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Beyond Atlantis (1973)
Dull and stupid, this Philippines/U.S. coproduction is a fantasy-adventure story about mainland criminals who venture to a mysterious island populated by fish/human hybrids in order to plunder a cache of priceless pearls. Virtually nothing in the movie works. The principal makeup effect involves pasting fake-looking fish eyes over the faces of the actors playing hybrids. One of the would-be highlights involves a fellow falling into a pit full of crabs. Crabs? That's the most menacing creature the filmmakers could muster? The hybrids are inexplicably led by two normal-looking characters, an old man and his daughter, and the daughter is a slinky bleach blonde with perfect grooming and makeup. Whatever. The cast features a pair of American actors who spent much of the '70s making bad movies in the Philippines: John Ashley plays a scuba diver with a mercenary attitude, and Sid Haig plays the crook who discovers the whereabouts of the pearls. (Indestructible Filipino actor Vic Diaz appears in a small role, lending his usual cartoonish corpulence.) Playing the movie's nominal leading role is John Wayne's son, Patrick Wayne, whose career peaked a few years later when he starred in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), and if Beyond Atlantis isn't the nadir of Wayne's screen career, it's close. Although most of Beyond Atlantis is boring, fans of bad cinema might enjoy the last 20 minutes or so, which include an underwater catfight, a poorly staged shootout, and the ridiculously long funeral sequence for a key character. One can actually feel the filmmakers straining to fill the screen with any old thing that might flesh out the running time of this insipid schlockfest.
Beyond Atlantis: LAME
Labels: john ashley, lame, patrick wayne, sid haig
Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976)
While it pales in comparison to the same year's big-screen Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven Per-Cent Solution, this entertaining telefilm boasts a colorful cast, a fine script, and more-than-adequate production values. The picture also represents Roger Moore's first and only attempt at playing Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective, and he's a good fit. Not only does Moore's velvety voice make long scenes of Sherlock explaining things an auditory pleasure, but the snobbishness inherent to Moore's screen persona meshes nicely with the aloof quality of the Holmes character. There have been so many wonderful interpretations of this particular investigator that offering superlatives is imprudent, so it will suffice to say that Holmes and Moore do each other justice.
Written as a screen original by veteran TV scribe Alvin Sapinsley, directed by the reliable Boris Segal, and set to jaunty music by Richard Rodney Bennett, Sherlock Holmes in New York opens in London, with Holmes spoiling the latest scheme of his nemesis, Professor Moriarty (John Huston), who vows revenge before escaping. Soon afterward, Holmes receives word that his on-again/off-again lover, actress Irene Adler (Charlotte Rampling), is in peril. Thus Holmes and his trusty biographer/sidekick, Dr. Watson (Patrick Macnee), travel to New York, where Irene is performing. Holmes learns that Irene's son—whose father may or may not be Holmes himself—has been kidnapped, and that Moriarty is responsible. The catch? Moriarty has stolen all the gold from an international exchange, and Holmes is warned that if he helps police recover the stolen loot, Adler's son will suffer the consequences. Dum-dum-dum!
Sapinsley's script hits nearly all the required notes well. The dialogue is elevated, the criminal scheme is outrageous, and the interplay between Adler and Holmes is deep, encoded, and sexy. (Rampling looks especially beautiful here, with her signature iciness suiting the role of a woman capable of intriguing the brilliant Holmes.) Despite wearing a goofy perm and sideburns, Moore cruises through his performance with great flair, and Macnee employs a gruff vocal style instead of his usual sing-song tones, which makes his Watson a fine complement to Moore's suave Holmes. If there's a weak link in the cast, which also includes the great David Huddleston as an NYPD detective, it's Huston, who delivers an over-the-top interpretation of Moriarty; that said, Huston appears in just a few scenes, and he raises the energy level whenever he appears.
Sherlock Holmes in New York: GROOVY
Labels: charlotte rampling, groovy, john huston, roger moore
Black Eye (1974)
Fusing blaxploitation and film noir but suffering from a weak storyline that makes the whole picture feel enervated, Black Eye is a tolerable mystery/thriller featuring a characteristically confident leading performance by Fred Williamson. The movie isn't a misfire, per se, and it's got a fair amount of sleaze, so there's a certain lurid appeal. Nonetheless, nearly everything about Black Eye is second-rate. The characters are all overly familiar archetypes, the central mystery feels murky and unimportant, and the general vibe is that of a disposable TV episode. That said, Black Eye runs a gamut of tonalities. At one extreme, a frothy romantic montage features Williamson's character and his girlfriend riding a bicycle built for two. At the other extreme, Williamson visits the set of a porno movie to question someone who has valuable information. Oh, and that aforementioned girlfriend? She's bisexual. So it's not as if Black Eye is completely bereft of provocative elements.
The problem is that the filmmakers never commit wholeheartedly to a particular style. The movie is tame one minute, tough the next, and turgid all the way through. The wheezy story begins with the death of an aging screen star in Los Angeles. Someone steals the star's distinctive walking stick from the star's casket, setting a Maltese Falcon-type mystery in motion. Who stole the stick? Why is the stick so valuable? And what secrets will the investigation uncover? Also thrown into the mix is a subplot about a desperate father (Richard Anderson) employing Williamson's character, Stone, to find his missing daughter. And then there's the whole business of Stone's relationship with Cynthia (Teresa Graves), who splits her time between romps with Stone and trysts with female lovers. Cynthia's sexual identity is a source of much consternation for the decidedly heterosexual Stone.
Complaining that the plot of Black Eye is hard to follow is beside the point, since mystery narratives thrive on confusion and obfuscation, but it's hard to care much about what happens. Stone has very little personal connection to the case, and the plot threads tethering the missing girl to the walking stick are flimsy. Therefore, Black Eye unfolds as a series of somewhat disconnected scenes, including a chase or two, some fistfights, the occasional sexual encounter, and lots of drab vignettes in which Stone pumps people for uninteresting information. Calling it anything more than passable would require exaggeration.
Black Eye: FUNKY
Labels: blaxploitation, fred williamson, funky, richard anderson, teresa graves
Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York (1975)
A bad movie that would have been so much better had its big scenes taken flight, Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York is admirable for being a glossy studio movie about the problems faced by women in a time of changing gender roles. Furthermore, the movie represented a terrific opportunity for comedic actress Jeannie Berlin co capitalize on her breakthrough performance in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), which was directed by Berlin's mother, Elaine May. Alas, the dexterity and vulnerability that Berlin displayed in The Heartbreak Kid fails to impress in this context. Playing a sad-sack Pennsylvanian who experiences romantic woes while traveling with a fast crowd in New York City, Berlin comes across as pathetic instead of poignant. Worse, watching her character vacillate in unbelievable ways—one minute she's a doormat, the next she's a tough cookie—is painfully dull. The story couldn't be simpler. Sheila (Berlin) moves to New York in order to get away from her (cliché alert!) oppressive Jewish mother. Sheila takes a room with flaky actress Katie (Rebecca Dinna Smith), who pushes Sheila to shed her inhibitions. The movie starts its slow spiral into nothingness during a scene of Sheila following Katie's advice by "dancing" with a mop in order to emulate current dance moves; what should have been an explosion of physical-comedy joy is instead a sad and lonely vignette. While attending a party, Sheila meets a young doctor, Sam Stoneman (Roy Scheider), and she sleeps with him on their first date. Upon realizing that she had a one-night stand, Sheila becomes enraged—and then spends the rest of the movie trying to win a permanent place in Sam's heart, even as he becomes romantically involved with Katie. Based on a novel by Gail Parent, who earned fame as a writer on The Carol Burnett Show in the late '60s, Sheila Levine Is Dead doesn't work as a character study, a comedy, or a contemplation of social issues. It's a romantic melodrama disguised as a women's picture, and it's a slog to watch, even with the always-vibrant Scheider effectively sketching a character who realizes he's an asshole but is reluctant to change his ways.
Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York: LAME
Labels: lame, roy scheider, women's studies
The Gardener (1974)
So bizarre and cheaply made that it occasionally seems surreal, The Gardener—sometimes known as Garden of Death or Seeds of Evil—concerns a studly gardener who may or may not be responsible for the deaths of several past employers, but who definitely has magical powers over plants. Representing a strange convergence of the mainstream and the underground, the picture costars Katharine Houghton, who earned fame by costarring with her real-life aunt, Katharine Hepburn, in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), and Joe Dallesandro, who earned his notoriety by appearing in a series of Andy Warhol-produced features, often without clothes. Dallesandro is nearly as clothing-averse in The Gardener, applying his signature lifeless acting style to the role of a shirtless weirdo who seduces his clients in between sessions of communing with greenery. Set to absurdly lush music, the story begins well, thanks to an intriguing scene of a woman waking in a hospital bed and then suffering a fatal heart attack when she sees a plant in her hospital-room windowsill. The movie then slips into a mundane groove. After underappreciated housewife Ellen (Houghton) hires Carl (Dallesandro) to tend her garden—wink, wink—Ellen's husband, John (James Congdon) notices strange things happening. Plants start to grow out of season and/or with tremendous speed, and plants multiply at a disturbing pace. Meanwhile, Ellen investigates clues suggesting that Carl committed foul play at his previous jobs, even as she (weakly) resists the allure of his chiseled face, gleaming mane, and muscular body. Very little of what happens in The Gardener makes sense, especially once the movie arrives at its bewildering climax, and the acting is generally poor. Nonetheless, the film has a certain train-wreck appeal, and writer-director James H. Kay (who never made another movie) commits wholeheartedly to the wackadoodle story. In other words, while some viewers may find The Gardener entertainingly weird, most are likely to find themselves bored and confused.
The Gardener: LAME
Labels: joe dallesandro, lame
Deep Red (1975)
Complaining about the excesses and shortcomings of Dario Argento's celebrated giallo thriller Deep Red serves little purpose, because the folks who dig this sort of movie expect little more than stylish violence, and the people for whom the film's rough edges would be problematic are unlikely to ever watch Deep Red. A visually dynamic shocker with absurdly detailed gore, indulgently long suspense sequences, and a murky storyline that exists mostly as a means of stringing sensationalistic set pieces together, the film has inarguable cinematic merits. Furthermore, it's a safe bet that Deep Red and other '70s Argento pictures influenced the work of such American horror/thriller auteurs as John Carpenter and Brian De Palma. Nonetheless, there's no avoiding the fact that Deep Red was designed to be unpleasant. Except during sequences that get bogged down in turgid plotting, the picture largely achieves its goal of making viewers uncomfortable, sometimes through crude means (onscreen bloodshed) and sometimes through subtler methods (the generation of legitimate suspense). And even though the script by Argento and frequent Fellini collaborator Bernardino Zapponi actually devotes quite a bit of time to character development, the value of the picture ultimately resides in its ability to provoke revulsion. Therefore, despite being made with considerable artistry, Deep Red is not high art. If anything, it's the exact opposite of that.
Set in Turin, Italy, the meandering movie begins with atmospheric scenes culminating in the murder of a psychic. The killing, which occurs in a high window of an apartment building, is witnessed by an English musician named Marcus Daly (David Hemmings), who lives and works in Italy. Marcus soon becomes obsessed with determining the murderer's identity. Helping him investigate are friends of the deceased psychic as well as a reporter named Gianna Brezzi (Darla Nicoldoi). The plot grows more complicated with each passing scene, eventually becoming almost incomprehensible as Argento adds in myths and rumors and whatnot, hence the picture's bloated original running time of 126 minutes. (During its initial American release, Deep Red earned an "X" rating for its violence, only to get trimmed down for mainstream US exhibition.) As with many of Argento's pictures, the style is ultimately more important than the substance. Argento's probing camerawork is exciting to watch, with cameras floating and soaring through spaces whenever the director isn't composing striking static shots. Pushing these images along is an undulating original rock score by Italian band Goblin, whose spooky grooves have a hypnotic appeal. As for leading man Hemmings, his work is chilly and intense, though in his defense, Hemmings' character exists to drive the story, rather than the other way around.
Deep Red: FUNKY
Labels: dario argento, david hemmings, foreign movies, funky, giallo, gore, X-rated
Starsky and Hutch (1975)
The pilot movie for the TV series Starsky and Hutch is roughly equivalent to low-budget theatrical features about cops from the same era, thanks to a pulpy mix of attitude, automotive fetishism, intrigue, and sleaze. Among other enjoyable qualities, the pilot movie—which is meatier than the average episode of the ensuing series—takes place in an overcast, trash-strewn vision of downtown Los Angeles, rather than the antiseptic, sun-drenched version of the city that dominates most vintage screen representations. Starsky and Hutch opens with a wonderfully creepy scene. As a young couple makes out in a red-and-white Gran Torino, hitmen Cannell (Michael Conrad) and Zane (Richard Lynch) casually stroll up to the car and shoot the lovers to death. Cut to our heroes, LAPD detectives Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul) and Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser), the latter of whom drives a Gran Torino just like the one at the murder site. This connection is the first in a series of clues revealing to Starsky and Hutch that they've been targeted for murder. The cops scour the underworld for information, allowing writer William Blinn to showcase the detectives' extensive stool-pigeon network and their willingness to get tough with bad guys even as they display a soft touch with hard-luck cases.
At least in this first adventure, the differences between the leading characters aren't particularly striking, although Starsky is a bit more slovenly than his pretty-boy partner. The stars' performances draw crisper distinctions than their written characterizations, with Glaser doing a bit of a dese-dem-dose accent while Soul coos his lines smoothly. The most iconic scene from the pilot, at least in relation to the franchise's kitsch value, is a bit during which Starsky and Hutch invade a gangster's steam room, wearing only towels and shoulder holsters. To the credit of all involved, the moment is played completely straight. Also noteworthy is the relative lack of gunplay; Starsky and Hutch don't engage in a shootout until the climax, relying instead on connections, endurance, and wiseass wit. Oh, and while the pilot includes future series regular Antonio Fargas in the familiar role of flamboyant hustler/informant Huggy Bear, the detectives' boss, Captain Dobey, is played in the pilot by Richard Ward, rather than Bernie Hamilton, who assumed the role for the run of the series. Although Starsky and Hutch (which later altered its title to Starsky & Hutch) ran only four seasons, leaving the airwaves in 1979, the franchise has lingered in pop culture; Hutch's golden mane and turtlenecks, as well as Hutch's knit caps and lumpy cardigans, resurfaced in the hit 2004 comedy movie Starsky & Hutch, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.
Starsky and Hutch: FUNKY
Labels: antonio fargas, david soul, funky, inspiration for TV show
Hooch (1977)
Before vapid leading man Gil Gerard found his signature role in the campy TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981), he appeared in a handful of movies and TV shows, none of which did much to elevate his stardom or to establish Gerard as a talent worthy of serious attention. Nonetheless, his productivity earned Gerard sufficient stature to claim behind-the-scenes involvement in some of his projects, such as the flavorless and plodding moonshine saga Hooch, for which Gerard served as cowriter and coproducer in addition to playing the starring role. A dull recitation of redneck-cinema clichés that's populated by one-dimensional stereotypes instead of characters, Hooch is as bereft of entertainment value as it is of original ideas. It's also poorly made, with anemic character introductions, shoddy transitions, and an undernourished musical score. More than anything, Hooch suffers from a lack of urgency, with the pacing of the movie feeling as laid-back as Gerard's screen persona. The most that one can say is that Hooch is tolerable, but even mustering that much praise requires effort. It's all just so empty and trite. Gerard plays Eddie Joe, a moonshiner mired in competition with beardy and corpulent Old Bill (William T. Hicks). Eddie Joe juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is Bill's daughter, so we're meant to perceive him as an irresistible charmer who enjoys living dangerously. The fun-and-games period of Eddie Joe's life ends when New York City gangster Tony (Danny Aiello) arrives as a lead man for crooks seeking to enter the moonshine business. Intrigue of a dimwitted sort ensues. So, too, do unnecessary scenes like the bit of Gerard and costar Melody Rogers performing a country song onstage at a hoedown. Aiello, appearing fairly early in his long career, keeps things lively during his scenes by rendering an over-the-top caricature of a goodfella. Reason enough to watch the flick? Not hardly.
Hooch: LAME
Labels: gil gerard, lame, rednecks
An Enemy of the People (1978)
Notwithstanding an uncredited bit part in the 1976 B-movie Dixie Dynamite, Steve McQueen ended a four-year screen hiatus by starring in a film that's the opposite of the glossy action thrillers that made him famous. An Enemy of the People is an unassuming adaptation of an 1882 Henrik Ibsen play, and McQueen plays an intellectual from behind a mask of glasses, long hair, and a thick beard. It's hard to tell whether his intention was to destroy his own screen person, to prove he could act, or simply to try something new. Whatever the motivation, the experiment was only partly successful, because An Enemy of the People pushes McQueen far beyond his limited range. Nonetheless, his obvious desire to convey intelligence rather than just coasting on charm is admirable, and the film itself is solid, if a bit antiseptic. So while it's easy to imagine a "real" actor delivering a scorching performance in the same role, the novelty of seeing McQueen stretch is what keeps An Enemy of the People from feeling like a museum piece.
As written for the screen by Alexander Jacobs, who employed Arthur Miller's adaptation of the Ibsen original, the setup is simple. Dr. Thomas Stackman (McQueen) is the doctor in a small town known for a spa that draws water from a nearby spring. The town's mayor is Thomas' domineering older brother, Peter (Charles Durning). One day, Thomas receives the results of a chemical analysis that he requested, and the information is damning: The spring water has been poisoned by spiloff from a mill, which means the spa must be closed for public-safety reasons. Thomas tries to spread the bad news, but local residents oppose him, fearful the report will destroy the town's principal source of revenue. Even Peter betrays Thomas, scheming with the town's wealthiest citizens to have Thomas branded an "enemy of the people." All of this is powerful stuff, touching on themes of free speech, greed, and persecution.
Director George Schaefer does little to disguise the material's theatrical origins, employing soundstages for both exterior and interior scenes. Similarly, the choice to adorn Durning's face with massive fake eyebrows and an unconvincing beard was imprudent—and indicative of the production's overall artificiality. Yet bogus trappings are insufficient to suppress Durning's extraordinary skill, so he elevates all of his scenes, as does costar Richard Dysart, who plays a sly power-monger. (Leading lady Bibi Andersson's work is earnest but perfunctory.) All told, the pluses of An Enemy of the People outweigh the minuses, though it's no surprise the film received an indifferent reception; An Enemy of the People delivers none of the things that fans associate with McQueen, and McQueen's acting is more noble than noteworthy. Still, the movie is an interesting facet of a great screen career, and the inherent quality of the source material makes the experience of watching An Enemy of the People edifying.
An Enemy of the People: GROOVY
Labels: bibi andersson, charles durning, groovy, richard dysart, steve mcqueen
Treasure Island (1973) & Oliver Twist (1974)
Beyond subjecting the world to decades of iffy TV cartoon series (from The New Adventures of Superman in the 1960s to BraveStarr in the 1980s), as well as occasionally producing live-action programs (raise your hand if you wasted more than a few Saturdays watching The Shazam!/Isis Hour in the '70s), Filmation Associates made a brief foray into the realm of adapting classic literature for the big screen. Filmation's take on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island was followed by a version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, and both were released by Warner Bros., which wisely ended the deal before any more mediocrity was unleashed.
Shamelessly copying the Disney formula of blending comedy with high adventure and songs, Treasure Island is passable at best. The narrative is basically faithful to the source material, and new wrinkles—such as a pirate who wheezes musical notes because of the harmonica that's visibly lodged in his throat—don't exactly add value. Worse, the songs are pathetic and unmemorable, and it's hard to understand why Filmation hired Davy Jones, of the Monkees, to play the leading role seeing as how his character sings just one number. Anyway, intrepid young Englishman Jim Hawkins (Jones) stumbles into possession of a treasure map, which makes him the center of intrigue involving dueling pirate factions. An eventful sea voyage and a surprising trip to a mysterious island ensue. So do silly antics involving a mouse with a taste for liquor, as well as innumerable renditions of the traditional tune "Dead Man's Chest," whose "yo-ho-ho" refrain probably should have been retired from other uses once it became a staple of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney's theme parks. The uninteresting voice cast of Treasure Island also features tiresome TV funnymen Richard Dawson and Larry Storch, and Filmation's signature "limited animation" style ensures anemic visuals. In sum, Treasure Island is colorful, inoffensive, and altogether mindless—more "yo-ho-hum" than "yo-ho-ho."
Yet Oliver Twist makes the preceding film seem inspired by comparison. (To say nothing of redundant—the Oscar-winning live-action musical Oliver!, culled from the same source material, was released just a few years previous, in 1968, and Hanna-Barbera made an animated version for television, called Oliver and the Artful Dodger, in 1972.) Repeating a stylistic misstep from Treasure Island, Filmation modified Oliver Twist by adding animal characters, as if the original narrative was insufficient to command attention. Hence "Squeaky," the nervous frog that long-suffering protagonist Oliver carries around in his pocket throughout most of the movie, and the trio of creepy birds who lurk around the villain's lair and perform evil errands. Whatever. The power of Dickens' story isn't entirely lost, thanks to grim episodes of Oliver being mistreated by various "friends" and guardians along the way to escaping poverty once he finds a wealthy surrogate family. Yet the combination of flat animation and weak vocal performances is toxic. (The cast includes some of the same folks who participated in Treasure Island, notably Davy Jones and Larry Storch.) As for the original songs, they barely merit a mention. Some are generic. Some are insipid. Some are saccharine. All are forgettable. That said, a cursory review of online commentary indicates that Filmation's Oliver Twist has actual fans, mostly folks who saw the picture at a young age and now retain nostalgia for the escapist pleasures of their childhood. With all due respect to those with fond memories of Squeaky, it's a good thing the Filmation/Warner Bros. union was terminated after just two films.
Treasure Island: FUNKY
Oliver Twist: LAME
Labels: animated movies, funky, lame, music movies
Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975)
One of the earliest theatrical features to be shot on videotape, Give 'em Hell, Harry! is a live recording of a one-man stage show, complete with audience reactions, and the subject is the eventful presidency of Harry Truman, America's commander-in-chief from 1945 to 1953. The versatile James Whitmore stars, and his ability to command attention for nearly two hours is impressive. Replicating Truman's brash Midwestern persona—an amiable tangle of combativeness, humor, and straight-shootin' aphorisms—Whitmore attacks the role, and yet his desire to entertain never seems desperate. Rather, he comes across like an actor who respects that the audience's time is valuable, and that theatergoers deserve to see and hear something interesting during every minute they spend looking at the stage. Whitmore earned Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for the picture, and he won a Grammy for an LP recording of the stage show's audio. Written by Samuel Gallu and codirected by Peter H. Hunt (who mounted the stage show) and Steve Binder (who orchestrated the film version), the play covers Truman's entire presidency—the partial term he inherited when FDR died, and the full term to which he was elected—while also providing snippets of his earlier life.
Gallu's text employs a number of awkward gimmicks. Whitmore reads letters aloud as he writes them. He engages in conversations with people who are neither heard nor seen, meaning that Whitmore says his lines, pauses, and then paraphrases what the other person said. Whitmore also periodically slips into costumes, such as a doughboy uniform, when the text refers to earlier periods. Given the affability and vigor of Whitmore's performance, the in-your-face artificiality works fairly well, especially because Gallu presents the show as a greatest-hits recitation of colorful moments. And if a bit too much emphasis is placed upon Truman's salty humor, suggesting that he had a Will Rogers-style quip ready for every occasion, one can't fault the team behind Give 'em Hell, Harry! for wanting to ensure continuous audience engagement.
Beyond the laugh lines, the most resonant portions of Give 'em Hell, Harry! involve Truman espousing high principles. In one scene, Truman describes hatemongering Sen. Joseph McCarthy as "that most lamentable mistake of the Almighty's," and in another scene, Truman laments that "financial control is in the hands of two few." (Sadly, that line rings as true now as it ever did.) Arguably the high point is Truman's verbal confrontation with an angry mob of KKK members after the Klan issues death threats against Truman. Whitmore infuses this scene with moralistic passion, righteous indignation, and understandable fear. Yes, this movie's vision of Truman is idealized. However, seeing as how Truman changed history as the first world leader to employ a nuclear weapon in combat—surely one of the weightiest decisions a human being has ever made—there's no question that his presidency merits examination, as well as a degree of reverence.
Give 'em Hell, Harry!: GROOVY
Labels: groovy, james whitmore
Swap Meet (1979)
One of those wretched late-'70s sex comedies that employs a colorful gathering place as the setting for a superficial ensemble story, Swap Meet bludgeons viewers with 85 minutes of nonstop stupidity. Some of the jokes are moderately better than the picture's mindless default mode, some of the performers have more polished comedy skills than others, and the movie benefits from brisk pacing. That said, dumb gags are dumb gags, no matter how rapidly they follow each other, and the movie reeks of desperation and sleaziness. Among the various narrative threads is the adventure of Ziggy (Danny Goldman), a wimpy little dude who functions as the announcer/greeter at a weekly swap meet situated inside a Southern California drive-in theater. Ziggy longs for a better job, and he also pines for comely blonde Annie (Cheryl Rixon), a hooker who operates out of the drive-in's lavatory and services customers in their cars. Also featured are a group of young adults, including Doug (Jon Gries), who wishes to impress a girl by defeating a bully in a car race (or something like that). Swap Meet is simultaneously overstuffed and underdeveloped, so it's hard to know which storylines the filmmakers consider important. As a result, the movie unspools as a series of montages and vignettes. In the montages, people use enterprising means to procure goods they can sell; the colorful opening bit features thugs stealing pieces of the Hollywood sign during one of its periods of decay. In the vignettes, actors portray broad stereotypes while enacting insipid scenarios—we're talking bathroom farce, rudely interrupted oral sex, skateboarding accidents, a running gag about a foul-mouthed psychic, and a quick scene featuring Danny DeVito as an auto mechanic. There's also a disco theme song. In a word, tiresome.
Swap Meet: LAME
Labels: danny devito, lame, sex comedy
The Hitter (1979)
Produced well after the blaxploitation genre had lost its momentum, this low-budget drama/thriller resolves into a solid action piece toward the end of its running time. Getting to the final act requires patience, because the picture starts out as a flimsy blaxploitation riff on the Paul Newman classic The Hustler (1961). Then cowriter/director Christopher Leitch gets stuck in a bad groove during an extended sex-comedy sequence that not only feels like it belongs in another movie, but quickly wears out its welcome. Despite these problems, The Hitter has strengths, notably Adolph Caesar's authoritative performance as an aging schemer. It's not saying much to indicate that Caesar is more impressive than the film's leading man, Superfly guy Ron O'Neal, but it's a compliment to Caesar's work that he seems to elevate O'Neal by providing a formidable scene partner.
Echoing the beginning of The Hustler, this picture opens with cocky drifter Otis (O'Neal) showing up in a pool hall owned by Louisiana Slim (Bill Cobbs), a ruthless crime boss. Otis defeats Louisiana Slim in a pool game, and the humiliated gangster swears revenge. Otis flees the pool hall and encounters Nathan (Caesar), a down-on-his-luck fellow with a fast mouth and a million ideas for money-making scams. The focus of the picture then shifts rather awkwardly from billiards to boxing, because once Nathan discovers that Otis used to be a pro fighter, he volunteers to manage Otis in a series of illegal street fights. This starts the countdown to an inevitable showdown with Louisiana Slim, who also manages fighters. In the movie's dodgiest sequence, Nathan takes Otis to a cathouse and makes a bet that the two men can each service three women in less than 30 minutes. The Nathan component of the sequence is mildly amusing, but the Otis component comprises sleazy shots of naked starlets grinding against O'Neal and moaning to the accompaniment of the film's zesty funk/jazz soundtrack. During the cathouse sequence, Otis falls for working girl Lola (Sheila Frazier). Predictably, she's Louisiana Slim's girlfriend, so when she runs off with Nathan and Otis, her departure adds to Louisiana Slim's ire.
Nothing in The Hitter is surprising, but the supporting actors give such lively performances that the movie isn't a bad ride, especially once things get heavy. And if nothing else, The Hitter reaffirms that Hollywood missed out by failing to find a niche for Caesar until very late in his short life. After The Hitter, he didn't make another movie until the racially themed A Soldier's Story (1984). Caesar's work in A Soldier's Story earned him an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor, leading to a flurry of steady work before he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1986.
The Hitter: FUNKY
Labels: blaxploitation, funky, ron o'neal
City Beneath the Sea (1971)
Two aspects of producer Irwin Allen's cinematic identity converged in this campy sci-fi movie, which was made for television as the pilot for a series that never materialized. The project echoes Allen's past, because Allen produced the 1964-1968 adventure series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, as well as the 1961 theatrical feature from which that series was adapted. Yet City Beneath the Sea also hints at Allen's future, because the picture is a disaster saga, and Allen's name became synonymous with the disaster genre once he unleashed The Poseidon Adventure (1972). City Beneath the Sea scores as high on the Cheese-O-Meter as anything Allen ever made. The narrative is silly, the performances are robotic, and the storytelling is primarily designed to showcase elaborate costumes, sets, and special effects. That said, City Beneath the Sea is brainless fun, with laughably one-dimensional characters struggling to survive a series of absurd crises. Every scene bursts with exposition, because screenwriter John Meredyth Lucas struggles to include all of the pulpy plot elements provided by Allen, who is credited with writing the story. Seen today, City Beneath the Sea feels like a relic from a distant time, because the pristine design style represents a mid-century-modern vision of the future. "Sleek" is the watchword, and nobody on this production was afraid of using bright colors.
Set in 2053, the movie begins with the U.S. President (Richard Basehart) demanding that former Navy Admiral Michael Matthews (Stuart Whitman) return to duty as commander of Pacifica, a huge underwater research installation. Here's the laugh-out-loud premise: The U.S. has been transferring its cache of gold from Fort Knox to Pacifica because of seismic activity near Fort Knox, and now the U.S. has learned that it must also transfer a huge store of fissile radioactive material to Pacifica for safekeeping, because only proximity to gold keeps the material from exploding. Oh, and a giant meteor is about to crash into the Earth, with Pacifica the likely ground zero, so the dozens of people living underwater must abandon the station as soon as the gold and radioactive material are secured in a meteor-proof vault. As if that's not goofy enough, City Beneath the Sea features an "aquanoid," a mutant who can breathe either air or water. Woven into all of this hogwash are the various cardboard characters one always finds in Allen's pictures: The stalwart hero blamed for an accident he didn't actually cause, the bereaved widow whose recriminations crush the stalwart hero beneath a mountain of guilt, the duplicitous lieutenant planning an evil scheme, and so on. (As for that evil scheme, it's a brazen gold heist, since City Beyond the Sea clearly needed even more plot material.) In addition to Basehart and Whitman, actors providing the film's wooden performances include Joseph Cotten (who appears in just one short scene), Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Colbert, and Robert Wagner.
City Beneath the Sea: FUNKY
Labels: funky, irwin allen, joseph cotten, richard basehart, robert wagner, sci-fi, stuart whitman
Pete 'n' Tillie (1972)
A grown-up romantic story that blends elements of comedy and drama with considerable artistry, Pete 'n' Tillie pairs two actors who are equally adept at generating humor and pathos, Carol Burnett and Walter Matthau. Guided by Julius Epstein's deservedly Oscar-nominated script and working under the sure hand of director Martin Ritt, one of the screen's most consistent humanists, the leading actors and several fine supporting players deliver a surprising story about compromise, depression, loss, love, and redemption. Some of the plot points are more contrived than others, and the he-man attitude of Matthau's character can be grotesque at times, but the sum effect is quite satisfying. At its best, the movie crackles with wit as Burnett's character, who lacks self-confidence, manages her relationship with Matthau's character, who has more confidence than he probably should. Watching gifted actors and filmmakers concentrate their energies on dramatizing the romantic woes of credible and unique middle-aged characters is a rare treat.
The story begins at a party, where sophisticated housewife Gertrude (Geraldine Page) introduces her friends Pete (Matthau) and Tillie (Burnett) to each other. Even though Pete is brash and sarcastic while Tillie is courteous and inhibited, they make a connection. After some on-again/off-again dating, the couple marries and has a child, but a rot sets into their union once Tillie realizes that Pete regularly has flings with young women who work at his office. An even darker complication arrives later, though that twist is best discovered while watching the film. Suffice to say that Pete and Tillie's relationship suffers injury after injury, with the years-long ordeal eventually taking a heavy toll on Tillie's psyche.
Since Matthau's charming-rascal routine was familiar to audiences by the time Pete 'n' Tillie was released, the revelation of the picture is Burnett's performance. Predictably, she nails the reaction shots and verbal zingers in banter scenes—while still operating within the buttoned-down parameters of her character—but less predictably, she's quite affecting in the film's heavily emotional scenes. Watching her wail vitriol toward the heavens after a particularly cruel turn of events is especially wrenching, and the strong association one makes between Burnett and broad comedy never once detracts from the dramatic aspects of her work here. Given the strong leading turns, the film's excellent supporting performances—by Page and by Rene Auberjoinois, who plays Tillie's pragmatic gay friend—elevate the picture further, thereby making it even easier to overlook instances of clumsily schematic plotting.
Pete 'n' Tillie: GROOVY
Labels: carol burnett, geraldine page, groovy, julius epstein, martin ritt, rene auberjonois, walter matthau
The McCullouchs (1975)
Continuing his brief but successful run as an auteur specializing in colorful rural sagas, former Beverly Hillbillies costar Max Baer Jr. wrote, produced, and directed this noisy drama, which has heavy elements of cornpone humor, and he plays a supporting role. Depicting the exploits of a fictional Texas family whose patriarch is a stubborn ox prone to solving problems with his fists, the picture takes place in the late '40s and early '50s, cramming a miniseries' worth of story into 93 fast-moving minutes. Because Baer covers so much narrative ground, the movie is unrelentingly superficial, and virtually everything that appears onscreen is clichéd. Yet the trite nature of the piece actually contributes to the entertainment value of The McCullouchs, because there's a certain brainless satisfaction in watching Baer explore predictable terrain with such verve. Thanks to a barrage of cartoonish performances, vibrant colors, and zippy editing, The McCullouchs explodes with Baer's enthusiasm for being a first-time director, even though he has absolutely nothing original to say. Furthermore, Baer's unapologetic use of creaky old stereotypes—the drunken Irish priest, the hotheaded ethnic bartender, the hit-first/ask-questions-later stud—gives The McCullouchs a measure of train-wreck novelty.
Durable character actor Forrest Tucker stars as J.J. McCullouch, owner of a trucking company and undisputed leader of his family. Despite his wealth, J.J. is a regular fella, brawlin' with his buddies, swillin' booze with the old padre, and wearin' plaid work shirts except for special occasions. J.J.'s wife, Hannah (Julie Adams), supports him publicly even though she challenges his bull-in-a-china-shop style when they're alone. Domestic strife abounds. Son R.J. (Don Grady) joins the Air Force just as the Korean War erupts. Son Steven (Dennis Redfield) develops a drinking problem after J.J. chastises Steven for being a wimp. And daughter Ali (Janice Heiden) wants to marry a trucker (played by Baer), even though J.J. doesn't approve of the match. As a filmmaker, Baer employs only two modes in The McCullouchs—broad comedy and stilted melodrama. The comedy bits are often inappropriate, with lots of scenes making light of alcoholism, and the dramatic bits are ridiculously heavy-handed. Yet The McCullouchs is never boring—something loud happens in every scene, and Baer rushes from one event to the next like he's being chased. Accordingly, by the time the picture concludes with an epic public-brawl sequence that apes the finale of John Ford's classic The Quiet Man (1952), the wise viewer has realized it's best to just go with the moronic flow of The McCullouchs, rather than hoping the movie will evolve into something better.
The McCullouchs: FUNKY
Labels: forrest tucker, funky, julie adams, max baer, rednecks
The Zebra Killer (1974)
Hang loose, dear readers, because things are about to get confusing. This schlocky police saga was originally released as The Zebra Killer, though the story has no connection to the infamous "Zebra Murders" that took place in San Francisco around the time the film was made. Additionally, the movie has been released under myriad different titles, including Combat Cops, The Get-Man, and Panic City. By any name, this picture is barely passable. Produced on a meager budget and suffering from ugly cinematography during extended nighttimes scenes, the movie also features a clumsy performance by James Carroll Pickett as the villain, who comes across like a comedic exaggeration of a psychopath. Another problem is the turgid storyline, which wobbles between generating weak suspense and relying on overly informative expositional scenes. Cowriter/director William Girdler, who later made a handful of enjoyably loopy horror flicks, can't seem to decide whether he's making a slam-bang actioner or a taut thriller. What saves this highly problematic movie from itself is an assured leading performance by Austin Stoker, who subsequently starred in John Carpenter's first proper feature, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Stoker cuts s strong figure in The Zebra Killer, all confidence and swagger with an appealing touch of vulnerability. He plays Lt. Frank Savage (yes, that's really the character's name), a streetwise cop investigating a series of bewildering murders.
A killer identifying himself in crime-scene notes as "Mack" slaughters seemingly unrelated people, planting a bomb in a station wagon one evening, pushing someone down an elevator shaft the next, and so on. (To confound potential witnesses, the killer, who is white, wears an Afro wig and blackface makeup while committing crimes.) Once revealed, the killer's motivation is neither provocative nor surprising, but the point of a picture like The Zebra Killer is to generate pulpy excitement rather than intellectual stimulation. Girdler tries a little bit of everything, from chase scenes to kidnappings to shootouts, in order to keep blood pumping through the movie. He also veers slightly into the realm of blaxploitation, especially during a sequence featuring D'Urville Martin as a pimp. Set to a repetitive funk soundtrack, The Zerbra Killer is quite rotten in terms of production values and story. Nonetheless, the picture was made for the undemanding grindhouse audience, and in that context, it's adequate.
The Zebra Killer: FUNKY
Labels: austin stoker, blaxploitation, funky, race relations, william girdler
The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)
A British psychological drama distinguished by a mystery element that keeps viewers guessing whether or not something supernatural is actually occurring, The Man Who Haunted Himself is very much in the mode of a Twilight Zone episode—characterization and plotting are used to generate suspense until the story reaches its outlandish conclusion. While some folks will find the larky narrative more persuasive than others, it's always a kick to see Roger Moore testing the limits of his dramatic powers. Although he's about as effective as the film itself, which is to say only somewhat, he commits to the material. Watching an actor who sleepwalked through some of his highest-profile movies contribute real effort is pleasurable, no matter the inconsistently of the results.
Moore plays Hugh Pelham, a businessman whose life is stiffly regimented, from the patterns of his daily work schedule to the rhythms of his stagnant marriage. One afternoon, Hugh experiences an inexplicable seizure while driving—clunky special effects make it appear as if a phantom version of Hugh's car appears in tandem with the real vehicle—so Hugh causes a terrible accident. On an operating table shortly afterward, Hugh dies for a moment, and then his doctors briefly see two heartbeats on an EKG monitor. Thereafter, Hugh endures several maddening incidents, such as being told he just left a room that he's entering, suggesting that someone who looks identical to Hugh is tampering with his life. For instance, Hugh encounters a sexy photographer, Julie (Olga Georges-Picot), who claims that she's having an affair with Hugh even though he has no recollection of sleeping with her. The filmmakers cleverly circumvent their basic storytelling problem—an unseen antagonist—and Moore does a fair job of sketching his character's progression from bewilderment to petulance to, finally, the brink of madness.
The movie also gets quite weird at times, especially during a long scene in which eccentric psychiatrist Dr. Harris (Freddie Jones) explains doppelganger theories to a worried-looking Hugh: While Harris repeatedly spins Hugh's chair to keep it moving, the camera, which is positioned at an extreme low-angle, moves in tandem with Harris, creating a dizzying funhouse effect. Oh, and for an added bonus, The Man Who Haunted Himself features a line that's quite droll in retrospect, seeing as how the picture was released two years before Moore assumed the role of a certain secret agent. While discussing corporate espionage with coworkers, Moore's character says, "Intrigue isn't all James Bond and her Majesty's Secret Service." Are you sure about that, Mr. Moore?
The Man Who Haunted Himself: GROOVY
Labels: freddie jones, groovy, roger moore
Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York (1975...
A Perfect Couple (1979)
Rabbit, Run (1970)
Blood Thirst (1971)
A Man, a Woman, and a Bank (1979)
The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella ...
Renaldo and Clara (1978)
Lost in the Stars (1974)
The Runner Stumbles (1979)
Shadow of the Hawk (1976)
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)
Fantasy Island (1977)
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)


text:
Articles by Elese Cegelis
Articles By Elese Cegelis (Page 1)
SubAir has grown to be the leading producer of subsurface moisture removal and aeration technology.
in Industry News - on 15/10/07
© 2022 Agrovista UK Ltd - pitchcare.com is a trading name of Agrovista UK Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. Company number: 3525529 - VAT number: 595495381 - Webpage generated by octavia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The highest designation awarded to sales associates in the residential field - only 4% of all Realtors® hold this designation.
Realtors who have earned this designation have gone thru specific training & sales requirements.
You've worked hard your whole life to make a statement about yourself, your beliefs, and who you want to become – don't settle.
home...a place where you feel you belong. A place where you share memories & laughter.
Buying a home may be the largest and most complex financial transaction you may ever undertake. If you're ready to buy a home, wouldn't you prefer to work with the most qualified real estate professional you can find?
ABR is awarded to real estate agents who have performed extensive work with buyer clients.


text:
Q: matplotlib - How to save an array as image with overlayed text? I have a 2D array that I need to save as a png. I also need to add a text label to the image. So far, I have tried two approaches, none of which is optimal:

*

*I use the matplotlib.image module to save the array directly as an image:
matplotlib.image.imsave(FILENAME, ARRAY, cmap=plt.cm.binary)

However I am unable to add text using that command. I could use PIL to read and edit after saving the raw images, but the I/O cost on a large data set would be unacceptable.

*I use the pyplot interface to convert the array to a figure and then add a legend. However when I save it as a file, there is unnecessary whitespace. I have tried turning axes off, setting padding to 0 etc., but there is always some whitespace margin I cannot get rid of:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.imshow(ARRAY, cmap=plt.cm.binary)
plt.axis('off')
plt.savefig(FILENAME, dpi=100, pad_inches=0.0, bbox_inches='tight')

Is there a way to generate an image from a 2D array, overlay text, and save as .png speedily with no whitespace? Preferably a solution using matplotlib/PIL, but if there's anything better out there, I can look into it.

A: I was able to solve my problem by using an object oriented approach from the start:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure(dpi=100, tight_layout=True, frameon=False, figsize=(resolution/100.,resolution/100.)) # dpi & figsize of my choosing
fig.figimage(ARRAY, cmap=plt.cm.binary)
fig.text(X,Y,TEXT, size='medium', backgroundcolor='white', alpha=0.5)
plt.savefig(FILENAME)
plt.close(fig)

Additional documentation for the figure class can be found here.
Note: For sizing figures, I found this relationship useful:
size in inches = resolution in pixels / DPI

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Going out for breakfast is always a pleasure, even more so when you're in the centre of Melbourne and you have a bunch of bustling foodie laneways to choose from. One of my favourites is Centre Place where you can park your glutes at one of the many cafe's and read the morning paper while crunching on buttered toast and sipping a coffee made with near precision.
One of the larger venues in the precinct is Lorca, a dimly-lit space with a large open window providing view of the people parade wandering past. The chalk board menu takes up the main wall and displays a great selection of Spanish/Portuguese dishes as well as some more conventional classics for the less adventurous.
The coffee is made with gusto and the scrambled eggs (9.5) come light and fluffy on soughdough toast. I fell in love with the desayuno Lorca (12), thin slices of jamon serrano and queso iberico on soughdough cob rubbed with fresh tomato and extra virgin olive oil. I couldn't get enough of this in Spain on a recent trip so it was a real treat to find it here. Absolute perfection.


text:
While You Were Offline: Trump Had a Very Long Week in the UK
Author: Graeme McMillanGraeme McMillan
President Trump's state visit to the UK was documented, and debated, on social media.
Peter Summers/Getty Images
Greetings, dear friends, and welcome to this week's installment of While You Were Offline. What did you miss on the interent last week? First, you might have missed Jared Kushner giving a pretty good demonstration of why he doesn't do many interviews. Joe Biden reversing course on bad ideas and apparently plagiarizing policy on climate change might have escaped your attention, too. No wonder more people are getting behind Elizabeth Warren, including, somewhat surreally, Fox News host Tucker Carlson. (Clearly, we're in the Upside Down.) Meanwhile, President Trump's attitude toward Mexico is reportedly making Mexico offer significant changes to asylum rules, even as Senate Republicans grumble about how bad Trump's tariffs will be for Americans. Elsewhere, Apple killed iTunes, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos couldn't talk about space without being interrupted by a chicken and the Obamas are turning to podcasts. But what else has the internet been talking about over the past seven days? Read on.
'I Didn't Know That She Was Nasty'
What Happened: For everyone who secretly hoped for a rematch between the United States and the United Kingdom, last week offered a tantalizing tease of how such a fight could begin when President Trump decided that it would be a good idea to insult a member of the British royal family.
What Really Happened: Ahead of his trip to the United Kingdom, President Trump gave an interview to British newspaper The Sun. In it, he was asked about comments made by the now Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, in 2016, where she criticized Trump during his presidential campaign. In response, he said, "What can I say? I didn't know that she was nasty."
It was, of course, news; the US president was insulting a member of the royal family just days before being scheduled to meet with them.
In the face of potential international diplomacy humiliation, the president took a very Trump-ian course of action. On Twitter.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1135165268261519361
There was just one problem with this claim, and it was a significant hurdle to clear.
https://twitter.com/BBCJonSopel/status/1135182565034250240
https://twitter.com/JasonLemon/status/1135191930839687170
https://twitter.com/crampell/status/1135179060601139201
Unsurprisingly, simply denying something everyone could hear for themselves failed to convince people. Strange, that. Trump's denial actually came after his re-election campaign posted audio of him saying the thing he'd just denied, which is an impressive own goal, all things considered.
https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1134809885957414917
https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/1134850538024124418
https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1134826480662470657
https://twitter.com/Avi_Bueno/status/1134816276294057985
Perhaps we're being too pedantic in our aural devotion to the truth, though. Maybe there's an explanation for the discrepancy between what we can all hear and what the president wants us to believe.
https://twitter.com/hayleymiller01/status/1135188348090355719
At least he didn't try and clear it up later in the week, and in the process, just confuse people all the more:
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1136140692621799424
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1136269501887143936
So … Wait. If it's not a problem what Markle said, why did we get the nasty comment in the first place? Why did we go through all of this again?
The Takeaway: Of course, once one's spouse has been insulted in public, we can only expect Prince Harry to respond in a manner befitting British royalty.
https://twitter.com/MirrorRoyal/status/1135679142106718210
'He Is a Stone Cold Loser'
What Happened: Could the president's trip to the UK get any worse after the Markle comments? Let's find out!
What Really Happened: If only Meghan Markle had been the only figure of interest to the UK that Trump insulted last week. If only such a, if you will, kerfuffle had been the only kerfuffle. But, of course, no; this is President Donald Trump, after all. If there's one thing he's known for, it's saying—or, rather, tweeting —what's on his mind, as ill-informed and often just plain incorrect as it may be. Even before the president had reached the UK early in the week, he was making waves with his commentary.
https://twitter.com/NickdMiller/status/1135454751888424963
https://twitter.com/IvanaKottasova/status/1135465982137380864
https://twitter.com/davorg/status/1135457546897186817
This invective didn't come out of nowhere; Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, had technically started it with an op-ed in The Guardian the day before, although the two have been publicly sparring for quite some time. (In response to Trump's tweet, Khan compared him to a child.) Those comments, though, were just the start of a week of curious statements from the president.
https://twitter.com/cnni/status/1135908522888241152
That's President Trump announcing that Britain's National Health Service would be a part of future trade negotiations between the countries, an idea that had previously been considered a political third rail by both Brits and Americans. It was not a popular suggestion.
https://twitter.com/AnnaCafolla/status/1135992193448075267
https://twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1135958390595825671
https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1135909336310460419
https://twitter.com/pdanahar/status/1135980927451041793
The idea that the president literally had no idea what he was talking about was, to some degree, backed up later in the week when he appeared to walk back his comments. Maybe someone more informed had offered some polite counsel.
https://twitter.com/tamcohen/status/1136147124234653697
Unrelated to his UK trip, that same interview with Piers Morgan also offered up an exchange that caught many by surprise.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1136272401929555968
https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1136258855858556928
https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1136260021287829504
Perhaps we should blame this on jet lag. Bear in mind that this trip was scheduled around the anniversary of D-Day, which really underscores how ill-timed, if not utterly ill-considered, they were.
Of course, it's not like that stopped Trump from saying other things that weren't befitting the occasion.
https://twitter.com/YahooNews/status/1136681154000515072
https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1136638600366428160
https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1136668638516273153
https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1136696790105972736
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1136731663029985280
Oh, and about that Normandy interview.
https://twitter.com/HallieJackson/status/1136577457392431104
The Takeaway: OK, all of that was utterly embarrassing to Americans, but I'm sure we covered everything, right? It's not like there's anything else, right?
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1136302900035108864
You Can Thank Me Whenever You Want As Long As It's Now
What Happened: If there's anything worse than taking two years to send disaster relief to an area devastated by a hurricane, it's demanding that everyone congratulate you on doing so in the first place.
What Really Happened: On Monday, the House of Representatives passed a $19.1 billion disaster assistance bill after literally months of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats; the passage followed the bill's earlier passage in the Senate a couple of weeks ago, a fact that apparently had been missed by President Trump.
https://twitter.com/drrusswin/status/1135880891258064897
https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1135708529875148800
Indeed, all that was actually required for the bill to become law was the president's signature. And when he signed, Trump took credit for the whole thing.
Those last two lines, however, weren't just tone deaf and somewhat self-congratulatory. They were also entirely untrue, as it turned out.
https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1136698875492929536
https://twitter.com/jonathanweisman/status/1136701124503900160
https://twitter.com/sfpelosi/status/1136724903170719744
https://twitter.com/SenatorMenendez/status/1136705792474787841
https://twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/status/1136717387586256896
https://twitter.com/CarmenYulinCruz/status/1136713678575869952
You only have to go back a couple of months to see Trump attacking Puerto Rico (and lying about relief efforts in the process).
https://twitter.com/WajahatAli/status/1112949339826126848
https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1113550489986035712
https://twitter.com/AmySherman1/status/1113558756527431680
https://twitter.com/ChrisLu44/status/1113498192736399360
https://twitter.com/LZGranderson/status/1113529538179346432
Suffice to say, people weren't incredibly impressed by the president's latest demand for affection.
https://twitter.com/SierraClub/status/1136752898149421056
https://twitter.com/aneuroma/status/1136723442420637697
https://twitter.com/stephens_ben/status/1136697474310115329
https://twitter.com/AndyOstroy/status/1136721584696233985
The Takeaway: Let's turn to America's unofficial Poet Laureate to sum this whole thing up, shall we?
https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel/status/1136749279610048512
Some Dudes in Boston Want a Straight Pride Parade
What Happened: Stand aside, all those who think that Black History Month should be followed by White History Month; there are more "But What About Me?" folks who want their moment in the sun, apparently.
What Really Happened: Meanwhile, in Boston…
https://twitter.com/carolynryan/status/1135913916175798275
Wait. Straight Pride parade? Apparently so, because 2019 is beyond parody, and just exhausting.
https://twitter.com/tomcoates/status/1136004939270873089
https://twitter.com/spacecrafff/status/1136008173590999040
https://twitter.com/morninggloria/status/1135929336110784512
https://twitter.com/ghweldon/status/1135975994739875840
https://twitter.com/tonyposnanski/status/1135983328224583681
https://twitter.com/adamcbest/status/1135949126905094144
https://twitter.com/leighagenda/status/1135986659655344133
https://twitter.com/KrangTNelson/status/1136749076270211080
There's an obvious response to the idea of Straight Pride, of course.
https://twitter.com/JohnJSalomone/status/1135985309785571328
https://twitter.com/tannenbaumr/status/1136018928763842565
https://twitter.com/AndyRichter/status/1136008142888681472
But perhaps we can go for the less obvious one for a change.
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/1135940328664387584
Let's turn to Captain America to try and bring some moral clarity to this, shall we?
https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans/status/1136276905186013184
Or maybe we should stop making jokes considering the Boston parade is apparently a front for a far-right organization, which … really, is anyone that surprised?
The Takeaway: Smash Mouth does not approve.
https://twitter.com/smashmouth/status/1135974020841480192
The clever cryptography behind Apple's "Find My" feature
What a messy dispute says about the future of bike share
10 productivity hacks from WIRED staff
Trump socks and a seller's nightmare on Amazon
Why I (still) love tech: In defense of a difficult industry
How the Internet Tricks You Into Thinking You're Always Right
A guide to busting through confirmation bias, the cognitive fallacy that's destroying our discourse.
#While You Were Offline
#Internet Week


The term geotargeting, sometimes known as geomarketing gives marketers a valuable tool at their disposal. By knowing the location of the user, companies can tailor their message to meet the specific needs of said user. Not only does this optimize your conversion rates but it opens up endless possibilities for your marketing strategy. For geolocation services, call us at 800.231.4871.
Geotargeting actually makes marketers jobs a lot easier. Traditionally, marketing campaigns have had to cast a wide net on potential consumers which eliminated the possibility of nuance and specification. The more specific your content is, the more efficiently your dollars are spent.
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If you are looking for a reputable internet marketing service that specializes in geotargeting, look no further than Dallas / Fort Worth SEO. Our team of SEO experts will design a marketing plan sure to take your business to the next level for 2018. To further discuss geotargeting, call us now at 800.231.4871.
Updated on January 12, 2018 at 8:48 pm by Dallas / Fort Worth SEO.


List of the Best Torrent Tracker and Subtitles Sites | K n o w M o r e . . .
I had this kind of posts in my mind for a very long time. I have using the P2P and torrents for over 2 years right from my good old dial-up days.
Here is a hell lot of trackers from where you can leech stuffs that you might require. Though I don't visit also of these sites, you might take a look and see site is good for you. I always use Private torrent trackers.
In case you are new to the torrent world, then no worries! Check this guide here: How to download stuffs using torrents.
As we all know there are many torrent sites. What which are the best ones? Which stand out among the rubble? There is a list of the best torrent trackers ranging from music sites to X264 to HD torrents to private torrent trackers to desi torrents to even football torrents!
Now that you have downloaded successfully, you might need a subtitle file to your movie file. In case you don't know how to add a subtitles to a movie or even don't know what subtitles, then check this guide Adding Subtitles to Movies.
Hope you liked this post. Please point out any errors, I'll fix it out.


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Nikhil Bumb
Nikhil Bumb has significant experience advising multinational corporations, governments, international NGOs, foundations, and social enterprises on emerging markets and social impact strategies, with an explicit focus on equity, systems change, and market-based approaches. At FSG, Nikhil leverages his experience in the social and private sectors to work with clients to build more inclusive, collaborative, and equitable markets and systems that uplift the voices of and improve outcomes for marginalized communities. Nikhil's work has spanned a range of issues including health, agricultural development, financial inclusion, economic development, education, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and impact investing across Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. He has experience living in the United States, Kenya, and India.
Nikhil co-leads FSG's Corporate Racial Equity practice. In addition to the publications listed below, he is also a co-author of Beyond Trade-Offs in The Economist.
Before FSG
Nikhil started his career at ZS Associates as a marketing and strategy consultant for the healthcare and life sciences industries. During business school, he began exploring the intersection between business and society. Prior to FSG, Nikhil helped build and launch Deloitte Consulting's Social Impact Practice and also worked on multiple shared value projects with Technoserve's Strategic Initiatives group. At Deloitte, his engagements spanned public, private, and social sector clients across issues areas including agricultural development, inclusive economies, humanitarian aid, economic development, and global health. Previously, Nikhil helped Medtronic develop a penetration strategy and framework for a shared value strategy addressing unmet clinical needs for underserved populations in emerging and frontier markets. He has also advised several nonprofits and social enterprises in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Yale University School of Management, MBA
Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in Electrical Engineering
Princeton University, BSE in Electrical Engineering, Certificate in Finance
Clínica Verde, Board of Directors
ITPC Global, Board of Directors
Parliament of the World's Religions, Trustee Emeritus
Religica, Advisory Council
The Huffington Post, Former Contributor
Hindi (Fluent)
Spanish (Proficient)
On Working At FSG
"It is an honor to work at FSG with some of the leading minds of social impact. Everyone here is dedicated to helping clients tackle some of our world's most complex social problems while simultaneously pushing themselves and the team to constantly think about how the work on each of their cases may contribute to affecting broader change. I am consistently inspired by the passion, drive, rigor, and energy of my colleagues, and I am humbled to be a part of the team."
Corporate/CSREquity
Corporate/CSRShared ValueU.S. Health
Corporate/CSREquityShared Value
Corporate/CSREquityFoundation Strategy
Inner Work: The Heart of Organizational Equity Work
Shifting Power Through Authentic Corporate Community Engagement
Companies Need to Manage the Economics of Impact in Order to Advance Equity
Corporate/CSRShared Value
Change the World—for Whom? Why Addressing Racism Must be a Top Corporate Priority
Corporate Silence and Anti-Racism
COVID-19: Companies, Let's Get Practical
Companies That Lead With Authentic, Ambitious Purpose Can Capture Value From Six Sources
EnvironmentFoundation StrategyStrategic Learning & Evaluation
How Community Foundations Can Better Coordinate Responses to Disasters
Corporate/CSRFoundation Strategy
Moving Beyond Trade-offs in Impact Investing
How Corporate Foundations and CSR Initiatives are 'Being the Change'
Leader of World's Largest Investment Firm Calls for Business to Serve a Social Purpose
FSG's Nikhil Bumb on Combatting Fear and Ignorance
JEDC 2023 Innovation Summit Keynote
ACCP Annual Conference 2022
Centering Equity in Corporate Purpose (SVI Speaker Series Webinar)
2020 Innovation Day
Exponential Organizations Podcast: The Purpose Playbook
Bendable Lifelong Learning System


Last night, July 17, 2012 I had a lucid dream, where I said farewell to my wife shortly before my ascension. I was incorporating in the dream state a parallel life within this last incarnation. In that parallel life I met my wife 36 years ago as in this one, but then we separated after six years. Then we met again after 30 years in the present time. My wife commented that she will need some time to get used to myself, but that I am still very familiar to her as a person, so that it will not take that much time to establish the previous intimacy. I responded to her that there is no point to get used to me now, as I will ascend in a few days. We both felt a deep sadness, as we knew that our departure is inevitable and imminent, and we both deplored deeply the lost 30 years of separation in the 3d-illusion.
This profound feeling of deep sadness enveloped all my thoughts and emotions the whole day yesterday. At the same time, my soul seemed to have withdrawn all her vital power from my body and it felt so listless that I had no drive and no desire to do anything at all. I had the strong feeling that I am dying, while I am still in my body and that my soul is now departing from the physical vessel. Only in the evening did this energetic and psychological situation improved somewhat.
I have only experienced this state of profound, deep sadness and a farewell mood of tristesse in this intensity when I left my native country 37 years ago and did not know at that time if I will ever have the possibility to see my land and family again. I have been expecting this farewell mood for some time as a clear sign for our pending departure from this reality. However, when I experienced this mood yesterday, I felt deeply depressed. Indeed a large portion of my being was physically dying yesterday and the bitter taste of this sensation prevailed over the sweet anticipation of our coming ascension. I have difficulties to relay this mood in human words.
This night, July 18, I had my last ascension test run in real time. I received a huge energy download through my left brain portal and immediately woke up in the night. However I could not move my body and remained still in my bed, while the intensity of the incoming energies began to peak. I have had several similar experiences in the past, when I had out-of-body-events, and when I ascended in body frequencies and spirit (consciousness) on October 13, 2010.
"Dies ist der reine Energiezustand nach dem Aufstieg" – "This is the pure energy state after Ascension".
Today, my body feels invigorated as seldom before and is the opposite to what I experienced yesterday. The energy roller coaster these days is indeed breathtaking.
I must admit that I have never had so many signs in a row that announce my ascension. As I have recently published, only 3 days ago I dreamt of meeting the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her office in Berlin to take over from her the governance of Germany as ascended master on behalf of the PAT. During this visit in the "Kanzleramt", I was accompanied by two ladies from the PAT, whose identity I cannot now remember, but they were very close to me.
This all sums up to a showdown very soon. My latest information is that we will ascend, before the real world revolution of the masses will take place and then become the leaders of this revolution.
The reason for this decision is that it is unrealistic to expect any complete and true revelations on the part of the current politicians about the real situation on this planet and the role of the Orion Empire in the enslavement of humanity. However, without such revelations there will not be any collective indignation, even wrath, and subsequently no revolution. All revolutions are carried on the crest of collective human emotions that open the hearts and minds of the people for the arrogance and brutality of the ruling elite.
Of course it would have been better if the masses would have awakened by themselves and would have be able to unleash a true revolution from below. But this is now unlikely, given the current deep slumber of the masses. As we have already trespassed all divine deadlines for transformation in the End Times, our ascension can now take place at any point in time.
In the meantime, the powerful energies from the Great Central Sun engulf humanity and open their hearts and minds, while destroying the old matrix of their lives, so that all the energetic prerequisites for a global revolution are already available. For this reason we are no longer needed on the ground as conduits and powerful antennae for the transforming cosmic energies.
Our ascension and appearance in front of humanity is the most optimal alternative for triggering the big events of change in the End Times, as all first ascended human masters will be the future Earth Keepers of Gaia and humanity. This is a done deal. Hence there is no better moment to appear in front of humanity and fulfil the promised "Second Coming oi Christ", than by the end of this month, when the old matrix will, most probably, irreversibly crumble.
The psychological impact of our imminent appearance as ascended masters in front of mankind has been extensively discussed on this website. There is no other more effective way to impress the people and awaken them for the true cosmic reality, than to show them that the most humble human representatives among them, the PAT members, who have most suffered throughout their lives, have now reached the highest possible status of creator gods, have achieved immortality, and the ability of immediate creation.
We will be the carriers of the most powerful energies from the Great Central Sun that will transform Gaia and humanity to a transgalactic, 5th-dimensional civilisation and planet. Such energies have never existed before in human bodies. However, these energies are beyond human comprehension and normally they cannot even be perceived by human beings with their limited consciousness.
For the first time in the history, of not only this planet, but of the whole galaxy, these energies, coming directly from the Source, will exist on earth in vital, immortal, crystalline 3d-human bodes – that of the members of the PAT. Human minds can cope with such powerful energies, only if they are presented to them in a visual, holographic form that is familiar to them. Anything else will only augment their basic fears.
The energies of the PAT behind our crystalline bodies will represent the driving powers of the Source that will carry the future ascension of Gaia and humanity to much higher dimensions beyond the 5th dimension of the new earth A. Hence the new PAT energies will be a prolongation and expansion of the Christ energies that have shaped the destiny of humanity behind the veil in the last 2000 years and thus will be the main force of evolution of all human souls.
This entry was posted in Ascension and tagged ascension test run, Chris energies, dress rehearsal of ascension, earth keepers, Great central Sun, immortal crystalline 3d-human bodies, PAT energies, Second Coming of Christ. Bookmark the permalink.


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The Utah and Penn State helmets are placed together during media day ahead of the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in Pasadena,…
The Utah and Penn State helmets are placed together during media day ahead of the Rose Bowl NCAA college football game Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Rose Bowl hosts similarly tough No. 7 Utah, No. 9 Penn State
Rose Bowl: No. 7 Utah (10-3, No. 8 CFP) vs. No. 9 Penn State (10-2, No. 11 CFP), Jan 2. 17, 5 p.m. Eastern (ESPN)
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK COLLEGE LINE: Utah by 1 1/2.
Series record: First meeting.
The Utes won the Pac-12 for the second straight season and can now get a measure of redemption after losing 48-45 to Ohio State in their Rose Bowl debut last year. The Nittany Lions, returning to Pasadena for the first time since a memorable last-second defeat to Southern California in 2017, are out to show they can defeat a heavyweight opponent after losing to Big Ten powers Michigan and the Buckeyes. Conference bragging rights between the West Coast and Midwest leagues take on added significance as this is likely to be the last traditional Big Ten-Pac-12 matchup in The Granddaddy of Them All, with the Rose Bowl hosting a College Football Playoff semifinal next season and the expanded 12-team playoff set to debut in 2024.
KEY MATCHUP
Penn State QB Sean Clifford vs. Utah S R.J. Hubert. The sixth-year senior Clifford will have to be at his best after struggling in the Nittany Lions' two defeats, completing 7 of 19 passes for 120 yards against the Wolverines and being picked off three times by Ohio State. Hubert and Cole Bishop anchored arguably the Pac-12's premier safety tandem and performed well against the conference's strong collection of quarterbacks. Second on the team with 75 tackles, Hubert had two forced fumbles and three interceptions, including a critical pick of Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams in the Pac-12 title game.
Utah: WR DeVaughn Vele will be the top option for QB Cameron Rising after TE Dalton Kincaid decided not to play in the Rose Bowl. Vele was second on the team in receptions (50), yards receiving (595) and touchdown catches (5). He should have opportunities to make plays against a Penn State secondary that won't have CB Joey Porter Jr., who opted out to begin NFL Draft preparations.
Penn State: RB Nicholas Singleton needs 59 yards rushing to reach 1,000 in his impressive debut season. The Big Ten freshman of the year seemed to hit a wall in October before rebounding to average 6.3 yards per carry over the past four games. Utah is allowing 3.8 yards per rush, but Florida and UCLA had success keeping the ball on the ground.
The Nittany Lions are playing in the Rose Bowl for the fifth time. Their first appearance came in 1923, and their lone win was a 38-20 triumph over Oregon in 1995. … Utes coach Kyle Whittingham is 11-4 in bowl games. However, he has dropped his past three postseason contests, with the Utes' typically stout defense allowing 39 points per game in those defeats. … Both offenses have had tremendous success featuring the tight end. Utah's group has accounted for an FBS-best 101 catches, 1,496 yards and 16 touchdown receptions. Penn State ranks second nationally with 13 combined scoring grabs from four different tight ends. … Utah had the most productive pass rush in the Pac-12 and was the only team in the conference to see three different defenders notch five sacks. DE Gabe Reid led the team with 5 1/2, and Florida transfer LB Mohamoud Diabate and DE Van Fillinger each had five. … Singleton and Kaytron Allen are the first freshman teammates in Big Ten history to each run for at least 700 yards. Allen has 844 yards rushing with nine touchdowns. … Utah All-America CB Clark Phillips III will not play after declaring for the NFL Draft. Phillips led the Pac-12 with six interceptions, which was tied for third nationally. … Clifford holds Penn State career records in touchdown passes (84), yards passing (10,382), completions (817) and completion percentage (61.2%). He needs 141 yards to pass Trace McSorley (11,596) in total offense. … Utah RB Micah Bernard had to play defense against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl because of injuries in the secondary and ended up leading the team with 10 tackles. Back at his regular position this season, he is second on the team with 474 yards rushing.
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As part of the TRUMPF Venture Portfolio, we are joining the INTECH exhibition on March 25- 29, showcasing our advanced technology for non-invasive glucose monitoring. We look forward to networking with potential partners, investors and customers.
TRUMPF Venture is providing early-stage financing to technology-oriented startups like RSP Systems, enabling market access as well as being a strategic partner to our company. TRUMPF Venture invested in RSP Systems because they strongly believe that we will become relevant to the medical industry as a breakthrough innovator and we are working hard to prove them right.


Mastering Adobe Photoshop comes with practice, but the following 5 tips can improve the quality of your Photoshop Image Editing, even if you are a beginner. Read to learn more.
Guide to keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop users.


Around this time of year many contractors and freelancers will see a lull in their incoming work; especially those that work within academic circles or the public sector where things tend to grind to a halt for six weeks. Emails go unanswered, the phone stops ringing. Finding yourself in a summer slow down can be intimidating, with all that new free time on your hands it's easy for self-doubt to creep in. What if a new contract never appears? Have I made a mistake? Time to return to the 9-5 grind?
Chances are any time you spend on the bench will only last a few short weeks. All that negative thinking is wasted energy, focus instead on all the things you could be doing with the time on your hands. A summer lull is the perfect time to work on refocusing and building up both you and your company.
Here's how you can continue to thrive during your summer downtime.
Keep positive. It's a clichéd piece of advice, right? But, shifting your focus may bring some clarity. Focusing on your long-term goals, rather than short-term risks, could be the best thing to keep you motivated and moving forward.
More likely than not, you chose to become a freelancer or a contractor for a reason. Maybe it was to escape the office rat race, to engage with more interesting and diverse contracts or to ensure your work would fit around you, your lifestyle and your interests. Perhaps you have a long-term goal in mind? Such as, an early retirement plan, saving to support a new business venture or simply gaining more time to indulge a passion.
A summer lull is a great time to reconnect with your long term goals; it's easy to lose sight of them when you've been working your way through contract after contract. This will help to keep your focused and driven in your down periods. Ensuring your goals are at the front of your mind will help you to avoid the pit trap of accepting any and every contract to escape a lull; no matter how ill-suited to your skills and aims.
Sitting at your computer endlessly searching for new contract leads, sending email after email, speed-dialling your agent – it's a soul crushing experience. Be sure to limit your time on these activities to a few hours a day. Give yourself permission to enjoy the rare break you've been given.
You can use the time to work on any personal projects you've been putting off. Get the chores done, visit friends and family, exercise. Revitalise and reignite your creativity with a holiday, the joy of freelancing and contracting is the ability to pick up and go whenever it suits you. Most importantly get yourself out and about and refuse to let cabin fever sink in – sitting in one room day in and out is enough to kill anyone's productivity.
Taking the time to enjoy your time off will see you being more productive once the summer lull comes to an end.
The gig economy is continually evolving with technology. More and more contractors are working remotely in newly developed areas. Finding new clients has also changed with the times. Instead of sending endless cold emails, use some of your time to focus on attracting clients to you.
Ensuring you have a visible internet presence is an excellent way to start. Make sure you have a website and a LinkedIn profile that shows you at your very best. If applicable, update your portfolio and build and broadcast your side projects.
Keep yourself updated on the current trends and get involved in any ongoing communications in your field. Building your brand and online presence is an investment in advertising, showcasing you and your skills to potential clients.
Spend some time with others who work in your field. Whether your contacts are permanent employees or fellow contractors/freelancers – spending time with your professional contacts is a great way to keep yourself up to date on any news in your sector.
We all have dips in enthusiasm for our chosen sectors on occasion, especially when we find ourselves out of contract. Meeting up with other people in your field is a great way to refuel your interest and come up with creative solutions to shared problems.
Your professional contacts may well know of upcoming work suitable for you. Speaking with them, offering to help pick up any overflow or even collaborating on a project will strengthen your relations and keep you busy. It will also allow you to see how your colleagues work and potentially grant you access to projects you wouldn't typically be involved with.
Look out for side earning jobs that you can pick up. These jobs can keep you ticking over while you're between contracts and support your side projects or any new business ventures. This doesn't necessarily mean selling your well-crafted skills to the lowest bidder, however.
Why not find ways to contribute your skills back to the community? Could you be giving talks on your specialities, helping out a local small business or charity? Have you ever thought about blogging or vlogging? Dreamt of writing a novel, teaching your skills to others, renovating a classic car, building an app or developing property? This moment of downtime could be the perfect opportunity to get started. Should your side earning relate back to your day job, all the better; this will only help to promote you to new clients.
A summer lull is a perfect time to reconnect with your contacts, learn about any new developments and exciting changes in your sector and reinvigorate your passions outside of work. Being able to get away and enjoy the things that matter to you is why many freelancers and contractors chose their line of work – so be sure to enjoy a revitalising break; mull over your long-term plans, improve your skills and come back raring to go when it all kicks off again in September.
Know you'll have a summer lull or thinking of taking a break?
With inniAccounts, if you take a short break in trading activities, you can lower your payments with a trading break. During this period, we'll significantly lower our fees, and we will continue to support you. Take a look at how we can support you and your company this summer.


Washington--Hoping to put his 56 years in politics to use as an "ordinary citizen," Augustus F. Hawkins, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, has announced that he will retire from the Congress at the end of this session.
Representative William D. Ford of Michigan, who served as chairman of the Postsecondary Education Subcommittee from 1977 to 1980 and from 1985 to 1986, is expected to succeed Mr. Hawkins as chairman of the full commmittee.
A 27-year veteran of the House and its oldest member at age 82, the California Democrat has gained a reputation as a quiet but persistent champion of liberal causes.
In the tradition of President Johnson's Great Society, Mr. Hawkins's early work on the committee focused on employment issues. He co-sponsored the section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act establishing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as the Humphrey-Hawkins Full-Employment Act.
In 1988, Mr. Hawkins co-wrote the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Act, and last year, he helped usher a major vocational-education bill through the House.
He has also been an influential player in the battle for child-care legislation and an outspoken critic of Administration proposals on issues ranging from school funding to parental choice.
Mr. Hawkins hinted last week that he has become frustrated by the political and bureaucratic hurdles that can stymie change.
In a Jan. 26 statement, Mr. Hawkins said his decision to resign--which came as a surprise to many in the education community--followed "a great deal of soul-searching."
"I think I can focus on a few things much better as just an ordinary citizen," Mr. Hawkins said in an interview. He outlined plans to travel around the country speaking on education, participating in conferences, and meeting with educators, parents, and foundation officials. ''I think I can do this better without any partisan political connotation," he added.
His goal, he said, is to help "mobilize citizen support" to make education the "nation's number-one priority."
Referring to a recent Economic Policy Institute study arguing that the United States devotes a smaller share of its resources to education than has been proclaimed by recent administrations, Mr. Hawkins voiced dismay over "top federal officials' misinforming the public."
"It's very frustrating to an individual who wants to see some action," he said.
In interviews last week, education advocates praised Mr. Hawkins for his "gentle consensus building" and his ability to approach issues from a humanistic perspective.
"One of the things he's given the Congress and the committee is this incredible conscience," said Michael Edwards, manager of Congressional relations for the National Education Association. "One of his greatest legacies is in getting the Congress, the Administration, and the committee to deal with essential human needs."
When Mr. Hawkins took over as chairman of the education committee in 1984 after the death of Carl D. Perkins, "there had been some expectation that he would be a caretaker chairman," said Michael Casserly, associate director of the Council of the Great City Schools. "But the truth of the matter is, he has put a substantial mark on every single federal education program on the books."
One of the challenges facing Mr. Hawkins in his remaining tenure concerns child care.
Mr. Hawkins concedes that whatever bill emerges is likely to allow the use of some federal aid for religious child care--which he has opposed--paving the way for a court battle on the provision's constitutionality.
In the meantime, a battle with the House Ways and Means Committee has bogged down the measure he supports, which would offer aid for school-based child care and provide child-care assistance for low-income parents through a grant program. Ways and Means would prefer to channel most of the funding through existing block grants.
Though he fears "a compromise bill may surface that will be attractive because it would spend less money" without sufficient attention to education, Mr. Hawkins said he did not expect his departure to thwart the legislation. "I think there is enough support out there to carry a child-care bill," he said.
Representative Ford, his apparent heir, "supports the same approach as I do," Mr. Hawkins added.
Rather than conferring "lame duck" status, the timing of Mr. Hawkins's announcement, Mr. Casserly argued, "puts him in a stronger position" to promote his agenda.
"It's hard to believe that Mr. Hawkins's history before the House and the credibility that it has won't speak quite loudly with the members when it comes time to push the buttons," he said.
Helen Blank, senior program associate for the Children's Defense Fund, added, "We hope he goes out in a burst of glory for children."
Mr. Hawkins cited his work, as a state legislator, on a bill funding child-care centers in California prior to World War II as one of his proudest accomplishments.
Passage of the child-care legislation he is now seeking would be an appropriate send-off, said Bruce Hunter, associate executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. "It would be nice if that is part of the monument to him," he said.


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Стів ( — Сильне підвищення швидкості теплового випромінювання) — атмосферне явище. Це дуга шириною 25-30 км, яка тягнеться на сотні, тисячі кілометрів зі сходу на захід. Феномен може залишатися на небі годину або довше і має сезонний характер, зникаючи з жовтня по лютий. Стів зазвичай складається з фіолетових відтінків і часто супроводжується зеленими короткочасними утвореннями у вигляді частоколу. Явище виникає в Північній півкулі вздовж тих же широт, що і Калгарі в Альберті.

Один із супутників Swarm пролетів прямо через Стіва. На висоті 300 км датчики зафіксували підвищення температури на 3 тисячі градусів Цельсія, а дані показали 25-кілометрову стрічку газу, що пливе на захід зі швидкістю 6-10 км / с.

Відкриття та назва
Явище було відоме протягом десятиліть, проте наукове пояснення офіційно отримало лише наприкінці 2016 — після того, як його помітила група аматорів-фотографів, що спостерігали за полярним сяйвом. Фотографи спершу помилково прийняли його за феномен протонного полярного сяйва, однак професор фізики Ерік Донован з Калгарського університету заперечив таке походження, оскільки протонні полярні сяйва невидимі. Тоді Кріс Ратцлафф (), один зі спостерігачів, запропонував назвати його Стівом. Пропозиція відсилає до анімаційної комедії Лісова братія, у якій герої, стикаючись з чимось невідомим, називають його «Стів».

Науковець Роберт Лисак на презентації Еріка Донована в грудні 2016 запропонував використовувати бекронім «Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement» (STEVE, Сильне підвищення швидкості теплового випромінювання). З того часу цей термін офіційно використовує NASA.

Див. також
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 Термосфера
 Протуберанці

Джерела

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Посилання

Атмосферні явища
2017 у науці

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
airs Saturday, Jan 29, 2022 at 9:00PM EST/PST, 8:00PM CST, 10:00PM MST
After his son dies in a hit-and-run accident, Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) seeks revenge against the teenagers responsible. With the help of a local witch (Florence Schauffler), Ed summons the vengeful demon Pumpkinhead to hunt and kill the group of friends. But when Ed discovers a bond between himself and the creature, he begins to have second thoughts about employing the vicious monster, and he fights to end Pumpkinhead's murderous rampage before it is too late.
Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John DiAquino
Released: 1988 | Runtime: 120 | Genres: Horror | Directed By: Stan Winston
The Devil's Rain
The Day the Earth Stopped
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