—and he has evil plans for her. There's also a mysterious woman dressed in white wandering around.
I could talk about the suspense this book is packed with, or the way Collins uses characters' journal entries, letters, and statements to tell the story through different points of views. But the best part of The Woman in White is Laura's half-sister, Marian Halcombe.
Laura is your typical female character in Victorian fiction: fair, innocent, and delicate. Marian is described as blatantly ugly and is a total badass. Walter Hartright might technically be the main character, but Marian is the one who climbs out on a rooftop to eavesdrop on the villains' scheming and busts her sister out of an insane asylum. I desperately want a spinoff series of her solving mysteries and taking names.
While A Princess of Mars begins with John Carter on the run from Apaches in the Wild West and then getting teleported to Mars, The Woman in White is slower to start. We've got Walter's backstory to get through, then him meeting the members of the Fairlie family and settling in at his new job as Laura and Marian's drawing teacher. Combined with the Victorian-era language, this can make it hard for modern readers to get into the book.
Fans of mystery and suspense. If you're curious about epistolary fiction, this is a great example of it done well. There's a cliffhanger where one of the villains annotates Marian's journal after she's fallen ill (having read it and discovered she knows his plans) that's particularly chilling. Finally, if you like historical fiction set in the Victorian era, it's definitely worth a read.
First serialized in 1935 in Asahi Shinbun, Musashi is a fictionalized account of the adventures of renowned swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. He travels across Japan challenging people to duels to improve his skill, eventually learning that the Way of the Sword isn't about brute strength, but mastering oneself.
There's so much awesomeness in this book, but let's start with Musashi himself. In the beginning of the novel, he's a brash fighter who isn't exactly the sharpest sword in the armory. But after spending three years reading classic literature while imprisoned, he emerges from captivity a changed man. (Reading! It can change your life!) It's a triumphant bit of character development, but Musashi isn't done yet. He sets off on a quest to master his technique, leading to personal revelations and some epic, epic fight scenes.
You know that one show on TV? It started out with great characters and gripping conflict, but as it went on for season after season, that tight, emotional storytelling seemed to fizzle out. Sure, stuff still happened, and there were some great parts mixed in with the pointless filler, but mostly, it was spinning its wheels without going anywhere.
That's the middle of Musashi. The novel is divided into seven smaller "books," and like Burroughs' Barsoom series, I'd only recommend reading the first couple.
Anyone who likes the action/adventure genre. Fans of historical fiction who are sick of the Victorian era and other European settings. And if you like samurai movies or anime like Rurouni Kenshin, go grab this book immediately.
Kristen Brand has a Kindle packed full of old novels and serial fiction. She writes the superhero webserial Fight Crime! (A Love Story), and can be found at kristenbrand.com or on Twitter as @brandkristen.


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Posted tagged 'Iranian nukes'
CIA Chief: There is "A Real Risk" That North Korea Will Aid Iran's Pursuit of a Nuclear Bomb
by BICOM | 01.24.18 11:37 am The Tower
Source: CIA Chief: There is "A Real Risk" That North Korea Will Aid Iran's Pursuit of a Nuclear Bomb
{I doubt this is a surprise to anyone. – LS}
The head of CIA warned that a cash-starved and expansionist North Korea could sell its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology to other countries, including Iran, and that failure to halt such activity could trigger a global nuclear arms race.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo spoke about national security challenges at the U.S.-based think-tank the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday.
Pompeo was asked if Iran could use its existing cooperation agreements with North Korea to clandestinely advance its own nuclear weapons program without being discovered by the U.S.
Pompeo said Iranian and North Korean nuclear cooperation is "a real risk," and "we think we have a pretty good understanding of what is taking place there today. Having said that, I am the first person to admit that intelligence organizations can miss important information."
"These are terribly difficult problems in incredibly tight spaces, and when you are moving information, it is sometimes difficult to detect that that information has moved," Pompeo said of such technology transfers. "So if someone asks me as the senior intelligence leader of the CIA, can you guarantee this [would be uncovered], I would say absolutely not." Pompeo said the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies were working to prevent that.
Pompeo referred to the fear of a global nuclear arms race if North Korea or Iran achieves the ability to mass-produce nuclear weapons: "It doesn't take too much imagination to understand that if they continue to have that nuclear weapons system… many other countries around the world will decide 'me too,' that I want to have one of those things that that guy has."
North Korea has a history of clandestine military relations with Middle East states. Cooperation between the North Korean and Iranian ballistic missile programmes began in 1985 when Iran financed North Korea's Scud-B development programme in exchange for the option to purchase production models. That investment bore dividends in 1991 when North Korea developed the 500km range Scud-C missile and sold the weapon and its technology back to Iran and Syria.
In 2007, the Israeli military bombed a suspected North Korean nuclear reactor in Syria that the U.S. believed was built for the purpose of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Categories: Iran and North Korea
Tags: Iranian nukes
Nikki Haley to UN on North Korea Jan 18, 2018 UN Security Council meeting on non proliferation of Mass Destruction
Nikki Haley to UN on North Korea Jan 18, 2018 UN Security Council meeting on non proliferation of Mass Destruction via YouTube, January 18, 2018
Categories: Assad, Iran - human rights, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, Nikki Haley, North Korean missiles, North Korean nukes, Russia, Syria - mass murder, UN Security Council, Weapons of mass destruction - proliferation
Tags: Assad, Iran - human rights, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, Nikki Haley, North Korean missiles, North Korean nukes, Russia, Syria - mass murder, UN Security Council, Weapons of mass destruction - proliferation
Iran threatens retaliation after U.S. nuclear deal ultimatum, new sanctions
By REUTERS January 13, 2018 14:24
Source: Iran threatens retaliation after U.S. nuclear deal ultimatum, new sanctions
{Trade deals take time and money to negotiate and set up. Sanctions add a layer of instability and cost. Tightening sanctions further increases the cost and introduces risks that could kill existing trade deals completely. It's all about money and there's a lot to be had when dealing with Iran. That's all they care about. Not the fact that one day Iran may possess nukes 10 years into this dog and pony show. – LS}
Iran's Foreign Ministry said the move "crossed all red lines of conduct in the international community… and will surely be answered by a serious reaction of the Islamic Republic."
MOSCOW – Iran said on Saturday it would retaliate against new sanctions imposed by the United States after President Donald Trump set an ultimatum to fix "disastrous flaws" in a deal curbing Tehran's nuclear program.
Trump said on Friday he would waive nuclear sanctions on Iran for the last time to give the United States and European allies a final chance to amend the pact. Washington also imposed sanctions on the head of Iran's judiciary and others.
Russia – one of the parties to the Iran pact alongside the United States, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union – called Trump's comments "extremely negative."
The ultimatum puts pressure on Europeans, key backers of the 2015 nuclear deal, to satisfy Trump, who wants the pact strengthened with a separate agreement within 120 days.
While approving the waiver on US sanctions related to the nuclear deal, Washington announced other sanctions against 14 Iranian entities and people, including judiciary head Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, a close ally of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Describing sanctions against Larijani as "hostile action," Iran's Foreign Ministry said the move "crossed all red lines of conduct in the international community and is a violation of international law and will surely be answered by a serious reaction of the Islamic Republic," state media reported.
It did not specify what any retaliation might involve.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had earlier said on Twitter that the deal was "not renegotiable" and that Trump's move "amounts to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement."
Iran says its nuclear program has only peaceful aims and says it will stick to the accord as long as others respect it. But it has said it would "shred" the deal if Washington quit.
Trump, who has sharply criticized the deal reached in Barack Obama's presidency, had chafed at having to once again waive sanctions on a country he sees as a threat in the Middle East.
"Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal," Trump said in a statement, saying the options were to fix "the deal's disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw."
"This is a last chance," Trump said, pushing for a separate agreement and saying the United States would not waive sanctions again to keep Iran in the pact without such an agreement.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called Trump's remarks "extremely negative," RIA state news agency reported. "Our worst fears are being confirmed," he said.
The EU said in a statement it had taken note of Trump's decision and would assess its implications. "It's going to be complicated to save the deal after this," said one European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Britain, France and Germany had called on Trump on Thursday to uphold the pact.
Senior US administration officials told reporters Trump would work with Europeans on a follow-on deal to enshrine triggers that the Iranian government could not exceed related to ballistic missiles.
Republican Senator Bob Corker said "significant progress" had been made on bipartisan congressional legislation to address "flaws in the agreement without violating US commitments."
Trump laid out conditions to keep Washington in the deal. Iran must allow "immediate inspections at all sites requested by international inspectors," he said, and "sunset" provisions imposing limits on Iran's nuclear program must not expire.
Trump said US law must tie long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs together, making any missile testing by Iran subject to "severe sanctions."
The president wants US Congress to modify a law that reviews US participation in the nuclear deal to include "trigger points" that, if violated, would lead to the United States reimposing its sanctions, the official said.
This would not entail negotiations with Iran but would be the result of talks with European allies, the official said.
A decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal between Iran and the other international signatories. The other parties to the agreement would have been unlikely to join the United States in reimposing sanctions.
Two EU diplomats said EU foreign ministers would discuss next steps at their next regular meeting on Jan. 22 in Brussels.
Categories: Nuclear Misdeal
U.S. Pursuing Rigorous New Nuclear Inspection Regime in Iran
U.S. Pursuing Rigorous New Nuclear Inspection Regime in Iran, Washington Free Beacon, Adam Kredo, October 30, 2017
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and Iranian technicians at a nuclear power plant of Natanz / Getty Images
The United States is pursuing a rigorous new regime for international inspections of Iran's nuclear program that includes access to off-limits military sites as well as increased transparency on the Islamic Republic's often obfuscated enrichment of uranium, the key component in a nuclear bomb, according to U.S. officials and congressional leaders spearheading the new inspection effort.
A delegation of 13 leading senators petitioned the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, led by Ambassador Nikki Haley, to implement a series of stricter inspection methods that would give Western countries a deeper look into Iran's suspected use of military sites to continue contested nuclear work prohibited under the landmark nuclear agreement, according to U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.
The Trump administration is said to be fully on board with these tougher inspection measures, which could address lingering questions about Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal, U.S. officials said. Iran has been found in breach several times since the accord was implemented.
The letter, spearheaded by Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.) and a delegation of top GOP senators, urges the United States to force the United Nations into accepting a tough new nuclear inspection regime in Iran that could shed sunlight on the country's hidden nuclear efforts.
Many of Iran's most contested military sites and uranium enrichment plants have been off-limits to international inspectors or subject to a delayed timeline that gives Iran at least a month to prepare for inspections, a part of the nuclear agreement that has come under particular criticism from those who say it gives the Islamic Republic time to cleanup and hide possible nuclear work falling outside of the accord.
The senators highlight a series of "shortcomings in the inspection and verification regime" led by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, which has itself admitted in recent months that it does not have a full picture of Iran's current nuclear program.
A major "deterioration in the amount and quality of the information provided by IAEA inspections [has] prevented the inspection and verification regime of the JCPOA from being as thorough and transparent as possible," the senators write, referring to the nuclear deal by its official acronym.
The U.S. Mission to the U.N. is said to fully back these tougher inspection requests and is already pushing for a change at Turtle Bay.
"The senators' letter is completely in sync with Ambassador Haley's concerns about Iranian nuclear inspections," a spokesperson for the U.S. Mission told the Free Beacon Monday, several days after the senators first sent their letter.
Haley "will continue to press for the most aggressive implementation of the nuclear deal, while also working to move the U.N. toward stronger measures against dangerous Iranian actions that fall outside of the deal, including their missile testing, arms smuggling, and support for terrorism," the official said.
A spokesperson for Perdue's office described the letter as part of a larger bid to crackdown on flaws in the nuclear deal that were originally obfuscated by the Obama administration when it first sold the deal to Congress and the American public.
"It's very clear President Obama's dangerous Iran Nuclear Deal doesn't have the teeth he claimed it would," the congressional official told the Free Beacon. "President Trump was right to decertify this deal, and now we have to turn up the pressure on the IAEA to get more detailed reporting and ensure all potential nuclear sites—including military installations—are inspected thoroughly."
"Senator Perdue is encouraged Ambassador Haley has brought these issues to the U.N. and supports her effort to get better information about Iran's nuclear activities," the source said.
U.S. officials and those in Congress are seeking to close a series of gaps that have allowed Tehran to receive a month's notice before inspections and also keep secret its most contested military sites.
The letter highlights flaws in a portion of the nuclear deal known as Section T, which is supposed to provide assurances that Iran is not engaging in any activities that would contribute to the design or development of a nuclear explosive device.
The IAEA has admitted in recent weeks that it is unclear exactly how to interpret this portion of the accord and has been unable to fully verify efforts undertaken by Iran on this front.
Without this information, the United States cannot fully determine "if Iran makes any effort to leave the JCPOA abruptly or gradually," according to the letter, which was also signed by Sens.Ted Cruz (R., Texas), Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), Mike Lee (R., Utah), John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.), and several others.
Access to Iran's military sites remains a key outstanding issue for the Trump administration and Congress, according to these officials, who say there is no credibly way to determine Iranian compliance with the nuclear accord without such access.
"We believe that without visits to military sites, the IAEA cannot make a credible conclusion that Iran is meeting its section T obligations," the senators wrote.
The group is also pushing greater transparency on Iran's uranium enrichment efforts, including its mining of uranium ore and yellow cake.
Inspection regimes "should include the number of visits to mines and ore concentration plants," according to the senators, who say that Iran should be forced to inform the West about the amount of yellow cake it produces.
Additional new measures would include disclosures of "the type and amount of uranium fed into [nuclear] cascades at" each of Iran's facilities. Such information would provide a clearer picture of how much enriched uranium Iran has on hand.
Iran must also provide more information about the number of nuclear centrifuges it is operating in its Natanz plant, as well as other areas, according to the senators, who are pushing for greater inspection of Iran's storage of advanced nuclear centrifuges.
This would include "an assessment on if the IAEA surveillance measures are conclusive" on this front, or if further inspections are needed.
"With these improvements to inspection and reporting practices, we can better deny Iran's access to a nuclear weapons capability," the senators wrote.
A spokesperson for the White House's National Security Council declined to comment on the letter, saying it does not discuss "correspondence between Congress and government officials," but the issues highlighted in the missive appear to jibe with the Trump administration's public criticism of the accord.
One veteran foreign policy insider for works closely with Congress on the Iran portfolio told the Free Beacon that the new U.S. inspection efforts highlight important ways in which the IAEA's current regime has failed to provide critical information about Tehran's nuclear progress.
"This letter does a couple of things," the source said. "It highlights how the IAEA has been spinning its wheels in Iran, and hasn't visited the sites where Iran is likely to be developing nuclear weapons technology."
"It also serves notice that Congress knows the IAEA is full of shit when its top officials say they've confirmed Iran is complying with the deal," the source added.
Categories: IAEA, Iran and JCPOA, Iran nuke inspections, Iranian military sites, Iranian nukes, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, U.S. Congress and Iran, UN and Iran
Tags: IAEA, Iran and JCPOA, Iran nukeinspections, Iranian military sites, Iranian nukes, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, U.S. Congress and Iran, UN and Iran
Clare Lopez: Trump Takes Aim at Iran's 'Clandestine Nuclear Weapons Program'
Clare Lopez: Trump Takes Aim at Iran's 'Clandestine Nuclear Weapons Program', Breitbart, Clare M. Lopez, October 17, 2017
Iran remains a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is obligated under the terms of that agreement to disclose all nuclear sites to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Of course, it never has. In fact, of all the facilities now known to be part of Iran's nuclear weapons program, not one was ever reported first by the Iranian regime itself.
Denying re-certification for the Iranian nuclear deal is an important first step as is the Treasury Department designation and sanctioning of the IRGC. Designating the IRGC to the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list and complete withdrawal from the JCPOA should follow. Seeking the support of our closest allies and partners to implement a follow-on set of measures, including sanctions and increasingly coercive commercial, diplomatic, legal, military, and political steps, is also critical if we are to ensure that this Tehran regime never has the ability to deploy deliverable nuclear weapons that threaten any of us.
President Donald J. Trump put the Iranian regime on notice with his speech last week: the time when the United States (U.S.) government would turn a blind eye to its decades-long drive for deliverable nuclear weapons is over. Citing a long litany of destabilizing, rogue behavior on the part of Tehran, the president announced he would not re-certify Iranian compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Iran nuclear deal.
That is a necessary and first step, but must be followed up with a clear U.S. strategy for ending Iranian support to Islamic terror proxies and the criminal regime of Syrian Bashar al-Assad, its reckless regional aggression, human rights abuses against its own people, and above all, development of an entire range of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) – biological, chemical, and nuclear – as well as the ballistic missiles on which to deliver them.
By making explicit references to "Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program" and "illicit nuclear program," President Trump acknowledged what many have known for a long time: there has never been a time since 1988, when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini first ordered his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to "get the bomb," that Iran has not had a clandestine nuclear weapons program. The world first learned publicly about that illicit program in 2002, when the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) blew the lid off the program with revelations about places whose names are now well-known, including Natanz and Isfahan. Iran remains a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is obligated under the terms of that agreement to disclose all nuclear sites to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Of course, it never has. In fact, of all the facilities now known to be part of Iran's nuclear weapons program, not one was ever reported first by the Iranian regime itself.
One of the most glaring problems with the terms of the JCPOA is that there is no obligatory mechanism under which the Iranian regime is compelled to open facilities to IAEA inspection where it is suspected that nuclear weapons work is being done. Iran's leadership has made quite clear in numerous public statements that it will never allow inspectors onto military sites it declares off-limits. Unfortunately, this means there is no chance under the terms of the JCPOA for IAEA inspectors ever to clear up the many unresolved "Possible Military Dimensions" of Iran's nuclear program – involving nuclear warhead work, explosive charges to initiate the implosion sequence of a nuclear bomb, and more – that were enumerated in the November 2011 quarterly report on the Iranian nuclear program by the IAEA Board of Governors.
On 11 October 2017, the NCRI issued a new report, entitled "Iran's Nuclear Core: Uninspected Military Sites," which reveals four more of the clandestine sites where the Iranian military is conducting nuclear weapons R&D. While Iran's alarming and destabilizing geo-strategic behavior certainly provides more than enough reason for the president to find the JCPOA not in America's national security interests, it is the Iranian regime's blatant violation of the nuclear NPT as well as material breaches of the JCPOA (especially section T, that deals with nuclear warhead work), that fully justify U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal entirely.
Clare M. Lopez is the Vice President for Research and Analysis at the Center for Security Policy.
Categories: Iran compliance with JCPOA, Iran scam termination, Iran's undeclared nuke sites, Iranian military sites, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, Iranian resistance, Iranian Revolutionary Guard terrorist designation, JCPOA decertification, Non-Proliferation Treaty, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, U.S. Congress and Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran scam
Tags: Iran compliance with JCPOA, Iran scam termination, Iran's undeclared nuke sites, Iranian miliary sites, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, Iranian resistance, Iranian Revolutionary Guard terrorist designation, JCPOA decertification, Non-Proliferation Treaty, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, U.S. Congress and Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran scam
Kerry on Edge as Legacy Crumbles
Kerry on Edge as Legacy Crumbles, FrontPage Magazine, Joseph Klein, October 17, 2017
Former Secretary of State John Kerry wasted no time condemning President Trump's decision not to recertify, and to possibly withdraw from, the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran that Kerry negotiated on behalf of his boss Barack Obama. President Trump insisted on significant improvements to the Joint Plan of Comprehensive Action (JCPOA), as the deal is formally known. The JCPOA's fundamental flaws that President Trump wants fixed include Iran's ability to block unfettered international inspections, the wiggle room that Iran is exploiting to continue developing and testing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, and the sunset clause on nuclear enrichment that would provide Iran a clear path to becoming a nuclear armed state after the current restrictions are lifted. Obama and Kerry had promised that these issues would be dealt with satisfactorily before agreeing to the final terms of the JCPOA. Instead they caved to Iranian pressure in order to get the deal done.
Now that President Trump is trying to clean up the mess Obama and Kerry left him, Kerry has the gall to label President Trump's decision a "reckless abandonment of facts in favor of ego and ideology" and to accuse the Trump administration of "lying to the American people." It was the Obama administration that recklessly abandoned the facts in pressing ahead with the deal. The Obama administration lied to the American people, abandoning its own promises to ensure that the deal contained ironclad protections. Moreover, all that President Trump has done so far is to return the JCPOA to Congress for review. Had Obama followed the Constitution and submitted the JCPOA to the Senate as a treaty in the first place, the JCPOA in its present form almost certainly would not have been approved. Congress should now have the opportunity to revisit the JCPOA to determine whether the protections that the Obama administration promised are working as advertised. Congress should also consider whether time limits on Iran's commitments continue to make sense in light of what we are now experiencing with Iran's nuclear technology collaborator, North Korea. It bought time to turn into a full-fledged nuclear power under our noses.
Kerry had promised that the Iranian regime would be prohibited from testing ballistic missiles. This turned out to be a lie. After the JCPOA was finalized, with no such prohibition included, Iran continued to test such missiles. The Obama administration's response was that the missiles had become a separate issue, to be dealt with under a new United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the JCPOA. The new resolution replaced clear prohibitions imposed on Iran's ballistic missile program with a weak declaration in an annex that simply "calls upon" Iran not to undertake any activity such as development and test launches related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons for eight years.
Iran has tested several ballistic missiles during the last two years, including two Qadr H missiles with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" emblazoned on the sides. The commander of Iran's Army, Major General Ataollah Salehi, had told reporters just a month before the launch of those missiles that Iran was "neither paying any attention to the resolutions against Iran, nor implementing them. This is not a breach of the JCPOA."
Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin, spurning requests from Obama administration officials to impose sanctions against Iran under the Security Council resolution, asserted that the Iranian missile test did not violate the resolution. "A call is different from a ban so legally you cannot violate a call, you can comply with a call or you can ignore the call, but you cannot violate a call," the Russian ambassador said. In short, the JCPOA did not cover the missile tests and the replacement UN Security Council resolution that did mention the missiles is toothless.
Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told CNN, during an interview aired on April 6, 2015, that under the deal's terms then still being negotiated, "you will have anywhere, anytime, 24/7 access as it relates to the nuclear facilities that Iran has." Rhodes claimed that "if we see a site that we need to inspect on a military facility, we can get access to that site and inspect it. So if it's a suspicious site that we believe is related to its nuclear efforts, we can get access and inspect that site through the IAEA." This was another lie. After the JCPOA was finalized in July 2015, Rhodes shamelessly denied that anytime, anywhere inspections were ever considered as part of the negotiations. "We never sought in this negotiation the capacity for so-called anytime, anywhere," Rhodes said on July 14, 2015.
The JCPOA's supporters, including Kerry, have made much of the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has on several occasions verified Iran's compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, keeping its stock of low-enriched uranium below the limit set forth in the JCPOA and not pursuing further construction of the Arak reactor. Iran was found to have slightly exceeded the limit on its stock of heavy water, but has remedied the problem to the IAEA's satisfaction. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano reiterated in a statement he issued on October 9th that Iran has remained in compliance with its JCPOA commitments.
The problem, as any clear-eyed observer of the process recognizes, is that the IAEA relies on Iran for self-inspection of certain sites that the regime does not want the IAEA to inspect freely on its own. IAEA inspectors have avoided examining military sites it knows exists and has no reliable way of tracking undeclared sites. The IAEA's explanation for not visiting any of Iran's known military sites is that it had "no reason to ask" for access. Evidently, the IAEA is supposed to block out the fact that Iran had conducted tests relevant to nuclear bomb detonations at a military site before the JCPOA's finalization in 2015. The IAEA should just pretend that such tests could not possibly happen again.
"Nobody is allowed to visit Iran's military sites," said Iran's Head of Strategic Research Center at the Expediency Council and adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Ali Akbar Velayati. Intimidation works. The IAEA knows not to ask.
As to the JCPOA's sunset provisions, the Obama administration lied about that too. Kerry claimed on September 2, 2015 that the JCPOA "never sunsets. There's no sunset in this agreement."
This month Kerry has resorted to parsing words. He claims the phrase 'sunset provisions' is a "misnomer," before then defending the JCPOA's time limits. "We were comfortable because the cap on Iran's low-enriched uranium stockpile remains in place until 2030," Kerry wrote in an article published in the Washington Post late last month. In other words, let's just kick the can down the road and hope for a more reasonable Iranian regime in 13 years that would agree to extend the time limits. In the meantime, Kerry advises us not to worry. Kerry declared, "15 or 25 years from now, we still have the same military options we have today."
John Kerry has obviously learned nothing from the North Korean fiasco, which resulted from years of phony agreements with the rogue regime and so-called "strategic patience." The United States clearly does not have the same military options today to deal with a nuclear armed North Korea as it did 23 years ago when former President Bill Clinton decided not to use military force to stamp out North Korea's nuclear program at its inception. Instead, Clinton started us down the primrose path of naïve diplomacy with a duplicitous regime that now is on the verge of being able to strike the U.S. mainland with nuclear warheads delivered by intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is precisely because North Korea's actions over the last 23 years have proven that making concessions to a rogue regime in order to obtain denuclearization commitments is so dangerous that President Trump does not want to make the same mistake with Iran.
America's European allies are also upset with President Trump for refusing to recertify the deal and threatening to pull out if certain conditions are not met. British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a joint statement last Friday praising the JCPOA and its implementation. They said that the nuclear deal with Iran was "the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran's nuclear programme is not diverted for military purposes. Therefore, we encourage the US Administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies before taking any steps that might undermine the JCPOA, such as re-imposing sanctions on Iran lifted under the agreement."
Perhaps these European leaders should remember their own history. Appeasement through phony deals with a rogue dictatorship does not work, as proven by the infamous Munich Pact signed by British and French Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler seventy-nine years ago.
Categories: Ben Rhodes, Iran - North Korea, Iran - self-inspection, Iran scam, Iran scam lies, Iran secret deals, Iran's undeclared nuke sites, Iranian military sites, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, JCPOA - renegotiation, JCPOA decertification, John Kerry and Iran, John Kerry and Iran scam, Obama and Iran, Obama and Iran scam, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, U.S. Congress and Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran scam
Tags: Ben Rhodes, Iran - North Korea, Iran - self-inspection, Iran military sites, Iran Scam, Iran scam lies, Iran secret deals, Iran's undeclared nuke sites, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, JCPOA - renegotiation, JCPOA decertification, John Kerry and Iran, John Kerry and Iran scam, Obama and Iran, Obama and Iran scam, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, U.S. Congress and Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran scam
Strategic decisiveness, tactical caution
Strategic decisiveness, tactical caution, Israel Hayom, Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi, October 15, 2017
Iran is now facing a three-pronged American challenge: the steps that stem directly from the newly announced Trump Doctrine; new legislation against it; and unilateral action by Trump should Congress fail to enact new legislation, leading to the U.S. withdrawing from the pact.
In one fell swoop, through a single speech, Trump put the ball squarely in Iran's court.
When it comes to North Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump has adopted a policy of containment and deterrence, owing to the fact that it presents a general threat.
But when it comes to Iran, things are different. On Friday, Trump unveiled a new doctrine against this component of the Axis of Evil, a doctrine that is based more on red lines and clear thresholds that would trigger American action should they be crossed.
This approach represents a creative blend of strategic decisiveness and tactical caution. The strategic decisiveness rests on his pledge to counter Iran head-on, should the need arise, over its repeated violations of key parts of the 2015 nuclear deal, and over its conduct in the region (including its ongoing ballistic missile program and its continued support for terrorist groups and destabilization efforts).
The tactical caution part is based on his recognition that a potential Iranian-American clash is not necessarily immediate, forceful or even inevitable. In other words, the White House has articulated a gradual process that gives Iranian President Hassan Rouhani a way out by mending his ways before the moment of truth arrives.
Thus, even though the Trump Doctrine is a break from the way the nuclear deal has been implemented so far, Washington will stay in it in order to improve it, hoping that its threats will have a moderating effect on the ayatollah regime. Therefore, Trump's decision to decertify the agreement doesn't mean that he is bent on withdrawing from it. He is still going to play by the rules, but his new doctrine presents several powerful deterrent elements.
The first: He has sent a signal to Tehran of what's to come. Through the newly announced sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which complement other steps the Pentagon has taken in the region to curtail Iran's destabilizing activity, Iran now knows what's at stake.
The second: He announced what could be a new, comprehensive and structured mechanism to punish Iran. If and when Congress decides to adopt such a mechanism, it will include a host of steps against the regime, including sanctions that are automatically imposed if Iran violates certain provisions characterized as "red lines" (say, regarding its missile program).
The third: If Congress fails to pass new legislation to punish Iran over the next two months, this will lead to the termination of the agreement as far as he is concerned – with all the consequences that this may entail.
Categories: Iran - sanctions, Iran nuke inspections, Iran scam termination, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, Iranian Revolutionary Guard terrorist designation, JCPOA - renegotiation, JCPOA compliance certification, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, Trump strategy for Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran scam
Tags: Iran nuke inspections, Iran sanctions, Iran scam termination, Iranian missiles, Iranian nukes, Iranian Revolutionary Guard terrorist designation, JCPOA - renegotiation, JCPOA compliance certification, Trump and Iran, Trump and Iran scam, Trump strategy for Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran, U.S. Congress and Iran scam


I have to admit that I was disappointed with my first counseling session. I don't know exactly what I expected to get out of it (wishful thinking was that I would be "cured" after one visit), but I left thinking that I wouldn't go back. Part of the problem was that I didn't feel comfortable with the counselor. I'm sure he was good at what he did, but he wasn't right for me. When I shared this with one of my friends she told me not to give up but to try someone else. It never occured to me that I might have to look around for the right person. I guess I just assumed that all counselors were basically the same. I called the counseling center again and asked to see someone different. I was more specific this time about what I had been through and what I was looking for. I specifically asked for someone who had personal experience with death and grieving, though it didn't have to be suicide, and I requested a female. If counseling is going to be beneficial, you have to be willing to be totally honest, to bare your heart and soul, and you can't do this with someone you aren't comfortable with. Finding the right counselor is just like finding the right outfit or pair of shoes - you have to shop around and find the one that fits.
Thankfully the next time I went for a session I knew immediately I had found the right person. She had lost her own husband in a tragic accident several years earlier, and I could tell right away that she understood how I was feeling. I was very comfortable talking to her right from the start. As expected our first session was filled with a lot of tears. I did most of the talking while the counselor sat and listened. I was surprised at how easy it was to tell her the whole story. I realized that in some ways it was easier to talk to this stranger than it was to talk to my own family. She didn't know Eddie or me so there were no opinions about either of us one way or the other. I felt safe sitting in her office and was actually disappointed when our time ended. I had barely begun to tell her everything I wanted to share. This time there was no question that I would be going back.
In addition to the counselor I also started seeing the preacher around the same time. I hadn't been comfortable with the male at the counseling center, but I was surprised to find that I was very comfortable with this man. He was kind, caring, understanding, compassionate, yet objective at the same time. Just like the counselor, he didn't know Eddie or me so I didn't have a problem being honest with him about everything. I could tell he was going to bring a different perspective to the situation than the counselor, but I felt that between the two of them I was going to get what I needed to help me through this process of grieving. My only regret was that it wasn't going to happen faster.
I continued reading the books I had bought and found out one very important thing - contrary to what I thought, I wasn't going crazy! I learned that exhaustion, distraction, denial, anger, physical symptoms, withdrawal, and fear (just to name a few) are all a part of grief. Though I felt like I was alone, the only one to ever feel this way, I wasn't. Everyone who loses a loved one, regardless of the circumstances, has these same feelings in varying degrees and for different lengths of time. Grief isn't just something for us to get through, it is like an injury or a sickness - we have to take the time to heal. There was that word again - TIME - I had to accept that I wasn't going to find a way to rsh through this.


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[Books] Doctor Who: Corpse Marker (Monster Collection Edition)
We're coming up to the last few books in the Doctor Who: Monster Collection and this leaves us with the somewhat less-known monsters, especially for those who us a little late to the Doctor Who dance program. If anything, I figured these books would be a nice bridge for current fans to get into Classic Doctor Who stories in time, provided one has access to them.
Corpse Marker brings us the dreaded robots that had been seen in the episode, "The Robots of Death" together with the Fourth Doctor. Beyond featuring similar robots, this story was actually positioned as a direct sequel to that episode. It was certainly an interesting direction to take (somewhat similar to Scales of Injustice). But beyond just being a sequel story, it actually takes place very shortly after the episode itself.
The book certainly tried to capture the feel of a true Doctor Who television adventure and I could totally see the progression from each act of the story to the other. The final reveal as a whole was a little underwhelming though and things ended somewhat abruptly for me.
Synopsis: Doctor Who: Corpse Marker is Doctor Who novel written by Chris Boucher. It was first released in 1999 and was re-issued as part of the Doctor Who Monster Collection in 2014.
The Fourth Doctor and his Companion Leela find themselves back on the planet Kaldor, but some amount of time after the events in "The Robots of Death." And what they find is a society largely dependent on the same robots that they had faced back on the Kaldor Sandminer. But shortly after their arrival on Kaldor, the two get separated with the Doctor discovering a secret project involving new types of robots and Leela finding herself among rebel figures of some sort.
But there's another mystery unfolding - one involving the surviving crew of the Sandminer who are aware of the dangers these robots potentially represent. They're the only knows who know that robot programming can be circumvented in a manner that allows them to kill their human masters, and perhaps it's because of that very knowledge that they're being picked off one by one.
I have to admit that I haven't had enough exposure to the Fourth Doctor and Leela in terms of my Whovian life, but I'll get there eventually, I promise. So it was about time that I finally read a book involving this Doctor including one of his more notable Companions. Admittedly I was more curious about Leela than the Doctor - she does rather stick out like a sore thumb compared to other Companions.
And I really appreciated what they did her - rather than painting her as being simple-minded or primitive, we instead have a character with a deep sense of honor and a greater focus on the nature of the warrior. She's very much like a Star Trek Klingon in that regard, and is able to quickly translate the alien-ness of the different worlds that she travels to with the Doctor into terms she can readily understand.
The Fourth Doctor was a delight in this adventure and his bumbling almost seemed totally insane, except for the fact that in the end he ended up being precisely where he needed to be. And that's his way, I suppose, and it worked rather well in this narrative. It didn't necessarily feel like he got unnaturally lucky or something - there's just a highly complex chain of events that bounced him around the story as he navigated through each plot point.
The overall story was initially intriguing, but eventually a little tiring. I appreciate the effort put into creating a complex mystery with echoes of Asimov's robot-centric mysteries. But we start with the premise that we know that robots are capable of lethal violence on this world, so we don't exactly write off the robots as possible suspects. And soon enough we as readers get a full view of the robots moving about the city, clearly up to no good.
And then the final reveal of all that had been going on felt more like a whimper after all that build-up. And seriously, that was a ridiculously short end to things despite all that had gone on before. There was a decent enough idea behind the book, but I think it somehow got lost in the details of the narrative.
Doctor Who: Corpse Marker wasn't entirely bad but it wasn't great either. It had its fun moments but I think it got a little lost along the way. Thus the book gets 2.5 killer robots that weren't quite as scary as hoped out of a possible 5.
Tags: BBC, books, Doctor Who, reviews, sci-fi, television, time travel, TV


Number 41 : Warren. Ready to Race!
In the first of a series of reports, Dave 'Bearded Man' Warren will be filling us in on the daily happenings at this years Trans Provence Mountain Bike Event. In it's second year we are very happy to support them again and hopefully all the racers will have a good night's recovery kip on the Fat Airics from last year and the new Dozers.
7 days of rally styled racing, 'predominantly' downhill singletrack (I'll probably regret saying that), sounds too good to be true. However, the Trans-Provence offers just that. The race starts in Gap and finishes in Monaco – so only the Mediterranean Alps stand in our way before we reach millionaires paradise.
Now in its second year the word is out and the 45 riders ascend from all over the planet – Australia, Canada, UK, Italy….the list goes on. From my experience of intimate races like this I am expecting some competitive rivalry on the trails and sociable times at the camps.
Now to the interesting stuff! Each day's riding has either three or four timed sections, all of the times accumulate until all stages have been completed and the TP champion 2010 will be named. We are expecting 1,000m+ elevation a day and 1,500m+ descending – take these stats as brash averages. The distance covered each day is less than 60km, but I am guessing this is a moot point considering the profiles.
I don't know much about this event but considering the stats I am sure there will be some pretty hard riding and some extreme climbing – time will tell.
After a three hour transfer from Nice airport it was time to meet and greet Ash and Melissa (event organisers), register, sign disclaimers and unpack our bags into our tents. Food good enough for champions was served in an open air 'hall', which was a real treat having just arrived from London with a winter jacket on!
The riders briefing was something that either scared the hell out of everyone or lifted excitement levels – either way we are in for an epic journey through Provence. My bike choice (steel hardtail 29er with not much front suspension!) might not be ideal but I am hoping gravity is on my side and a bit of luck.
Finally, time to hit the sack with the Alpkit mat as the protection between mother earth and my sleeping bag.


Social media in general can be considered as a quite new phenomenon. In this lecture we discuss the way how emergence of social media influences the society and the social order, go through the main characteristics of social media and distinguish what makes it popular among the larger audiences.
Hi, and welcome back to the course.
This is week six, and this week we're discussing social media.
But before we move onto the theoretical part, I want to ask you a question.
What is the first thing you do early in the morning?
Well, first, you need to forget about the alarm, you finally woke up.
For me, it would be my yoga practice.
And what I really want to do is just stretch and get into this day.
then I see what happens overseas over this night.
check on the pictures that have been uploaded.
example, while I was sleeping was brand new day.
gestures and definitely wish me a great day.
So social media becomes an essential part of our life.
And it's integrated with our day routine from the very early morning.
But let's take a look what social media is.
that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.
The most important part for us is user generated content.
Social media appear online in early 2000s.
over 200 operating social media website appeared online.
What are the examples of these social media?
User Generated Content was provided there.
What do you want to share with publics?
Do you want to tell your lifestyle story?
Do you want to share some experiences of yours that happen before?
Would you like to discuss some political or social issues?
You can do it on blog.
This is a very personalized page where you can share your own ideas.
While secondly, it's microblogs, hello Twitter.
Here, we can share some ideas, very short and brief ones.
we track the use of celebrities and politicians over the Twitter.
exactly in this content and in the news updates.
Social networks created the revolution in social media.
as well as one of the most opened websites among the people.
And well, what do you do the first thing you come to the work?
You open your Facebook page and check on the news.
continue with a working routine.
the user generated content and to create it and to upload it online.
should we put it all together with the collective of these social media websites.
moving towards the social media as itself.
with your friends and create multiple conversations with big groups of people.
the content that is generated, guess by whom?
But what are the key features of social media?
which can be described as some kind of social interactivity.
We can also speak about the technical interactivity.
you can use different tools to share it and distribute it.
The second feature is the temporal structure of social media.
It can be synchronous and asynchronous at the same time.
of instant messages, we can exchange information simultaneously.
your friend right there in your phone or near by you at the couch.
group you're following from the the celebrity's group you want to track.
time, you might track the changes that happen there overnight, for example.
Still social media provide us fewer social cues, just like Internet itself.
Let's take a look at this illustration.
one is apparently inviting this second person to the birthday party.
how we can speak about the excitement of this person having upcoming birthday?
this person's definitely looking forward to this party.
Still the reply is quite short, but who knows?
Maybe there would be an extension and maybe this person is just busy.
might be a little bit anxious about the reply of his friend.
can tell us that the Internet basically does have fewer social cues.
Storage and replicability, well, thank you, Internet.
enormous terabytes of information online and we can share it with other people.
And replicability of the knowledge is another essential characteristic.
that it can be repeated and it can appear in some other place.
change our social practices is its reach.
your message would get instantly to him right now and right there.
never be able to maintain without the usage of social media.
The other feature is mobility.
you can communicate with people who are selling your stuff.
very comfortable for us and this is one of the distinctive features of social media.
reality, let's take a closer look of what exactly is happening here.
First of all, it's our interpersonal communication.
she does not show up in 15 minutes.
Definitely interpersonal communication is changing.
It's making us much closer to those who live far away from us.
conversation with a glass of wine.
which is a very distinctive characteristic of our age.
Community and communication is another thing that change over the time.
How do you usually spend your leisure activities, tell me, 50 years ago?
nearby, and you all will definitely have some very nice time together.
change if you're interested in some kind of social change.
Or you can just be a fan and follow other people online.
the necessary tools to arrange and to make it happening.
The other thing that is changing is mass communication and news dissemination.
rather than we speak about news looking for us.
don't just particularly trust by sources that you particularly like.
activities through these participatory techniques.
Now people come online and they create the new conversations, forums, and blogs.
them and what is important.
might end up with the term called slacktivism nowadays.
you, political post on a Facebook?
you would apply your opinion and say it out loud within the demonstration?
That's a very questionable thing, and we need to discuss it further on.
Nowadays, almost 25% of the content which exists online is branded.
We want these products, services, and goods to be there.
ask whether they have this new type of pizza or they don't.
you don't really want to buy iPhone for some reason.
you ask your friends what is coming?
What is interesting and what can they recommend you?
friends who's working for the cell phone company.
advertising practices are changing with the emergence of social media.
now we can communicate with others about this brand.
As well as we can leave the feedback while using some sort of service or good.
And we definitely want to share it with our friends and the close ones.
and some of you would do research on social media one day.
What are the most hot topics in the research areas within the social media?
First of all, it's a health-related communication.
With the emergence of social media, it's changing differently.
the navigation application just recommended me to see the doctor online.
provide me with consulting over my health just online.
tons of different information related to health care can be found online.
real patient and online doctor with a real patient.
Education and learning, this is what we're doing here right now.
your discussion which appear later after this lecture.
integrated into this gamified process of the communication.
We also have to take a look at the community dimension.
We're going on online, how do people communicate with each other?
networks are more popular in comparison with another ones.
Information dissemination, fake news, Twitter, social media, Facebook.
how do they find the news that they particularly like?
Or is it news that follow us everywhere?
how to focus it on the individual and make it customize?
The other point is IT and computer science.
targeted advertising, and other complicated, rather complicated things.
will discuss later on in this lecture, technology is kind of changing us.
approach social life and on the way how do we structure our everyday practices?
Business and marketing is also changing, and we discussed this already.
How do you make your product more successful online?
How do you make it more successful online as well?
conceptual explanations that will be useful for the further conceptualization.
relate on interpersonal communication offline?
How do we make group communication more engaging and more productive?
These are the very good questions for the research.
an action and remembering the cases of Arab Spring.
And do we need some sort of preconditioned society in order to make it happen?
hierarchical structure in order to fight the hierarchical structure.
So anyway, these are a number of very good research questions for you to find out.
and explain what's going on there.


Mr & Mrs Roberts, originally from the UK, moved to Norway about 20 years ago and now live in town with a very small garden. With little growing space at home, Mrs Roberts describes herself as a frustrated gardener. Fortunately, they also have a larger garden on their own island. Only accessible by boat, the island could be a used for growing, however, much of what can be grown there often gets eaten by deer and moose.
They first saw a solution for their island retreat when they saw a geodesic dome on a gardening programme. They instantly loved the idea and while on holiday in the UK arranged a visit to the Solardome showroom in Southampton.
It is excellent and very well made – precision made.
Immediately impressed by the look and quality of the domes, they subsequently chose a SOLARDOME® Pod to provide their much-wanted island growing space.
The Roberts' wanted to build the dome themselves, and so shipping, construction and quality were all key factors for them. Being in such an extreme environment, they wanted to be sure their investment in time and money was going to be worthwhile.
The SOLARDOME® Pod gave them this reassurance, and was also easily transportable to their island getaway. Being the smallest dome in the range, it is also the simplest to self-build having only two different sizes of glass and struts.
Looking back on the project they were about to undertake, Mrs Roberts commented: "We really liked it, but was it a crazy thing to do? – to ship it out to Norway, transport it to the dock in their Mini car, take it piece by piece by boat, and carry it across the rocks to where we wanted to build it".
The Roberts' even prepared the ground themselves: "the hardest part was sledgehammering the boulders to create a level base", commented Mr Roberts.
Provided with a comprehensive set of instructions, it took the two of them less than a day to put the frame together.
We got the frame up in a couple of hours; every single piece of glass went in perfectly. It was ten times easier than I thought it was going to be. It all went together beautifully.
The Robert's really appreciate the dome's design compared to a traditional greenhouse. To have a structure which fits in with their natural and untouched environment really suited them: "Its organic shape blends in and disappears; you can't do that with an ordinary greenhouse. It's perfect for us" they commented.
Originally chosen as a greenhouse and for the robustness of the geodesic design, the Roberts family are also enjoying their dome as a relaxing space.
The other thing that we were really impressed with is how clear the glass always is. We like sitting up there in the evening and looking at the stars.


THIS CD IS MEDICINE MUSIC FOR THE SOUL!
I have been a long time fan of Tina malia & Shimshai, but this CD takes their music to an even higher level, holy holy, holy! The CD is beautiful to look at, and a healing love vibration to listen to. Thank you Shimshai & Tina for your dedication in spreading such a high love vibration, when this world needs it most! They are touring the southwest in the next few weeks. Check their websites for dates and local. Travel to see them, you will be happy you did.
Although I have a few "chant" CDs in my collection, and find them enjoyable, this CD is more than just "chants." It is an absolutely inspired creation that resonates with the soul the first listen. I dont typically write reviews but felt I needed to help promote this recording as much as possible. It is truly beautiful.
Since receiving Jaya Bhagavan I've listened to it many times and feel something different each time. Many thanks for such a wonderful musical journey! As a musician, I am well aware of the power of music to go directly to spirit and transform. This recording succeeds on all levels.
These chants make you reaffirm your connection to the cozmic divine. A pure channel to the depths of your soul. If you believe the goddess is here and now, this cd will blow open your heart!
I Love chanting with Tina Malia and Shimshai.
Shimshai and Tina's love and pressence shine through every second of this CD. Absolutely beautiful. You will not be able to listen without chanting with them. Chanting is good for the soul, mind and body. Find the rosary of your mind. Amazing healing energy in every chant.
i don't know eitber of these artists that well. i'm just getting to know some of their music. that said, i love this cd.
Beautiful, uplifting and calming, I cant stop listening to this cd!
I first heard this cd during a yoga class. It was so moving I had to get it. I havent stopped listening to it. Tina's voice is so pure, along with Shimshai and Jai Uttal, its heavenly. Great to practice yoga to, and even better during traffic jams on the 405! I cant help but stay calm and loving. Namaste.
Beautiful Blissful, stays in your head and heart!
Absolutley beautiful! I heard Shimshai play at Harmony fest and came right home and found this CD. I hve listened to it over and over and the beautiful chants stay with me and have supported me through some challenging moments.
Thank you for this beautiful blessing of music!


On Thursday, October 26th, the Trout Lake Road paving operation from Giroux St. to Mountainview Dr. will begin first thing in the morning and is anticipated to extend into the evening. The traffic signals at Giroux St. and Mountainview Dr. will both be bagged and traffic control through the intersection will be completed through a combination of a police officer and traffic control persons.
Motorists are encouraged to use an alternate route during this time to avoid a delay and are encouraged to drive with care and according to the temporary conditions.