There's a remarkable paradox in the relationship today between the United States and the rest of the world. Despite economic and military assets unparalleled in history, U.S. global influence and standing have hit rock bottom.
As an economic superpower, the U.S. has a defense budget that accounts for more than 40 percent of global military spending. But this "hard power" does not necessarily translate into real power. National-security failures abound, from the catastrophic events in Iraq to the resurgence of terrorist networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, from the growing threat of civil war throughout the Middle East to the deepening uncertainties of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, from the standoff with Iran to the genocide in Darfur.
The next president will have to address these crises by re-establishing America's capacity to lead. Doing so will involve working to regain international credibility and respect by reshaping American foreign policy to direct the use of power within a framework of the rule of law.
The United States may be strong economically and militarily, but the rest of the world sees it as ineffective and dangerous on the global stage. Less than a decade ago the situation was quite different. A 1999 survey published by the State Department Office of Research showed that large majorities in France (62 percent), Germany (78 percent), Indonesia (75 percent), Turkey (52 percent), among others, held favorable opinions of the U.S.
This positive climate of opinion fostered an outpouring of international support immediately following the September 11 attacks. The U.S. was able to assemble a broad coalition with U.N. approval to respond to the attacks and strike terrorist strongholds in Afghanistan.
Six years later global support for U.S. leadership has evaporated. In poll after poll, international opinion of the U.S. has turned sour. A January 2007 BBC survey found that 52 percent of the people polled in 18 countries around the world had a "mainly negative" view of the U.S., with only 29 percent having a "mainly positive" view. In nearly all the countries that had strong support for the U.S. in 1999 a big downward shift of opinion had occurred by the end of 2006. In France it was down to 39 percent, in Germany down to 37 percent, and in Indonesia down to 30 percent. A separate survey conducted in 2006 by the Pew Research Center revealed extremely hostile attitudes toward the U.S. throughout the Arab and Muslim world: Egypt polled 70 percent negative, Pakistan 73 percent, Jordan 85 percent, and Turkey 88 percent.
A major factor driving this negative global opinion is the way the U.S. has projected its power in the "war on terror." Four years after the Iraq invasion, U.S. military presence in the Middle East was seen by 68 percent of those polled by the BBC "to provoke more conflict than it prevents." Similarly, a poll published in April 2007 by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs showed that in 13 of 15 countries, including Argentina, France, Russia, Indonesia, India, and Australia, a majority of people agreed that "the U.S. cannot be trusted to act responsibly in the world."
The U.S. is now seen internationally to be a major violator of human rights. The BBC poll showed that 67 percent of those surveyed in 18 countries disapproved of the U.S. government's handling of detainees in Guantanamo. A survey conducted in June 2006 by coordinated polling organizations in Germany, Great Britain, Poland, and India found that majorities or pluralities in each country believed that the U.S. has tortured terrorist detainees and disregarded international treaties in its treatment of detainees, and that other governments are wrong to cooperate with the U.S. in the secret "rendition" of prisoners.
These global opinion trends have reduced the capacity of the United States to carry out its foreign policy and protect national security. The perception of a growing gap between the values the U.S. professes and the way it acts -- particularly in regard to human rights and the rule of law -- has eroded U.S. power and influence around the world.
In his book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, Joseph Nye analyzes a nation's "ability to get what [it] wants through attraction rather than coercion." Soft power derives from "the attractiveness of a nation's culture, political ideals, and policies. When [its] policies are seen as legitimate in the eyes of others, [its] soft power is enhanced." Today, American political ideals have lost much of their global attraction because their appeal has been undermined by U.S. policies and actions that lack legitimacy in the eyes of the world. American foreign policy will continue to fail until the U.S. regains the international respect it has lost.
Fortunately, history shows that the capacity to lead can be restored when U.S. values and policies are generally in synch. During the first decade and a half of the Cold War, images of racism and segregation in the United States undercut the ability of the U.S. to project moral leadership. By the mid-1960s, however, the civil-rights movement and the leadership of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson had revived this vital capacity.
Similarly, following the disaster in Vietnam, a number of U.S. foreign-policy successes were achieved through bipartisan presidential leadership. President Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, which led to international recognition for the cause of human rights inside the Soviet bloc. President Carter mobilized democratic governments to press for the release of political prisoners held by repressive governments. President Reagan signed the Convention Against Torture and sent it to the Senate, where it was subsequently ratified. President George H.W. Bush joined with Western European governments to nurture the fledgling democracies of post-Cold War Central and Eastern Europe. President Clinton worked with NATO to end the human-rights catastrophe in Bosnia and prevent genocide in Kosovo. Each of these foreign-policy successes was achieved by linking American interests and values.
Three fundamental principles govern the exercise of soft power through the promotion of human rights and the rule of law. The first is practicing what you preach. The U.S. loses credibility when it charges others with violations it is committing itself. It reduces its ability to lead when it acts precipitously without international authority or the support of other nations. The second is obeying the law. Human rights are defined and protected by the U.S. Constitution and by conventions and treaties that have been ratified and incorporated into U.S. domestic law. The U.S. must adhere to these legal obligations if it is to project itself to other countries as a champion of human rights and the rule of law. The third is supporting international institutions. The U.S. should lead the way in reshaping existing international institutions and creating new ones, not attacking them, acting unilaterally, or turning its back whenever it disagrees with what they do.
The administration of President George W. Bush has repeatedly violated each of these principles. It has opened the U.S. to charges of hypocrisy by criticizing other governments for acting outside the rule of law and committing human-rights abuses it has committed itself. The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued by the State Department cover official actions such as "torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," "detention without charge," "denial of fair public trial," and "arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence." These are the very practices in which the Bush administration itself has systematically engaged, compelling readers of the State Department Country Reports to conclude that the U.S. does not practice what it preaches. The 2006 report on Egypt, for example, criticizes the fact that Egyptian police and security forces "detained hundreds of individuals without charge," that "abuse of prisoners and detainees by police, security personnel and prison guards remained common," and that "the [Egyptian] Emergency Law empowers the government to place wiretaps … without warrants." These same criticisms apply to the United States.
The Bush administration has diminished a second source of soft power by flaunting basic requirements of international and domestic law. These include the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture, and the International Convent on Civil and Political Rights, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The result has been the creation of "law-free zones" in which foreign detainees in U.S. custody overseas have been brutally abused, thousands of foreign citizens have been held indefinitely as "unlawful combatants" without being accorded the status of prisoners of war, and repressive regimes around the world have implicitly been given the green light to crack down on political dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities in the name of fighting terrorism.
The administration's history of disregard for the established framework of international law was made clear by a 2002 memorandum, prepared by the then–White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, proclaiming that "terrorism renders obsolete the Geneva Conventions' strict limitations on the questioning of prisoners." No recent president had questioned the basic rules of international humanitarian law in times of war. The administrations of Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford during the Vietnam War, and George H.W. Bush during the Gulf War, all adhered to the Geneva requirements. The reasons were spelled out in a 2002 memorandum by then–Secretary of State Colin Powell, challenging the Gonzales memo. Powell warned that the White House interpretation of the Geneva Conventions would "reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice, undermine the protections of the law of war for our troops, and [provoke] negative international reaction, with immediate adverse consequences for our conduct of foreign policy."
A third source of soft power has been undermined by the Bush administration's attacks on and disengagement from international human-rights institutions. The U.S. has been a world leader in building these institutions since the time when Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the international committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The current administration has renounced that leadership by refusing to run for a seat on the new U.N. Human Rights Council and by undermining efforts to shape the new International Criminal Court (ICC). Both institutions are flawed, but as a result of the administration's disengagement the U.S. now has no influence over their future development.
UNDERCUTTING NATIONAL SECURITY The Bush administration's record on human rights and the rule of law has undercut the capacity of the U.S. to achieve important foreign-policy goals. The erosion of America's soft power has made it more difficult for the U.S. to succeed in preventing or containing threats of terrorism, genocide, and nuclear proliferation. The denigration of American values has made the U.S. ineffective in promoting human rights and democracy. Indeed, the current administration's frequent disregard of the rule of law has jeopardized five frequently stated foreign-policy objectives.
The first is countering the threats posed by Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. For more than a decade these countries have topped the United States' list of dangers to international security. Strategies to reduce the violence and terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan and to prevent Iran from exporting terrorism and acquiring nuclear weapons require a mixture of hard and soft power. But reports of CIA and U.S. military torture and mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other secret prisons in the region may have weakened the ability of the U.S. to counter the deterioration of human-rights conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Similarly, State Department criticism of the Iranian regime's political repression has been blunted by the U.S. record of detainee abuse and illegal electronic surveillance. Years after the U.S. military interventions, Iraq and Afghanistan remain major exporters of terrorism and centers of human-rights abuse. Iran is a major terrorist exporter and a human-rights disaster.
A second major stated objective of U.S. foreign policy is preventing genocide. The lesson of Rwanda was that the cost of failing to stop genocide is not only a massive killing of innocent civilians but also an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe and long-term regional instability. Following the Rwanda genocide, a doctrine of humanitarian intervention was developed under U.S. leadership and invoked, with broad international support and authority under the Genocide Convention, to end the genocide in Bosnia in 1995, and then to prevent a genocide in Kosovo in 1999. Today, that doctrine is in shambles, undermined and discredited by the Bush administration's intervention in Iraq. As a result, the U.S. has been unable to mobilize support to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur and an entire region of Africa has been destabilized.
Addressing the challenges posed by geopolitical rivals such as China, Russia, and Cuba is a third long-standing concern of U.S. foreign policy. The Bush record has made already-complicated interactions with these countries even more difficult. China is leading the way in effectively exploiting the growing global perception that the U.S. is a human-rights violator. For several years the Chinese government has produced and publicized its own report on U.S. human-rights failings in an attempt to counter U.S. criticism of China's record. China's March 2007 report was particularly blunt: "We urge the U.S. government to acknowledge its own human rights problems and stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of human rights." Russian President Vladimir Putin has been similarly direct in rejecting recent U.S. criticism of the Russian government's press censorship, and Cuba has been quick to point to the U.S. record of detainee abuse at Guantanamo whenever Cuban human-rights practices are challenged by the U.S. The Bush administration has provided China, Russia, and Cuba with a convenient excuse for cracking down on dissidents and minorities under the guise of fighting terrorism within their borders.
Creating and managing strategic alliances is a fourth major U.S. foreign-policy objective. The Bush administration's record on human rights and the rule of law has alienated traditional democratic allies and complicated relations with authoritarian countries. The Council of Europe, a parliamentary assembly of elected representatives from across the continent, has condemned European governments for cooperating with the U.S. in running secret detention centers, and has called for Europe to distance itself from the Bush administration's tactics in the "war on terror." Negative European opinion about U.S. human-rights practices has made it politically difficult for European leaders to support U.S. positions on other issues. And by condoning torture, prisoner abuse, secret detention, illegal surveillance, and other violations of human rights, the administration has also undercut its ability to promote reform with authoritarian allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Uzbekistan.
Finally, holding accountable those who commit human-rights crimes has been a bedrock objective of U.S. foreign policy since the Nuremberg trials following World War II. The U.S. has long been at the forefront of efforts to create a system of international justice, most recently in the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. By opposing the International Criminal Court, the Bush administration has relinquished its leadership on these issues. The indispensability of international justice to U.S. foreign policy is illustrated by the administration's retreat in 2006 from outright opposition to the ICC to reluctant acceptance of the U.N. Security Council's referral of the Darfur genocide case to ICC jurisdiction. But this begrudging exception unfortunately proves the rule.
The next president must make repairing the damage to American values and moral authority a top priority. Acting within a framework of the rule of law and respect for human rights will be essential to restoring America's international leadership.
The U.S. must strengthen its alliances by demonstrating it adheres to international norms in pursuing its national-security objectives. The next president should immediately announce that the U.S. will close the detention center at Guantanamo and transfer detainees to the U.S. or detainees' home countries. In addition, the president should announce that the U.S. is bound by the Geneva Conventions as a matter of law and policy. Restoring the U.S. policy of providing individualized status hearings to detainees would demonstrate respect for international norms without restricting the government's capacity to conduct lawful interrogations to obtain intelligence information about terrorist activities. Fully applying the Geneva Conventions also would not preclude the U.S. from trying detainees in military commissions.
A second means of underscoring U.S. commitment to address national-security threats within the rule of law would be to provide assistance to other countries for counterterrorism operations that comply with basic human-rights standards. "Fighting terror" has become a convenient excuse for repressive regimes to engage in further repression, often inspiring further terrorism in an increasing cycle of violence. To break this cycle, the U.S. should provide assistance and training to foreign military and law enforcement personnel in methods of fighting terrorism within the rule of law.
The U.S. should take the lead in drafting a comprehensive treaty defining and condemning terrorism within a framework of human rights. Working toward a consensus on this global issue would help counter the claim that differences in cultural values, religious beliefs, political philosophies, or justifiable ends make it impossible to define the crime of terrorism.
The president should make clear that the U.S. is prepared once again to be an active participant in strengthening the system of international law it helped create over the last half century. Important treaties have lingered for years in the Senate and should now be ratified or renegotiated. Some were signed by Republican presidents and once enjoyed bipartisan support, but have been blocked for the last seven years by the current administration and its Senate supporters. The U.S. should also rejoin negotiations on such critical issues as human rights, international justice, climate change, and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. By doing so, the next president would demonstrate that globalization can be made to work within the rule of law.
The U.S. should support those seeking to promote the rule of law, democracy, and human rights in their own countries. Democracy and human-rights activists are the shock troops in the struggle against terrorism, genocide, and nuclear proliferation. But democracy can never be delivered through the barrel of a gun. Assistance to those who are working to build their own democratic societies must be carefully planned and targeted, sustained over time, and based on a thorough understanding of the unique circumstances and profound differences among cultures, religions, and countries. A new U.S. government must work within an international framework, not unilaterally and preemptively, to assist those struggling around the world to bring human rights to their own societies.
Finally, the U.S. should join with other countries, alliances, and international organizations to reassert America's role in working to prevent or stop genocide and crimes against humanity. The president should invoke the doctrine of humanitarian intervention that was applied in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s to address the genocide in Darfur. Extensive diplomatic and economic tools can be used to head off an impending genocide, but international military intervention remains available under international law if all other avenues have been exhausted.
By recommitting the U.S. to a foreign policy conducted within a framework of human rights and the rule of law, the next president can restore America's moral leadership in the world -- and by so doing, enhance American power and security.


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Mysterious places in the Chelyabinsk region – Road.Travel
Road Trip Route. Look at the sanctuary of the ancient people, Visit Ural Bali, Look into a unique cave, Rise on one of the symbols of the city of Kyshtym., Plunge into a fairy tale in the park of P.P.Bazhov., To see how rich the Southern Urals are in minerals, To visit the site of the meteorite fall.
The trip goes in the northwest direction from the city of Chelyabinsk. The route leads through the ancient people's sanctuary Bolshiye Allaki, Kaolinovaya quarry (by the way, locals call it "Ural Bali"), Sugomak cave and the mountain of the same name, on which the ascent is made. The day ends with a walk around the town of Kyshtym and an overnight stay. The next part of the route passes through Magnitka settlement, where there are very interesting faults of the earth crust. The city of Zlatoust is situated here: it is the park named after P.P.Bazhov. Then we go to lake Turgoyak in the city of Miass, and on leaving we visit the museum of Ilmensky reserve telling about history and life of its inhabitants. We continue our journey to the famous Chebarkul Lake, where the Chelyabinsk meteorite fell in 2013. The route ends with the return to Chelyabinsk at 21:00. Along the way will include stops for lunch and dinner. Do not forget to dress warmly and take a flashlight to look carefully into the cave.
Unique Locations, History and Culture, 🎅 Winter Trips. From: Chelyabinsk
Anna Arkhipova. Travel Expert.
Day 1: On the way to Kyshtym.
Our journey will begin with an immersion in the life of ancient people who worshiped spirits, communicated with them through shamans and made all kinds of rites and sacrifices. Then we will find ourselves in Ural Bali, visit a unique marble cave, climb the mysterious mountain of Sugomak. And our day will end in "winter" town Kyshtym ("kyshky" means "winter" in Bashkir).
There are stops on the route, but don't forget to bring food, water or a thermos with tea in your car just in case. For a better view of the caves, take flashlights with you, and dress warmer to walk with pleasure.
So, guys, let's go, shall we? Just to avoid surprises on the way, refuel with quality fuel to the full, pump up the tires, fill the washbasin and get coffee with healthy snacks! Cool emotions from the trip!
Большие Аллаки
Large stone tents, or the altar of Allaki is an amazing archaeological monument. Previously there was a sanctuary of ancient people, here they made sacrifices to their gods, and also left many drawings on the bizarre rocks, one of which even resembles a human face!
Каолиновый карьер
This place is also called Ural Bali, for its azure water color and white sand. Only such design gives to this place kaolin - a kind of white clay, which was extracted here before the lake formation. In summer tourists make small sculptures out of clay, but it is not recommended to swim in the lake, because there are many dangerous chemical elements in the water. In winter, the water in the lake freezes but does not lose its unique color and continues to delight its guests.
Hutorok
It's time for lunch, this restaurant will delight you with large and delicious homemade dishes.
Sugomak Cave
The car can be left near a cave or in a small area near a shield with a description of the object. Now we are located on the territory of the territorial and natural complex Sugomak, which includes three objects: Lake Sugomak, Mount Sugomak and the Sugomak cave. The Sugomak cave is the only cave in the Urals that was formed in marble. Its length is about 123 meters, and it consists of 3 large grottos. We advise to visit only the first of them, as it is rather difficult to get to the others.
Church of the Coming of the Holy Spirit
On the way to the city center, pay attention to the Church of the Descent - the oldest building in Kyshtym, and the first architectural and cult building in the village.
Demidovs Estate
This estate, as well as the two mountains mentioned earlier, are depicted on the coat of arms and flag of Kyshtym and is one of the main attractions. Both the Temple of the Coming of the Spirit and the mansion are currently under reconstruction, so you can only admire them from the outside.
UF KITCHEN
The best burgers in town. High rating of the establishment among the locals.
Day 2: On the way home.
Today we will visit at once some unusual places: we learn a history of huge magnetic breaks, we will glance in fairy-tale park of characters of the Ural writer P.P.Bazhov, we will look at fine lake Turgojak, and also we will admire riches of Southern Ural Mountains and a place of falling of the Chelyabinsk meteorite.
Karabash
Garabash (which means "black head" in Tatar) appeared in 1822 after discovery of gold placers on the place of ancient Tatar settlement. Today it is considered the dirtiest city on the planet. Surprisingly, with this status it attracts curious tourists. Passing through the city, you'll see Poklonnaya Mountain on your left. On the slope of the mountain there is a white stone inscription "Save and Preserve" and above it there is an iron cross.
Turgoyak
This lake was nicknamed the Ural Baikal for its crystal clear water, picturesque shores and mysterious history. This object also has a legend about the origin of the name, which tells about the love of young Tur and Koyak girl. Not far from the west coast is the island of Vera, where ancient megalithic structures and the Neanderthal camp were discovered. This means that the island was used not only by Old Believers, but also by an ancient man to worship his gods. Now the place continues to attract both tourists and believers who consider the island a place of power.
Горный парк им П. П. Бажова
Many characters from P.P.Bazhov's fairy tales have settled on the park's territory, as well as museums with mineral and weapon collections and expositions that introduce traditional crafts of Zlatoust. Working Mode Daily: 10:00 - 19:00. Entrance to the territory is free.
Our next stop will be the park with the characters of the famous Ural storyteller Pavel Petrovich Bazhov, and before a walk through it is worth having lunch.
Natural Science Museum of Ilmensky State Reserve
This museum is considered one of the most interesting sights in Miass and is among the five largest geological-mineralogical museums in Russia. A huge collection of various minerals is represented here, and the Ilmensky Hall presents samples of rocks and minerals of the Ilmensky mountains, including those that were discovered here for the first time in the world. On the top floor there is the Biological Hall, which gives an idea of the fauna and flora of the Ilmensky Reserve. Mode of operation: Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00. Ticket price Adults - 150 rubles; Children from 7 to 18 years, pensioners and students - Br70; Family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) - Br350; sightseeing tour for a group (up to 25 people) - Br400. Children under 7 years old, from large families, students of geological profile universities, museum staff - free of charge.
Monument to the Chelyabinsk Meteorite
On February 15, 2013, Chelyabinsk became famous for the fall of a meteorite. The celestial body exploded in the air, and its fragments scattered across the region. The largest of them fell into Lake Chebarkul, on the shore of which you are now. The shard was raised from the bottom and the meteorite was recognized as the largest since the fall of the Tunguska meteorite in 1908. The shard itself is now in the Chelyabinsk Museum of Local Lore.
Aqarela
For dinner we suggest choosing something from the menu of the restaurant "Akarela", and then visit another unusual, but very famous place of the Chelyabinsk region.
It's been a long journey, isn't it time for gas? Come to Gazpromneft for quality fuel, coffee and fresh baked goods to prolong the pleasure of the trip.
And now our journey has come to an end. During all the trip we managed to discover the Chelyabinsk region from an unusual side, learn something new and just have a good time.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Why representation matters – My view
It's easy to think that hearing these words is a common trend which has gained even more traction over the last 18+ months, but I am sure you will agree with me that this it is not a trend nor something that is said to challenge others. Representation has always mattered, it truly means what it says on the tin.
Let me break it down for you, the dictionary defines representation as "the act of presenting somebody/something in a particular way; something that shows or describes something" and the word matters is defined as to "be important or significant" putting these words together has a very strong connotation that we cannot take for granted nor can we forget the role each and every one of us plays in the presentation of something important or significant.
Each step we take, each decision we make has a ripple effect and it is important that we stop, pause, and reflect when making decisions, when we choose how we wish to present ourselves and most importantly when putting ourselves out there. I know what you are thinking, it is a lot of pressure! It is, and I absolutely agree but remember that heavy is the head that wears the crown.
As a black woman in law, putting my best foot forward and making sure that I show up to ensure those coming behind me, who look like me, also know and have the courage to pursue their dreams of joining the legal profession is very important to me. Yes, I do get tired, yes it can all be too overwhelming to be present and show up when called each and every time but for me, Black History Month is not just in October but all year round. Therefore, representation means that I have to continue to show that we are here, we are thriving and deserve a seat at a table in all spaces that we find ourselves in. It is only by being seen that others will continue to believe that there is room for them and their dreams remains valid.
When I am standing before students talking about my career and seeing the awakening in their eyes to the reality that can be theirs also or when I am approached in my DMs by young women and men telling me how what I said or just showing up meant so much to them. This is when representation really brings home to me its true meaning.
This is the same way my children feel about seeing artists, authors, dancers, lawyers, doctors, fashion designers, architects, that look like them. It is about creating hope and belief. They say you cannot be what you cannot see and although you can be whatever it is you want to be through hard work and determination, seeing others that look like you doing that which you desire for yourself, paving the way, gives you that added encouragement and motivation that you need and most importantly hope that you should persevere no matter what.
The same goes for other things such as clothing and accessories. To be specific by way of example plasters! Seeing plasters in the supermarket that can be used for different shades of our black/brown skin created a feeling I can never forget especially when my son said out loud how happy he was to see plasters that matches his and his sister's skin tones. That moment caused me to reflect deeply, clearly my son has thought about the generic colour of plasters and perhaps he has wondered each time we used one for him why it did not match his skin colour but never voiced this out.
It is a task for all of us and we must all make a conscious effort to continue to support and encourage movements that call for our society to be representative of everyone so that we can stop asking questions about whether we belong or whether we will fit in. We must be the change we want to see so we must keep flying the flag of hope, of possibility and to be the ones that sends the ladder back down when we have reached the top.
Oluwapelumi Amanda Adeola
Resolution has published a strategy that will embed equality, diversity and inclusion across the organisation.
Resolution launches equality and diversity strategy
A new report has revealed the make up of Resolution members for the first time
Understanding our membership
FRC notice on the Efficiency Statement
Notice from the Financial Remedies Court on the Efficiency Statement


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Photo: Ziv Reinstein
Irit Strauss
Photo: Ranny Rahav
New boutique hotel opens in Tel Aviv
Alma Hotel on Yavne Street includes eight rooms and six suites, as well as restaurant run by Chef Yonatan Roshfeld
Miriam Kutz|Published: 12.06.12 , 08:03
Alma, a new boutique hotel, was opened recently on 23 Yavne Street in Tel Aviv.
Northern Tourism
New hotel planned on Mount Carmel
Danny Sadeh
Luxurious 47-room boutique hotel to be built at foot of Carmel Forest
The hotel, initiated by siblings Adi and Irit Strauss, was built in a historic preservation site at a total investment of some NIS 12 million ($3 million).
The hotel, which has three floors stretching over 1,200 square meters (12,917 square feet), includes eight rooms and six suites, as well as a restaurant called Alma Lounge, run by Chef Yonatan Roshfeld.
Irit Strauss is responsible for the hotel's design concept with the help of several leading architects, including Amnon Bar Or, who specializes in preservation sites, and Shaltiel Kastiel Architecture and Interior Design Ltd.
This is the second hotel initiated by the Strauss siblings. It was preceded by the Ritz-Carlton in Herzliya, which they built together with the Tidhar Group at a total investment of NIS 600 million ($155 million).


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Carriera
Nipote di Rodolfo Ostromann, era nato a Pola pochi mesi dopo l'annessione della città al Regno d'Italia; crebbe nelle giovanili della società calcistica ivi stabilitasi, il Grion Pola (la stessa che lanciò Antonio Vojak), con cui disputò tre tornei in Serie C tra il 1935 e il 1938. In quell'anno venne acquistato dal , con cui esordì in Serie A il 30 ottobre 1938 in Lucchese-Napoli (2-2). Militò in maglia azzurra per cinque stagioni, collezionando 76 presenze e 6 reti in massima serie oltre a 26 presenze e una rete nell'ultima stagione, disputata in Serie B; durante la sua militanza la squadra, nella stagione 1938-1939, ebbe la soddisfazione di piazzarsi al quinto posto in Serie A e Fabbro la gioia di battere anche le difese della Lazio (il 14 dicembre 1941, in Napoli-Lazio 1-1), del Milan (il 22 febbraio 1942, in Milan-Napoli 3-1), Torino, che al termine della stagione sarebbe arrivato al secondo posto (il 22 marzo 1942, in Torino-Napoli 5-3).

Scomparve nel 1944 a 25 anni non ancora compiuti a Pola a seguito di un bombardamento aereo che uccise anche la madre e la nonna. Come scrisse il Corriere dello Sport nel dare la notizia della sua morte, era ritenuto uno dei migliori giocatori nel suo ruolo, capace di passaggi perfetti e di ottimo controllo della palla.

Sepolto a Pola, a 70 anni dalla scomparsa è stato ricordato dai tifosi partenopei.

Note

Collegamenti esterni

Calciatori deceduti nel periodo di attività

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Divided Selves
D.A.N. Jones
Maltaverne
by François Mauriac, translated by Jean Stewart
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 195 pp., $5.95
The Driver's Seat
by Muriel Spark
Knopf, 128 pp., $4.95
The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange
by Marie-Claire Blais, translated by Derek Coltman
by Paul Brodeur
Atheneum, 278 pp., $5.95
by Joan Didion
Youth from the past. Un adolescent d'autrefois was the original title of Maltaverne which Mauriac published in 1969, when he was eighty-three, a year before his death. For the last thirty years of his life he had written very little fiction, preferring to concentrate on essays and perhaps ephemeral political commentaries. Finally, in Maltaverne, he recapitulated with authority the themes of his prewar novels, marrying the skill and experience of his great age with a fresh, youthful expectancy to produce a fitting conclusion to his life as a writer. If nothing else, it is a polished and powerful piece of storytelling. The energy and cunning of this old craftsman, so near to death, is an encouragement to the living.
Sartre once complained of Mauriac's tendency to shift his viewpoint, to describe a character sometimes from the outside, as a third person to be observed, sometimes from within, as if identified with the author. "Fictional beings," wrote Sartre, "have their laws, the most rigorous of which is the following: the novelist may be either their witness or their accomplice, but never both at the same time." This law, as Conor Cruise O'Brien has suggested, is surely too rigorous; it is evaded, rather than broken, in Maltaverne.
The principal character and narrator, young Alain, is clearly a reflection of the author himself, in the years 1904-1907: the boy's vivid presence may possibly owe something to the author's consideration of his own youthful letters and journals, but Mauriac is selecting from the boy's opinions and feelings those of most interest to himself, sixty years later. Alain says: "Old men are horrible, when they can't keep away from young people, it makes you sick, aging writers who dare talk about it in their books, who've no shame." By "it" here, Alain means youth and physical love. Sometimes he stares at a very old man, in 1904, and tells a story about him—which becomes more and more improbable, until he admits to the reader: "I made it up." Then Alain imagines himself at the same age—"still the same person that I am now, while some child-poet in 1970 will watch me from a distance, as I sit motionless, in my doorway, turned to stone."
His friend, Donzac, supposes that Alain may become a great writer but will never achieve what is most desirable, the religious understanding of "that secret point where the truth of life as we experience it joins revealed truth." Donzac—for whom, Alain suggests, the story is written—makes no appearance, though he is often referred to as an austere guardian of standards so high that there is no great shame in failing to meet them. More deflating than Donzac is another of Alain's young friends, a peasant-boy seminarist called Simon, who tells Alain: "You'll still win the first prize for composition in 1970."
Max Beerbohm drew some quite witty cartoons of writers like Browning and Wordsworth, with the older "self" confronted and criticized by the younger "self"—like a father challenged by his son or patronized by his grandson. (I read, in an obituary, that "Mauriac, although respected as a stylist, was barely tolerated by young French people of the Sixties.") Mauriac's vigorous old age and powerful memory lend credit to Alain's contention that the older and younger selves are "the same person," despite his fear that "people are divided by differences of age or social class to such an extent that there is no common language." In English, age is something you are; in French it is something you have, rather as we talk of having class, having character, and, even, having sex—all misleading usages. Age, character, class, race, sex: the boy Alain learns to think of these not as things that we have, property, possessions, but as relationships, things that we do to and with each other—among whom, in Mauriac's faith, God is included. Having involves being had: he is in danger of belonging to his belongings.
Alain comes from a landed family—in Mauriac's familiar Landes, around Bordeaux—and this means that he will probably be married to a little heiress, whom he calls the Louse. Age twenty-one, he tells a girl friend that his mother
…has always been convinced that what I call physical love doesn't exist for creatures of a certain race, to which she and I belong, that it's a romantic fiction, that sex is a duty required of women by God for the propagation of the species and as a remedy for man's bestial nature.
The girl friend says: "You're the property of your property. You'll marry the Louse." Alain is frightened of this possibility, remembering Christ's warning to the young man who had great possessions.
He hates the Louse and indicts his mother for her idolatrous worship of the land—which she thinks "the only legitimate pleasure granted in this world to a woman from one of our families." He supposes that his own love of the land is quite different and perhaps justifiable, since it refines his appreciation of eternity. His old trees make him "aware of the ephemeral character of man's condition. One wouldn't mind being a thinking reed; but a thinking insect who during the few moments it has to live finds time to mate, that's something dreadful." While exposing his own pride, he arraigns his mother's, arranging deadly sins in order.
For Mother, evil consists in those covetous desires from which in fact she is immune, which she calls concupiscence and for which she feels only repulsion. She never thinks of sin in connection with her own pride in possession and domination.
The reader's sympathy with Alain, for all his casuistry, is cunningly moderated by the author, discreetly urging the mother's case against the line of Alain's argument and hinting that, if "sin" is under such close scrutiny, it is particularly sinful to call a little girl a louse.
The pattern of Alain's thinking and behavior is set out. Then Mauriac shows the results, in a cruelly moving piece of narrative. The Louse is horribly killed, through Alain's fault, and at twenty-two he thinks he has already "crossed the line beyond which one no longer seeks to be happy, but to gain control over one's life." His plan for self-subjection involves writing about his experience, even though "the outcome of all this agony will be a three-franc paperback." He says: "I alone am capable of seeing that none of it is wasted…. What other young man had a mother like mine, and what other carries in his heart the image of a defiled and strangled child?" Yet the story of this defeated man ends, as it began, in a spirit of expectancy and youthful freshness.
Alain's bookish girl friend says that certain elements in his character come from Christ but are "inseparably blended with those that come from Cybele." Mauriac has written elsewhere that "Cybele has in France more worshippers than Christ." Perhaps he identified the Great Mother with Mother Church—which, "with all its crimes and all its holiness," says Alain, "is the most beautiful thing in the world." Alain has learned from Donzac "that the Christians who have brought us up take, unconsciously, the opposite line to the Gospel in everything, turning each of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount into a curse; that they are not meek, they are not merely unjust but they execrate justice." The priests and teachers are idiots. "All the same, what they believe is true. There you have the whole history of the Church."
Although I happened to be rereading War and Peace when I took up Maltaverne, I did not feel, as would be expected of a modern novel, that something immeasurably inferior had interrupted; nor that time had erected a great barrier between Tolstoy's 1812 and Mauriac in 1970. It is evident that Alain could talk unconstrainedly with Bezuhov and Prince Andrei, as most of us could not. (Tolstoy was still alive in Alain-Mauriac's adolescence.) Alain is certain of his identity; an undivided self, he thinks he is a "soul," committing sins. His sex and his class are forces to be reckoned with, to which he will often surrender, prompted by his pride, anger, and sloth. But his faith makes him feel free. Arguing the case for predestination, within "the unconscious, universal swarm-life of mankind," Tolstoy still confidently asserted that each man has another side to his life—"his individual existence, which is free in proportion as his interests are abstract." Alain has this kind of confidence, rare in more modern fiction—unless we count Beckett, and choose to find his work optimistic.
The circumstances in which we read a book are bound to influence our appreciation. I had been studying mental illness in Malta, seeing how Roman Catholicism can help to keep people feeling "sane" (if not "adjusted") and Maltaverne illustrates this: the Beckett-like pessimism of the story acts as propaganda for the Church's optimism. But that Church can also drive some people to distraction—as is illustrated in another account of a Catholic childhood, The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange, by the French-Canadian novelist, Marie-Claire Blais. Out of sight of land, I kept discussing this contrast with shipmates, as we sailed slowly toward fascist Greece—where respectful interest in organized religion is immediately dispelled by the ubiquitous presence of the colonels' nauseating placards: "A Greece for Greek Christians." Returning to agnostic England, I found that Mauriac was dead—and, for all I know, gone where he said Gide would go—and that I had another Catholic novel to review, Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat, a bleak fable about insanity and what they call Evil. I must start writing again, in a cooler, British environment.
Muriel Spark's novel is about a respectable woman from "the North" (probably Britain) who flies to "the South" (Italy? Greece?) to commit her chosen sin. This is not uncommon: the churchmen of the South are inclined to avert their eyes from tourists' sins. But Miss Spark's heroine—an office-worker called Lise—has an unusual craving: she wants to be the victim of a "sex-crime," a perverse murder. We are given no explanation. We are not told from what cool town she comes, nor in which hot town she dies. She is a thin woman, aged between twenty-nine and thirty-six, who has deliberately made herself conspicuous with clashing, gaudy, holiday clothes, carefully selected for their lack of stain-resistance. She is observed, overheard, by no means understood. She seems ordinary, if eccentric, to other characters—except to a fellow passenger on the aircraft, who moves his seat, horrified by the temptation she presents to his sadistic nature. She comments:
He must be nutty. He wasn't my type at all and I wasn't his type. Just as a matter of interest, I mean, because I didn't take the slightest notice of him and I'm not looking to pick up strangers. But you mentioned that he wasn't my type and of course, let me tell you, if he thought I was going to make up to him he made a mistake.
The banality of her style seems unnatural to her, like a parody of colloquial speech. She keeps looking for her "type," someone to match her fantasies. When she finds him, she gives precise instructions: "I don't want any sex. You can have it afterwards. Tie my feet and kill, that's all."
In Muriel Spark's fiction, the word "sex" often sounds unnatural—as if physical love were some primitive rite, to be observed by an anthropologist: one of Miss Brodie's girls was said to be "famous for sex." Or imagine a very old lady who has picked up ugly slang from the television and uses it shamelessly, unshocked and uninvolved. Muriel Spark's tone is comparably prim, chilly, and alarming. Expressions of human sympathy are resolutely excluded from the narrative, until the final sentence—when the sex-killer, Lise's "type," glimpses the policemen with their "holsters and epaulettes and all those trappings devised to protect them from the indecent exposure of fear and pity, pity and fear."
The left-wing and libertarian press of the "underground" is full of photographs of long-haired youngsters brutalized by policemen. Sometimes we meanly suspect that the martyrs were asking for it, more concerned with living out their fantasies than dying for the cause. Muriel Spark isolates this element. Lise submits to maltreatment not, like Mauriac's mother, as "a duty required by God" nor, like Jesus or the Unknown Warrior, as a supreme sacrifice. She submits because she wants to. As Lord Melbourne said of the Order of the Garter, "There's no damned merit about it." Lise's quest recalls a poem by Thom Gunn, about sadists and masochists:
I see them careful, choosing limita- tion,
And careful still to break their loneliness
Only for one who, perfect coun- terpart,
Welcomes the tools of their per- versity.
Unexplained, as if inexplicable, The Driver's Seat gives us the kind of frisson which ghost stories give to children. It is perhaps Muriel Spark's most successful attempt to represent Evil personified. She told us too much about Mrs. Hogg in The Comforters, and for Miss Jean Brodie we felt a positive liking; but we are told so little about Lise that she becomes frightening through her mystery, like some incomprehensible patient in a mental hospital who seems activated by nothing but malice. Muriel Spark's success may be compared with that of Angus Wilson: in his first novel he tried unsuccessfully to personify Evil in the solid characterization of Mrs. Curry; but in The Old Men at the Zoo he succeeded—with a mere vignette, a thumbnail sketch, of Mr. Blanchard-White, the unexplained fascist. "Evil" is perhaps a word for bad behavior which we do not understand.
Our third Catholic novel, The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange, begins by characterizing some Canadian nuns as "the chorus of my distant miseries, ancient ironies clothed by time with a smile of pity, though a pity that faintly stinks of death." At once we recognize a translation from the French. The first three sentences slowly unroll, almost filling two pages, like parodies of Proust. The length of the sentences is extended by the repetition of similes—each nun has "slim brown boots glimmering like furtive breaches of propriety" and a forehead "betraying like some secret frivolity its dark lock of thick hair"—by unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, and by rambling parentheses. Here is part of a later sentence:
…on the contrary, the consoling energy these women deployed—rigorously masculine in their flat-heeled shoes, in their narrowly cut suits beneath which pointed buttocks provided further expression of their will and daring, yet rigorously maternal too, even though they cloaked that vulnerable quality beneath a soldierly appearance itself extremely fragile—on the contrary, their energy, their restless vigor seemed to contain for us the very element of sturdy tenderness of which we had hitherto been deprived.
She is talking of Girl Scout leaders. Lady Baden-Powell herself, "the grande dame of the Girl Guide movement," makes a personal appearance, under the pseudonym "Lady Baron Topwell." The narrator, with other little girls, prefers these "frankly mannish" leaders to the fearsome nuns.
The idea of death, of our childhood sacrificed in the light of a noble setting sun, our bodies pierced with arrows, our heads falling under the ax, should Lady Baron ask it of us some day not far hence, a myriad such images fluttered mechanically against our fevered temples. Ah! We are yours, do with us what you will, you have such a lovely uniform, such pretty leather boots…. We want to go away with you on your ship. Mother Saint-Théophile will beat us again.
The extravagance of the language may be partly the responsibility of the translator—who certainly offers some extraordinary dialogue. ("Hey there, sly puss, what are you up to? Trying to get a peek at the courting couple? Come in and see me instead, I'm as dull as a toad all alone." "He often falls into the abyss of drink. A real pig, your uncle, there is no gainsaying it, he drinks all day long.") But the extravagance of the incidents must be intended. In this Canadian town, torture is the main preoccupation: cats are skinned alive and children beaten until their eyes bleed. Meanwhile, a Genetesque priest makes love to a boy murderer with a vague, cruel smile. As a criticism of a Catholic upbringing, it is too nightmarish to carry weight. It reads like a child's crude fantasies, worked up by an over-literary adult. Its sensuous appreciation of pain, cruelty, and guilt is so unrestrained as to be finally ludicrous.
Two able American novels deal with the lives and fantasies of workers in the movie industry. There is a modern tendency to represent the force of destiny not as God or Progress or the "History" of Marx and Tolstoy but in the person of a film director or producer, making people play roles and observe themselves. In Play It As It Lays, the moviemakers don't know what they are doing or where they are going. But Gottschalk, in The Stunt Man, is made to seem all-wise and all-powerful. This director offers protection to a college-educated Army deserter, on condition that he will perform dangerous stunts in his new movie: it sounds like the kind of film Joseph Losey might make, an imaginative action story with ferris wheels superimposed on sunglasses, cars hurtling over cliffs, frogmen pursued by helicopters.
Meanwhile Gottschalk's cameraman, Bruno, is independently making a rather sadistic pornographic movie which, he claims, offers performers "the chance of exposure without risk. In my films one can live every fantasy without risk." As for "self-respect," that is merely "a barrier people erect against the possibility of having to recognize the true self." The college-boy stunt man discovers that his own real life amours have been sneakily filmed by Bruno, so he beats him up and complains to Gottschalk: "Bruno's film. I'm in it." The godlike director wearily replies: "Which you? Each time the shutter clicks, there's another image of you superimposed on the one that was before." He does not believe in Bruno's exposure of "the real self": he is interested in "double-exposure."
It is intended that an allegorical significance should be read into the film maker's metaphors. The stunt man is in limbo, between the dangerous world and the safe screen, where excitement and adventure may be enjoyed without risk. He gets the disadvantages of both worlds, the risks as well as the unreality. Under Gottschalk's protection, he is disguised in a protective suit intended (in Gottschalk's movie) not to protect, but to signal to audiences "the theme of hostile environments and the imminence of disaster"—disaster which might really happen to the stunt man as he plays the part of a player enacting his own real situation, disguised as a man in disguise. The relationship between his real situation and his role is played out in his mind's "private theatre where the windshield before his face became a screen upon which he found himself watching a series of disconnected shots." The tale needs perhaps clearer definition: the rather stagy dialogue, suggesting mystification rather than a coherent philosophy, has a fuzzy, blurring effect.
More sharply defined is Play It As It Lays. This is the story of an actress, Maria, who has made two movies with her director husband: she likes one of them, in which she plays a girl raped by a motorcycle gang, since the victim on the screen seems to have "a knack for controlling her own destiny"; she dislikes the other, since the character seems to have "no knack for anything." Yet this picture, called Maria, ought to be a faithful portrait of herself: her husband, Carter, made it by following her around New York while she was shopping, crying, sleeping, or straining marijuana. Though never distributed, Maria won a prize at a European festival. Ambitious students talk about "using" Maria in their own avant-grade movies; her husband's friend, BZ, a producer, keeps a print of Maria and looks at it in the way he looks at Maria herself, as if he too wanted to "use" the actress in some way.
Maria separates from Carter and becomes uncertain of her role. One day she sits in a park, watching motorcyclists rifling cars. She walks towards them and admires the "choreography" as they fan back into a half-circle: she drives away, feeling that they have shared "an instant of total complicity" which she will play back in her head, changing the scenario. There is also a nursemaid in the park, whom Maria imagines coming toward her with a hypodermic needle. Sometimes she drives aimlessly along the freeway, until that "flawless burning concrete" peters out, stopping at a scrap metal yard or turning into common road, flanked by rusting, abandoned construction sheds. Carefully then she turns around and gets back into the mainstream with its luminous signs. Joan Didion's cold eye for Californian landscape lends elegance to desolation.
When Maria goes to parties, she is accompanied by "a third-string faggot, never a famous faggot, never one of those committed months in advance to escorting the estranged wives of important directors." She lists other habits of such wives, and resolves to be different: she would never, for instance, "ball at a party" or "do S-M unless she wanted to." When she breaks the first resolution, she lands in a Nevada jail. It is implied that she breaks the second: after drinking heavily with BZ and his wife, Helene, she has "a flash image of BZ holding a belt and Helene laughing and she tried not to look at the bruise on Helene's face.
BZ begins to talk to her: "Tell me what matters…. Nothing." "You're getting there…. Where I am." Finally, in bed with her, BZ commits suicide, after telling her: "You and I, we know something. Because we've been out there where nothing is." Maria goes to a mental hospital, where she says things like: "What makes Iago evil? Some people ask. I never ask…. I am what I am. To look for reasons is beside the point…. Carter and Helene still believe in cause-effect. Carter and Helene also believe that people are either sane or insane."
We are told more about this credibly deranged woman than about Muriel Spark's unlikely Lise, and therefore Maria is of more "human interest," the subject of a novel rather than a parable. Although she seems to be in hell, and although every event is charged with misery, Play It As It Lays will extract no tears and cannot be honestly called depressing. The neat, cinematic construction, the economy and precision of the narrative, and the harsh wit of the mean, soulless dialogue stimulate a certain exhilaration, as when we appreciate a harmonious and well-proportioned painting of some cruelly martyred saint in whom we do not believe.
More by D.A.N. Jones
The Power of Positive Trotskyism
Exorcising Demons
December 3, 1970 issue
Mary Meigs
Franz Kafka, translated and with an introduction by Mark Harman
Kafka's 'A Message from the Emperor': A New Translation
Louis Begley
Ariadne's Own Story
Umberto Eco, translated by William Weaver
A Case for Textual Harassment
Danger: Thin Ice
Alfred Kazin
Missing Connections
H. Stuart Hughes
John Hollander
Robert Craft


Keep snacks with you nuts, bars, fruits, veggies, ect….
1 ounce (about 3/4 cup) ?
Omelet, plain with one large egg, skim milk?
Generous 1-cup serving of Minestrone?. One cup tomato soup prepared with 1-percent milk (85 calories if prepared with water)?
800 meter treadmill/ then 400 meter row/ 25 step ups and/ and squat Str/Abs Tues/Thurs stretch with core work out 2-mile treadmill.
Week 4 Mon/Wed/Fri/ Repeat week with Treadmill at 30 minutes minimum level 5.


The Recolour Drawing dialog box allows you to replace all instances of a colour or texture in drawings with a different colour or texture swatch in one of the scene's palettes. This replaces the colours or textures in the drawings without requiring you to modify the palettes. You can use this dialog to perform colour replacement in the current drawing, in all the drawings in one or several layers or in all drawings in your scene.
This dialog will replace the colour or texture that is currently selected in the Colour view with the colour or texture that you select inside the dialog.
Select the palette in which the colour or texture swatch is located, then select the swatch you wish to replace.
If the drawing in the Camera or Drawing view contains the colour or texture you want to replace, select the Dropper tool in the Tools toolbar, then click on that colour or texture in the drawing. The Colour view will automatically select that colour or texture's palette as well as that colour or texture's swatch.
Right-click on the swatches list, then select Recolour Drawings.
Open the Colour view menu , then select Colours > Recolour Drawings.
Current drawing: Replaces the selected colour in the currently selected drawing only.
All drawings in the currently selected layers: Replaces the selected colour in all the drawings in the layer that is currently selected in the Timelime or Xsheet view.
NOTE This option can work with several drawing layers selected.
All drawings in the scene: Replaces the selected colour in every drawing in the current scene.
Allows you to select the palette and colour or texture swatch to replace the selected colour or texture with.


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text:
"The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is
something between art and life. Unlike painting and
literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it,
and I try to render this concept in my films."
- Jean-Luc Godard
Narrative Design:
Film Studies:
1.Peaceful Warrior
2.Groundhog Day
3.The Secret
4.The Legend of Bagger Vance
5.Vertigo
6.Psycho
7.Rear Window
8.The Birds
9.Jaws
10.Disturbia
11.The Matrix
12.Forever Strong
13.It's A Wonderful Life
14.Hoosiers
15.Close Encounters of the Third Kind
16.Meet Joe Black
17.War of the worlds
18.Avatar
19.42 Jackie Robinson Story
20.100 Foot Journey
21.Casablanca
22.Promised Land
23.JFK
24.Charlie Chaplin
25.Miracle
26.Patch Adams
27.I am Legend
28.Gattaca
29.Contagion
30.The Dark knight
31.Finding Forrester
Narrative Design
mid 18th century: from French réciprocité, from réciproque, from Latin reciprocus 'moving backward and forward'
"The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/narrative
Heat Shooting Scene!
See below...
Narrative is...A Story
Design is...How it all comes together
How is film different?
Film although derivative of Theatre and Literature has developed its own language. That magic is due in large part to…
Temporal and Spatial Manipulation:
Manipulating time and space allows films to take you anywhere at any time.
What's a Narrative Film?
Narrative Film is a film that tells a story.
Who's responsible for creating it?
Screenwriter:
Person(s) responsible for creating the narrative in its written form.
Director: Person most responsible for creating the narrative through a film's production.
Focus story and propel it forward. They are often a blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Character development:
What do they want and what are they willing to do to get it.
A Hero: Protagonist
A villain: Antagonist
An Anti-hero:
Someone who does bad things, but for good reasons
A narrative usually has Conflicts:
problems...
Man verses Self
External:
Man verses Man
Man verses Nature
Man verses Machine
A Story:
What is told
The Plot:
How it's told
Exposition:
The Information necessary to understand the story.
Diagesis:
Everything that exists within the world of the story.
a. Characters
b. Places,
c. Events,
d. Etc.
Diagetic:
If it can be perceived within the world of the story by the characters and audiences alike it is said to be Diagetic.
Music? Sometimes
Credits? No
Non-Diagetic:
Anything that happens outside the world of the story, but is a part of the movie. Can be perceived only by the audience, but not from within the story.
Veracity:
A sense of believability or reality in the created world of the story.
A films overall meaning or message.
A repeating/reoccurring element. Hunger, Quest for knowledge, gambling, whatever,…Keeps the story going!
Symbolism:
Something that represents more than itself. Something that is beyond the obvious.
Parallelism:
Explicit or implied connections between characters and or events in a film.
Linear:
Story appears chronologically in order.
Non-Linear:
Not in chronological order
Perspectives:
1st person:
From a narrator or a single character's perspective. The "I."
3rd Person:
Omniscient narratives: Knows present, past, and future.
Knows it all and knows what to show and when to show it…God like.
Restrictive narratives:
Has a limited perspective of one or two characters.
Reflexive narration:
Challenging/Subverting/Cause ruin to the veracity of the narrator's point of view.
SUSPENSE:
Keeps the audience hooked. By manipulating what the audience knows and when they know it in comparison to what the characters know and when they know it.
Classical Hollywood Narrative:
Is a Classical Hollywood Narrative the same as a Classic Film? NO.
A Classical Hollywood Narrative is a prototypical design of a film…not whether it is good, bad new or old.
The key Ingredients of a Classical Hollywood Narrative are:
A Single protagonist who:
Propels the narrative with…Cause and effect
Leads to…A Linear plot
The Story develops chronologically based on obtaining certain goals, which are…
Gives what the character(s) want (s)… Has a Clear objective.
In a sense all questions are answered… Clear and concise exposition.
Morality derived from Biblical themes…Has Judeo-Christian values.
Narration that implies realism (verisimilitude)…Narration is omniscient to restricted/limited.
No loose or open endings…Clear and consistent ending---probably no sequels.
Want To Believe – The Power of NarrativeWe are obviously living in a technological super age when it comes to effects. Go to YouTube and type in "VFX breakdown" and you'll see the latest and greatest Hollywood has to offer. But many still deride Visual Effects – saying they can always spot CGI and that it's ruining film today as we know it.
But then there lies sort of the odd conundrum of 1940′s The Thief of Bagdad.
From Roger Ebert's own great movie review (May 6, 2009)
It remains one of the greatest of fantasy films, on a level with "The Wizard of Oz." To see either film is to see the cinema incorporating every technical art learned in the 1930s and employing them to create enchanting visions. Today, when dizzying CGI effects, the Queasy-Cam and a frantic editing pace seem to move films closer to video games, witness the beauty of "Thief of Bagdad" and mourn.
If we were to be completely honest the special effects of The Thief of Bagdad simply don't hold up well today – many of these techniques are about the same quality as the output from a first year high school video class:
Are we really suppose to mourn a film which features a blue screen job like that? Even the use of practicals in the shot on the right is obviously a paper mache form on a machine. It moves with the linearity of a Murphy bed being lowered from the wall and twice as slow.
And yet, this film makes Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list. To be fair, The Thief of Bagdad showcased groundbreaking special effects for it's time but now, taken out of context and compared to modern techniques, they're laughably incompetent. How does a film that trades so heavily on special effects survive to be considered a classic?
The answer is simple – we want to believe.
Belief is our only mechanism for understanding the world. The universe is nothing more that a swirling soup of energy – vibrations of energy make up matter and electromagnetic forces give us the illusion of solidness – of touch. Our eyes respond to a narrow band of these vibrations – a small section we call visible light that stimulates cells to send electrical impulses to our brains. Sound is the beating of air molecules against a drum in our ear canals. From the constant feedback we get from our senses we try to gather information about the world around us and that begins with a belief that our senses represent reality.
But our senses are easily fooled – not just by trickery but by everyday interactions. We look in a mirror but we do not believe there is an identical person standing on the other side of the glass. When it's foggy outside, we don't assume that the world has been erased and turned gray – instead we believe that there is a low hanging mist that obstructs our view. We don't need to test it every time, we just believe even though our senses may tell us otherwise.
In the case of the physical world, science has done a pretty outstanding job reaching beyond our biological capabilities in order to explain to universe. But even science itself is a belief - more accurately a philosophy (hence the Ph. in Ph.D). Things get even more muddied when we step into history, politics, morality, ethics and of course film criticism.
A friend on Facebook once worried about the future of information now that face swapping technology can make people say anything - people will be easily fooled into believing anything. I had to remind him that we don't have the technology yet but there's already plenty of people on Facebook that will believe anything (like ahem.. chemtrails). The bar to fooling people is already incredibly low, you don't need high tech to get people to buy on some phoney baloney crap (like… chemtrails).
That's because it doesn't matter what the reality is – we as human beings want to believe. We want the narrative we hold true to be true. And that means seeking confirmation and vilifying opposition. Even the pursuit of "reality" is flawed in that it believes "reality" to be something that is knowable or measureable. The trouble with this understanding of the world is… you guessed it… it itself is a belief.
This is not a pipe
So what the hell does this have to do with filmmaking?
How we approach film and talk about film and make film is based on our own internal narrative – what do we believe and want to be true. In the passage above, Roger Ebert has already created the narrative in his review – his narrative shapes how we perceive – predisposing us to liking the film as superior to modern creations because we all admire and like the late Roger Ebert. We can tolerate the special effects because we have the narrative that it was groundbreaking for it's day whereas a modern CGI cash grab has no excuse (the fact that Thief of Bagdad is just charming helps too).
But many more negative judgemental themes float about in film discussion circles today – themes like "the Golden Age of Hollywood" or "CGI is crap" or "Movies from the 70s are way better than today". These are are prevalent in the zeitgeist but easily dismissed with evidence (75% of the films made in the Golden era were B movies, Plenty of beautiful CGI out there, and the 70s had their fair share of crap). The danger in these critical themes is they predispose us from enjoying contemporary culture in exchange for a fleeting sense of superiority.
In terms of filmmaking, an internal narrative can blind us to possibilities of our medium. There is a myth about Alfred Hitchcock that he storyboarded every shot so that when it came time to shoot the film, it was just a clinical matter of following the storyboards. This narrative makes for great legend building, but is far from the truth and even completely undesirable in live action – you don't just draw a shot and it magically comes to being. But the narrative persists and it colors young filmmakers minds thinking everything needs a storyboard instead of letting a scene grow organically.
Narratives are powerful things. Narrative makes film work. We know the CGI dragon isn't real in the same light that we know The Prince of Bagdad doesn't have a humongous genie. But it doesn't matter (or it shouldn't) because ultimately we want to believe. We buy in because a good film asks us to.
The magic of the human experience and the magic of the narrative meet at the crossroads called cinema. It is our most powerful tool and yet it can be our most limiting. Being prepared to change that belief, to weigh and accept new and different modes of thinking will lead to better filmmaking and better film viewing experience. But in the end, perhaps that's just wishful thinking.


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Lake COVID-19 cases spike by 99 in 3-day span; Sumter's up by 1
LEESBURG — Lake County's recent surge of new confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus continued through the weekend and into Monday, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health.
A total of 99 new cases, including one death, were reported in Lake, based on updates Saturday, Sunday and Monday from the DOH. Meanwhile in Sumter County, only one new case was reported over the same span.
The death — an 82-year-old Lake woman who was confirmed positive in Friday's update — was reported in Saturday's update. That raised the number of area deaths to 33 — 17 in Sumter County, including three inmates at the Sumter Correctional Institution in Bushnell, and 16 in Lake.
Lake County's total number of cases ballooned to 482 with Monday's report. Sumter nudged up to 267 confirmed cases of the potentially deadly virus.
Monday's update with 14 new cases in Lake represented the fifth straight day with double-digit increases. Sixty-four new cases, a record for a single day in Lake County, were reported on Saturday.
There have been 13 cases in Sumter County since June 1, including six days with no new cases.
One potential source for the recent rise in Lake County could be connected to the start of testing at the Lake County Detention Center in Tavares. It is not clear, however, how many of the recently confirmed cases are included in the recent updates.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office on Friday reported that the jail had 57 total confirmed cases.
Despite the recent spike confirmed cases in recent days, the percentage of Lake residents testing positive (2 percent) has remained below the state average of 5.4 percent, an indication the elevated numbers could be attributed to more testing.
Included in Sumter's confirmed case total are results from the Sumter Correctional Institution. Based on information provided Monday by the Florida Department of Corrections, 105 inmates at the Sumter facility tested positive for COVID-19, along with 16 staff members.
No inmates were in medical isolation or quarantine and there were no tests pending.
At the Lake Correctional Institute in Clermont, no positive cases have been reported and 11 tests have turned up negative, according to the Department of Corrections. No tests were pending and no inmates in medical isolation.
Included among the local residents who have died from COVID-19 are two who were in area long-term care facilities — one at The Cove at Tavares Village in Lake County and one at Osprey Point Nursing Center in Sumter.
The DOH has been releasing one daily update, usually in early afternoon, since late April. Prior to that, it posted two updates each day.
Still not included is how many infected people have recovered from the virus. However, experts say most who contract it will recover without special care.
Here's the breakdown of local testing numbers as reported by the DOH
Total tests: 23,952
Percent positive: 2%
Negative: 23,458
Test results received June 14
Positive: 14
Here's the demographic breakdown of local patients with confirmed cases
Age range: 1 to 103
Other: 106
Hispanic: 107
Deaths by race
Avante at Mount Dora (1 staff member)
The Cove at Tavares Village (1 resident who has transferred out of the facility)
The Villages Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (7 residents, including 3 who has transferred out of the facility, and 2 staff members)
Vista Lake (2 residents, including one who has transferred out of the facility)
Neulife Neurological Services (2 staff members)
Bayview Center (1 resident who has transferred out of the facility)
Buffalo Crossing Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center (1 resident who has transferred out of the facility, and 7 staff members)
Sumter Place in The Villages (1 staff member)
And here's the case breakdown by city
Clermont: 123
Sorrento: 10
Missing: 6
Montverde: 5
Altoona: 2
Paisley: 2
Astor: 1


SIOUX FALLS, SD -- The Sioux Falls Skyforce have announced the 11 players that will bypass the 2012 NBA Development League Draft and attend training camp which is set to begin on Saturday, Nov. 10. The 11 training camp invitees are a combination of returning players, affiliate players and open tryout attendees.
The Skyforce will host their 2012 NBA D-League Draft party at Tinner's Bar & Grill (449 W. 69th St.) on Friday beginning at 5:45 p.m. The event will take place in the Tinner's Event Center and season ticket packets will be available for pickup.


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Weresech K. is 32 years old, she has 7 children and is one of the women directly benefiting from our work in the Seret village. Weresech and her husband Gebreegziabhare own 0.5 ha of land, which is not sufficient to produce enough grain and feed the entire family during a whole year. For that and to be able the send the 3 older children to school, both must work outside of their farm. Their farm is adjacent to our intervention site and Weresech is delighted to have, since 2017 a regular job with WeForest, contributing with site preparation, planting, weeding and watering the new seedlings.
Between July 2017 and January 2018 she earned about 1200 ETB from the project, which is enough to pay for school and part of their health expenses. Proudly she said "I have directly planted and cared for over 250 new trees last year " and she is looking forward to working again during the next season, between July and January.
Weresech was also very excited about joining our new beekeeping program for farmers and said «I am lucky to have been chosen for this programme and sell the honey our beehives produce with good price through our cooperative». She and all the villagers involved start seeing the benefits for their farmand and settlement areas since the Seret 'exclosures' are protected from grazing and illegal logging. They can now harvest grass, the soils are better protected from erosion and landslides when it rains.


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Medications and Drugs
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Horse World
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Beyond the Saddle Podcast
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Ride along with a veterinarian
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Equisearch.com
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Siglavy Mantua I, Spanish Riding School's Master of the Piaffe, Has Died
Fran Jurga
Siglavy Mantua I ridden by Oberbereiter Krzisch in the solo ride. Normally, the Lipizzans were equipped with double bridles but this special ride was communicated through a single Weymouth bit. Herr Krzisch rode with one hand and held a special sapling switch vertical in his right hand. (Spanish Riding School photo)
We sat there, transfixed in our stadium seats. You could hear every note of the Viennese march floating from the speakers in the huge Staples Center arena in Washington, DC. All eyes were on the spotlight, on the man and horse who piaffed to the music as one.
For many people, fairy tales piaffed to life before their very eyes when they attended a live performance of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna's famous Lipizzaner stallions. They were entranced by the quadrille, mesmerized by the pas de deux, and awed by the airs above the ground.
But one performance in the show was different. When lights went down and the single spotlight followed that magical horse and rider around the arena, we knew we were seeing something special. The motionless rider rode with one hand, holding a wooden switch upright in his free hand. Without any sign of aids, the two piaffed, passaged and literally danced in the spotlight, like a music box come to life.
What people didn't realize is just how special that treat was. There was no way that the public could know that for more than 20 years, it was always the same horse who danced in that spotlight. After all, the Lipizzaners look almost identical.
But only one horse and rider could and did perform the famous solo ride. Siglavy Mantua I and Oberbereiter Klaus Krzisch were a team admired around the world, yet few people knew their names.
I am sad to announce to his admirers around the world that Siglavy Mantua I died in August at the Spanish Riding School's Piber stud farm in southern Austria, only a year after his official retirement from the performing troupe in Vienna. He was 28 years old.
Siglavy Mantua I lived his life within the high walls of the Vienna stables, and was ridden almost exclusively by Krzisch. When he arrived there in the winter of 1982, he was often overlooked because of his long back, and less-than-elegant carriage. With Krzisch's dedicated training, the horse's native intelligence and willingness helped him overcome his athletic shortcomings and he blossomed into a horse recognized for his ability to perform collected movements.
While the School's 2005 USA tour was to have been Siglavy Mantua I's farewell, he continued to be sound and interested in performing, so he remained in Vienna until last year, when he was sent to Piber for retirement and to breed mares. This summer, his health deteriorated and the decision was made to end his life with dignity and peace.
I remember being in a mini-press conference at the School when one of the journalists asked bluntly if the riders had a favorite horse among the many stallions. The director looked a little uncomfortable and exchanged glances with Oberbereiter Riegel. Then he shrugged and said, "Well, of course, Siglavy Mantua I is very special."
And he smiled as he said the horse's name. We all dutifully scribbled the horse's name in our notebooks. Later, I went to look for him in the stable and the head groom told stories about the aged stallion's brilliant personality and sense of humor. Mantua was certainly a favorite, at all levels, in public and in private, out of a cohesive unit of identical horses.
His 2002 son, Siglavy Malina II, is now with the School in Vienna, and every colt of his nice crop of 2008 foals knows they have big hoofprints to fill, as the traditions and performances and romance of the Spanish Riding School continue to enchant horse lovers.
The legend of Siglavy Mantua I will live in the memories of thousands of devotees of one of the world's oldest equestrian traditions. His soundness and his longevity will continue to impress everyone in the horse health world. He delighted us all.
Note: Thank you to Oberbereiter Andreas Hausberger for sharing the news of Mantua's death.
This is a rare private moment at the 2005 Washington performance of the Spanish Riding School. In the afternoon, Oberbereiter Krzisch arrived at the makeshift stables in the bowels of the Staples Center to check on his horse and I happened to be standing outside the stall. (Mantua had the first stall, of course.) The photo above this one is the ornate sign above his stall in Vienna. I wonder who lives in that stall now! (Fran Jurga photo)
Harald Bauer, Spanish Riding School Rider, Has Died: There's A Tragically Empty Saddle in Vienna
Lights, cameras, Lipizzaners: The 450-year-old Spanish Riding School has seen the light
Waltzing in a New Year with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna and Friends
United Nations Group Recognizes Spanish Riding School as Cultural Icon
25 Years Ago: EHV at the Spanish Riding School Stud Farm
When Bad Things Happen to Nice Horses: Equine Venereal Disease at Austria's Spanish Riding School
Favorite Video: The Sweet Secret of the Spanish Riding School
Spanish Riding School: Enjoy the New Commercial!
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People Who Never Thought They'd Find Love But Eventually Did Share Advice For Those In The Same Boat
October 01 | 2018
You found love? Good for you. It probably wasn't easy, or even expected. It's difficult to open up and become vulnerable, especially if life's thrown you through the ringer.
Yellow-B asked lovers of Reddit, [Serious] Redditors who felt like they would never ever find a romantic partner and then did: what advice would you give to those who feel the same way now?
This is so painfully accurate.
I was so painfully shy and insecure when I was younger. I didn't believe anyone would see anything valuable in me. I would say don't get caught up in thinking you're unlovable. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. Allow yourself to be vulnerable with people. I spent a lot of time pushing people away because I feared rejection so much.
AndyJCohen
Find someone who loves your flaws.
You really only need one person.
Don't pick someone to fix, or be fixed by - this will only take away your time and emotional energy.
zaxbie
Embrace your own faults.
Become okay on your own first and foremost and recognize that there are things about yourself that people will not like and will disqualify you from their dating pool and that's okay! I lost over 140 lbs and have quite the amount of loose skin and once I realized that some quys and gals just wouldn't be down for that and that's alright I started to be okay.
I let potential dates know before hand and if they were like, "eww no." Then I knew that that wasn't someone I would want in my life anyway.
Other guys I told about it would try to shower me with compliments and say, "no, you're perfect," but I could tell they cringed.
My current boyfriend saw a picture of my skin, nodded took a breath and said, "babe, your sh*t's f*cked."
I love that a--hole.
okayellie
Accept that you're not for everyone - most people, in fact.
Knowing that it's okay to be disqualified is weirdly validating. Especially when you accept that there is no rhyme or reason. Because it also means that you can disqualify others just because you aren't feeling it.
Now there's something to be said for being too picky...but only if you're the type of person that is happier in a relationship with an imperfect person than single. There are some people out there who are married to their ideals and they are truly better off that way. Others realize they can accept another person who doesn't tick every box.
godolphinarabian
Expand your social network.
Try to do something that allows you to meet new people. And I don't mean it in a romantic way like go on dates, but, you know hang out with people, get to know someone new. This way even if you don't find someone to date, you can get to know someone and they will introduce you to someone else and so on.
I mean, I know it's very easy to just sit at home and be like "Well, if it's my fate, he/she will find me eventually". Especially if you're a girl (like me), it's easy to think this way and not even try to put in any efforts. But it doesn't work this way. Push yourself, be proactive, put yourself in situations where you might meet someone, even if they're sometimes not so comfortable for you. Even statistically the more people you meet, the more are the chances that one of them will end up that special someone.
choulada
Don't bank on luck.
I don't mean to spoil the mood, but there's a Bo Burnham quote that I think applies here: "I would say don't take advice from people like me who have gotten very lucky. We're very biased. You know, like Taylor Swift telling you to to follow your dreams is like a lottery winner telling you, 'Liquidize your assets; buy Powerball tickets - it works!' " If I'm honest, luck was the main factor in me finding my partner, and there's no formula or advice I can pass on for that.
i-got-to-third-base
Accept rejection. *Cries in Xanax*
I didn't meet my wife until I was 30. My 20's were quite lonely having had only one real girlfriend. Now that I'm married with 2 kids, my advice for anyone younger and trying to meet a partner in life, is that you need to be upfront about your feelings, and not be concerned about rejection. None of the rejection will matter when you get older. In the moment in can feel bad, but instead you should think, "oh well, they didn't like me, I will go try another one"
TLDR: not everyone is going to like you, and that's ok. Just keep trying until you find someone that does!
Iambirdman44
Don't go "looking" for a relationship.
I'd say don't stress it by purposely trying to "activate the dating mode" on every woman you meet, just stay at on a friend level and see how it goes, if it develops into something where you think she's interested in more, go for it, if not then don't ruin the friendship and respect her opinion. In the end it's a lot of randomness. My first gf came outta nowhere and didn't have the intent to date me, but it went well (well, for a while lol) That being said, I'm bad at all of that stuff so take my stuff with a grain of salt.
Hydrotrex
PSA: dating apps are terrible.
Get out of the house! People aren't going to show up to your front door. The more social events/places you go to the better. I know people who complain about there not being anyone out there for them but they never give themselves the opportunity to meet new people!
duhduhduh50
Enjoy your life. Someone will notice and want to be a part of it.
I spent much of the last 5 years thinking I was done with dating, that I'd be single forever, that women my age weren't interested in guys like me, etc. etc. etc. Make an excuse, I was probably telling it to myself.
I've tried online dating, I've tried getting "out there" and widening my social circles, doing new things. I'd had a few very brief trysts arise from my efforts, but real connections felt very scarce, which to me seemed preposterous. I live in a very progressive state, with TONS of smart, kind, witty, wild women who are involved, aware, and active. But for all my efforts to meet and hold the attention of one, I was only feeling more and more defeated over time.
The best thing you can do, I think, is to just do you. Find joy in your daily routine, in the aspects of your life that you choose. Be into you. Someone is going to notice. Confidence and comfort in your own skin is probably the most attractive quality one can project. Are you a little bit weird? F---ing go with it. Own it. Revel in it. Someone out there is gonna find your quirks adorable, even sexy. I'm 35 years old and I still have trouble believing myself to be an attractive individual. But I am also an incredibly harsh critic of myself, and I think many of us are, too. Just accept and love yourself, embrace and live the shit out of your life. Someone is going to want in.
evolving_I
finding unlikely love


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