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Brindabella Airlines Pty Ltd, действующая как Brindabella Airlines, — австралийская региональная авиакомпания со штаб-квартирой в городе Канберра, работающая в сфере коммерческих перевозок на авиалиниях небольшой протяжённости. Входит в группу Qantas Group.

Портом приписки авиакомпании и её главным транзитным узлом (хабом) является международный аэропорт Канберры.

История
Brindabella Airlines была образована в 1994 году и начала операционную деятельность с выполнения корпоративных чартерных заказов и предоставления услуг по техническому обслуживанию воздушных судов бизнес-авиации. В 2000 году авиакомпания открыта собственный тренировочный центр подготовки пилотов, а в апреле 2003 года получила разрешение на регулярные пассажирские перевозки по региональным маршрутам. Центр подготовки был закрыт в середине 2010 года. Ранее авиакомпания принадлежала частным инвесторам Джеффри Бойду и Ларе Корри-Бойд, в настоящее время находится под управлением Aeropelican Air Services. Штат перевозчика насчитывает более 80 сотрудников.

В декабре 2005 года Brindabella Airlines получила премию за наилучший, по мнению компании «Rhodium ACT», туристический сервис среди всех авиакомпаний Австралии. В августе следующего года авиакомпания была удостоена ещё двух премий — «ACT Telstra Business Awards 2006» (лучшая компания страны в категории компаний с числом сотрудников от 20 до 50 человек) и «AMP Innovation Award» за внедрение инновационных методов ведения бизнеса.

В декабре 2007 года Brindabella Airlines заключила договор на поставку двух самолётов BAe Jetstream 41, первый из которых ввела в эксплуатацию 5 мая следующего года. В настоящее время оба лайнера используются главным образом на маршрутах Брисбен-Тамуорт и Канберра-Ньюкасл.

В 2011 году авиакомпания Aeropelican Air Services приобрела контрольный пакет акций Brindabella Airlines.

Маршрутная сеть

В апреле 2012 года маршрутная сеть регулярных перевозок авиакомпании Brindabella Airlines включала в себя следующие пункты назначения:
 международный аэропорт Канберра (Канберра)
 аэропорт Кобар (Кобар)
 аэропорт Ньюкасла (Ньюкасл)
 аэропорт Коффс-Харбор (Коффс-Харбор)
 аэропорт Брисбен (Брисбен)
 аэропорт Сиднея (Сидней)
 аэропорт Тамуорт (Тамуорт)
 аэропорт Кума — Снежные Горы (Кума)

5 сентября 2005 года Brindabella Airlines открыла новый регулярный рейс из Канберры в аэропорт Латроб-Валли (Траралгон, Виктория), использовавшийся в-основном государственными служащими, летавшими из столицы страны в главный офис Австралийской комиссии по ценным бумагам и инвестициям в Траралгоне. В мае следующего года авиакомпания была вынуждена прекратить регулярные перевозки по данному маршруту вследствие недостаточной коммерческой загрузки самолётов — по сообщению руководства перевозчика убыток от эксплуатации маршрута составил 200 тысяч долларов США.

В августе 2006 года Brindabella Airlines и Sunshine Express Airlines подписали соглашение об открытии под брендом «Brindabella Airlines» регулярных рейсов по ряду аэропортов побережья Нового Южного Уэльса, полёты по которым должны были осуществляться авиакомпанией-партнёром. 1 октября того же года были запущены регулярные перевозки между аэропортами городов Порт-Маккуори, Коффс-Харбор и Брисбеном.

В апреле 2008 года руководство Brindabella Airlines объявило о введении прямого авиасообщения между Тамуортом и Брисбеном. Полёты по данному маршруту сначала осуществлялись только по рабочим дням, затем рейсы стали ежедневными. В мае месяце 2010 года авиакомпания сообщила об открытии с 5 июля ещё одного маршрута Брисбен-Мори-Брисбен, рейсы по которому до настоящего времени выполняются по рабочим дням.

15 ноября 2012 года Brindabella Airlines сообщила о получении пятилетней лицензии Транспортного управления Нового Южного Уэльса на право выполнения регулярных пассажирских рейсов между Сиднеем и Мори. Авиакомпания планирует совершить первый рейс по этому маршруту 30 марта 2013 года с дальнейшим его обслуживанием на самолётах BAe Jetstream 41.

Флот

В августе 2011 года воздушный флот авиакомпании Brindabella Airlines составляли восемь самолётов:
 5 Fairchild SA227-AC Metro III
 2 BAe Jetstream 41
 1 Piper PA-31 Navajo — используется для тренировочных полётов

Примечания

Ссылки

 Официальный сайт авиакомпании Brindabella Airlines
 Brindabella Airlines Air Operator Certificate (PDF)

Авиакомпании Австралии


Sunday Money Roundup - Nordstrom Rack Edition.
Sunday Money Roundup – Nordstrom Rack Edition.
Five Cent Nickel answers a reader question – "Will Moving to a Higher Income Tax Bracket Cost You Money?" Um, no, not really. But why not?
The Wisdom Journal wants you to Eat Your Own Dog Food.
Money Smart Life explains the 9 Mistakes People Make with their IRA. Don't make these mistakes!
No Credit Needed talks about the Principles Reinforced By A Television Show "" Holmes On Homes. Good read, for sure.
Finance for a Freelance Life answers the questions What Is the Time Value of Money? as part of her Textbook Personal Finance series.
Single Guy Money has the Bachelor's Guide To Savings. Good thing I learned most of these the last time I was single!
BudgetPulse talks about How Credit Cards Can be Used for Budgeting. I use them for budgeting myself, great topic.
Thanks for mentioning the IRA mistake post. I can't take credit for it though, it was a guest post from Oblivious Investor.
Thanks for the mention David.


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Buddy Guy - Born To Play Guitar
ARCA 20371
No. of Discs: 2
or Add to Wishlist
2016 Grammy Award winner - Best Blues Album
2016 Blues Foundation Blues Music Awards, Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Blues Album
The all-new album from the blues icon!
Gatefold double LP
Featuring guest appearances by Van Morrison, Joss Stone and Kim Wilson
Buddy Guy, the legendary award winning blues icon, presents his brand new studio album Born To Play Guitar on July 31st via RCA Records. The follow-up to his 2013 double disc release, Rhythm & Blues, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart, Born To Play Guitar is produced by Grammy Award-winning producer/songwriter and Buddy's longtime collaborator Tom Hambridge.
The recent recipient of the 2015 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Buddy Guy's incredible career spans more than 50 years with just as many albums released.
His career highlights include seven Grammy Awards, 28 Blues Music Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, NARM Chairman's Award for Sustained Creative Achievement, Billboard Music Awards' Century Award for distinguished artistic development, Presidential National Medal of Arts, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to name a few.
1. Born To Play Guitar
2. Wear You Out - feat. Billy Gibbons
3. Back Up Mama
4. Too Late – feat. Kim Wilson
5. Whiskey, Beer & Wine
6. Kiss Me Quick – feat. Kim Wilson
7. Crying Out Of One Eye
8. (Baby) You Got What It Takes – feat. Joss Stone
9. Turn Me Wild
10. Crazy World
11. Smarter Than I Was
12. Thick Like Mississippi Mud
13. Flesh & Bone – with Van Morrison
14. Come Back Muddy
Be the first to write a review for this item OR just rate it
View other items by Buddy Guy
in Vinyl Record
1. Significant Other
2. Adore
3. Search For The New Land
4. Maggot Brain
6. Teenage Dream
7. Pork Soda
8. Cruel Country
9. Dreamboat Annie
10. Workin' With The Miles Davis Quintet
11. Loud
12. Blur: The Best Of
13. Supernatural
14. Portrait In Jazz
15. Audioslave
View our Top 50 Vinyl Record

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tomb of Annihilation Additions: Adventurers League
Last year I embarked on the most in-depth, detailed series of posts for this blog to date, as I dug into the Tomb of Annihilation campaign and sourcebook for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Thousands of words in, and with dozens of research hours burned, the end result was a three-part series which can be found here. At the end of it, a reader pointed out that in their experience with Adventurers League (AL) material, that some of the issues I had taken up were expanded on. While I stand fast on my DM Guild works position (they are not canon), AL is canon, and deserved a full examination with the same critical eye.
For those not tracking, Adventurers League is the official organized play apparatus of WotC. For ToA, the AL material is still being produced, and for the purposes of this review and analysis I read DDAL07-01 to DDAL07-08. These being A City on the Edge, Over the Edge, A Day at the Races, A Walk in the Park, Whispers in the Dark, Fester and Burn, Rotting Roots, and Putting the Dead to Rest. More has been released, but we have a new baby so gaming funds are limited.
Not that much. The eight adventures I read didn't significantly improve or add to the sub-setting of Chult. The only thing I was impressed by was the dinosaur racing adventure, mostly because it broke from the mini dungeon-crawl pattern happening elsewhere. It was fun to read, and I imagine, would be crazy fun to play.
What Went Okay
Monster Use. In ToA, the classic (if underutilized) foes of the region, the Yuan-ti and undead, finally get some love in these adventures. Likewise, the Grung get a decent amount of attention. The reason this didn't get bumped up into the "What Went Well" was twofold. There's no real sense of threat from the Yuan-ti, and there's oddball things, like Hobgoblin monks, tossed in seemingly at random and out of sync with the established setting standards.
Another area of monster use that went okay but could have gone better was the addition of a set of monster NPCs, specifically a Grung, a team of Weretigers, and a village of good Yuan-ti. The use of these monsters was creative and, within the context of the game, a bit groundbreaking. However, no stats or directions for Grung or Weretiger player characters, and no direction to Volo's Guide to Monsters for the Yuan-ti stat info. There was also no explanation for why any of the monsters being "good" or why they were being accepted, especially given the violent histories of all of them with, well, everyone.
What Went Poorly
Names. Names have rhyme and reason, and follow patterns, rules, and so on. You know, because they're part of a language and how a people speaking it shape the world around them. Naming conventions in fantasy tend to get treated a little loosely because "fantasy"; be there's a limit before you shake your head and look sideways at what you're reading. The "Chultan" names in this were awful. It was like someone said "This sounds African, use it." with the same cavalier, colonial attitude and point of view that amalgamated Africa's hundreds of distinct ethnic groups and cultures into one. This was a chance to do culture construction, and it was flubbed. Badly. This falls heavily on what I discussed in the earlier reviews about how "African" is not a single, monolithic culture, and how WotC would have been better served by picking something specific to pattern off of.
Chultans and Chultans. Who is a Chultan? Is it a person from one of the ethnic groups formerly known as the Eshowe, Tabaxi, and Thinguth; or is it anyone born in Chult? This cropped up in a description for an NPC (Pozzana), who is of Amnian descent, but was born and raised in Chult. She's described as a "Chultan mercenary", then given a non-ethnic Chultan description, and then this racism laiden gem follows: "Pozzanna's family was originally from Amn, but she was born and raised in Chult. As a result, her personality and demeanor exhibit those dual influences: the civilized calculation of an Amnite mixed with the wild savagery of a Chultan." (Over the Edge, 2017) Because heaven forbid a Black culture 4000+ years old who once had one of the most advanced and peaceful cities on the continent be described as "civilized". So, who is a Chultan in this world? Because other regions maintain a difference between ethnic/cultural origin and nationality. This is more noticeable since "Chult" is a region, not a people, culture, or nation.
Lore use. Lore about Chult and its peoples and the old faith of Ubtao is not well established in the minds of the player base, and much of it harks back to 2e AD&D's "Jungles of Chult". None of it was referenced, or explained in the ToA book itself either. So things like "Spiritlords of Ubtao" were just thrown out casually like everyone was supposed to know what it meant. Likewise, Ubtao was referenced a lot too, with no explanations as to his current status, where he fits into the current culture, or anything else.
Politics. The politics of Chult, and more specifically Port Nyanzaru (because it's the only city of note), are still underdeveloped and make little sense. Port Nyanzaru has a non-functional system of governance, that runs at odds with both the background of the Chultan people and is maladapted to the situation Port Nyanzaru is in. There's no standing military (an issue given they are literally surrounded by undead, dinosaurs, undead dinosaurs, pirates, batiri goblins, pterafolk, Yuan-ti, lizardfolk, and have foreign powers deploying in their area of influence), and no, mercenary companies beholden to individual merchant princes do not make up for it. There's no constabulary or judiciary; so that's a fairly serious problem in a large, geospatially confined population. And finally, the existing power structures are unstable in the extreme, not something that bodes well in the extremely hazardous environment Port Nyanzaru is in.
Accents. Very few things can add character to something as fast as writing dialogue in an accent. Building on that, very few things can go from "adding ambiance" to "how racist do we want to go with this" as fast as writing out accents. These works trended towards the latter. Also, I had been under the impression that Chult was an African inspired operation. Based on the written accents, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were playing in Faerûn's equivalent of Pirates of the Caribbean's Port Royal. Bad pirate accents, offensively grinding patois are all present, and doing nothing to build the setting up as anything distinct.
More Ruins. One of the big gripes I had in the original ToA review was that everything outside of Port Nyanzaru was either a colonial enclave or a ruin. The AL material I read added two new cities to the roster of the expanded history of Chult, Bulobo and Matolo. And, true to form from ToA, they're ruins. The region already has a dearth of opportunities outside of Port Nyanzaru, so piling more ruins on the situation doesn't do anything new or interesting.
Factions. Factions are a big thing in 5e D&D, and get used to drive subplots and extra components of adventures and campaigns. These AL modules went sideways in two ways with factions. For the traditional factions of the main continent, every single one of their agents in these adventures is a non-Chultan. Apparently the Harpers, Zhentarim, Order of the Guantlet, The Emerald Enclave, and the Lord's Alliance can't be bothered to recruit anyone local. The other way this went wrong it the Ytepka Society, which gets its own entry.
Ytepka Society. The Ytepka Society has roots back to 2e AD&D, where they were a secret society that did a half-assed job of monitoring and dealing with foreign arrivals in Chult. They were a joke then, and remain a joke in 5e. Credited with, somehow, with aiding the current merchant prince oligarchy in overthrowing the Amn based colonial powers in Port Nyanzaru, they now do… Nothing. Absolutely nothing. In any sort of sane world, they would be a cool, power behind the curtains kind of operation. But they aren't. The Ytepka Society could have been an awesome regional faction, but as it stands, they're just another lost opportunity.
Overall, I'm not impressed by what I saw in the eight modules I read for the AL expansion to ToA. There was still no connection to other supporting material, and still more missed opportunities than good worldbuilding. There was also a lot of regressive material that worked more to cement negative, racist stereotypes than to build the people of Chult into something that players would want to play as. I came into this with high hopes, and they just weren't realized.
In my original review, I expressed that Chult, unlike the North and Sword Coast, has had very little time put into it to create an effective footprint in the minds of the players. Where assumptions of knowledge can be made in relative safety in the more well-trod parts of the Realms, the same can't be done in areas that have been neglected. I appreciate that WotC is making the effort to normalize diversity in 5e D&D, I do; it's just that it's being done from a position that assumes that these places (like Chult, Turmish, Samarach, Thindol, The Mhair Peninsula, Elf-Harrow, Halruaa, Rethild, Dambrath etc…) have the same benefits of decades of regular use and literature. This isn't a good way to move forwards, because it fails to build the foundations for good storytelling, or lay out a compelling reason to play in the region as a main location similar to how the North or Sword Coast are.
Images used in this post are property of their respective owners, and are used here for review purposes.
tagged with 5th Edition, A City on the Edge, A Day at the Races, A Walk in the Park, Adventurers League, blerd, Chult, D&D, diversity, Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy roleplaying, Fester and Burn, Forgotten Realms, Over the Edge, Putting the Dead to Rest, racism, Review, roleplaying, Roleplaying Games, Rotting Roots, RPG, Tomb of Annihilation, Whispers in the Dark
Review and Revise
Hi Graeme: I think it would be great to get Graeme's Guide to Chult and/or Graeme's Guide to Running ToA Better. I would love to see all of your thoughtful analysis condensed into a practical guide that a DM could use at the table to overlay the existing adventure.
kenmarable
I'll second Scott's comment. I'd love to see that as well!
On my own, I have also been toying around with a re-imaging of ToA from the Chultan's perspective. It doesn't really change the adventure dramatically, but has completely different story hook(s) and then brings certain buried potential subplots more to the front (like the contested rulership of Omu between the Yuan-Ti, Ras Nsi, Mwaxanaré, and Zalkoré), doing more with Ras Nsi and his complicated background than just a making him a pitiful villain that even his own followers want to be rid of, investigating Ubtao's silence, etc. Perhaps cap it off with the PCs having the opportunity to become new barae and/or visit Hidden Mezro.
The pieces are all there, but mainly it needs new connective tissue. In fact, it could potentially even connect things together more thematically. In standard ToA, Acererak just picks Chult because it's "remote" and foreigners drop in, fight through some dungeons they have no personal stake in to defeat the bad guy at the end. However, re-imaging it from the perspective of the people who live there – not only has their land been devastated with their greatest city gone, but their god has fallen silent, foreigners see them as just a land to colonize (possibly not even worth that effort), and then Acererak shows up as the most egregious colonizer – both further ruining the land with spreading undead as well as twisting the Nine Gods to his purpose as cultural appropriation taken to it's most awful extreme. Foreigners want to stop this because of reincarnation or whatever, but for the people of Chult, this is their home that is under attack!
ToA could be about people saving their home and reclaiming what's theirs after devastating events. With Ubtao's silence, they are being forced to walk the maze back to him rather than relying on his guidance. It's about going from the being the children of Ubtao to the (far from poetically worded) grown adult workers of Ubtao in the world. Thematically, it could be about self-rule and autonomy and rebirth rather than a generic Allan Quartermain/Indiana Jones and the Lost Temple of Interchangeable-Threat. (Speaking of interchangeable – something else that bugged me is that if you replaced what's in the finale with some other big evil monster that must be stopped, does ANY of the other encounters or locations need to change? ToA has some interesting stuff in it, but the connective tissue REALLY needs help for a variety of reasons. That monster at the finale could have A LOT of story potential tying into the overall plot rather than just being a vacuum cleaner of souls.)
All right, I think is the only other post I'm going to "necro" today.
Thanks for writing all this up. While I'm not familiar with ToA, the things you point out here (and in your earlier reviews of the setting) are definitely cringe-worthy, and especially helpful food-for-thought (for me, a white game designer) to consider going forward.
I'll admit that I'm not a fan of Forgotten Realms, Adventurer's League, or late edition D&D, so I'm not particularly disposed to defending them anyway. But it's hard to look at these reviews and not see these issues as both thoughtless and insensitive. Dungeons & Dragons is a pretty fun game, and should be enjoyable to everyone; it's sad (though not particularly surprising) that it continues to be laced with the same institutionalized racism that permeates our society. Designers need to have more awareness…hell, we all do.
Pingback: Tomb of Annihilation Review Part 1: Chult in 5e | POCGamer
pukunui81
Not only all of that, but also the authors of A Day at the Races thought it was a good idea to co-opt the Maori 'haka' and turn it into a Chultan thing.


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Coal Country Commentary ~ Our Future is Clearly Renewable Energy
Solar panels and distributed generation are appropriate
Coal supporters continue to mislead on future of renewable energy
Op-Ed Commentary Letter by Allan Tweddle, Charleston Gazette, 5/26/21
The statements by the coal adherents in a story in Tuesday's Gazette-Mail surely are based on their GOP ("Greed Over People") obsessions. They obviously do not care about their children, if they have any, or any environmental future for all our generations to come.
Just like the polar bears are dying off due to climate change, and so many other species that are disappearing, we, the human species that are causing the climate change crisis, too will increasingly not have any food as the planet continues to heat up.
Statements like Republican Rep. Alex Mooney's claim that "eliminating fossil fuels will lead to job losses and unsustainable energy prices" have no basis in fact. Quite the opposite. As has been widely reported, England is where the first coal-fired power plant was built and operated in 1880s. By 2017, they were coal free, having determined that coal-fired power was more costly than clean renewable alternatives.
And again, my native Province of Ontario's largest public utility, the Ontario Power Authority, concluded in 2005 that burning coal is not only poisoning the people, the air and the planet, but that clean, safe, renewable alternatives are less costly than coal. They began the shutdown, replacing them completely with lower-cost renewables by 2015.
When the OPA came to the conclusion that the cost of coal was higher, solar energy was at the time 90% higher in cost than it is today, but even then, in total, solar was less costly than coal.
The OPA was Arch Coal's biggest customer for West Virginia coal. And once coal was gone, replaced with renewables, the OPA was able to reduce some utility rates by as much as 30%.
As to the cost of jobs, here again Mooney and his fellow coal lemmings are spouting baseless claims. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the rate of solar job growth, as coal declines, is soaring.
As to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, he ought to stick to trying to be a better lawyer. Science is not his best friend. His statement that "… applying an impossible standard is not feasible on any level" is laughable. All around the country and the globe, from California to New England, to Canada, to the U.K. to Germany and many other communities, numerous successful transitions to renewables prove Morrisey's claim false.
If Morrisey is right, why doesn't he present any facts, instead of making wild claims? When the largest public utility in the country, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has now in place two 20-year fixed-price contracts for solar energy at $0.02 and $0.03 per kilowatt hour, Morrisey's statements look pretty foolish.
There are several added costs of coal that the these folks never talk about.
First, there is the horrible life expectancy for underground coal miners. As an engineer whose entire career has been focused on eliminating air pollution in myriad workplaces, saving the health of the workers and surrounding communities, I'm asking why has that ever been tolerated?
Secondly, communities near coal plants have higher premature-death rates. The environmental damages caused are additional and very real costs of coal. We taxpayers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per site to clean up the waste and environmental damages the coal industry leaves behind. Why aren't the shareholders being assessed with these real costs of mining and burning coal?
What's wrong with transitioning to the clean, safe, job-creating opportunities in renewables that so many other states and countries are enjoying? Mooney, Morrisey and others like them are spouting dangerous deceptions to placate the coal company shareholders who are seeing their investments dwindle.
We ratepayers and taxpayers must rise up and be heard. Renewable energy technologies are much less costly than coal, and we deserve that the local utilities stop clinging to the costly poisoning past and embrace the future trends that the rest of the civilized world is expanding into.
Forbes magazine published a report last year stating that it would cost the coal utilities less to build renewable-powered replacement plants than the current costs to operate coal plants for just one year.
Is there anyone in West Virginia who would not be interested in lower utility rates?
See Also: A Mine Disaster in Russia Highlights Safety Shortfalls in Rush to Dig Coal, November 26, 2021
MOSCOW — At least 46 miners were killed in an explosion at a Siberian mine. The director of the mine has been taken into police custody, along with five other administrators.
In the days before his death in a mine explosion in Russia's coal-rich Kuzbass region, Boris Piyalkin lamented that the safety standards in his workplace were inadequate. "He sat and cried, and was just scared," said Anzhelika Piyalkina, the daughter-in-law of Mr. Piyalkin, who had spent three decades working as a miner but increasingly feared the conditions in which he was being asked to work.
Mr. Piyalkin, who was 55 years old, was one of 46 miners and six rescuers killed Thursday by the explosion at the Listvyazhnaya mine in Belovo, about 2,200 miles east of Moscow and two hours south of Kemerovo. The accident occurred after a ventilation shaft began filling with gas while 285 people were underground, according to officials. Mr. Piyalkin's wife, Inna Piyalkina, in a video widely circulated in Russian media, said he had reported that the methane levels at the mine "were going through the roof." She added, "My husband came home from work every day and said it wouldn't end well."
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This is the fastest growing orthopedic surgical practice in the greater Chicagoland area!
This is a high volume practice. For each doctor, they average 60-70 patients per day in clinic.
They utilize Mid-Level Providers and have a fantastic support staff!
Potential for partnership - including a surgical center.
call is 1 in 5.
The location is less than an hour from Chicago!


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I am a day late on this guys. Please still complete the work by tomorrow.
Moving to manual is a big deal. You are now in full control of your camera.
Remember that ISO is the sensitivity of your camera's sensor. If you go above 800, you will start to get a lot of 'noise'. Try to stay below 800 when possible for the 'cleanest' photos.
When you are setting up your camera, start with the aperture, then work on the ISO, then your shutter speed. If you can't get a clean shot, you can up your ISO, but if you are totally open with your aperture and you have a slow enough shutter speed, your only option left is to up the ISO. Really anything past 1600 is pretty much unusable.
Take photos in manual. You should not take an AUTO photos. You should struggle some with this. Bring in your favorite 3.
Wednesday we are starting your online website portfolios! Be ready and remember, I will be letting you out 15 minutes early on Wednesday as I have an appointment in Anchorage.


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80th Annual Academy Awards Predictions and Drinking Game
The 80th Annual Academy Awards aired Sunday Night, February 24, 2008. Below were my predictions for the winners in the major categories. The actual winners were filled in after the Oscars were announced.
It was an off year for the Academy as they chose the absolute worst film for Best Picture as a way to finally reward the Coen Brothers (just as I sadly predcited). Meanwhile, the Schleicher Brothers tied for the lead in the Oscar Pool with 13 correct predictions from 24 categories. This was off from my personal best from last year where I scored 17 correct predictions. Continue reading →
2 Comments Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Awards, Drinking Games, Movies, Pop Culture, Television Tagged 80th Annual Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Atonement, Coen Brothers, Jon Stewart, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Oscar Pools, Oscar Predictions, Oscar Winners, Oscars, There Will Be Blood
A Review of Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges"
Just when I was about lose faith in film due to the muck and mire currently overstuffing multiplexes and DVD shelves, In Bruges comes along, out of nowhere, to restore my religion. First-time feature length director/screenwriter Martin McDonagh hasn't crafted an earth shaking masterpiece, but he has a made a film that has spoken to me personally. It tells the type of story that I hope to tell as a novelist. It features sharp writing that I aspire to and smart directing I wish there was more of in Hollywood. It combines elements from two of my favorite writers: Graham Greene's religious and deeply psychological study of the criminal mind, and David Mamet's too cool f-bomb laden verbal sparring. Finally, it showcases three of my favorite things: trails of blood running down cobblestone streets, beautiful French actresses (Clemence Poesy), and midgets (I mean dwarves). Why is it I want to visit Bruges now?
CAPTION: "Oh, remember that guy we killed…IN BRUGES! Good times, good times."
"They're Filming Midgets…", 16 February 2008
Author: David H. Schleicher from New Jersey, USA
…in Bruges. Two Irish hit men (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) are sent into hiding by their British boss (Ralph Fiennes) in Bruges, Belgium after a botched job only to learn that the most damning job awaits one of them just around the corner. Bruges is a picturesque tourist trap built around the oldest and best maintained medieval city in Belgium. Director and screenwriter Martin McDonagh bleeds the setting and the material for all its worth and makes his feature film debut in superb style.
The dark comedy built around the existential quandaries of hit men has been done to death over the years. If last summer's You Kill Me was the relentlessly dark and relentlessly sitcom-y take on the genre, then In Bruges is the hipster art film take on the theme. McDonagh deserves all the credit in the world for breathing life into the stale story by texturing the tonal shifts with crisp digital camera-work (that is surprisingly haunting), deep character development, and by creating a wonderful sense of place. Imagine a Graham Greene novel (Brighton Rock specifically comes to mind) modernized by David Mamet. The dialog is super smart and wickedly un-PC while the comedy parts are as gut-busting as the crime thriller parts are suspenseful.
McDonagh has also brought together an outstanding cast who thrive in the material. Farrell defies all odds and manages to be as sympathetic in the dramatic parts as he is charmingly sarcastic in the comedic parts. Brendan Gleeson gives a fantastically nuanced portrayal as Farrell's mentor and friend. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes channels the scary-as-hell energy he's used previously in Schindler's List and the recent Harry Potter films in a limber subversion that is a frighteningly fun to watch. The supporting cast is to die for, with Jordan Prentice spot-on as a coked-up dwarf actor shooting an abhorrent art film on the streets of Bruges, and Clemence Poesy coyly seductive and unforgettable as Farrell's unlikely local love interest.
Ultimately In Bruges meanders down too many cobblestone paths, and one scene near the end involving a bell tower stretches credibility but adds necessary dramatic effect. Certain plot elements will turn off a large segment of the viewing audience. However, those with the right mindset will be greatly rewarded. In Bruges is hilarious, contemplative, sometimes scathing, often nihilistic, but marked by a shockingly hopeful undercurrent while tones shift and the colors of the human condition undulate in McDonagh's insightful light. The arrival of a commanding talent has been heralded…in Bruges.
Originally Published on the Internet Movie Database:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0780536/usercomments-20
4 Comments Posted in Art-house Cinema, History, Literature, Movie Reviews, Movies, Psychology, Travel Tagged Belgium, Brendan Gleeson, Bruges, Clemence Poesy, Colin Farrell, Crime Thriller, Dark Comedy, David Mamet, Dwarves, Graham Greene, Hit Men, In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, Midgets, Ralph Fiennes
Home Movies Wrap Up Winter 2008
Is it just me, or is the 2008 movie season getting off to one of the worst starts in recent memory in terms of the quality of films? While Hollywood jams the multiplexes with Oscar nominated films I've already seen and their Z-level garbage not good enough for year-end or summer releases, I decided to catch up with some films recently released on DVD. Sadly, these films made 2007 seem not so hot either. They include a historical epic, a horror remake, and a sci-fi flick that range in quality from "it's so bad it's good" to "transcendentally awful." I should've just seen There Will Be Blood for the fourth time and called it a day.
Her Majesty!!!!!!!, 10 February 2008
It's really not so odd that director Shekhar Kapur would wait nine years and then craft a loud, bombastic sequel to his only claim to fame, the lavish period drama "Elizabeth" which rightfully launched the career of uber-actress Cate Blanchett, in an attempt to resurrect his own floundering career. It is rather odd that Blanchett, a consummate actress of incalculable range, seems to never turn down a script, including this dud of a sequel to the film that first allowed her to shine. The oddest thing, however, is that the completely uncalled for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is actually quite entertaining and might've received higher praise had the intrusive music score not induced such a numbing headache.
Blanchett, of course, is terrific, and doesn't seem to mind that the screenwriters have turned her signature character into a woman with split personalities: a raving love-scorned woman in private who constantly crumbles under pressure, and a powerful monarch who commands the wind and becomes a divinity to her people in public. Elizabeth has no character arc here like she did in the original film that saw her mature from frightened princess to calculating queen. The sequel suffers from this lack of development for its titular historical icon, but Blanchett rules the madhouse with an iron fist, chewing the scenery when necessary for dramatic effect and maximum entertainment value.
The sequel also suffers from too much focus on a silly love triangle involving Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh (an uninspired Clive Owen), and one of her ladies in waiting (a ravishingly gorgeous but ultimately lifeless Abbie Cornish). The rest of the film covers events that were already treated in a more respectful and quietly powerful manner in HBO's miniseries starring Helen Mirren. These include Elizabeth's divisive relationship with Mary Stuart (a blistering Samantha Morton doing an entertaining bit of over-acting), and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, whose sinking is done up in a rock opera style that serves as a guilty pleasure to watch.
Meanwhile, director Kapur, who never saw an overhead shot, candlelit scene, or 360 degree crane movement he didn't love, uses his bigger budget to ridiculously grand effect creating immaculate set designs populated with over the top costuming and epic pageantry. "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is completely unnecessary, but despite some of its stunning ineptitude, it turns out not to be a colossal waste of time and will entertain those who will allow it to bludgeon them. Where the first film was a smart period piece inspired by "The Godfather", the silly sequel is a dumb art-house film inspired by obnoxious action flicks. Blanchett, who hopefully will become more selective in her roles as she ages, oddly seems at home in both. I'm not sure if that's the mark of a great actress or a desperate movie star.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0414055/usercomments-141
Dreary Rehash from Zombie, 11 February 2008
*The following is a review of the unrated director's cut:
Say what you will, but Rob Zombie is a director of considerable technical talent who knows how to frame tension-filled scenes, utilizes rock music as another character in his films, and shock audiences with his juxtaposition of pristinely photographed shots and extreme quick-cuts of brutality. Why he would decide to do a remake of the original "Halloween" is anyone's guess. Granted his original works have been far from masterpieces, but with such innate skill, one wonders what Zombie would be able accomplish as a for-hire genre director. Instead he continues to wallow in the muck of the horror film gutter and debase his audiences through the display of his own sick obsessions.
The actual remake portion of the film (the last 45 minutes) is fairly well done and probably would've worked had Zombie not made the three teenage girls stalked by Michael Myers such annoying and unsympathetic characters. The "chase" scenes are well staged and Zombie throws in some decent scenarios not found in the original. The climax is an entertaining combination of classic 80's style horror where you are screaming at the female lead for being so stupid and modern horror grisliness where you feel sick to your stomach after enduring it.
Zombie leads up to this with 45 minutes of wildly offensive exposition giving us details on Michael Myers' life we never cared to know. Part of the thrill of the original was the mystery behind Myers' insanity. Zombie plays up the "tortured childhood" aspect in his signature white-trash-nightmare style and makes the adult Myers too superhuman to be truly feared. It's a calculated gamble to add this new layer, and it doesn't pay off. In the end, "Halloween" is perfectly watchable for horror buffs, but why would anyone waste their time with Zombie's monster of a movie when they could just sit down with the original?
Messy Space Opera Implodes, 11 February 2008
At some point in the future scientists discover the sun is dying and send a team of non-characters on an obvious suicide mission to, well, I guess stop the sun from dying. Yes, the plot of "Sunshine" is that dumb. What's amazing is how dead serious it is all treated by director Danny Boyle. This is one of those sci-fi films where characters stand around talking lots of technical jargon designed to trick viewers into thinking the plot is plausible, and then get overly emotional and start yelling when the mission goes horribly awry.
Boyle has always been one of those directors with an obnoxious visual style (lots of hand-held camera work, an obsession with bright whites and golds, and quick-cuts) who somehow manages to tell decent stories. The zombie melodrama "28 Days Later" and the kids flick "Millions" were good in-spite of Boyle's nauseating cinematography. "Sunshine" has no such luck as the story never makes any sense. While it does boast some amazing space visuals of the craft hurtling towards the sun, it's nothing we haven't seen before in a dozen other sci-fi flicks. The special effects, when not subverted completely by Boyle, make the film marginally watchable.
The film eventually devolves into "emo" nonsense and has a pointlessly tacked-on horror element thrown in at the last minute for no apparent reason other than Boyle clearly ran out of ideas. "Sunshine" is one of those rare films where I had absolutely no idea what was going on most of the time, but I could see the hideous ending coming from a mile away.
3 Comments Posted in History, Movie Reviews, Movies, Pop Culture Tagged Cate Blanchett, Danny Boyle, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Halloween, Rob Zombie, Shekhar Kapur, Sunshine
Super Bowl Party Drinking Game XLII
A degenerate like myself never needs an excuse to drink or gamble, yet they still insist on playing the Super Bowl every year. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about the game. I'm a one sport kind of fan, and my heart belongs to baseball. However, I never turn down the opportunity to legitimize my vices. Super Bowl XLII boasts more appeal than usual as the showdown between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants in Arizona heralds that classic Boston-New York rivalry all sports fans love. The Pats also have the chance to become the first unbeaten team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
Now let's get serious, folks, do we really need a drinking game designed around the Super Bowl? Heck no! Most people will be blitzed before kick-off. Here I present a drinking game for the Super Bowl Party most Americans will be attending. The Super Bowl Party allows for some keen observation of human behavior while socializing with people of all ages in various forms of food and alcohol induced inebriation. Continue reading →
2 Comments Posted in Drinking Games, Pop Culture, Sports, Television Tagged Animal Planet, Football, I Drink Your Milkshake, Super Bowl Party, Super Bowl XLII, The New England Patriots, The New York Giants, The Puppy Bowl, There Will Be Blood


Seeing them thus assembled,the Buddha was pleased with their demeanour and described how in the confraternity of monks were to be found men of various degrees of attainment. Some of them practised the cultivation of mindfulness by breathing exercises and the Buddha proceeded to explain how it was done. Such mindfulness leads to the development of the four satipatthānas,and these,in turn,to the seven bojjhangas. Through them one attains deliverance through understanding. M.iii.78-88.


Newspaper can also leave fibers on the tint. The key to correctly washing your tinted windows is to make sure that you are using just soap and water with a microfiber cloth or diaper rag. The key to correctly washing your tinted windows is to make sure that you are using just soap and water with a microfiber cloth or diaper rag.... Paper towels can be used but ChrisFix points out that they won't get the glass as clean as microfiber ones. The little paper fibers can remain on the glass during and after cleaning. Check your local dollar store for budget friendly microfiber towels.
Figure 2. Wear gloves when cleaning with newspaper. Step 3 – Scrub with clay bar. Lightly wet your clay bar with water or a specialized lubricant, so it doesn't stick to the windshield.
The paper absorbs excess water and cleaning solutions and also acts like an abrasive, lifting off the remaining mineral deposits. Mix 1 part isopropyl alcohol with 2 parts distilled water. Soak your leather cloth in the new solution and lay the cloth over the windshield (if you can, use two cloths to achieve greater coverage).
We have all been there before. You just cleaned your windshield with your basic paper towels and Windex and thought you did a great job. You walk away to throw out the towels and put the Windex back and when you return the windshield has dried and it looks terrible.


There are plenty of "oldies but goodies" shows on the radio that like to countdown the hits. Dave the Rave's Relics and Rarities Show doesn't count down anything.
Jeff Bleiel created Wilson Beach Radio and syndicated his show featuring the music of The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, and friends and associates of The Beach Boys. In addition to the hits and classic Beach Boys album tracks, the show spotlights solo tracks by the members of the Beach Boys, covers of Beach Boys songs, and music by artists influenced by Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. For more information on the show, visit www.facebook.com/WilsonBeachRadio.
Mark Woods, aka TikiTender, is a DJ radio personality on our station. He is also a bartender, owns a business called Fun Coast Bartending and is a social media specialist. DJ Tiki's outgoing personality, his knowledge and love for beach music, especially, reggae, ska & calypso, is what landed him his role as a DJ personality at Surf 1700.


In the final example of Chapter 1, we saw how we could calculate a dynamic acceleration based on a vector pointing from a circle on the screen to the mouse location. The resulting motion resembled a magnetic attraction between circle and mouse, as if some force were pulling the circle in towards the mouse. In this chapter we will formalize our understanding of the concept of a force and its relationship to acceleration. Our goal, by the end of this chapter, is to understand how to make multiple objects move around the screen and respond to a variety of environmental forces.
A force is a vector that causes an object with mass to accelerate.
The good news here is that we recognize the first part of the definition: a force is a vector. Thank goodness we just spent a whole chapter learning what a vector is and how to program with PVectors!
Let's look at Newton's three laws of motion in relation to the concept of a force.
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed and direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
By the time Newton came along, the prevailing theory of motion—formulated by Aristotle—was nearly two thousand years old. It stated that if an object is moving, some sort of force is required to keep it moving. Unless that moving thing is being pushed or pulled, it will simply slow down or stop. Right?
This, of course, is not true. In the absence of any forces, no force is required to keep an object moving. An object (such as a ball) tossed in the earth's atmosphere slows down because of air resistance (a force). An object's velocity will only remain constant in the absence of any forces or if the forces that act on it cancel each other out, i.e. the net force adds up to zero. This is often referred to as equilibrium. The falling ball will reach a terminal velocity (that stays constant) once the force of air resistance equals the force of gravity.
Figure 2.1: The pendulum doesn't move because all the forces cancel each other out (add up to a net force of zero).
An object's PVector velocity will remain constant if it is in a state of equilibrium.
Skipping Newton's second law (arguably the most important law for our purposes) for a moment, let's move on to the third law.
This law frequently causes some confusion in the way that it is stated. For one, it sounds like one force causes another. Yes, if you push someone, that someone may actively decide to push you back. But this is not the action and reaction we are talking about with Newton's third law.
Forces always occur in pairs. The two forces are of equal strength, but in opposite directions.
Now, this still causes confusion because it sounds like these forces would always cancel each other out. This is not the case. Remember, the forces act on different objects. And just because the two forces are equal, it doesn't mean that the movements are equal (or that the objects will stop moving).
Try pushing on a stationary truck. Although the truck is far more powerful than you, unlike a moving one, a stationary truck will never overpower you and send you flying backwards. The force you exert on it is equal and opposite to the force exerted on your hands. The outcome depends on a variety of other factors. If the truck is a small truck on an icy downhill, you'll probably be able to get it to move. On the other hand, if it's a very large truck on a dirt road and you push hard enough (maybe even take a running start), you could injure your hand.
And if you are wearing roller skates when you push on that truck?
You'll accelerate away from the truck, sliding along the road while the truck stays put. Why do you slide but not the truck? For one, the truck has a much larger mass (which we'll get into with Newton's second law). There are other forces at work too, namely the friction of the truck's tires and your roller skates against the road.
If we calculate a PVector f that is a force of object A on object B, we must also apply the force—PVector.mult(f,-1);—that B exerts on object A.
We'll see that in the world of Processing programming, we don't always have to stay true to the above. Sometimes, such as in the case of see gravitational attraction between bodies, we'll want to model equal and opposite forces. Other times, such as when we're simply saying, "Hey, there's some wind in the environment," we're not going to bother to model the force that a body exerts back on the air. In fact, we're not modeling the air at all! Remember, we are simply taking inspiration from the physics of the natural world, not simulating everything with perfect precision.
And here we are at the most important law for the Processing programmer.
Why is this the most important law for us? Well, let's write it a different way.
Acceleration is directly proportional to force and inversely proportional to mass. This means that if you get pushed, the harder you are pushed, the faster you'll move (accelerate). The bigger you are, the slower you'll move.
The mass of an object is a measure of the amount of matter in the object (measured in kilograms).
Weight, though often mistaken for mass, is technically the force of gravity on an object. From Newton's second law, we can calculate it as mass times the acceleration of gravity (w = m * g). Weight is measured in newtons.
Density is defined as the amount of mass per unit of volume (grams per cubic centimeter, for example).
Note that an object that has a mass of one kilogram on earth would have a mass of one kilogram on the moon. However, it would weigh only one-sixth as much.
The acceleration of an object is equal to force. This is great news. After all, we saw in Chapter 1 that acceleration was the key to controlling the movement of our objects on screen. Location is adjusted by velocity, and velocity by acceleration. Acceleration was where it all began. Now we learn that force is truly where it all begins.
Let's take our Mover class, with location, velocity, and acceleration.
where wind and gravity are PVectors. According to Newton's second law, we could implement this function as follows.
Newton's second law at its simplest.
This looks pretty good. After all, acceleration = force is a literal translation of Newton's second law (without mass). Nevertheless, there's a pretty big problem here. Let's return to what we are trying to accomplish: creating a moving object on the screen that responds to wind and gravity.
Ok, let's be the computer for a moment. First, we call applyForce() with wind. And so the Mover object's acceleration is now assigned the PVector wind. Second, we call applyForce() with gravity. Now the Mover object's acceleration is set to the gravity PVector. Third, we call update(). What happens in update()? Acceleration is added to velocity.
We're not going to see any error in Processing, but zoinks! We've got a major problem. What is the value of acceleration when it is added to velocity? It is equal to the gravity force. Wind has been left out! If we call applyForce() more than once, it overrides each previous call. How are we going to handle more than one force?
Net Force equals mass times acceleration.
Or, acceleration is equal to the sum of all forces divided by mass. This makes perfect sense. After all, as we saw in Newton's first law, if all the forces add up to zero, an object experiences an equilibrium state (i.e. no acceleration). Our implementation of this is through a process known as force accumulation. It's actually very simple; all we need to do is add all of the forces together. At any given moment, there might be 1, 2, 6, 12, or 303 forces. As long as our object knows how to accumulate them, it doesn't matter how many forces act on it.
Newton's second law, but with force accumulation. We now add each force to acceleration, one at a time.
Now, we're not finished just yet. Force accumulation has one more piece. Since we're adding all the forces together at any given moment, we have to make sure that we clear acceleration (i.e. set it to zero) before each time update() is called. Let's think about wind for a moment. Sometimes the wind is very strong, sometimes it's weak, and sometimes there's no wind at all. At any given moment, there might be a huge gust of wind, say, when the user holds down the mouse.
When the user releases the mouse, the wind will stop, and according to Newton's first law, the object will continue to move at a constant velocity. However, if we had forgotten to reset acceleration to zero, the gust of wind would still be in effect. Even worse, it would add onto itself from the previous frame, since we are accumulating forces! Acceleration, in our simulation, has no memory; it is simply calculated based on the environmental forces present at a moment in time. This is different than, say, location, which must remember where the object was in the previous frame in order to move properly to the next.
The easiest way to implement clearing the acceleration for each frame is to multiply the PVector by 0 at the end of update().
Using forces, simulate a helium-filled balloon floating upward and bouncing off the top of a window. Can you add a wind force that changes over time, perhaps according to Perlin noise?
OK. We've got one tiny little addition to make before we are done with integrating forces into our Mover class and are ready to look at examples. After all, Newton's second law is really F → = M × A → , not A → = F → . Incorporating mass is as easy as adding an instance variable to our class, but we need to spend a little more time here because a slight complication will emerge.
First we just need to add mass.
Now that we are introducing mass, it's important to make a quick note about units of measurement. In the real world, things are measured in specific units. We say that two objects are 3 meters apart, the baseball is moving at a rate of 90 miles per hour, or this bowling ball has a mass of 6 kilograms. As we'll see later in this book, sometimes we will want to take real-world units into consideration. However, in this chapter, we're going to ignore them for the most part. Our units of measurement are in pixels ("These two circles are 100 pixels apart") and frames of animation ("This circle is moving at a rate of 2 pixels per frame"). In the case of mass, there isn't any unit of measurement for us to use. We're just going to make something up. In this example, we're arbitrarily picking the number 10. There is no unit of measurement, though you might enjoy inventing a unit of your own, like "1 moog" or "1 yurkle." It should also be noted that, for demonstration purposes, we'll tie mass to pixels (drawing, say, a circle with a radius of 10). This will allow us to visualize the mass of an object. In the real world, however, size does not definitely indicate mass. A small metal ball could have a much higher mass than a large balloon due to its higher density.
This isn't so great since things only become interesting once we have objects with varying mass, but it'll get us started. Where does mass come in? We use it while applying Newton's second law to our object.
Yet again, even though our code looks quite reasonable, we have a fairly major problem here. Consider the following scenario with two Mover objects, both being blown away by a wind force.
Again, let's be the computer. Object m1 receives the wind force—(1,0)—divides it by mass (10), and adds it to acceleration.
Making a copy of the PVector before using it!
There's another way we could write the above function, using the static method div(). For help with this exercise, review static methods in Chapter 1.
Rewrite the applyForce() method using the static method div() instead of get().
Let's take a moment to remind ourselves where we are. We know what a force is (a vector), and we know how to apply a force to an object (divide it by mass and add it to the object's acceleration vector). What are we missing? Well, we have yet to figure out how we get a force in the first place. Where do forces come from?
In this chapter, we'll look at two methods for creating forces in our Processing world.
Make up a force! After all, you are the programmer, the creator of your world. There's no reason why you can't just make up a force and apply it.
Model a force! Yes, forces exist in the real world. And physics textbooks often contain formulas for these forces. We can take these formulas, translate them into source code, and model real-world forces in Processing.
Now we have two forces, pointing in different directions with different magnitudes, both applied to object m. We're beginning to get somewhere. We've now built a world for our objects in Processing, an environment to which they can actually respond.
Let's look at how we could make this example a bit more exciting with many objects of varying mass. To do this, we'll need a quick review of object-oriented programming. Again, we're not covering all the basics of programming here (for that you can check out any of the intro Processing books listed in the introduction). However, since the idea of creating a world filled with objects is pretty fundamental to all the examples in this book, it's worth taking a moment to walk through the steps of going from one object to many.
This is where we are with the Mover class as a whole. Notice how it is identical to the Mover class created in Chapter 1, with two additions—mass and a new applyForce() function.
The object now has mass!
And for now, we'll just set the mass equal to 1 for simplicity.
Receive a force, divide by mass, and add to acceleration.
Now add clearing the acceleration each time!
Scaling the size according to mass.
Somewhat arbitrarily, we are deciding that an object bounces when it hits the edges of a window.
Even though we said we shouldn't touch location and velocity directly, there are some exceptions. Here we are doing so as a quick and easy way to reverse the direction of our object when it reaches the edge.
Now that our class is set, we can choose to create, say, one hundred Mover objects with an array.
And then we can initialize all of those Mover objects in setup() with a loop.
Every object has a mass of 1 and a location of (30,30).
…we discover that every Mover object is made exactly the same way. What we want are Mover objects of varying mass that start at varying locations. Here is where we need to increase the sophistication of our constructor by adding arguments.
Notice how the mass and location are no longer set to hardcoded numbers, but rather initialized via arguments passed through the constructor. This means we can create a variety of Mover objects: big ones, small ones, ones that start on the left side of the screen, ones that start on the right, etc.
With an array, however, we want to initialize all of the objects with a loop.
For each mover created, the mass is set to a random value between 0.1 and 5, the starting x-location is set to 0, and the starting y-location is set to 0. Certainly, there are all sorts of ways we might choose to initialize the objects; this is just a demonstration of one possibility.
Once the array of objects is declared, created, and initialized, the rest of the code is simple. We run through every object, hand them each the forces in the environment, and enjoy the show.
Loop through all objects and apply both forces to each object.
Note how in the above image, the smaller circles reach the right of the window faster than the larger ones. This is because of our formula: acceleration = force divided by mass. The larger the mass, the smaller the acceleration.
Instead of objects bouncing off the edge of the wall, create an example in which an invisible force pushes back on the objects to keep them in the window. Can you weight the force according to how far the object is from an edge—i.e., the closer it is, the stronger the force?
You may have noticed something woefully inaccurate about this last example. The smaller the circle, the faster it falls. There is a logic to this; after all, we just stated (according to Newton's second law) that the smaller the mass, the higher the acceleration. But this is not what happens in the real world. If you were to climb to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and drop two balls of different masses, which one will hit the ground first? According to legend, Galileo performed this exact test in 1589, discovering that they fell with the same acceleration, hitting the ground at the same time. Why is this? As we will see later in this chapter, the force of gravity is calculated relative to an object's mass. The bigger the object, the stronger the force. So if the force is scaled according to mass, it is canceled out when acceleration is divided by mass. We can implement this in our sketch rather easily by multiplying our made-up gravity force by mass.
While the objects now fall at the same rate, because the strength of the wind force is independent of mass, the smaller objects still accelerate to the right more quickly.
How do we compute the force's direction?
How do we compute the force's magnitude?
If we can follow the above steps with two forces, then hopefully if you ever find yourself Googling "atomic nuclei weak nuclear force" at 3 a.m., you will have the skills to take what you find and adapt it for Processing.
OK, in a moment we're going to write out the formula for friction. This isn't the first time we've seen a formula in this book; we just finished up our discussion of Newton's second law, F → = M × A → (or force = mass * acceleration). We didn't spend a lot of time worrying about this formula because it's a nice and simple one. Nevertheless, it's a scary world out there. Just take a look at the equation for a "normal" distribution, which we covered (without looking at the formula) in the Introduction.
What we're seeing here is that formulas like to use a lot of symbols (quite often letters from the Greek alphabet). Let's take a look at the formula for friction.
If it's been a while since you've looked at a formula from a math or physics textbook, there are three key points that are important to cover before we move on.
Evaluate the right side, assign to the left side. This is just like in code! What we're doing here is evaluating the right side of the equation and assigning it to the left. In the case above, we want to calculate the force of friction—the left side tells us what we want to calculate and the right side tells us how to do it.
Are we talking about a vector or a scalar? It's important for us to realize that in some cases, we'll be looking at a vector; in others, a scalar. For example, in this case the force of friction is a vector. We can see that by the arrow above the word "friction." It has a magnitude and direction. The right side of the equation also has a vector, as indicated by the symbol v ∧ , which in this case stands for the velocity unit vector.
Let's begin with friction and follow our steps.
Friction is a dissipative force. A dissipative force is one in which the total energy of a system decreases when an object is in motion. Let's say you are driving a car. When you press your foot down on the brake pedal, the car's brakes use friction to slow down the motion of the tires. Kinetic energy (motion) is converted into thermal energy (heat). Whenever two surfaces come into contact, they experience friction. A complete model of friction would include separate cases for static friction (a body at rest against a surface) and kinetic friction (a body in motion against a surface), but for our purposes, we are only going to look at the kinetic case.
It's now up to us to separate this formula into two components that determine the direction of friction as well as the magnitude. Based on the diagram above, we can see that friction points in the opposite direction of velocity. In fact, that's the part of the formula that says -1 * v ∧ , or -1 times the velocity unit vector. In Processing, this would mean taking the velocity vector, normalizing it, and multiplying by -1.
Let's figure out the direction of the friction force (a unit vector in the opposite direction of velocity).
Notice two additional steps here. First, it's important to make a copy of the velocity vector, as we don't want to reverse the object's direction by accident. Second, we normalize the vector. This is because the magnitude of friction is not associated with how fast it is moving, and we want to start with a friction vector of magnitude 1 so that it can easily be scaled.
According to the formula, the magnitude is μ * N. μ, the Greek letter mu (pronounced "mew"), is used here to describe the coefficient of friction. The coefficient of friction establishes the strength of a friction force for a particular surface. The higher it is, the stronger the friction; the lower, the weaker. A block of ice, for example, will have a much lower coefficient of friction than, say, sandpaper. Since we're in a pretend Processing world, we can arbitrarily set the coefficient based on how much friction we want to simulate.
Now for the second part: N. N refers to the normal force, the force perpendicular to the object's motion along a surface. Think of a vehicle driving along a road. The vehicle pushes down against the road with gravity, and Newton's third law tells us that the road in turn pushes back against the vehicle. That's the normal force. The greater the gravitational force, the greater the normal force. As we'll see in the next section, gravity is associated with mass, and so a lightweight sports car would experience less friction than a massive tractor trailer truck. With the diagram above, however, where the object is moving along a surface at an angle, computing the normal force is a bit more complicated because it doesn't point in the same direction as gravity. We'll need to know something about angles and trigonometry.
Let's figure out the magnitude of friction (really just an arbitrary constant).
Take the unit vector and multiply it by magnitude and we have our force vector!
We could scale by mass to be more accurate.
Apply the friction force vector to the object.
Running this example, you'll notice that the circles don't even make it to the right side of the window. Since friction continuously pushes against the object in the opposite direction of its movement, the object continuously slows down. This can be a useful technique or a problem depending on the goals of your visualization.
Create pockets of friction in a Processing sketch so that objects only experience friction when crossing over those pockets. What if you vary the strength (friction coefficient) of each area? What if you make some pockets feature the opposite of friction—i.e., when you enter a given pocket you actually speed up instead of slowing down?
Now let's break this down and see what we really need for an effective simulation in Processing, making ourselves a much simpler formula in the process.
F d refers to drag force, the vector we ultimately want to compute and pass into our applyForce() function.
- 1/2 is a constant: -0.5. This is fairly irrelevant in terms of our Processing world, as we will be making up values for other constants anyway. However, the fact that it is negative is important, as it tells us that the force is in the opposite direction of velocity (just as with friction).
ρ is the Greek letter rho, and refers to the density of the liquid, something we don't need to worry about. We can simplify the problem and consider this to have a constant value of 1.
v refers to the speed of the object moving. OK, we've got this one! The object's speed is the magnitude of the velocity vector: velocity.magnitude(). And v 2 just means v squared or v * v .
A refers to the frontal area of the object that is pushing through the liquid (or gas). An aerodynamic Lamborghini, for example, will experience less air resistance than a boxy Volvo. Nevertheless, for a basic simulation, we can consider our object to be spherical and ignore this element.
C d is the coefficient of drag, exactly the same as the coefficient of friction ( ρ ). This is a constant we'll determine based on whether we want the drag force to be strong or weak.
v ∧ Look familiar? It should. This refers to the velocity unit vector, i.e. velocity.normalize(). Just like with friction, drag is a force that points in the opposite direction of velocity.
Let's implement this force in our Mover class example with one addition. When we wrote our friction example, the force of friction was always present. Whenever an object was moving, friction would slow it down. Here, let's introduce an element to the environment—a "liquid" that the Mover objects pass through. The Liquid object will be a rectangle and will know about its location, width, height, and "coefficient of drag"—i.e., is it easy for objects to move through it (like air) or difficult (like molasses)? In addition, it should include a function to draw itself on the screen (and two more functions, which we'll see in a moment).
The liquid object includes a variable defining its coefficient of drag.
The main program will now include a Liquid object reference as well as a line of code that initializes that object.
Initialize a Liquid object. Note the coefficient is low (0.1), otherwise the object would come to a halt fairly quickly (which may someday be the effect you want).
When a mover passes through a liquid it experiences a drag force.
If a Mover is inside a Liquid, apply the drag force.
The above code tells us that we need to add two functions to the Mover class: (1) a function that determines if a Mover object is inside the Liquid object, and (2) a function that computes and applies a drag force on the Mover object.
The first is easy; we can simply use a conditional statement to determine if the location vector rests inside the rectangle defined by the liquid.
This conditional statement determines if the PVector location is inside the rectangle defined by the Liquid class.
The drag() function is a bit more complicated; however, we've written the code for it already. This is simply an implementation of our formula. The drag force is equal to the coefficient of drag multiplied by the speed of the Mover squared in the opposite direction of velocity!
Finalize the force: magnitude and direction together.
Note that we are scaling gravity according to mass.
Running the example, you should notice that we are simulating balls falling into water. The objects only slow down when crossing through the gray area at the bottom of the window (representing the liquid). You'll also notice that the smaller objects slow down a great deal more than the larger objects. Remember Newton's second law? A = F / M. Acceleration equals force divided by mass. A massive object will accelerate less. A smaller object will accelerate more. In this case, the acceleration we're talking about is the "slowing down" due to drag. The smaller objects will slow down at a greater rate than the larger ones.
Take a look at our formula for drag again: drag force = coefficient * speed * speed. The faster an object moves, the greater the drag force against it. In fact, an object not moving in water experiences no drag at all. Expand the example to drop the balls from different heights. How does this affect the drag as they hit the water?
The formula for drag also included surface area. Can you create a simulation of boxes falling into water with a drag force dependent on the length of the side hitting the water?
Fluid resistance does not only work opposite to the velocity vector, but also perpendicular to it. This is known as "lift-induced drag" and will cause an airplane with an angled wing to rise in altitude. Try creating a simulation of lift.
Probably the most famous force of all is gravity. We humans on earth think of gravity as an apple hitting Isaac Newton on the head. Gravity means that stuff falls down. But this is only our experience of gravity. In truth, just as the earth pulls the apple towards it due to a gravitational force, the apple pulls the earth as well. The thing is, the earth is just so freaking big that it overwhelms all the other gravity interactions. Every object with mass exerts a gravitational force on every other object. And there is a formula for calculating the strengths of these forces, as depicted in Figure 2.6.
Let's examine this formula a bit more closely.
F refers to the gravitational force, the vector we ultimately want to compute and pass into our applyForce() function.
G is the universal gravitational constant, which in our world equals 6.67428 x 10-11 meters cubed per kilogram per second squared. This is a pretty important number if your name is Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. It's not an important number if you are a Processing programmer. Again, it's a constant that we can use to make the forces in our world weaker or stronger. Just making it equal to one and ignoring it isn't such a terrible choice either.
m1 and m2 are the masses of objects 1 and 2. As we saw with Newton's second law ( F → = M × A → ), mass is also something we could choose to ignore. After all, shapes drawn on the screen don't actually have a physical mass. However, if we keep these values, we can create more interesting simulations in which "bigger" objects exert a stronger gravitational force than smaller ones.
r ∧ refers to the unit vector pointing from object 1 to object 2. As we'll see in a moment, we can compute this direction vector by subtracting the location of one object from the other.
r2 refers to the distance between the two objects squared. Let's take a moment to think about this a bit more. With everything on the top of the formula—G, m1, m2—the bigger its value, the stronger the force. Big mass, big force. Big G, big force. Now, when we divide by something, we have the opposite. The strength of the force is inversely proportional to the distance squared. The farther away an object is, the weaker the force; the closer, the stronger.
Hopefully by now the formula makes some sense to us. We've looked at a diagram and dissected the individual components of the formula. Now it's time to figure out how we translate the math into Processing code. Let's make the following assumptions.
Each object has a location: PVector location1 and PVector location2.
Each object has a mass: float mass1 and float mass2.
There is a variable float G for the universal gravitational constant.
Given these assumptions, we want to compute PVector force, the force of gravity. We'll do it in two parts. First, we'll compute the direction of the force r ∧ in the formula above. Second, we'll calculate the strength of the force according to the masses and distance.
Don't forget that since we want a unit vector, a vector that tells us about direction only, we'll need to normalize the vector after subtracting the locations.
OK, we've got the direction of the force. Now we just need to compute the magnitude and scale the vector accordingly.
The only problem is that we don't know the distance. G, mass1, and mass2 were all givens, but we'll need to actually compute distance before the above code will work. Didn't we just make a vector that points all the way from one location to another? Wouldn't the length of that vector be the distance between two objects?
Well, if we add just one line of code and grab the magnitude of that vector before normalizing it, then we'll have the distance.
The length (magnitude) of that vector is the distance between the two objects.
Use the formula for gravity to compute the strength of the force.
Normalize and scale the force vector to the appropriate magnitude.
Note that I also renamed the PVector "dir" as "force." After all, when we're finished with the calculations, the PVector we started with ends up being the actual force vector we wanted all along.
A single Attractor object (a new class that will have a fixed location).
The Mover object will experience a gravitational pull towards the Attractor object, as illustrated in Figure 2.9.
We can start by making the new Attractor class very simple—giving it a location and a mass, along with a function to display itself (tying mass to size).
Our Attractor is a simple object that doesn't move. We just need a mass and a location.
And in our main program, we can add an instance of the Attractor class.
This is a good structure: a main program with a Mover and an Attractor object, and a class to handle the variables and behaviors of movers and attractors. The last piece of the puzzle is how to get one object to attract the other. How do we get these two objects to talk to each other?
There are a number of ways we could do this. Here are just a few possibilities.
It's good to look at a range of options for making objects talk to each other, and you could probably make arguments for each of the above possibilities. I'd like to at least discard the first one, since an object-oriented approach is really a much better choice over an arbitrary function not tied to either the Mover or Attractor class. Whether you pick option 2 or option 3 is the difference between saying "The attractor attracts the mover" or "The mover is attracted to the attractor." Number 4 is really my favorite, at least in terms of where we are in this book. After all, we spent a lot of time working out the applyForce() function, and I think our examples will be clearer if we continue with the same methodology.
Calculate attraction force and apply it.
And what goes inside that function? All of that nice math we worked out for gravitational attraction!
Return the force so that it can be applied!
And we're done. Sort of. Almost. There's one small kink we need to work out. Let's look at the above code again. See that symbol for divide, the slash? Whenever we have one of these, we need to ask ourselves the question: What would happen if the distance happened to be a really, really small number or (even worse!) zero??! Well, we know we can't divide a number by 0, and if we were to divide a number by something like 0.0001, that is the equivalent of multiplying that number by 10,000! Yes, this is the real-world formula for the strength of gravity, but we don't live in the real world. We live in the Processing world. And in the Processing world, the mover could end up being very, very close to the attractor and the force could become so strong the mover would just fly way off the screen. And so with this formula, it's good for us to be practical and constrain the range of what distance can actually be. Maybe, no matter where the Mover actually is, we should never consider it less than 5 pixels or more than 25 pixels away from the attractor.
For the same reason that we need to constrain the minimum distance, it's useful for us to do the same with the maximum. After all, if the mover were to be, say, 500 pixels from the attractor (not unreasonable), we'd be dividing the force by 250,000. That force might end up being so weak that it's almost as if we're not applying it at all.
Now, it's really up to you to decide what behaviors you want. But in the case of, "I want reasonable-looking attraction that is never absurdly weak or strong," then constraining the distance is a good technique.
Apply the attraction force from the Attractor on the Mover.
Remember, we need to constrain the distance so that our circle doesn't spin out of control.
Now we have 10 Movers!
Each Mover is initialized randomly.
We calculate an attraction force for each Mover object.
In the example above, we have a system (i.e. array) of Mover objects and one Attractor object. Build an example that has systems of both movers and attractors. What if you make the attractors invisible? Can you create a pattern/design from the trails of objects moving around attractors? See the Metropop Denim project by Clayton Cubitt and Tom Carden for an example.
It's worth noting that gravitational attraction is a model we can follow to develop our own forces. This chapter isn't suggesting that you should exclusively create sketches that use gravitational attraction. Rather, you should be thinking creatively about how to design your own rules to drive the behavior of objects. For example, what happens if you design a force that is weaker the closer it gets and stronger the farther it gets? Or what if you design your attractor to attract faraway objects, but repel close ones?
Hopefully, you found it helpful that we started with a simple scenario—one object attracts another object—and moved on to one object attracts many objects. However, it's likely that you are going to find yourself in a slightly more complex situation: many objects attract each other. In other words, every object in a given system attracts every other object in that system (except for itself).
To do this, we need to nest a second loop.
For every Mover, check every Mover!
In the previous example, we had an Attractor object with a function named attract(). Now, since we have movers attracting movers, all we need to do is copy the attract() function into the Mover class.
// All the other stuff we had before plus. . .
The Mover now knows how to attract another Mover.
Of course, there's one small problem. When we are looking at every mover i and every mover j, are we OK with the times that i equals j? For example, should mover #3 attract mover #3? The answer, of course, is no. If there are five objects, we only want mover #3 to attract 0, 1, 2, and 4, skipping itself. And so, we finish this example by adding a simple conditional statement to skip applying the force when i equals j.
Change the attraction force in Example 2.8 to a repulsion force. Can you create an example in which all of the Mover objects are attracted to the mouse, but repel each other? Think about how you need to balance the relative strength of the forces and how to most effectively use distance in your force calculations.
Incorporate the concept of forces into your ecosystem. Try introducing other elements into the environment (food, a predator) for the creature to interact with. Does the creature experience attraction or repulsion to things in its world? Can you think more abstractly and design forces based on the creature's desires or goals?


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The "Business Bulge" Is Here to Solve All Your Gender Pay Gap Concerns
Are you a woman in the labor force? Are you struggling to get the raise you deserve? Maybe it's not the fabled confidence deficiency that's holding you back. Maybe it's another deficiency entirely.
Or so says the creative mind behind the Business Bulge, a product that offers women the necessary enhancements to level the playing field.
Well, not quite.
GetABulge.com, and the product it ostensibly peddles, is the satirical work of Clark Hoffman, meant to start a conversation about gender income inequality. The disparity between the salaries of men and women remains a thorn in the side of women across the United States. Today, an American woman can expect to earn roughly 78 cents for every dollar of an American man. The figures for black and Latina women are even worse.
"The Business Bulge is a fictional product," Hoffman wrote on the site. "What's not fictional is the fact that in 2016, women still earn less because of their gender. That's not just wrong. It's embarrassing. Politicians aren't addressing the problem, and CEO'S [sic] need a reason to act."
The website than encourages people to support the cause by using the hashtag #StopDickingAround, directs people to the website Young Minds 4 Gender Equality.
These queer Latina business owners went from Etsy to Target in seven years
Gender-inclusive bathroom signs are linked to positive attitudes about trans people


Enjoy a day of maritime delights on this day trip from Perth to Fremantle, a historic port town just south of the city, across the Swan River. Start with a cruise down the river to Fremantle, where you'll take off on a whale-watching cruise on the Indian Ocean. As you watch for humpback whales during their annual migration, learn about them from a knowledgeable guide. Then return to Fremantle for free time to explore its heritage landmarks and hopping cafe scene before returning to Perth by river cruise.
Morning hotel transfers available from Perth city, Fremantle and Scarborough locations.
Your day trip starts in central Perth, where you'll catch your cruise for a lovely trip down the Swan River to Fremantle, located where the river meets the Indian Ocean. Along the way, admire the leafy Perth suburbs and yacht clubs that line the river.
When you reach Freo, as it's known to locals, hop aboard the custom-built whale-watching boat for your 2-hour cruise along the Humpback Highway, a stretch of the Indian Ocean where more than 35,000 whales and their calves make their migration each year to the Antarctic. Listen to expert narration provided by an onboard guide while you keep watch for the whales from the boat's viewing decks, and feel free to ask any questions you have.
Your cruise ends with return to Fremantle, where you have most of the afternoon to explore independently. Check out the historical buildings, shops and galleries, waterfront, a brewery and many sidewalk cafes that make up this lively town, a favorite local destination. Then return to Perth the way you came, with the boat ride back up the Swan River.
You can choose to join us from Fremantle (if selected). This option will exclude the Swan River Cruise component of this itinerary.
Whale guarantee: In the unlikely event that whales are not spotted, you are entitled to one free whale-watching tour within the same season.


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Wed, 25 Nov, 2020 - 09:09
Dennehy's to create 15 jobs with new city gym
Luke Dennehy, MD Dennehy's Health and Fitness; Emmet Foley, Development Manager Penrose Dock, JCD Group and Noel O'Leary, MD Dennehy's Health and Fitness in Penrose Dock. Picture: Darragh Kane
DENNEHY'S Health and Fitness is opening its fourth gym in the heart of Cork's new commercial district at Penrose Dock.
An initial investment of €700,000 will ensure the new gym is one of the top facilities of its kind in the country as well as creating up to 15 new jobs and the new gym is scheduled to open in February 2021.
The gym will be a 10,000 sq ft facility and members and will encompass a spacious gym floor with areas designed for cardio, strength and functional fitness. There will also be two studios. Studio 1 will facilitate group classes such as circuit training and yoga. Studio 2 will be a dedicated spin area.
Dennehy's Health and Fitness Clubs were founded in 2010 and operate fitness clubs at Ballincollig, Douglas and Blackpool. Having Penrose Dock as their fourth location allows members to experience the unique offering of four different gyms for the price of one membership in Cork.
Owner of Dennehy's Health and Fitness, Luke Dennehy said: "We are very excited to be opening our fourth gym at Penrose Dock. This is a superb location for us — right in the heart of Cork's newest commercial district. This year has not been an easy one for businesses like ourselves but we will see brighter and better things hopefully in 2021 and we are really looking forward to getting to know all the companies and employees in Penrose Dock and the surrounding areas.
"Given the scale of the new gym at Penrose Dock, we have adequate space to appropriately position new equipment to ensure current social distancing guidelines are adhered to ensuring the safety of our members."
JCD Group's new office development at Penrose Dock is a 250,000 sq ft grade A office scheme which commenced construction in October 2018. It has now reached practical completion with the first tenants already in occupation. The scheme on a prime 1.8 acre river fronting site consists of two world-class buildings, Penrose One is 80,000 sq ft over seven floors with Column free floor plates and Penrose Two is 170,000 sq ft over nine floors with floor plates of 20,000 sq ft.
Development Manager with JCD Group, Emmet Foley said: "We are delighted to confirm that Dennehy's Health and Fitness will be opening at Penrose Dock next February. They have a great track record with their existing gym network in Cork and this new state of the art gym will be a huge addition to Penrose Dock.
"We have some very exciting companies who have moved into Penrose Dock in recent months and are in detailed discussions with other occupiers which will further underpin its position as a key employment hub in the city centre."
Companies such as Qualcomm, Cloudera, Cadence, Varonis, Grant Thornton, Matheson, Remitly and Minelab will all be located at Penrose Dock. In addition there is also an on-site cafe operated by Naturally Nourished, a well-known local operator who specialises in healthy food and local coffee.
The Penrose Dock development forms a key part of the evolution of the North Quays into a thriving new economic district in the city.


XII. PUBLIC COMMENTS (limited to 3 minutes): Public Comments must not pertain to items on the agenda.
XIII. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Council may come back and vote in public session on items discussed in executive session. a. Legal Matter: Discussion of Public Official's Liability b. Personnel Matter: Police Dept.


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Church Donates $2M To African American Museum
Feb 28, 2019, 3:10 PM | Updated: Jun 8, 2022, 5:15 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is donating $2 million to the International African American Museum for the creation of a family history center.
Church Elder David A. Bednar presented the donation Wednesday in Salt Lake City to Michael Boulware Moore, the president and CEO of the museum planned in Charleston, South Carolina.
Bednar says the museum will help visitors "discover and connect with ancestors."
The museum says in a statement the facility will be built on the former Gadsden's Wharf in Charleston, where nearly half of all enslaved Africans first entered America.
The museum plans to begin construction later this year and open in 2021.
The Mormon church operates the genealogy organization and website FamilySearch.
Shelby Lofton
Utah ski industry works to bring diversity to the slopes through 'Discover Winter' program
A Utah ski and snowboarding group wants to bring more diversity to the sports by giving minority communities a chance to hit the slopes.
Plumbers warn of frozen pipes after cold front
When it gets this cold and stays cold, some water pipes in some homes in Utah are susceptible to freezing, leading to a costly fix for Utahns.
Larry D. Curtis
Utah's Peter Sinks reaches -62 Monday; Why does it get so cold?
LOGAN, Utah — Why so cold Utah? It was cold all over the Beehive State Monday, but Peter Sinks recorded a jaw-dropping -62. The second coldest temperature ever recorded in the lower 48 states was in Utah, in the same place, a notorious cold spot 2o miles northeast of Logan. In 1985 Peter Sinks recorded […]
Family of woman killed by gate at Arches National Park awarded $10.2 million
A Judge awarded $10.2 million to the family and spouse of Esther "Essie" Nakajigo, who was killed by an unsecured gate at Arches National Park in 2020.


The lyricism of shorelines. The sea, the deep sea far from land, in torment, with all the majesty of its peaks and troughs or at times a doubt about what is sea and what is land. The watery expanses of chalk-white and sea-green. Fractal shapes which draw one to a unified vision of nature. Immersion in matter, water and light.
All those fleeting memories, expressed in different formats in such a way that the initial outward signs of confusion can in the end strike a chord with both the senses and the sheer delight of discovery.