Any attempt to outline a meteorological aesthetics centered on so-called beautiful weather has to overcome several difficulties: In everyday life, the appreciation of the weather is mostly related to practical interests or reduced to the ideal of stereotypical fine weather that is conceived according to blue-sky thinking irrespective of climate diversity. Also, an aesthetics of fine weather seems, strictly speaking, to be impossible given that such weather conditions usually allow humans to focus on aspects other than weather, which contradicts the autotelic character of beauty. The unreflective equation of beautiful weather with moderately sunny weather and a cloudless sky also collides with the psychological need for variation: even living in a "paradisal" climate would be condemned to end in monotony. Finally, whereas fine weather is related in modern realistic literature to cosmic harmony and a universal natural order, contemporary literary examples show that in the age of the climate change, fine weather may be deceitful and its passive contemplation, irresponsible. This implies the necessity of a reflective aesthetic attitude on weather, as influenced by art, literature, and science, which discovers the poetics of bad weather and the wonder that underlies average weather conditions.
As frequently as everyday life is permeated by small talk on weather, as deep is the silence on it in aesthetic theory, given its aesthetic impurity and complexity. The appreciation of weather conditions is linked to vital and ethical values and embedded in various cultural contexts. Therefore, in order to be able to achieve aesthetic appreciation of weather conditions, the subject has not only to free herself from any practical interests, with their corresponding practices, ranging from magical conjuring of rain to geo-engineering, but also to overcome any presumable meteo-dependency, which makes the appreciation of weather depend on physiological criteria of corporeal and emotional well-being.
Moreover, the multisensory dimension of weather contradicts the priority of the so-called "theoretical senses" of sight and hearing in modern aesthetics. These are also the senses that allow the subject to perceive a phenomenon from a safe position without exposing her to extremely uncomfortable or even dangerous situations. As Kant emphasized, in cases of turbulent weather conditions, a complicated dispositif is required to alleviate spontaneous fear in the subject with the discovery of the source of the sublime and enable an indirect aesthetic satisfaction. For a long time, weather and extraordinary celestial phenomena were not free from mythic, religious, and mantic interpretations, and fear was stronger than awe. Even in our times, the practical function of the weather forecast still takes precedence over aesthetic admiration.
To put it roughly, weather is far too complex and subjective for traditional aesthetics of natural beauty, and even in art it remains a minor topic, coming to the fore only in landscape painting. In sum, one either identifies beautiful weather too hastily as the cliché of fine weather in their own climate, which makes any further aesthetic analysis pointless, or one has to be willing to engage in an endless discussion on how relative are the ideals of weather in various climates worldwide. In both cases, the issue of what beautiful weather really is seems to discourage from the outset any possibility of fruitful aesthetic analysis.
And still, attempts have been undertaken recently by Arnold Berleant, Holmes Rolston III, and David Macauley to introduce a "celestial," "meteorological," and "aerial" aesthetics, while the "aerographic" descriptions in the field of material geography are not exempt from aesthetic implications. Strikingly enough, several of these authors focus precisely on experiences of what is commonly called bad weather related to clouds, rain, fog, and snow. For example, Rolston emphasizes the fluctuation of weather conditions in comparison with the regularities of the climate: "This sky is reconstructed daily, even hourly." Also his polemic against the blue-sky thinking is meant to defend the clouds as aesthetically stimulating: cloudwatching evokes a broader range of moods than the awe and wonder that accompany the usual examples of watching the stars or sunsets.
In contrast to other celestial events that were prone to mythological interpretations, the contemplation of cloudscapes is closest to the ideal type of an aesthetic experience and generates an aesthetic attitude at three levels, at least. First, the observer draws enjoyment from the pure play of forms, textures, and colors. Also, one is attuned to the various moods and emotional atmospheres suggested by the ever-changing cloudscapes. The ongoing metamorphosis of the sky leaves imprints on "moodscapes" as inner landscapes. This mutability, which Goethe once called the drama of the clouds, entitles the beholder to assign a capricious or "moody" temper to the weather: the mobility and fluidity of cloudscapes are a reflection of life.
Finally, the sky serves as a screen for imaginative projections; clouds improvise abundantly and the game of recognizing objects or animals in cumulus clouds is as enjoyable for children as it is for adults. The aesthetic enjoyment originates in this case from the surprising analogies one is able to detect between extraterrestrial space and earth. Even Aristotle explained the pleasure humans draw from mimesis through the cognitive mechanism of recognition. The less one can presume an intentional author behind a seemingly meaningful form, the stronger is the enjoyment. According to Martin Steel, these three aspects configure nature as a space of sensory contemplation, as a place of affective correspondences, and as a stage for imagination. In addition to this, in cultural history clouds often symbolized freedom, doom, or the disguised presence of the divine.
We believe that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them. We think that they are Nature's poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them. We pledge to fight 'blue-sky thinking' wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day. We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the atmosphere's moods, and can be read like those of a person's countenance. Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked. They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul.
First, it has a mostly average positive effect on the subject's well-being. Only the effect of contrast, as when sunny weather interrupts a long period of rainy, stormy, or gloomy days, may enhance the feeling of how fine sunny weather really is.
Second, in terms of perception, fine weather does not require any particular physical adaptation. Above all, it makes possible the greatest visibility of earthly phenomena. Therefore, to enjoy the weather often means to enjoy the view of wide landcapes and waterscapes, to take pleasure in panoramas from the top of a mountain, or to look down at remote earthscapes from a plane, but not to enjoy the weather for itself.
And third, because of this corporeal comfort and visual facilitation, fine weather enables humans to carry out their everyday activities and simply ignore what is "up in the air:" fine weather is often fine just because we take notice of it only to forget it in the next moment. And this leads to the following paradox: in everyday life, the best weather appears to be the weather one does not become aware of, and conceals itself as a medium of life, and a frame for practices.
Psychologically speaking, fine weather corresponds to a kind of point zero of experience that tends to pass for normal and therefore is ignored. For this reason, an aesthetics of fine weather appears to be de facto impossible as a meteorological aesthetics because of its centrifugal aspect: ideal weather is seldom enjoyed in itself, but mostly throws one constantly outside the weather to what "really counts." To put it differently, ascribing beauty to fine weather would contradict the autotelic character of beauty, being a means for something different, for the subject's well-being, perception, and life in general.
On the contrary, it seems easier from this perspective to pay attention and even to contemplate aesthetically the deviations from this "point zero" of our experience of meteorological events. When fog, rain, or snow – all earthly epiphenomena of the clouds – make us feel stricken, blur the image of the world, and keep us from abandoning ourselves to outdoor activities, the weather compels our attention. At the same time, "bad" weather conditions also influence the perception of what is seen through or, rather, behind them and change the classical beauty of clearly designed landscapes into a rather romantic beauty of scenes that emanate atmospheres and shape different moodscapes.
Emile Cioran, David Le Breton, and Georges Perec, to name just a few essayists, were all sensitive to the poetic dimension of what common sense calls bad weather. For example, Cioran, who was well-known for his radical pessimism, wandered for hours in foggy weather and proclaimed the fog as "the only thing which has never disappointed me, the most beautiful achievement on the surface of the earth." More recently, a journey through fog-bound shoreline motivated Craig Martin to reflect on how the opacity of fog temporarily "confiscates the horizon" and causes disorientation.
Nevertheless, it is precisely this visual obstruction that brings into light the relation usually neglected between vision and the "embodied immersion in aerial space." In phenomenological terms, the experience of wandering amidst the fog enhances the awareness of being-in-the-world and being entangled bodily with the world, instead of assuming a disembodied subject who would watch it from a position outside the world. The absence of such experiences of atmospheric phenomena in phenomenology therefore appears all the more surprising with the notable exception of Luce Irigaray.
Also, when the clouds settle on earth as fog, the obstruction of visibility compels the subject to acknowledge that the air is always in-between the seer and the object and, although it usually remains invisible, it is a material medium of perception. The atmospheric phenomena of fog, rain, and snow, no less than the clouds, as "phenomena situated broadly between air and water on an elemental perceptual scale," make the air that is saturated with humidity "come out" into the realm of visibility. The aerial space becomes itself a phenomenon and this is the primary condition for the possibility of its aesthetic theory.
It is now time to ask whether this ideal of climate has changed since the fourth century. Is the modern tourist's "pilgrimage" from the northern half of the globe to the climatically "blessed" countries of the south different, in essence, from travel to a climatic paradise? A meteorological aesthetics is apparently not subject to any historical evolution. To consider fine weather banal and to warn that the tourist's delightful consumption of never changing fine weather would necessarily end in boredom are still exceptions, if not explicit provocations, as in the following statement by F. C. Delius: "I do not understand why the Caribbean is such a desirable place. Three weeks of nothing but sunshine, alright, but to have this the whole year? This would be a nightmare for me." The situatedness of his own attitude, used to the variety of the European climate, is left unquestioned again, as is usual in issues related to the weather.
As a matter of fact, fine weather nowadays could turn into a nightmare in other respects, as well. We have lost any innocence concerning the weather and, after having tasted from the tree of knowledge, face scientists' alarm that fine weather may be a treacherous sign of global warming. The parameters of fine weather are indeed far from being the same everywhere; permanent sunshine and mild weather at the poles should alert rather than delight us. Fine weather has come under suspicion, and climate change opened a second age of bad conscience after Christianity.
We all know that fine weather here may be compensated by desertification, floods, and hurricanes elsewhere, and there is no doubt that weather conditions are local. They can strongly vary within a small area, but belong nevertheless to a complex global system that shows no respect for political borders or economic interests. To follow Delius once more, humanity has always imagined the apocalypse as tremendously severe weather, but the real end of the world may come, on the contrary, in fine weather. This could be a thrilling literary topic waiting to be developed.
There was a depression over the Atlantic. It was travelling eastwards, towards an area of high pressure over Russia, and still showed no tendency to move northwards around it. The isotherms and isotheres were fulfilling their functions. The atmospheric temperature was in proper relation to the average annual temperature, the temperature of the coldest as well as of the hottest month, and the a-periodic monthly variation in temperature. The rising and setting of the sun and of the moon, the phases of the moon, Venus and Saturn's rings, and many other important phenomena, were in accordance with the forecasts in the astronomical yearbooks. The vapour in the air was at its highest tension, and the moisture in the air was at its lowest. In short, to use an expression that describes the facts pretty satisfactorily, even though it is somewhat old-fashioned: it was a fine August day in the year 1913.
Weather, however, rarely provides a neutral frame for narration, usually "each author builds his own sky." In Romanticism, weather descriptions evoke emotional atmospheres and are projections of the characters' moods. Realistic writers prefer to indirectly invest weather with meaning; finally, severe weather conditions and natural catastrophes trigger actions and give the protagonists the opportunity to unravel their real "nature" in spectacular, heroic gestures. In the first two cases, weather expresses the consonance between the protagonist and nature; in the third case, weather plays the role of a narrative agent and is mostly opposed to human interests. All three situations require the reader's empathic response and imply specific values.
Even in so-called bürgerlicher Realismus the author manipulates weather conditions in order to indirectly transmit a set of values and conventions to the reader. According to Delius, weather mantles a specific ideology: it makes the fictitious reality comprehensible and suggests the existence of a transcendental ethical counterpart of the human actions, which consists in a cosmic harmony and order. His analysis of the relationship between "the hero and his weather" in about sixty German realistic novels from the second half of the nineteenth century gives evidence that good weather always confirms the triumph of virtuous characters and accompanies a happy destiny, while unsettled and stormy weather is appropriate to immoral acts and vicious characters.
The ideological message of the weather to the reader is double. Either the social relationships are endorsed by an extra-social order and naturalized so that the narrative enables the reader to feel secure in a rational, almost Hegelian world and prompts them to accept the social order to receive full gratification. Or the social critique is rejected and replaced by withdrawal into inwardness, which is also Kierkegaard's term for subjectivity. The first way leads to social conformism and the idealization of obedience; the second one ends in alienation and inner exile. Yet in both forms, such novels suggest a higher harmony and eventually fulfill the reader's expectations.
Delius, who published his book in the 1970s, is still convinced that extensive weather descriptions and the literary techniques of harmonizing weather and characters have been exhausted in modern literature, and that they have survived only in its popular genres. On the contrary, the modern German Hochroman prefers to parody and satirize the former conventional use of weather or to describe the atmospheric phenomena in an impersonal, almost scientific manner, independently of the action. If references to the weather conditions are not simply missing, they are generally concise and confined to stereotypes. The authors avoid any mythological connotations of weather events and undermine the reader's unconscious impulse to develop empathy. Delius' opinion of the current irrelevance of weather is shared by another critic, Iris Radisch, who regrets the disappearance of weather subjects in German contemporary literature. Still, this opinion has to be revised in light of the writers' recently renewed interest in the climate change.
While the realistic writers of the nineteenth century generally draw a parallel between beautiful weather and the protagonist's happiness and success, fine sunny weather is seldom used in literature as a contrasting background for tragic episodes. Still, fine weather may conceal traps, like in Jean Paul's Des Luftschiffers Giannozzo Seebuch, in which the air traveler escapes thunder-storms only to succumb absurdly to lightning on a fine day. Also, in J. D. Salinger's short story, A Perfect Day for Bananafish, nothing in the air or in the hero's behavior announces his suicide. The fine weather, along with the alert style and arresting dialogues, catches the reader's attention and completely conceals the character's emotional disorder.
In our day, vivid discussion about the greenhouse effect has also engaged writers and scriptwriters; booming doomsday scenarios bespeak what John Urry called "the new catastrophism" or "epochalism." From the list of recent eco-thrillers, let me consider here Ilija Trojanow's EisTau. The protagonist of the novel, Zeno, is a researcher of glaciers who falls into despair after watching the end of a glacier in the Alps. Like Jean Paul's "astronaut," he keeps a log on a cruise to the Antarctic on which he is an expedition leader, and delivers scientific lectures to guests who do not wish to listen to his warnings of climatic collapse.
Also like Giannozzo, Zeno seeks for a refuge from an irresponsible society but, in contrast to his predecessor, he cannot escape his human compatriots even at the end of the world. Zeno is disgusted by the factitiousness of his previous life as a scientist and now by the life of such travelers, who call themselves "environmental activists," yet are not willing to adopt a sustainable way of life. "The weather is mild, the mood euphoric" when a party is thrown on the ship, with barbecue and dancing to the music of "sunshine, sunshine reggae." Both Zeno's and Gianozzo's ends are tragic. The harmony that formally reigned between the modern hero and the weather has now been lost forever. Having to decide between humans and nature, Trojanow opts for misanthropy as the lesser evil in the name of the planet, and makes his alter ego declare: "We have to thrust man from his pedestal in order to save him." The writer turns in the end into a spokesman for holistic thinking.
To resume the previous argument, what common sense calls beautiful weather is usually left unquestioned, given its synonymy with fine weather and the strength of the cliché about what fine weather should be like, irrespective of the diversity of climates with their presumably different "ideal" weather conditions. Furthermore, fine weather only seldom becomes an object of reflection, given the priority of practical interests in everyday life and the tendency of so-called fine weather not to be attended and to remain in the background as a mere medium of life and practical activity. Another objection to the common blue-sky thinking is determined by the general need for variation: constantly blue sky and sunny weather would inevitably result in boredom, but the same goes for any kind of weather. On the whole, this means that what is usually considered fine weather cannot be dismissed de jure from a positive aesthetic attitude but has only to be placed in a larger context.
As a matter of fact, the positive appreciation of the weather in any region of the globe is related to a short-term pattern (fine weather interrupts a series of less "fine" days) and, at the same time, is embedded in a more general spatial and temporal context. (What is considered fine weather depends on the local climate, the season, and the moment of the day.) In other words, fine weather is not fine as such but in relation to its contextual framing, and it gains its appeal from contrast with normal conditions. How beauty can emerge from contrast is a well-known psychological law of perception; however, the issue of normality requires further discussion, which allows me to take up again the issue raised by Trojanow. For example, if fine weather repeatedly contradicts our expectations about "normal" weather according to the natural climatic cycle, moral considerations related to climate change eventually take precedence over both aesthetic reasons and short-term practical interests. To put it differently, it would be irresponsible to wish for no rain, fog, storm, or snow only because they impede one's activities.
Therefore, for any meteorological aesthetics to be developed one should, on one hand, endeavor to extend the common positive appreciation of fine weather to instances of "bad weather," beyond the theory of the dynamical sublime, with its focus on catastrophes. Aesthetic reflection can help us acknowledge that aesthetically appealing meteorological events are not confined to those weather conditions that imply comfort or security and enable us to carry out leisure activities outdoors. On the other hand, a purely aesthetic appreciation of the weather has to be restricted in our day by a moral perspective. The vivid colors of the pollution sunsets may make these appear sensational, but the knowledge of their source – the aerosols produced by human activity – tempers the admiration and inhibits the allegedly "disinterested" aesthetic attitude. As Trojanow's above-mentioned episode emphasized, one now has good reasons to raise the question of the proper aesthetic attitude towards atmospheric events. And this issue splits the traditional unanimity about fine weather into environmentally committed people and naïve or egoistic consumers of weather.
Which aesthetic theory would then fit activist writers like Trojanow and the public concerned with environment? Obviously, this can hardly be the neo-Romantic ökologische Ästhetik or Naturästhetik that both Gernot Böhme and Martin Seel outlined in the 1980s and 1990s. In the new context of the post-carbon or Anthropocene age (Paul Crutzen), when humans turned from passive recipients of weather into weathermakers, "to have one's head in the clouds" does not necessarily mean any more to be exalted and out of touch with the real world. On the contrary, it is to be aware of the present environmental dangers and to assume responsibility, including restricting one's need for stereotypical "beauty" and restraining oneself from shortsightedly consuming "beautiful weather" at the expense of sustainability.
Thus a meteorological aesthetics endorses Berleant's humanistic conviction about the general basic convergence between aesthetic and moral values, yet without confounding them: "Ultimately the morality of beauty and the beauty of morality cannot be kept separate. Each enhances and contributes to the other." As a matter of fact, what is at stake in the attempt to outline a meteorological aesthetics of our age is the proper configuration of a triad of values, in which the aesthetic and the moral values are connected and mediated by scientific knowledge. The attitude of an aesthetic of unreflective ingenuousness, supposedly legitimized by aesthetic disinterestedness and correlated with scientific ignorance, is not pardonable in the age of media and technology. New media grant open access to information, and the scope of the influence achieved by technology makes it unavoidable to inquire about the real causes of a meteorological event, including what is commonly regarded as fine weather. Normality makes its comeback as a value, although in other fields than in modernity, where it led to all sorts of social discrimination.
To continue, in spite of the basic difference between the aesthetic, moral, and theoretical attitudes, the aesthetic appreciation of weather depends on extra-aesthetic judgments regarding the normality of natural order. Anyway, the environmental sciences and environmental ethics do not necessarily have to inhibit positive aesthetic appreciation but may open new dimensions of environmental "beauty," as the general term for aesthetic value. For example, they are able to raise the awareness of climate change and at the same time to enhance aesthetic experience, by shifting the focus of aesthetic appreciation from dramatic weather shows to less conspicuous weather conditions.
To refer again to Trojanow's example, the awareness of how vulnerable the huge masses of glaciers have become because of the greenhouse effect intensifies the impression of their majestic beauty by contrasting it to their ephemerality and fragility. Humans may even begin to see the beauty of some landscapes only when they are confronted with the prospect that they may well disappear. In any case, such a change of perspective presupposes extending the reference system used in evaluating the weather and relating the meteorological dynamics no longer to individual well-being but to the function of the atmosphere in enabling and preserving the environment. One implication of this shift is the desubjectification of judgments of weather, opening, as well, the possibility of arguing for certain overall limits about the weather: de tempestate disputandum est.
This shift of perspective has already been suggested by some environmental ethicists. For example, Holmes Rolston III regards rarity, richness, and complexity as aspects of natural value, and interprets spontaneity, in relation to the diversity of species and landscapes, as the testimony to "exuberance in nature" and an "inventive natural history." His statements can be extended to the field of atmospheric events as well. The proteanism of weather conditions expresses the spontaneity of nature, while the diversity of climate and the complexity of the atmospheric system are the achievement of an immemorial natural history that started long before the appearance of the human species. Thus, scientific reflection enables us to place the average aesthetic appreciation of the weather in a broader context in which the magnitude of the spatial scale (weather events as part of the complex system of the atmosphere) is doubled by the magnitude of the temporal scale (the atmosphere as result of an unimaginably long process).
In the light of minimal scientific literacy, particular weather conditions that tend to be flatly dismissed in everyday life as being "normal for the season" suddenly reveal their hidden basis: the normality (of both fine and inclement weather) begins to rise to the surface, like the base of an iceberg. To set forth Rolston's argument, we may acknowledge that the hypercomplex system called Earth is such a wonder, instead of chasing after other more eye-catching yet ultimately far less significant wonders. We may rediscover humility and learn to think on other scales, "like a mountain" for Aldo Leopold or "like a planet" for his followers Paul Hirsch and Bryan Norton. This reflection allows the aesthetic subject to exchange spectatorship for participation in a cosmic drama, and to somehow expand one's individual identity by extending the capacity to feel awe for what is "natural" and taken for granted.
My plea here for a reflective aesthetic attitude toward weather conditions is meant to combat both the poor blue-sky thinking that underlies widespread consumption of tourist destinations at long distances, and the avidity for the "sublimity" of catastrophes that are consumed in disaster tourism and permanently abetted by turning the weather into a spectacle by the new media, including weather photography and weather reports converted into weather shows. The alternative would be a sort of responsibility in forming and satisfying aesthetic interests, for example by seeking less intensive experiences and becoming sensitive to the poetics of the everyday weather, both fine and bad. The aesthetic consumption of the weather could be replaced by an aesthetic enjoyment that would learn from literature and art that inclement weather has an inexhaustible reservoir of aesthetical values called atmospheres or moodscapes, and from science that the most banal weather conditions deserve our entire perceptual attention as a starting point for any aesthetic experience.
In any case, a meteorological aesthetics is inseparable from the cosmopolitan attitude John Urry urged. Unlike other forms of cosmopolitanism, aesthetic cosmopolitanism is a natural and universal attitude, and the Cloud Appreciation Society, which calls for a new "Internationale" by proclaiming more or less ironically, "Cloud Lovers, Unite!," is a good example of how the aesthetic appreciation of nature is not irrevocably condemned to be stranded in individualistic enjoyment but, on the contrary, may also inspire the founding of new aesthetic communities that may be otherwise quite heterogeneous. This social and holistic thinking contrasts with the individualistic notion of aesthetic behavior conceived as private contemplation that we can still find in the neo-Romantic aesthetics of nature.
Nevertheless, it may be argued that this does not necessarily imply the complete rejection of traditional aesthetics of contemplation but only its transformation. If the climate virtue-moralists require a "new goodness," aestheticians can remind them that, according to Kant, the "immediate interest in the beauty of nature" is "always the mark of a good soul" and that the habitual interest and intentional contemplation of nature "indicate a frame of mind favorable to the moral feeling." At the same time, the tradition of the aesthetical contemplation of nature has to be adapted to our age in which the perception of the weather is commonly mediated by science and new media.
Finally, a meteorological aesthetics has to tackle several other issues that can only be briefly listed here, such as: How can the accuracy of prediction and the complexity of visualization influence the weather perception? How could we balance the visual spectacularization of the weather in weather shows and its poor verbal counterpart in the mass culture? Can scientific descriptions compensate for the contemporary writers' lack of interest in weather descriptions? Given its basis in perception, the aesthetic attitude is perhaps the most direct way of noticing the effects of climate change. How, then, could an aesthetic theory of the sky support the necessity of a corresponding ethics that would enhance the awareness of global interdependence? Finally, if we agree on the necessity to adopt new cultural models, to develop new institutions, and to perform a "shift in the core metaphor" by overcoming the modern metaphor of productivity and creativity, how could aesthetics contribute to this social and cultural change?
Mădălina Diaconu is Privatdozentin for Philosophy at the University of Vienna. Her latest publications are Sinnesraum Stadt. Eine multisensorische Anthropologie (Berlin: Lit, 2012) and Phänomenologie der Sinne (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2013). She published in Contemporary Aesthetics "Reflections on an Aesthetics of Touch, Smell and Taste" (vol. 4, 2006), "City Walks and Tactile Experience" (vol. 9, 2011) and "Grasping the Wind? Aesthetic Participation, between Cognition and Immersion" (vol. 11, 2013).
* This article received the "Article of the Year in the Field of Aesthetics for 2016" award by the Finnish Society for Aesthetics together with the Slovak Association for Aesthetics for the best article published in the field of aesthetics. To read more about this award, visit: finnishsocietyforaesthetics.blogspot.com.
 Holmes Rolston, III, "Celestial Aesthetics: Over Our Heads and/or in Our Heads," Theology and Science, 9, 3 (2011), 273-285, 281.
 Quoted in F. C. Delius, Der Held und sein Wetter. Ein Kunstmittel und sein ideologischer Gebrauch im Roman des bürgerlichen Realismus (München: Hanser, 1971), p. 103.
 F. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik I. Werke Bd. 13 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1986), p. 61.
 Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment, § 28.
 Arnold Berleant, "Celestial Aesthetics," in Sensibility and Sense. The Aesthetic Tranformation of the Human World (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2010), pp. 137-153.
 David Macauley, "Head in the Clouds: On the Beauty of the Aerial World," Environment, Space, Place, 2, 1 (Spring 2010), 147-184.
 See the section on "aerographies" in Society and Space: Environment and Planning D (2011, Vol. 29, No. 3 June), 435-550. The guest editors of the special topic of the issue, Mark Jackson and Maria Fannin, unveil the crust, the solid or the Earth as the implicit elemental assumption of geography and welcome the recent revival of materialism in philosophy by focusing on aerial phenomena, in the hope that these may heuristically lead to extended ontologies and ecological theories ("Letting geography fall where it may – aerographies address the elemental," op. cit., pp. 435-444). The essays they selected deal with "atmospheric attunements" (Kathleen Stewart), the "'aerography' of ethereal space" (Kenneth R. Olwig), the experience of fog (Craig Martin), the airborne contagion (Peta Mitchell), but also with art projects related to celestial events (Yuriko Saito), etc.
 Rolston, op. cit., p. 281.
 Aristotle, Poetics, Chap. 4, 1448 b.
 Martin Seel, Eine Ästhetik der Natur (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991). The atmosphere plays a central role also in Hermann Schmitz' phenomenology and in Gernot Böhme's aesthetic theory.
 Cf. Macauley, op. cit., p. 166.
 E. M. Cioran, Cahiers (1957–1972) (Paris: Gallimard, 1997), p. 942; David Le Breton, Eloge de la marche (Paris: Métailié, 2000), pp. 142-144; Georges Perec, Espèces d'espaces (Paris: Galilée, 1985).
 Luce Irigaray, The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger (London: Athlon Press, 1999).
 Macauley, op. cit., p. 164.
 Saint Ephrem, Hymns on Paradise (Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1990).
 Delius in interview, op. cit.
 Robert Musil, The Man without Qualities, vol. 1 (London: Secker & Warburg, 1961), p. 3.
 Delius, Der Held und sein Wetter, p. 77.
 Jerome D. Salinger, Nine Stories (New York: Bantam Books, 1971), pp. 3-18.
 John Urry, Climate Change and Society (Cambridge: Polity, 2011), p. 36.
 Ilija Trojanow, EisTau (München: Hanser, 2011).
 Paul D. Hirsch, Bryan G. Norton, "Thinking Like a Planet," in Ethical adaptation to climate change. Human virtues of the future, ed. by Allen Thompson and Jeremy Bendik-Keymer (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2012), pp. 317-334.
 Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Judgement (New York: Hafner Press, 1951), § 42, p. 141.


text:
Updates from the WorkSafeBC
Issue: BCMJ, vol. 51 , No. 7 , September 2009 , Pages 296	WorkSafeBC
By: Craig Martin, MD, Kukuh Noertjojo, MD,
High-pressure injection injuries
Looks can be deceiving
High-pressure injection injuries, while relatively rare, can be devastating if neglected or inappropriately treated. Between 1999 and 2008, three claims for injection injury were submitted to WorkSafeBC: one eventually resulted in amputation of a finger, and the other two, despite surgical debridement, resulted in chronic pain.
The causes
Equipment such as paint or grease guns, cement injectors, diesel fuel jets, hydraulic lines, and plastic injectors capable of emitting enough pressure to breach the human skin and inject contents into the human body can cause workplace high-pressure injection injuries. Only 100 pounds per square inch (psi) is required to break intact human skin.
The three most commonly injected substances are grease, paint or paint solvents, and diesel fuel. Other substances include water, air, hydraulic fluids, cement, and vaccines.
Workers with injection injuries may experience little or no pain at the time of the incident. Entry wounds are frequently small or insignificant. However, unless proven otherwise, injection injuries must be treated as surgical emergencies.
First aid at the worksite should include identification of the injected material and immediate transport to an emergency department.
Often, workers with injection injuries present late to an emergency department and may not connect the earlier use of high-pressure equipment with pain symptoms. Patients may present with numbness, burning, pain, or swelling that progresses over time.
While grease gun injuries may result in no pain initially and no generalized inflammation unless secondary infection occurs, solvent injection produces intense pain with both local and systemic response. Air may cause crepitus with subcutaneous emphysema.
When early signs are ignored and patients do not receive appropriate treatment, pain, which responds poorly to analgesics, intensifies with time. Gangrene may be seen as early as 4 days postinjury.
Given the potential range of presenting signs and symptoms, careful history-taking is essential. Once high-pressure injection has been identified as the likely cause of injury, the time of injury, operating pressure of the equipment involved, and type and estimated quantity of material injected should all be identified. The nature of injected materials should be investigated further, including consultation with a poison centre if necessary.
Emergency room tetanus immunization and broad spectrum antibiotics prophylaxis are recommended, along with elevation and splinting of the injured body part.
Local exploration, extravasation of the injured body part, application of a tourniquet, or injection of local anesthetics (such as digital blocks) should not be attempted. Solvents or agents other than saline should not be used to irrigate the wound or push fluid to the outside. Incision for decompression and application of ice to reduce swelling should also not be attempted.
Radiographs are helpful in determining the spread of the injected material, either by the presence of radio-opaque signal or evidence of radiolucent material or injected air.
For most high-pressure injection injuries, surgical debridement is indicated to decompress the vascular system, decrease infection risk, and excise the injected material as much as possible. Wide and multiple debridements may be needed depending on the wound. Early amputation may be appropriate if an affected finger has vascular compromise at presentation. Especially within 24 hours postsurgery, watch for signs of secondary infection.
For finger injury, palmar splinting in the intrinsic-plus position for 5 days and passive mobilization is recommended. Intensive physiotherapy, including passive mobilization, active mobilization, and strength exercises, may be required for up to 12 months.
Outcomes of injection injury depend on multiple factors, including the nature and volume of the injected material, pressure of the injection, site of the injection, and time between injury and adequate treatment.
Amputation rates vary between 16% and 48%, with 30% overall risk of amputation. Finger injections have a higher rate of amputation (47%) compared with thumbs (15%) or more proximal injury to the palm or dorsum of the hand (25%).
Patients with secondary infection—usually polymicrobial in nature and despite IV antibiotics—have an amputation rate as high as 31%. Those who sustain injury under 1000 psi have a 19% amputation rate, while the rate for those with injury more than 1000 psi increases to 43%. There appears to be no threshold pressure above which amputation is inevitable.
In general, early surgical debridement does not always prevent amputation. However, among patients who sustain injection of paints, paint thinner, gasoline, automotive undercoating, jet fuel, oil, or organic solvents the rate of amputation is less when debridement occurs within 6 hours' postinjury.
Prompt recognition of the seriousness of a high-pressure injection injury and urgent surgical exploration and decompression may reduce the risk of permanent sequelae.
Marine puncture wounds
Spines can be toxic
Workers in the fin-fish and seafood harvest industries in BC must wear personal protective equipment to prevent toxic-spine puncture injuries. In BC waters the sharp spines of dogfish, ratfish, rockfish, and sea urchins have varying degrees of toxicity. Spines can pierce gloves, boots, oil skins, and hats and cause serious injury, and bacteria in spines and fish slime are serious infection hazards.
Between 1999 and 2008 there were 102 WorkSafeBC claims for marine puncture wounds. Of those, 84% of claimants suffered puncture or open wounds in hands or fingers. The majority were workers in the fishing industry; a smaller number were in the supermarket industry. Most received only wage loss for a median 9 days (with a mean of 43 days), but 7% of the injured workers were on long-term disability.
Marine puncture wounds can lead to serious or life-threatening infections as well as tissue destruction and loss of joint mobility.
First aid for a marine puncture wound should start immediately with rinsing of the wound with soap and water. Unless anaphylaxis is developing, do not apply a tourniquet or pressure to the wound. Hot water immersion (40 º to 45 ºC) for 30 to 90 minutes or longer may help to relieve pain.
Spines are fragile and often break during removal attempts, leaving fragments in the tissue. Location and surgical removal of embedded spines are important as the presence of spines can lead to chronic synovitis or granulomas.
A purple dye released by the spines may give the appearance that spines are still embedded under the skin. This dye is not toxic and will be absorbed in a few days.
X-ray imaging for spine fragments may be inconclusive due to calcium resorption and ultrasound or MRI may be indicated.
A puncture wound that enters the joint space is especially critical, and early, aggressive intervention is essential to prevent loss of function. Fluoroscopy is recommended for spine extraction. To limit further injury, splint the joint until it can be explored by a specialist. Exploration should take place in an operating room, not the emergency department.
Monitor for signs of infection or toxicity. A delayed hypersensitivity-type reaction may occur days, even weeks, after injury.
Prophylactic antibiotics are indicated for deep puncture wounds but are otherwise not warranted for healthy persons with non-infected, superficial marine wounds.
Consider a tetanus toxoid booster if more than 5 years has elapsed since the patient's last immunization.
When submitting specimens for culture, be sure to indicate that the source is a marine wound to inform the lab to test for marine-specific organisms.
For more information on high-pressure injection or marine puncture injuries please contact a medical advisor in the WorkSafeBC office nearest you.
References for the information provided are available on request.
—WorkSafeBC Evidence Based Practice and Outcome Research Group (www.worksafebc.com/evidence)
—Craig Martin, MD, MHSc
Chair, Senior Medical Advisor, WorkSafeBC
—Kukuh Noertjojo, MD, MHSc, MSc
Medical Analyst, WorkSafeBC
Craig Martin, MD,, Kukuh Noertjojo, MD,. Updates from the WorkSafeBC. BCMJ, Vol. 51, No. 7, September, 2009, Page(s) 296 - WorkSafeBC.
Emergency medical services: A new subspecialty on the horizon

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mount Argus ist ein wuchtiger und isolierter Berg mit drei voneinander getrennten Gipfeln, dessen höchster  erreicht. Er ragt im nordöstlichen Palmerland auf der Antarktischen Halbinsel in einer Entfernung von 16 km westnordwestlich des Miller Point zwischen dem Poseidon-Pass und dem Athene-Gletscher auf.

Luftaufnahmen vom Berg entstanden am 28. September 1940 bei der United States Antarctic Service Expedition (1939–1941). Der britische Geologe Arthur Gilmore Fraser vom British Antarctic Survey führte 1961 eine geodätische Vermessung durch. Das UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee benannte ihn 1963 nach König Argos aus der griechischen Mythologie.

Weblinks
  (englisch)
 Mount Argus auf geographic.org (englisch)

Wilkins-Küste

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Don't dwell on what happened, no matter how bad it was. Find something else to do. Find something to do to help others.
[At the age of 78] I've been proving myself my whole life. I still am.
[On the philosophy behind Barbie] My whole philosophy was that through the doll, a little girl could be anything she wanted to be.
[On her husband Elliot Handler she was married to for 60 years and who name she used with Harold 'Matt' Matson to create the toy company Mattel - the worlds largest toy company (Matt +el (From 'el'liot) (Matt exited the company in 1947 only three years after they founded it. Ruth and Elliot Handler were the real drivers.)] From the first day I met Elliot I admired his immense artistic and creative talents. Elliot, in turn, respected my talents: self-confidence… and above all, my willingness to attack the impossible.
[On the Barbie Doll she created] She became not just a doll. She became part of that child through those growing up years. Many of those children set their life's dreams, their goals, through Barbie. Many of them said Barbie helped them achieve those dreams. That's a pretty heavy thing, but it's true.
I rebuilt my self-esteem and I rebuilt the self-esteem of others.
I like to think of my life as an impossible dream.
I've had a lot of nightmares, but I've always been able to pick up and move on.
We never copied people, ever.
In the toy business, you live or die with the quality of the projection you make. Your lead times are very long, and the commitments you make very early influence how many you make or ship and whether you get stuck with what you do.
They would reflect their dreams of their future through their play with these adult… dolls.
[As ten year old child working every day after school as a cashier, waitress and soda jerk.] I simply preferred working over playing with other kids.
I am breaking the mold. I shall have a career.
There's still a lot of fight in me, and perhaps the fight's the thing.
I took the old-time companies that were self-satisfied and smug and shook them up.
Helping other women became the answer to helping myself. I regained my self-esteem.
Little girls just want to be bigger girls.
We never entered any business the same way other people entered. We never copied people, ever.
I grew up with the idea that a woman – a mother – with a job was neither strange nor unnatural.
I was busier than a cockroach.
Anyone can manage the upside cycle of hit toys. The secret is managing a product down its life cycle properly.
When I conceived Barbie, I believe it was important for little girls' self-esteem to play with a doll that has breasts. Now I find it even more important to return that self-esteem to woman who have lost theirs.
I realized that experimenting with the future from a safe distance through pretend play was a very important part of growing up.
I believed it was important to a little girl's self-esteem to play with a doll that has breasts.
I had a lawyer who did not believe in my innocence.
[On life after Mattel] I couldn't just screech to a halt after racing my whole life.
In those days back when I started the business, there were no other women running a company. The biggest hurdle for me was to be accepted as a boss, and as a leader. In retrospect, the fact that I was a woman was sort of an advantage because men didn't know how to react or read me.
[On having to have a mastectomy in 1970, 26 year after founding Mattel] Breast cancer destroyed my self-confidence. The image of myself was shattered. I wanted to retain my femininity in a world of men. People had wanted me to be a real rough gal but for years I exercised and kept my figure so I would retain that soft femininity. But to me, losing a breast was such a terrible blow to my self-esteem.
[On returning to Mattel after her mastectomy due to breast cancer] Because I believed my femininity and attractiveness were gone, my self confidence was gone too.
My older sister was a leader in the business world. She helped me believe that I, also, could do that.
I never formed the kind of intense friendships that most kids build their childhood around.
[On her career in 1944 with a 3 year old daughter] One option was to wait until the children were grown before I returned to work, but that prospect filled me with dismay. What if by then, I'd lost my spark, my ambition, my powers of persuasion?
[On the first Barbie doll named after her daughter Barbara] Here were the breasts, the small waist, the long, tapered legs I had enthusiastically described all those years ago.
I realized if we could three-dimensionalize the adult paper dolls, we'd meet a very basic play need.
I was worried that if Barbie was too glamorous, little girls wouldn't be able to identify with her.
[On the comments by male toy buyers on the first 'Barbie' doll] Each said 'Ruth, you've made a major mistake with this doll. Little girls want cutesy, cuddly baby dolls. They all want to pretend to be mommies.' No, little girls want to pretend to be bigger girls.


text:
Can You and Your Business Stand Out?
Torsten Hvidt and four friends began a journey along a road that was uphill, full of obstacles and quite narrow. At least that's what it may have looked like from the outside...
Serial entrepreneur, Co-founder of Rainmaking and Co-author of Winning Without Losing: 66 Strategies for building a wildly successful business while living a happy and balanced life
25/09/2013 04:57am BST | Updated November 23, 2013
In 2002, Torsten Hvidt and four friends began a journey along a road that was uphill, full of obstacles and quite narrow.
At least that's what it may have looked like from the outside. The five of them wanted to provide strategic consultancy for the largest companies in Scandinavia in direct competition with top global consulting empires, whose intellectual capital, track record and number of dinner engagements with Fortune 500 CEOs can send shivers down the spine of any independent strategy consultant with ambitions to do more than feed themselves and their family.
But Torsten and friends had a secret weapon. They were different. Not more intelligent, diligent or ambitious than their competitors (that's hardly possible) - but different. Inside Torsten's company, an expression to describe this characteristic is "man bites dog", which is also a monthly prize awarded to the team, who has delivered the most notable "bite". This focus has helped them to grow relatively quickly to a team of 150 successful strategy consultants in offices spread out across Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo. On their list of loyal customers are Carlsberg, Maersk, Novo, LEGO and Vestas, Danish companies that have all gone truly global. Customer relationships are so strong that some of these customers have agreed to let the consulting firm's meeting rooms bear their names and are decorated with items from the clients' daily life. So be ready to play with LEGO or not to topple over the large model of a can of beer if you one day go to a meeting at Quartz & Co.
Torsten has a wife and four children, to whom he comes home (on most days) at six in the evening. He enjoys frequent vacations with family and friends, and heated discussions about both literature and football. Torsten doesn't like stereotypes and simplified perspectives on life, so I'll refrain from declaring that his life is "complete" or "perfect", and shall restrict myself to noting that he has managed to create a greatly successful business, while still having time for family, friends and himself.
But what kind of man would bite a dog? That's precisely the question. Imagine you saw a newspaper headline that read "Dog Bites Man". Would you buy the newspaper? Hardly. If on the other hand it said "Man Bites Dog", then it would be far more likely to catch your eye. It is this insight Torsten and his colleagues have refined and effectively brought into play.
"There has to be an element of "man bites dog" about each assignment we solve," Torsten explains. "We expect all our consultants to think creatively, stand out, and create the extraordinary, as opposed to the ordinary. We'll go to great lengths to avoid death by powerpoint. We're willing to take chances; we've done quite remarkable things in relation to our presentations and task deliveries."
Torsten tells me of the time they were pitching for a job against the global competitors that dominate the industry. It was about optimization of logistics, and the project manager had the idea of putting the presentation up on the walls all around the conference room rather than showing it on a screen - as a physical illustration of the points he raised throughout the presentation. "It was a chance we took; we could have been met with shaking heads. We moved a lot of stuff around in the client's meeting room, and that was even before we'd won the job. But the client accepted the terms, was thrilled, and chose us, in part, because of "the extraordinary". Our fundamental idea is that we must be on par with the best in the world with regards to the content of our problem solving - but better in form and energy," Torsten says.
Quartz & Co. takes their own medicine, and are different on the inside as well. For example, they have no titles in their company. "Our hierarchies are situational; the leader is the one who has followership in that specific situation. We're all leaders sometimes and followers other times; we call it lead and be lead," says Torsten. Also, there's no one in Quartz & Co. who has their own office or parking space. Not even the owners.
The reward for idiosyncrasies is easy to spot: Quartz & Co. is a talent magnet. "We've never used traditional job postings. People have come to us, because they are attracted to the way we are," Torsten says.
The idea of being different is not new. In 2002, Seth Godin wrote the bestseller "Purple Cow" to make us understand that a purple cow, and everything else that is strange, has a better chance of attracting attention in marketing - and the idea has probably existed ever since the first Neanderthal suddenly started trimming his hair, greatly shocking or amusing his more conventional friends.
In many ways, however, we are still far too similar. When Derek Sivers got the idea to write a funny "thank you for your order" e-mail to customers in his web-shop CD Baby, he was one of the first to do it, and for it he received a lot of attention and goodwill. But why had no one thought of it before? Why had thousands of online shops copied and pasted the same boring and humourless standard e-mails into their system? Probably, because we humans are gregarious and most often follow the crowd. That's how we survive, and in many ways it's a fine quality. But it also means that you have enormous opportunities to make your company stand out in a business landscape that is basically eerily conformist.
Thought-provoking:
- Why are there tables and chairs in all meeting rooms?
- Why are all physical books (including this one) rectangular and printed on paper?
- Why do all stores put up their Christmas decorations in December?
- Why do all men in the financial sector wear a tie?
- Why do no entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley wear a tie?
- When was the last time you did something that was so different it made other people stop and notice it?
To learn more, visit their website or pick up Jordan and Martin's book, Winning Without Losing: 66 Strategies for Succeeding in Business While Living a Happy and Balanced Life, available on Amazon.
standing-out-at-workJordan MilneCarlsbergMartin Bjergegaardpurple cow


Three's chefs/co-owners Cody Christopher, Jaron Blosser and Travis Morrin with DDD host Guy Fieri. Courtesy photo.
Three's Bar & Grill in Kīhei will soon be in the national spotlight, featured as a restaurant on the Food Network show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (DDD).
A few days after the shoot, the chefs even got to craft sushi, fish tacos and poke bowls for the DDD team on a private Pacific Whale Foundation catamaran.
Three's chef/co-owners in the kitchen for the DDD filming. Courtesy photo.
Three's Asian Beer Can Chicken. Courtesy photo.
Three's chef/co-owner Jaron Blosser talks with a DDD producer. Courtesy photo.
Three's chef/co-owner Cody Christoper preps behind the scenes of the DDD shoot. Courtesy photo.
Three's chef/co-owner Travis Morrin behind the scenes of the Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives shoot. Courtesy photo.
Three's chefs work with the DDD producer. Courtesy photo.
Three's Traditional Ramen, featured during the DDD shoot. Courtesy photo.
Behind the scenes of the DDD shoot in Three's kitchen. Courtesy photo.
Three's chefs/co-owners with Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives host Guy Fieri. Courtesy photo.
Three's chefs roll sushi on the ocean for the DDD production crew. Courtesy photo.
Poke bowls crafted by Three's chefs for the DDD production crew. Courtesy photo.
DDD production crew enjoys a day on the water with food from Three's chefs. Courtesy photo.
Food Network TV Host Guy Fieri with Three's chefs Jaron Blosser & Travis Morrin at their boat excursion. Courtesy photo.
The chefs opened Three's in Kīhei's Kalama Village back in 2010, and recently reopened in Fall after a kitchen fire closed the restaurant for 40 days. Learn more in Kiaora Bohlool's video, Three's Bar & Grill Rises from the Ashes.
The chefs plan to release a blog on their website soon on their DDD experience, and will let the community know when the Three's segment will be airing nationally. Maui Now has learned Maui Fresh Streatery and Maui Brick Oven are among the other local restaurants being featured on the show.


text:
Second Phase Of COVID- 19 Fumigation Exercise Hits Kpando
The second phase of the nationwide COVID-19 fumigation exercise has hit the Kpando Township with disinfection and cleaning of public places of interest.
The exercise, which was awarded to Danworld some few months ago to disinfect all public places across the country was supported by Zoomlion Waste Management Limited, Kpando Assembly and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO).
Mr. Adams Yaw Bunbunke, Kpando Municipal Environmental Health Officer, disclosed that to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the three-day exercise which began in the Volta and Oti Regions from July 28 to August 01, 2020 would begin with disinfection of the various lorry parks, markets, public seating areas, public toilets, and slaughter houses in the Municipality.
He said the exercise which was to ensure the safety of Ghanaians in the trying times through cleanliness would also undertake a de-ratting exercise to kill rats, cockroaches and other harmful insects and rodents in the markets.
Mr Bunbunke said the exercise would be extended to the various offices and health facilities in the Municipality on day two.
He said the exercise would be climaxed with a general clean up exercise in the Municipality, where drains and gutters would be flushed and called on all residents of the Municipality to avail themselves for the exercise to help win the fight against the novel coronavirus.
The exercise, which started on Sunday, July 19 2020 and expected to cover all the 16 regions would end on Saturday, August 01, 2020.
Gushegu Assembly Enacts By-Laws On Child Rights
Continue To Wear Your Nose Masks Even At Night


Next time you see that honor killing or sharia stoning to death story you might dig into it a bit more before you panic that Western Civilization is ending. If you look at just the facts the police are reporting you find that this girl was strangled, struck once in the head with a rock, raped and robbed in the woods. The police have a single suspect from a family of Crimean Tatars, who are mostly non practicing Muslims. Of course none of the SIOE or SIOA Euro Supremacist blogs foaming at the mouth about this are going to print any retractions.
The circumstances around the death of Kateryna Korin, a 19-year-old Ukrainian student on the Crimean peninsula, appeared to point to a made-for-tabloid tragedy: a young beauty-pageant contestant brutally killed by her admirer, a radical Islamist who chose to stone her to death under an unforgiving interpretation of Islamic law.
via LGF Pages – The Sensational Story That Wasn't: Reports Of 'Stoning' Death Of Ukrainian Girl Turn Out To Be False.


Buy clever this season with co-ords, perfect together and so easy to mix and match with other items, we're lovin' this cute little number. These cute floral high waisted shorts features a pink, yellow and blue floral embroidered design on the front and back and a zip fasten. Team with the matching crop top and sandals to achieve effortless summer vibes. Approx length 34cm/13.5" (Based on a UK size 8 sample) 95% Polyester 5% Elastane Daiane wears a UK size 8/ EU size 36/ US size 4 sample and her height is 5'11"


This article first appeared in ISO Focus+, July – August 2012. It is summarised here with permission from ISO.
Paul Bulcke has been Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé S.A., since April 2008.
ISO Focus+: Nestlé produces a wide range of products from ready meals to chocolate, and from mineral water to coffee. How does Nestlé manage to maintain a worldwide consumer base when traditions and tastes vary from one country to the next? How have International Standards contributed?
Paul Bulcke: A global company like ours has a common strategic objective. Just as we have to have common values and a common culture, we need common Standards as well.
International Standards provide a framework for the world. Tastes may differ, but health requirements and minimum standards are the same the world over. International Standards, therefore, help to shape our company so that we can be a global player with globally recognised terms of reference. But, they serve only to frame our work, the 'paintings' inside those frames are locally made.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a specific role to play as a truly global, multi-stakeholder, expert-driven, consensus-based standardisation organisation: it enables us to work efficiently. If that were not the case, if the interpretation of certain dimensions were really local and not relevant and not the same, we would be totally inefficient as a society and as a company in that society.
ISO Focus+: What is the strategic value of international Standards to a company like Nestlé, with an international workforce of 330 000 people? ISO has developed 1000 food-related Standards. How many does Nestlé implement and what are the benefits?
Paul Bulcke: One of our basic strengths is that we have deep-rooted principles, which put value on compliance. I could hardly steer a company like ours if I could not trust our people to comply with our own values, culture, and strategic direction. Beyond our internal functioning, they also need to meet the demands coming from the outside world.
International Standards help me to apply, throughout the company, the same dimension of judgement and the same terms of reference. In turn, this helps me scale up efforts to comply with these Standards. If I have a Standard that is the same the world over, I can muster the resources to achieve or, whenever relevant, surpass the requirements of those Standards.
As for ISO's 1000 food-related Standards, we are a food and beverage company, so those are the minimum Standards with which we comply. But, we comply as an operation, as a part of society, with many other Standards, too. We also provide services and operate factories where we apply Standards on health and safety. We are committed to environmentally sustainable business practices, so we also comply with environmental standards. And these are just some examples.
There are many Standards beyond those concerned with food that are important for us. Because ISO's impact goes beyond product criteria to best practices in factories, and even to our environmental performance, these Standards are part of an overarching reference framework.
ISO Focus+: Can you describe the use made by Nestlé of ISO's management systems Standards ISO9001:2008 Quality management systems – Requirements and ISO14001:2004 Environmental management systems – Requirements with guidance for use and how this has evolved over the years?
Paul Bulcke: We pride ourselves on being part of an industry that works with ISO to shape Standards, putting at your disposal our knowledge, our expertise. ISO has supported our industry through the publication of internationally consistent measurement and management tools, processes, and practices. The extent of your involvement has led to the achievement of improved environmental performance. In other words, ISO helps us work towards our goal, and we encourage the development and use of relevant international Standards.
ISO's global authority is useful for us. For example, building on the Nestlé Environmental Management System, we have 413 out of our 461 factories that are already certified to ISO 14001. We have distribution centres, R&D centres, all undergoing certification. That is the value ISO gives us: by being a global Standard, globally accepted, when we comply with ISO International Standards, people know straight away what they are getting and the level at which we are working.
ISO Focus+: What concrete benefits has ISO 22000:2005 Food safety management systems − Requirements for any organization in the food chain brought Nestlé?
Paul Bulcke: Food safety is essential. Since the adoption of ISO 22000, we were able to measure our own very stringent standards against those stipulated by ISO.
We are again using as our terms of reference a globally accepted Standard. This is the best way to get recognition for our own systems for assessing the safety of food. Issues of food safety are not purely intramural. They lead us upstream to our suppliers and downstream to retailers. Having a common Standard that is globally accepted like ISO's helps us to neutralise situations where companies all have their own proprietary standards.
ISO Focus+: What is the business case for investing in socially responsible actions that may not be immediately beneficial to the bottom line in a competitive market? How could ISO 26000:2012 Guidance on social responsibility contribute to the company's already well-established CSR programme?
Paul Bulcke: Like I said, Nestlé's orientation is long term. We would not do anything for a short-term advantage that might jeopardise our long-term interests. This reflects how we see our role: evolving with society, safeguarding our relationship with the communities in which we work, because we intend to continue to be a part of those communities. This is why we have linked the concept of corporate social responsibility with our basic activities. Our success must be linked not only to the creation of value for our shareholder, but also to the creation of value for society.
Using internationally recognised Standards such as ISO 26000 gives us the added authority of a globally recognised body, provided it can be certified. We have been in contact with ISO on this topic and will be happy to make further contributions.
ISO Focus+: What would you like to see coming out of ISO?
Paul Bulcke: As an international company, we are facing many different evaluation practices, be it of company or of product performance. To eliminate the different yardsticks and the resulting unnecessary administrative burden, a worldwide authority facilitating alignment among rating agencies and evaluation methodologies would reduce the time lost and volatility involved in juggling different standards. Standardisation of Standards is not a bad thing! Alignment between ISO Standards, for instance between ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, possibly merging them into an integrated management system – along with occupational health and safety – would be a step forward.
Like Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Nestlé actively defends the free movement of goods and the suppression of trade barriers, particularly when Standards and regulations are politically motivated and counterproductive for delivering the best value at the lowest cost to consumers.
The technical authority of ISO is important because it is neutral and objective in a society that is subject to so many influences. ISO helps us build bridges. Pascal Lamy is very vocal in his support for ISO and for opening up the world to increased acceptance of global Standards.
ISO Focus+: May I ask an additional question? What's your favourite Nestlé product?
Paul Bulcke: That is like asking a parent which child is their favourite! I normally do not answer, but sitting in front of me, on my desk, is my Nescafé so that is definitely one of them. But there are so many other Nestlé products that I love.


This Martha's Vineyard Advertorial space on Martha's Vineyard Entertainment, ClickCapeCod.Com, is available. Call 508-945-6443 to promote your Martha's Vineyard Entertainment business or click here.
No Priority Links for Martha's Vineyard Entertainment.
Do You have a Entertainment Business in Martha's Vineyard?


text:
Епархия Мерло — Морено () — епархия Римско-Католической церкви с центром в городе Морено, Аргентина. Епархия Мерло — Морено с 2019 года входит в митрополию Мерседеса — Лухана. Кафедральным собором епархии Мерло — Морено является церковь Пресвятой Девы Марии Розария.

История
13 мая 1997 года Папа Римский Иоанн Павел II выпустил буллу «Ministerium apostolicum», которой учредил епархию Мерло — Морено, выделив её из епархии Морона. До 2019 года являлась суффраганом архиепархии Буэнос-Айреса.

Ординарии епархии
 епископ Fernando María Bargalló (13.05.1997 — 26.06.2012);
 Alcides Jorge Pedro Casaretto (26.06.2012 — 6.05.2013) (апостольский администратор);
 епископ Fernando Carlos Maletti (с 6 мая 2013 года).

Источники
 Annuario Pontificio, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Città del Vaticano, 2003, ISBN 88-209-7422-3
 Булла Ministerium apostolicum

Ссылки
 Информация на сайте www.catholic-hierarchy.org
 Информация на сайте www.gcatholic.com
 Информация на сайте Agencia Informativa Católica Argentina (AICA)

Католические епархии Аргентины


The EARS partners presented the first results of the EARS project - Embodied Audition for RobotS - in Grenoble.
The live demos included robot head motions optimized for both audio information and intuitive HRI, internal simulations and dynamic blind source separation.
You can also follow @ears_eu on twitter to get the latest news on robot audition.


text:
Boso Peninsula
Explore around Boso Peninsula
Tateyama City
City near the peninsula's southern tip
most visited in Boso Peninsula
Tateyama (館山) is the largest city in the southern half of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, about 100 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. Located near the peninsula's southern tip, the city has a resort atmosphere, offers a few sites of interest on its own and is a good base to explore the surrounding attractions, like flower parks and strawberry farms.
Tateyama Castle
Hours: 9:00 to 16:45 (entry until 16:30)
Admission: 300 yen (castle and museum, 500 yen during special exhibitions)
Closed: Mondays (following day if Monday is a holiday), Dec 29 - Jan 3
The current castle is a concrete reconstruction completed in 1982 and modeled after Inuyama Castle in Aichi Prefecture. The castle is located on the site of the original castle on a hill in Shiroyama Park in the south of the city, and is now part of the Tateyama City Museum, displaying articles related to a local novel. Visitors can get a bird's eye view of the city from the castle's top floor.
Tateyama City Museum
The Tateyama City Museum is a small museum in Shiroyama Park not far from Tateyama Castle. The museum's permanent collection is spread over two floors, with local, historical artifacts like swords, armor and earthenware on the first floor, and a recreation of a typical house and tools of the area on the second floor.
Museum of Nagisa
Closed: Last Monday of the month, New Year holidays
The Museum of Nagisa (Nagisa no Hakubutsukan) is a museum introducing the local culture. On the first floor are fishing-related paraphernalia with full sized fishing boats and tools on display, including some used for whaling. The second floor introduces the life and culture of the fishermen with dioramas showing the different fishing techniques and a life-sized layout of their living quarters. The museum is located along the waterfront, and there is an observation deck on the top floor offering panoramic views of the bay.
Akayama Underground Tunnels
Admission: 200 yen
Closed: 3rd Tuesdays every month, December 29 - January 3
The Akayama Underground Tunnels were used by the navy air corps as a command center and hospital during World War II. The tunnels have a total length of around 1.6 kilometers, of which 250 meters have been open to the public since 2004. Visitors are provided with helmets and flashlights before exploring the tunnels on their own.
Strawberry Picking
Hours: Varies depending on the orchard
Admission: 1000-1500 yen for 30 minutes all-you-can-eat
Closed: Varies on the orchard, but typically from early May to mid Dec
Strawberry picking (ichigo-gari) is a popular activity that can be done from January until early May, although the quality of the berries varies through the season. Among several farms in and around Tateyama, the Tateyama Kanko Ichigo-gari Center is easy to use because it offers strawberry picking for walk-in customers without prior reservations.
Boso Flower Line
Best enjoyed by rental car, the Boso Flower Line connects Tateyama with Chikura via the southernmost tip of the Boso Peninsula. Several flower farms and parks and some other sites of interest are located along the 45 kilometer long road.
How to get to Tateyama
By highway bus
The easiest way to travel between Tokyo and Tateyama is by direct highway bus. Buses depart Tokyo Station (Yaesu side) once or twice per hour. The one way ride to Tateyama Station takes about two hours and costs 2600 yen. Some buses continue beyond Tateyama Station towards Awa-Shirahama at the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula.
There are no regular, direct trains between Tokyo and Tateyama, and a transfer is required usually at Soga Station. The one way trip between Tokyo Station and Tateyama takes around 150 minutes, costs 2270 yen and is covered by the Japan Rail Pass and the Tokyo Wide Pass. Only on selected days during the peak seasons, there are direct limited express trains to/from Tokyo's Shinjuku Station.
How to get around Tateyama
Good walkers can access some of the city's attractions on foot from Tateyama Station, including the Museum of Nagisa (one kilometer to the south) and Tateyama Castle (two kilometers to the south). A network of local buses provides access to most of the city's attractions with at least hourly service on its main routes. Another option are electric-assisted rental bicycles which are available from 300 yen per hour or 1500 yen per day from outlets on both sides of Tateyama Station.
How to get to and around the Boso Peninsula
Official English website.
Tateyama City Tourist Association
Tateyama Castle and Museum
Official English page.
Official page.
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Page last updated: July 8, 2018


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Riles Is Done Spending Time With Stan Van Gundy's Family
Published on 2/12/2007 2/12/2007 by GC
(the animated Pat shows his solidarity with John Carlos and Tommy Smith)
The Heat have won 6 of their last 7, and magically, Pat Riley is well enough to coach again, writes the Miami Herald's Michael Wallace.
Heat president and coach Pat Riley could return from medical leave as early as next week and coach the Feb. 21 road game against Houston, a team source said Monday.
Riley left the team Jan. 3 and has not appeared publicly since he turned the day-to-day coaching duties over to interim coach Ron Rothstein. Riley had knee surgery Jan. 5 and a hip replacement six days later.
Rothstein, who has guided the Heat to a 12-8 record since taking over, said as recently as last Tuesday that Riley had given him no indication as to when he might return to the bench.
The Contra Costa Times' Geoff Lepper notes that when Golden State opened business against the Cavs on January 20, a quintet Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Mickael Pietrus and Andris Biedrins marked "the first time an NBA team featured a starting five utterly devoid of any U.S. collegiate experience." It's a remarkable turn of events for the Warriors, "whom had never drafted an American high schooler or a player straight from Europe until choosing Pietrus at No. 11 overall in 2003."
"I haven't even thought about it," Don Nelson said of coaching so many non-college players. "I mean, there are some real dummies that have graduated from college. And basketball IQ has nothing to do with (actual) IQ. In fact, it's almost in reverse. The intellectual book guy is probably dumb as a rock on the court."
John Amaechi claims since his coming out announcement, Doc Rivers is the only person affiliated with the Association to have reached out to him. And if Doc needed some advice on how to deal with being vilified, who could blame him?
On The Bright Side, At Least His Profile Is More Interesting Than Luke Walton's
From The Hoff To Haddaway : Dirk's (Diabolically Poor) Musical Taste
PDX Tribune : NBA Lockout Is A Possible Boost To The Local Economy, Productivity
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For our May meeting we had a fascinating talk by Gina Ferrari. Her work is inspired by the history of the women she makes garments for. We were encouraged to guess which historical or mythical women the bodices were designed for. Unfortunately we weren't very good at this. The one we did guess was Marie Antoinette, the tragic queen of France. Originally Gina had intended to decorate the bodice with cakes, but in the end decided to make the head dress out of then instead. We were asked to model the 'hair', but again no one was forthcoming, so Gina modelled it herself.


Michael Gaughan, a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who had been on hunger strike in Parkhurst Prison, England, died after refusing food for 64 days.
A Catholic civilian was found shot dead in Belfast; Loyalists were responsible for the killing.
Two Protestant civilians and an off-duty member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) were found shot dead in a car in Killeen, County Armagh. Republican paramilitaries were responsible for the killings.
Undercover British Army soldiers, believed to be members of the Special Air Service (SAS), shot dead three Irish Republican Army (IRA) men as they travelled in a car near Coagh, County Tyrone.
The multi-party talks resumed at Stormont following a break to allow the local government elections to be contested on 20 May 1997.
The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) and the Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA) were both proscribed (declared illegal organisations).
15 LVF prisoners began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in protest at what they alleged was maltreatment by the prison authorities.
Marjorie (Mo) Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was heckled when she addressed the Northern Ireland Police Federation annual conference in Newcastle, County Down. Les Rodgers, then Chairman of the Police Federation, criticised the Labour governments plans for reform of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
Rodgers also criticised some Unionist politicians for "mindless incitement" which he believed had led to violence against RUC officers including the attack on Gregory Taylor on 1 June 1997.
The Irish Times (a Republic of Ireland newspaper) carried a report on the death, due to cancer, of Robin Jackson on Saturday 30 May 1998. The report claimed that Jackson was the infamous Loyalist killer of the 1970s and 1980s known as 'The Jackal'.
The report stated that he had been commander of the Mid-Ulster Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) from 1972 to the 1990s and had been responsible for the deaths of dozens of Catholic civilians.
Jackson was also implicated in the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings in May 1974 which resulted in the deaths of 33 civilians.
The British government issued a press release naming the members of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland.
Ronnie Flanagan, then Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), announced that 500 British Army soliders were to be withdrawn from Northern Ireland.
The latest reduction in troops was believed to bring the number down to 13,500, the lowest level since 1970.
Shot while in friend's house, Druse Street, Lower Oldpark, Belfast.
Found shot in quarry, Hightown Road, near Belfast, County Antrim.
Found shot in his car, Killeen, County Armagh.
Off Duty. Found shot in David Thompson's car, Killeen, County Armagh.
Found shot in David Thompson's car, Killeen, County Armagh.
Found shot, Edenappa, near Jonesborough, County Armagh. Allegedly involved in crime.
Killed by land mine while on Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) mobile patrol, Cullaville, near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.
Shot during sniper attack on British Army (BA) foot patrol, Central Drive, Creggan, Derry.
Taxi driver. Found shot in his car, Faccary Road, Loughmacrory, near Omagh, County Tyrone.
Shot during ambush by undercover British Army (BA) members, while driving through Coagh, County Tyrone.


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HomeEconomyFuture of jobs: One Person Corporation ahoy!
Future of jobs: One Person Corporation ahoy!
September 2, 2020 Ambi Parameswaran
TIPS FOR CAREERS IN THE POST-COVID WORLD
Representational image by Megan Rexazin from Pixabay
On August 19, 2020, Axis Bank, one of India's leading private sector banks, announced that they are exploring a 'Gig-a-Opportunities' mandate: the company has 85,000 full time employees but over the next three years, 15% of their incremental hiring will be based on alternative models of working, said the Bank.
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This may be new for India but approximately 150 million workers in North America and Western Europe have left the relatively comfortable existence in a corporation to a life as independent contractors. It is possible that some of them did not have a choice, but all of them seem to be enjoying a degree of independence that they had never seen in their earlier jobs, according to the Harvard Business Review, March-April 2018.
'Gigs Jobs' — Are they really new?
If we look back, almost all professions started as 'Gigs'. There were individual carpenters, iron workers, potters, handloom weavers. Each a corporation of one, before guilds became the norm and then the corporations that engaged thousands of workers.
In today's times, many professions prime you to become a 'One Person Corporation.' Doctors, lawyers, architects, chartered accountants are all seen as one-person corporations. Many of the creative industries such as film making, advertising, music/events have always had a large share of gig workers.
The growth of digital technologies, especially post-Covid, and the growth of the #WorkFromHome phenomenon, will now pave the way for more and more job seekers to become one man corporations, not just among the less-skilled but also among highly educated engineers, data scientists, chemists, financial analysts and business graduates.
The concept of gig economy has been gathering steam in the western world for some time now. Diane Mulcahy wrote her book 'The Gig Economy – The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off and Finalizing the Life you Want' in 2016 and titled an article [HBR.org, Oct 20 2016] with a sensational title: 'Why I tell my MBA students to stop looking for a job and join the Gig economy'.
I don't think any B-school in India can get away with the advice that Diane Mulcahy boldly trots out to her MBA class. The students, and more so their parents, will want their tuition money back, pronto.
The way to go
R Sridhar was a director in the leading ad agency Ogilvy & Mather when he gave up his cushy job on turning 50 to explore a life as a one-man-corporation. When I asked him why he did not continue till the statutory retirement age of 58 which is often extended to 60, he had an interesting answer: "I don't believe in retirement".
So instead of counting the days to retirement, he moved out early to set up an innovation coaching practice and has had a busy 20 years, and counting.
Anita Bhogle, the better half of the famous cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, had a great career ahead of her as the head of strategic planning at FCB Ulka. But at the age of 39, she took a call to get out and join her husband in crafting a new business, marrying sports and business. In the 20 years she has been at it, she has co-authored two best-selling books, delivered more than 600 training sessions for corporates in India and abroad.
As she says her mantra is "Differentiate and try to create an impact".
If those are two high profile names, there is this young MBA who gave up his job at the age of 30, after five years in the education and retail sector, to create a presentation studio. Sitting in Kerala he works on cutting edge presentations for individuals and companies around the world. When I asked him why presentations, he says his epiphany was when he saw a presentation by a person, whom he highly respected. And realized how a poorly created presentation can ruin a great talk or pitch.
You may dismiss these as the odd examples. But listen to what Professor K R Shyam Sundar of XLRI has to say: "In the organized sector for every 10 new jobs created, going ahead, two could be in short-term contracts".
The definition of short-term assignments and temp jobs just got expanded. It used to be delivery boys and Ola drivers, but now even white-collar jobs are going to go 'short-term'".
As Shiv Agarwal, MD of ABC Consultants said in his LinkedIn post, "I think career gig workers will emerge in India where you would see more people saying that they don't want to be constrained by organizational politics.".
And not all of them will be 50+.
Our business schools and engineering colleges are ill prepared for this new future. While many of them do have career counselling centres, and the better ones have entrepreneur-incubation set ups, none of them have a centre for one-Person-corporation creation. And as we move forward, managers and executives will have to work with their hands, since many supervisory positions are going to vanish.
As Ajit Balakrishnan, founder Rediff.com and former Chairperson of IIM Calcutta observed in his column in Business Standard [August 17 2020], "Will management schools, including IIMs, soon have to change their curricula and teach their students to work with their own hands as polytechnic and industrial training institutes do?"
While corporations are seriously thinking of adopting gig workers, the other side is also showing signs of impatience. Today's 20-year old is not interested in a long-term tenure, hoping for a promotion every five or ten years. They want to see signs of growth quickly.
As Chandramouli Venkatesan has observed in his best-selling book 'Catalyst', the way to future proof your career is to make sure that you work on many small assignments in the first part of your career, say first 15 years. Then you are ready to manage the next 15 years.
I feel today's youngsters want to explore multiple options in their first fifteen years and some of them, like my friend from Kerala, want to bail out to do something that they think will excite them.
One man corporation: A few simple steps
Complete your formal education and while at it develop some areas where you have deep knowledge
Start with a good company or good full-time engagement, where you can hone your skills [and continue learning]
Develop a strong professional network within the company and outside
Test out various gig concepts with people you can trust, your superiors, your mentors
Identify one niche area where you want to focus
Try and get at least one 'Anchor Client' who will pay you around 30% of what you were earning in your full-time job [and commit 20-40% of your time]
Keep learning and if the niche turns out to be too small, pivot to a broader domain
If your gig turns to be a big hit, you can consider adding partners and associates
But before you start your journey, be clear what you want out of it: Money? Respect? Freedom? Enjoyment? In which proportion?
The need for resilience
R Sridhar was lucky that as soon as he set up his one-person practice, three anchor clients promised him a regular income. Not all of us will be so lucky.
So it is apt to remember the advice from Subroto Bagchi: "In order to be an entrepreneur [or a gig worker, as I may add], you have to burn your past, have to kiss your corporate success goodbye, and be ok with living the life of a stray dog" [OfficeChai.com].
If you are feeling bad that Bagchi is asking you to become a mongrel, remember that an Indian stray dog is always better suited to the conditions and often lives longer than their pedigree counterparts.
So be ready to grab the gig economy. And forge ahead as a one person corporation.
About Ambi Parameswaran	5 Articles
M G (Ambi) Parameswaran is a Brand and Leadership Coach and Founder Brand-Building.com, a brand advisory. He is also the author of several best-selling books on brands, consumers and advertising.
Jermina says:
Brilliant read Ambi, in my 3 month fledgling gig practise, I am happy to see I fulfilled a few norms as defined by you. Hoping to hold on it


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1,513 movies
Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.
Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.
Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man's struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
15-year-old freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two charismatic senior students become his mentors. Free-spirited Sam and her stepbrother Patrick help Charlie discover the joys of friendship, first love, music and more, while a teacher sparks Charlie's dreams of becoming a writer.
Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it's a little more complicated: he's yet to tell his family or friends he's gay and he doesn't know the identity of the anonymous classmate he's fallen for online.
Isn't It Romantic
For a long time, Natalie, an Australian architect living in New York City, had always believed that what she had seen in rom-coms is all fantasy. But after thwarting a mugger at a subway station only to be knocked out while fleeing, Natalie wakes up and discovers that her life has suddenly become her worst nightmare—a romantic comedy—and she is the leading lady.
Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
A tough, renegade cop with a gay sidekick is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers.
In 2001, editor Marty Baron of The Boston Globe assigns a team of journalists to investigate allegations against John Geoghan, an unfrocked priest accused of molesting more than 80 boys. Led by editor Walter "Robby" Robinson, reporters Michael Rezendes, Matt Carroll and Sacha Pfeiffer interview victims and try to unseal sensitive documents. The reporters make it their mission to provide proof of a cover-up of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.
When Gerda Wegener asks her husband Einar to fill in as a portrait model, Einar discovers the person she's meant to be and begins living her life as Lili Elbe. Having realized her true self and with Gerda's love and support, Lili embarks on a groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
A set of six nested stories spanning time between the 19th century and a distant post-apocalyptic future. Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Based on the award winning novel by David Mitchell. Directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim to the English throne. Betrayals, rebellions, conspiracies and their own life choices imperil both Queens. They experience the bitter cost of power, until their tragic fate is finally fulfilled.
Paris, in the early 1990s: a group of young activists is desperately tied to finding the cure against an unknown lethal disease. They target the pharmaceutical labs that are retaining potential cures, and multiply direct actions, with the hope of saving their lives as well as the ones of future generations.
Young dancers gather in a remote and empty school building to rehearse on a cold and wintry night. The all-night celebration soon turns into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn that their sangria is laced with LSD.
The true story of the 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.
God's Own Country
A young farmer in rural Yorkshire numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker.
The life of George Falconer, a British college professor, is reeling with the recent and sudden loss of his longtime partner. This traumatic event makes George challenge his own will to live as he seeks the console of his close girl friend Charley, who is struggling with her own questions about life.