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Posts Tagged 'Dazed and Confused'
BOYHOOD (DIR. RICHARD LINKLATER, USA, 2014) – REVIEW
Posted in USA, tagged Before Sunrise, Boyhood, Dazed and Confused, Harry Potter, Patricia Arquette, Richard Linklater, Slacker on July 15, 2014| 2 Comments »
When we think about Boyhood, Richard Linklater's new film, it is interesting to note the maverick auteur Werner Herzog's idea about the 'ecstatic truth': the suggestion that film makers will never be able to truly capture life in all its authenticity, that fabrication and imagination is the key to unlocking life's gilded mysteries. Linklater has proven to be keenly entranced by the idea of authenticity and documenting the passing of time over his career. Slacker, Dazed and Confused and the beloved Before Sunrise trilogy all took place over the space of 24 hours, polaroid pictures of scattered lives and fleeting moments. Boyhood is his most ambitious project yet, tracing one boys blossoming into adulthood over a 12 year period.
Everything that has been written and eulogised about the film essentially comes down to Ellar Coltrane, the young boy plucked as a 7 year old to star in an alternate vision of his own life. His 'character' Mason is a thoughtful child living with his precocious sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) and single Mom (Patricia Arquette) in suburbia, Linklater's usual playground. His early years are defined by endless bike rides with friends, delinquent graffiti vandalism and video games. Linklater uses musical cues by Coldplay and other pop punk hits to define the cultural landscape of the early 00's. We are introduced to his vagrant Dad (Ethan Hawke), arriving back from Alaska to bribe his offspring with daytrips out and presents.
The film then becomes defined by Mom's choices; a series of hopeful marriages turned sour by alcohol and new schools for the kids to acclimatise to. We begin to see how the adult world is just as messy and confused as the children's lives, and how a child's life can be transformed on the parent's whim. Mason becomes more introverted, his cherubic glow giving way to a sullen teenager. He begins to make contact with girls and finds a passion for photography, all the while trying to come to terms with his mother's nomadic lifestyle. Dad flits in and out of the film, much like a customer of separation would, and starts his own family. Boyhood is not a film of great invention and drama, but one trying to illuminate the smaller moments.
The ambition shown by Linklater is quite astonishing. There was a recent Michael Winterbottom drama that similarly tried to evoke a stretch of time like this, but other than that Boyhood is something of an anomaly. In interviews the director has stated that they tried to film for a few weeks every year, creating a short film annually. He admits that there was an element of uncertainty running through the production, and if we are being objective, it shows. Casting a couple of young children to play out characters and watch them evolve shows a remarkable degree of trust. Does it work? In my opinion, not quite. As Coltrane ages, the initial charm he has as a kid subsides; his introversion comes to the fore, and he doesn't have the requisite acting chops to deliver the more dramatic scenes. Neither does Linklater's daughter Lorelei for that matter.
Yet there is a strange beauty in this flaw, the unpredictability of these human beings and what life will throw at them down the years. Linklater has obviously had to adapt his story and his characters as the two actors develop. Where the film falls down, and in quite a big way, is the broad strokes that Linklater uses to convey the story. In dealing with such an epic timeline, he resorts to numerous cliches and cut out characters. Professor Bill, for example, Mom's first husband, changes from charismatic saviour to monstrous pig with no warning. There is a lack of character development and nuance here. Elsewhere Linklater hams up his themes a little; the religious right and the war in Iraq are both dealt with in crude slabs.
While Boyhood is not a perfect film, there are moments of poignance running through the film. Particularly Mason's relationship to his errant Dad, and his attempts to instil some fatherly advice on camping trips. Many viewers will delight in observing the changing cultural landscape, as we see the leaden, clunky iMacs fall to the wayside as iPads and Facetime take over. There is a particularly nostalgic moment for our generation as Mason attends the arrival of the newest Harry Potter books; it hits a personal chord because my sister also attended one of the midnight openings. That's the thing about this film: for Western audiences there will be something that everybody can identify with at one point or another, whether it being a first shitty job or drinking your first can of beer.
An ambitious yet flawed film, it still feels like an event and for large parts, quite an achievement on Linklater's part.


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Griiip
Bringing Motorsport to the People – Altair Startup Program Gives Griiip's Race Car G1 and the G1 Series a Jumpstart
When motorsport aficionados think about racing locations, Israel is probably not the first country that comes to mind. With the goal to change this, Griiip, an Israeli motorsport company, set out to make motorsport more popular in Israel and all over the world, outside the Formula 1 circuit. Griiip has designed a new, fast and professional race car that combines efficiency in racing with a competitive purchase price and low running costs, to make it more affordable. By harnessing the power of data, Griiip has created the first smart connected race car – the G1 – and with it, an entirely new racing series. The "G1 Series" is a single series only for Griiip's G1 race cars, where the emphasis is on the drivers, not on the cars, because they are all identical, built according to the same specifications.
Formula Student & Altair's Startup Program – the cradle for innovation
Griiip started out as a race car company, developing and building racing cars for entry-level racing categories. To develop its race cars, Griiip engineers employ several products from the Altair HyperWorks™ suite, among these Altair Radioss™ for crash simulation, Altair OptiStruct™ for structural optimization, general FE analysis as well as Altair HyperMesh™ and Altair HyperView™ for pre- and post-processing tasks. Deciding on Altair software was an easy choice, as the engineers on the Griiip team had already been using Altair HyperWorks when they were part of the Formula Student competition at the university level. Having grown from a student team into a startup company with 11 staff members, Griiip continues to rely on Altair products. Today, the company accesses the software via Altair's new Startup Program developed to help nurture companies like Griiip as they seek to grow their businesses. With solutions supporting early design stage concepts, product engineering, manufacturing feasibility, IoT, and cloud computing, Altair offers software and expertise to address the many challenges startups are facing throughout the evolution of their businesses.
Racing Cars need to be both very strong and very light – all parts must be optimized for loads, stress, weight, and endurance
Development of a faster, more efficient optimization process using Altair HyperWorks
Significantly shorter production time
Reduced costs of racing
Chance to explore new manufacturing methods
Download Customer Story
"While we previously had to manufacture parts and test them, we are now able to get to the final product faster, fitting it in the serial production of the cars."
– Tamir Plachinsky
CEO and Co-Founder of Griiip
HyperWorks goes to work – driving innovation with high-end engineering
High-end products such as race cars must endure harsh conditions, so the design has to be able to withstand a lot. The drivers take the cars to the extreme on the track, accelerating and braking sharply and making cornering maneuvers. As a racing car has to be very strong and at the same time very light, it is a very demanding product from an engineering perspective. Simulation software such as the Altair HyperWorks suite can provide many answers to the engineering challenges when developing a racing car, as the tools provide solutions to optimize the parts for loads, stress, weight, and endurance. "We optimize every part in the G1, every system in the car to be the best," said Tamir Plachinsky, CEO and CoFounder of Griiip. "The structural integrity and efficiency are critical for success in the races. Using Altair HyperWorks allows us to test a wide range of physics."
Griiip uses simulation to reduce the development time and the many iterations needed before getting to the final product and each component. "For us, the use of simulation provides the ability to achieve a better product in a shorter time. While we previously had to manufacture parts and test them, we are now able to get to the final version of each component, fitting it in the serial production of the cars. We are also able to further improve the design after manufacturing the first cars, based on the experience we are gaining on the track. This is another area in which Altair products have proven to be very helpful," explains Tamir. "We have very good simulations and case studies on the improvement of the frame we built. By using Altair, we have managed to increase the frame stiffness and reduce the weight of it, only by changing the diameters of the tubes in the frame. We did not actually need to physically test the stiffness, but the performance on the track has indicated that it is really stiffer," he continues.
Sharing the experience: Griiip provides access to the motorsport world
Griiip is extending its business activities to Italy, where the cars are built, and is planning to expand its business further to the international market. While the company started with the design of race cars, Griiip has now grown into a racing platform provider. The company delivers live video and data, prediction analysis, advanced insights, and mixed reality races to a platform, giving fans and drivers the most exciting destination to engage with motorsports. "Having understood that our users are not only the drivers, Griiip is now also focusing on the viewers as our potential customers. To achieve this, we have developed a media platform that will create a new exciting race-viewing experience that no one has ever given you before," says Tamir. This way, in keeping with their motto "bringing motorsports back to the people" and combining innovation and passion, Griiip opens up new, unprecedented possibilities for drivers and fans to connect with racing and the world of motorsports.
Innovation fostered by Altair
Implementing new technologies in the series enabled Griiip to reduce the cost of racing and to create a new and exciting viewing experience. The new data related technology helps to collect, analyze, and distribute different data and allows, for example, the drivers to improve their skills and knowledge about the setup of the car without requiring an expert in the middle. The data is collected from the cars, analyzed, and provided to the drivers so they can compare it with data of other drivers in the series, thus improving their skills. Griiip is considering expanding its usage of Altair's IoT and data mining solutions. Altair's solutions played a big part in Griiip's successful realization of their innovative platform project – in fact, they are a key factor in the engineering process to reach the goals Griiip set out itself. With its Startup Program, Altair helped the young, innovative company to get its feet quickly off the ground by supplying software and support. Today, Griiip is using the CAE solutions available within the HyperWorks suite in almost every engineering area, and has even started to explore new manufacturing methods such as additive manufacturing technologies where dedicated Altair solutions can be employed to streamline production processes and further improve component design.
Altair HyperWorks provides many answers to engineering challenges when developing a racing car
Cockpit safety is one of the most crucial development goals
G1 series racing car
Altair OptiStruct is used for structural optimization of the suspension components

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


ed'o ORGANIC is our most characteristic olive oil. Its unique taste derives from our careful selection of Arbequina olives which are grown following ecological means in the protected Natural Parc of Serra de Montsant, an outstanding landscape known by its raw climate, abrupt rocky mountains, and its rich and diverse natural wildlife.
This is an intense olive oil with green fruity notes. Bitter on the tongue, yet perfectly balanced thanks to its sweetness. Its high content of antioxidants adds a slight astringency as well as preserves its intensity for longer. Notes of green grass, nuts, tomato and artichoke. Perfect on its own, with fresh bread or to accompany hearty meals such as red meat, seafood and stews.
Superior category extra virgin olive oil obtained directly from olives and solely by mechanical means.


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Collateral America
By Wayne Allensworth
The Mirror Test is John Kael Weston's testament and witness to seven years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Weston worked as a State Department political officer alongside U.S. Marines and Army soldiers in some of the most dangerous areas of both countries, advising—and sometimes overruling—American military commanders in what became political nation-building operations growing out of George W. Bush's "War on Terror," by definition an endless war. Weston admired and identified with the troops he worked alongside, sharing their often harsh living conditions and always dangerous duty, dodging sniper rounds, suicide bombers, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mourning the loss of friends—American, Iraqi, and Afghan—and growing disillusioned with both "the wrong war" in Iraq and the conduct of "the right war" in Afghanistan. In Fallujah, Iraq, he watched a city be destroyed in order to save it. In Khost Province, Afghanistan, he worked earnestly to win "hearts and minds" (with libraries, education, medical aid, and other nation-building programs) among a people he was sometimes unsure wanted American "help."
At the end of the book, Weston's "mirror test"—asking whether the conduct of those wars (drone strikes, torture as official policy, rendition, "black sites," warrantless...
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Royal Oaks Acres is a hidden neighborhood of custom homes tucked away in Cibolo near its boundary line with Schertz. Homes in the neighborhood rarely come on the market, and are set on large, tree-studded lots. Residents feel as if they're in the country, yet amenities are only a few blocks away. The schools include Green Valley Elementary, the new Schlather intermediate, and Clemens high school.
Contact Robin today for a list of the updates to this lovely home, and to schedule a private viewing.


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Q: How to mix class="form-horizontal" with ordinary form elements in a bootstrap form? How can I mix class="form-horizontal" in a single form with form elements that don't are displayed as horizontal? The tag is intended to reside in the <form>-tag according to the documentation.
Conflicting part (form-horizontal-tag conflicts with the rest of the form:
    <form class="form-horizontal" role="form" action="/registrieren" method="post">

                    Surname:
                    <input type="text" class="form-control" id="vorname" name="vorname">

                    Name:
                    <input type="text" class="form-control" id="name" name="name">

                    Street:
                    <input type="text" class="form-control" id="strasse" name="strasse">

</form>

A working horizontal form:
 <form class="form-horizontal" role="form">

    Email:

      <input type="email" class="form-control" id="email" placeholder="Enter email">

    Password:

      <input type="password" class="form-control" id="pwd" placeholder="Enter password">

        <input type="checkbox"> Remember me

      <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Submit</button>

</form>

I'd like to have everything into one single form, but the surname and name beside each other.
Whole Dokument:
<!DOCTYPE html>

  <title>Titel</title>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css">

Titel

Bitte erfasse Deine persönlichen Angaben:

  <form role="form" action="/registrieren" method="post">

                <input type="radio" name="gender">Frau
                <input type="radio" name="gender">Mann
                <input type="radio" name="gender">Anderes

                Vorname:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="vorname" name="vorname">

                Name:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="name" name="name">

                Strasse:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="strasse" name="strasse">

                PLZ:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="plz" name="plz">

                Ort:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="ort" name="ort">

        Email:

                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="email" name="email">

        Password:

            <input type="password" class="form-control" id="pwd" placeholder="Enter password">

            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>

  </form>

A: Are you talking about like this? Check out the snippet below.

<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.5/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />

    <form class="form-horizontal" role="form" action="/registrieren" method="post">

                Surname:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="vorname" name="vorname">

                Name:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="name" name="name">

                Street:
                <input type="text" class="form-control" id="strasse" name="strasse">

    </form>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Narendra Bagatheria (born 18 December 1950) is an Indian cricketer. He played in 46 first-class matches for Madhya Pradesh from 1969/70 to 1983/84.

See also
 List of Madhya Pradesh cricketers

References

External links

1950 births
Living people
Indian cricketers
Madhya Pradesh cricketers
Cricketers from Indore

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


SHAMPOO IS SO 20TH CENTURY! SAY GOODBYE TO WASH, RINSE, REPEAT!
Lovely, foamy, lathery suds! No longer a sign of cleanliness?
Americans love to shampoo. According to a recent public radio news story, we lather up an average of 4.59 times a week – twice as much as Italians and Spaniards. But to understand our current obsession with suds, we need to find out where it all started.


Not by a respected institution, but by one man named David Imus, who spent 6,000 hours total working on this map (that's 8.22 hours a day, 7 days a week, 2 years straight).
David Imus worked alone on his map seven days a week for two full years. Nearly 6,000 hours in total. It would be prohibitively expensive just to outsource that much work. But Imus—a 35-year veteran of cartography who's designed every kind of map for every kind of client—did it all by himself. He used a computer (not a pencil and paper), but absolutely nothing was left to computer-assisted happenstance. Imus spent eons tweaking label positions. Slaving over font types, kerning, letter thicknesses. Scrutinizing levels of blackness. It's the kind of personal cartographic touch you might only find these days on the hand-illustrated ski-trail maps available at posh mountain resorts.


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Memorable Manitobans: Michael "Mike" Posmituck (1918-1996)
Educator, community activist.
Born at Seech on 14 April 1918, son of Thomas Posmituck (1889-1974) and Anne Rudniak (1897-1972), he attended the Brandon Normal School then taught school for four years, including at Seech School (1938-1940), before enlisting in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Following his miliary discharge, he settled at McCreary where he taught until retirement in 1976. He married Anne Mushinski (c1927-2007) in 1947 and they had four children. In 1963, he was appointed to the board of the Manitoba Centennial Corporation. He was a Progressive Conservative candidate for the Ste. Rose constituency in the 1966 provincial general election but was defeated by Liberal Gil Molgat. He died at McCreary on 26 December 1996 and was buried in the McCreary Cemetery.
Birth registration [Michael Posmitiuch], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 3 January 1997, page 32.
Obituary [Annie Posmituck], Winnipeg Free Press, 26 March 2007.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
Page revised: 31 May 2019


The title mention i40evf but the patch is related to PF (for VF communication).
So I wonder wether it would be clearer to prefix it with i40e? Not sure.
> supported in DPDK PF host.
Mixing renaming and new feature makes it difficult to read.
Line wrapping should go in a cleanup patch (like renaming).


Beautiful studio completely renovated on the first floor located just 300 meters from the beach of Náufragos. It consists of 1 bathroom, living / dining room with kitchen and 5m² terrace. Just 300 meters from the beach of Náufragos, 10km from the Golf Course and 44 km from Alicante Airport.


We are looking to recruit a motor vehicle technician with MOT testing license if possible.
However if candidate does not have an MOT testing license but is an ideal fit, we are open to putting the candidate through the measures to get their license. The candidate will be working in our successful operating Acklam MOT centre working with a wide range of specialist high end cars. The candidate must be highly motivated to work within an experienced environment for MOT, repairs, servicing and tyre business.
Qualifications must be to NVQ level 3 with at least 5 years previous experience. This is a long term proposition with extremely competitive salary offered to the right candidate as well as pension scheme. If you would like to find out more and are interested in a new challenge, please contact Claire Marsden on 01642 827 778 Monday to Friday – 09:00 to 17:30. Or email your details to Claire@acklamcarcentre.co.uk.


Camera films Steve MacDonald walking in (having sold the pub and deciding to travel).
Still stood at the bar, Ken looks around with an arch of his eyebrow.
Alfie is stood at the bar. Looking like a young George Best, he slowly finishes his Guinness and turns to Ken.


Last month, I decided to try out teeth whitening strips. I was going to get the Crest strips, but the drug store brand was half the price, so I figured why not.
I tried Googling reviews and couldn't find much, so I figured I'd write a post about it!
I looked at the ingredients list as well, and for the most part, it was the exact same list as the Crest whitening strips. I was a little nervous, but kept telling myself that brand name is always more expensive, and that generic usually has the same ingredients/works just as well.
So what was my experience? Well, I only used the strips for 5 days, but got pretty good results. I didn't want to put a picture full on zoomed-in to my mouth and teeth, so this will have to do The lighting is a bit different, but my teeth are definitely whiter.
Okay, so I mentioned that I only used it for 5 days. Why? Because towards the end of those 5 days, whenever I put the strips on my gums were getting really irritated and inflamed. I could feel them pulsing as I waited to take the strips off. You keep the strips on for 30 minutes, once per day. I didn't want to continue this for 14 days if my gums were getting inflamed, plus I had gotten results, so I am going to save the rest for touch ups every 6 months like the box suggests.
I don't know if my gum irritation was due to the product or I simply have sensitive gums. I don't know if had I gotten Crest I would not have this issue…it's very possible that I would have. Besides that, I'm happy with how the strips worked. I don't plan on using them a lot since I'm nervous about tooth sensitivity and it stripping the enamel. But all in all, if you want to try a drugstore brand, I say go for it! I've heard good things about the Walgreens brand of strips as well.
Have you used whitening strips? What kind?
Do you sometimes feel "better" buying brand name versus generic?
My mom is all about natural remedies and options for every day things we use. For example, she always has herbs and teas ready for any ailment we may have. Though I'll admit sometimes I do prefer straight up medicine But natural remedies for being sick aren't the only thing you can create. Recently, my mom made a face mask for my brother, who has dry and sensitive skin. This is just one example of what you can do for yourself right at home. And save yourself some money as well!
My mom told me about this one because she saw it on Dr. Oz. That episode focused on baking soda solutions, so a few of the things I cover here will talk about that.
If you have oily hair like I do, then this may be something you try. I use dry shampoo a lot because my hair gets oily even if I washed it a few hours ago. Ugh.
Sprinkle baking soda on your hair along the part. Tousle it with your fingers and fluff it with a hair dryer, which also helps to shake off any excess.
I've tried baby powder but haven't been a huge fan. For me, I'd still have white patches and I don't want to look like I have dandruff. I haven't tried baking soda, but think I will! You might say, well I still have to buy baking soda, so how will this save me money/be any different than buying dry shampoo? Well, there are a ton of other uses for baking soda which I will outline below. Definitely more bang for your buck than buying 1 product for 1 use!
Dr. Oz also suggests using baking soda to give your hair more volume. Mix a quarter-sized amount of baking soda with your shampoo, and it'll help get rid of oil and build-up. Furthermore, it will give your hair body once you blow-dry it. Who doesn't want a little bit more volume?
Want shinier hair? You can pay for some expensive hair masks or deep conditioners, or you can try to make your own first to see if it helps.
I just had to use this picture.
10 drops of peppermint essential oil (optional – it's to give the mask a refreshing aroma and slight cooling sensation on the head so it's relaxing).
Pour the organic honey, olive oil and peppermint oil into a small mixing bowl. Then combine the ingredients together until you have a slightly thick golden hair mask. When applying the honey olive oil hair mask it is best to tip your head over the bathtub or large sink so the hair is in front of your face. Then you want to take small handfuls of the hair mask at a time and massage and lather it into the hair and scalp as best you can making sure every strain of hair is covered from root to ends. Next tuck your hair away into a shower cap so it doesn't drip all over the place. Once the mask is in your hair, it is best to leave it in for about 1 hour. It you do not have much time 30 minutes is okay as well.
Mix a tablespoon of baking soda with 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey. Apply this mixture to your face for 10-15 minutes. Add water if you need to help it liquify, but don't make it too thin. Don't try this treatment more than about once per week.
I'm sure you have all heard of how baking soda can help whiten teeth. I actually plan on starting to try using baking soda on my teeth this week, so I'll keep you all posted on the results! I'd rather try this at-home version first before paying $40 for Crest Whitening Strips (even though I've heard good things about it).
Add three parts baking soda to one part smashed strawberries and one part lemon juice. This combination will remove stains and plaque while providing flavor. Store the extra in the fridge in a sealed container and use it as your toothpaste twice a day.
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons hydrogen peroxide 2 tablespoons baking soda In a small jar or other airtight container, combine the hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Mix them together to form a smooth, thick paste. (You can keep this paste stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks). After brushing and flossing your teeth as you normally would, wet your toothbrush and apply a small amount of this paste (cover the bristles). Then brush your teeth for two minutes, avoiding the gums, as this can lighten them as well. Now rinse the toothbrush and brush your teeth with clean water for two more minutes. Rinse your mouth with warm water. Do this one to two times per week, until you reach your desired shade. Then reduce usage, and do this only one to three times per month.
Not sure how I feel about using hydrogen peroxide but might be worth a shot. I really need to whiten my teeth…my coffee habit has not been good to them!
A little side topic here going along with the teeth thing…has anyone tried oil pulling?? I have seen this being talked about all over the internet recently and am kind of curious to try it. But at the same time, I can't imagine having coconut oil in my mouth for 20 minutes? If you've tried it, I'd love to hear your thoughts and results! Anyway, I hope you took away something from this post! I love hearing about natural remedies and options, and I'm excited to try using baking soda for various things. Like I said, I prefer to try something out first that is natural and inexpensive, and if it doesn't work then I will try the next option.
Have you tried any of these at-home beauty products? Or tried making anything on your own? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments!


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El Grupo Jorasán  es un grupo de alto nivel de la banda terrorista Al Qaeda que opera al noroeste de Siria. El nombre se refiere a «un pequeño grupo de decenas de combatientes» que figuran en las listas de vigilancia del terrorismo internacional. Una fuente cercana a la dirigencia de Al Nusra afirmó del Khorasán: «Es un grupo muy pequeño ―solo decenas de combatientes―. Es más simbólico, ya que está compuesto y liderado por veteranos que vinieron de Afganistán, y todos ellos son buscados por Washington. Ellos siguen directamente a Al Qaeda».

Los miembros del grupo son yihadistas de varios países que supuestamente han trabajado con fabricantes de bombas de Yemen.

El 18 de septiembre de 2014, en una reunión de inteligencia en Washington, James Clapper (director de la Inteligencia Nacional) declaró que «en términos de amenaza a la patria, Khorasán puede suponer un peligro tanto como Estado Islámico. La organización está supuestamente dirigida por el miembro de al-Qaeda Muhsin al-Fadhli, que fue a Irán después de la invasión estadounidense de Afganistán».

Intervención estadounidense de 2014
El 23 de septiembre de 2014, el Comando Central de Estados Unidos afirmó haber ejecutado ocho ataques aéreos contra campos de entrenamiento del grupo, instalaciones y otros sitios en la zona oeste de Alepo (Siria). En los días posteriores a los ataques contra al-Qaeda, un informe en los medios de comunicación sociales decía que el presunto cabecilla de Khorasán, Muhsin al-Fadhli, había sido asesinado.

Véase también
 Estado Islámico
 Tahrir al-Sham

Referencias

Al Qaeda en Irak
Grupos rebeldes en Irak
Grupos rebeldes en Siria
Organizaciones yihadistas
Organizaciones definidas como terroristas por Estados Unidos
Terrorismo en Irak
Terrorismo en Siria


Take a trip (bounce) down memory lane with everyone's favourite inflatable! Guaranteed to make you bounce up and down in excitement, Space Hoppers are great fun for all ages and much more entertaining than walking.
We have Giant Space Hoppers for those who want to hop even higher as well as the excellent Space Hopper inspired race game, Hopping Mad.
A giant size Space Hopper - ideal for bouncing back to your childhood!
The orange Space Hopper inflates to a massive 80cm and is supplied with a foot pump for easy inflation.
A fantastic retro product that children today will love just as much as their parents did back in the day!
Hopping Mad is a great party game for all the family. This game uses the classic 1970's Space Hopper and makes it into a competitive racing game. Players compete against each other on three adult sized space hoppers, designed in three bright colours; green, red and yellow.
Hopping Mad comes complete with 3 x 61cm diameter Hoppers, a foot pump for inflation and a whistle for the referee.
This game is suitable for both adults and children.


It has been an interesting couple of months for hit BBC daytime property show Homes Under The Hammer.
Back in May, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale singled the programme out in a Government White Paper (Page 35) outlining the future of the BBC, as an example of what the BBC is getting wrong!
Mr Whittingdale selected Homes Under The Hammer for criticism, alongside other daytime favourites Bargain Hunt and Escape To The Country and suggested that they were part of "a static daytime schedule highly reliant on long-running property and collectables programming" and suggested they should be dropped.
"Culture Secretary John Whittingdale is totally out of touch with what the British public wants to watch. Somehow our success, popularity and longevity have been turned into a negative".
"From home and shift workers, retirees and mums on maternity leave, to Daniel Craig (he watched it in the make-up van while making Skyfall) and Meryl Streep (she admitted she "loves that show" on The Graham Norton Show), we seem to have nailed it when it comes to creating a TV programme that's educational, informative, entertaining, aspirational and with broad appeal across all ages and backgrounds".
"Has Mr Whittingdale ever watched the programme? Even if he has and doesn't like it, is it really his job to dictate to the BBC what it should and shouldn't be broadcasting? I would disrespectfully suggest that he is totally out of touch with what the British viewing public actually want to watch".
"It's no coincidence that every weekday on BBC1 we are the most watched programme on TV in the UK at that time with an average audience of 1.1 million viewers, that we are on peak time in Australia and popular around the world and that the show is now in its 21st series with 1,400 episodes filmed and around 4,200 properties visited".
"And all this on a budget that is a tiny fraction of prime-time televisions"
It then emerged last month that Homes Under The Hammer's most recently recruited presenter, former England and Premier League star Dion Dublin, was reportedly trained for his role as a BBC TV presenter with £50,000 from a fund that aimed to boost on-screen ethnic minority representation.
Dublin, who earned tens of thousands of pounds a week in a 20-year career at clubs including Manchester United and Aston Villa, is the biggest single beneficiary of the BBC's Diversity Creative Talent Fund.
The BBC's fund, launched in 2014, provides £2.1m a year to help develop potential talent from ethnic minority groups that are under-represented on TV.
A BBC spokesman said "We're proud the fund has helped develop a significant number of presenters, writers and producers from ethnic minority backgrounds to make sure that the BBC fully represents the UK".
The BBC spokesman was quick to point out that "Money from the fund is used to support training and development of new talent - none has gone to Dion directly".
Despite the BBC training, Dublin got off to a shaky start back in April 2015, with viewers and critics complaining about his abilities and early criticism on Twitter prompted Dublin to reply that he would "try and do better" in his new career.
Now it seems Homes Under The Hammer has been dealt a third blow as it was announced yesterday that Lucy Alexander is to step down as the co-presenter of BBC One property auction show.
Alexander, who has fronted the daytime show alongside Martin Roberts since 2003, said it was "time for a change".
She said "I have loved being part of Homes Under The Hammer, it's been my life for 13 years, I have loved every minute and the whole team that have made the programme such a success".
She wrote on Twitter that she was leaving the show with a "huge heavy heart" and stepping down was "not the outcome I wanted, but to pursue other work and a commercial deal, I had to leave".
She added that she would miss Martin Roberts, who she called her "TV husband".
Dan McGolpin, Controller BBC Daytime added: "Over the last 13 years, millions of viewers have enjoyed Lucy's infectious enthusiasm for property renovation; she has inspired many of us to improve our own homes or to invest and improve properties that badly need it - Britain's housing stock owes her a great debt!"
"I'd like to thank Lucy for all of the hard work she has put in, she has been there since the start and has helped to make Homes Under The Hammer one of the most informative, helpful and best-loved series of its kind".
"Homes Under The Hammer is delivered by a first-rate team at Lion Television in Glasgow and will continue to thrill viewers each morning by revealing the methods used by experts of the property auction trade".
So, will the hunt be on for a new co-host? Or is this a sign that that one of our 'Guilty Pleasures" has been affected by the government white paper and may not be around for very much longer! I would get your CV's in asap just in case Mr Whittingdales' plan comes to fruition.


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Ingrid Vibeke Ammundsen née Simonsen (1913–1988) was a Danish librarian who was active in the research library sector. From 1957, she headed Denmark's Technical Library (Danmarks Tekniske Bibliotek) where she introduced computerized search systems in the early 1960s. When the library moved to Lyngby in 1971 to serve the Technical University of Denmark, she broke new ground for research libraries by introducing open shelves for books and journals, allowing visitors direct access to the library's holdings. In the 1970s, she proposed and headed the DANDOK database system for scientific and technical information.

Early life and education
Born in Kerteminde on 22 December 1913, Ingrid Vibeke Simonsen was the daughter of the headmaster Steffen Simonsen (1884–1930) and Ane Dorthea Nielsen (1885–1893), a schoolteacher. On 8 July 1936 she married Johannes Ammundsen (1913–1982) who later became director of the Danish Employers' Association. They had three children: Steffen (1940), Peter (1945) and Charlotte (1947). After matriculating from Haderslev Cathedral School, she studied English and Voice at the University of Copenhagen, graduating in 1939.

Career
Ammundsen began her career as in 1940 in the library at the Foreign Ministry. The following year, she took up employment as a librarian at the Royal Agricultural College. In World War II, when her husband was arrested by the Germans in 1942, she continued his clandestine work and in 1946–1947 served as secretary of the Copenhagen branch of the resistance group Frit Danmark (Free Denmark).

In 1957, she was appointed head of the Danish Technical Library, bringing it into an exemplary position among Denmark's research libraries. In 1966, she introduced computer systems for library support or search. When the library moved to Lyngby in 1971, she provided open access to the shelves for both books and periodicals. Her approach was reflected in the library for the University of Aalborg and in several Swedish libraries.

Vibeke Ammundesen retired in 1980 and moved together with her husband to central Copenhagen. She died there on 12 February 1988.

References

1913 births
1988 deaths
People from Kerteminde
Danish librarians
Women librarians
Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog


In late 2006, I posted on the DSR and didn't have a lot of hope for success since my Fairfax donor records were from 1989. Back then, the frozen container package was shipped to us 3 times and on the final try, success! - my baby was due in March, 1990. Fast forward 18 years - my son, is now entering college as a business major. My marriage ended when he was 4. My son is independent, extremely bright, and sensitive. I've noticed that he sometimes feels very much alone and I often wondered about ''his other half' The wondering has come to an end. I was contacted last week by a lovely young lady, 6 weeks apart in age from my son. We exchanged photos and both families are in awe of the resemblance. We are all thrilled and discussions are underway to plan our first meeting.


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Celebrities Biography Max McGee
Birth Name: William Max McGee
Occupation: Football Player
Place Of Birth: Texas
Date Of Death: October 20, 2007
Max McGee was born on the 16th of July, 1932. He was best known for being a Football Player. Former NFL wide receiver who won five NFL Championships with the Green Bay Packers during his twelve-year run with the team. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1961.
Max McGee was born in Texas. He played high school football at White Oak and became the first high school football player in history to rush for more than 3,000 yards in a single season. He took a two-year leave of absence from the NFL in 1955 and 1956 to serve in the U.S. Air Force.
Max McGee was a Cancer and was born in the Silent Generation.
JUMP TO: Max McGee's biography, facts, family, personal life, zodiac, videos and related celebs.
Max McGee was born in 1930s. The 1930s were called the Great Depression (1929-1939). It was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. Despite the Great Depression, Hollywood and popular film production flourished. Radio was the main source of entertainment, information, and political propaganda, and jazz, blues, gospel, and folk music, became immensely popular. Discover what happened on this day.
William Max McGee is part of the Silent Generation, which followed after the G.I. Generation. As young adults during the McCarthy Era, many members of this generation felt it was dangerous to speak out. They were too young to see action in World War II and too old to participate in the fun of the Summer of Love.
Max's William Max McGee attended
Tulane.
Max McGee's mother's name is unknown at this time and his father's name is under review. We will continue to update information on Max McGee's parents.
Pat Williams
Eugene Wilson
Like many famous people and celebrities, Max McGee kept his personal life private. Once more details are available, we will update this section.
Max McGee was born in the Year of the Monkey.
REAL NAME: William Max McGee
NICKNAME: Max
AGE GENERATION: Silent Generation
Zodiac Sign: Max McGee was a Cancer. People of this zodiac sign like home-based hobbies, relaxing near or in water, helping loved ones, and dislike strangers, revealing of personal life. The strengths of this sign are being loyal, emotional, sympathetic, tenacious, persuasive, while weaknesses can be moody, pessimistic, suspicious, manipulative and insecure. The greatest overall compatibility with Cancer is Capricorn and Taurus.
Chinese Zodiac: Max McGee was born in the Year of the Rabbit. People born under this sign love to make people laugh and are generally energetic and upbeat but sometimes lack self-control.
Ruling Planet: Max McGee had a ruling planet of Moon and has a ruling planet of Moon and by astrological associations Sunday is ruled by moon. The Moon represents one's nurturing and emotional instinct. People who are born with Moon as the ruling planet are sensitive, nurturing, and usually have fluctuating moods.
Max McGee's birth sign is Cancer and he had a ruling planet of Moon.
Who's the richest Football Player in the world?
When is Max McGee's birthday?
James Conner
Corey Grant
Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us. This page is updated often with new details about Max McGee. Bookmark this page and come back often for updates.


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Tesco store in Yate evacuated after arsonist starts fire in baby changing room
Firefighters say fire in baby changing room and toilet was started deliberately. Police are now investigating.
Ken McCormick
The Tesco Extra store in Yate (Image: Google)
Customers had to be evacuated from a massive Tesco supermarket after an arsonist set fire to a customer toilet.
Avon Fire and Rescue Service received a 999 call to the Tesco Extra store in East Walk, Yate, shortly after 6.25pm today after the fire was discovered in the store's baby changing room.
A fire service spokeswoman said three fire crews were sent to the scene, two from Yate and a third from Kingswood.
But they arrived to find that the flames had been put out by someone using one of the store's fire extinguishers.
Yate Tesco Extra store fire under police investigation after hundreds evacuated
Shoppers had to leave the store, which was closed after the incident to allow the smoke to clear.
The fire service spokeswoman said: "The fire was in the baby changing toilet. It was a deliberate ignition.
"The police were requested by the store manager and are now there as well. The incident has now been left in the hands of the store manager."
The store is usually open 24 hours a day during the week but the fire service spokeswoman said it was expected to remain closed until all of the smoke had been ventilated.
The Bristol Post has contacted Tesco for a comment on the incident.
Customers reacted to the incident on social media afterwards.


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Home > Categories > Movies > Family > Megamind review
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ProdID: 4979 - Megamind
Director: Tom McGrath
Megamind product reviews
MEGAMIND IS THE MOST BRILLIANT SUPER VILLAIN EVER KNOWN... and the least successful!
Over the years Megamind has tried to conquer Metro City in every imaginable way. Each attempt, a colossal failure thanks to the caped superhero known as "Metro Man" (Brad Pitt), until Megamind (Will Ferrell) actually defeats him in the throes of one of his botched evil plans. Suddenly the fate of Metro City is threatened when a new villain arrives and chaos runs rampant, leaving everyone to wonder: Can the world's biggest "mind" actually be the one to save the day?
ben stiller brad pitt david cross jonah hill justin theroux tina fey tom mcgrath villain will ferrell
Rating: 9.4 Aliens in the Attic
Rating: 8.3 Monsters
Rating: 8.6 Safe
Rating: 8.0 Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Rating: 8.3 Terminator: Genisys
Rating: 9.5 Seventh Son
Rating: 8.0 The Rewrite
Rating: 10.0 The Disappointments Room
Rating: 2.8 Transformers: The Last Knight
Rating: 8.3 Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Rating: 8.8 A Simple Favor
Rating: 7.5 Tolkien
Review by: alexmoulton (Alex)
Dated: 14th of May, 2014
Believeability:
This film is great because it comes from the view of the supervillain - a perspective that is usually lost in most films. The supervillain is generally there to threaten the world with a convoluted plan, and be thwarted with little effort by the superhero. But this film delves further into the relationship between superhero and supervillain. I used the term 'supervillain' and 'superhero', to emphasise that we are talking about villains and heroes with that have inhuman powers, and villains whom aim for world domination.
Megamind highlights the co-dependence between hero and villain. They provide each other with a purpose and there are consequences for destroying that balance.
I enjoyed being able to watch a movie where the viewer is able to sympathise with the villain, to realise how that person is generally a victim of society, that has been cast out, and often wants nothing but to be able to interact, even if only able to through violence.
Due to the style of animation, it resembles an 'Incredibles' film, and thus I have had trouble placing the movie, when the title is mentioned. Beyond the title not sticking in the mind, the movie was highly enjoyable, and within 2 minutes of starting to re-watch it, I could recall the movie in its entirety, and I still re-watched it.
Review by: mizim (Miriam)
Dated: 1st of January, 2014
Megamind is the villain in this movie, without a doubt, or perhaps he is the hero of this movie?? Well why not be both?
Megamind was sent away from his planet as a baby, along with his Minion, and whilst on his way to Earth met another baby (also in travel from a different planet) who was to become Metro City's superhero in time to come. As they grew they disliked each other and each found their calling, one as the hero and one as the villain. During yet another attack on the city Megamind finds himself to finally be rid of his foe and in control of the city but things start to go downhill when he becomes bored and wants someone to fight and he also begins to fall in love (via disguise).
We originally borrowed this as one of the kids picked it, and I wasn't sure what to expect as I wasn't sure I liked the look of the characters and I really don't like Jonah Hill, he just annoys the heck out of me. Getting into it though was easy and it wasn't long before the laughs started. We recently watched this with my mum and she couldn't stop laughing. You are cheering for the villain and really get a feel for him, bad by choice but who at heart just wants to be accepted.
The storyline is great and I really like the ending (though I can't say anything about it for fear of spoilers) needless to say I wasn't expecting it, then it gave me what I expected and then wham! again changed in a way I wasn't expecting, so well done. It's a great happy ending. My only thing (other than Jonah Hill) was that the only characters you felt for were Megamind and Minion but there wasn't enough to depth to any other characters and Hal was nothing but annoying.
This is a really fun movie and I'm looking forward to watching it again with the kids.
Product reviews for listing 5156: Planes
Directed by Klay Hall
Disney animated comedy spin-off of 'Cars' (2006) following an aircraft who dreams of becoming a racer. Crop dusting plane Dusty (voice of Dane Cook) hopes to become a competitor in high-flying races but is afraid of heights. With the help of US Navy veteran Skipper (Stacy Keach), Dusty trains for the upcoming around-the-world competition and learns to overcome his fear. However, he will have to face a tough opponent in defending champion Ripslinger (Roger Craig Smith) who will do anything to make sure Dusty doesn't win.
"I like to pick up hitchhikers. When they get in the car I say, "Put on your seat belt. I want to try something. I saw it once in a cartoon, but I think I can do it."


Explore more flavours in your cooking with the Hotpoint Built-In Double Electric Oven, a combination of superior capacity, automatic functions and self-cleaning technology. With 74L of cooking space in the main cavity, three automatic functions let your cook on Multi-Levels, Defrost or Slow Cook with ease. Featuring a Circulaire Fan, reduce cooking time by 20% through a clever combination of fan and rear element heat production to ensure even cooking between the shelves. A great function if you love to batch bake or create delicious pastries. Complementing the main cavity, the top oven provides a further 42L of capacity with the option to heat traditionally, or grill. When it comes to cleaning the oven, this model features Catalytic Liners – a self-cleaning system that requires no chemicals as special panels against the oven wall catch food and fat spits, evaporating them during the cooking process. Including three shelves plus a grill pan, the Hotpoint Built-Under Double Electric Oven offers everything you need for creating tasty dishes.


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Shiites in Revolt: Why Paul Wolfowitz Is in a State of Shock
by Juan Cole
Mr. Cole is professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan and author of Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shiite Islam (I.B. Tauris, 2002). His weblog is www.juancole.com.
Religious Shiite parties and militias in Iraq have recently stepped into the gap resulting from the collapse of the Baath Party, especially in the sacred shrine cities. This development must have come as a shock to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who in early March preferred Iraqis as US allies to Saudis, saying that they are secular and "overwhelmingly Shia, which is different from the Wahhabis of the peninsula, and they don't bring the sensitivity of having the holy cities of Islam being on their territory." Wolfowitz and other pro-war policymakers were right that large numbers of Shiites, from the educated middle class to factory workers, are secular Iraqi nationalists. But they were dead wrong to discount the power of the religious forces, and seem ignorant of the centrality of the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala. The neo-conservative fantasy of Iraq is now meeting the real Iraq, on the ground, in the shrine cities as well as in the smaller, mostly Shiite towns in the south of the country. Western audiences are discovering that Iraqi Shiites, while perhaps unified in their hatred for the dissipated Baathist regime, are not unified in their vision for a post-war Iraq.
NAJAF RIVALRIES
The leading cleric at Najaf -- shrine city of holy figure Ali b. Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad -- is Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, age 73. Born in Mashhad, Iran, he came to Najaf (pop. 560,000) in 1952 and settled permanently. Like most of the Najaf establishment, he rejects Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's theory of clerical rule or the "guardianship of the jurisprudent" - the doctrine by which Khomeini overturned centuries of quietism among Shiite clergy, helping to fuel the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Sistani and his circles have also been critical of human rights abuses in post-revolutionary Iran. Not long after US troops entered Najaf on April 8, 2003, he was reported to have made an oral proclamation urging Shiites not to interfere with the soldiers, a statement eagerly cited by Wolfowitz as the "first pro-American fatwa." (The statement was not actually a fatwa.) The following week, however, Sistani insisted that Iraq must be ruled "by the best of its children." His spokesman and eldest son, Muhammad Rida Sistani, probably distilled his father's thoughts when he said, "The Americans are welcome, but I don't think that it's a good thing that they stay for long."
When the US military apparently briefly arrested Sheikh Muhammad al-Fartusi and two other clerics who had been sent to Baghdad on April 21, it immediately provoked a protest of 5,000 angry Shiites across from the downtown Palestine Hotel. Al-Fartusi had been sent by the Najaf establishment to Baghdad to preach the Friday prayer sermon at the al-Hikma mosque to a congregation of 50,000. His sermon said in part that the US could not impose a formal "democracy" on Iraq that allowed freedom of individual speech but denied Iraqis the ability to shape their own government.
Sistani emerged as the most senior ayatollah in Najaf after the 1999 assassination of Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, killed on the orders of Saddam Hussein's elder son Uday for defying the deposed Iraqi dictator. Today Muqtada al-Sadr, the 30 year-old son of the martyred cleric, is among Sistani's most important rivals in Najaf. In 1999, after his father was killed, Muqtada went underground. He organized the desperately poor Shiites of Najaf and nearby Kufa, and established authority, as well, in the Shiite slums of eastern Baghdad, home to 2 to 3 million people. The Sadr movement that he leads insists that only the rulings of Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr may be followed, and is opposed to immigrant Iranian clerics like Sistani having authority in Iraq. These ideas are unorthodox in the mainstream Usuli Shiism which predominates in Iraq and Iran. According to these mainstream teachings, it is forbidden to follow the rulings of a deceased jurisprudent, and it is recognized that Shiites may follow any learned, upright jurisprudent they choose. Muqtada is young to gain such authority.
SADDAM CITY RENAMED
The Sadr movement appears to be intolerant and authoritarian, and to have a class base in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods brutalized by Baath Party goons. Eyewitness accounts of the mob killing on April 10 of an American-backed rival ayatollah, Abd al-Majid al-Khoei, flown into Najaf from a decade-long exile in London, implicate the Sadr movement. Members of this movement then surrounded the houses of Sistani and Ayatollah Said al-Hakim, nephew of Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), demanding that these two leave Najaf immediately. This attempt at a coup in the clerical leadership of the shrine city was forestalled when 1,500 Shiite tribesmen came in from the countryside to protect Sistani and al-Hakim.
Muqtada views Sistani as spineless for having refused to step out of his quietism and oppose Saddam Hussein. He views expatriate politicians and clerics now returning to Iraq in the same light, heaping abuse on Ahmad Chalabi and the secular-leaning Iraqi National Congress, for instance. The Sadr movement wants an Islamic republic in Iraq, even if not one exactly like the one Khomeini built in Iran. Press reports from the slums of Baghdad suggest that Muqtada is idolized there and that most of the armed militiamen now patrolling the neighborhoods of the renamed Sadr City (formerly Saddam City) are his followers. One report said that they had repelled an attempt to infiltrate the city by a rival Shiite militia, the Tehran-based Badr Brigade of SCIRI. Like most other Iraqi Shiite clerics, Muqtada wants the Americans out of Iraq on a short timetable.
TO KARBALA
SCIRI, headed by Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, is in essence an offshoot of the revolutionary al-Da`wa al-Islamiyya Party founded in the late 1950s. Al-Hakim was forced abroad to Tehran in 1982 by Saddam's persecution of key al-Da`wa figures. SCIRI has a paramilitary wing of 10,000 to 15,000 armed fighters, likely trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and commanded by Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim. The al-Hakims are said to be close to hardliners like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Khomeini's successor as Supreme Leader in Iran. SCIRI formed part of the Iraqi National Congress and was given 15 out of 65 seats on the provisional governing council formed at the Iraqi opposition meeting in London in December 2002. SCIRI figures attended State Department meetings about overthrowing Saddam, and spoke to the press about their negotiations with the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about a role for the Badr Brigade in fighting alongside US troops during an invasion. Since the Bush administration had labeled SCIRI's backers in Iran part of the "axis of evil," this initial willingness to cooperate with them was breathtaking in its cynicism.
From January of 2003, however, ideology asserted itself over pragmatism, and the Bush administration suddenly broke with SCIRI. Attempts were made by US National Security Council official Zalmay Khalilzad, reportedly in coordination with the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, to dilute SCIRI influence within the INC. Then, at meetings with the opposition groups in Turkey in late January, Khalilzad made it known that the US intended to administer Iraq itself for some time after "regime change," instead of working through an Iraqi provisional government. Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim immediately denounced this plan as equivalent to a US colonial occupation, and threatened that the Badr Brigade would attack US troops if they overstayed their welcome. He clearly felt betrayed by this dramatic turnabout in US policy.
The US warned Iran not to allow Badr Brigade forces into Iraq during the US invasion. Al-Hakim maintains that they slipped into the country even so. As of April 17, Badr Brigade gunmen controlled the town of Baquba (pop. 163,000) near the Iranian border, and a Badr Brigade force allowed SCIRI cleric Sayyid Abbas to occupy the mayor's mansion in Kut (pop. 360,000). When Marines attempted to intervene, a crowd of 1,200 townspeople gathered, chanting slogans against INC leader Ahmad Chalabi, and the soldiers decided to back off. US officers marginalized Abbas at a town hall meeting on April 19, but afterward, the cleric held an afternoon rally that was reported to be "bigger than ever." According to the Daily Telegraph's correspondent, "Mr. Abbas voiced what are quickly becoming the standard demands: an Islamic, Shia-dominated state for Iraq, and an end to American occupation."
Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, deputy head of SCIRI, returned to Iraq on April 16, arriving at Kut to cheers, presumably preparing the way for his older brother to do the same. In a press interview, the younger al-Hakim pledged that SCIRI would work together with other parties in the new Iraq. In Kut on April 18, he gave an interview with Iranian television in which he said, "we will first opt for a national political system, but eventually the Iraqi people will seek an Islamic republic system." He added that the will of Shiites for an Islamic system would prevail in democratic elections, since they are 60 percent of the population.
On April 18 Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, still in Tehran, called upon Shiites to converge on the shrine city of Karbala on April 22 "to oppose a US-led interim administration and defend Iraq's independence." SCIRI spokesman Abu Islam al-Saqir added, "To the Iraqi people, US domination is no better than the dictatorship of the ousted brutal regime of Saddam Hussein." Tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites are currently on their way to the city to commemorate the martyrdom of the prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein, who died in a battle on the Karbala plain in the seventh century. Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim's appeal to the symbology of Karbala for political purposes is an attempt to depict the US military as equivalent to Yazid, the opponent of Hussein in the epochal battle who is viewed by Shiites as the martyred imam's oppressor.
"NO ONE REPRESENTS US"
Despite having birthed SCIRI, the Al-Da`wa al-Islamiyya Party itself remains a separate organization, with a commitment to Islamic government. It has London, Tehran and Iraq-based factions, of which only the London representatives have been willing to talk to the Americans. Some reports say many in the Iraqi al-Da`wa are loyal to Lebanese Hizballah leader Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. Fadlallah was born and educated in Najaf, going to Lebanon only in 1965. Hizballah has threatened violence against US troops in Iraq. Other than its Tehran branch, al-Da`wa, like the Sadr movement, is oriented toward an indigenous Iraqi politics and rejects Khomeini's "guardianship of the jurisprudent" in favor of the theories of Islamic government developed by Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, who was killed by Saddam Hussein's regime in 1980. (This figure is the uncle of Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, eponymous founder of the al-Sadr movement, also murdered by the late regime.)
A somewhat more moderate al-Da`wa leader, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, refused to attend the US-sponsored leadership meeting near Nasiriyya on April 16, saying he objected to cooperating with a US military administration. His view seems to have predominated in the party. Al-Da`wa organized the demonstration held on April 15 at Nasiriyya (pop. 535,000) to protest the conference being presided over by retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, head of the Office of Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction charged by Washington with administering post-war Iraq. Press reports said "thousands" demonstrated. They chanted, "No, no Saddam! No, no United States" and "Yes, yes for Freedom! Yes, Yes for Islam." Their placards read: "No one represents us in the conference." On April 19, al-Jaafari signed a letter to a meeting of countries neighboring Iraq, calling for the immediate establishment of a technocratic provisional government, suggesting that al-Da`wa remains less clerically oriented than other Shiite factions. Among the al-Da`wa leaders in Nasiriyya is the newly returned former exile, Muhammad Bakr al-Nasri, a prominent cleric. He is said to be the party's "philosophical guide." Al-Da`wa Party officials fear that they will be locked out of political competition by the superior paramilitary capabilities of SCIRI and the Sadr movement.
VACUUM FILLED
Among the big surprises of the two weeks following the fall of the Baath Party in Iraq is the way in which Shiite religious leaders and parties moved immediately into the vacuum. This process was facilitated by the thinness on the ground of US troops, in accordance with the Rumsfeld military plan that rejected Pentagon requests for larger military forces. Eastern cities like Baqubah and Sadra are reportedly under Shiite control with apparent backing from Iran. Some Failis or Shiite Kurds who largely emigrated to Iran under Saddam Hussein's regime are now coming back to Iraq with Iranian backing (a Faili militia from Iran is reported to have recently taken over the eastern city of Badra). SCIRI has also attempted to assert itself in Kut, and has stymied the Marines there because of popular support. Nasiriyya appears to be virtually ruled by the al-Da`wa Party. Sadr City is patrolled by militias of the Sadr movement, and it is powerful in Najaf and Kufa. The other sacred city, Karbala, has also established a council of clerics and tribal sheikhs for self-rule.
Among major Shiite population centers, only Basra appears to have resisted this trend, in part perhaps because of different policies pursued by the British commanders there, and in part because of the influence of the secular Shiite middle and working classes. Outside Basra, secular-leaning Shiites have been hampered in asserting themselves by their lack of organization and lack of any paramilitary force. It may be that many are also stunned by the humiliating defeat of an avowed champion of secular Arab nationalism by a Western power.
It remains to be seen if the US interim administration can disarm the Shiite religious militias and recover enough control of the Shiite urban areas to allow something like free multi-party politics to emerge. Certainly, the Sadr movement mobs in Najaf would not countenance such a thing if they can stop it. Nor is SCIRI probably interested in genuine popular politics. The Shiite religious political parties and movements tend to be hierarchical and authoritarian despite their popular appeal, in accordance with Usuli convictions about the need to give blind obedience to trained jurisprudents. Shiite religious demands for an Islamic state are foredoomed to created conflict with Sunni Arabs and Kurds, who will not tolerate rule by ayatollahs or imposition on everyone of strict Shiite law. The Kurds, of course, have their own militias. Historian Ervand Abrahamian has compared the ideology of Khomeini's Iran to the corporatism that prevailed in the Argentina of Peron. At least initially, the neo-conservatives, who hoped that Shiite militias would fight Saddam Hussein's armies alongside invading US soldiers, may have unleashed this sort of mass politics in the formerly rigidly controlled Iraq.
This article was first published by the Middle East Report Online, April 22, 2003, under the title:"Shiite Religious Parties Fill Vacuum in Southern Iraq" at this link: http://www.merip.org/mero/mero042203.html
Hugh Graham - 12/31/2003
Dear Juan Cole-
I have been a follower of Informed Comment since the fall and remain highly impressed. I've been collecting a great deal of data on the Shiites in postwar Iraq from different sources, you included: a magazine will be sending me to Iraq in February or March to a story about the Shiites. Any advice, contacts or tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Hugh Graham.
mike wargo - 8/18/2003
You have got to be kidding me, you liberals have your head so far in the sand it seems hopeless. Bill Clinton must take huge responsibility for the attacks. On sept 11, Bush was in office for just 9 months while Bill Clinton had eight years to do something about Bin Laden. If you recall correctly he was more preoccupied with polls and Monica than any kind of solid effort to rid the world of Bin Laden. On Clinton's watch we had the first WTC bombing, the bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the most insulting the bombing of the USS Cole. Besides lofting a few token cruise missles, Clinton did NOTHING. This gave Bin Laden more confidence to plan bigger and better things. You liberals always whine about the election..The "fair" media did many recounts in Florida and the results were still the same, Bush won. Believe me, CNN would be crying every night if they found just one Gore win. I thank GOD every day Gore lost. Unlike popular liberal opinion Mr. Kriz doing nothing only appeases men like Bin Laden and Hussein. We all wish we could live in a world of peace and love where there is no violence, but once again you must pull your head out of the sand and wash your eyes. While I never embrace war, force is the only thing these people understand and going into Afghanistan and Iraq showed these people we are serious. Your ideas are very dangerous politics, imagined if we would have done nothing about Hitler? While I am not happy Iraqi civilians died, I still can't stop thinking about 3000 innocent americans. Thank God we have a President who is finally facing these problems..I feel much safer with Bush in power than your Clinton Ignore, I mean Gore team.
stonefruit - 5/1/2003
who's behind it all? the profit motive and transnationals. not complicated. cfr, bilderberg et al are just calibration devices. http://www.democracyunbound.com
crispy - 5/1/2003
Herodotus - 5/1/2003
The part I love most about the conspiracy theorists is that they can't come to any agreement about who _really_ lies behind it all...within this article we've got "the jews" and "the corporate Americans". Who's next? The joggers? Cthulu?
Gee, and I thought the Masons were behind everything.
Please remove your tin foil hat at the door.
boilerman10 - 4/30/2003
To Anita, the Iraq Gambit seems to have exposed some cracks in the Bush junta. The infighting over Colin Powell, revelations of bypassing reporting/screening requirements about the health of our troops, and the surfacing of highly inflammatory charges about the 9/11 attacks, to say nothing of the the sudden "unpopularity" of discussions about our primary "causis belli", WMD's......."Oh, they're not important.......", leave an impression that Bush is presiding over a "disorderly house." A web of lies? That's just the beginning! And think, there are administration types who want more war in Islamic Asia!
The NetArchitect - 4/30/2003
You tate that Bush has made the world a more dangerous place, but thats not quite the truth of it. So many people are busy looking in the wrong places, for the answers, when they stare you each and every one in the face every time you see the news. It is not that Bush, or Haliburton or the Carlyle group have made the world a more dangerous place, although they most assuradly have not helped any with their Money Grubbing Zionist Ways. They are the puppets, the talking heads, the front men, but while you are all busy blaming the puppets, you have missed the real criminals... the ones who got away.
The puppet-masters have done in a matter of months, what All the world could not achieve in 200 years, and that is to make the USA Synonomous with the Racist State of Israel. You remember them guys right? The only state on the planet dedicated to being Completely Jewish. While you were sleeping America, the Paul Wolfowitz's and the Ari Fleichers and the Richard Pearles, and the putz who keeps enforcing the Patriot Act, which is the largest Crock of Horsecrap I have ever seen, and it will become the last straw on the backs of Americans you can be sure. The FBI has gone to hell in a handbasket, becoming nothing more than an arm of the ADL which is a racist organization dedicated to keeping the white American down, if the words white, and power, or white and america are placed together in the same sentence. They evoke the Nazi paranoia on America whining "America is a Multi-Cultural Nation. No, its not, it was never intended to be, and it will not last as one. I will leave you with the words of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, have a nice day...
They (the Jews) work more effectively against us, than the enemy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in... It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pests to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.
I agree fully with General Washington - that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration. That menace, gentleman is the Jew.
In whatever country Jews have settled in any great numbers they have lowered its moral tone; depreciated its commercial integrity; have segregated themscives and have not been assimilated; have sneered at and tried to undermine the Christian religion upon which that nation is founded by objecting to its restrictions; have built up a state within a state; and when opposed have tried to strangle that country to death financially, as in the case of Spain and Portugal.
For over 1700 years the Jews have been bewailing their sad fate in that they have been exiled from their homeland as they call Palestine. But, gentlemen, did the world today give it to them in fee simple, they would at once find some reason for not returning. Why ? Because they are vampires, and vampires do not live on vampires. They cannot live only among themselves. They must subsit on Christians and other peoples not of their race.
If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting-houses rubbing their hands. I warn you gentlemen, if you do not exclude Jews for all time, your children will curse you in your graves.
Let the Jews, gentlemen, be born where they will, or how many generations they are away from Asia, they never will be otherwise. Their ideas do not conform to an American's and will not even though they live among us ten generations. A leopard cannot change its spots. Jews are a menace to this country if permitted entrance, and should be excluded by this Constitution.
Chad Nagle - 4/30/2003
This is a scholarly and very thought-provoking piece of work. It would have been good to see such analysis gain more currency before the invasion was launched. But since the war party falsified the conclusions of intelligence reports, it can be little wonder it ignored such sober thinking as this.
Mike - 4/30/2003
>> Secondly, that the Sunnis and Kurds will not, as Professor Cole noted, tolerate being ruled by Shiite ayatollahs. Even backed by the entire armed forces of Iran, the Sadr militants do not have the power to defeat the United States, the Kurdish militias and the Sunnis combined.
George "Ghengis" Bu$h - 4/30/2003
Do you honestly think that Bu$h did any of this on his own? Bu$h Sr., Cheney and Rumsfeld are running the country, not the monkeyboy puppet they use to fool the world into thinking that Amerika is being run by a harmless idiot. Amerika is run by Halliburton, Brown & Root, the Carlyle Group and a whole host of other corporate fascists, the power of Hollywood pales in comparison to the power these corporations have. I'm sure this is probably too much for you to believe, or you might think this is insulting and "anti-American", but it's no different than the end result some of our more honest presidents have warned us about many times in the past. America's Democracy was short-lived, America started as an Oligarchy and it is now dying as an Oligarchy. The same Anglo fundamentalist Christian financiers we had fought to gain independence from control America again, they are using America as a weapon against the world.
Richard H. White - 4/30/2003
Ghandi got the British to leave India without a shot being fired.
Why could not Bush do the same in Iraq?
What did the Taliban do with the $43,000,000 million money gift that Bush gave to the Taliban in May of 2001? Where did that money go?
wk - 4/30/2003
Iraqian Democracy will be an actuality. Enjoyment of religious freedom in Iraq will exist only when all are allowed to refuse religion as a way of life.
If one is not greatfull for thier release,
then darkness will forever fill thier heart,
Some Iraqis should re-remember one notion... Iraq is similar to many other nations world-wide... that itself is composed of more than one type of person, one group, or one distinct way of life.
Welcome back, GET ALONG or else !
Stephen Kriz - 4/29/2003
Steve Kriz
Gus Moner - 4/29/2003
Let me squeeze in a comment, NY Guy. We have for centuries been hearing the vey tall tale of fighting "this" war to make the world safe for our children or grandchildren, or as you put it, (enabling) "my grandchildren to live in a peacefulful world" yet it seems that lucky, peaceful generation never quite arrives. It's because each war begets another.
We fought to make the world safe for democracy once, and it is still "unsafe". We fought the war to end all wars to save our children from fighting a war in their lifetime, and more were (and are) indeed forthcoming.
So, enough rubbish and propaganda. We fight wars to obtain people's resources, compliance or the economic and geo-political position and resources to obtain or maintain the supremacy the NSC says we must have.
March along, to the next war to end all wars or to save us from WMD, bring democracy somewhere, or whatever, whatever they tell you next time. The only certain thing is that the next war, like all the others, will bring huge benefits to those who wealthy men promote it.
I made no such connection between the fact that Chuck Hagel owns a significant share of Diebold, Inc. and the election fraud perpetrated by Katherine Harris and her (ick!) lover, Jeb Bush. Two separate things - it should be fairly clear to any intelligent reader. I am just saying that the Dirty Tricks Party (i.e. the GOP) has so many ways to commit electoral fraud that any chance of getting a fair national election is all but gone. Far more significant than the fact that the Palm Beach county ballots were so poorly designed that they caused several thousand voters to cast their ballots mistakenly for Pat Buchanan was the illegal purging of voter rolls undertaken by the mascara-caked Katherine Harris and her minions. Greg Palast in his book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" estimates that as many as 50,000 Democratic votes were lost by this illegal purging of votes. In other words, Gore would have won handily, were it not for Harris' treachery. The confusion over the Palm Beach ballots that you are referring to was even acknowledged by Pat Buchanan, who stated that he knew that those elderly people, many of whom were Jewish, never intended to vote for him. To mock elderly people for their confusion over a horribly designed ballot shows the depth to which Republicans will sink to justify the unelected moron in the White House. Must be more of that "compassionate conservatism".
Spin all you want, we have the wrong man in the White House, the electoral college system has failed the American people and democracy in America is dead.
Actually, most objective researchers have concluded that Al Gore would have won in Florida, had all the votes been counted. Bush only won based on the selective recount of the four counties that were contested. If a full state recount had occurred, that is, if the SCOTUS not stopped it prematurely, Al Gore would and should have been president. The SCOTUS decison in Bush v. Gore was the most political and treacherous Supreme Court decision in American history. In my view, American democracy died that day, December 12, 2000. And WE WILL NEVER, EVER GET OVER IT!
As far as Bush making the world safer, my God man, open your eyes! This world is a lot more dangerous place as a result of this misguided and foolish man. Don't absolve Bush of blame for 9-11, either! 9-11 happened on his watch, not Bill Clinton's. Clinton and his aides, most notably Sandy Berger, gave Bush's team plenty of warning about bin Laden, which they ignored. Bush callously took the entire month of August 2001 off to do what he does best - nothing. Meanwhile, Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Sheehi and cronies were buying plane tickets with fake IDs, wiring money all over the globe and doing other things that should have aroused suspicions, while Bush and his band of incompetents did nothing. I blame George W. Bush for 9-11, not Bill Clinton. Being the heartless fool that he is, Bush even uses 9-11 as a campaign prop now, going into the 2004 re-election campaign. The man is mindless and shameless and as Helen Thomas put it, "he is the worst president in all of American history."
Finally, I wouldn't gloat too much over the swift American victory in Iraq. After all, we were fighting a Third World country where many of the soliders hadn't eaten in days, had no shoes and were using 40 and 50 year old munitions. Some victory. It wasn't a war, it was a massacre. More like Wounded Knee than the Battle of the Bulge. The U.S. spends several hundred times what Iraq spends on defense (read, war). Quite a mismatch. Also, since Iraq had destroyed any WMDs they did have (which Bush knew and lied to the American people repeatedly about), they really had no defense and in fact, put up a much stronger defense than one would think they could have. So, gloat if you want, but I still say this is a war that should never have been fought. I hope you are also pleased with all the deaths of Iraqi civilians (over 3,000) that occurred.
No, don't think the war on terror is over. We just created a new generation of terrorists in Iraq, who are hatching plots to fly airplanes into our skyscrapers, nuclear power plants and chemical plants. I bet there are dozens of terrorists plotting misdeeds even as we exchange words over the Internet and accomplish nothing. Bush is making this a dangerous and evil world - Do not be deceived.
Peace is the only answer.
mark safranski - 4/27/2003
Let me get this straight - a guy who owns the majority stock in a voting machine company votes Republican. Therefore, Democratic voters being too ignorant,hurried or lazy to mark their ballots properly for Deomcratic judges in Democratic precints in Democratic Florida counties is the fault of a mysterious ( and technologically inexplicable ) GOP conspiracy ?
I believe there is an opening for a new member of the " Bush is Hitler " crowd that posts on Atrios' comment board.
NY Guy - 4/27/2003
Mr. Kritz,
The title of the article for us who read it was "Shities in Revolt: Why Paul Wolfowitz is in a state of Shock." Your responded was about the 2000 election, which independant researchers have already determined that George Bush won. I missed the connection, since the Florida election issue had been discussed ad nauseum, and Bush always wins, and I Did not see the connection to the current article. Please explain.
The second boring comment refers to the U. S. being a democracy, which it is. And since anti-war forecasters have been completely wrong about the rapid outcome of the Iraqi war I found your speculation boring to try again to determine the outcome of the huge success the U. S. experienced in Iraq.
Your comments about what my political views are just as unfounded as your other conclusions. What does Rush Limbaugh have to do with me or your inability to coherently frame an answer to the issue at hand.
Perhaps I did jump to a conclusion about having a script, but my experience is that if one does not have a counter argument they are advised to read P XXX of there script, and launch a counter attack on the person who opposes your comments. Which is what you have done.
I don't understand what your comment on peace is about. Explain to me what peace is and what period of peace are you referring to. I remember seeing people taking a header out 50,60 and 70 story windows in NYC and imagine they experienced peace when they reached ground level. I don't know what peace means when North Korea says they will build more nuclear weapons and use them as they want. I do know that I feel safer knowing that George Bush is doing something about protecting the Grand Ole U. S. A., and preventing a nuclear war which will enable my grandchildren to live in a peacefulful world and thereby allow you to publish your own thoughts in the Grand Ole U. S. A. We both should be thankful for this.
I appreciate your comments as they enable us to see how others portray the Grand Ole U. S. A. and enables us to be prepared to not only understand your position, but also encourage us to respond to it. Don't be a whinner like the hollywood types who like to have freedom of speech but get upset when others exercise their own freedom of speech and action. Tell us how you truly feel feel about America.
Keep posting. I want to hear what you have to say, and how you say it. Very informative.
NY Guy:
I don't know what could be boring, since what I just posted is something I have never posted. But, I guess it's easier than addressing the fact that Bush is an unelected tyrant who is systematically dismantling the Bill of Rights. Truth is a hard thing for conservatives to accept, hence the popularity of Rush Limbaugh, a confabulist of the highest order.
Stephen,
Boring, Boring, Boring. Get a new script.
Bush presupposes his re-election in 2004, because nefarious forces are afoot to ensure that happens. Republican operatives own or control most of the voting machine manufacturers in the U.S. and expect more electoral fraud of the sort we saw in Florida in 2000 - counting military ballots that were sent in late or unsigned, purging voter rolls selectively to ensure potential Democrats can't vote or their votes won't count and intimidation or harrassment of canvassing boards by hired goons like what happened in Miami-Dade county in 2000. If George's re-election is looking iffy, count on a terrorist event or other manufactured crisis, where martial law is declared and the elections are suspended. Make no mistake - the U.S. is in the middle of a slow motion coup d`etat.
Charley;
Maybe we should be working to bring democracy to America, instead of Iraq, where they don't want it and it won't work anyway. Count on an Islamic theocracy of one flavor or another in Iraq. It is inevitable.
Pray for peace.
I'm not so certain that everyone in the administration - we have to include the NSC and State specialists and the CIA analysts and their NIO for the Middle East - were caught unawares. Since S.O.P. in national security bureaucracies is to C.Y.A. I'm sure worst case scenarios percolated upwards to Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell and Cheney, even if they were in less vehement form then some of the analysts would have wished. The President was probably briefed not once but many times on the possible outcomes of an occupation of Iraq.
However, a budgetary decision was most likely made that adding " X" number of additional divisions costing " Y " billions was not worth it to possibly achieve the level of security over the population centers of Shiite areas that Mr. Cole ( or myself for that matter) might consider optimum. This is because the additional troops might not be able to guarantee those good results at such greater cost while a heavier American presence might serve as a focal point of Shiite-American friction.
It's worthwhile to remember that if the pro-Iranian factions among the Shiites were all-that powerful they would have overthrown Saddam themselves. Secondly, that the Sunnis and Kurds will not, as Professor Cole noted, tolerate being ruled by Shiite ayatollahs. Even backed by the entire armed forces of Iran, the Sadr militants do not have the power to defeat the United States, the Kurdish militias and the Sunnis combined. Some degree of realism will eventually sink in if the Shiites are made to realize that their only road to power lies through democratic elections in a de-centralized, federal Iraq. If the U.S. gives secular Iraqi elements time and space to organize politically, the religious parties will have many competitors.
http://www.zenpundit.blogspot.com
Suetonius - 4/25/2003
Mr. Cole's piece is very useful, for it is the first time I've come across something that lays out the various factions (one cannot always trust the intrepid newspaper reporters to keep factions straight).
What I wonder about, however, and what Mr. Cole has not provided much evidence for, is the degree and significance of the "surprise" in the administration over these developments. For example, was it always in the game plan that local Shi'ite uprisings would occur, or was the game plan that there would be none at all? Was the U.S. desirous of having only some rise up and not others? I don't mean to minimize the danger that certain Shi'ite groups pose to the smooth transition to democracy in Iraq, as Cole ably lays out. Still, a little more evidence on just how the administration was caught aback by this would help the context and allow me to be conviced that they were in fact surprised by this.
Charley - 4/24/2003
Well, sure. It has been two weeks and the Bill Of Rights has not yet been adopted in Iraq.
The radical Shia represent about 20% of Shia. That is about 12% of the total Population. Unlikely to be able to control the country. Certainly able to create problems for any successor government, though.
Those Shite Mullahs are not interested in power. That is why some "religious students" got into a battle and killed tow of them last week. Religion of Peace.
Does Juan Cole have a PhD in SpinMeister?
Anita Wills - 4/24/2003
It is too bad that Bush Junior did not listen to Daddy Bush. Bush Junior listened to advice from those who believe might is right. The Shiites, watched as Bush Junior did their dirty work (got rid of Saddam), and now they look like the good guys. Any action taken against the Shiites is going to strenthen their position against us. It would have been easier for Bush to have the UN lift sanctions against Iraq, and negotiate with Saddam. We are now billions of dollars into Iraq, with no chance of recouping any funds in the near future. The Bush Administration is acting as if they have already won the 2004 election. No President should make policies that will negatively affect Americans long after they are gone. At most it is an eight year job, and the dog should wag the tail, not vice versa. That is why we live in a democracy, isn't it? Bush is assuming that he will be re-elected in 2004, when he should be giving us reason to keep him in office.


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Blog, Guest Blog, Latest News, Spotlight
Guest Blog – The Mono Box: "Our industry cannot and will not evolve without investment in new talent."
The Mono Box has always prided itself on supporting freelancers creatively – providing opportunities that are lacking or less accessible in the industry. For 8 years, we have run workshops and events for actors, directors and writers as well as, more recently, designers and movement directors. Training never stops but we also prioritise the importance of community in an industry that can feel incredibly lonely and inaccessible.
This became more crucial than ever from March 2020 as we watched our industry fall to its knees. We were forced to re-evaluate our careers and our lives, to step back and notice all the gaping problems we'd let slide for so long. Tweets, articles and blog posts were thrown around about a utopian post-pandemic vision for theatre. Promises were made that have yet to come to fruition…
photo credit Helen Murray
We have always championed new voices and formalised this through a new writing scheme called PLAYSTART which has run for 3 successive years (2017-2019). After the events of last summer, and in response to the lack of opportunities for emerging talent during Covid-19, we got to work. We invested in 7 ethnically diverse writers from PLAYSTART, offering them what we knew was crucial in building a career: a commission, mentorship and a platform for their work. It is notoriously hard to crack that ceiling without someone paying you to do what you do best, and someone else who is several steps ahead of you career-wise providing a guiding light. Our industry cannot and will not evolve without investment in new talent.
We were keen to not only keen to put our money where our mouth is in terms of supporting emerging creatives, but also to discover a way to adapt theatre-making to the current global restrictions and advancing marriage of theatre and film. As we were locked in our homes, theatre had to adapt and enter people's living rooms and kitchens. Amidst the "it's not the same" grumbles, we also quickly realised that this format was providing access to audience numbers we only dream of.
And so RESET THE STAGE was born. A collection of 7 filmed monologues responding boldly to where we are as an industry and where we could be, if we committed to platforming – nationally and internationally – more diverse voices, bodies and stories.
In addition to the mentorship from leading playwrights including Duncan Macmillan, Alice Birch, Lucy Prebble and Theresa Ikoko, we provided the writers with actors, a theatre and a film crew to help realise their vision. All in lockdown, when the theatres were empty.
The pieces have been directed by Roberta Zuric (part of The Mono Box's PLAYSTART 2018) and was mentored by Ned Bennett.
CYNTHIA by Vivian Xie Stills ; Starring Isabella Laughland ; Directed by Roberta Zuric ; Director of Photography: Fẹ́mi Awójídé ; First Camera Assist: Stephen Ofori ; Sound Recordist: Luise Guertler ; Stills Photographer: Helen Murray ; Gaffer: TC Thomas ; Producer: Joan Iyiola & Alison Holder ; Co-Producer: Miles Sloman Reset The Stage ; Monobox ; Soho Theatre ; London, UK ; 30th March 2021 ; Credit and copyright: Helen Murray
7 stellar actors jumped on board with all guns blazing and delivered mesmerising and incredibly nuanced performances: Shane Zaza, Ken Nwosu, Thalissa Teixeira, Danny Kirrane, Isabella Laughland, Sharon Duncan-Brewster and our own co-AD Joan Iyiola. We paired them up with one of our partner venues – Arcola, Almeida, Bush, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, Soho Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Young Vic – all who passionately committed to the project's ethos and offered invaluable support.
The films within RESET THE STAGE have been achieved to an exceptionally high standard, by a small but mighty team. We are so excited to share them with the world and to show what can happen when new voices are given a platform to showcase their work.
The films launched on 17th June to outstanding feedback and a brilliant 4* review from WhatsOnStage lauding the project's beautiful outcome and bold response to our industry's perilous state.
Screening repeated 1 to 3 July and tickets are on sale now
July 2, 2021 /by Carl Woodward
Tags: Almeida, Arcola, Bush, Culture, digital arts, guest blog, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, Soho Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, The Mono Box, theatre, Young Vic
https://www.mrcarlwoodward.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15822FA8-FD40-4988-99D4-34C66005C366.jpeg 854 1280 Carl Woodward https://www.shwetas11.sg-host.com//wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Copy-of-Carl-Woodward-2-300x66.png Carl Woodward2021-07-02 07:27:422021-07-04 13:43:15Guest Blog - The Mono Box: "Our industry cannot and will not evolve without investment in new talent."
Northern Stage artistic director Natalie Ibu interview: "I want more dialogue and less monologue."
Park Theatre's Jez Bond: "Many freelancers have tragically left our industry and there is a lot of hard work ahead."
Park Theatre, Jez Bond: "Theatres have to come up with novel ways to make money."
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