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Category Archives: Billy Cobham
by dunderbeck1980 | May 16, 2018 · 12:04 pm
Billy Cobham's 'Spectrum': A Drummer At 74, A Debut Album Nearing 45
Spectrum was an album that I had to grow into. And that growth occurred through a specific kind of context as well. Knowing full well that the album was Billy Cobham's debut as a leader following his departure from the Mahavishnu Orchestra? I was very psyched up to hear this album upon first learning about it a decade or so ago. At the time? My views on progressive instrumentation was caught between the influence of my own likes and the happiness of others. The precision style of what I call "speed fusion" put me off to some degree at the time because of that ambiguity.
It was growth from both within and without myself that led to appreciating Spectrum more. "Quadrant 4" is basically a blues based combination of the jazz fusion synthesizer playing of Jan Hammer with Cobham and Tommy Bolin giving the song a shuffling hard rock theatrics about the general atmosphere of the song. "Searching For The Right Door" begins as a grandly percussive drum solo before going into a more funk oriented stomp for the title song. "Anxiety" similarly goes into the uptempo,rhythm guitar based uptempo funk/fusion of "Taurian Matador".
"Stratus" is a tremendous near 10 minute number that takes the progressive drum solo into a rhythm guitar/electric piano led funk storm- before returning to a full band version of that huge intro sound yet again. "Le Sis" has another mellow electric piano based jazz/funk groove about it with a strong melody and slippery synth solo. "Red Baron" is still my favorite number here-with it's slow stomping groove keeping itself funky in the James Brown tradition. This concludes the blend of jazz rock soloing and jazz funk grooves that pepper themselves across the album.
One of the things that I'll bet that suits me more listening to this album today? It's very much created with musicians in mind. Melody and song structure takes an almost total aside for instrumental ability. As well as extremely complex changes in rhythm. As casual listening? It might not work as well. It is an album you have to invest in,study it a bit. Each song encompasses so many contrasting themes? It's not even something you can dance to. Yet if your in just the right mood? This is seriously addictive,not to mention extremely well played on,jazz/funk/fusion at it's finest.
Filed under Billy Cobham
Tagged as album reviews, Billy Cobham, classic albums, drums, fusion, guitar, Jan Hammer, jazz funk, jazz rock, Spectrum, synthesizer, Tommy Bolin
by dunderbeck1980 | October 13, 2016 · 11:16 am
Look Out For #1@40-George & Louis Johnson Tell Us About The Funk That All Of Us Release
Somehow it never occurred to me that the Brothers Johnson's debut album Look Out For#1 was celebrating its 40th anniversary. Sadly,it did so without the presence of the late great Louis Johnson-who passed away in the spring of 2015. One of the most important things to say about this album,released on new years day of 1976,is that it represents the very peak of #1 funk-a time when the music was at its strongest in terms of crossover. It was also Quincy Jones' first major funk/soul production for another artist. Which in turn paved the way for Quincy's success in that arena in the early 80's.
George and Louis Johnson started playing professionally with Billy Preston as teenagers. As they approached adulthood,the guitar/bass duo backed up Quincy Jones on his 1975 album Mellow Madness. The setup was that the brothers wrote the songs,played the guitar and bass parts while George did the majority of the vocals with his high,percussive vocal stutter. This was essentially the setup for Look Out For #1. Other prominent jazz/funk instrumentalists such as Dave Grusin,Ian Underwood,Lee Ritenour ,Billy Cobham,Toots Thielemans and Ernie Watts were among the musicians who played on the album as well.
One thing I've come to appreciate about this album is how it presents funk at its best recorded,produced and with its highest variety. "I'll Be Good To You",the primary single for the album,has a strong Sly & The Family Stone melodic singability. The instrumental "Tomorrow" has a similarly melodic vibe about it. Of course the song that gets the most harmonically advanced about that style is "Land Of Ladies",the one song sung by Louis in his grunting,cooing vocal approach. Of course,after one goes from there Look Out For #1 is extremely dense with funk.
"Get The Funk Out Of My Face" is the most commercially successful example of this albums funkiness-with its fast tempo and processed wah wah effects. "Free And Single" and 'Dancin' And Prancin'",with their heavy horn charts,take that same sound to the next logical step. A version of The Beatles "Come Together" and the closing "The Devil" are slow,gurgling deep funk that just grind the groove into the subconscious very deeply. The groove that pulls the sound of this entire album together in one song is titled for the brothers nicknames "Thunder Thumbs And Lightin' Licks".
There's a deep point to this album that actually passed by even me,an avid funkateer,for sometime. A lot of times,even the most classic funk albums of this period mixed heavy funk in with jazz,rock or heavily arranged ballad material on an album. Even though this album has at least one slower ballad type number,the main priority of this album is on heavy uptempo funk. The immense talent of the Johnson brothers,as well as the instrumentalists playing with them,showcase how much the funk genre celebrates instrumental,melodic and rhythmic complication at its finest.
Conceptually,this album attracted me from the first time I saw the album cover on CD 20 years ago this year. It was a fish eye view from below,featuring the brothers playing their bass and guitar in front of a bright blue sky-both seemingly in the middle of singing. George is wearing a silver shirt and slacks with Louis has a silky,Indian looking shirt draped over him while in jeans. The whole image is that of just what they were-two super hip young brothers looking to play funky music for the people with enormous skill,style and flair. And that is what Look Out For#1 represents to me as it turns 40 years old.
Filed under 1976, Billy Cobham, Brothers Johnson, classic albums, classic funk, Dave Grusin, Ernie Watts, Funk, funk albums, Funk Bass, funk guitar, George Johnson, Ian Underwood, instrumental, Lee Ritenour, Louis Johnson, Quincy Jones, Toots Theilmans
Tagged as 1976, Billy Cobham, Brothers Johnson, classic albums, classic funk, Dave Grusin, Ernie Watts, Funk, funk albums, funk bass, funk guitar, George Johnson, Ian Underwood, Instrumental, Lee Ritenour, Louis Johnson, Quincy Jones, Toots Theilemans
by dunderbeck1980 | May 16, 2016 · 1:02 pm
Anatomy of THE Groove: "Crosswind" by Billy Cobham
William Emanuel "Billy" Cobham shared the same Panamanian heritage with members of the 70's Latin-funk band Mandrill. After his family moved to New York and playing drums throughout childhood,Cobham attended the New York High School For Music And Art-after which he had a brief time in the army where he played in their band. Upon discharge, he played in Horace Silver's band-in addition to doing sessions with Stanley Turrentine, Shirley Scott and George Benson. He was part of the original lineup of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970's before branching out into a solo career.
His solo debut Spectrum was released in 1973 while he was still in the Mahavishnu Orchestra-with band mate Jan Hammer helping out on keyboards. This album is considered a fusion classic. Though it's funkiness comes mainly as bridges amidst elongated,speedy hard rock rhythms with elaborate improvisations. His sophomore album Crosswinds got far deeper inside the groove-especially with folks like George Duke and the Brecker brothers aboard. And it's the closing title song that makes that point best.
Cobham set's the groove up with a slow,funky drum with Lee Pastora providing some thick percussion accents. George Duke lays down a strong bluesy groove of his own with a loud,fuzzed out Fender Rhodes while John Williams brings in an excellent foundational bass line. The Brecker's and trombonist Garnett Brown provide some accenting,melodic horn charts. John Abercrombie,who worked with Cobham for years,provides some brittle,scintillating hard rock guitar solos until the rhythm section and the horn section brings the entire groove to an abrupt halt.
This song is a fantastic rocking funk-played by some talented jazz players who KNEW how to play funk and do some heavy rock soloing. Though the instrumentation is quite a lot more sleek and tight on this song,the shuffling drum/percussion part and slow,bluesy melody has a similar flavor to Funkadelic's song "Nappy Dugout" from the same general time period. It really showcases how high the then fairly new funk sound was effecting the most technically inclined of jazz/rock fusion players at the same time that genre was beginning to enter it's own peak period of musical excellence.
Filed under 1974, Billy Cobham, drums, Fender Rhodes, Funk Bass, Garnett Brown, George Duke, horns, jazz funk, jazz fusion, John Abercrombie, John Williams, Lee Pastora, Michael Brecker, percussion, Randy Brecker, rock guitar, Saxophone, trombone, trumpet
Tagged as 1974, Billy Cobham, drums, Fender Rhodes, funk bass, Garnett Brown, George Duke, horns, jazz funk, jazz fusion, John Abercrombie, John Williams, Lee Pastora, Michael Brecker, percussion, Randy Brecker, rock guitar, saxophone, trombone, trumpet
Anatomy of THE Original Super Heavy Funk for 5/25/2015: "Thunder Thumbs And Lightnin' Licks" by The Brothers Johnson
1976 now emerges for me as a tremendous year in funk. Name dropping in this case doesn't only seem required, but very necessary. You had Earth Wind & Fire with "Getaway" and "Saturday Night",The Isley Brothers with "People Of Today",Graham Central Station With "Entrow" and "Mirror",Isaac Hayes's "Groove-A-Thon",Kool & The Gang with "Open Sesame",Herbie Hancock's "Doin' it",The Crusaders with "Spiral" and "Feeling Funky",Stevie Wonder with "I Wish" and "All Day Sucker".And the list goes on.
Even in the jazz and rock sections of record stores? The funk seemed to be everywhere by this time with Steely Dan,Jeff Beck,The Doobie Brothers and Edgar Winter. Also during this year? There were the appearances of a few new artists who my friend Rique described so well as basically saying to the world "we're the new generation of funk".
George and the now late Louis Johnson were an LA bass/guitar duo who began their career as session people for big name stars of the early 70's such as Bill Withers,Bobby Womack and Billy Preston. On an apparent audition for Stevie Wonder's band Wonderlove? They were overheard by Quincy Jones. He bought them in to play,write and sing on his 1975 album Mellow Madness.
The Johnson's could not have had a more totally complete introduction if they tried. They had the support of Quincy,the access to the huge bevy of instrumentals that his reference provided and signing to the (at the time) artist owned A&M Records for their 1976 debut Look Out For #1. The second song on this album is an instrumental that, for me, showcases what really made them musically. It's titled after the brothers nicknames-"Thunder Thumbs And Lightnin' Licks".
The song begins with a delayed drum from Harvey Mason-accented by a bassy,greasy Clavinet solo from Dave Grusin introducing the first refrain. He then comes in with a higher,pitched bent synthesizer playing a bluesy guitar like riff that launches into a similarly themed full on melody of the song. This main chorus features George and Louis bass/guitar interaction mixed up high along with the melody. On the second refrain? Sahib Shihab plays an improvisation of the bluesy theme on flute.
After another chorus and refrain that again improvises on their two melodic themes? There's a bridge which heavily emphasizes the timbale work of Billy Cobham-with a little vocal jiving from the brothers themselves. After this the song returns to the man chorus-with swells into a James Brown like sustained rhythm guitar-let along by Glenn Farris's trombone to the fade. Throughout the song? The trumpets and sax's of Chuck Findley,Ernie Watts and Bill Lamb play call and response to everything else going on in the song itself.
The first time I ever heard this song,when I was about 11 years old? It was played at the beginning of a late 70's Saturday Night Live sketch starring Steve Martin,which took place in a disco. I instantly loved the groove,though it was a very minor aspect of the sketch itself. But did not know what it was. Nor who the Johnson brothers were. First time I heard this album in my early 20's? It was very exciting to be able to identify this song I'd loved for years.
While I have many examples of this I could rattle off? This is one of those songs that, for me, represents funk at it's most solid and complete. Both instrumentally and production wise. Quincy polishes up the sheen of this groove-featuring jazz/funk session greats with the new artists' for some of the most expertly enthusiastic playing of the 70's funk era. Rhythmically it's a direct transition from the thick,phat approach of the "united funk" years to the more polished rhythms of the disco era to come. It's one of the my favorite, and most defining funk instrumentals of all time.
Filed under 1970's, Billy Cobham, Brothers Johnson, Dave Grusin, Ernie Watts, Funk, Funk Bass, George Johnson, Harvey Mason, Jazz-Funk, Louis Johnson, Quincy Jones, Sahib Shihab
Tagged as 1970's, Billy Cobham, Brothers Johnson, Dave Grusin, Ernie Watts, Funk, funk bass, George Johnson, Harvey Mason, jazz/funk, Louis Johnson, Quincy Jones, Sahib Shihab
by dunderbeck1980 | November 14, 2014 · 12:23 am
Anatomy of THE Groove 11/14/2014 Andre's Pick: "Sign 'O' The Times" by Billy Cobham
One of the challenges that has arisen for jazz musicians during the fusion era was the book of standards they had for interpretive purposes. While original compositions were always pretty sound? A melodic theme from a contemporary artist could be a wonderful musical launching pad from which said musician could take flight. As Miles Davis and recently Robert Glasper pointed out? Well basically how many times can a musician do a song like "My Funny Valentine" or "The Look Of Love"? In the late 80's, Prince albums such as his musically iconic Sign 'O' The Times were not only getting serious reviews in jazz publications such as Downbeat. But musicians across the spectrum were discussing his instrumental and compositional ideas as well. One such musician was fusion veteran Billy Cobham. And he chose "Sign O' The Times" as an interpretive theme for his 1987 album Picture This-his final release for GRP.
Cobham starts out with a fairly basic drum machine pulse much like the original. Than he comes in on live drums with a commanding,rolling march rhythm. This is accentuated by a simple Caribbean style percussion chime throughout. The late Grover Washington Jr. plays the vocal part on his sax with not only his typically high level of soulfulness,but also a foreboding tone to his solo. On what would've been the second refrain? Grover's sax totally takes over as he improvises his own melody off of Cobham's marching back-round. He starts off rather bluesy and almost crying out. Than he begins to sound progressively angrier and more emotionally intense. All before calming down to play the songs bass line,and then returning back to the original melodic theme. At the songs conclusion,Cobham and Grover both gradually evolve into playing an instrumentally testifying march together while Ron Carter provides the bass line on the upright.
It's true that within the last couple of decades,Prince's songs have become enormously successful in terms of being covered by jazz and blues instrumentalists and bands. The most exciting thing about Billy Cobham's take on "Sign 'O' The Times" is how in tune he was with the song. He recorded his version and released it the same year that the original hit the public. Instrumentally speaking,Billy Cobham reaches into the lyrical theme of the song as a drummer for his take on it-almost more than he does the basic chords and melody. Adding a Caribbean style marching beat to the song lifted up the observing,questioning nature Prince originally evoked. Grover Washington Jr. is also most impressive-again playing his solos as a tone poem based more on the lyrics to the song rather than the straight melody. Considering what Prince was doing with his jazz oriented Madhouse recordings at this time? Musicians like Billy Cobham were really doing a wonderful job cross pollinating the flowers of the possible new jazz standards of musicians like Prince.
Filed under 1980's, Billy Cobham, drums, Fusion, Grover Washington Jr., Jazz, Prince, Robert Glasper
Tagged as 'Sign 'O The Times', Billy Cobham, drums, Funk, fusion, Grover Washington Jr. saxophone, jazz, Miles Davis, Prince, Robert Glasper, Ron Carter


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Home>In the spirit of Emma pamphlets.
Emma Cray was a close friend of mine. Unlike most people I know she became more interested and involved in political ideas and action as she got older rather than giving up on them. She moved to London, to live with me at the beginning of 1995, helped with the distribution and did her own thing too. On the 14th of September 1995 she was crushed by a truck whilst she was cycling through Mile End, in East London. My memories of her are full of love and beauty as well as intelligence, enquiry, imagination and fun. We publish these pamphlets in her memory and with her spirit of hope and determination to do something worthwhile despite everything! There is no party line here or consistency of thought but there is a constant desire to find out what is really going on and what we can do about it. "Debunking" the mental status quo as Emma and I liked to say.
Jon @ctive
Pamphlets in this series so far;
The Abolition of Work, by Bob Black.
The classic anti wage slavery text. "A rosy description of a possible society and a partial analysis of the one we live in. An essential text."
Hunger Strike, by the 121 Bookshop.
An illustrated tirade against body fascism and eating disorders.
The Individual, Society and the State, by Emma Goldman.
"The minds of men are in confusion, for the very foundations of our civilization seem to be tottering. People are losing faith in the existing institutions, and the more intelligent realize that capitalist industrialism is defeating the very purpose it is supposed to serve."
Mapuche, The People of The Earth, by Various authors.
A look at the plight of the Mapuche from what we call Chile and their centuries old struggle for land rights and recognition.
Notes on Anarchism, by Noam Chomsky.
A succinct defence of anarchism written in 1973 Chomsky stands by this work to this day.
Revolutionary Women Stencils, originally by Tui.
Our own version of Tui's marvellous idea! A pamphlet full of stencils and text celebrating women who have made their mark though often have not been recognised for it. We have added a couple of extra women and intend to keep updating and improving this booklet as reprints allow.
SCUM, Valerie Solanas.
A version of this extraordinary work thats cheap enough to give away as a present to anyone you think needs to re-examine their attitudes to Patriarchy and the status quo! Thought provoking doesn't suffice!
Witches, Midwives and Nurses, a history of women healers. by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English.
This is a fascinating study of the European history of women as healers from the Middle Ages through to the Twentieth century. The authors show how women's roles in health are inextricably linked to our oppression as women, to the deep-rooted institutionalised class system and to monopolies of knowledge.
Writings in Graffiti, Part 1 (The Twilight Man) by Chris Bowsher.
Those of you old enough to remember might recognise ChrisÕs name as the vocalist from RDF. Here at last he has realised a long ambition to be published (however small scale it may be!) We bring you poetry and prose (call them lyrics and a story if you prefer!) of the Surplus People.
Anarchism The Feminist Connection by Peggy Kornegger
and Anarcho-Feminism Two Statements from Black Rose Anarcho-Feminists.
Anarchism; What it Really Stands For and A New Declaration of Independence, by Emma Goldman.
Animal Liberation, The Animal Liberation Movement; Its Philosophy, its Achievements, and its Future,
by Peter Singer.
A classic introduction to specisism and the ideas behind Animal Liberation. Helps explain veganism to those who have no idea!
Beasts of Burden, Capitalism, Animals and Communism.
A discussion document with an additional text titled "Anarcho-punk, the ALF and the miners strike - a cautionary tale from the 1980s"
"Bondage Up Yours" Experiences of female Punks in the Nineteen Nineties, by M.Liptrot.
The result of a degree study by Michele a long in the tooth female punk from the North of England. This is an interesting collection of comments, interviews and history of womens participation in punk.
The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism, by Fredy Perlman.
A well respected text discussing Nationalism and the state.
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Anarchism But Were Afraid To Ask.
An Introductory pamphlet to contemporary anarchism originally from a Cardiff based group, reprinted several times since.
The EZLN by the WSM and the Zapatista Declaration of War,
text taken from The Workers Solidarity Movement's Red and Black Revolution magazine . Discusses the anarchist nature of the EZLN. Also included is the original Zapatista declaration from the 1st Dec 1993.
Fascism and Anti-Fascism, by Jean Barrot.
"The only way to defeat racism is to address it on a general and "political' level, showing how any division between proles (and racism even more viciously than xenophobia) always ends in them (all proles) being worse off, more degraded, more submissive."
Hot Damn and Hell Yeah!, by Ryan Splint.
A Mexican vegan cookbook from Australia!! With excellent skull heavy illustrations, this is fun and easy to use and ideal for those who like their food spicy!
You're Already Dead, by Crass.
Originally handed out at gigs twenty odd years ago this angry tirade seems painfully relevant today,
swap the names Reagan for Bush, Thatcher for Blair and we're back to basics!
See the catalogue for availability and price.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Deluxe Line Dance, McDonald's Attempt at an Arch Deluxe Dance Craze
BY Nick Greene
Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
In 1996, McDonald's introduced a new line of sandwiches in an effort to capitalize on an untapped market: urbane, culinary sophisticates. The Arch Deluxe, "the burger with the grown-up taste™," featured fancier ingredients ("bakery-style roll!") and a beefed-up price tag. It was an immediate and infamous failure, and the entire line was discontinued shortly after its disastrous and expensive rollout.
McDonald's' massive marketing campaign reportedly cost some $300 million. Commercials for the Arch Deluxe took a slightly unconventional track and featured children expressing outright disgust with the very product that was being advertised:
McDonald's also launched a website for the Arch Deluxe, and it can still be accessed thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Back in 1996, the fact that you had a website was far more important than whatever you actually put on it, and the Deluxe Line's barebones Internet presence reflects this. There's a industrial-looking cross-section of the Arch Deluxe, with descriptions in comic sans (naturally):
Even more intriguing is what lies behind the animated GIF of a gyrating Ronald McDonald. Clicking this brings you to a step-by-step instructional guide for the "Deluxe Line Dance," because what says "discerning gourmand" better than a dancing clown? According to the brief intro:
People across America are McSteppin' to the beat of the newest dance craze, the Deluxe Line Dance! Created by celebrity choreographer Debbie Allen, the new dance is fun and easy to learn. So put on your dancin' shoes and read on…
According to a Chicago Tribune article from the Arch Deluxe's launch, McDonald's intended for the Deluxe Line Dance to capitalize on the popularity of the Macarena, and they spared no expense: "McDonald's McShuttled employees from all around its Oak Brook headquarters campus for 'Do the Deluxe' lessons and a pep rally kicked off with a live performance by the Village People in full regalia."
While you may not be able to purchase an Arch Deluxe anymore, you can still keep the spirit of this marketing disaster alive by doing the Deluxe Line Dance. Don't skip step 7—"Step forward and form the 'Golden Arches' with your arms"—lest you end up looking like a juvenile fool.


Remember walking into an old-fashioned candy shop when you were a kid? You had your weekly allowance balled up in your hand, wondering what goodies it might buy. How much could you stuff into that paper bag, you wondered? The smell of saltwater taffy, cotton candy and chocolate filled the air, as you looked at glass jars filled with colourful candies and rows of treats on display.
Horse Creek Heritage Candy & Gifts brings back those moments, and lets today's children discover the magic of a traditional candy store for the first time.
Situated on Cochrane's main street right next to the legendary MacKay's Ice Cream outlet, Horse Creek evokes southern Alberta's western heritage. Stepping through the front door is like taking a step back in time. The look, feel and products at Horse Creek Candy & Gifts celebrate Alberta's prairie and ranching heritage.


Pay attention to shipping costs to make sure they're not exorbitant. A $40 bid for a $50 gift card is a good deal, but if the seller is charging some ridiculous cost for regular first-class shipping (like $8), your savings decrease dramatically. Most sellers offer free nintendo gift cards with "free" shipping or a nominal charge because they weigh next to nothing and cost little more than a stamp.
And who doesn't want to get a gift card from their favorite restaurant such as Applebee's, T.G.I. Fridays, International House of Pancakes (IHOP), Outback Steakhouse, Cracker Barrel or Ruby Tuesday? Most people love to eat out anyway, so for sure your friends and family will be thrilled to get one. You just can't go wrong by giving a nice lunch or dinner from a popular restaurant. If you're feeling generous, then you can give several to a single person. You'll definitely be regarded as a thoughtful and generous giver.


defect of traditional multifunctional instrument that with one function break down, all the others could not be used. The machine is with generous, elegant and portable design.
Smear the skin care gel onto skin,massage the skin with ultrasonic probe in circle movement to spread the skin care gel nicely on skin.Please choose the right probe based on your need.
2.First clean the operation part of the body,paint cream on the part to avoid ultrasonic heads from empty burning.Pause for a few minutes after 30 minutes use to restore.


There are a various risk factors causing the high rates of skin cancers in New Zealand.
Skin and Mole Check – Why?
Melanomas are dreaded for being potentially fatal cancers. They can occur in healthy individuals without pre warning and rapidly metastasize to the internal organs.
Fortunately, most melanomas are found in places that are easily visible, but only if we are aware and care to look for them.
Most melanomas grow silently without symptoms. Self-skin check will increase the rate of diagnosis and early detection.
Skin and Mole Check – How Often?
Cancer Council recommends all adults should check their skin and moles themselves every 3 months. Those at high risk should have a trained doctor examine them at least once a year. Melanomas can develop in between visits to your skin cancer doctor, therefore you should know how to check your own skin and moles.
A melanoma only shows the classic ABCD features when it has grown to a certain size. Therefore, do not wait until it has ALL the features. Any CHANGE to a mole needs to be examined by trained doctors with dermoscopy and specialised equipments. If you examine your skin regularly and observe for changes listed below, you will hopefully notice a potential melanoma at the early stage and have it examined.
Skin and Mole Check – How?
Obviously, you will need a find a private area with good lighting, and preferably with a large full-length mirror.
Note any existing moles, and their rough sizes and positions. You may wish to use a digital camera to record these areas, using the "macro" function if available, or keeping the camera a good distance from the skin to keep the photo in focus. It also helps to put a ruler on the skin to record the sizes of the moles.
Remember to check the back of your neck and legs. Also remember to check your fingers, toes and the nails.
benefit bone health. Vitamin D is required for the body to absorb calcium from our food. Adequate level of calcium is important against developing osteoporosis.
Vitamin D is produced through a process that starts when the skin is exposed to the UVB rays of the sun. This is the main source of Vitamin D.
A small amount of Vitamin D is also obtained from certain foods. This is normally not enough for your body's requirements.
Foods that contain Vitamin D include oily fish (such as salmon, tuna and mackerel), cod liver oil, cheese and egg yolks. Certain types of milk and margarine may have vitamin D added into them.
The UV index is a number issued by the Bureau of meteorology which is used to describe the strength of the sun's UV rays for a certain place on a certain day. It acts as a guide to help people avoid overexposure to the sun's UV rays when it is at harmful levels.
A UV index of 3 and above may damage your skin within a short exposure time and lead to increased risk of skin cancer.
A UV alert (in the form of a color coded graph) is issued by the Bureau of Meteorology, which will show the times of the day when the UV index is above 3. At these times, it is important to protect your skin from the sun.
Remember that UV radiation cannot be seen or felt, so the heat of the sun is not an accurate measure of the strength of the UV rays.
How much of my body do I need to expose to the sun to get enough Vitamin D?
During these summer months, most people will meet their vitamin D requirements by exposing their face, arms and hands for only a few minutes during the peak UV times (between 10am to 3pm) on most days of the week.
Remember that after a certain level, further sun exposure will not increase vitamin D production, but it will increase your risk of skin cancer.
Winter months may require two to three hours of total sun exposure per week to the face, arms and hands to get your vitamin D requirements.
Does my skin type affect the amount of sun I need to get enough Vitamin D?
Yes. Dark skinned (eg. Asians and Africans) people have more melanin production that gives them some natural protection against UV rays, but also means that less vitamin D is produced. These people may require as much as three to six times the amount of sunlight to get adequate amounts of vitamin D, compared to fairer skinned individuals.
Does using sunscreen mean I will not get enough Vitamin D production?
Not necessarily. Studies have shown that in real life conditions, regular sunscreen use does not significantly impact on vitamin D levels.
This was thought to be the result of more time spent in the sun (in the individuals who used regular sunscreen), so they already had adequate levels of vitamin D production.
How do I check if I have enough Vitamin D?
Vitamin D can be checked by a simple blood test. If this is found to be low, you can discuss your options with your GP or our skin cancer clinic doctor to assess the best way to increase your vitamin D levels.


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Q: Gunicorn is not logging on start-up while using custom logging config I am creating a Flask app to run on Gunicorn and needed the logs to be in JSON format and with a specific format.
As such, I created a custom "logging config" file.
Gunicorn is correctly logging, in JSON, when a request is received, but I lost the default "start-up logging" that Gunicorn used to be doing before.
I am launching the application like this:
gunicorn -w 2 --log-config resources/gunicorn_logging.config 'wsgi:app'

Here are the "gunicorn_logging.config" contents:
[loggers]
keys=root, gunicorn.error, gunicorn.access

[handlers]
keys=console

[formatters]
keys=json

[logger_root]
level=INFO
handlers=console

[logger_gunicorn.error]
level=ERROR
handlers=console
propagate=1
qualname=gunicorn.error

[logger_gunicorn.access]
level=INFO
handlers=console
propagate=1
qualname=gunicorn.access

[handler_console]
class=StreamHandler
formatter=json
args=(sys.stdout, )

[formatter_json]
class=src.logging_helpers.json_formatter.GunicornLogFormatter
format='%(log_level)s %(msg)s %(timestamp)s'

Here is the formatter code:
class GunicornLogFormatter(JsonFormatter):
    def add_fields(self, log_record, record, message_dict):
        super(GunicornLogFormatter, self).add_fields(log_record, record, message_dict)

        now = datetime.utcnow().strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ')
        log_record['timestamp'] = now

        if 'r' in record.args:
            log_record['request'] = record.args.get('r')
            log_record['msg'] = None
        if 's' in record.args:
            log_record['status_code'] = record.args.get('s')
        if 'level' in log_record:
            log_record['log_level'] = log_record['level'].upper()
        else:
            log_record['log_level'] = record.levelname

This is what I get when a request comes to the application, which is great:
{"log_level": "INFO", "msg": null, "timestamp": "2022-10-10T22:32:40.663159Z", "request": "GET /_/health HTTP/1.1", "status_code": "200"}

And this is what I lost and would like to get back, but in json format:
[2022-10-10 23:42:47 +0100] [95107] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 20.1.0
[2022-10-10 23:42:47 +0100] [95107] [INFO] Listening at: http://127.0.0.1:8000 (95107)
[2022-10-10 23:42:47 +0100] [95107] [INFO] Using worker: sync
[2022-10-10 23:42:47 +0100] [95108] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 95108
[2022-10-10 23:42:47 +0100] [95109] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 95109

I've tried adding prints inside the formatter "add_field" function to see if it was called on start-up, but it isn't so it doesn't look like I am losing the messages there somehow.
Any help is highly appreciated.

A: I solved this issue, which was simply a matter of having the logger for gunicorn.error at INFO logging level as such:
[logger_gunicorn.error]
level=INFO
handlers=console
propagate=1
qualname=gunicorn.error

Had no idea that the start-up logs end up in gunicorn.error, but here we are...
That being said, I now have a new problem, which is the fact that the logging doesn't dynamically replace the values for version, running port, etc. as it does by default without custom configuration.
I detail it here, in case you are having the same issue:
Gunicorn logging stopped replacing values

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Powder coating is a durable and attractive finish that can be used on an immense number of decorative and functional objects. The only limit to the number of things that we can powder coat is your imagination. In order to stir your imagination and offer some inspirational ideas, we have compiled a list of items that the professional powder coaters and sandblasters at Byers Bush can finish just for you.
Appliances: In the past, washers and dryer and other types of appliances were finished in a porcelain enamel that was easy to chip and damage. Powder coating has made appliances durable and lighter in weight, too. We can easily powder coat vintage appliances to make them look new and modern.
Art: Interior and exterior art pieces are often powder coated to increase durability and to provide interesting textures. Powder coating will protect art pieces from corrosion and damage from the elements. Powder coating also adds a contemporary look to art pieces.
Automotive items: Other than powder coating the entire car body, there are many car and motorcycle parts that can be easily finished. (There are some car makers that are actually testing powder coated finishes on entire car bodies.) These are a few car parts that we can and have powder coated: window trim, valve covers, brake assemblies, bumpers, shock absorbers, windshield wipers, mirror brackets, and trailer hitches.
Boating equipment: Any objects that can corrode, like handrails, ladders, anchors, cleats, and engine parts can be powder coated to help them withstand tough marine conditions. We can also powder coat marine research tools, too.
Construction applications: The architectural industry enjoys adding powder coated finishes to projects. It is common to see powder coating on light poles and fences, as well as guard rails on roads and hiking paths, and on signs and posts, too. In residential projects, powder coated finishes are found on mailboxes, gutters, and satellite dishes, too.
Everyday items: There are several items that you will find in your home that can be powder coated to add to the durability. For example, we proudly extend the life of fitness equipment like golf clubs, bikes, ski poles, and snowmobiles, too. We also will powder coat light fixtures, metal furniture, and metal antiques like old bread boxes. Other household objects that can be powder coated include wheelchairs, animal cages, strong boxes, model railroad parts, fans, fishing lures, pet dishes, hunting chairs, and free weight equipment.
Family treasures: Items that have passed through the hands of generations often begin to rust and deteriorate. We can powder coat special treasure so they can be passed down to new generations and actually used, too. These objects include metal cribs and baby strollers, hand tools, metal cups and spoons, wagons, and toys. Some customers have also asked to have war medals and other memorabilia.
Outdoor accessories: Without powder coating, outdoor accessories have short lifespans. Unless accessories are brought inside each day, they tend breakdown quickly. With powder coating, outdoor lifestyle products will last. Some popular outdoor items that benefit from powder coating include barbecue grills, and garden tools, as well as lawn mowers, garden tillers, patio umbrellas, hammock swings, and residential playground pieces.
Retail and office spaces: Retail fixtures and office necessities benefit from being powder coated. Since powder coating increases the durability of metal items, items that have heavy use will last longer when powder coated. Retail fixtures that are often powder coated include display shelves and clothing racks. Office spaces often have powder coated metal desks and filing cabinets as well as desk accessories that need to be built to last.
At Byers Bush, we love to get involved in special powder coating projects, so contact us at 905-625-4334.


text:
Falsomordellistena eocenica is een keversoort uit de familie spartelkevers (Mordellidae). De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 2003 door Kubisz.

Spartelkevers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Lisa Pendleton is one of the nurses that take care of the babies in the NICU at Alliance Health Deaconess Hospital.
Here at Alliance Health Deaconess Hospital, you will find the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, providing care for critically ill or premature infants. Their specially trained neonatal care professionals utilize advanced technology and their NICU is staffed 24 hours a day by highly specialized neonatal care nurses and doctors.
Among one of the nurses in the NICU, is Lisa Pendleton, RNC. Lisa grew up in Oklahoma City, OK and attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, OK.
Lisa has been a nurse for 28 years. Her first job as a nurse was at OMH, located downtown. Now, she works at Alliance Health Deaconess Hospital, in the NICU, where she has worked for 14 years. "I knew that I wanted to be a nurse when I was a sophomore in school. I have always loved children so I know this is a calling from God to continue to take care of these little babies," she said.
Asking Lisa what qualities make a good nurse, she replied, "A nurse needs to know when to ask for help when needed, whether it is asking a colleague or a doctor, asking is not a sign of weakness. Babies are not ours; they are only on loan until the babies get better," she said.
"Working in NICU, it is very important to make the parents feel comfortable. When they see their baby for the first time in NICU, they see all of the equipment, wires and leads, and everything that is going on. It's difficult for the parents to see their tiny little baby in the middle of all of that. Once everything is explained, the parent's tension begins to melt away. " Lisa commented.
"The favorite part of my job is seeing the confidence in the parents as they grow while their baby is in NICU. The parents realize that they can hold their baby, feed their baby and love their baby even though this wasn't like a usual delivery or like the past delivery with their other children," Lisa said. "Another favorite thing is the friendships that I have made over the years and continue to make. I still have friends from my very first job as a nurse; watching the babies grow up through the years. The friendships are precious to me," she added.
Lisa wears many hats at work; Some of Lisa's accomplishments and recognitions over the last few years include NRC (certification in high risk neonatal care), Nominated for Nurse of the Year from March of Dimes, Teacher/Instructor for NRP (Neonatal Respiratory Program) at Alliance Health Deaconess, Teacher/Instructor for STABLE (Stabilization of baby if baby needs to be transferred out), Bereavement Coordinator, Teacher/Instructor for PRIDE (Parents Responding to an Infant Death Experience).
Lisa shared the most treasured part of her job. "I have a shoe box full of letters, hand-written notes and pictures that I have received from others, telling me how much I touched their life in some way. That is the greatest blessing of all! I even received an invitation to a wedding from one of the babies that I took care of 28 years ago. Yes, I went to the wedding and the family still acknowledges the role I played in 'this grown up baby's life.' My shoebox is full of precious moments consisting of love, time and heartstrings. The contents of my little shoebox are better than any other recognition that I have received," she said.
I asked Lisa if she knew when she wanted to be a nurse and she replied, "I knew I wanted to be a nurse when I was a freshman in school. My mother worked in a nursing home and always had a gentle bedside manner. That must have been some kind of influence on me," she said.
On a personal note, I asked Lisa to describe her personality. "Well, I was an only child so I don't mind the alone time. An occasional night out with my friends and just talking and relaxing is fun. Sometimes, I find it difficult to be in large crowds. I am a good listener and have the ability to really listen and hear what the other person is saying, meeting people wherever they are. I have a lot of patience and a lot of faith. Truthfully, whatever I do, it's not me; it's God working through me. When I care for the babies, God gives me passion in my heart, guides my hands enough to start an IV the size of dental floss and that in itself is a miracle," Lisa stated.
Lisa Pendleton is an excellent nurse, giving tender loving care to the many miracles that cross her path.
The Oklahoma Healthcare Authority administers health programs for the state which includes the SoonerCare programs. The selected individual will act as a clinical specialist to plan and coordinate Care Management for identified members to ensure necessary access to providers and medical services. Will interface with SoonerCare members, providers, advocacy groups, legislative representatives, other state agencies and staff to facilitate Care Management for those members and document care management needs.


text:
Pteronotus gymnonotus é uma espécie de morcego da família Mormoopidae. Pode ser encontrada na América Central e no norte da América do Sul.

Taxonomia
Foi descrito como uma nova espécie em 1843 pelo zoólogo alemão Johann Andreas Wagner, que o alocou no gênero agora extinto Chilonycteris. O holótipo foi coletado em Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, no Brasil. No entanto, algumas fontes atribuem a descoberta a Johann Natterer. De acordo com o Código Internacional de Nomenclatura Zoológica, considera-se que o primeiro a publicar um nome de espécie é seu verdadeiro autor. Smith (1977) levantou a hipótese de que Wagner copiou a descrição da espécie de Natterer diretamente de seu diário e, assim, ganhou a autoridade. Carter e Dolan (1978) afirmaram que a descrição de Wagner não era comparável à de Natterer, razão pela qual atribuem o nome a Wagner. As publicações Mammals of South America e Mammals of Mexico também listam Wagner como a autoridade.

Descrição
As asas desta espécie de morcego se prendem às costas, perto da espinha. Consequentemente, aparenta de ter "costas nuas" devido à falta de pelos nas asas. No entanto, suas costas são peludas sob as asas. A espécie pesa entre   e têm um comprimento de antebraço de . Ao todo, possui 34 dentes.

Habitat
É encontrado na América Central e na América do Sul, incluindo os seguintes países: Belize Bolívia, Brasil, Colômbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, México, Nicarágua, Panamá, Peru e Venezuela. Só foi documentado em altitudes abaixo de  acima do nível do mar.

Conservação
Em 2008, foi avaliada como espécie pouco preocupante em termos de preservação pela União Internacional para a Conservação da Natureza (IUCN). Tal classificação foi resultado de sua ampla abrangência geográfica, que inclui áreas protegidas, além de que sua população é presumivelmente grande e é improvável que sofra um rápido declínio populacional.

Bibliografia
 SIMMONS, N. B. Order Chiroptera. In: WILSON, D. E.; REEDER, D. M. (Eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3. ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. v. 1, p. 312-529.
 MOLINARI, J.; AGUIRRE, L.; ARROYO-CABRALES, J.; CASTANEDA, S. T. A.; CUARÓN, A. D.; de GRAMMONT, P. C. 2008.  Pteronotus gymnonotus. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Acessado em 15 de dezembro de 2008.

Mormoopidae
Mamíferos descritos em 1843


text:
FRENCH POLYNESIA TO EXPEL 12 ACTIVISTS
By Deseret News Mar 27, 1992, 12:00am MST
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A dozen Greenpeace activists will be expelled from French Polynesia after they were arrested while trying to reach an island that serves as a nuclear test site, officials said Friday.
The environmental group's flagship, Rainbow Warrior II, was being towed to nearby Fangataufa Lagoon for protection from an impending storm.


New York Yankees' centerfielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, perfected one of baseball's many arts with a straight up steal of home plate against the Tampa Bay Rays.
New York Yankees' Jacoby Ellsbury's steal of home is the latest demonstration of the most exhilarating plays in the game of baseball, and maybe even all of sports. Along with being the fastest and most surprising of plays in the game, it's also the rarest.
The last New York Yankee to perform a straight steal of home plate was when Derek Jeter performed the maneuver on May 5th, 2001 against the Baltimore Orioles.
Out of the 1,406 stolen bases by Rickey Henderson, the career leader in steals, only four were straight steals of home. That's four more than the man who ranks second on the list, Lou Brock (938).
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this play is one of the only ones in sports that could cause the toughest of ballplayers to be transfigured into a spooked runner standing on pins and needles.
When attempting a straight up steal of home, one must think long and hard about whether or not you want to put yourself in harms way of a fastball from a short distance of 60 feet, 6 inches.
I'm not sure if Ellsbury communicated with Brett Gardner, who was at the dish when his teammate stole the run, but a ton could have gone wrong.
First off, it was a 3-2 count. Gardner needs to protect the plate at all costs with two strikes and if Matt Moore had thrown a strike, Ellsbury could be enduring a stint on the disabled list instead of owning the signature play of the young season.
To further justify the anxiety, all of the odds are against you. Baseball coaches everywhere instruct that you should only attempt to steal home during the late innings of a close, low-scoring ball game with two men out and a weak hitter at the plate.
Additionally, home plate is the one base you steal entirely on the pitcher because the catcher makes no throw on this play. The best victims are pitchers with curiously slow deliveries or long wind-ups, but the risk-reward factor is surely in favor of the pitcher.
Basically, the planets must align in order to perfect it and be safe.
A successful attempt is a rush beyond any other, and like Ellsbury's steal did, it could provide a huge momentum swing, but getting caught can bring doom and gloom to a rally along with annoyance from a manager.
Joe Girardi would have been more than justified to flip out and even bench Ellsbury yet again if he were out.
Entering play yesterday, New York was averaging a mere 2.25 runs per game in their last eight and is 1-7 in that span so the value of the speedster's run is beyond any other.
"That was the risk I was willing to take," Ellsbury told Wallace Mathews of ESPN.
Runs are becoming a hot commodity for a struggling offense like the Yankees. Although it's doubtful that the woes will continue, using a tactic that was more common in the earlier portion of baseball's existence might have been the spark the Yankees need.
Following the stolen base, Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira started the sixth inning with back-to-back singles. One out later, McCann cranked a go-ahead single the other way to drive in Beltran and give the Yanks a 4-3 lead.
All it took was every ounce of courage in the former AL MVP's body to help the Yankees dig out of this early-season hole that finds the team batting .202 with runners in scoring position.
If Ellsbury would have been thrown out, it would have been yet another dagger to the heart of the Yankees and would have more than likely lead to a 3-2 defeat.
Ellsbury's last steal of home took place against his current team when he was a member of the Boston Red Sox. In a game at Fenway Park in 2009, he stole home off Andy Pettite.
Following that steal, Ellsbury claimed the greatest component of mastering the straight up steal of home was having the courage to do so.
To have the audacity to perform a stunt that runners don't even bother to think about anymore makes it even more impressive.
With everything against him in that situation ranging from health risk to the fate of the contest at play, Ellsbury put it all on the line to give his team the boost it needed the most.
Does the Yankees' offense return to the form it was at when it scored 27 runs in the first three games? Maybe. But it would be a fire ignited by the fearless act of Jacoby Ellsbury's steal of home plate.


To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the US Open tennis tournament, ESPN teamed up with New York multidisciplinary artist Jessie Bearden to create an homage to the game and to two of its greatest players.
Using materials specific to tennis — balls, rackets and nets — Bearden created an on-court portrait of Roger Federer and Serena Williams. The promo, above, tells the story of producing that portrait as well as the promotional video campaign designed around it.
It took Bearden and her team a month of planning, measuring and designing to create the piece, including spray-painting by hand nearly 500 tennis balls and 232 tennis racquets.
Footage capturing Bearden deep in her process forms the heart of the promotional campaign ESPN and ESPN2 are running in advance of tennis' fourth and final Major tournament of the year. The U.S. Open, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, runs from Monday, Aug. 27, through Sunday, Sept. 9, when it concludes with the men's championship.


text:
'The government of love'
A review of Elizabeth Willis's 'Alive'
Elizabeth Savage
Image of Elizabeth Willis (left) courtesy of Kelly Writers House.
The speaker of "Survey," a long poem among the "New and Uncollected" of Elizabeth Willis's Alive: New and Selected Poems, illustrates public interest and personal exposure combining to make an American lyric.
The speaker of "Survey," a long poem among the "New and Uncollected" of Elizabeth Willis's Alive: New and Selected Poems, illustrates public interest and personal exposure combining to make an American lyric. As the title suggests, the poem responds to an easily imagined questionnaire ranking priorities and concerns with a list of wishes and worries, two of perhaps the most private and maligned categories of our Just Do It culture in which both wishes and worries are judged as failures of will.
Shared dendrochronologies: Andrew Schelling on poetry, translation, & the aliveness of wor(l)ds
MARCI VOGEL
Giant sequoia cross-section, Arizona State Museum | University of Arizona
A few summers ago, I took a walk one evening to find a California redwood 5,600 miles from home. Sequoia sempervirens, the sign said, Latin for ever green or everlasting, which is to say such trees are both non-deciduous and among the oldest living things on Earth. Located in the Jardin des Prébendes, a few blocks from the French city center of Tours, this particular sequoia was a mere 150 years old, but had I seen it towering somewhere north along my own Pacific coast, it couldn't have been more wondrous.
Hidden harmonies in John Cage's 'Empty Words'
Dawn Akemi Sueoka
Mushrooms grow best on shit — specifically, the shit of "corn-fed, hard-worked horses, which have been bedded down on wheat straw."[1] Some mushrooms pop up after a rain, and grow in circles called "fairy rings," only to disappear a few hours later. Some mushrooms have names like "Angel of Death" and "Death Cap," and cause nausea, vomiting, delirium, coma, and — yes — death.
Recently in Jacket2
Jacket2's January 2020 reading period
Jacket2 welcomes unsolicited queries during the month of January 2020. Reviews of recent books or anthologies of poetics criticism and theory; reviews and articles devoted to poets and poetries outside the US; reviews, articles, or essays that put texts, authors, movements in conversation; coauthored reviews or essays; articles, essays, or features on the ephemeral, the local, or the emergent; on poetic movements, topics, or groups, rather than single authors; articles and features that make use of archival and multimedia materials; articles, reviews, and features by and/or about queer, nonbinary, trans, women, and nonwhite authors; and more.
Jacket2 welcomes unsolicited q
Near/Miss
New from University of Chicago Press: paper, cloth, e-book
Audible.com has also published an audiobook of my reading of the full work.
Sean Bonney (1969-2019) by William Rowe
photo: Sophie Robinson, November 2012
Sean Bonney, one of the finest UK poets of our time, died in Berlin on 13th November 2019. His work comprises seven major books and a series of pamphlets; it includes some of the most vital writing in the language today. He pushed at the limits of poetry, creating new forms in each single book. No other contemporary work destroys so thoroughly the universe of resurgent fascism.


text:
« Space Swoon: Behold the Milky Way Galaxy's center featuring 84 million stars. We are cosmic ants, but it's okay!
'Fast and Furious 9' Teaser Trailer: Dom can't live his life a quarter mile at a time anymore. YEAH RIGHT, bro. »
'The Batman' has finally begun production! No, I'm fucking serious! Check out this photo from set.
Holy shit, the long, long, long-ass gestating The Batman has finally begun production. Director Matt Reeves commemorated it with an official photo. What a time!
/Film:
UPDATE: Warner Bros. has announced character details for Peter Sarsgaard and Jayme Lawson. You can find them within our original story below.
On the evening of January 27, 2020, director Matt Reeves announced the start of production on The Batman with the slate for the first day of shooting. That means we're just a year and a half away from seeing the return of The Dark Knight on the big screen.
This announcement comes after several set photos had already emerged out of London, presumably with a second unit starting their work early. That makes this the official start of principal photography. That means we might finally start seeing photos from the set with Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
As for the rest of the Batman cast, Colin Farrell was recently confirmed to play The Penguin, Zoe Kravitz is the thieving Catwoman, and Jeffrey Wright is Commissioner Gordon.
Peter Sarsgaard is also part of the cast, but his role has yet to be disclosed. However, a certain photo posted to Instagram by Maggie Gyllenhaal awhile back had some guessing that he might be playing Harvey Dent or Hugo Strange. Either way, he compared the vibe on set to a Pixies concert from his college years.
UPDATE: An official press release from Warner Bros. Pictures has revealed that Peter Sarsgaard is actually playing Gotham District Attorney Gil Colson, a character not found in DC Comics. Meanwhile, newcomer Jayme Lawson will be playing Bella Reál, a Gotham City mayoral candidate. Anyone want to take bets on Gil Colson getting killed in this movie and then replaced at the end with a surprise cameo by someone playing Harvey Dent?
In addition to shooting in London, it was confirmed that some Batmobile sequences will be shot in Glasgow, Scotland. That might mean we'll be getting a Gotham City that looks a little more gothic again instead of the modern metropolis vibe we've gotten from both Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe.
The Batman is slated to arrive in theaters on June 25, 2021.
Tags: matt reeves, the batman, the batman production begins


The notes and jottings recorded here are the result of my experiments with 3D printing on 'RepRap' type Fused Filament Printers I use as an aid to developing my kits and chassis. They are intended to neither enthuse or dissuade but rather enlighten the reader to the possible application of home 3D printers to our hobby.
The term 3D printing broadly describes the creation of objects by additive manufacturing whereby the object is built up from successive layers, these layers can be formed from any fusible or bondable material. High resolution professional 3D printers use lasers or light to cure photopolymer resins layer by layer in a bath or jetted from a nozzle in a similar fashion to an inkjet printer. Not only are these printers too expensive for the home user but also the cost of the photopolymers they use is relatively high. No doubt such machines will eventually become available at an affordable price for the home user. Currently the printer most likely to be adopted by the hobby or home user in terms of both capital and running cost is the fused filament type, it is such a machine that I have used for the following exercise.
Fused Filament printers form the layers by extruding molten thermoplastic material through a nozzle and spreading the plastic onto the previous layer, the height of each layer depends on the height of the nozzle above the preceding layer and the width on the volume of material extruded. At first sight this appears a rather crude method and would be but for the sophisticated digital techniques available to control the flow of material. There are several major issues with 3D printing generally related to available resolution and at least a basic understanding of these is required before we examine how to minimize them in order to achieve an acceptable finish. The higher the resolution of the printer the less pronounced these become but with fused filament printers resolution is limited by the minimum nozzle diameter through which we can reliably extrude the molten plastic.
Figure 1 illustrates how the printer software attempts to conform to a 6mm radius curved profile while constrained by the extruded filament cross-section from a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.2mm layer height. Layer by layer the printer first prints the perimeter, shown shaded, and then fills in between. Most entry level 'off the shelf' 3d printers run most reliably at 0.2mm layer height but we need a higher resolution for our models. It is interesting to note that many of the samples produced to promote these printers are designed to appeal even at these low resolutions.
The above illustration is for a solid where the extruder always has a previous layer to print on to but what happens when we want to print something hollow? Professional printers have a second extruder that prints a dissolvable support material where required but our fused filament printer will not have that facility. It is possible to have 2 extruders but the support material will either be the same as that used for the main body of the print or a special material requiring additional equipment to remove it from the finished print. Down to about 45 degrees the printer will print overhangs so in the following illustration (fig.2) the first eight layers would not require support but the succeeding layers would. It is possible, and the software will cater for this, to print support structures using the same nozzle and material as depicted in the picture. At larger scales this may be practical but as you can see from the picture is far from ideal in 4mm scale as it is difficult to remove the support structure without damaging thin profiles.
Fig. 2 Unsupported layers in hollow forms.
At this point you may well be writing off 3D printing at home and you would be right if you were hoping to print one-piece body shells but the forgoing was written to demonstrate that was impractical. Now let us take a different perspective and design our model around separate component parts, doing so will allow us to explore designing and orientating each component for best results. Printing the curved solid vertically as in fig.3 for example avoids both the stepping and support issues, we still have the striations but these are a lot more manageable. Note that in the diagrams the layers are accentuated and in reality each layer will be 0.048mm (48 micron).
Fig.3. Selecting orientation for best results.


The Mass Shooting Tracker is a crowd-sourced database of U.S. mass shootings. We define a "mass shooting" as a single outburst of violence in which four or more people are shot. This is not the same as mass murder as defined by the FBI. Learn more here.


Nature Pictures: View Images Of San Antonio – There are lots of diverse designs which may suit the features that make everybody's yard unique. Trees, trees, plants, sunlight plants, and ground cover are. You must be realistic about the amount of energy and work you're ready to expend prior to deciding on your plan.
Home improvements can be very costly and you need to begin with a few landscape layout ideas that are concrete or you will end up spending a great deal and also waste a whole lot of extra time before finding.
Landscape design is generally considered to be a component of the bigger field known as landscape design. A wonderful way is having an attractive landscape. You will need to get started on your project to make your landscape look a fact. Soon your landscape design ideas will come to life before your eyes.
Visualizing our job that is finished is tough by simply looking at a design, and there are some programs that could make it simpler to design your own landscaping. The majority of the software was developed for professional landscapers. They have now been modified and many layout programs that were do-it-yourself can be found by you online which are moderately priced. These programs enable you allow the user to make your adjustments and see a picture of your design. You can import a picture of your home or construction and it'll design the landscape across the photograph.


text:
Transport Pixels/flickr
Giles Scott
Burj Khalifa: Alone at the Top of the World
The Fourth Plague of West Philadelphia
Josh Boardman
How Immigrant Sculptors Shaped an Artists' Hub Called Kumartuli
Torsa Ghosal
Places | Natives & Neighborhoods
Did You Know Anybody?: On the Manchester Arena Bombing
"The morning after the attack, I almost broke down when a colleague asked if I was okay."
I've been trying to write an essay about the Manchester bombings. 10:32 p.m., May 22, outside the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena. Twenty-three dead and 119 wounded. Where I grew up, where I lived until almost nineteen. Where I spent Saturday afternoons as a kid traipsing around Marks & Spencers five feet behind my mum; then, as a teenager spending the same Saturday afternoons either at Old Trafford or wandering aimlessly in a loop from the HMV at one end of the Arndale Center to Le Coq Sportif at the other, and back again. My wife often jokes that if I put the most important things in my life in a list she would come third, after our children and Manchester United. Some days, after an ugly loss that takes the best part of a day to get over, she reverses the top two.
I didn't believe it at first, when she called from the car and told me to turn on the radio. Standing at the kitchen sink and listening in horror, hearing all of this from the safety of Northern California, over five thousand miles away. Removed geographically, yet viscerally torn by the news, piecing the disparate parts of it together from the local NPR station and the BBC and Guardian websites. And then, the texts from friends and colleagues making sure I'd heard, asking if I knew anybody. That's the first question people here ask. Did you know anybody?
The answer being no, not personally, but, yes, knowing lots of people just like them. Still struggling to make sense of it. Going through the photographs of the dead and reading about them, the tributes from family members and loved ones, from teachers, from teammates on their soccer teams. Looking again at the photographs, like I said trying to make sense of it. Shaken in a different way than by the truck bomb attack in Stockholm, the Eagle of Death Metal concert in Paris. Those events were headlines in my world, but they remained headlines. I didn't mourn the dead in any individualized way, study their photographs, find myself sitting in a meeting and all of a sudden unable to think of anything else, the room merging out of scale. Didn't find myself lying awake, thinking about those families sitting in hospital waiting rooms staring dumbly at each other and waiting for the swing doors to open and a doctor with a clipboard to emerge.
The proximity makes this different—the ability to feel its imprint. To be able to place myself in those streets, in the adjacent Victoria station, knowing what it feels like to walk or run along that span of concrete, having stood on that platform innumerable times, getting on and off the train to and from home. Those memories shattered by the footage coming up on the news sites. Recognizing the accents, the fear in the voices, and being able to place those voices as those of people I grew up with, went to school with, stood on the terraces of the Stretford End with, complaining about Ray Wilkins and his sideways passes or the cost of a beef pie. Being able to imagine not just the lives of the dead and injured, but literally place them inside houses and classrooms and know what those houses looked like on what kinds of streets. Impossible to keep this at the distance of a headline. Felt instead in the throat and staying there. And now, of course, I have children; I can imagine in different circumstances myself, or my wife, standing outside the Manchester Arena waiting for, or with, our eleven-year-old daughter.
When my wife called to tell me to turn on the radio, I'd been running around the kitchen, going from A to B getting the kids' dinners ready—doing that and worrying about the rat in the basement. We've been struggling with them since we moved in almost a year ago. "What's that sound?" she said. "Do you hear that sound?" This in the middle of the night, and I mean the middle of the night. Not just after we went to bed but ghouls-and-goblins middle of the night. I couldn't hear anything, told her to go back to sleep, that it was probably the wind. "There's no wind," she says, "look at the trees." But I don't hear anything. "Wait . . . that," she says and points at the ceiling. Probably a squirrel on the roof I tell her, and add that that's where the eaves are, to sound a little more technical and suave about it. She harrumphs, and I roll back toward the window.
Davey, the rat guy, came out the following week. He looked like a rat guy, which is not to say that he looked like a rat, but he looked like someone unfazed by rats. They give me the shivers. I think because they're so furtive. They scurry, and how bold they are, the indiscernible eyes, and the tail, it being so different from the body. It took him almost five hours to do everything. Up and down ladders, setting traps in the attic, the basement, in and out of crawl spaces we didn't even know about. We heard nothing for two nights and imagined the best and then the third night the familiar scrabbling above the bed. Scrabble, scrabble, scratch. Scrabble, scrabble, scratch, then a burst of acceleration and a sharp thwack! "Oh my," my wife said, and I nodded. "Maybe there was just the one left inside," she said. "Like Matt Damon in The Martian ."
And that should be the end of this. Except for the one in the basement, the one I'd been thinking about when my wife called and told me to turn on the radio. I'd been checking the traps intermittently. All empty until about four months ago, seven months after Davey's visit, the trap adjacent to the water heater in the basement space has been sprung. I immediately close the door, take a breath, and open it again. The rat's very dead. Hard to tell for how long. The tail's caught in the trap. You hear stories about rats gnawing off a hind leg to escape from a trap. A tail, you would think, less emotionally significant though, to a rat, maybe as compelling an appendage. I don't touch the body or the trap, the body surrounded by black dots like iron filings. I wonder if it starved to death or died from the poison in the bait. I'm surprised at how still it is, which sounds like a strange thing to say, but it was so strikingly still.
I closed the door again and left it. I didn't tell my wife. I didn't do anything, except think about it, and how still it was. I went in every few days to look at the body again. There was no smell, which seemed peculiar, and the body wasn't decomposing, even as the weather got warmer in April and May. I read about the principles of abiotic vs. biotic biodegradation, autolysis and putrefaction. By all accounts the body should be decomposing, the accompanying smell like New Jersey in an easterly wind. Whenever I was in the basement watching TV or grading papers, I felt the presence of its deadness. Still there, four months on. The why part being where it gets complicated. Part of it is fear, the shiver factor, the not wanting to deal with this, not wanting to have to go in there and put it on a shovel and then into a plastic bag and then carry it through the house and put it into a garbage bin and wait for Friday morning's pickup. Part of it, as the weeks became months, about denial of how fatuous I was being, and how inhumane, wondering how long I could sustain this.
But it's also about a part of me feeling like it deserved that unseemly death because it invaded, because it brought leptospirosis into the house, because it ripped out the insulation and used it to build nests for future generations. When my wife lived in Chicago just after college, thieves broke into her apartment one night. They went through the place, took the TV, the VCR, the CDs. The most disturbing part being that they'd been through her bedroom, stood on the bed and ripped the four-foot poster of Elvis Costello's Trust down the middle—right the way down, the two halves hanging like uneven curtains. That kind of invasion. The rats now, evidently, underneath my son's bedroom, a dropping one day on the rug in my daughter's room—the middle of the afternoon, like a middle finger just left there for us to come home to. I wanted it left in that trap as something to do with defiance and a refusal to be cowed. My own petty gesture.
"Unspeakable cunts" was the simple text message a friend sent, a friend from Liverpool, but also living in California. A friend with a PhD in literature from Stanford, and a law degree. This the only language he had available—the brutality of his message exactly what I needed, a recognition of anger, of savagery, of the savagery of this act, and savagery as part of a response. The morning after the attack, in the faculty room at school, I almost broke down when a colleague asked if I was okay. I was unprepared for the tenderness and the sincerity of her question. Still not ready for anything besides unspeakable anger. Now, after the settling down of the initial shock, the despair, the incomprehension, there begins the taking of stock.
Long gone from the news cycle, especially after the subsequent attack in London, the Russia investigation hearings and the UK's snap general election. Still shocked, however, by the target, the targeting of the young. Trying to understand the loathing. Salman Abedi himself only twenty-two years old. The act of the irreversible statement and the need for that statement to not only be heard but to echo—to speak for something inside that can't be heard in any other way, something unspeakably painful. And it's been hard not to think about that, about the pain he must have harbored in order to be capable of this and to acknowledge that pain, at least as aligned with ours while, simultaneously, not wanting to feel anything for him besides anger, lest it somehow dishonor the value of the dead and their families.
Yet, I do keep coming back to his photograph alongside those of the lives he took. And I wonder about his family, about those who loved him. To shut that off would be in some sense to deny his humanity. To become part of the root cause, which has been, largely, where I've been living up until this moment. The truck bombing in Sweden, the bodies in Paris, the atrocities in Syria—headlines that remain headlines. Things shut down, treated as news rather than as end points in a series of individualized lives, each one worthy of mourning.
The rat went in a plastic bag into last week's garbage. The body stiff with rigor mortis, but still not decomposing, perhaps because of the concrete. I thought about taking the body down to the bottom of the garden and burying it, but that seemed almost as extreme as having for so long done nothing at all. That, however, would have been the truest act of forgiveness. The unreasonable thing to do. In response to all the other unreasonable things.
Giles Scott is a writer and high school teacher living in the bay area. Recent essays have appeared in The Washington Post. Follow him on twitter @faultytales.
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An Experiment in the Village
"I was amused, but I also registered that my privacy had been invaded."
Liz Arnold
Standing in the Shadows of Brands: San Francisco at Dawn
When a city's populace is wiped out of its longtime residents, so goes the collective memory of San Francisco.
José Vadi
A Brief History of American Utopian Communities
"Utopian communities are inherently tragic because they are always, every single time, doomed to failure."
Adrian Shirk


How to collect Small Business Debt before hiring us.
Small businesses rely on a healthy flow of income to remain in business—especially since over 50% of new businesses fail within the first five years. For small businesses, a bad debt can mean the difference between profitability and net losses. For a small business, collecting debts can be a difficult and, occasionally, litigious process. There are a number of things you can do to increase your chances of being paid. Read on to find out how to avoid bad debts, manage overdue payments and collect debts.
Develop a payment policy. Before you provide any services or goods, contract with your customer so they understand what they are responsible for paying and when. Make sure all document language is clear. Discuss the account with the customer so you can be sure they are familiar with any charged amounts and due dates. Payment terms need to be agreed on by both parties.
Consider adopting a late payment fee to encourage on-time payments. You may choose to charge a percentage of the total bill when payments become delinquent—2% is typical. Make sure all late fee policies are included in your contract or payment policy.
Do research about collecting interest. Federal and state laws regulate the collection of interest on debts. Always make sure that any interest you charge is lawful and included in your payment policy to avoid debt forfeiture or a fine. You can check usa.gov for your state's usury laws.
You can also check your state's attorney general website for information on legal interest rates and legal practices in your state.
List the due date on every bill you send. Some invoices state, "payment due upon receipt." You may also use "net 15 days," "net 30 days" or any other period of time in which you expect someone to remit payment.
Send reminder bills. When a payment becomes past due, immediately send a reminder noting the amount owed as well as the fact that payment is now past due. Many customers are so busy that they simply forget a bill hasn't been paid. They will often pay it as soon as they realize payment is past due.
Keep a record of all contact with the debtor. You will need the dates and times of your calls, letters and any other communication about the late payment, in case of legal action. You may also need to address this information when you contact the debtor.
Keep a contact with each company or customer. Make sure you have relevant contact information, such as address, telephone number and extension number, if available.It is also good to check in with your business contacts regularly. Engaged business relationships promote a mutual desire to fulfill transactions.
Address each bill directly to the person who makes financial decisions in a business or the person responsible for the account.
If you don't have a contact for a business transaction, you can usually call the front desk and be connected to Accounts Payable.
Create a procedure for dealing with debts. You will need to decide what happens when payments are late. Generally, you first send out a reminder, then call the customer or business that is late with a payment, follow up, try to negotiate and then take it to collections or pursue legal action if the debt remains unpaid. Everyone in your company should understand the process so they know where to direct those who owe debts when they reach out to you.