HUGHLETT is the most popular 40251.st name in USA (... 40249.hodari , 40250.dahari , 40251.hughlett , 40252.garison , 40253.riser ...). One in every 702,203 Americans is named HUGHLETT and popularity of name HUGHLETT is 1.42 people per million.
If we compare the popularity statistics of HUGHLETT to USA's population statistics, we can estimate that as of April.24.2019 20:41 there are 474 people named as HUGHLETT in the United States and the number is increasing by 4 people every year.
First Names which are compatible or rhyming with HUGHLETT. They will be the best brother/sister names for HUGHLETT.


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The Eggcellent Adventure has returned to ARK along with giant Bunnies! Today kicks off a two-week in-game event in ARK: Survival Evolved where special Easter Eggs will be scattered across all official ARK maps. This fourth annual event features all the festive items from prior years along with two new skins, the Marshmallow Dodo Hat and the Chocolate Bunny Club!
During the Eggcellent Adventure, survivors will search to collect special Bunny Eggs from wild Bunny Dodos! Place down these Bunny Eggs to paint on them or use them in a special Cooking Pot to craft holiday-themed cosmetics (Bunny Ears Skin, Procoptodon Bunny Costume, Egg Shell Hat, Chick Hat), including the Marshmallow Dodo Hat and the Chocolate Bunny Club. Also, watch out for the Bunny Oviraptors which will drop Easter dino candy that gives your favourite tame random dino colours when eaten!
Artistic survivors can participate in the community egg-painting contest! After hunting down a Bunny Dodo grab an egg, take out your paint brush and dyes then use it as your canvas to show off your most eggcellent work!


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The Pronunciation of Smaug
With the recent release of the new Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug, a lot of people have been talking about the pronunciation of the titular dragon's name. The inclination for English speakers is to pronounce it like smog, but Tolkien made clear in his appendixes to The Lord of the Rings that the combination au was pronounced /au/ ("ow"), as it is in German. A quick search on Twitter shows that a lot of people are perplexed or annoyed by the pronunciation, with some even declaring that they refuse to see the movie because of it. Movie critic Eric D. Snider joked, "I'm calling him 'Smeowg' now. Someone please Photoshop him to reflect the change, thanks." I happily obliged.
I can haz arkenstone?
So what is it about the pronunciation of Smaug that makes people so crazy? Simply put, it doesn't fit modern English phonology. Phonology is the pattern of sounds in language (or the study of those patterns), including things like syllable structure, word stress, and permissible sound combinations. In my undergraduate phonology class, my professor once gave us an exercise: think of all the consonants that can follow /au/, and give an example of each. The first several came easily, but we started to run out quickly: out, house (both as a noun with /s/ and as a verb with /z/), owl, mouth (both as a noun with /θ/ and as a verb with /ð/), down, couch, hour, and gouge. What these sounds all have in common is that they're coronal consonants, or those made with the front of the tongue.
The coronal consonants in modern Standard English are /d/, /t/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/ (as in shoe), /ʒ/ (as in measure), /tʃ/ (as in church), /dʒ/ (as in judge) /l/, /r/, and /n/. As far as I know, only two coronal consonants are missing from the list of consonants that can follow /au/—/ʃ/ and /ʒ/, the voiceless and voiced postalveolar fricatives. By contrast, /g/ is a dorsal consonant, pronounced with the back of the tongue. There are some nonstandard dialects (such as Cockney and African American English) that change /θ/ to /f/ and thus pronounce words like mouth as /mauf/, but in Standard English the pattern holds; there are no words with /aup/ or /aum/ or /auk/. (The only exception I know of, howf, is a rare Scottish word that was apparently borrowed from Dutch, and it could be argued that it appears rarely enough in Standard English that it shouldn't be considered a part of it. It appears not at all in the Corpus of Contemporary American English and only once in the Corpus of Historical American English, but it's in scare quotes. I only know it as an occasionally handy Scrabble word.)
And this isn't simply a case like orange or silver, where nothing happens to rhyme with them. Through the accidents of history, the /aug/ combination simply does not occur in modern English. Before the Great Vowel Shift, Middle English /au/ turned into /ɔ:/ (as in caught today). (Note: the : symbol here denotes that a vowel is long.) During the Great Vowel Shift, /u:/ turned into a new /au/, but apparently this /u:/ never occurred before non-coronal consonants. This means that in Middle English, either /u/ lengthened before coronals or /u:/ shortened before non-coronals; I'm not sure which. But either way, it left us with the unusual pattern we see in English today.
What all this technical gibberish means is that, in the absence of a clear pronunciation guide, readers will assume that the "au" in Smaug is pronounced as it is in other English words, which today is almost always /ɔ:/ or /ɑ:/. Thus most Americans will rhyme it with smog. (I can't speak with authority about other varieties of English, but they would probably opt for one of those vowels or something similar, but not the diphthong /au/.) It's not surprising that many readers will feel annoyed when told that their pronunciation clashes with the official pronunciation, which they find unintuitive and, frankly, rather non-English.
One final note: Michael Martinez suggests in this post that /smaug/ is not actually Tolkien's intended pronunciation. After all, he says, the appendixes are a guide to the pronunciation of Elvish, and Smaug's name is not Elvish. Martinez quotes one of Tolkien's letters regarding the origin of the name: "The dragon bears as name—a pseudonym—the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole: a low philological jest." He seems to take this as evidence against the pronunciation /smaug/, but this is probably because Tolkien was not as clear as he could have been. Smugan is the infinitive form; the past tense is—surprise—smaug.
Note: the definition given for the Proto-Germanic form doesn't quite match Tolkien's, though it appears to be the same verb; the Old English form, also with the infinitive smugan, is defined as "to creep, crawl, move gradually". The astute student of language will notice that the past tense of the verb in Old English had the form smēag in the first and third person. This is because the Proto-Germanic /au/ became /ēa/ in Old English and /i:/ or /ai/ in modern English; compare the German auge 'eye' and the English eye. This demonstrates once again that English lost the combination /aug/ quite some time ago while its sister languages hung on to it.
So yes, it appears that Tolkien really did intend Smaug to be pronounced /smaug/, with that very un-English (but very Germanic) /aug/ combination at the end. He was a linguist and studied several languages in depth, particularly old Germanic languages such as Old English, Old Norse, and Gothic. He was certainly well aware of the pronunciation of the word, even if he didn't make it clear to his readers. You can find the pronunciation silly if you want, you can hate it, and you can even threaten to boycott the movie, but you can't call it wrong.
#German
#Great Vowel Shift
#historical linguistics
#Hobbit
#phonology
#Proto-Germanic
#Smaug
#Tolkien
Historical linguistics, Phonology 20 Replies to "The Pronunciation of Smaug"
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20 thoughts on "The Pronunciation of Smaug"
The inclination for English speakers is to pronounce it like smog
This inclination is likely to be restricted to those with the cot-caught merger. Unfortunately, I can't think of any word ending in the the THOUGHT vowel + g.
Jan Freeman
"the infinitive is—surprise—smaug." Don't you mean the indicative is smaug?
And shouldn't the "sauna" debate be in here somewhere?
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003043.html
Thanks for a really interesting post. I was a bit of a Tolkien geek in my teens, poring over the appendices to The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion make sure I pronounced things right.
But I learned how to pronounce the names in The Hobbit when my father read it to me in his estuary accent. So I learnt to pronounce it sm??g.
And, in the the company of my more cockney friends, I might even add that bit of extra w before the g.
Really good post – very interesting!
On the Scottish howf, the vowel sound would normally be pronounced /?u/ (reflecting the usual correspondence between Standard English /au/ and Standard Scottish English /?u/). I can think of one other Scottish word where /f/ follows /?u/, and that's (the very slang) bowfin', meaning disgusting or horrible.
For what it's worth, my natural temptation would be not to pronounce Smaug /sm?ug/.
"The astute student of language will notice that the past tense of the verb in Old English had the form sm?ag in the first and third person."
Yeah, no one noticed that 😉
dw: Unfortunately, I have the cot–caught merger myself, so I have a hard time telling the difference. Do words like fog and dog not have the same vowel as thought in dialects that don't have the merger?
Jan: I actually meant the past tense (though it is the indicative past). Thanks for catching that, and thanks for the reminder about sauna. At least that /au/ is followed by a coronal consonant, so it's not quite as foreign-sounding to English speakers.
Craig: Unfortunately, my blog is having problems with special characters lately, so I'm not sure what symbol that was supposed to be. Based on this page, I'm guessing it's a turned v. But I'd guess that the diphthong still has the same constraints as in other standard varieties of English, but with those exceptions.
*gives Anneke an F in historical English linguistics* 😛
Ah. Caught out by the special characters.
So, to clarify, my dad read me a story with a dragon called Smorg. And just as I often turn small into smaw, many people I know call him Smawg.
For the record, all I was arguing against was using the guide to pronunciation in the appendices as a guide to pronouncing anything other than Elvish.
I accept your reasoning although I cannot make heads or tails of all the funky characters. Nonetheless, as I said my article, I will not attempt to correct a lifetime of mispronunciation at this late stage.
I'm afraid I will always say 'smOg'. I hope people are okay with that.
Thank you for the reference AND the explanation.
IronMike
There are so many other problems one could complain about in these movies based loosely on the novel by Tolkien. Smaug/smog. Who cares when Jackson ruined the movie by rewriting the book?
Michael Martinez: Thanks for your response, and I'm sorry if I came across too harsh. I probably didn't make it clear enough that I agree that the pronunciation guide for Elvish should not be taken as a pronunciation guide for anything other than Elvish. Smaug's name just happens to be pronounced the same way, but for different reasons.
And I certainly won't judge or think less of anyone who sticks to the "smog" pronunciation. It feels much more natural to English speakers, and it's hard to correct a lifetime of saying it that way.
IronMike: Amen.
the Old English form, also with the infinitive smugan, is defined as "to creep, crawl, move gradually"
And therefore a very fitting source for the pseudo-Old English name of a different character, Sméagol.
Of course! Thanks for pointing out an important connection that I completely forgot about.
Ynas Midgard
Actually, there are plenty of words that have the THOUGHT-vowel (without the cot-caught merger) followed by G, like "augmentation" or "forgo" (assuming R cannot appear in coda position). However, many of these words have their G in the onset.
The following words have their G at the end of the word, and thus – according to most theories – in syllable coda:
* Borg
* Goteborg
* morgue
* Seaborg
* Swedenborg
Notice that each of them would be excluded if R was allowed in coda position.
Thomas P. Lemont
(The following conversation is taken from my posting on the Tolkien Society Facebook Page)
Taken from Tolkien's letter #25:
"There is the question of nomenclature. The dwarf-names, and the wizard's, are from the Elder Edda. The hobbit names from Obvious Sources proper to their kind. The full list of their wealthier families is: Baggins, Boffin, Bolger, Bracegirdle, Brandybuck, Burrowes, Chubb, Grubb, Hornblower, Proudfoot, Sackville, and Took. The dragon bears as name – a pseudonym – the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole: a low philological jest. The rest of the names are of the Ancient and Elvish World, and have not been modernised."
And from letter # 144:
"The language of Dale and the Long Lake would, if it appeared, be represented as more or less Scandinavian in character; but it is only represented by a few names, especially those of the Dwarves that came from that region. These are all Old Norse Dwarf-names. (Dwarves are represented as keeping their own native tongue more or less secret, and using for all 'outer' purposes the language of the people they dwelt near; they never reveal their own 'true' personal names in their own tongue.)"
My wife (who teaches German, French, and Spanish) believes that the sound should be voiced as "ow", as in "ouch" (for the modern German), although she adds that there is no direct translation for the word "Smugan" in modern Germanic (at least none of which she is aware), and says that Smugan would probably sound more like 'Schmiegen'. Also, in Appendix A, section III, of The Return of the King under "Durin's Folk", the name 'Smaug' is noted, but when we take into account the words of letter #144, then, it is likely that the name Smaug, like the Dwarven names, is also Scandinavian in character. This would mean that I'm more inclined to be of the belief of thinking them Icelandic. I also checked here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smugan#Old_English and (although I don't know it's accuracy) this shows Smugan as an Old English word, derived from the Proto-Germaic words sm?gan? or smeugan?. Since sm?gan? does not have any information shown, when we look at the word 'smeugan?' we see that it is a Proto-Germanic word, and it's pronounced more like 'Smew-gan' (note, too, the German as my wife stated, as 'Schmiegen'). Still, looking further down the page we see the Old Norse: smjúga. And if we click the link on smjúga, we find that it is indeed Icelandic. Also note on that page: smjúga strong verb (third person singular past indicative SMAUG, third person plural past indicative smugu, supine smogið).
I had an earlier post which went into the explanation of the etymology of Smaug's name. However, like Angel, I have also called the dragon by the condition of polluted air. The term smog, a contraction of smoke and fog, was introduced in 1905 by Dr. H.A. des Vœux to describe the mixture of soot, sulfuric acid, and other pollutants in emissions from coal furnaces in London, therefore Tolkien would have heard this expression used.
Although the Hobbit was written much earlier, in 1952 London there occurred a significant air-pollution event called "The Great Smog". Again, I understand that the Hobbit was written prior to this particular event. However, as I noted earlier, smog was a problem in London and other industrial cities. An article in the 1871 New York Times mentions "London, particularly, where the population are periodically submerged in a fog of the consistency of pea soup…" The Great Smog was not thought at first to be significant, as London had many smog events in the past, referred to as "pea soupers". The city has been affected by smog since the times of King Edward I (1272-1307), who was the first to try to forbid the use of coal in London. Such fogs were prevalent in UK cities, especially in London where the smoke from millions of chimneys combined with the mists and fogs of the Thames valley. The result was commonly known as a London particular or London fog, which then, in a reversal of the idiom, became the name for a thick pea and ham soup.
Tolkien was obviously aware of these deadly fogs, but he also had a sense of humor; and with a play on words, the dragon Smaug was created. Therefore, when taking into account the information from my previous post concerning the Icelandic, and with the knowledge of these deadly air conditions, I'm of the persuasion that Smaug is pronounced "Smog", and NOT "Smowg".
Wanted to add the following to my previous message:
If we read Tolkiens words in letter #25, he said that Smaug was a psuedonym of the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan. However that is really the Old English. The Proto-Germanic form was smeugan?. Descendant languages included Old English and Old Norse. Sm?gan(OE) means to creep, crawl, move gradually, while smjúga(ON) also means to creep, though through an entrance. My point here is to show that perhaps Tolkien should not have used the word sm?gan in his letter, but smeugan? instead. Still, if we look at the ON, the word smjúga is Icelandic. So the question is, how do we pronounce the Icelandic word, smjúga? Well, unfortunately I do not speak it myself so I had to do some research online. I found this site: http://www.101languages.net/icelandic/diphthongs.html Here they show the au dipthong pronounced as oh-ee. Thence the Icelandic pronounciation of Smaug would appear to sound like smoy-g.
Unfortunately I could not include a second weblink in the previous post, as it kept reading it as possible spam. So here is a second Icelandic dipthong pronounciation website: http://www.studymode.com/essays/Learn-Icelandic-In-10-Minutes-1649930.html(au diphthong starting as ö and ending with a y-sound, similar to the French feuille).
Thanks for all the research, Thomas. I'm not sure it's necessary to get into modern German, Old Norse, or Icelandic, though. Tolkien said the name came from primitive Germanic (now better known as Proto-Germanic). I linked to the page Wiktionary page for the Proto-Germanic smugan but failed to point out its alternate form smeugan, which you noted. If you expand the conjugation chart, you'll see that the past indicative first- and third-person form was smaug. This would have been pronounced "smowg" or, if you prefer IPA, [smaug]—just like it's spelled. 😉
In my opinion one can generally also use Tolkien's guide to Elvish pronunciation as a guide for names in other tongues, as Appendix E notes:
'Note: in names drawn from other languages than Eldarin the same values for the letters are intended, where not specifically described above, except in the case of Dwarvish.'
Even, it seems, for certain translated names.
'The 'outer' or Mannish names of the Dwarves have been given Northern forms, but the letter-values are those described. So also in the personal and place-names of Rohan where they have not been modernized), except that here ea and eo are diphthongs, which may be represented by the ea of English bear, and the eo of Theobald; y is the modified u…' Appendix E [the e of ea and eo in the actual text has an acute accent]
If I am correct Tolkien's 'au (aw) as in loud' in the Elvish section works for Smaug, even though this name is arguably a translation given its Primary World derivation, and certainly so in draft texts, given that the Dragon's 'real' name is there said to be Trâgu.
Not every example will work: Gandalf doesn't for instance, as it would be 'Gandalv' according to the Elvish section, but one could consider this example Anglicized perhaps, since we hear Tolkien himself pronounce final -f.
Anyway that's what I think -so far- although I'm no linguist myself.
Thanks, Galin. It seems pretty clear that the pronunciation guide for Elvish would apply to Smaug's name too. I suppose I should have read the appendixes a little more thoroughly first.
Captain John
I was reading this for an English class in a time that I was learning German. When we came across this I decided to be difficult and pronounce it SmOWg, and it quickly caught on among some of my friends as a joke. I began to insist on this while our teacher continued to call him Smog, which by this time was seeming unfittingly unmajestic by this time for such a magnificent beast. It's good to know that Tolkien was as keen a chap as I! 😉
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text:
Bredmossen Fiskelössjön är ett naturreservat i Naverstads socken i Tanums kommun i Bohuslän.

Området är skyddat sedan 1968 och omfattar 187 hektar. Det är beläget öster om Södra Bullaresjöns nordända.

Bredmossen är en av Bohusläns största myrar. På myren finns fastmarksholmar med urskogsliknande hällmarkstallskog.
På myren växer brunag och kallgräs. På laggkärren växer tråd- och flaskstarr, ängsull, vattenklöver, myrlilja och taggstarr.
Inom reservatet finns även en del skogsmark med mest barrskog. Inom området häckar ljungpipare. I väster begränsas myren av Fiskelössjön där det växer vit näckros.

Området ingår i EU:s ekologiska nätverk av skyddade områden, Natura 2000. Det förvaltas av Västkuststiftelsen.

Referenser

Källor
Bredmossen Fiskelössjön, Länsstyrelsen i Västra Götalands län

Noter

Naturreservat i Tanums kommun
Natura 2000-områden i Västra Götalands län
Naturskyddsområden bildade 1968

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Zoram Observer
News in under 60 seconds
The Best 4K TVs Under $500
Products featured are independently selected by our editorial team and we may earn a commission from purchases made from our links; the retailer may also receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
If you haven't upgraded your TV in a while, there's a good chance you haven't made the leap from 1080P (full HD) to 4K.
As the name suggests, 4K (or "Ultra HD") TVs have four times as many pixels as a standard 1080p set, so they produce clearer, more accurate images. It was hard to find 4K video content for a while, but it's readily available on paid streaming services like Hulu, and even YouTube.
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This is especially useful if you like watching sports or action films, which have a lot of quick cuts and fast movement. If you play video games — especially first-person shooters — having a TV with the latest and greatest tech is essential to having a good experience.
When paired with a good home theater system, or even a sound bar, a 4K TV can recreate the experience of going to the movies better than any an HD set can.
If you're looking for your first 4K TV, we've found three great options that deliver exceptional picture quality, reliable performance, and smart features for under $500.
What Are the Best 4K TVs Under $500?
There are many factors to consider when choosing the best 4K TV under $500 for you; below are the most important ones, which we considered while we were researching this list.
Size: 4K TVs are available in a wide range of sizes, and our guide features sets between 43 and 55 inches. Our largest TV recommendation is also available in a 75 inch size, which is great if you have space for a big home theater.
Inputs: A TV's inputs (commonly called ports), are used to connect gadgets like game consoles, Blu Ray players, or media streamers to your set. All of the 4K TVs in our guide have at least two HDMI ports, which is the most universally used input available right now.
Smart Features: Some of the TVs in our guide have a smart assistant, like Amazon's Alexa, built into the set itself. Others run an operating system developed by Roku or Amazon, which makes it easier to get to streaming services like Hulu without a media streamer.
1. Best Overall: TCL 55-Inch 5-Series 4K TV
TCL's 55-Inch 5 Series 4K has a large screen, essential smart features, and plenty of inputs, which is why it's the top pick in our guide.
This is a Roku TV, which means it comes preloaded with apps for popular streaming services. Roku regularly updates the streaming apps on its platform, and releases additional ones as new services launch. I've used a Roku TV extensively over the past few years, and found it extremely easy to use. Its interface is clean, and it's easy to get to the input or service you want without much trouble.
If you want a no-compromise 4K TV, but want to keep yourself under a strict budget, TCL's 55-Inch 5-Series is the one we recommend. It's also available in 50, 65, and 75-inch sizes.
2. Entry Level: Insignia 50-inch 4K UHD TV
Insignia's 50-inch 4K UHD TV is a solid choice if you're looking for a pretty big TV with a lot of smart features.
Insignia says this TV supports HDR, but not Dolby Vision, so colors will look better than normal, but not quite as nice. This TV supports an audio technology called DTS Studio Surround, which modifies stereo audio to sound more immersive.
The company partnered with Amazon to make this a Fire TV, which means it comes preloaded with streaming apps just like the TCL set we recommend. Its "Alexa" remote has a microphone built in, and allows you to search for the content you want using your voice, instead of opening different apps individually.
It may not support every new video technology, but Insignia's 50-Inch 4K UHD TV is includes most of them, and is the best value in this guide by far.
3. Best For Small Spaces: Samsung 43-inch Class Crystal 4K TV
Samsung's 43-inch Class Crystal 4K TV is the set to get if you need one for a mid-sized bedroom or living room.
Although this set is smaller than the other ones we're recommending, it's not lacking in features. The only real technical limitation of this TV is that it doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR, which you may not miss if you're only interested in casual watching.
Amazon's Alexa is built into the TV, so you can use the microphone in its remote to ask for the TV show sand movies you want instead of hunting through menus. Keep in mind this isn't a Fire TV, so you'll only have access to apps Samsung has written for its operating system. All of the major services will be present, but some niche ones may not.
This TV has three HDMI ports, three USB ports, a coaxial input, an Ethernet jack, one set of composite inputs, and an optical audio input. The selection of ports puts it on-par with every other TV in this guide.
Despite its smaller size, watching TV shows and movies on Samsung's Class Crystal 4K TV won't be a downgraded experience.
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Biden Annoyed by Constant 'Complaining' of 2nd Gent Doug Emhoff
Biden 'hadn't asked Harris to do anything he hadn't done as vice president—and she'd begged him for the voting rights assignment...'
Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff / IMAGE: CNN via YouTube
(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris's nagging husband, Douglas Emhoff, has irritated President Joe Biden so much that it is straining the relationship between Harris and Biden, Townhall reported.
The palace intrigue comes from a new book by author Chris Whipple, The Fight Of His Life, detailing the dramas of the Biden White House.
According to Whipple, Emhoff complained early on about his wife's lack of glamorous assignments, making his thoughts known to Biden.
Biden, however, "hadn't asked Harris to do anything he hadn't done as vice president—and she'd begged him for the voting rights assignment."
But Biden has often expressed skepticism about Harris's ability to get the job done well.
In his view, Kamala is "a work in progress" and her husband has "annoyed" Biden by his commentary.
Emhoff has also had trouble raising his daughter.
According to one of Whipple's sources in the White House, close to the VP, her consistent failures to navigate the White House's internal politics have resulted largely from bad advice.
Per the advisor, Harris's "inner circle didn't serve her well in the presidential campaign—and they are ill-serving her now."
In any case, Biden has actually granted Harris a number of major assignments, including managing the border crisis. Harris, however, has dropped the ball on her largest assignment, failing to even visit the border for months while traveling the world in search of "root causes."
Harris's failure to address the crisis extended so far that some wondered aloud whether or not she was still up to the job.
"Is Vice President Harris still in charge of addressing the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala?" Fox News's Peter Doocy asked former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
"She is," Psaki replied, "and I just announced a commitment that she's announcing this afternoon," adding that Harris will roll out a $1.2 billion investment from the international community into Central America.
Yet Harris's failure to achieve even the one task she was given has caused her public support to slip to historic lows, making her among the most unpopular vice presidents in American history.
Doug Emhoff
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" Encouraging changes in government policy on education and refugees in Iraq. "
Kyrgyzstan: Blood Supply Crisis
Patients in the Aksy region are "giving blood" as the price of leaving hospital.
By Kumar Bekbolotov
A shortage in blood supplies has led some doctors at the Aksy central district hospital in the south of Kyrgyzstan to make the donation of 200 grams of blood a condition of discharge for patients.
At a round table organised by IWPR, deputy director of the hospital Erkin Dolonbaev admitted that families of patients and even the patients themselves are sometimes forced to give blood, but he insisted that it was not standard practice.
"We don't force every single patient to do this. Out of 10,000 patients, only 531 people offered to donate blood, so we were forced to introduce an element of compulsion because no one wants to give blood voluntarily," he said.
He added that plans were being drawn up to ensure that each hospital department should provide a certain quantity of blood to be used in emergency situations. "We need this to save people whose lives are in danger," he said, adding that severe post-natal anaemia and serious injuries require blood transfusions for which extra donor supplies are needed.
Patients who have been affected by the directive are outraged. "After I giving birth, I already felt terrible, then my doctors diagnosed me with anaemia. When I went to get discharged, both my clothes and the medical certificate I needed to provide at work were witheld until I gave 200 grams of blood," said Elnura Begalieva. Eventually, her elderly mother managed to pay some doctors to provide a certificate confirming blood had been given.
Other patients at the hospital, which is in the village of Kerben, confirmed to IWPR that nurses warned them throughout their treatment that their final discharge from hospital would be conditional on giving blood.
Kyrgyzstan is certainly facing a serious shortage of blood. A centre responsible for attracting donors has virtually no funds and a staff of only 150, who are not capable of mounting a mass campaign among the population. Director Toktogazy Kutukeev told IWPR, "In Kansas, for example, three million dollars are allocated to encouraging voluntary donation, but we don't have any budget for this."
During Soviet times, the centre employed 600 people, who were assisted by 400 Red Cross employees. The Soviet system attached certain rewards and privileges to blood donation, which was the subject of large-scale publicity campaigns. The actual collection of blood was carried out by volunteers organised through party regional committees, who drafted in factory workers and university students. Quotas and targets for the year ahead were set centrally. "People who gave blood and people who filled the quotas, received government awards," said Kutukeev.
Indeed, large amounts of blood were wasted through the Soviet system of collection. "In 1988 to 1989, 200 tonnes of blood were stored in Kyrgyzstan," said Kutukeev. "Out of these, 40 tonnes was written off, and 60 tonnes went to manufacturing blood preparations and another ten tonnes were written off after processing because the shelf life of 21 days had expired."
After independence, Kyrgyzstan abandoned the Soviet system of storing blood, but now finds itself facing serious shortages. The country needs around 20,000 donors, which it doesn't have. "This year we began working on a state strategy to attract donors," said Kutukeev. "But it won't involve strict forward planning."
In the meantime, patients claim that some doctors are using the compulsory donation directive to run a racket. "Of course, you don't really have to give blood, instead you can pay the doctor for a certificate which confirms you have done so. And of course no receipts are given for the money collected," said Dariya Abdyraiimova, a voluntary worker for the Kerben civil society organisation Law and People.
Anara Temirova, a resident of the village of Karajygach, told IWPR that she ran away from the hospital the day before her discharge after learning that she would be expected to either donate blood or pay money, which she did not have.
Not surprisingly, payments to doctors in lieu of blood donation are not official practice. "This is a gross violation on the doctors' part," said Kutukeev. "I will contact the head of the Aksy hospital myself and try to investigate this situation."
Kumar Bekbolotov and Asel Sagynbaeva are independent journalists in Kyrgyzstan.
RCA Issue 190
http://tinyurl.com/y2lagcjy
Kyrgyz Snow Leopards Face Extinction
Turkmenistan: Niazov Charm Offensive
IWPR Hosts Second School of Analytic Journalism
Central Asian journalists learn new skills in cross-regional training.
IWPR Launches Regional Leadership Platform
Cuba's Less Than Beautiful Game
How the state stops footballers from pursuing their dreams.
Cuba: 3G Proves Gamechanger for Independent Media
Why Did the Cuban Regime Jail an Environmentalist?


Jenny Lamour (Delair) wants to succeed in the theatre. Her husband and accompanist is Maurice Martineau (Blier), a mild-mannered but jealous man. When he finds out that Jenny has been making eyes at Brignon, a lecherous old businessman, in order to further her career, he loses his temper and threatens Brignon with death. Despite this, Jenny goes to a secret rendezvous at Brignon's apartment, who is murdered the same evening. The criminal investigations are led by Inspector Antoine (Jouvet).
French village doctor becomes target of poison-pen letters sent to village leaders, accusing him of affairs and practicing abortion.


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Golubkina is a crater on Venus.

Golubkina is characterized by terraced inner walls and a central peak, typical of large impact craters on the Earth, Moon, and Mars. The terraced inner walls form at late stages in the formation of an impact crater, due to collapse of the initial cavity formed by the meteorite impact. The central peak forms due to rebound of the inner crater floor.

The smoothness of the floor may be due to pounding of volcanic lava flows in the crater floor. The rough, blocky morphology of the crater ejecta and the sharp terraced crater wall suggest that this feature is relatively young.

References

Impact craters on Venus


Down a kitchen. Now down a master bath. We were sleeping on the couch - literally all three of us - but Nate couldn't take it anymore and we slept in the beds last night. Captain is fine, but I get worried there is still a lot of dust from the master bath demo to sleep in our bedroom.
The pod is officially in the way of the contractors, which we unpacked yesterday and scheduled for pick up. Meaning all these boxes are now living in what should be the kitchen. Two hours of moving the pod out caused me to rethink my plan of waiting on going through all of it for Goodwill - so I'm doing that slowly, wondering where all this came from, and why I kept it. I guess having cabinets and storage allows you to just stash it in a corner and forget about it.
I'm proud that so far Nate and I don't want to kill each other, that our family is pretty flexible and that we're hippie enough to deal through this - but not too hippie - living in chaos gives me anxiety at some point every day.
The point of no return. The scheduled day when walls get ripped out and the good or bad news of what is unexpected becomes inevitable. There was a second I panicked and cancelled the entire thing. Tried to convince myself that we can wait another year, we didn't need to spend the money.
The next day the walls came down.


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High and Tall - What's the difference?
When do we say high and when do we say tall? What's the difference? Learn the different meanings and uses of these English adjectives in this video.
When do we use high and when do we use tall?
A bulb's out. The ceiling's too high. I can't reach.
We use high to talk about how far off the gound things are. So we talk about high ceilings. We talk about high heels. And we say planes fly high in the sky.
Now this unicycle is a long way off the gound, so is it high or is it tall?
Well, the man riding it is high up, but we'd also say the unicycle is tall, because there's another rule we follow.
When things are higher than they are wide, we say tall. People are higher than they're wide, so we talk about tall people.
OK Vicki, your first question for fifty dollars. What's the highest mountain in the world?
And now your second question for two hundred dollars. What's the tallest building in the world?
Oh! It's in Dubai, I think.
Oh, sorry Vicki. It's the Burj Khalifa.
This is our deck and that's the Comcast Tower. It's the tallest building between New York and Chicago.
The Comcast Tower is higher than it's wide so we say it's tall.
A window can be both high and tall but the meaning is different.
If it's a high window, it's a long way from the gorund. But if it's a tall window, it's higher than it's wide.
Hey, give me that! (Jay grabs the wand) Now I'm taller than you!


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The Snake and The Swallow
benjamin58950
˜ The Snake and The Swallow ˜ Written and illustrated by Benjamin Martin
The Snake and The Swallow Written and Illustrated by Benjamin Martin ©2013 This book Is dedicated to my wonderful Nan, may you never be scared of Snakes again!
The snake went out for a slither in the heat of the midday sun…
The swallow went out for a flutter on the cool summer breeze…
The snake looked up into the sky and wondered what it would be like to fly…
The swallow looked down upon the earth and dreamed what it would feel like to rest upon the ground…
"Dear Ssssswallow " the snake hissed "how do you fly so ssssswift and high?"….
With a flutter and a swish I rush through the air, it's what we swallows do" said the swallow darting about the sky.
The swallow's lot in life is to fly high and low, catching the wind beneath its wings, majestically soaring for days above the earth below. The swallow loves to fly so much that it almost never touches the ground.
"How does it feel to be up in the air all day?" asked the snake… "It's cool and fresh and free" said the Swallow as it glided up in front of the sun.. " Ssssssigh " Sighed the snake "that sounds delightful".
The snake's lot in life is to slip and slide upon the earth, slinking through the grass and down in the marshy land. The snake loves the ground so much that he could never leave it and take to the sky.
"Dear snake" tweeted the sparrow "how do you slither so gracefully upon the ground?" "With a twist and turn, my body glides across the soft earth" Said the snake
The Swallow watched as the snake twisted its body into knots and then with ease uncoiled itself. "How beautifully you move" said the swallow "I could watch you every day"
"You can" replied the snake "I am here every day at midday, until the winter comes" "And I am here too" said the swallow "until the winds carry me south to warmer lands" "Then we ssssshall be friends" Said the snake "yes" said the swallow
And so the Swallow and the Snake became old friends. They met every day to appreciate one another's talents, talking until the sun was low in the sky, sharing stories about their adventures and planning new adventures for the days to come. When the winter came and the days grew shorter they would go their separate ways, but always they would meet again in the spring time, they could always depend upon that.
SwallowSnake


I haven't the faintest idea on what to write about today. I know I want to write something, but my mind is just a blank!
I could talk about the glorious smell of the rain sprinkling down outside. Or plopping on the floor in front of our big window in the foyer attempting to capture a picture of the elusive male cardinal that frequents our bird feeder. Or perhaps I could tell you how much I am enjoying working away on my shawl test knit. But that all seems so inconsequential.
We get lots of fat little juncos at our feeder. They are seriously adorable!
It feels as if I'm at a crossroads with nearly everything in my life: my business, the blog, my wardrobe, my moods, etc. I imagine starting a new job has been more stressful to me than I thought. I am still trying to adjust to this new schedule. Juggling everything I need to do hasn't been easy. It is no secret that I am pitiful at time management and scheduling which hasn't helped.
I've decided I want to be more honest on the blog. It is far too easy to slip into the bad habit of only presenting a Pinterest perfect life on here. I don't want to give unrealistic expectations to anyone. I know all too well what it is like to compare myself with other bloggers, knitters, seamstresses, yarn dyers, and independent business owners. And it is hard to never catch a glimpse of what it going on behind the scenes.
Which is why I'll be writing more personal and honest blog posts. Maybe once every week or two I'll be checking in to let you know how I am going on and if there are any tips or tricks I have learned.
I hope you don't mind! If you have any suggestions or resources for time managing or scheduling please let me know in the comments below or send me a message.


As we speak, Slightly Mad Studios is putting the finishing touches on Project CARS 2. While the game should be in our hands in just a few weeks' time, its soundtrack was only recently finalized. A newly-released video has given us an inside look at the process behind the upcoming sim racer's dramatic score.
Recording an original composition for a racing title might not seem like a massive undertaking at the onset. However, the same techniques and talent used to create soundscapes for movies and television often find their way into gaming. In Project CARS 2's case, this has led development to AIR Studios' illustrious Lyndhurst Hall in London.
If that name sounds familiar to you, it should. GT Sport recently had its score recorded there. And even if you don't plan on picking up either game this fall, chances are very good that you've enjoyed more than a few films and albums produced at the legendary studio founded by longtime Beatles collaborator George Martin.
The video takes us inside several days of the development of Project CARS 2's soundtrack, back in June. Stephen Baysted, Slightly Mad Studios' audio director and composer, outlines some of the stylistic considerations that have gone into conveying the tension of racing through music.
Project CARS 2's soundtrack is certainly nothing if not cinematic. Slightly Mad collaborated with the London Metropolitan Orchestra, as well as classically-trained singers and percussionists, to realize that vision. And while the end result may not be everyone's cup of tea — especially if you prefer the more mellow, lounge-infused drum-and-bass of Gran Turismo — it certainly leaves a powerful impression.
In addition to composing music, Baysted is responsible for the entirety of the game's audio design. That includes engine noises and interface sounds. He also works closely with the programming team to properly implement his ideas in-game. Baysted says the music specifically took four months to write.
Project CARS 2 is due out September 22. You can keep up with all the latest news leading up to and following release right here.


Hey, Using a Note 4 hi-res audio through BT, 703-play... works great, TY guys Im having trouble sync'ing up the visuals though. (2015 GMC Terrain audio system) under... settings > audio > output > hi-res > BT settings > visualizer delay it goes up to 500ms, but my visuals are still a bit early... if possible can you increase the delay option, another few hundred ms? Its a minor issue but anyone who is ocd will find it very annoying lol... Update: Having an issue when connecting through AUX hi res... I get a on/off static noise. Disabling DVC brings back audio, but is very low volume, not great quality.
Note 4 N910C on eRobot Rom Hi-Res Output (Exp.) > Variant: Samsung UHQA PCM Wired/AUX, BT, USB DAC, all show up. all are enabled, no errors so far.


The Delmarva Christian girls' basketball team, down two players due to injury, used a persistent press and a spry man-to-man defense to down Saints Peter and Paul School 59-11 to improve to 13-5 on the season.
Kandice Schlabach led the Royals with 15 points, nine from behind the three-point line, while dishing off four assists and grabbing four rebounds. Jabre'a Purnell added 13 points and snagged four rebounds. Katie Hill hit for eight points and four rebounds. Mara Agapito scored seven points, grabbed four rebounds and had three helpers.
Fetterman is out on concussion protocol, and high-scoring guard Sara Walton is sidelined with an ankle injury.
The Royals will face Gunston School of Maryland Friday, Feb. 15, on Senior Night. They will compete in the ESIAC Tournament Tuesday, Feb. 19, at home.
Royals senior Hannah Czapp grabs a rebound and looks for the outlet pass.
Royals point guard Kandice Schlabach goes up for two of her 15 points in the game.
Royals freshman center Olivia Giltner gets the pass off despite getting fouled by Sabres sophomore Michaela Forster.
Royals senior Claire Marshall battles for a loose ball with Sabres sophomore Michaela Forster.
Delmarva Christian junior forward Jabre'a Purnell looks to go up strong in the paint. She had 13 points in the Royals' victory.
Royals guard Cheng Xu hits for a deuce.
Senior Claire Marshall hits a foul shot.
Hannah Czapp drives to the basket for the Royals.
Savannah Stewart goes to the basket finishing a fast break.
Savannah Stewart goes to the hoop.
Royals senior Claire Marshall drives to the hoop.
Junior forward Mara Agapito receives a pass in the paint.
Delmarva Christian senor Claire Marshall snags a rebound.
Royals point guard Kandice Schlabach starts a fast break.
Delmarva Christian junior forward Jabre'a Purnell drives baseline to the paint.


text:
How does dissection help science and medicine?
Why do scientists find dissection useful for learning how the body works?
What are the benefits of an autopsy?
How does autopsy help solve crimes?
What types of death must be investigated?
Do morticians remove organs?
Do they put the brain back after autopsy?
What do they do with the blood from a dead person?
Does cremation release the soul?
In medical schools, students dissect human cadavers to learn anatomy. Dissection is used to help to determine the cause of death in autopsy (called necropsy in other animals) and is an intrinsic part of forensic medicine. Specimens are dissected in morgues or anatomy labs.
Dissection is also important because it: Helps students learn about the internal structures of animals. Helps students learn how the tissues and organs are interrelated. Gives students an appreciation of the complexity of organisms in a hands-on learning environment.
Autopsies are diagnostic by nature, and can help a family learn more information about the disease processes that caused a patient's demise. For example, an autopsy could identify an unknown primary cancer, or it can allow doctors to perform examinations that were not feasible when the patient was alive.
The primary function of the autopsy is to determine the cause, manner and mechanism of death. The manner of death in a forensic case is generally homicide or suicide, as opposed to natural causes. Lividity is helpful in determining if a body has been moved from the crime scene to another location after death.
Although State laws vary in specific requirements, deaths that typically require investigation are those due to unusual or suspicious circumstances, violence (accident, suicide, or homicide), those due to natural disease processes when the death occurred suddenly and without warning, when the decedent was not being …
The pathologist removes the internal organs in order to inspect them. They may then be incinerated, or they may be preserved with chemicals similar to embalming fluid. Another option after autopsy is that the organs are placed in a plastic bag that's kept with the body, though not in the body cavity.
Doctor's response. After the organs are examined by the pathologist in their normal anatomical location, the organs to be examined further (usually the organs of the chest and abdomen, and sometimes the brain) are removed for further study. At the end of an autopsy, the incisions made in the body are sewn closed.
During the surgical portion of embalming process, the blood is removed from the body through the veins and replaced with formaldehyde-based chemicals through the arteries. The embalming solution may also contain glutaraldehyde, methanol, ethanol, phenol, water, and dyes.
"The Church raises no doctrinal objections to this practice, since cremation of the deceased's body does not affect his or her soul," the guidelines continue, "nor does it prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life."


text:
Thomas prefers to show rather than tell
Annette Meza, Copy Editor|May 1, 2019
Hunter Thomas
You may have seen her video played at the Seward County Community College men's basketball games or the one for sexual assault awareness month, "It's On Us." Computer information systems concurrent student Hunter Thomas, is the creator of both videos.
Thomas plans to graduate with her associates in science by the time she graduates high school next year. At the moment, she is working towards receiving a certificate in computer information systems. In the program, Thomas takes classes such as web animation, 3D modeling, 3D texturing, video editing and web page design.
"She is an exceptional student and has an amazing eye for anything artistic or design related. Last semester, she produced the SCCC Men's Basketball hype video they played before each game as well as social media videos for the SCCC Cheer Team," Computer Information Systems Instructor, Tyler Parks said.
Thomas' dream is to one day be a creator and animator for big video game or cartoon companies or to even create her own cartoons, video games and shows.
Creator of "Its' On Us," Hunter Thomas, stands with her classmates from her Digital Video Editing II class, and faculty members, all who appeared and helped out with the project for Sexual Assault Awareness month. From left to right they are Janeth Vasquez, Tyler Parks, Rubi Gallegos, Kaitlyn Van Vleet, Hunter Thomas, Ali Lucero, Maria Munoz, Annette Hackbarth-Onson and Bryce Minor.
"I knew I wanted to pursue a career in video game design and animation ever since my freshman year computer class. We worked on adobe photoshop in there and it really sparked my interest in editing and design," the Liberal High School junior says.
The student decided to enroll in college classes her junior year of high school in order to get a head start in her career and because her high school offered it.
"Being in these classes with college students was intimidating at first but it really opened my eyes to what the college setting is like. It also pushes me to a high level of maturity," the junior says. "Now, I could say i'm definitely more expressive and open to others than I used to be since I have to have a voice here."
Thomas gets most inspired to do her work in her class web animation by simplistic animations and "tooty" cartoons as she describes them, such as The Amazing World of Gumball on Cartoon Network and Gravity Falls on Disney Channel.
"I definitely want to create something of that sort when I'm older and animate cartoons or movies someday. I'm way better at showing than telling with words so I'd prefer if someone wrote the script and I just animate it," Thomas says with a chuckle.
Thomas grew up with two older brothers. They watched a lot of cartoons and played as many video games they could. So eventually, Thomas did the same.
"Growing up around that also inspired me to do something like this because I started to play video games as well. Some of my favorites are Call Of Duty and Halo and my top favorite to play is called Undertale," the future animator says.
One of Thomas' favorite creators is Toby Fox, who created Undertale and draws inspiration from his video games to someday create something alike. The motive of this game is to work toward getting out from the underground world barrier and the main player either has the choice to defeat the monsters they come across, or befriend them.
"If I were to ever design and animate a game in the future, it would be something like that. Something simple and nothing too realistic but with a hidden meaning behind the game," Thomas says. "Most video games like that have hidden meanings but it's hard to tell at first glance."
With cartoons, Thomas admits that drawing is something she doesn't prefer to do, only because it takes time and there are errors. She'd rather use photoshop, where everything is precise.
"I also used to write when I was younger like creative stories but I figured out that I'm imaginative and creative. I'm just better at showing than telling so I'd probably never draw on paper or write," the student says.
After Thomas graduates from SCCC in a year, she plans to go The University of Kansas and enroll in their animation program there.
"I do hope to someday work for a big company, maybe not like Disney Channel or anything but I definitely want to create my own work some day for people to see. I also want to inspire people with my work and inspire young girls that it is possible to go this route if you really want to," Thomas said.
Tags: Computer Information Science, Hunter Thomas, Video editing
Other stories filed under Features
Students transform cars
Chemistry students design, create soaps
International students adjust to America
How much do we know about Easter?
SCCC sees two sides to privilege
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Photo Essay: SCCC spring concert saves the night
Take a break from studying with de-stress week
Students: White privilege is VERY real
Separated at the Border
Peculiar classes offered at SCCC
Flaming art
Talking with Louie the Saint


text:
Apple commits to recycling products for free
Apple has vowed its commitment to the environment on a new section of its website, announcing it will recycle any Apple product at no charge.
By AAP and Aimee Chanthadavong | April 22, 2014 -- 00:56 GMT (17:56 PDT) | Topic: Apple
Apple is offering free recycling of all its used products and vowing to power all of its stores, offices, and data centres with renewable energy to reduce the pollution caused by its devices and online services.
The iPhone and iPad maker is detailing its efforts to cultivate a greener Apple with an environmental section on the company's website that debuted on Monday.
"When you recycle with Apple your used equipment is disassembled, and key components that can be reused are removed. Glass and metal can be reprocessed for use in new products," Apple explains on its website.
"A majority of the plastics can be pelletised into a raw secondary material. With materials reprocessing and component reuse, Apple often achieves a 90 percent recovery rate by weight of the original product."
Among other things, the company is increasing its reliance on solar and wind power, while sending less electronic junk to landfills.
Apple had already been distributing cards at some of its stores in exchange for iPhones and iPods with some resell value.
Now, all of the company's stores will recycle any Apple product at no charge. Gift cards won't be handed out for all recycled products.
Apple's commitment to helping the environment began in 2005 when the company launched an iPod recycling program where it rewarded customers with a 10 percent discount to buy a new iPod if they handed in their old one. Soon after, it extended that recycling program to include computers — Macs or PCs.
More from AAP
No GST charged for Netflix in NZ
Apple lifts NZ profit
Merkel urges closer tech ties with China
Lyft closes $530 million funding round


text:
The Real Housewives of New York: Ramona Gets an Intervention
After what seems like half my lifetime, the Real Housewives of New York City are back!
By Patrick Varone
Is this week 10 of the trip to the Berkshires? It feels longer. After all the women made a pact to have a Ramona-themed intervention, they must have then tossed back seven gallons of tequila because the next morning they're as hungover as I am on Wednesdays. I can't even imagine what it must be like to wake up hungover with a camera crew in your face asking you to start filming.
Despite still being three sheets to the wind, the ladies have to attend a 9 a.m. outdoor yoga class. Everyone is an absolute disaster, but no one seems to be in worse shape than Sonja. She's so hungover she can barely flirt with the instructor or immediately come up with a brand of yoga mats to start selling by the end of the episode. Luckily, everyone is doing downward dogs and talking about how gassy they are. Remember when you had to have a talent to be on national television? Those were the days.
Once they're back on the mainland, the ladies hatch a plan to get Ramona to a restaurant so they can quickly hold an impromptu intervention before she has to jet off to The Hamptons again. I bet if they just leave a trail of wine corks along the streets of NYC, she'll find her way. It's pretty ridiculous that they want to confront Ramona about her behavior when in reality they should be thanking her for giving any life to this season at all. If it weren't for Ramona, we'd still be talking about Aviva's book. So Ramona likes to drink wine and chronically curl her bangs on camera—is that a crime?
Everyone makes it out to Ramona's intervention except Kristen, who thinks it's just "too soon" to be around Ramona again. Now, the most important component of a televised intervention really is the seating, and that's something that Heather and Luann both know. The goal is to get Ramona into the booth and then bookend her with a woman who could bench-press her on the regular. This woman, of course, is Luann. I have to say that I'm really liking Luann better this season, especially because she refers to herself as a linebacker for the 49ers. Bravo! (Pun intended.)
Once Ramona awkwardly shows up—clearly sensing that something is going on —most of the women flee to go to the "bathroom." After a few minutes their seating plan works, and Ramona is boxed in like a Fiat parallel parked in between two 18-wheelers at a truck stop. After about 11 seconds of pleasantries, Luann immediately asks Ramona if she had fun at Molly Sims' party in The Hamptons. They're dropping Molly Sims' name like it's royalty until our unsung hero, Carole, asks who the hell Molly Sims is, and if anyone is supposed to know her.
The line of questioning continues, and Ramona gets all skittish and starts shaking, spitting, and blinking like she's under attack. If you've ever wanted to witness a breakdown in action, well, now's the time. She's covering her ears and shouting, "I feel like you're yelling, Luann, I feel like you're yelling." Oddly enough, after a few minutes of confronting Ramona, Luanne decides to apologize and say that she was wrong, mainly in order to simply diffuse the situation. That Ramona, smart as a fox. Sly as a fox? Sharp as a tack. Either way, she's not going to lose at a game of "gotcha gotcha." She's probably just psyched that no one is bringing up alleged "Mario cheating" rumors. Sidestepped that landmine!
Other things happen during the episode, like Kristen and her husband hating each other on national television for another week. Yawn. However, the real fun begins when Luann and Jacques have a double date with Carole and some guy they're setting her up with. Since they don't want to create a spectacle, they make sure this is filmed at an outdoor restaurant in Rockefeller Center. I'm sure there aren't any tourists around those parts.
The date is going well, and by "well" I mean Carole is buzzed enough to talk to her date about orgasms and oral sex. So, you know, there's that. Luann looks slightly horrified, but also like she's enjoying it. Carole seems like a fun gal. I'm not sure if I put this out there before, but I'd like to split a 30-pack of Bud Light Lime with her. Carole, if you're there reading this, please shoot me an email to let me know where to meet you with the beer.
By the end of the episode, Ramona is meeting Kristen to have a lip-to-lip discussion about what actually went down in the Berkshires. Ramona arrives early, while Kristen struts up the street and enters the restaurant like she has the soundtrack to Rocky playing in her head. The second she sits down, Ramona gets up, and Kristen just whispers to herself, "Oh God she's standing."
Within seconds, Ramona is handing Kristen two dozen roses and apologizing for how poorly she behaved. Kristen is stunned. I actually do think Ramona is sorry, but she's even more disappointed the whole incident was caught on camera. Instead of just accepting her apology, Kristen basically confronts Ramona all over again, which just seems weird at this point. Someone should have yelled "cut!" and told Kristen her scene was no longer making sense.
In the end, they don't end up ordering anything to eat or drink, and the waiter looks pissed. I don't blame him. Kristen takes her flowers and walks out. At least she beat Ramona to the punch—especially since Ramona claims she had to go pick up Avery and head to The Hamptons. For those of you playing along at home right now... BINGO!
Read more from Patrick on his blog and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Oil prices have changed in different directions in the world markets.
On the New York Stock Exchange NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) cost of the Light crude oil has increased $0.06 to trade at $56.99, as well price of British Brent crude oil at the London ICE (InterContinental Exchange Futures) has fallen $0.3 to stand at $64.83.
The Marketing and Economic Operations Department of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) informed that, the price of a barrel of Azeri Light crude oil has increased $0.1 to stand at $65.43 in the world markets.


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Metropolitan Museum Presents Paul Poiret
By Ruzan Haruriunyan 2007-01-18 07:47
Paul Poiret - who at the height of his career in pre-World War I France was the undisputed "King of Fashion" and whose sweeping vision led to a new silhouette that liberated women from the corset and introduced the shocking colors and exotic references of the Ballets Russes to the haute couture - will be celebrated with a landmark exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 9 through August 5, 2007. He has not been the focus of a major museum exhibition in more than 30 years.
"The historic significance and influence, up to the present day, of Poiret's work is breathtaking," said Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute. "He pioneered a self-confident modernity based on woman's seductive femininity, and envisioned a 'total lifestyle' that extended from how she should dress, to what fragrance she should wear and how she should decorate her home - an approach reflected in the strategies of many of today's fashion houses." Presented in a series of tableaux, the garments on view will highlight the multiple facets of his astonishing inventiveness - including the beauty of his draped, unstructured fabrics and his fascination with the Ballets Russes, the Wiener Werkstätte, Orientalism and the 1001 Nights-will be complemented by paintings, illustrations, sculpture, and other objects that explicate his much broader artistic vision. At the core of the exhibition will be a grouping of the stunning creations acquired by the Metropolitan in the much-heralded 2005 sale of clothing from Poiret's estate."
The exhibition is made possible by Balenciaga. Additional support has been provided by Condé Nast.
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, the Museum's Costume Institute Benefit Gala will take place on Monday, May 7, 2007. François-Henri Pinault will serve as Honorary Chair of the Gala. Co-Chairs will be actress Cate Blanchett, Nicolas Ghesquière, Creative Director of Balenciaga, and Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue.
More than any other designer of the 20th century, Paul Poiret - who is credited both with liberating women by making the corset démodé and with restricting their gait with narrow-hemmed hobble skirts - elevated fashion to the status of art. Like the artists with whom he collaborated, Poiret's work was fueled by the dominant discourses of the day, including Classicism, Orientalism, Symbolism, and Primitivism. The "Pasha of Paris," as he was known, was responsible for introducing the vivid colors of the Fauvists and the exotic references of the Ballets Russes to the haute couture. Poiret's protean genius also extended beyond fashion to the realms of art, theatre, architecture, and interior design. As well as discussing his design legacy, the exhibition will focus on Poiret's collaborations with such artists as Paul Iribe, Georges Barbier, and Georges Lepape. Poiret's designs will be presented in a series of vignettes evocative of the drawings of these artists for such fashion periodicals as Art Goûx Beauté and La Gazette du Bon Ton.
The exhibition will include several garments from the May 2005 Paris auction of the private collection of Paul Poiret's descendants, many of which had never before been photographed or put on public display. The Metropolitan Museum acquired several of these garments - which were made for Poiret's wife Denise, who was his muse and wore his designs without any concession to prevailing tastes - at the auction.
While apprenticing in his teens to an umbrella maker, Paul Poiret entered the world of fashion when he sold some of his sketches to Madeleine Cheruit at her Paris fashion house. After stints with designers Doucet and Worth, he opened his own house in 1903 and was boosted by the patronage of Réjane, a famous actress of the period, among others. In his groundbreaking designs, he led the way to the chemise dress (later refined through a reductive modernism by Chanel and his other rivals) with his revival of Directoire silhouettes and his referencing of the simple cuts of ethnic costume. In 1911 he became the first fashion designer to create and market his own perfume, which he named after Rosine, his first daughter.
Also in 1911, he created a series of workshops for the production of fabrics, furniture, and a range of decorative objects as an extension of his overall aesthetic. He and his wife were renowned for their glamorous excess and sumptuous entertaining, marked by fêtes such as the now-legendary "Thousand and Second Night" party in June 1911 - at which all of the guests were required to wear appropriate costume. Poiret spent the last decade of his life in debt, having been superseded by other designers including Coco Chanel and Jean Patou. As the famous, and perhaps apocryphal, story is told, of the 1920s chance encounter between the "King of Fashion" and young Coco Chanel: Poiret inquired of the black-clad Chanel, "For whom, madame, do you mourn?" to which Chanel replied, "For you, monsieur." -- www.metmuseum.org
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Singing the All Blacks blues
October 31, 2019 January 15, 2020 Platypus Man4 Comments
Ever since we arrived in New Zealand the country has been in the grip of World Cup fever. The rugby union World Cup is in full swing in Japan and the New Zealand All Blacks, the current holders of the title and widely acknowledged to be the best team in the world, are expected to win.
By world standards New Zealand is a small nation with a tiny population. Rugby union is the one sport at which this country excels, and as such it is a source of national pride which helps bring people and communities together.
All Blacks flags, shirts and memorabilia are everywhere
Unsurprisingly therefore, wherever we've been we have seen All Blacks flags, shirts and memorabilia, and ordinary Kiwis have wanted to talk to us about the competition in Japan. On our flight from Palmerston North to Christchurch we were even treated to some rugby-themed chocolate cookies. Over here, rugby gets into everything.
Rugby-themed cookies, courtesy of New Zealand Air
New Zealand have been doing very well, as expected, so your average Kiwi is feeling quite chipper. However in the semi-final they are to play England, who've also had a good competition to date. Over here the semi-final starts at 9.00pm, and our host at Bushy Park homestead has arranged for the match to be shown on a large-screen television in the lounge.
About 15 people are crammed into the lounge. Someone asks brightly "So I guess everyone here's supporting the All Blacks?"
"No," I reply in my best English accent, "We're backing the other lot."
A murmur goes round the room. It isn't hostile – New Zealanders are decent folk, and the only people they really dislike are Aussies – but it's more like an expression of pity. They know the All Blacks are the best in the world, and are worried that we'll be humiliated when they give England a damn good thrashing.
The match starts and the Kiwis are confounded. The English are playing out of their skins and the All Blacks aren't being allowed to settle into their normal rhythm. After a few minutes the English have scored and a sigh of dismay echoes round the room. Mrs P and I say nothing, just keep our heads down and pretend we're not there. But inside we're deliriously happy.
The New Zealand contingent are confident their boys will turn it around, but England continue to outplay them. Half time arrives with the All Blacks still well behind and looking out of sorts.
Our host, in an attempt to distract his guests from the disaster unfolding in Japan brings a Puriri moth for us to admire. There's been a hatching this evening, and there are hundreds of them flying around the homestead.
Puriri moths are huge and green and, in the case of the males, desperately tragic. They spend up to seven years as a caterpillar and no more than two days as an adult moth. Their role is simple: to mate with a female Puriri, after which their job is done and they swiftly fade away and die. Such is their limited life expectancy that the males are born without mouths, so a post-coital snack is clearly out of the question.
I wonder, as we all gaze sympathetically at the wretched male Puriri, if this isn't a metaphor for England's game against the All Blacks, a brief and dazzling performance lasting just a few minutes followed pretty much immediately by an inevitable decline and fall.
But no, I'm being unnecessarily pessimistic. England start the second half as they ended the first, and although the All Blacks score they never seem likely to overhaul their opponents. Slowly, disconsolately, our fellow spectators quit the lounge before the game is over, quietly singing the All Blacks blues. By the time the referee blows the final whistle and England start their celebrations only Mrs P and I, and two grim-faced Kiwis, remain.
It has been an extraordinary experience, watching this match with a bunch of people to whom it plainly means so much. In the days that follow several New Zealanders speak to us about the game. They are magnanimous in defeat, and say their team was outclassed and England were worthy winners.
The New Zealanders are down but not out. Rugby union means far more to citizens of this country than it does to the English. There will be an inquest, a re-evaluation and some re-building. Probably a few heads will roll. But as Bill Shankly once said in relation to soccer, rugby union isn't a matter of life or death in New Zealand: it's far more important than that.
Don't expect New Zealanders to be singing the All Blacks blues for long.
Critters, North Island, People, SportAll Blacks, Insects, Moths, New Zealand, Puriri, Rugby union, Rugby world cup, Tourism, Travel


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Vampires or Gods? by William Meyers
Book: Vampire or Gods: The True Stories of the Ancient Immortals
Author: William Meyers
Type of Book: Non-fiction (sort of), supernatural, paranormal, alternative history
Why Do I Consider This Book Odd: If you were to substitute vampires for aliens in some of the more accessible "alien intervention" conspiracy theories, you'd end up with something like this book. Also the dude on the cover who is eating grape is… unsettling.
Availability: Published by III Publishing in 1993, it's out of print but you can still get a copy from second-hand sellers on Amazon:
Comments: Halloween looms so what better time to dig out and discuss this relic. It's strange at times to consider the enormity of weird information available to us and how normalized such weirdness has become. That's been a boon for people like me, and presumably anyone reading this, but it's fun to revisit books that predate the rise of the Internet. This book is a hoot and there's a reasonably good chance that even ardent readers of this site may not have heard of this title. As time permits, hopefully I can discuss more hidden, somewhat Halloween-ie media that may appeal to those looking for creepy stuff with a nice fringe. We'll see, I can't even believe Halloween is this week. I don't even have pumpkins yet. Time is not so much slipping into the future, to paraphrase Steve Miller, as it is hurtling into some quantum physical state wherein time speeds up and keeps speeding up. Someone tried to explain "Schuman Resonance" to me once and it was like trying to teach a dog stoic philosophy so enough about that. Let's discuss some vampiric high weirdness.
This is a book that is easy to summarize but very hard to discuss in depth. The concept is easy: William Meyers believes that the old gods, and the new, were actually real people who once lived very long lives, thousands of years in some cases, and they were so long-lived because they were/are vampires. He thinks the historical record, as well as common themes that run through world religions, points to vampirism being a part of our world since human beings organized enough to need or appreciate governments and spiritually dogmatic beliefs.
I walk a fine line when it comes to conspiracy theory. It's very subjective as to whether or not something like this is harmful. Martin Gardner would think so and we can all agree he was way smarter than me. But I am not bothered by this as much as I am the recent "false flag" trends that cause cretins to harass the families of dead children and deny the existence of bomb victims. This is not as horrible to me as shady purveyors of "non-Western medicine" who convince hopeless cancer victims that medical science is evil, driven only by profits and making them sicker via chemo, and then sell those cancer sufferers very expensive crystals or pyramids or instructions for miserable regimens of coffee enemas out of the goodness of their hearts.
This book is entertaining conspiracy, a form of alternate history that shows how creatively human beings can weave together disparate ideas into a larger tapestry that tries to tell the story of humanity. And it seems to do little harm. I don't see holy wars or anti-vaccination screeds or weird instructions on how to mutilate the genitals of children springing forth from this theory. And that's not just because this theory requires both a belief that mythological gods were once living beings AND that vampires are real, something that will require a huge leap of faith in the average reader. Rather, this attempt to explain interesting correlations in religious stories and how they all point to a world shaped and ruled by vampires is not a dogmatic belief system.
It's the dogma that gets you. It's always the dogma. And without dogma we've got ourselves a fun, sometimes bizarre, interpretation of recorded human history. (And to be perfectly honest, I review this book with the mindset and influence of Mac Tonnies, a brilliant examiner of alien-oriented theories for whom the conversation was as important as the "truth." I may not believe much but I still find myself examining theories like this with Tonnies in mind, willing to muse about the idea as much as its validity. Well, I do that when it doesn't seem too harmful, but even so I still cut conspiracy theorists a lot of slack. That I let them leave comments here at all is a testament to the legacy of the importance of discussion that the late Tonnies fostered.)
Just in case anyone thinks that Meyers is just positing and not endorsing the notion that vampires are real and that Set and Cybele and Dionysus and many others were all vampires who actually walked the earth once as humans or humanoids, let me disabuse you of that notion:
…there is the possibility that we are not dealing, in the case of vampire-gods, with humans at all. Perhaps they are a distinct species, related to man as man is related to gorillas. Or the gods were a result of a mating between immortal beings and ordinary humans, as is claimed in the stories of Dionysus, Hercules, Jesus Christ and others. Perhaps the rash of women claiming to have been abducted by UFO's in the past two decades will find that their children are immortal or have unusual abilities.
One informant who claims to know real "vampires," humans who do not age or age only slowly, says that while they are not sure what causes their condition, a common theory is that it is simply a rare and recessive gene or set of genes. This could explain why most immortals chronicled in this book were the result of some sort of sexual liaison that today is considered incest.
Yep, Meyers believes gods were living beings and even goes so far as to try to explain their origins. What makes this so awesome for me is that as he tries to offer explanations for these gods, he invokes mainstream science in the form of evolution and recessive genetics AND marries his theory with other stories of external beings manipulating mankind. Alien intervention, alien abduction and possibly even the biblical stories of Nephilim and giants mating with humans can stand alongside Meyers' vampire-god theories. I love this sort of synthesis, a combination of all the ways of interpreting and explaining the world around us.
However, Meyer does offer some caution when examining his ideas.
One definition of Gods that fits our subjects is "various beings conceived as supernatural, immortal, and having special powers over the lives and affairs of people." However, with the rise of monotheism each religious cult claimed its particular God was the Supreme and only Deity. A Roman or Greek had several Gods to choose from, and might, in good judgement, at one point serve Mars and at another Venus. Modern worshippers usually put all their eggs in one basket.
To believe that rising from the dead is sufficient to be credentialed as the Supreme Being is to put yourself at grave risk. You may not be worshipping a God, but a vampire. The vampire, to preserve its own immortality, is likely to be more interested in your soul or life energy than in mere blood.
This is some fascinating stuff right here. In this explanation, Meyers tells us that he believes that perhaps some of the gods were not human-vampire hybrids with an interest in this world as a place to benignly shepherd mankind but rather see us lambs to the slaughter. So if you decide to worship Vampire Jesus, bear in mind that he could be a vampire and perhaps the Norse pantheon with a variety of Gods to choose from may enable the believer to hedge some bets.
So with that caveat in mind, it just gets more delightfully weird. Of course, transubstantiation of blood to wine, emphasis on martyrdom and resurrection of the martyrs, and consumption of flesh both symbolic and literal are going to play heavily in this book so I won't belabor those points. And even though this book is relatively easy to read and can be completely read in an evening, it covers almost every set of religious beliefs from the beginning of recorded history (Islam and Buddhism don't seem to be vampire-infested). No matter how short a book may be, if it attempts to prove even in brief surveys that most religions are made up of vampire-gods who once were mortals, probably royals, who died and were resurrected and pose terrible risks for us regular humans, you can't really summarize it effectively unless you want to write an entirely new book, which I am often prone to do but don't have time for at the moment. So instead I want to share with you some of the more interesting statements Meyers made about world religions infested with vampires.
The first damn sentence in the first damn religious analysis and we're off to the races. Regarding Egyptian gods:
Osiris is the most ancient immortal of whom there is record. We can trace his rise from approximately just before or during the first dynasty of the ancient Egyptians – about 3100 B.C. He was still a powerful vampire-god until at least 400 A.D. Osiris was originally the king of a small city-state, and after his death and resurrection became the central figure of Egyptian religion and perhaps the true power behind the long procession of kingly dynasties.
But where would Osiris be without Isis:
It's very likely that Isis, who in the legends became an immortal and god in her own right, was either Osiris's mortal wife/queen or was already immortal when she decided to restore him to life.
He would be nowhere, as it seems like she was the alpha/omega of vampires:
It is important to note that she never died. Therefore she can be regarded as the source-stream of immortality.
There has to be a first cause uncaused and it appears as if Isis may be it for the vampire-gods, or at least the Egyptian pantheon. It's kind of a daring move on Meyers' part to impart that status to Isis, a female god.
Meyers isn't afraid to get down with even obscure godhead. Regarding the cult of Cybele:
Cybele is a doubly enigmatic figure, an incarnation of the Earth Mother, possibly once the female almighty god, she was greatly reduced in stature by the replacement of matriarchal by patriarchal society and religion. […]
The Greeks identified Cybele with a variety of female gods, including Rhea, the mother of Zeus. Hera was a sanitized good-wife version of the Earth Mother, and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, acted as another manifestation. The Romans called Cybele Mater Deum Magna Idaea – Great Idaean Mother of the Gods. In other places she was called Inanna, Ishtar, Anat, Atargatis, Dictynna, Baubo, or Allat. Her cult was established in Rome after her priestesses said Hannibal would be expelled if she were worshipped in Rome; he was and her temple as set up there on 204 B.C.
But was she a vampire-god?
Was Cybele merely a symbol, or did she have an actual human existence? It is thought that she, and sometimes her followers, were baptized in the blood of a bull, giving them eternal life. […] Doubtless most of Cybele's temples were staffed only by priests and statues, but it is most likely that a real woman or women were behind the cult, which took real blood offerings. When she died, and how long she lived, we do not know.
As an aside, this is an interesting idea, that the first cause uncaused in this vampire-god universe Meyers believes in may be a woman and that other older cults were created by and run by women. Go girls! But then again they were vampires who, you know, fed on the mortal living, so, really, it's hard to know if this is really a score for womankind. Still, interesting to consider.
Let's talk about Mithras:
The earliest known mention of Mithras dates from the fourteenth century before Christ. Like most other vampire religions, his lasted until about the fourth century A.D., when it was forcibly supplanted by Roman Christianity. […]
Unlike some of the other ancient immortals, there is no clear record of his conversion from an ordinary man to an immortal; he enters history as a god. Moreso than many of the other gods, however, he interacted directly with people, rather than representing some remote natural force.
He was a vampire-god of the people:
Mithras was a model vampire; one of the greats who most contributed to the modern vampire "myth". True, he did not drink human blood. Rather, he was almost always depicted as slaying a bull, and it was the bull's blood that conferred immortality [another legend says it was a mixture of bull fat and soma that was the true elixir]. Very likely the bull was symbolic, though bones of bulls are commonly found when Mithras's temples are excavated. The bull was represented by the constellation Taurus, and also was the symbol of the Egyptian vampire Osiris. Very likely it meant that Mithras either defeated Osiris in battle or that Mithras had drunk Osiris's blood in order to gain immortality.
Meyers goes on to close the loop between blood, flesh consumption and resurrection, as he does in all his analyses, so it continues in this fashion, each chapter stating his assertions of vampirism and quoting historical documents he thinks back up his case. In addition to Egyptian and various Mesopotamian gods, Meyers addresses Greek and Roman pantheons (with a very interesting notion that Caligula, one of the few "gods" discussed whom we can reliably believe actually was alive and human at one point, was a vampire), Aztec gods, and Taoism, as well as a chapter about the King Daddy of all vampires, Vlad Tepes.
Just for a moment, imagine Meyers lived before Jesus came, somewhere in Near-East Asia, and was looking at the stars, thinking of stories of other lands told to him by exotic travelers, wondering why blood seemed to come up so often in the stories of the gods, he may well have managed to create an overarching mythos not dissimilar to this one. Meyers of course had access to so much more information but he distilled it in the nature of the mythic story-teller, and in such cases being interesting is far more important than being right. If you read this book, read it with that thought in mind. Weird ideas make the world so much more interesting.
Plus this book can give the fan of vampire lore a new focus on the topic. Others have gone down this road before (I cannot even attempt to incorporate the ideas of "bug" hunters, the elite forces who are said to investigate vampires who have infiltrated the American government, mainly because I don't have time, I don't know whether these people are genuine in their beliefs, and clicking to any "official" site will cause your computer to burst into viral flames) and the whole "Jesus was a vampire, that's why Christians drink blood" argument is certainly nothing novel. But this book preceded most such musing. It's terribly earnest, almost naive in its approach, and while it doesn't engage in much lurid speculation about the goals of vampire-gods, this theory can definitely lend itself well to frightening ruminations about the way of the vampire-gods and what they intend for us all.
Posted on October 29, 2018 October 28, 2018 by anitadaltonin BooksTagged: cybele, goddesses, gods, halloween, isis, mithras, osiris, Vampires, william meyers
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