We are a parent/carer led organisation whose mission is to 'Support and Empower Families to be Heard and Achieve Better Outcomes'. We have members from both Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire.
We promote and support the well-being of parents and carers of children with disabilities, and their families, by hosting two monthly support group sessions. In these meetings, parents come together to share their stories and give advice to other carers about how to support those they care for.
Some of these sessions involve consultations with members of the local authorities; they come to converse about decisions on services for disabled children, discuss new potential policies that could be implicated, and how it will impact carers, children and the family at large. Through these discussions, parents are given the opportunity to influence what these policies are which helps to ensure that new strategies that aim to help children with disabilities and their families are truly helpful and fair.
Membership is inclusive of anyone who shares our objectives above.
The Rainbow Parent Carers Forum has now been in existence for more than 32 years. It was originally set up in 1986 as the Floyd Group, a support group for parents of young children with disabilities attending the Trent Day Nursery in Nottingham. Parents relaxed or were engaged in workshop activities whilst the children were cared for in a separate area by qualified nursery staff. The group was run entirely on a voluntary basis by a small group of committed people, including some group members, with paid staff to provide the supervised play sessions.
Over the years the group expanded and moved to a venue more suited to the wider age range of children attending. This required increase in child-care staff numbers, and hence higher salary costs, necessitated a re-evaluation of the group's financial arrangements and it registered as a charity in October 2001 in order to enhance access to funding sources. During the 3 year Aiming High for Disabled Children Programme the group was facilitated by Barnardo's until October 2011 when the group became an independent parent led organisation. The group now enjoys the support of 4 trustees and employs a full time Co-ordinator, Project Officer and Administrator.
A representative from Rainbow supports meetings by TAPS. TAPS is the Trent Autism Parent Support Group. They are an informal group of parent carers who meet to chat about all issues regarding children with autism and their associated needs.
Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the most common, non-genetic cause of learning disability in the UK. Research suggests that more than 7,000 babies are born every year in the UK with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
Rainbow's PCF hosts FASD Friends which was initially set up by two adoptive families who have experience of children affected by Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
Each year the Forum holds an annual event for parents and carers with Key Note Speakers.


text:
Home COLUMNS THE GREEK JUSTICE
THE GREEK JUSTICE
It sounds like Greek to you but it doesn't sound like that to the Greeks. To them this is justice. Never have the scales of justice been so blindsided as they were yesterday when a Greek court set free four countrymen who were accused of shooting (with real guns) 28 Bangladeshi workers who were protesting non-payment of salaries for six months.
This pathetic, fiscal wreck of a little country that no one cares about and is now Europe's basket case had the temerity to destroy all these centuries of belief that Greece was an ancient civilization and that the land of Plato and Socrates and Aristotle, Archimedes and Euripedes, the nation that gave the world Sophocles and Aritides and kings like Ptolemy and Antigone would count for value. It has fallen to such tragedy that even the republic as Plato knew it counts for nothing.
Greek credibility collapsed into a ruin when the verdict was announced.
Not that the Dhaka government has said anything or taken any action which it should have for its own people and for the enslaved all over the world but also for the miscarriage of justice.
You cannot shoot 28 people and be found innocent especially when everyone knows you shot them.
What is it now, a free season to shoot migrant workers.
In a verdict described as "an outrage and a disgrace" and which led to protests outside the court in the southern city of Patras, the owner of the farm and head foreman were cleared of all charges – which included human trafficking. How do you think they came in, first class on Olympic Air?
The incident saw farmers turn their shotguns on migrant workers in Manolada who had asked to be recompensed for six months of unpaid labour. Dozens were injured, four of them severely.
The media then got to work and found that it wasn't strawberry fields forever but hundreds like them had been living and working in squalid conditions without basic sanitation. So much for Europe and the developed world. Even then, however bad the situation, potshots at human beings cannot be flung aside.
Yet despite admitting the shooting, two of the four were acquitted.
Two others were convicted of aggravated assault and illegal use of firearms and given sentences of 14 years and seven months and eight years and seven months – but they too were allowed to walk free from court pending appeals.
Doesn't that just blow your mind? Think of it. This is not Alabama in 1820. This is modern Greece in 2014. You walk up to the bosses and say you have not been paid for six months. So they load up their shotguns and shoot you. Thank you very much.
You see that little wriggly worm lying on the ground. That is Greek justice for you.
But that said, what do these embassies and these governments do for their nationals working abroad? Nothing. Sometimes you truly wonder why we have embassies and consulates at all. These diplomats do so little when they can do so much.
It is as if they are there to just mumble shibboleths and give pompous sermons and live off the fat of the land.
How does the Bangladesh government not come out strongly and take action. Send a delegation to Greece, demand to go to The Hague, wake up Amnesty, do something tangible. These 28 Bangladeshis who were shot represent millions of South Asians and Africans and Far Easterners that leave their shores to make a buck, not get filled with searing buckshot.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Since I was a kid I was playing around with cameras and taking pictures of everything I saw. The older I got, the better my equipment got, the more my focus went to specific kinds of photography. I always had a fascination for extreme weather. It didn't take long to figure out how to make pictures of lightning and that became my new hobby. As years passed by I got better equipment and better results, to that point that I had a nice portfolio to show! Make sure to check out a nice selection of my best shots over the years!
Another passion of mine is traveling. I love to see the world, with a slight preference of the United States. I made so many trips that I literally have tens of thousands of photos stored on my harddrives. I'll make a good selection of them and you can see them right now, here on my website!
I did it back in 2007 but I started doing it again. Urban Exploring. It's a very interesting but stressful hobby. The goal is to find and enter abandoned buildings to make the most artistic photos and videos as possible. Some occasional 'Ghost Hunting' adds to the fun. We take 'the rules' very serious though, "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints"!
As I said before, I love visiting the United States! Especially the Western states intrigues me. Well let's call it more of an addiction. I dig Los Angeles so much that I started reading so much about that city just to get to know it better. I visited many times and will keep doing that for sure! Like many cities, Los Angeles changed a lot over time. I love to illustrate those changes by aligning old and recent aerial photos very precisely, and with a bit of code (thanks to Juxtapose), you can now slide over aerials to see the differences! How cool is that?!


text:
Health, Care
CIPFA chief to chair health transformation board
Richard Johnstone
CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman is to join the NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan board in northeast London as independent chair.
In the role, he will convene the health and care economy in seven London boroughs to achieve the outcomes of NHS England's Five Year Forward View.
Sustainability and transformation plans are intended to bring together health and care leaders, organisations and communities to develop local blueprints to improve health, care and finances in their areas, known as footprints.
Under the operational planning guidance published by the NHS last month, spending totals will be set for the footprints so it will be easier for them to pool resources across organisations and shift money to support better care.
The initial round of appointments to the 44 STP areas in England includes two council chief executives to lead the initiative.
Whiteman said: "It is vital that local care and health services continue to deliver transformation and drive efficiency to meet the needs of patients now and in the future," he said.
Jane Milligan, executive lead for the northeast London STP added: "We are delighted to welcome Rob as chair of the north east London STP programme board. He has many years of experience in senior roles in central and local government and brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in public sector reform and innovation. We are looking forward to working with him to make our plans a reality for patients in north east London."
During his tenure, Rob Whiteman will be stepping down from his role of non-executive director and chair of the audit committee at Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Senior reporter for Public Finance and Public Finance International. He tweets @RichRJohnstone
Left PF in March 2017
to receive daily news from Public Finance to your inbox
NHS latest
Worst A&E performance in June 'since records began'
Preventative measures: making health and social care sustainable
NHS trust waiting lists 'rise because of pension changes'
Short termism is a threat to the NHS
Rob Whiteman
Whiteman: Council investments must be more diverse
Protect local authority governance, CIPFA urges
CIPFA approves new governance model to reflect global membership
Public Finance magazine


text:
from optparse import OptionParser
import sys
import os
import datetime

from shared import tree_functions
from shared import tree_logger
from shared import tree_indexer
from shared import tree_charts

def main():
    # Option parser and constants
    TREE_LEAFSIZE = 'v1.0.0'
    DEFAULT_JSON = 'tree_leafsize_index.json'
    DEFAULT_LOG = 'tree_leafsize.log'
    DEFAULT_REGEX = '.*'
    DEFAULT_DAYS = '0'
    DEFAULT_MAX_WALK = None
    DEFAULT_PIE_CHART = 'tree_leafsize_pie_chart.svg'
    DEFAULT_BAR_CHART = 'tree_leafsize_bar_chart.svg'
    parser = OptionParser(version='%prog ' + TREE_LEAFSIZE)
    parser.add_option(
        '-s', '--source-dir', dest='sourcedir',
        default='.',
        help='Absolute path to dir to purge [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '-r', '--regex', dest='regex', default=DEFAULT_REGEX,
        help='Calculate size for leaf matching regex [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '-i', '--index', dest='index',
        default=DEFAULT_JSON,
        help='Path to JSON file [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '-l', '--log', dest='logfile',
        default=DEFAULT_LOG,
        help='Path to log file [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '-p', '--pie-chart', dest='piechart',
        default=DEFAULT_PIE_CHART,
        help='Path to pie chart SVG file [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '-b', '--bar-chart', dest='barchart',
        default=DEFAULT_BAR_CHART,
        help='Path to bar chart SVG file [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '-d', '--days', dest='days', default=DEFAULT_DAYS,
        help='Skip leaves which are DAYS days old [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '-m', '--max-walk-level', dest='maxwalklevel', default=DEFAULT_MAX_WALK,
        help='Max directory levels to traverse [default: %default]')
    parser.add_option(
        '--index-only', action='store_true', dest='indexonly', default=False,
        help='Only index directory tree and generate index.json.')
    parser.add_option(
        '--skip-indexing', action='store_true', dest='skipindexing', default=False,
        help='Skip indexing phase.')
    parser.add_option(
        '--sort-by-size', action='store_true', dest='sortbysize', default=False,
        help='Sort by size.')
    parser.add_option(
        '--silent', action='store_true', dest='silent', default=False,
        help='Do not output progress (faster).')
    (options, args) = parser.parse_args()

    # Constants
    c = {}
    c['tool'] = 'tree_leafsize'
    c['default_days'] = DEFAULT_DAYS
    c['default_regex'] = DEFAULT_REGEX
    c['src_dir'] = options.sourcedir
    c['regex'] = options.regex
    c['index_file'] = options.index
    c['log_file'] = options.logfile
    c['pie_chart_file'] = options.piechart
    c['bar_chart_file'] = options.barchart
    c['days'] = options.days
    c['max_walk_level'] = options.maxwalklevel
    c['index_only'] = options.indexonly
    c['skip_indexing'] = options.skipindexing
    c['sort_by_size'] = options.sortbysize
    c['silent'] = options.silent
    c['now_timestamp'] = datetime.datetime.now()

    # Run
    if os.path.isdir(c['src_dir']):
        LeafSize(constants=c)
    else:
        print 'The directory specified does not exist or \
                        is not accessible.'
        sys.exit(1)

class LeafSize(object):
    """docstring for Purge"""
    def __init__(self, constants):
        super(LeafSize, self).__init__()

        # Use shorter variable name
        c = constants

        # Logger
        logger = tree_logger.tree_logger(log_filepath=c['log_file'])

        # Shared functions
        functions = tree_functions.TreeFunctions()

        # Indexing
        if not c['skip_indexing']:
            tree_indexer.Index(logger=logger, constants=c)

        # Log
        logger.info('Leaf size started at ' + unicode(c['now_timestamp']))
        logger.info('Source dir: ' +
                    functions.enc(os.path.abspath(c['src_dir'])))
        logger.info('Log file: ' +
                    functions.enc(os.path.abspath(c['log_file'])))

        # Read json index
        index = functions.read_json(filepath=c['index_file'])  # load index

        # Summary
        for key, value in index.iteritems():
            size = functions.nice_number(b=value['b'])
            logger.info('Leaf: ' + functions.enc(key) + ' (' + size + ')')
        summary = functions.summary(index=index, constants=c)

        # Log
        logger.info('Leaves: ' + str(len(index)))
        logger.info('Total size: ' + summary['size_total'])
        logger.info('Average/mean item size: ' + summary['size_average'])
        logger.info('Trimmed mean item size: ' + summary['size_trimmedmean'])

        # Create charts here
        if not c['index_only']:
            tree_charts.Charts(logger=logger,
                               constants=c,
                               index=index)

        logger.info('Leaf size completed: ' + unicode(datetime.datetime.now()))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Rhizophagus grandis Gyllenhal, 1827
CUCUJOIDEA Latreille, 1802
MONOTOMIDAE Laporte, 1840
RHIZOPHAGINAE Redtenbacher, 1845
Rhizophagus Herbst,1793
Following recent introductions this widespread European and Asian native is now established in the UK, its use as a biocontrol agent of the scolytid Dendroctonus micans (Kugelann, 1794) (the great spruce beetle) is well-established and it has been established successfully following similar recent introductions in Belgium, France, Georgia and Turkey. The more or less specific predation of the bark beetle was first noted in Russia where it has been a long-standing pest of spruce and some other conifers; old and established stands of spruce are rarely affected by the scolytid but as new commercial plantations appeared and spread north and west through Europe the beetle followed with often devastating effects on young trees. D. micans is native to Siberia, it spread into Europe during the 19th century and its range is still increasing, it was first discovered in the UK in 1983 and is now established, though local, in southern and central England and Wales. Notwithstanding its local occurrence adults may become very abundant among plantations of young trees if left to breed over several generations. A population of Rhizophagus was obtained from Belgium and trialled in England during 1983 and 1984 and, following very promising results from several countries, a mass breeding and field introduction programme began in the UK and continues to the present time. Mass releases are now concentrated on the edges of known areas of infection and these are surveyed annually, by 1988 it was found that around 70% of the bark beetle broods were attacked and nowadays Rhizophagus grandis is established in the vast majority of woods hosting the pest and is thought to have reached a level of predation sufficient to control the keep the pest at low numbers and severely limit the damage it causes. Natural dispersal of Rhizophagus is of the order of hundreds of metres but they can detect and find prey over many kilometres, they are attracted to chemical signals (oxygenated monoterpenes) emitted from D. micans infestations and will fly over long distances to find them, furthermore adult Rhizophagus can survive for long periods under bark or in the soil and so it is very effective at exploiting its host. Adult Rhizophagus display some degree of parental care for their larvae; when they enter the bark they will consume any
Rhizophagus grandis
© Lech Borowiec http://www.cassidae.uni.wroc.pl/Colpolon/index.ht
bark beetle eggs present but if larvae are also present they will mate and oviposit among them, when the larvae emerge the adults will then bite and wound bark beetle larvae to assist their young larvae in feeding. Young larvae aggregate among the host, boring into and completely consuming them, as they grow they are able to attack and kill the host directly; they rapidly pass through three instars and enter a prepupal stage which will leave the wood, fall to the ground and pupate in an underground chamber. New generation adults will emerge and disperse locally or, if fresh infestations are detected, over longer distances. The commercial value of fast growing conifers means that D. micans is very likely here to stay but good forestry methods e.g. thinning stands by removing the worst affected trees, and the fact that Rhizophagus can persist and breed at very low prey populations, would suggest that the effects will not become too commercially serious.
At 4.5-5.5mm, this is the largest of our Rhizophagus species, and coupled with this large size a defining feature is the second elytral interstice which is strongly widened towards the base and contains rather randomly arranged elongate punctures which continue beyond the middle towards the apex. Among our fauna only R. depressus (Fabricius, 1793) has a similarly (though less strongly) expanded and (though less extensively) punctured second striae, this species is smaller, 2.6-4.0mm, and has a quadrate to elongate pronotum which is isodiametrically microsculptured; in R. grandis the pronotum is slightly transverse with elongate cellular microsculpture. The large size and rather dull, entirely brown colouration should make grandis obvious even in the field.


text:
A decent meal before execution? No more of that!
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:05 pm UTC
Location: Copenhagen university
Postby Ulc » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:23 am UTC
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Last-meal-requests-come-to-an-end-on-Texas-death-2184484.php
Maybe it was the big bowl of fried okra with ketchup. Then again, it could have been the two chicken fried steaks smothered in gravy and onions or the cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, and bell and jalapeno peppers.
Something - maybe everything - about condemned killer Lawrence Russell Brewer's requested last meal left Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire with a nasty case of heartburn.
"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," sniffed Whitmire in a terse Thursday letter to prisons chief Brad Livingston. "I have yielded to TDCJ judgment in the past, but now enough is enough."
If Livingston did not pull the plug on the death-house tradition of customized last meals - thought to date back 87 years - Whitmire pledged to take matters into his own hands in the next legislative session.
Livingston promptly announced that, effective immediately, last meals will consist of whatever is on the menu for all prisoners at Huntsville's Walls Unit, home of the state death house.
Whitmire's letter, which came one day after Brewer was executed for the 1998 Jasper dragging murder of James Byrd Jr., brought immediate retorts from death-penalty opponents.
"I think it's sad that our elected and appointed leaders are wasting their time talking about menus on death row when we have important issues like potential innocence and the validity of the entire death-penalty system that desperately need to be looked at," said Elizabeth Stein, producer of KPFT-FM's Execution Watch.
Prison activist Ray Hill defended the last meals as a practice steeped in Texas history. Doing away with the tradition, he said, is "cruel and extremely unusual."
'Showing a little mercy'
Crockett restaurant owner and former death row "chef" Brian Price suggested the senator's complaints were grossly inflated because inmates rarely get extravagant meals they order.
"They only get items in the commissary kitchen," he said. "If they order lobster, they get a piece of frozen pollack. They quit serving steaks in 1994. If they order 100 tacos, they get two or three. … Whitmire's just getting on a political soapbox."
Price said he has prepared more than 200 last meals for condemned killers. He is author of the prison cookbook Meals to Die For.
Jim Willett, former Walls Unit warden and now director of the Texas Prison Museum, said allowing condemned inmates to order special last meals dates to at least 1924, when the state assumed responsibility for executions from counties.
The final meal has roots in pre-modern Europe, where executioners thought a fancy spread might quell the soon-to-be departed's ghost.
"We were just following that tradition," Willett said. "We were showing a little mercy."
A number of death-penalty states, including Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Virginia, follow the practice, usually setting guidelines for elaborateness of the meals and the costs.
In Louisiana, prisons spokeswoman Pam Laborde said, the warden at Angola traditionally joins the soon-to-be executed inmate in his last meal. On one occasion, the warden paid for an inmate's lobster dinner out of his own pocket.
In Texas, common requests include steaks, cheeseburgers and breakfast foods. Some inmates decline a final meal.
Brewer's requested meal, though, pushed the boundaries.
Didn't get sloppy Joes
In addition to the steaks, the omelet and fried okra, Brewer asked for a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, three fajitas, one pound of barbecue and a half loaf of white bread, pizza meat lover's special, one pint of "homemade vanilla" Blue Bell ice cream, one slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts and three root beers.
Whitmire's letter noted that the killer's victim was not accorded such lavishness.
He called Brewer's meal "ridiculous."
"Death-row inmates before execution should be fed the same meal as any other inmate on the unit the day of the scheduled execution," the Houston Democrat fumed. "… I hope that someone at TDCJ decides to use some good judgment."
On Brewer's execution day, Walls prisoners were fed sloppy Joes, navy beans, creamed corn and sliced bread.
Brewer ordered the over-the-top meal, prisons spokesman Jason Clark reported, but didn't eat a bite.
The food later was discarded.
Come on people. Seriously, if you're executing people, show a little decency and at least treat them like a person before you do so.
But I guess that wouldn't fit with the "MOAR PUNISH!!" crowd.
Edit: Distinct difference between "would" and "wouldn't"
Last edited by Ulc on Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:03 am UTC, edited 1 time in total.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it - Aristotle
A White Russian, shades and a bathrobe, what more can you want from life?
Re: A decent meal before execution? No more of that!
Postby sourmìlk » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:29 am UTC
I always predicted that, if I were a witness or a juror in a trial, I would so thoroughly annoy the judge that his sentence for being in contempt of court would be execution. This means that I've always looked forward to the last meal: lobster tail and a large, medium Filet Mignon, with a dessert of chocolate cheesecake. Now I'll actually have to work on my people skills.
But in all seriousness, what's the point of this? Do people really commit crimes thinking, on any level, consciously or subconsciously, "Well, I might be killed for this, but if I get a big free meal I suppose its worth it." Or is the $100 a year or so just too much for the budget? The externalities of pushing this bill and changing the law probably exceed any financial gain from not buying the food.
AvatarIII
Location: W.Sussex, UK
Postby AvatarIII » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:37 am UTC
To be honest, I am against execution, but it seems extremely mean to decline last meal requests, if the meals are getting overly extravagant, and then not even eaten, who cares! like sourmilk says it'll probably cost more to push this piece of legislation than the cost of these last meals, and I'm sure one expensive last meal is cheaper than the thousands of cheap meals they would get for the rest of their sentence had they got life instead of death penalty.
http://twitter.com/AvatarIII
Location: Western N.Y.
Postby Decker » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:37 pm UTC
AvatarIII wrote: and I'm sure one expensive last meal is cheaper than the thousands of cheap meals they would get for the rest of their sentence had they got life instead of death penalty.
I'm all for last meals, but I've heard that a life sentence is usually a lot cheaper than death row anyway.
I was angry with my friend. I told my wrath. My wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe. I told it not. My wrath did grow.
Postby AvatarIII » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:38 pm UTC
Decker wrote:
really? if that's true why execute anybody?
I find it hard to believe that a prisonful of prisoner's last meals would cost more than the cost to build, run and maintain an entire prison, with guards, for the length of a life sentence.
Last edited by AvatarIII on Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:45 pm UTC, edited 1 time in total.
Postby Hawknc » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:40 pm UTC
Because disincentive recidivism mumble mumble bloodlust something mumble
Postby yurell » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:41 pm UTC
You know, when I read the title I thought someone was being witty, and that executions had been banned somewhere. If you are going to permanently end someone's existence, you could at least grant them a last meal within reason.
Postby Belial » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:51 pm UTC
AvatarIII wrote: really? if that's true why execute anybody?
Not adequately venged.
kiklion
Postby kiklion » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:53 pm UTC
Eh, not like they are going to remember it for long. And the nutritional value won't do them much good. There are starving people in Africa and we are feeding our violent, murdering, assaulting, thieves! I think you fail to understand the amount of money this will save. We kill far more people than you may think. It reminds me of a bill that my county recently passed, they spent months arguing over the bill designed to keep people from attending the neighboring county's public college. They finally had agreed on a plan that would reduce the tuition of our county's school by about $34. Potentially thousands of people would have left our schools, to travel an extra hour every day they had classes in order to save those $34. By saving them those $34 we retained millions worth of tuition!
It's all about the law of large numbers...
</sarcasm>
In the words of Heath Ledger in Dark Knight, "It's not about money, it's about sending a message."
And most of the costs for someone on death row stem from:
1: The long appeals process. Going to court costs a good chunk of change.
2: The fact that many of them are on death row for 10-20 years anyway.
AvatarIII wrote:
Lawyers are expensive, death sentences have mandatory (or obligatory? the courts can't deny them it but they can choose to waive them) and you don't build and hire guards for a prisoner, you do it for hundreds. Then you get the state/federal government to compensate you to avoid NIMBY, while having the prisoners do some work that you can sell.
ShootTheChicken
Best. Cheerleader. Ever.
Location: America's Hat
Postby ShootTheChicken » Fri Sep 23, 2011 1:01 pm UTC
The Article wrote: I think it's sad that our elected and appointed leaders are wasting their time talking about menus on death row when we have important issues like potential innocence and the validity of the entire death-penalty system that desperately need to be looked at
QFT
SecondTalon wrote: the Hot Freshness of Wicked Classic.
Postby Dauric » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:00 pm UTC
This is just going from one extreme to another, any last meal no matter how ridiculous to none at all. Somewhere there's a rational medium where the to-be-executed starts ordering more than their own body-mass in food and the guard that's taking his order has to say "Sorry, can't do that ,you're to die from lethal injection, not exploding from one last wafer thin mint.
Postby sourmìlk » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:02 pm UTC
Dauric wrote: This is just going from one extreme to another, any last meal no matter how ridiculous to none at all.
How about "no more than X calories" where X is some number probably greater than 2500. Otherwise I'd just troll the jail by saying "I want one semi-truck full of zebra meat."
Postby Decker » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:05 pm UTC
Some states do have limits, I think. Stuff like no more than $40 worth of food, which is admittedly quite a lot for one meal.
Decker wrote: Some states do have limits, I think. Stuff like no more than $40 worth of food, which is admittedly quite a lot for one meal.
Not for a last meal. I could exceed that with a big, good steak. And for a last meal, I'd want a big, good steak, lobster tail, and a cheesecake.
Vaniver
Postby Vaniver » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:06 pm UTC
So, the Meals to Die For book is kind of sordid. (It's a list of ~200 criminals who were executed while this guy was cook, what they were convicted for, their last meal request, what they actually got, and their last words.)
That said, I don't see a problem with halting ghost appeasement traditions. (I do see a problem with continuing to execute people while it's more expensive than not executing them.)
I mostly post over at LessWrong now.
Avatar from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, owned by Hasbro.
Postby Belial » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:10 pm UTC
Dauric wrote: This is just going from one extreme to another, any last meal no matter how ridiculous to none at all. Somewhere there's a rational medium where the to-be-executed starts ordering more than their own body-mass in food and the guard that's taking his order has to say "Sorry, can't do that ,you're to die from lethal injection, not exploding from one last wafer thin mint.
The Article wrote: Crockett restaurant owner and former death row "chef" Brian Price suggested the senator's complaints were grossly inflated because inmates rarely get extravagant meals they order.
"They only get items in the commissary kitchen," he said. "If they order lobster, they get a piece of frozen pollack. They quit serving steaks in 1994. If they order 100 tacos, they get two or three. …
Postby engr » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:25 pm UTC
Can't remember the source, but I think the cost of last meal, at least in some states, is limited to $25 or so, which is why it is usually not an issue (especially considering how few offenders are actually being executed in the US).
I don't have a problem either way.
Edited: Never mind, Decker already mentioned that.
Last edited by engr on Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:27 pm UTC, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Jahoclave » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:25 pm UTC
Well, considering this is a state that also considered charging inmates for their incarceration, I can't say I'm surprised by other surprised.
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Postby Chen » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:26 pm UTC
Decker wrote: In the words of Heath Ledger in Dark Knight, "It's not about money, it's about sending a message."
I'd imagine that keeping people for life in prison would be more expensive than execution if the same appeals process was applied to anyone who got sentenced to life. While I imagine there is some marginal cost to the actual execution bit, its the red tape around it that jacks up the price.
You know, it's odd that they can't see the obvious cost saving measure of not locking people up for non-violent offenses. Clearly we shouldn't put so many people in... Oh wait... They have to have the prisoners first to take state handouts to their private prisons.
Chen wrote: I'd imagine that keeping people for life in prison would be more expensive than execution if the same appeals process was applied to anyone who got sentenced to life. While I imagine there is some marginal cost to the actual execution bit, its the red tape around it that jacks up the price.
This is correct.
Also interesting is that deterrence effects from the death penalty (relative to life in prison) may only exist if the death penalty is routinely given within a few years of conviction- typically, even if someone wants to be executed anti-execution groups will submit appeals on their behalf, and average time from conviction to execution is around 10 years.
So, the question of how to optimally structure the justice system is a complicated one that needs to take into account deterrence effects, cost, and false positives- our current one trades deterrence and cost to lower false positives, but doesn't seem to be doing so in an optimal way, and without any calculation of the tradeoffs involved.
Postby Izawwlgood » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:40 pm UTC
Have any of you actually read the article? This is in response to a white-supremacist (Oooohisissssssss!) ordering the equivalent of an entire Thanksgiving dinner as his last meal, and not eating any of it. My guess is this law is to prevent such absurd requests in the future, not to deny death row inmates from getting to enjoy a final meal.
Read this one.
The move came after universally-reviled white supremacist gang member Lawrence Brewer ordered up a particularly lavish feast before his execution Wednesday night. Brewer, 44, had been convicted for his role in a 1998 hate killing in which a 49-year-old black man, James Byrd, Jr., was chained by his ankles to a pickup truck and dragged for miles along an asphalt road. The killers dumped his decapitated body in front of an African-American cemetery in Jasper, Texas.
According to the Houston Chronicle: "Brewer ordered—but did not eat—a final meal of two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet, a large bowl of fried okra, three fajitas, a pint of Blue Bell ice cream, and a pound of barbecue with a half loaf of white bread."
That was too much for state Sen. John Whitmire, the Houston Democrat who chairs the criminal justice committee. He wrote a letter to the state's criminal justice chief, Brad Livingston, decrying the "extremely inappropriate" privilege, "one which the perpetrator did not provide to their victim," the Houston Press reported. "I am asking you to end this practice immediately or I am prepared to do so by statute next session," Whitmire added.
Livingston didn't hesitate. Within hours, he fired off a statement via email: "Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made. They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit."
The extra care is due to the fact that one is nonrefundable: if we sentence someone to life in prison, and then discover they're innocent, we can give them at least part of their life back (inadequate though that may be).
If we kill them, somewhat less so.
Postby podbaydoor » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:43 pm UTC
Didn't the article also say that the prison doesn't go to extravagant lengths to fulfill the requests so the prisoner got an approximation out of the prison kitchen anyway?
Izawwlgood wrote: Have any of you actually read the article? This is in response to a white-supremacist (Oooohisissssssss!) ordering the equivalent of an entire Thanksgiving dinner as his last meal, and not eating any of it. My guess is this law is to prevent such absurd requests in the future, not to deny death row inmates from getting to enjoy a final meal.
I did read it. It sounds like the guy pulled some stunt and it pissed off some Senator and now he wants to take away last meals for ALL prisoners.
Also, he didn't eat it. So what? The state lost, like, $40 in food so the guy could troll the government one last time. Let him. He's going to be dead soon anyway. He got his last meal, if he didn't want to eat it, oh well, moving on.
Decker wrote: Also, he didn't eat it. So what? The state lost, like, $40 in food so the guy could troll the government one last time. Let him. He's going to be dead soon anyway. He got his last meal, if he didn't want to eat it, oh well, moving on.
For starters, I'm not sure that this means no death row inmates will get ANY requests, I think it means their requests for outlandish things won't be met. Which is highly subjective, and I could be wrong anyway.
But for seconds, I think the idea is that these people are supposed to be receiving justice, and last meals and last words are traditional accommodations we make for those we are about to put to death/murder in the name of justice. It's akin to a cigarette and a blindfold for someone at a firing squad, and isn't meant to be a lavish outlandish royal carpet equivalent. I know most people here are against capital punishment, and are going to be arguing out of that stance, but as I see it, this is more an issue of drawing an admittedly arbitrary line and saying 'We will provide you with a last meal, we will not ship in rare delicacies from around the world'.
Since when is fried okra, chicken fried steak, ice cream, fajitas, or an omelet a rare delicacy?
Belial wrote: The extra care is due to the fact that one is nonrefundable: if we sentence someone to life in prison, and then discover they're innocent, we can give them at least part of their life back (inadequate though that may be).
Indeed. Frankly the death penalty only seems appropriate in situations where you are certain someone cannot be rehabilitated. Even in those cases, it seems more efficient to simply force that person to work at giving SOMETHING back to society rather than forcing society to support them in perpetuity. I'm sure even if we could find work for all the prisoners people would just complain they were "stealing jobs" from the rest of the people who couldn't find work.
Izawwlgood wrote: For starters, I'm not sure that this means no death row inmates will get ANY requests, I think it means their requests for outlandish things won't be met. Which is highly subjective, and I could be wrong anyway.
In the same article, and in this thread, it's already been said that 'outlandish' requests don't get met, for example they can't get lobster, that rare delicacy shipped from around the world the coast. So I don't know how else to read it other than they're cutting off all last meal requests.
Decker wrote: Since when is fried okra, chicken fried steak, ice cream, fajitas, or an omelet a rare delicacy?
It's not, I think the issue is taken with the notion that some prisoners are ordering absurd amounts of food as a final 'fuck you' to the system. I rather admire Troy Davis for fasting through his last meal.
Postby yurell » Fri Sep 23, 2011 3:00 pm UTC
I think as far as last meals go, "here's $50, go nuts" is a perfectly reasonable approach to the matter. After all, you're saving on catering and accommodation for the next n years.
That said, I don't believe that there should be a need for final meals, but I'm not sure that this thread is supposed to turn into a giant debate about the death penalty.
Izawwlgood wrote: Have any of you actually read the article?
Did you?
Note the underlined. That means their last meal is the same meal they would have gotten if they weren't to be executed. That is a complete removal of the "Last Meal" privilege, not a targeted legislation restricting absurd abuses.
Someone at the jail breaches a reasonable request limitation once, and the esteemed state senator gets his panties in a twist and removes Last Meal privileges in their entirety as though this was a chronic/systemic issue with death penalty cases, rather than deal with the one-off stupidity directly. If there had been a pattern of abuses (which does not seem to be the case given statements from the retired prison cook) then sure pull it in all cases until the system can be reformed, but making a system-wide change because of a single incident is stupidity.
Hah, so lawmakers are annoyed that prisoners are pissed that the lawmakers are going to kill them?
How dreadfully unreasonable.
It's not, I think the issue is taken with the notion that some prisoners are ordering absurd amounts of food as a final 'fuck you' to the system.
And I say let them have it. It's a pretty weak "Fuck You" anyway.
"Oh damn, you sure showed us. We feel pretty stupid for wasting $40 and a few hours.
Welp! Off to the death chamber!"
Decker wrote: And I say let them have it.
I'm inclined to agree with you. Given that the article said most inmates don't get the truly exorbitant requests, I think it's sort of silly to deny them these last spiteful middle fingers held high.
Tirian
Postby Tirian » Fri Sep 23, 2011 4:51 pm UTC
I read it. Who cares? If we're going to start smugly playing the "that's more compassion than his victims got" card in earnest, then we are no better than the sociopathic premeditated murderers -- except in might. Through the entire ritual of execution, I think it's important FOR US to have at least one phase where we risk an excess of goodwill, if only to remind the condemned of the pleasure of being able to choose their meals every day.
I'll grant you that it's a stretch to interpret a last meal to come on a fully loaded buffet table. But for the love of Christ, if you can't afford a steak for a man who will never eat again because of your will, then look around for someone with sufficient charity to pay for it on your behalf.
Tirian wrote: I'll grant you that it's a stretch to interpret a last meal to come on a fully loaded buffet table. But for the love of Christ, if you can't afford a steak for a man who will never eat again because of your will, then look around for someone with sufficient charity to pay for it on your behalf.
I don't think the issue is whether or not to provide them a nice juicy steak for their final meal. I think it's whether or not to provide them a juicy steak, a 10 pound burrito, a quintiple decker cheeseburger, a pound of fresh strawberries, a gallon of chocolate milkshake, a tub of icecream and every variety of beer a local microbrew offers.
Tirian wrote: then we are no better than the sociopathic premeditated murderers -- except in might.
This is the 'pro or anti-capital punishment' argument, and I would not say it is the same. There's a difference between treating a prisoner to the fullest of their human rights, and the above mentioned meal. I am not violating any one's basic human rights to deny them that buffet.
Texas Senator John Whitmire is the one denying them -any- special meal, mayhap Tirian's comment is directed at the esteemed senator rather than you, Izawlgood. I think you've been pretty clear through the whole thread that you're against the extravagant wastefulness of this particular incident and not against "Last Meal" tradition in general.


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Tag Archives: Gore
Monthly Roundup – August 2018
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, Action, Adventure, Alicia Vikander, Alyson Walker, Animation, Antoine Fuqua, Benicio Del Toro, Brad Bird, Clay Kaytis, Clown, Comedy, Coralie Fargeat, Craig T. Nelson, Damien Leone, Dark Web, Denzel Washington, Dominic West, Doug Murphy, Drama, Drugs, Dylan O'Brien, Erdal Ceylan, Fergal Reilly, Frank Welker, Game adaptation, Gore, Grey Griffin, Holly Hunter, Horror, Incredibles 2, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Kanell, Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, John Boyega, Josh Brolin, Josh Gad, Kaiju, Kaya Scodelario, Kevin Janssens, Mandie Fletcher, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Mexican cartels, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Paranormal, Pedro Pascal, Revenge (2017), Roar Uthaug, Samantha Scaffidi, Sci-fi, Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost, Scott Eastwood, Selfie from Hell, Sequel, Sicario 2: Soldado, Stefano Sollima, Steven S. DeKnight, Terrifier, Terrorists, The Angry Birds Movie, The Death Cure, The Equalizer 2, The Flare, The Mystery Gang, Thriller, Tomb Raider, Tony Giroux, Violence, WCKD, Wes Ball
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016) / D: Mandie Fletcher / 91m
Cast: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks, June Whitfield, Kathy Burke, Celia Imrie, Robert Webb, Lulu, Emma Bunton, Rebel Wilson, Barry Humphries, Wanda Ventham, Kate Moss
Rating: 3/10 – fashionistas Edina (Saunders) and Patsy (Lumley) flee to the south of France after thinking they've killed supermodel Kate Moss; making this yet another British TV comedy success story that goes badly, horribly wrong when transferred to the big screen, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is another reminder that humour needs context in which to work, and rehashing the same old jokes over and over is less about giving fans what they want and more about lazy screenwriting.
Revenge (2017) / D: Coralie Fargeat / 108m
Cast: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchéde
Rating: 7/10 – a married CEO (Janssens) takes his mistress (Lutz) along with him on a hunting weekend with two friends (Colombe, Bouchéde), but things go badly wrong, and all three men find themselves being hunted instead; a visceral and very, very bloody thriller, Revenge is relentlessly nihilistic, and with characters so broadly drawn they might as well be archetypes, but Fargeat makes good use of the desert landscapes, and Lutz is a resourceful and unapologetically violent heroine.
Incredibles 2 (2018) / D: Brad Bird / 118m
Cast: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Bird, Isabella Rossellini, Jonathan Banks, John Ratzenberger
Rating: 9/10 – when a successful businessman (Odenkirk) approaches the Parr family with a plan to have Supers allowed to use their super powers again, it proves to be good timing as a new super villain, the Screenslaver, makes himself known; following directly on from the original, Incredibles 2 retains the Sixties vibe, visual ingenuity, and genuine laughs from before, and continues to focus on the Parr family first and foremost, making this a hugely entertaining sequel – even if the villain (as in a lot of superhero movies) is the movie's weakest link.
Sicario 2: Soldado (2018) / D: Stefano Sollima / 122m
Original title: Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Catherine Keener, Manuel Garcia-Ruffo, Matthew Modine, Shea Whigham, Elijah Rodriguez
Rating: 7/10 – Federal agent Matt Graver (Brolin) is tasked with taking the fight to the Mexican drug cartels when evidence points to their helping terrorists get into the US; an odd sequel that goes off in an unexpected direction partway through (and which sets up what's likely to be a banal third chapter), Sicario 2: Soldado is still head and shoulders above most action thrillers thanks to returning scribe Taylor Sheridan's taut screenplay, Del Toro's singular performance as the Sicario of the title, and a handful of well choreographed action scenes.
Terrifier (2017) / D: Damien Leone / 84m
Cast: Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, David Howard Thornton, Catherine Corcoran, Pooya Mohseni, Matt McAllister, Katie Maguire
Rating: 4/10 – one night, two young women (Kanell, Scaffidi) find themselves being pursued by a killer clown (Thornton) intent on murdering them and anyone they come into contact with – and as gruesomely as possible; old school practical gore effects are the order of the day here, with Terrifier using every trick in the book to make viewers wince or look away, while building a fair amount of tension, but it's let down by the usual non-investment in credible characters, lacklustre direction, and making its villain indestructible.
Tomb Raider (2018) / D: Roar Uthaug / 118m
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Kristen Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Hannah John-Kamen
Rating: 6/10 – Lara Croft (Vikander) sets off in search of her missing father (West) when she discovers a clue to where he went missing, while looking for an ancient artefact that could have devastating consequences for the modern world; another unnecessary reboot, Tomb Raider tries hard – sometimes too hard – to make its by-the-numbers storyline exciting, but too many perfunctory action sequences, allied to so-so performances and Uthaug's corporate directing style makes this an unlikely contender as the opener for a whole new franchise.
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) / D: Steven S. DeKnight / 111m
Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Callee Spaeny, Burn Gorman, Charlie Day, Tian Jing, Jin Zhang, Adria Arjona, Rinko Kikuchi
Rating: 5/10 – a new threat to Earth's defences brings the Jaeger force back into operation, but they soon find themselves fighting against a foe whose plans don't just involve the Jaeger force's destruction, but the return of the Kaiju as well; there's an element of dumb fun about Pacific Rim: Uprising that keeps things ticking over, but though DeKnight is able to provide a decent amount of energy to proceedings, the looming threat to Earth lacks the first movie's effectiveness, and the Kaiju arrive too late to improve things.
The Death Cure (2018) / D: Wes Ball / 141m
aka Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Dexter Darden, Will Poulter, Jacob Lofland, Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito, Patricia Clarkson, Aidan Gillen, Barry Pepper, Walton Goggins
Rating: 8/10 – with their friends imprisoned in the Last City, a WCKD stronghold, Thomas (O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers must find a way of freeing them, and of finding a cure for the Flare, before it's too late; the final part of the Maze Runner trilogy, The Death Cure ensures the series goes out with a bang, with high octane action sequences, a strong emotional undercurrent to proceedings, and though it's a little bit too long, it does provide each of the main characters with a suitable and satisfactory conclusion to their story arcs, and doesn't leave things hanging on the possibility of there being any further chapters.
The Angry Birds Movie (2016) / D: Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly / 97m
Original title: Angry Birds
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Sean Penn, Keegan Michael-Key, Kate McKinnon, Tony Hale, Hannibal Buress, Ike Barinholtz, Tituss Burgess
Rating: 6/10 – trouble comes to an island of (mostly) happy birds in the form of green pigs who aren't quite as friendly as they seem, leaving the unlikely trio of Red (Sudeikis), Chuck (Gad), and Bomb (McBride) to save the day; a brightly animated game adaptation that will appeal to children far more than adults, The Angry Birds Movie is acceptable fun within the confines of its basic storyline, but the humour is inconsistent, the plot developments seem designed to pad things out instead of feeling organic, and the whole thing becomes less interesting as it goes on.
The Equalizer 2 (2018) / D: Antoine Fuqua / 121m
Cast: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Orson Bean, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo
Rating: 6/10 – ex-spy Robert McCall (Washington) goes after the people responsible for the murder of his ex-boss (Leo), and finds himself up against a cadre of mercenaries with a similar skill-set; Washington's first sequel, The Equalizer 2 is unremarkable at best and unnecessary at worst, with a banal storyline and cookie cutter character motivations that are offset by Fuqua's authoritative direction, Washington's commanding performance, and several very effective fight sequences.
Selfie from Hell (2018) / D: Erdal Ceylan / 76m
Cast: Alyson Walker, Tony Giroux, Meelah Adams, Ian Butcher
Rating: 3/10 – strange paranormal events that have a connection to the Dark Web begin to affect a young woman (Walker) when her cousin (Adams) comes to visit; even for its modest running time, Selfie from Hell soon outwears its welcome, thanks to its confused plotting, wayward acting, leaden direction, and meaningless frights, all of which add up to yet another horror movie where things happen because they can instead of because they make sense within the terms of the story.
Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost (2018) / D: Doug Murphy / 77m
Cast: Frank Welker, Grey Griffin, Matthew Lillard, Kate Micucci, Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, Marcus Samuelsson, David Kaye, Dana Snyder, Jason Spisak
Rating: 7/10 – the Mystery Gang travel to Bar Harbour to help Fred's Uncle Bobby deal with a ghost that's jeopardising the opening of a culinary resort; the format and the jokes are all present and correct, making Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost another satisfying entry in the series, but it's also one that highlights just how predictable these movies are becoming.
Opstandelsen (2010)
Casper Haugegaard, Church, Denmark, Funeral, Gore, Horror, Jonas Bjørn-Andersen, Mads Althoff, Marie Frohmé Vanglund, Review, Splatter, Zombies
aka Resurrection
D: Casper Haugegaard / 50m
Cast: Marie Frohmé Vanglund, Mads Althoff, Jonas Bjørn-Andersen, Asta Stidsen, Roxanne Tirkov, Peter Althoff, Hans Maaløe
At the funeral of Simon (Peter Althoff), one member of his family is noticeably absent from the service: his brother Peter (Mads Althoff). Peter's other brother, Johannes (Bjørn-Andersen), and his sister, Esther (Vanglund), go to look for him. They find him in the toilets, snorting cocaine. He and Johannes argue, but Peter is dismissive when Johannes tells him the family is through supporting him with his drug problem. Johannes and Esther return to the service; Peter continues to take cocaine.
With the drug affecting him substantially, Peter makes his way to the service. When he does he finds scenes of carnage, with everyone under attack from the newly risen dead. Scrabbling away he seeks refuge in another room and is joined by Johannes, Esther, and their younger sister, Maria (Stidsen). Johannes finds a trap door and they all follow him down into the room below; in the process, Peter blacks out.
When he comes to, he finds they are trapped in a small room beneath the church, and with no safe way out. Maria has been injured and with no way for her to stem the bleeding, Esther cradles her as she dies. While the two brothers argue about what to do, Maria comes back to life and attacks Esther. Peter and Johannes restrain her but have little option in the end but to kill her. The shock of it all has a terrible effect on Esther and she retreats into her own mind.
Peter takes control of the situation and they leave the room, finding themselves in a maze of underground corridors and rooms. Coming under attack from the undead at almost every turn, they fight their way to ground level but become separated, leading each of them into confrontations that will decide their eventual fate.
A very, very low budget exercise in zombie terror, Opstandelsen is a compact feature that works better as a calling card to the industry than as a fully realised project. The decision to shoot this as a short film was a wise one, and shows just how padded out by endless running around in tunnels/corridors/woods other horror movies have become. It also helps the movie hit an above average number of dramatic high points, with the beleaguered trio facing (and fending off) attack after attack in their efforts to escape from the church.
The low budget necessitates some inventive responses to the challenge of presenting a church-bound zombie apocalypse, and while some work very well indeed – Maaløe's fire and brimstone preaching from the pulpit (and practically blaming everyone there for what's about to happen), an attack on Johannes through a door, Esther's confrontation with her mother (Tirkov) – there are others that don't, most notably the use of camera lights as the only form of illumination during a chase sequence below ground. The editing is determinedly choppy during several of the attacks and it's difficult to work out just what is going on (it gives the impression that some of the zombie make up and effects weren't that great during those scenes). It's a shame, as these scenes would otherwise be quite effective at adding further energy to a movie that wastes little time in putting its main characters at risk and showing in gory detail what can happen to them.
There are things to be said for briefly introducing characters before letting the action take hold, but here it does lead to some problems, the main one being the way that Peter shakes off the effects of some very excessive coke-snorting to become as focused as he does (either he's very used to it or the cocaine wasn't as pure as it looks). And the way in which Johannes earnestly prays to God for protection – giving the impression he may fold under the pressure – isn't followed up or allowed to get in the way of his subsequent heroics. Otherwise, the narrative follows a fairly standard formula, whittling down its cast until there's only one survivor, and leaving things open-ended as to where the story might go next.
With a strong, heavily stylised visual aesthetic in play, Opstandelsen is often potent stuff, with its gruesome splatter effects used sparingly and with unflinching attention to detail, leaving the unprepared viewer to deal with some purposely raw and violent imagery; fans, however, will lap it up. Haugegaard drives the action forward, making the movie a kinetic treat, allowing only the briefest of pauses once the trio leave the room below the trap door. Some of the more violent, dramatic scenes are abetted by having Lasse Elkjær's pounding score jacked-up in volume, and the soundtrack is beefed up as well, making all the lip-smacking zombie sounds that much more appalling to hear. As an attempt to further highlight the awfulness of what's happening, it's unnecessary, but it does fit in with the movie's unsubtle, in-your-face approach to the material.
Rating: 6/10 – very rough around the edges, and with performances that are perfunctory if not memorable, Opstandelsen is a short that bodes well for Haugegaard's future projects; seriously grim and grisly throughout, fans of zombie movies will find much to enjoy even if the storyline offers very little that's new.
Mini-Review: Jersey Shore Massacre (2014)
12 Sunday Oct 2014
Angelica Boccella, Danielle Dallacco, Fat Camp Massacre, Gore, Horror, Jersey Devil, Jersey Shore, Murders, New Jersey, Paul Tarnopol, Pine Barrens, Review, Spoof
D: Paul Tarnopol / 88m
Cast: Danielle Dallacco, Angelica Boccella, Giovanni Roselli, Chris Lazzaro, Nicole Rutigliano, Ashley Mitchell, Christina Scaglione, Brenton Duplessie, Brett Azar, John Michael Hastie, Leonarda Bosch, Ron Jeremy
A group of friends – Teresa (Dallacco), Dina (Boccella), Joanne (Rutigliano), Valerie (Mitchell), and Gigi (Scaglione) – decide to head for the beach for the weekend but a double booking on the place where they're meant to stay means they end up staying at Teresa's Uncle Vito's place on the edge of the Pine Barrens. They head for the beach anyway, and meet a group of guys – Tony (Roselli), Freddy (Lazzaro), Vinnie (Duplessie), Gino (Azar), and Joey (Hastie) – with similar ambitions for the weekend: to party hard and get laid. They all head back to Uncle Vito's where they start to get to know each other better, but there's a killer on the loose, and he's hell bent on murdering them all.
Intended as a spoof horror – the spoof element being the characters who bear a strong resemblance to the characters in the TV show, Jersey Shore – Jersey Shore Massacre is an unsophisticated, deliberately awful parody of that particular show, as well as a fond tribute to various horror movies of the last twenty years (it's nice to see both Friday the 13th and The Shining being alluded to… as well as many other horror classics). It makes fun of the show's conventions, and boasts some unexpectedly funny one-liners as well as a further in-movie spoof entitled Fat Camp Massacre.
But poking fun at a bunch of narcissists will only get you so far, and so it goes here, with a cast who look and sound the part – with the exception of Dallacco who looks like she's wandered in from another show entirely (one with an IQ requirement that's in double figures) – but who are as annoying as their small screen counterparts. Having them killed off in ever more inventive ways goes some way to making the movie more palatable but it's still riddled with casual sexism and even more casual attempts at acting.
Co-writer/director Tarnopol struggles with the set up and appears undecided as to whether his version of the Jersey Devil should be into torture porn or straight forward slaying, and there's a shower murder that would have had Hitchcock shaking his head in dismay. All in all it's as amateurish as you'd expect, and further proof that just because someone can make a movie, it doesn't mean they should.
Rating: 3/10 – as bad as it sounds, and good intentions aside, the kind of spoof that works only if the original source isn't already an example of self-parody; when the cast whine louder than the sander used on one victim, then it's clear – if the title Jersey Shore Massacre hadn't convinced anyone already – that this is low budget stuff and less than impressive.


Two weekends ago, before the U.S. Independence day holiday, I had the opportunity to visit the city of Lakeland, Florida. Lakeland is home to many lakes. Obviously. I visited two of them – Lake Mirror and Lake Morton – with Camille to get a look at some introduced waterfowl, along with local birds.
Lake Mirror is known to have at least 2 species of "exotic" ducks, which I'll get into a bit later in the post. These are either escapees from somewhere or were deliberately introduced to the lake.
The vast majority of the duck population on Lake Mirror are various mixes of Mallards and Mottled Ducks. These tend to fall into two broad categories: Mallard/Mottled Duck hybrids and Mallard/domestic crosses.
Lake Mirror shortly after dawn.
The first group tend to superficially look very similar to one another and have a typical Mottled Duck/Mallard body and coloration.
Three "muddled" ducks. They look pretty similar, but note the 3 different looking speculums (the color band of feathers in the wing).
Various individuals in this group had bill and speculum colors of Mallards and Mottled Ducks, as well as slight differences in body feathers, making it impossible to assign any definitive species to them. (I know speculum colors are iridescent, so they don't always appear the same, but to the unaided eye, these three definitely looked different at almost every angle). A large part of the reason is due to the intentional release of domestic-type Mallards in Florida. You can read more about this issue in this article on the 10,000 Birds site: Mallards are a Threat to Mottled Ducks in Florida. More and more ducks are hybrids of one type or another. It takes a very keen eye (and sometimes a genetic test) to really know the identity of an individual.
The second large population of ducks are of the Mallard/domestic cross variety. These ducks have a lot of white in their plumage, and many have dusky or cinnamon feathers. They also tend to be a bit larger than the other Mallard types.
A resting pair of ducks, showing quite a bit of chocolate brown and cinnamon.
I noticed most of the ducks with this type of plumage tended to walk with this upright posture.
Another domestic cross pair, with more white about their heads.
Lake Mirror (as well as Lake Morton) also have a number of Wood Ducks. The first ones we noticed were immature males. They were just getting their facial markings, but had not developed crests and their coloring was still subdued.
An immature Wood Duck among the lily pads.
Another immature Wood Duck drake.
A distinguished Wood Duck drake.
Female Wood Duck on her nest box.
But the main reason for coming to Lakeland at all was for the chance to see more out-of-the-ordinary birds. Lake Mirror is home to two species of introduced exotic duck species. One, the Common Shelduck, is native to Eurasia. Sightings of vagrant birds are rare in North America. I'm not sure of the origin of the 3 birds at Lake Mirror, but I would lean towards thinking they were deliberately introduced.
The other rare species of duck at Lake Mirror is the Mandarin Duck. As it's name might suggest, this duck's native range includes parts of northern and eastern China, but the largest concentration of breeding birds is found in Japan. Mandarin Ducks are closely related to Wood Ducks, as you might tell from their appearance. The single male (or drake) we saw was in "eclipse plumage", and thus more drab in appearance than he would be when breeding. The females look very much like Wood Duck females. Like the shelducks, it's a safe bet these birds were introduced as "ornamental" ducks.
Male Mandarin Duck (eclipse plumage)!
The male Mandarin Duck (on the left) and one of two females.
Both of these exotic species have only been reported, via eBird, in Lakeland since 2013. They do not appear to be successfully breeding yet, but perhaps time will tell if they can become established.
Posted on 2016 July 11 by Lonely BirderPosted in BirdingTagged Birding, birds, birdwatching, Lake Mirror, Lake Morton, Lakeland.