text:
Concept of LCA
Impact categories
LCA in wind energy
Energy Balance analysis
Comparative benefits
Onshore impacts
Offshore Impacts
Electromagnetic fields and marine organisms
Impacts on benthos and fish
Impacts on marine mammals and sea birds
Ship collisions, radars and radio signal
Policy measures to combat...
Carbon as a commodity
Contribution to Emissions Reductions
Wind energy CDM & JI projects
The path to a post-2012 regime
Externalities and wind...
Economic concept of external effects
Externalities of different technologies
Benefits of Wind Energy under the Consideration of External Cost
Calculation of external costs - EcoSense Model
Environmental Benefits..
Emissions and cost in EU 27 in 2007
Avoided emissions and external costs in EU-27 in 2020
Avoided external costs in EU-27 in 2030
Social acceptance of wind...
Social research on wind energy onshore
Social research on wind energy offshore
Home » ENVIRONMENT » Environmental impacts » Onshore impacts
The landscape is a very rich and complex concept. Defining landscape is not an easy task, as is made clear by the high number of definitions that exist. Landscape definitions can be found in different fieldslike art, geography, natural sciences, architecture or economics. According to the European Landscape Convention, landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. Landscapes are not static. The landscape is changing over time according to human and ecological development.
Landscape perception and visual impact are key environmental issues in determining wind farm applications related to wind energy development as landscape and visual impacts are by nature subjective and changing over time and location.
Wind turbines are man-made vertical structures with rotating blades, and thus have the potential of attracting people's attention. Typically wind farms with several wind turbines spread on the territory may become dominant points on the landscape.
The characteristics of wind developments may cause landscape and visual effects. These characteristics include the turbines (size, height, number, material and colour), access and site tracks, substation buildings, compounds, grid connection, anemometer masts, and transmission lines (SDC, 2005). Another characteristic of wind farms is that they are not permanent, so the area where the wind farm has been located can return to its original condition after the decommissioning phase (SDC, 2005; Brusa, 2007).
Landscape and visual assessment is carried out differently in different countries. However, within the EU, most wind farms are required to carry out an EIA. The EIA shall identify, describe and assess the direct and indirect effects of the project on the landscape.
Some of the techniques commonly used to inform the landscape and visual impact assessment are:
Zone of theoretical visibility (ZTV) maps define the areas from which a wind plant can be totally or partially seen as determined by topography; these areas represent the limits of visibility of the plant;
Photographs to record the baseline visual resource;
Diagrams to provide a technical indication of the scale, shape and positioning of the proposed wind development; and
Photomontages and video-montages to show the future picture with the wind farm installed.
(Stanton, 2005)
Visual impact decreases with the distance. The ZTV zones can be defined as:
Zone I - Visually dominate: the turbines are perceived as large scale and movement of blades is obvious. The immediate landscape is altered. Distance up to 2 km.
Zone II - Visually intrusive: the turbines are important elements on the landscape and are clearly perceived. Blades movement is clearly visible and can attract the eye. Turbines not necessarily are dominant points on the view. Distance between 1 and 4.5 km in good visibility conditions.
Zone III - Noticeable: The turbines are clearly visible but not intrusive. The wind farm is noticeable as an element in the landscape. Movement of blades is visible in good visibility conditions but the turbines appear small in the overall view. Distance between 2 and 8 km depending on weather conditions.
Zone IV - Element within distant landscape: the apparent size of the turbines is very small. Turbines are as any other element in the landscape. Movement of blades is generally indiscernible. Distance of over 7 km.
(University of Newcastle, 2002)
While visual impact is very specific to the site at a particular wind farm, several characteristics in the design and siting of wind farms have been identified to minimize their potential visual impact. (Hecklau, 2005; Stanton, 2005; Tsoutsos et al., 2006):
Similar size and type of turbines on a wind farm or several adjacent wind farms;
Light grey, beige and white colours on turbines;
Three blades;
Blades rotating in the same direction;
Low number of large turbines is preferable to many smaller wind turbines; and
Flat landscapes fit well with turbine distribution in rows.
Mitigation measures to prevent and/or minimize visual impact from wind farms on landscape can be summarised as follows (Brusa and Lanfranconi, 2007):
Design of wind farm according to the peculiarities of the site and with sensitivity to the surrounding landscape;
Locate the wind farm at a minimum distance from dwellings;
Selection of wind turbine design (tower, colour) according to landscape characteristics;
Selection of neutral colour and anti-reflective paint for towers and blades;
Underground cables; and
Lights for low-altitude flight only for more exposed towers.
(SDC, 2005)
The effects of landscape and visual impact cannot be measured or calculated and mitigation measures are limited. However, experience gained recently suggests that opposition to wind farms is mainly encountered during the planning stage. After commissioning the acceptability is strong.
NOISE IMPACTS
Noise from wind developments has been one of the most studied environmental impacts of this technology. Noise, compared to landscape and visual impacts, can be measured and predicted fairly easily.
Wind turbines produce two types of noise: mechanical noise from gearboxes and generators and aerodynamic noise from blades. Modern wind turbines have virtually eliminated the mechanical noise through good insulation materials in the nacelle, so aerodynamic noise is the biggest contributor. The aerodynamic noise is produced by the rotation of the blades generating a broad-band swishing sound and it is a function of tip speed. Design of modern wind turbines has been optimised to reduce aerodynamic noise. This reduction can be obtained in two ways:
Decreasing rotational speeds under 65 m/s at the tip; and
Using pitch control on upwind turbines, which permits the rotation of the blades along their long axis.
At any given location, the noise within or around a wind farm can vary considerably depending on a number of factors including the layout of the wind farm, the particular model of turbines installed, the topography or shape of the land, the speed and direction of the wind and the background noise. The factors with the most influence on noise propagation are the distance between the observer and the source and the type of noise source.
The sound emissions of a wind turbine increase as the wind speed increases. However, the background noise will typically increase faster than the sound of the wind turbine, tending to mask the wind turbine noise in higher winds. Sound levels decrease as the distance from wind turbines increases (SDC, 2005).
Noise levels can be measured and predicted, but public attitude towards noise depends heavily on perception. Sound emissions can be accurately measured using standardised acoustic equipment and methodologies (International Organisation for Standarisation - ISO Standards, International Electrotechnical Commission - IEC Standards, ETSU - Energy Technology Support Unit, UK Government and so on). Levels of sound are most commonly expressed in decibels (dB). The predictions of sound levels in future wind farms are of the utmost importance in order to foresee the noise impact.
Table 2.1, based on data from the Scottish Government, compares noise generated by wind turbines with other everyday activities (PAN45, 2002).
Table 2.1: Comparative Noise for Common Activities
Source/Activity Indicative noise
level (dB)
Threshold of hearing 0
Rural night-time background 20-40
Quiet bedroom 35
Wind farm at 350m 35-45
Busy road at 5km 35-45
Car at 65 km/h at 100m 55
Busy general office 60
Conversation 60
Truck at 50km/h at 100m 65
City traffic 90
Pneumatic drill at 7m 95
Jet aircraft at 250m 105
Threshold of pain 140
Source: CIEMAT
When there are people living near a wind farm, care must be taken to ensure that sound from wind turbines should be at a reasonable level in relation to the ambient sound level in the area. Rural areas are quitter than cities, so the background noise is usually lower. However, there are also noisy activities in the countryside - agricultural, commercial, industrial and transportation. Wind farms are located in windy areas, where background noise is higher, and this background noise tends to mask the noise produced by the turbines (AWEA, 2008). The final objective is to avoid annoyance or interference in the quality of life of the nearby residents.
Due to the wide variation in the levels of individual tolerance for noise, there is no completely satisfactory way to measure its subjective effects or the corresponding reactions of annoyance and dissatisfaction. The individual annoyance for noise is a very complex topic, but dose-response relationship studies have demonstrated a correlation between noise annoyance with visual interference and the presence of intrusive sound characteristics. In the same way, annoyance is higher in a rural area than in a suburban area and higher also in complex terrain in comparison with flat ground in a rural environment (Pedersen and Wayne, 2004; Pedersen and Wayne, 2007).
Low frequency noise (LFN), also known as infrasound, is used to describe sound energy in the region below about 200 Hz. LFN may cause distress and annoyance to sensitive people and has thus been widely analysed. The most important finding is that modern wind turbines with the rotor placed upwind produce very low levels of infrasound, typically below the threshold of perception (Leventhall, 2003; Hepburn and Edworthy, 2005; DTI, 2006). A survey of all known published measurement results of infrasound from wind turbines concludes that, with upwind turbines, infrasound can be neglected in evaluating the environmental effects (Jacobsen, 2005).
Experience acquired in developing wind farms suggests that noise from wind turbines is generally very low (SDC, 2005). The comparison between the number of noise complaints about wind farms and about other types of noise indicates that wind farm noise is a small-scale problem in absolute terms (Moorhouse, 2007). Information from the US also suggests that complaints about noise from wind projects are rare and can usually be satisfactorily resolved (AWEA, 2008).
National authorities consider the development of wind farms in their planning policies for wind energy projects. Decisions on siting should be made with consideration to other land users.
The administrative procedures needed to approve wind plants for each site have to be taken into account from the beginning of the project planning process. Regional and local land use planners must decide whether a permit is compatible with existing and planned adjacent uses, whether it will modify negatively the overall character of the surrounding area, whether it will disrupt established communities and whether it will be integrated into the existing landscape. Developers, in the very early planning stage, should contact the most relevant authorities and stakeholders in the area: the Ministry of Defense, civil aviation authorities, radar and radio communication suppliers, the grid company, environmental protection authorities, the local population and relevant non-governmental associations, among others.
The authorities involved in reviewing and making land use decision on projects must coordinate and communicate with each other throughout the project. At the same time, local citizen participation as well as good communication with the main stakeholders (local authorities, developers, NGOs, landowners etc) would help to obtain a successful wind development.
Special attention must be paid on nature reserves, their surrounding zones and habitats of high value for nature conservation. There are additional obligations for assessment when Ramsar sites or Natura 2000 sites could be significantly affected by wind energy developments. The project or plan will only be approved if there is not an adverse effect on the integrity of the site. If it cannot be established that there will be no adverse effects, the project may only be carried out if there are no alternative solutions and if there are imperative reasons of public interest.
Recently, a new concern has been raised: wind farm installations over peatlands. Peatlands are natural carbon storage systems with a delicate equilibrium of waterlogging. According to United Nations Environment Programme Division of Global Environment Facility Coordination (UNEP-GEF), peatlands cover only 3 per cent of the world's surface, but store the equivalent of 30 per cent of all global soil carbon, or the equivalent of 75 per cent of all atmospheric carbon. The impacts associated with drainage are carbon dioxide and methane emissions, erosion and mass movements, and dissolved organic carbon. The consequence is the loss of the land's capability of acting as a carbon sink. Moreover, the EU Habitats Directive has designated several grasslands formations as special areas of conservation. In these areas, Member States have the responsibility to apply the necessary conservation measures for the maintenance or restoration of the natural habitats and/or the populations of the species for which thy are designated.
The Scottish Government (Nayak et al., 2008) has recently developed an approach to calculate the impact of wind energy on organic soils. This method permits the calculation of potential carbon losses and savings of wind farms, taking into account peat removal, drainage, habitat improvement and site restoration. The method proposes to integrate the carbon losses by peatland use in the overall Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the wind farms, computing the global carbon saving by the use of wind energy and subtracting the carbon losses associated with wind farm installations. The study also provides some recommendations for improving carbon savings of wind farm developments:
Peat restoration as soon as possible after disturbance;
Employing submerged foundation in deeper area of peat;
Maintenance of excavated C-layer as intact as possible until restoration;
Good track design according to geomorphologic characteristics;
Improving habitats through drain blocking and re-wetting of areas; and
Using floating roads when peat is deeper than 1 m.
Another issue is the interaction between tourism and wind energy developments. Many tourist areas are located in beautiful and/or peaceful landscapes. Wind power plants could reduce the attractiveness of the natural scenery. The most recent study, carried out by Scottish Government (Scottish Government, 2008), has analysed the impacts of wind farms on the tourism industry and reviewed 40 studies from Europe, the US and Australia. The conclusions from the review can be summarised as follows:
The strongest opposition occurs at the planning stage
A significant number of people think there is a loss of scenic value when a wind farm is installed; however, to other people, wind farms enhance the beauty of the area
Over time, wind farms are better accepted
In general terms, there is no evidence to suggest a serious negative impact on tourism
A tourist impact statement is suggested as part of the planning procedure to decrease the impact on tourism, including analysis of tourist flows on roads and number of beds located in dwellings on the visual zone of the wind farm
IMPACTS ON BIRDS
Wind farms, as vertical structures with mobile elements, may represent a risk to birds, both as residents or migratory birds. However, it is difficult to reach a clear conclusion about the impacts of wind energy on birds for several reasons:
Impacts are very site-dependent (depending on landscape topography, wind farm layout, season, types of resident and migratory birds in the area, and so on).
Impacts vary among the different bird species.
The types of risks that may affect birds are:
Collision with turbines (blades and towers) causing death or injury;
Habitat disturbance. The presence of wind turbines and maintenance work can displace birds from preferred habitats and the breeding success rate may be reduced;
Interference on birds' movements between feeding, wintering, breeding and moulting, which could result in additional flights consuming more energy; and
Reduction or loss of available habitat.
(Birdlife, 2005; Drewit and Langston, 2006)
The main factors which determine the mortality of birds by collision in wind farms are landscape topography, direction and strength of local winds, turbine design characteristics and the specific spatial distribution of turbines on the location (de Lucas et al., 2007). Specific locations should be evaluated a priori when a wind farm is planned. Every new wind farm project must include a detailed study of the interaction between birds' behaviour, wind and topography at the precise location. This analysis should provide information to define the best design of the wind farm to minimise collision with the turbines (Barrios and Rodriguez, 2004). Raptors present a higher mortality rate due to their dependence on thermals to gain altitude, to move between locations and to forage. Some of them are long lived species, with low reproductive rates and thus more vulnerable to loss of individuals by collisions (Drewitt and Langston, 2006).
The mortality caused by wind farms is very dependent on the season, specific site (for example offshore, mountain ridge, migration route), species (large and medium size versus small, and migratory versus resident) and type of bird activity (e.g. nocturnal migrations, movements from and to feeding areas) (de Lucas et al, 2007).
Bird mortality seems to be a sporadic event, correlated with adverse weather or poor visibility conditions (Dirksen et al, 2007). Results from Altamont Pass and Tarifa on raptors showed some of the highest levels of mortality; however, the average numbers of fatalities were low in both places, ranging from 0.02 to 0.15 collisions/turbine. In Altamont Pass this was due to the large number of tsmall, fast rotating turbines installed in the area. In Tarifa, the two main reasons were that the wind farms were installed in topographical bottlenecks, where large numbers of migrating and local birds fly at the same time through mountain passes, and the use of wind by soaring birds to gain lift over ridges (Barrios and Rodriguez, 2004; Drewitt and Langston, 2006). In Navarra, studies of almost 1,000 wind turbines and including all types of birds showed a mortality rate of between 0.1 to 0.6 collisions per turbine and year. Raptors were the bird group more affected (78.2 per cent) during spring, followed by migrant passerines during postbreeding migration time (September/October) (Garcia, 2007; Lekuona and Ursua, 2007).
At the global level, it can be accepted that many wind farms show low rates of mortality by collision (Drewitt and Langston, 2006). However, even these low collision mortality rates for threatened or vulnerable species could be significant and make it harder for a particular species to survive (Hunt, 1998; Drewitt and Langston, 2006).
A comparative study of bird mortality by anthropogenic causes was carried out by Erickson et al. (2005). Table 2.2 gives the distribution by human activities:
Table 2.2: Anthropogenic birds' mortality:
Causes Annual Mortality Estimate
Building/ windows 550m
Cats 100m
High tension lines 130m
Vehicles 80m
Pesticides 67m
Communication towers 4.5m
Airplanes 25,000
Wind turbines 28,500
A more recent study stated current wind energy developments are only responsible for 0.003 per cent of bird mortalities caused by anthropogenic activities (NRC, 2007).
Concerning habitat disturbance, the construction and operation of wind farms could potentially disturb birds and displace them from around the wind farm site. The first step in analysing the disturbance is to define the size of the potential disturbance zone. Wind turbines can trigger flight reactions on birds displacing them out of the wind farm area. Potential disturbance distances have been studied by several authors, giving an average of 300 m during the breeding season and 800 m at other seasons of the year (Percival, 2003). Approximately 2 per cent of all flights at hub height showed a sudden change of direction in the proximity of wind farm.
An indirect negative impact of wind farms is a possible reduction in the available area for nesting and feeding by birds avoiding wind farm installations (de Lucas et al, 2007).
During construction, species can be displaced from their original habitat, but in most cases they return during the operational phase. However, exclusions may occur for other species during the breeding period (Perival, 2007).
Mitigation measures to minimise impacts vary by site and by species, but common findings in the literature are as follows:
Important zones of conservation and sensitivity areas must be avoided;
Sensitive habitats have to be protected by implementing appropriate working practices;
An environmental monitoring programme before, during and after construction will provide the needed information to evaluate the impact on birds;
Adequate design of wind farms: siting turbines close together and grouping turbines to avoid an alignment perpendicular to main flight paths;
Provide corridors between clusters of wind turbines when necessary;
Increase the visibility of rotor blades;
Underground transmission cables installation, especially in sensitive areas, where possible;
Make overhead cables more visible using deflectors and avoiding use in areas of high bird concentrations, especially of species vulnerable to collision;
Implement habitat enhancement for species using the site;
Adequate environmental training for site personnel;
Presence of biologist or ecologist during construction in sensitive locations;
Relocation of conflictive turbines;
Stop operation during peak migration periods; and
Rotor speed reduction in critical periods.
(Drewitt and Langston, 2006; Huppop et al, 2006; Garcia, 2007)
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCES
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is any type of interference that can potentially disrupt, degrade or interfere with the effective performance of an electronic device. Modern society is dependent on the use of devices that utilise electromagnetic energy such as power and communication networks, electrified railways, and computer networks. During the generation, transmission and utilisation of electromagnetic energy, the devices generate electromagnetic disturbance that can interfere with the normal operation of other systems.
Wind turbines can potentially disrupt electromagnetic signals used in telecommunications, navigation and radar services. The degree and nature of the interference will depend on:
The location of the wind turbine between receiver and transmitter;
Characteristics of the rotor blades;
Characteristics of receiver;
Signal frequency; and
The radio wave propagation in the local atmosphere.
(Sengupta and Senior, 1983)
Interference can be produced by three elements of a wind turbine: the tower, rotating blades and generator. The tower and blades may obstruct, reflect or refract the electromagnetic waves. However, modern blades are typically made of synthetic materials which have a minimal impact on the transmission of electromagnetic radiation. The electrical system is not usually a problem for telecommunications, because interference can be eliminated with proper nacelle insulation and good maintenance.
Interference to mobile radio services is usually negligible (SEA, 2004). Interference to TV signals has been minimised with the substitution of metal blades with synthetic materials. However, when turbines are installed very close to dwellings, interference has been proven difficult to rule out.
The interference area may be calculated using the Fresnel zone. This area is around and between the transmitter and receiver and depends on transmission frequency, distance between them and local atmospheric conditions.
Technical mitigation measures for TV interference can be applied during the planning stage, siting the turbine away from the line-of-sight of the broadcaster transmitter. Once the wind farm is in operation there are also a set of measures to mitigate the interference:
Installation of higher-quality or directional antenna;
Direct the antenna toward an alternative broadcast transmitter;
Installation of an amplifier;
Relocate the antenna;
Installation of satellite or cable TV; and
Construction of a new repeater station if the area affected is very wide.
(IFC, 2007)
There is a common agreement that adequate design and location can prevent or correct any possible interference problems at relatively low cost using simple technical measures, such as the installation of additional transmitter masts (SEA, 2004). Interference on communication systems is considered to be negligible because it can be avoided by careful wind farm design (SDC, 2005).
CONSTRAINTS ON NATURAL RESERVES AREAS
There is a rough consensus about which are the most important environmental threats, and what are their general influences on biological diversity. The continuous deterioration of natural habitats and the increasing number of wild species which are seriously threatened has prompted governments to protect the environment.
There are many types of protected areas at national and regional levels across the countries. At the EU level, the Birds Directive (1979) and the Habitats Directive (1992) are the base of the nature conservation policy.
The Birds Directive is one of the most important tools to protect all wild bird species naturally living or migrating through the EU. The directive recognises that habitat loss and degradation are the most serious threats to the conservation of wild birds. The Birds Directive has identified 194 species and sub-species (listed in Annex I) as particularly threatened and in need of special conservation measurements.
The aim of the Habitats Directive is to promote the maintenance of biodiversity by preserving natural habitats and wild species. Annex I includes a list of 189 habitats and the Annex II lists 788 species to be protected by means of a network of high-value sites. Each Member State has to define a national list of sites for evaluation in order to form a European network of Sites of Community Importance (SCIs). Once adopted, SCIs are designated by Member States as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), and, along with Special Protection Areas (SPAs) classified under the EC Birds Directive, form a network of protected areas known as Natura 2000.
The development of wind farms in natural reserves should be assessed on site-specific and species-specific criteria to determine whether the adverse impacts are compatible with the values for which the area was designated.
Of special importance is the mandatory requirement of the Habitats Directive to include indicative "sensitivity" maps of bird populations, their habitats, flyways and migration bottlenecks as well as an assessment of the plan's probable effects on these in the SEAs and AAs procedures. These maps should provide enough information about feeding, breeding, moulting, resting, non-breeding and migration routes to guarantee biodiversity conservation.
>> Offshore impacts


Many probes fall outside of coding regions and are not displayed on the Histogram. To view all methylation probes within or in close proximity to RHOH please use the COSMIC Genome Browser.
This section gives an overview of RHOH, along with links to any related data and resources.
This is a known cancer gene, from Tier 1 of the Cancer Gene Census. Tier 1 genes have documented evidence of their relevance to cancer.
Mouse insertional mutagenesis experiments support the designation of RHOH as a cancer causing gene.
This gene has a cancer hallmark. You can see more information about hallmarks.
Links to bioinformatics resources that are related to RHOH.
This section shows the drugs associated with RHOH resistance mutations. In the tabs below you can see any other genes that have resistance mutations to the same drug(s), and the distribution of mutations that occur in those genes.
This section shows publications associated with RHOH. You can see more information in our help pages.


Hebei Giant Metal Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the Heave Zinc Coating Steel Fence leading brands in China. It is the factory & supplier specializing in manufacturing Heave Zinc Coating Steel Fence. Offer high quality Heave Zinc Coating Steel Fence at a cheap wholesale price.


Aren't a 'master tape' and a 'multi track tape' two different things? At least here in Finland we call the final two track mix a 'master tape' and the 'multi track tape' is the one which can be remixed.
Hey, good to hear from you man. And i'm glad that you are busy with some remastering stuff and the dvd shoot plans.
Damn. I just now realised that Jennifer Batten was the female guitar player with Michal Jackson's live band in their huge tours in late 80's and 90's. Pretty wild stuff like the note-by-note Eddie Van Halen solo in 'Beat It'.
Just did my duty and ordered one. I can't wait to get to hear it. Any reviews on sight yet?
Yes, great news really. Nice to see Frank getting on the road again. And thanks to everyone involved making this happen. I really hope those scandinavian dates will happen, so let's start to bang the drum and spread the word. I'm in serious need of a three hour+ Marino-live-on-stage-dose.


Carousel Checks is a website that providing all types of personal checks which you can custom your own check at Carousel Checks website. When you visit Carousel Checks website you will find their personal checks that separate into many categories such as Personal Checks, Business Checks, Computer Checks, Desk sets, Deposit Tickets, Covers , Labels, Stamps and many more. At Carousel Checks offering many types of checks with unique design and style that different from other people and you can order your checks at Carousel Checks with the lowest prices at $4.99.
Not only offering all types of personal check at discount price but Carousel Checks also giving away Carousel Checks Promo Code which you can use Carousel Checks Promo Code after you finish adding your select your checks to your cart and then you will see a box for entering Carousel Checks Coupon Code during your checkout which current Carousel Checks Promo Code can save your money up to 50% Off. For current Carousel Checks Promo Code is mention below.
The reason that why many people select Carousel Checks when they desire to purchase person checks, business checks, Computer Checks, Desksets, Deposit Tickets, Covers, Labels and Stamps because Carousel Checks offering all in one website which you can find all types of personal checks with unique style and design that you can no find any where else except CarouselChecks.com. Carousel Checks entering into these business since 2005 which you can assure their products security and quality that will never let you disappointed.
Carousel Checks Promo Code: By entering Carousel Checks Promo Code after you finish adding your select checks to your cart and then you will see a box for entering Carousel Checks Promo Code which can save your money up to 50% Off plus Free Shipping. For current Carousel Checks Promo Code is mention above this post.
Carousel Checks Customer Services: If you have any question about Carousel Checks Products or Delivery Services which you can contact their Carousel Checks Customer support directly at 888-422-6122 with 24 hours support you per day or you can contact them via email address at info@carouselchecks.com.
Carousel Checks Personal Checks: Personal Checks is a check that you can order from Carousel Checks which separate into many design and style such as Custom Photo Checks, Value Priced Checks, Military Checks, Scenic Designs, Sports,Checks, Stylistic Designs, Temples and Castles, Wet Ink Wisdom, Ethnic Checks, Animal Checks and many more like example picture below.
Carousel Checks Business Checks: At Carousel Checks you will find full like of affordable business checks which offering account payable checks, multi purpose checks and payroll checks with the design to fit 7 Ring Binder. Carousel Checks also offering a free logos for your business when you order business checks from Carousel Checks. Below is sample of Business Checks from Carousel Checks.


text:
Marrma dilakmala lurruma gurra nathawu — Two Old Artists Looking for Food
29 October – 21 November 2015
This is an exhibition about one of the most wild and powerful landscapes in the world – the monsoon rain forests and floodplains of East Arnhem Land – as seen through the different lenses of two of Australia's most distinguished senior artists. Large watercolours, woodcuts, bark paintings and larrakitj image the essential nature and dynamic energy of a range of endemic tropical plants with their yams, edible tubers, and fruits. The works surround the visitor to the exhibition – Wirrpanda's images of particular plants juxtaposed with Wolseley's drawings and paintings of the same species. For example, her bark showing one of the region's huge yams, manmuna in the Yolnu language, has luxuriant heart shaped leaves which almost morph into the tumbling foliage of Wolseley's nature print of the same plant beneath it. Likewise a painting on bark of an ancient cycad with its exuberant fruits suggests a line of connection across the gallery to a drawing by Wolseley of another cycad species reflected in the still dark water of a forest pool.
When the artists first met, Wirrpanda had already started to paint an epic series of bark paintings and larrakitj about the plants of her homeland: a small section of which is included in this exhibition. This is a powerful group of paintings which demonstrates her urgent and passionate desire to pass on to new generations her vast knowledge before it is lost.
Mulkun Wirrpanda is a senior female artist for the Dhudi-Djapu clan from Dhuruputjpi. She is an acknowledged leader of her clan and has a lifetime's knowledge of her country. This vast knowledge is distilled into her works. One of many lasting legacies of her recent body of works dealing with food plants is that this information will be preserved for the future generations. It is particularly important for those plants that are no longer collected or valued in the way they had been in the past. For example the works depicting wild orange or bunjunu which was an important food in her youth. She has often spoken in a heartfelt way about how this is one of the main purposes of her art.
John Wolseley has lived and worked all over the continent and is known for his large scale works on paper which relate the minutiae of plant, bird and insect to the greater movements of the earth's geological and ecological systems. Wolseley and Wirrpanda first met in 2009 when John was in Baniyala as one of a group of Yolnu and balanda and visiting artists working on the wonderful project and touring exhibition Djalkiri – We are standing on the their names – organised by Nomad Art of Darwin.
As part of this project, the artists, scientists and anthropologists were hosted by Djambawa Marawili. They drew and worked on their etchings and lithographs around Blue Mud Bay and later in the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala. After a day spent harvesting tubers and yams, Wirrpanda asked Wolseley to be her wawa or brother and gave him the name of Langgurrk; a type of beetle grub which lives in mud and yams. Since then they have met each year in the Midawarr season, wandering through rainforest and floodplain, collecting and painting the rich diversity of yam, tuber and fruit.
The artists have also collaborated in a series of woodcuts on Huon pine, The Midawarr – Harvest Series. Seven large prints by Wirrpanda and four by Wolseley celebrate the same edible plants.
For this series Wolseley took huge slabs or blocks of Huon Pine from Tasmania to Yirrkala where Wirrpanda and Wolseley then engraved their woodcuts into these rough wood blocks. They were then proofed and printed by Annie Studd and the Yolnu printmakers at the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre Print Workshop and by John Wolseley at his studio in Victoria with the help of printmakers Kaitlyn Gibson and Cassandra Gill.
Two of Mulkun's prints Rakay # 2 and #3 are printed on stringybark made by Winsome Jobling, the Darwin based paper artist. Something extraordinary happens when the work is printed on paper made from the actual place rather than imported European papers from France or Italy.
During this time Wolseley also took on the viewpoint of the Langgurrk, in a number of prints made directly from 'life histories' engraved by beetles under the bark of trees. The Boring Beetle and Moth Compendium 2015 is a group of relief prints showing the progression of changes undergone by a beetle during its lifetime. In a fallen branch randomly chosen from the forest floor, he has found a whole world in miniature form. An epic story of birth and transformation which brings to mind the connection that the ancient Egyptians saw between the scarab beetles rolling a ball of dung across the ground and the way the sun rolls across the sky and is reborn each dawn.
Though coming from very different directions, there are correspondences and synchronies between the works of these two artists. In a curious way, aspects of the scientific foundation of the European tradition correspond to elements in Wirrpanda's Yolnu approach. Her depiction of plants and their habitats reveal her huge knowledge of seasonal changes, morphologies and types of energy. Howard Morphy has recognized the complexity of this knowledge system; pointing to the Yolnu 'belief that the surface forms of things derive from underlying structures and relationships'. In several of his works Wolseley refers to earlier artists and scientists and he sometimes says that he likes to play along the boundary between art and science. In The Power of Movement in Plants – Discorides' Yam Climbing Leonardo's tree Wolseley references what could be described as one of the great originary drawings from the dawn of science – the tree Leonardo da Vinci drew when thinking about the growth of trees, branches, river systems, and vascular systems. In the companion work The Power of Movement in Plants – Dioscorides' Yam with Darwin's Diagram, he has used one of the methods which Charles Darwin employed to document the movement of plants. In this painting the dance of a vine as it climbs up to the sun is shown in a form of choreographic notation.
In this exhibition the same plant, be it mawuka yam or darwirr vine is viewed through the lens of two completely different world views and two completely different ways of representation. Wirrpanda's art flows from a culture that has evolved over thousands of years out of the country itself. Wolseley's art is part of the European landscape tradition based on the study of the physical and natural world through observation and experience.
An important connection between these artists is a strong belief in the originary and primary importance of the natural world – its plants, animals and eco-systems. And a shared awareness of how our accelerating loss of connection with country will result in damage beyond repair.
'The task of the artist is to keep and repair the sacred web of creation' – George Mackay Brown
John Wolseley (b. 1938) is one of Australia's most well-respected contemporary artists. In 2005, he was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by Macquarie University and was also awarded the Visual Art Emeritus Award by the Australia Council. Wolseley recently exhibited a solo show at the National Gallery of Victoria titled Heartlands and Headwaters and his work has been selected for numerous important group exhibitions such as Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2014), International Print Exhibition, Australia and Japan, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan; Fukiyama Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan (2014), The Skullbone Experiment, UNSW Galleries, Sydney (2014), The 18th Biennale of Sydney: all our relations, curated by Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster, Sydney (2012), and Reframing Darwin: evolution and art in Australia, at The Ian Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne (2009). A major monograph, John Wolseley: Land Marks by Sasha Grishin was published in 1998 by Craftsman House, a second, expanded edition was published in 2006 and a third edition in 2015. John Wolseley's work is represented in all the major state galleries and in numerous private collections in Australia and internationally. Marrma dilakmala larruma gurra nathawu - Two Old Artists Looking for Food is John Wolseley's sixth exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Mulkun Wirrpanda is a senior female artist for the Dhudi-Djapu clan for Dhuruputjpi. She is a daughter of the late Dhäkiyarr Wirrpanda and widow to Wakuthi Marawili, a Mau1e0farrpa clan leader who lived at Yilpara until his death in mid-2005. She is also the mother (by kinship) to senior artist and clan leader Djambawa Marawili. Mulkun paints
Dhudi-Djapu miny'tji (sacred design) that depicts her land at Dhuruputjpi. As the eldest and most knowledgeable of her clan, she is acknowledged as a leader. Mulkun is one of the few Yolu014bu women to have this status. Mulkun was an early practitioner of works without figurative imagery within the miny'tji. Until recently the painting of this 'raw' miny'tji was restricted to ceremonial use. The work is always done using natural earth pigments (ochres). Yalata and Darrangi are areas she usually paints, which are at her clan estate Dhuruputjpi, where she resides. Mulkun paints on bark, larrakitj (memorial poles) and yidaki (didjeridus) and is a talented carver, weaver and print-maker. Her works has been exhibited throughout Australia and Asia.
View exhibition

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


What power hitch jack is used for a Whitewater 166 model?
I want to install a power hitch jack, as the crank up/down jack is getting old. What weight tongue jack is needed and more importantly, what size will go with a Whitewater 166 trailer? Any preferences on manufacturers and models?


text:
Tannhäuser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg Castle
is an 1845 opera in three acts.
Place: near Eisenach
Time: early 13th century
The Venusberg, (the Hörselberg of "Frau Holda" in Thuringia, in the vicinity of Eisenach)
Tannhäuser is held there a willing captive through his love for Venus. (Ballet scene; bacchanalian music.) Following the orgy of the ballet, Tannhäuser's desires are finally satiated, and he longs for freedom, spring and the sound of church bells. Once again he takes up his harp and pays homage to the goddess in a passionate love song, which he ends with an earnest plea to be allowed to depart. When Venus again tries to charm him, he declares: "My salvation rests in Mary, the mother of God." These words break the unholy spell. Venus and her attendants disappear, and he suddenly finds himself just below the Wartburg. It is springtime; a young shepherd sits upon a rock and pipes an ode to spring. Pilgrims in procession pass Tannhäuser as he stands motionless, and he sinks to his knees, overcome with gratitude. He is discovered by the Landgrave and his companions, Wolfram, Walther, Biterolf, Reinmar, and Heinrich. They joyfully welcome the young singer, who had originally fled from the court because he was shamefully bested in the prize-singing contest. He initially refuses to join them, but when Wolfram informs him that his song has gained for him the heart of Elisabeth, he relents and follows the Landgrave and the singers to the Wartburg.
Hall of the Wartburg
Elisabeth has been living in seclusion since Tannhäuser's disappearance. When she hears of his return, she joyfully agrees to be present at a prize contest of song, and enters the hall. ("Dich, teure Halle.") Wolfram leads Tannhäuser to her; he loves her, but dares not tell her the evil he has done. The Landgrave and Elisabeth receive the guests who assemble for the contest, the noblemen of the neighbourhood, who appear in rich attire. (March and chorus.) The Landgrave announces the subject of the contestants' songs is to be "love's awakening". Elisabeth will grant the victor one wish, whatever it may be. Wolfram performs first; he declares that love is like a pure stream, which should never be troubled. Tannhäuser replies hotly that he finds the highest love only in the pleasure of the senses. The other singers support Wolfram. Tannhäuser replies to each separately, and at last in growing excitement he answers Wolfram with a love song to Venus, and declares that if the knights wish to know love as it is they should repair to the Venusberg. The women, with the exception of Elisabeth, leave the hall in horror, and the knights draw swords upon Tannhäuser, but Elisabeth protects him. Tannhäuser then expresses his penitence for his outburst, and the Landgrave allows him to join a band of pilgrims bound for Rome, where he may perhaps obtain forgiveness and redemption from the Pope.
The valley of the Wartburg, in autumn
Orchestral music describes the pilgrimage of Tannhäuser. Elisabeth, accompanied by Wolfram, falls on her knees in prayer. She asks the returning pilgrims for news of Tannhäuser, but in vain. Once again she prays earnestly and returns broken-hearted to the Wartburg. Wolfram, who loves her with faithful devotion, has a presentiment of her death. (Wolfram: "Song to the evening star.") He sees before him a tottering pilgrim in torn garments. It is Tannhäuser, who informs Wolfram that the Pope refused his plea for absolution, and declared that he had no more chance of being forgiven than the Pope's staff had of sprouting leaves. Utterly despairing, Tannhäuser is now seeking the way back to the Venusberg and presently calls to Venus, who appears before him and bids him welcome back to her cavern. Suddenly, Wolfram notices a funeral procession descending the hill, and sees the mourners bearing the corpse of Elisabeth on a bier. Tannhäuser races to her side and collapses upon her body with the words, "Holy Elisabeth, pray for me" upon his lips. The younger pilgrims enter and announce that the Pope's staff has sprouted young leaves, a sign that Tannhäuser has obtained God's forgiveness.


Analysis and visualization of functional and anatomical magnetic neuroimaging data. BrainVoyager is a highly optimized and user friendly software system that combines surface-based and volume-based tools to study the structure and function of the human brain.
Post-process, visualize and fuse advanced brain images, acquired on any MRI, CT, or PET scanner. Choose from a variety of modules that seamlessly integrate into a state-of-the-art neuroimaging platform. Let us develop customized tools and modules for you that are based on your individual requirements.
BESA (Brain Electrical Source Analysis) is the most widely used software for source analysis and dipole localization in EEG and MEG research. It covers the whole range of signal processing and analysis from the acquired raw data to dynamic source images.
TMS Neuronavigator is a hardware and software system which enables the precise and individual navigation of a TMS coil above a specific anatomical area of the brain, as well as an imaging-guided navigation of the TMS coil to functionally defined brain Regions-of-Interest.


text:
Cook Political Report gives GOP slight edge in 2024 House races
Larry Hogan says he will support Trump if he's the nominee
Coldest temperatures in decades possible in Northeast
Blog Briefing Room - 6m 50s ago
International - 15m 12s ago
Domestic Taxes
House tax writer: Keep IRS away from Olympic medalists
by Bernie Becker - 08/03/12 9:42 PM ET
The flurry of action on the issue came after Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform noted that the bonuses medalists get from the U.S. Olympic Committee were taxable.
{mosads}A gold medal is currently worth $25,000, while a silver brings in $15,000 and a bronze $10,000. By ATR's calculation, that means a gold medalist could face up to a $9,000 hit on their triumph.
Camp's statement did not mention whether he was introducing legislation on the matter or joining an already circulated bill.
The Michigan Republican has made overhauling the tax code, and making it simpler, a top priority. But Camp's framework of lowering rates while not adding to the deficit would also require tax revenue to pay for those reduced rates.
After ATR published a blog post on the issue, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) introduced legislation that would free all U.S. Olympians from paying taxes on medals won in and after 2012.
But Politifact, the independent fact-checker, has suggested that, while medalists did owe taxes, ATR had overstated how much gold medalists would have to fork over to the IRS. ATR has stood by its analysis.
Some top Democrats have also not embraced the tax-free medal movement the way Republicans have.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (S.C.), the No. 3 Democrat in the House, tweeted Friday that tax-free medals could be more palatable if it was made retroactive for boxing gold medalists like Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard — and if the lost revenue was made up for "by closing tax loopholes for outsourcing American jobs."
Tags Marco Rubio
Rising / 1 day ago


text:
Q: Akka BackOff Supervision Strategies I am using akka BackOff supervision with my actor. Whenever my actor receive the message, I am getting akka dead letter msg. Followings are my logs:
[INFO] - [2016-09-16 12:18:53,843] - [akka.actor.LocalActorRef] Message [com.zillion.notification.actors.MyActor$FirebaseRequestLog] from Actor[akka://default/deadLetters] to Actor[akka://default/user/$d/myActorRef#-1537227666] was not delivered. [1] dead letters encountered. This logging can be turned off or adjusted with configuration settings 'akka.log-dead-letters' and 'akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown'.
[INFO] - [2016-09-16 12:18:53,843] - [akka.actor.LocalActorRef] Message [com.zillion.notification.actors.MyActor$FirebaseRequestLog] from Actor[akka://default/deadLetters] to Actor[akka://default/user/$d/myActorRef#-1537227666] was not delivered. [2] dead letters encountered. This logging can be turned off or adjusted with configuration settings 'akka.log-dead-letters' and 'akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown'.
[INFO] - [2016-09-16 12:18:53,844] - [akka.actor.LocalActorRef] Message [com.zillion.notification.actors.MyActor$FirebaseRequestLog] from Actor[akka://default/deadLetters] to Actor[akka://default/user/$d/myActorRef#-1537227666] was not delivered. [3] dead letters encountered. This logging can be turned off or adjusted with configuration settings 'akka.log-dead-letters' and 'akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown'.
[INFO] - [2016-09-16 12:18:53,844] - [akka.actor.LocalActorRef] Message [com.zillion.notification.actors.MyActor$FirebaseRequestLog] from Actor[akka://default/deadLetters] to Actor[akka://default/user/$d/myActorRef#-1537227666] was not delivered. [4] dead letters encountered. This logging can be turned off or adjusted with configuration settings 'akka.log-dead-letters' and 'akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown'.
[INFO] - [2016-09-16 12:18:53,844] - [akka.actor.LocalActorRef] Message [com.zillion.notification.actors.MyActor$FirebaseRequestLog] from Actor[akka://default/deadLetters] to Actor[akka://default/user/$d/myActorRef#-1537227666] was not delivered. [5] dead letters encountered. This logging can be turned off or adjusted with configuration settings 'akka.log-dead-letters' and 'akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown'.
[INFO] - [2016-09-16 12:18:53,850] - [akka.actor.LocalActorRef] Message [com.zillion.notification.actors.MyActor$FirebaseRequestLog] from Actor[akka://default/deadLetters] to Actor[akka://default/user/$d/myActorRef#-1537227666] was not delivered. [6] dead letters encountered. This logging can be turned off or adjusted with configuration settings 'akka.log-dead-letters' and 'akka.log-dead-letters-during-shutdown'.

Following is my BackOff Supervisor code:
Props backOffProps = BackoffSupervisor.props(
                Backoff.onFailure(
                        MyActor.props(eventLoggerService),
                        MyActor.BEAN_NAME,
                        Duration.create(3, TimeUnit.SECONDS),
                        Duration.create(1, TimeUnit.MINUTES),
                        0.20
                )
                .withAutoReset(FiniteDuration.apply(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS))
                .withSupervisorStrategy( new OneForOneStrategy(false,
                        match(DatabaseOperationException.class, ex -> {
                            if(ex.getCause() instanceof MongoTimeoutException){
                                return SupervisorStrategy.restart();
                            }else {
                                return SupervisorStrategy.resume();
                            }
                        })
                        .match(Throwable.class, e ->
                                SupervisorStrategy.restart()
                         ).build())
                    ));

        ActorRef backOffActorRef = system.actorOf(backOffProps);
        CompletionStage<Object> myActorFuture = ask(backOffActorRef, BackoffSupervisor.getCurrentChild(),
                Timeout.apply(50, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS));
        return ((CurrentChild) eventFuture.toCompletableFuture().get(60, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)).ref().get();

How the backoff works and how can I resolve above problem?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The 12th Child of the Family Weighs 7.75 kg. Do You Think it is the World Record?
Tatyana Barabanova, 43 years old, Siberian woman gave birth to her 12th child, Nadia. She weighs not less than 7.75 kg (17.1 lb). Family members are surprised but as the mother says each of her children weighed more than 5 kg.
Still, It is not the world record. 10.2 kg baby was born in Italy, and the other 10.8 kg in the United States of America.


text:
In a learning health system, health care providers use electronic health records to identify problems, implement local solutions and check if the solutions are effective. Health informatics, or the use of IT in healthcare, needs to find innovative solutions for low income settings, such as the use of open-source softwares and mobile technology. This approach has been used to deliver training to rural healthcare workers in Kenya.
This is a podcast from the Nuffield Department of Medicine. Today we talk to Dr Chris Paton about global health informatics.
Q: How can informatics help us understand global health issues?
Chris Paton: Health informatics is about the use of IT in healthcare. In high income settings like the UK and the US, we have been using IT in hospitals and clinics for quite a long time now. Our research is looking at the use of IT in healthcare in low resource settings, such as Kenya.
In high resource settings, although we have had the technology in place for quite a long time, we are now starting to use the data that is stored in the systems as part of what is called a learning health system: we analyse the data that is stored in electronic health records systems to for example, identify any problems with care, then implement new solutions to address the issues and then look in the same data source to see whether the solutions have been effective. Our research is about how we can apply that same process of the learning health system in a low resource setting.
Q: What are some of the issues in low income settings that your approach has identified?
CP: We have been looking at doing a survey across Kenya, which is where our research is based, of what IT systems they are currently using and what they are planning to use. Some of the issues that we've found have been things like intermittent electricity and problems with broadband connectivity. But we have also found some quite innovative solutions to those issues. Instead of investing a lot of money in creating new broadband connections or electricity supplies, we are seeing doctors and researchers using mobile technology which has long battery lives and can connect to the internet over the mobile phone network, leap frogging over the current systems that we have in high income settings.
Q: Can you give us an example of a solution which has been generated in this way?
CP: One of our projects is about training rural healthcare workers on how to manage new-born babies and children. Traditionally, they would have had face-to-face training and our research groups have done a lot of face-to-face training of healthcare workers in Kenya and across Africa. But we think that if we can use mobile technology to deliver the training - delivering the same type of training but through a mobile device - then we can reach far more people at much lower costs than traditional face-to-face training.
Q: What are the most important lines of research that have emerged in the last 5-10 years?
CP: One interesting area of research is the growth of open-source software in healthcare. Over a number of years there have been different research groups that have developed their own software for things like looking at the HIV epidemic across Africa. These research groups are now coming together and saying: we are trying to solve the same problem, how can we combine our resources and develop software together.
One of the interesting aspects (for example, a project called OpenMRS which has been used in HIV clinics) is that although it has been developed for a specific purpose, because it is open-source it can be taken up by other groups and developed further. We are now seeing that kind of software put into hospitals and larger clinics, used not just for HIV but for other areas. We think this kind of software might be of use in building the learning health system idea that we are looking at.
Q: Why does your line of work matter and why should we fund it?
CP: We think the learning health system idea has huge potential, especially in low resource settings. Despite recent progress there are still many problems in maternal care and early childhood care which has resulted in many millions of babies dying prematurely, when compared to other countries. We think that if we can implement this idea of a continuously learning system, where doctors and hospital administrators can look at the data they are collecting and implement local solutions based on the problems that they have identified, that could have a big impact on how healthcare is delivered.
Q: How does your research fit into translational medicine within the department?
CP: We think that global healthcare informatics is at a really critical stage at the moment. The IT systems are only just going into low resource settings, whereas they have been in use in high income settings for many years now. You might have read about some of the issues about expense and difficulty of putting in IT systems in healthcare. We hope that by translating the research that has been done internationally to low resource settings, they can avoid some of those mistakes.
On the other side we are seeing new innovative solutions such as the mobile health solution being used in Kenya, solving problems that are costing high income countries quite a lot of money at the moment and can be implemented affordably and using relatively simple technology. So we could translate some of the research from low resource settings back into the high income world.
This interview was recorded in November 2015.
Chris Paton
Head of the Global Health Informatics Group
Dr Chris Paton studies the use of open-source Electronic Health Records (EHR) software, online learning and mobile technology to improve healthcare delivery in low-resource settings.
Current projects include a survey of EHR systems in use in Kenya, a simulation of Health IT infrastructure, and a mobile game for training healthcare professionals to deal with emergencies.


The LawnCombine, a novel product, is like no other product you have ever seen. This machine is capable of executing multiple tasks in the yard and around the house by easily switching various attachments.
The patented machine consist of one main powered unit that drives multiple attachments like lawnmower, snowblower, power washer, electric generator, roto-tiller and more to come.
All the features mentioned above make the machine a perfect candidate for the consumer market, unlike anything in the industry.
Already proven successful in the field, it's the next generation of walk behind machines for both residential and commercial market.
Hundreds of millions of home owners and commercial businesses need the less expensive, the less maintenance and the less storage space walk behind power equipment machine we developed. As a novel product, the walk behind power machine is capable of executing multiple tasks in the yard and around the house by easily switching various attachments to the same main powered machine, unlike anything in the industry.
Power equipment dealers and suppliers like Home Depot, Sears and Lowe's are supermarkets waiting for our exciting new machine. All that is needed to exploit these profitable markets is an investment in mass-production tooling.
Please take a few minutes to read the accompanying information found on this website and consider participating with us to launch this promising product.


J75 by JUMP presents the Zoltar - an opulently updated shoe defying traditional high-top expectations. This style challenges the dramatic limits of urban streetwear aesthetic without sacrificing practicality. Finely crafted out of premium leather, this lace-up is lavishly embellished with intricate rhinestone detailing that glimmers with every step you take. In a sleek black, vibrant red, or royal blue, this statement-making sneaker deserves all the attention it demands.


The stated prices include Singapore Goods and Services Tax (GST). Prices are quoted in Singapore dollars. SingPost reserves the right to make price and product changes prior to an order placed by you. SingPost reserves the right to change, limit or terminate any special offers or discounts at any time.
SingPost charges shipping costs. These costs will, if applicable, be charged separately and specified and added up with the total amount of the order.
Minor colour and other variations in products are possible as a result of different image acquisition, display technologies or other technical reasons. SingPost are not liable for these variations and deviations.


text:
Q: How to draw simple line charts in excel with multiple dates for comparision I have pasted a link which contains 2 images. One image is a sample list of data and other one is a sample chart I need.
https://picasaweb.google.com/116377794832905814061/ExcelQuestion?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL_nksXwiNfXVg&feat=directlink
Can you please help?


text:
Das Rad: little film about rocks packs in history of human development and ecological themes
Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger, "Das Rad" / "The Wheel" aka "Rocks" (2003)
Made with a mix of stop-motion and computer-generated styles of animation plus puppets, this film presents a history of human development from the point of view of two piles of rocks. Big Pile fusses over the itches and cracks that lichen and moss growth is causing on his skin while his pal Little Pile amuses himself chucking pebbles at their neighbour across the rocky valley. All around them clouds whiz overhead, the colours of the sky speed from one shade of blue or grey to the next and vegetation zips up and down hill-sides and mountains faster than we can say "geologic time". Little Pile starts playing with a vaguely circular-shaped rock and tries to figure out what it might be useful for. A human dressed in animal skins stops by to check out Little Pile's pet rock and gets an inspiration from it. From then on the two stoners' hill environment starts changing even faster: a dirt track appears next to Little Pile from which he acquires another plaything, a wheel. While he tries to explain to Big Pile how the humans have benefitted and progressed from having stone wheels to wooden wheels, buildings begin to sprout and spread from the valley below, a billboard appears before the duo and their very existence becomes threatened by the furiously upthrusting skyscrapers and concrete bridges charging towards them.
This is a very amusing and informative film about the transient nature of human existence and the effects human activity might have on the natural environment. The film might make more impact if it had been a bit longer and the characters of the rock piles a little more developed. Big Pile and Little Pile could have had a conversation about what the circular rock must have meant for the primitive human, that he was so enthused by its shape. They could have talked about the dirt track and wondered where it leads to and why humans use it so much. They could have lamented its passing and replacement by an asphalt road. Little Pile's curiosity about his surroundings could have been contrasted more strongly with Big Pile's concern with personal hygiene and lack of interest in what's going on around him. Viewers might feel more concern and dread for them when roads, bridges and buildings start to encroach on the stoner dudes' lives and they feel fear for the first time in their long lives.
The animation is well-done and seamless though Big Pile and Little Pile are barely distinguishable apart from general size and shape. Their landscape could have been made a bit simpler so that rapid changes that occur over it are more obvious and viewers would also get an idea of the impact humans make on their surroundings. Noise and air pollution barely registers and the odd traffic accident that might reshape Little Pile into something that makes Big Pile jealous (since the smaller rock pile is the one sitting closer to the asphalt road) would have been very appropriate. As it is, the film lacks a sub-plot that would involve our stony friends in some depth and make them less passive observers and more passive participants. The overall plot would not be greatly affected as Little Plot might in time forget about his cosmetic surgery and once humans and their structures are completely out of the picture, the un-dynamic duo can start fussing over their itches and scratches again; at the same time, the sub-plot would enhance the plot's message that for all their stolidity, the two rock piles are indeed sensitive to human activity and can be very fragile. A paradoxical question arises: how impervious to human activity is the natural environment and how sensitve can it also be?
For such a little film starring two rocks, some mighty big issues are presented with gentle humour and a simple grace. A big plus is the choice of music with resonant acoustic percussion instruments used at the beginning and near the end of the film to suggest a simple, peaceful life for our rock friends, and orchestral flourishes for scenes featuring humans or frenetic human activity.
Posted in German and German-language FilmsTagged Animated Films, Comedy, German and German-language Films
The Matrix: film trapped in formula Hollywood action-thriller matrix of convoluted plot, trite message and flat characters
Doggy Poo: cute existential heartwarmer about the value of all creation
Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA. + = 10


text:
King's Lynn athletes deliver string of fine performances at indoor meeting
By Lynn News Reporter
newsdesk@lynnnews.co.uk
Published: 16:37, 05 December 2021
| Updated: 16:38, 05 December 2021
There was a string of good performances from West Norfolk at the opening event of the winter indoor season.
Athletics Norfolk and West Norfolk Athletic Club hosted the first of two events last Saturday, with the second taking place in a few weeks.
This week saw athletes compete in the long jump, the 60m flat and hurdles races, with the bonus of electronic timing equipment in use to record all the performances.
Tony Payne action 1 (53452379)
There were some really good times and distances produced by athletes in all age groups from across the region.
In the Under-11 boys' age group, Luke Anderson had a really good day, finishing first in the 60m flat race (9.56sec) before topping the long jump with a 3.43m leap.
Harrison Lesniak was third (9.80sec) in the 60m and repeated that placing in the long jump (3.24m).
In the Under-15 boys' age group, Theo Morrell was second in the 60m in 8.05sec while Kai Peggs was fifth in the 60m flat (8.99sec), second in the 60m hurdles in 12.11sec and fourth in the long jump 3.65m.
In the Under-13 girls' age group, Rebecca Johnson had a great day to finish first in race one and two at 60m, first in 9.22sec. and then in race two she improved with a 9.20 run and also finished fourth in the long jump (3.62m).
Myley Gilboy was second in both race race one and two in 9.43sec and then 9.54.
Gilboy also jumped 2.53m in the long jump to finish eighth.
In the Under-15 girls' age group, athlete Emma Theobald was third in her first 60m race in 9.49sec
Evie Clayton was fourth in 10.01sec and 11th in a mixed age long jump (3.21m).
In the Under-17 boys' age group, Samuel Nash claimed top spot in his 60m race in 7.89sec.
Thomas O'Neill was third in both his 60m races (8.18sec and 8.26sec) and sixth in the long jump (4.40m).
Under-20 Christian Tansey finished first in a fantastic 7.38sec time in a race mixed with 20s and seniors. Tansey was also second in the long jump (5.34m).
Para-athlete Cameron Ross (T20) was sixth in his race in 8.62sec.
Mixed senior mixed age category athletes race saw Amelia Barton finish third in both race trials (8.89sec and 8.95sec).
Big thanks goes out to all the officials, volunteers, athletes and parents who made this event a great success.
The next event takes place on the morning of Saturday, December 11 and covers a range of indoor field events.
This will be followed in the evening by West Norfolk AC's annual awards night and Christmas party.
Interested in road running, track and field athletics, or cross country and aged eight upwards? Please visit: www.westnorfolkac.co.uk/aboutus.html
Athletics Lynn News Reporter


Festivals define this land of diversities and the word 'diversity' enters the gamut of festivals as well. We Indians define unity in diversity and the festivals show diversity in unity because celebrations bind us all. The wide array of variety you get to see in them is what sets the country apart from the rest of the world. The Pushkar Camel Fair in the west to Durga Puja in the east, Kila Raipur in the north to Alleppy Boat race in the south, the differences and the similarities are mind-blowing; the colours are breath taking and the eager wait for the ocassion to arrive next year is heart-rending. That is India, the land of dazzling festivals.
Colour colour everywhere and not a moment bland! That is Kisama's Hornbill Festival in Nagaland. It's a time when tradition meets commerce and tourism, and the result is boundless joy and endless pride on the part of us Indians who've managed to thoroughly preserve ancient cultures in full glory. Nagaland, the state of 16 major tribes is a land of diversities and all the tribes participate in the festival!
So diverse! Well, that is India! Each tribe is unique so can you imagine the dazzle when they all come together for a week-long festival within a single premise? It's like seeing a most spectacular rocket bursting into 20 colours all at once. The festival is organized by the Government of Nagaland at Kisama's Heritage Village in order to showcase the state's varied and diverse culture. There are separate morungs for every tribe where the folks sing, dance and eat in a way typical to their people. The activities held are an assortment of folk music, dance, mock wars, naga styled wrestling, traditional parades, regional games, craft-sales etc. The list goes on and on. Just drink zutho rice beer and let Nagaland sink in.
In memorium of the Battle of Kohima, there's the war memorial museum that will take you back in time. The bamboo pavilion will make your head reel with all the exquisite handicrafts it has to offer. The food is scrumptious and for the food connoisseurs, it's like an experiment paradise given the unusual tastes of the Nagas. With night fall, 'modern-day' takes over with a snazzy rock concert. Book launches by the local authors are a part of the attraction. The festival was prolonged beyond a week in 2013. It's hard to let go of the good things in life and this is really really great.
When: Hornbill Festival is usually held every year from December 1-10.
Where: At Naga Heritage Village, Kisama about 12 km from Kohima. Events start at 9 a.m. everyday.
'A healthy mind & a healthy body', that's the motto of just about the wackiest sports fiesta of the country. The people of Punjab, they say, are very physically driven. Those who doubt it are most welcome to pay a visit to Kila Raipur near Ludhiana on 31st January and leave on the 3rd of February. However, I warn them that when they leave, their heads might spin a bit because you cannot leave with a perfectly normal state of mind after you have witnesses this sports extravaganza! It's crazy, its cut-throat, it's mind-blowing…it's totally fantastic.
More than 4000 men and women take part in the wide range of events organized. They include just about every kind of daring imaginable. Starting from dogs to camels to bullocks, no one is deprived of the chance to race. Rural sports like wrestling, tug of war, kabaddi, weight lifting, volleyball, handball and horse races are the more conventional ones but it all becomes quite quirky when you see activities like handling tractor trollies, sit-ups, stone cracking on chest, tractor pushing with legs. For stuntmen with extraordinary mettle and pluck, this is the land of the free. You can see men picking up three bicycles with one's teeth and riding two horses at once. People here, literally play with fire. The biggest attraction is the bullock race that awards lakhs of rupees for prize money. The event was started decades back in the 1930s by a philanthropist named Inder Singh Grewal to provide the hard working and talented men of the region with a platform to present their skill and bravery. It only developed over the years. Sportsmen have only one religion and that is endurance and passion. This is the place you can see that in person.
Where: Kila Raipur (15 KMs from Ludhiana), Punjab.
This is like something a very fanciful child reading lots of fairy tales and adventure stories would probably imagine if he lets the mind go running. Held at Punnamada Lake, it's a magnificent contest where the sport presented cannot be won by individual skill. The boat race is a team-game. The chundan vallams or snake boats can hold a hundred rowers all at once and the game is the victory of synchronization, team spirit and a common brotherhood that binds all the rowers. The rowers in a boat are from different families and backgrounds but when in a game, they have just one family, that of their team mates.
The race is conducted on the second Saturday of August and Alapuzzha experiences a deluge of tourists who come to see astounding boat races. Prime-minister Nehru, in the year 1952, on his visit to Alapuzzha was so impressed by the grandeur of the races that he awarded a trophy to the winners. This became a practice and has continued ever since. Other kinds of boats also participate in the event like the irutthukuthy designed for speed and nocturnal journeys, vaipu designed for battles on water and the circular churulan besides others but like in a dance troop where the lead dancer grabs the maximum attention, the snake boats are generally the ones that receive the most limelight. Gorgeously draped in silk and a medley of colours, these boats are a treat to the eyes but the beauty lies in the uniformity that is constant. The way the oars move, the concentration of the participating men, the expression on their faces, the bated breath of all the club owners….it's the same. This 'sameness' is what binds the rivals as well. This event will leave you gaping.
Where: Punnamda Lake, Alleppey, Kerala.
Swanky! That's what the sunburn festival is. Held at the Candolim Beach in Goa, it is a most popular electronic music festival that spans a period of about 3 days. It started in the year 2007 when Percept's Shailendra Singh joined hands with India's coolest and most popular youth icon Nikhil Chinapa who was the Festival director of Sunburn. It is a platform for some of the biggest names in the musical scene in India and even the world. DJs to rock -bands, this is the place for a music lover's nirvana.
It has hosted some of the biggest names like Carl Cox, Above & Beyond, Axwell, Simon Dunmore, Shapeshifters, Sander Van Doorn, Ferry Corsten, Afrojack, Goldfish, Laura Jansen, Richard Bedford…the list will go on if I don't stop right away! With its volleyball courts, flea markets, arrangements for rock climbing, Slippery football, Spa treatments and juggling shows, you could be any kind of person and there would be something or the other in store for you apart from the exuberant music and dance. There are multiple stages for the various kinds of music presented like in 2008, stage 'banyan tree' was made for trance acts while house music was performed on the 'circus stage'. In 2009, the night-long 'After Dark' parties were started. You could also escape the music buzz for some time and take in the fresh air of the Arabian Sea. The audience has progressively increased over the years. It started is nearing a lakh now. They have even introduced camping arrangements now. It's a perfect thing to plan for when you want to create a memory benchmark with friends. An experience as wicked good as this cannot be forgotten so easily.
Ladakh, the land of mountain deserts flood with the most vibrant hues around 7th July when the Hemis Festival is celebrated in the honour of Guru Rinpoche's birth-day. The fiesta venue is the popular Hemis Gompa. It's preparations are headed by the head lama of the monastery. There's a fabulous fair held here. It will make anybody feel like a child with all the colours around with food to it and things to buy.
Remember those trips to the fair when you'd irritate the life out of your parents asking them to buy toys for you. Well, here's your big chance traveller. The star of the festival is the exotic mask dance performed around the flagpole in the Hemis monastery's courtyard. Like all forms of art, it communicates a quaint message – that of evil's defeat. The depictions of the black-hatted evil wizard Trakpo, the mean Ruta demons and Yamraj will leave you breathless. Guru Padmasambhav or Rinpoche was a messiah born to redeem mankind and these performances are a subtle reminder to people to take the initiative of carry forward the guru's torch. Let us know if the music and the 'Cham' dance does not make you want to clap hard and jump up and down with glee. Coming to the instruments….now that's a different ballgame altogether. They are more than mind-blowing! The pulsating beats of the drums, the rhythm of the cymbals and the sonorous tune of the astonishingly long horns and trumpets will make your heads reel and transport you to Shangri-La. Every 12 years there's a stunning exhibition of the 'Thanka' that portrays Rinpoche. It's an enormous loss if you miss it. Teemed with the local delicacies and other attractions like yak and camel safaris, this is one experience worth having at least once in a life-time.
Where: Hemis Monastery, 45 kilometers from Leh.
Get set Go animal lovers. This is what you have been waiting for. This unique fair is held in November during Karthik Purnima. It's an important live-stock trade fair where cattle farmers come together each year to showcase, sell and buy animals. The number of camels present here each year is staggering. The number can be anywhere between 11000 and 50000.
Today, it has grown in stature into one of the chief attractions of incredible India. There is a whole array of friendly contests like the longest moustache, best bride and breaking the matka. It's a madhouse for women with a fetish for fabrics and ornaments. The stalls are sparkling. The fair begins with a fun-filled camel race. Numerous men and women take a dip in the Pushkar Lake. It's said to erase one's sins. An occasion in Rajasthan is never complete without some folk dance and music. This fair is no exception. The local artists form a beautiful part of the whole affair. It is very interesting to see the camels all done up with attractive accessories. One gets to see these gorgeous beasts in full glory when they do all sorts of things like parade like models on a ramp, race and even dance! Oh, the beauties! The carousal doesn't end here. There are magicians, snake-charmers, stunts-men and acrobats among various other performers. You are most welcome to collect souvenirs from the crafts bazaar so that when you are old and senile, you remember what fun you had at the fair. Nowadays, tourists can even witness the carnival from an air balloon up in the sky. A most interesting activity incorporated recently is the cricket match played between foreign tourists and members of the Pushkar Club. It's really amusing. Do attend this fair because it's unforgettable!
Where: Pushkar near Ajmer, Rajasthan.
Vibrant, so vibrant! Vibrant Vrindavan could probabaly be one of the 7 wonders of the world….if only the 7 man-made wonders did not have to be architectural delights! Once you have seen Holi in Vrindavan, your life can never be dull. It's just impossible because all you'd have to do in moments of suspect dullness is close your eyes and imagine what you saw in Vrindavan, the land of Krishna. Like I said, it's difficult to let go of the good things in life, which is why holi is prolonged here for one solid week where it's supposed to end in just a day. It's a most colourful bash where people of every age become 10 year olds. It is but inevitable at a time when Krishna becomes a co-participant in the fun.
Some of the greatest parties (the word seems perfect in spirit) at the Bakai-Bihari temple and the Gulal Kund of Braj. At the former, Banku-Bihari ji, that is, Lord Krishna is dressed in white and brought in close proximity to the devotees while the priests sprinkle coloured water on the devotees. That must be so much fun! Sprinkling water on people who won't try to save themselves. Ideal! Isn't it? The devotional numbers sung and played in the background are just like trance music. It does something to the human mind and makes everyone embrace the moment At gulal kund near the Govardhan hill, it's a different kind of fiesta. There are enactments of Krishna leela that simply unforgettable. If you want to 'see' the true meaning of 'colourful', you just have to visit Vrindavan during Holi but I warn you travellers, everything else will seem bland once you've visited the splashy city during the festival of colours.
Where: Vrindavan near Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
It's glittering! This historical city glitters during the grand festival of Dussera. Dussera generally refers to a particular day in the devi paksh, that of Durga-Dashami but the Mysore dussera lasts for 10 days. It is celebrated to commemorate the goddess's victory over the Mahishasur, the bull-demon. It generally falls in October, and sometimes September.
The Mysore Palace is the chief attraction with its dazzling illumination. It's impossible to count the number of light bulbs put up though you can always try to count. The number is supposedly a lakh. The Karnataka Exhibition Authority organizes a beautiful exhibition on the palace grounds. You can buy anything you want starting from handicrafts to traditional clothes. Kids to get to have their own share of fun games arranged for besides various amusement rides. The party does not end here. There's a film festival, kite festival, flower show, kite festival and a food fiesta. However, the show stealer would be the Jumbo savari where the golden idol of goddess Chamundeshwari is paraded seated atop a most opulently decorated elephant. The carnival includes dance, music, multi-hued tableaux and other animals like handsome horses and svelte camels. After this, there's a torchlight parade conducted on the Bannimandap grounds. This festival has been celebrated on a grand scale right since the medieval years and the tradition has been continued dynasty after dynasty. The royal sword is still worshipped on Durga-Navami. It is also a part of an organized procession full of pomp and colour. Lastly, I must mention the wrestling bout or kusti spardhe which has participants and spectators from all over the country. Upon my word, it's very entertaining! If you want to taste the true flavours of Karnataka, this event is a must see. It's simply gorgeous.
It's party time. The eighth day of Krishna-Paksh is a gala affair in 'aamchi Mumbai'. Gokulashtami or Janmashthami will leave you thirsting for more. Its Dahi Handi here. This custom takes after Krishna's adventures with his friends where they indulged in much mischief making to get their hands on the yummy butter milk. Here human pyramids are made for breaking handis just like our beloved Krishna did.
The participants are called Govind pathaks. Groups compete for the prize money. It's so excessively cool when you see it in person. The adrenaline rush, the mounting tension, the held breath and the final exhalation of relief is just out of the world. There is a joint exhilaration of victory, collective sighs of defeat when pyramids collapse, collective resolutions for the next year and consolidated joy of the festival. For once, no matter which part of the nation you are from, everybody is on the same boat rowing together towards a common goal. Some of the most favoured and noted contest grounds are Mazgaon, Worli, Lalbag, Thane, Lower Parel and Dadar. It's grand at the ISKCON temple complex in Juhu. There are cash prizes offered at about 4000 places in Mumbai. This is one event which you must see if only to feel the rush and Krishna's presence right by your side.
If you want to see what 'grand' actually means, you are supposed to come to Puri exactly on the second day of Shukla Paksh in the month of Ashar. Going to visit an aunt is generally never a dull affair and it is no different for Lord Jagannath and his beloved brother and sister, Shri Balaram and Shri Jagannath. The deities go on a visit to the Gundicha temple and halt there for all of 9 days.
On this day, the deities come close to everybody because in the midst of everybody, irrespective of caste or creed is where the Gods belong. Foreigners and non-Hindus, everybody is free to see the deities and pull the magnificent chariots seated upon which, the Gods travel. Lord Jagannath, Balarama and Subhadra spend some time at the Mausi Ma temple where they are plied with the popular Oriya delicacy of poda-pittha. They say one glance of the chariot is potent enough to bless the soul for a long long time. This might sound absurd to many but not to those who have seen the chariots with their own eyes. They are so magnificent that the soul is bound to feel eternally blessed. The mere touch of any part of the chariot is said to be very holy. They are recast every year for this auspicious day. The chariots are around 45 feet high which is why the sight of the chariots is most imposing to human eyes. The chariots of the three deities, lord Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra are Nandighosa, Taladhwaja Devadalana are made out of a specific tree bark while the deities are replaced every 12 years. The return journey or the bahuda jatra always fills the heart with sorrow much like the last day of the Devi Paksh during Durga Puja because that marks the beginning of another year long wait for the gorgeous festivities so this festival is most certainly a must see if you love crowds of happy people out to celebrate.
The land of the mystic, India hosts the most sacred fair in the whole world, a fair that has no pair or any remote comparison. It is held every three years in one of the 4 places, Haridwar, Allahabad, Nasik and Ujjain. The Ardha Kumbh mela is held every 6 years at 2 places, Hardwar and Allahabad. It is believed that drops of nectar fell in these places during the episode of Samudra Manthan which is why bathing in the river here is supposed to cleanse all sins. This mela is an ancient affair and we do not know when exactly it might have started like nobody can time the birth of traditions in India.
India is a land of grand diversities and that extends to various sects of ascetics living here. There are separate akharas made for almost every major sect. Of the 14 at Nasik, 11 belong to Shaiva sects and the rest to Vaishnav sects. The fair is timed in accordance to the arrangement of the constellations. The Leo arrangement is for Nasik, the Aquarius arrangement is for Hardwar, The Taurus and Capricorn combination of Jupiter and Sun is for Allahabad and the Scorpio arrangement is for Ujjain. Millions gather at the fair for a holy dip into the river but no matter who you are, you are holy when you attend the fair because only pilgrims and hermits attend this grand occasion. It is spellbinding to see the staggering number of ascetics who come down from the Himalayas. It is fascinating to see them connect to the Gods and society. They are beautiful in their uniqueness and if you want to witness it all, you must attend the fair at least once. It's not something you can easily forget.
Where: Every third year at one of the four places: Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain.
The world becomes a better place when Devi Durga comes to Kolkata on Mahalaya each year which marks the onset of the most fantabulous festival celebrated in the country. Have you heard of people talking about a city transforming? Kolkata transforms 360 degrees in a matter of days. The city bustles with the puja preparations right since the end of July but the countdown begins from August. It's natural. After all, the first thing a Kolkatan does on receiving the calendar every year is check the Durga puja dates.
It isn't just the magazines that have special puja editions or popular singers who have albums particularly created for the pujas or market giants customizing ad campaigns exclusively for the pujas, it is about the pandals that make the Durga Pujas in Kolkata simply unparalleled. There are such outstanding presentations even in such modest budgets. The themes, the concepts, the designs and the structures require a stupendous amount of hard work but the end product drowns any sickness your body might be suffering from. The pujas here ideally start from Shaptami or the 7th day of the devi paksh but since good things are always forced to last longer, the celebrations have recenty been pushed to Panchami and now even Tritiya (the third day). Yes, Durga Puja is synonymous to madness in Kolkata. It's the time of the year when the city forgets to sleep because everybody is 'Pandal-hopping'. When Dashami comes, there is gloom in every Kolkatan's heart because a year long wait feels unbearable. Amidst the vibrant 'Sindur-khela', the visarjan and the loud entreaties to the Mother to return next year, it's the heavy heart that binds everybody throughout the city. If you haven't seen Kolkata during Durga puja, you have missed a great deal so get set go my friends.


text:
MPAA Rating: for language
Reviewed by: Jonathan Rodriguez
Crime. Thriller
Featuring: John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Tucker, Maeve Quinlan
Director: Gregory Jacobs
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures
"Ever get the feeling you're being played?"
Ever heard of the movie "Nine Queens"? Chances are you haven't; I hadn't heard of it till yesterday. It's the Argentinean film that the movie "Criminal" is based on, and if it is anything like the remake, it's definitely worth a look. But, chances are most people haven't heard of this movie either; the theater I saw it at yesterday didn't even have it on the board, I had to check Web sites to know it was playing.
"Criminal" stars one of my personal favorite performers, John C. Reilly ("Chicago," "The Good Girl") as veteran con-man Richard Gaddis who at the start of the film is seen scoping out a casino. He sees Rodrigo, played by Diego Luna ("Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights") who cons a waitress into giving him change for a drink twice. Rodrigo then moves down a few tables and tries his hand at the same trick again, but this waitress doesn't fall for it, and yells for security. Gaddis quickly moves in, says he is an LAPD Vice cop, handcuffs Rodrigo and takes him out of the casino. Once out, he takes the cuffs off and tells him to get in the car, where he explains that he is in fact a con-man in search of a new partner for the time being.
Richard is a con simply because that's the life he chose and now enjoys, but we learn Rodrigo is in it to raise money for his father, who owes a great deal of money to a Russian over gambling debts. Rodrigo reluctantly accepts, although from time to time throughout the rest of the film, Richard will tell him to get out of the car and leave, saying he doesn't need a partner who "thinks."
The two spend the first half of their day together conning old women, restaurants, and other small time stuff. Around lunch time, Richard gets a call from his sister Valerie, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal ("Secretary," "Mona Lisa Smile") who works at a hotel, and says a man collapsed there and kept saying Richard's name over and over again. Valerie wants the nuisance out of her hotel, and calls Richard to come clean it up. The two do not get along, for reasons the film makes clear, so their attitudes towards each other are very cold.
Richard and Rodrigo head to hotel, where the man informs them of a huge con in the works to sell a counterfeit bank note to a wealthy foreign businiess man staying in the hotel. This sets up the rest of the film, as the two go about trying to sell the counterfeit, and encounter various twists and turns along the way.
"Criminal" is very well acted by the leads. Reilly proves he can carry a film with ease, and Luna and Gyllenhaal are great in their respective roles. The film is produced by Steven Soderbergh (director of "Ocean's 11") and directed by Gregory Jacobs, who was Soderbergh's assistant on "Ocean's 11," so it is in very capable hands.
The film is a real treat to watch; it gets the viewer interested early on, and keeps our interest as the plot unfolds, sometimes in ways we didn't see coming. The ending is a surprise, but then any ending would have been because the film doesn't give away many hints. Once the film is over and the viewer is forced to think back for clues, a relatively convenient plot twist is revealed. Conveniences have a tendency to discredit some films, but because the rest of "Criminal" is so strong, they are easy to overlook.
"Criminal" is rated "R" for language, and contains a number of F-words, and other colorful profanities, including uses of the Lord's name in vain. This is a film aimed at adults, and parents who don't want their children hearing numerous profanity would be wise not to let them see it. Chances are this little film will come and go without most kids, or adults for that matter, even knowing it was there, which is a shame. As I got to the theater last night and saw the enormous line for the latest "Resident Evil" junk, I hoped that maybe a few people would avoid the mainstream for once and try something a little smaller. But, as I sat in the 200-something capacity theater that was only holding three people, I realized that this may be a small gem that sadly will go unearthed.
I give "Criminal" an overall grade of "B."
Violence: Minor / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Mild
…Lots of twists…
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
…deliciously clever…
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
…there are moments when "Criminal" sparkles…
Paul Doro, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
…the characters in "Criminal" all come across as lifeless pawns in an intricate chess game that isn't much fun to follow…
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
…Reilly's performance—a mixture of confidence and desperation—gives Criminal a tasty B-movie bite…
Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News