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Analysis of Ayumi Hamasaki's "Rock'n'Roll Circus" PVs, Part Two: "Microphone"/"Sexy little things"
April 25, 2010 by LoKi in Exclusive, Features, Misc, Review
"Traditional, ethnic, European... With all these various sounds put together, it's rather 'circus-like'... The new album's title, 'Rock'n'Roll Circus', has alot of funny, frightening, sad, and strange subtext, but to me that's just what 'rock & roll' is."
--Bea's UP, May 2010
The album's title, "Rock'n'Roll Circus," is one of the few Hamasaki Ayumi album titles that doesn't correspond to a track on the album. The two sounds - "Rock & Roll" and "Circus" - are best assigned to two of the buzz tracks, "Microphone" and "Sexy little things," respectively.
The two videos for these songs are meant to go together, as characters & sets from each video are shown in the other. These videos show three different Hamasaki Ayumi characters, each one a dimension of the three-dimensional Hamasaki Ayumi product. These are the Hamasaki Ayumis responsible for her career, rather than her social or personal life. I've nicknamed them the Performer, the Watcher, and the Controller.
The Performer is the star of "Microphone" and the end of "Sexy little things." She is showy, a very large presence in an already elaborate set, rather like the Hamasaki Ayumi concert personas. Her job is to speak to the audience, to be their fantasy, and to appear strong. The Performer's punky hair is vaguely reminiscent of the prostitute character's hair in Hamasaki's "Because of you" PV (2003).
She is depicted as the powerful, angry, dissatisfied character, much like that "Because of you" character (and in fact may be the same character, years later after personal evolution). The black color of the dress has immediate connotations of death, mystery, anger, darkness... while the dress's actual shape is obviously a fluffy, princess-style one. The dissonance between the color and shape of the dress makes it even easier to see this character as a very multifaceted one, which does echo the real Hamasaki Ayumi's constantly changing image. It seems as though she is mourning the loss of her true self within the showy, fashionable, "princess" image (further illustrated by the act of sinking into the dress at the end of the "Microphone" PV).
The Watcher is clothed in red & black. Her job is to oversee her career, make sure the Performer and Controller are doing their jobs. She is in tune with the world around her, very aware (and controls a mechanical eye that watches everything for her), but she has a mischief to her, a certain cynicism and sass. Half her face is always covered - fans are aware that Ayu knows what people think of her, but we don't ever really see the extent of her presence within the Hamasaki Ayumi product. Even when we think we see the other side of her face, we don't. It's just a mirror image of what we've already seen. The Watcher is the one who logs into TeamAyu to check messages from fans, the one now using Twitter, the one who realized she had fans outside of Japan. What the Controller does depends on her.
If the Performer is the face, and the Watcher is the eye, then the Controller is the mind. The Controller is in black and white - everything is either action or inaction to her. She weighs the pros & cons of situations and has to deal with the consequences of anything the Performer does or shows, because it's up to the Controller to begin with. She is clumsy, sometimes making the wrong decisions - when she tries to take a big step, she stumbles. But she is the productive one, and in comparison to her omniscient counterpart, she is much happier being less aware but more enterprising.
Of the two videos, "Microphone" was by far the more difficult to make. The actions taken by Hamasaki, director Masashi Muto, and the crew had to be much more deliberate, more actors had to be taken care of, more locations had to be scouted. It's safe to say that there was very little in this video that was accidental. You don't see anything that wasn't carefully planned. One big case is the constant backward motion of the camera. Given the lipsync timing and how short a walkway Hamasaki had to work with, just the planning for these shots was very involved. This backward pull was necessary to get the point of the video across, which is to say confrontation and retreat. Ayu confronts the camera, trying to get it to understand, but inadvertently pushing it away. The other characters in the video are doing the same thing, trying to put their real selves out there, but we, the audience, don't want it. We want the illusion.
We want Ayu's family to be happy and playing cards, but as the swinging interrogation-room lightbulb would imply, they've got something to hide, and the clown (Ayu has used clowns as a metaphor for the music industry higher-ups multiple times) mounted on the wall on the right side of the room seems to be watching them to make sure nothing is revealed. We want the military girl to keep saluting and behaving, but all she wants is to strip down to her bare self. We back away as the janitor expresses himself with dance. We back away as the blond girl with the megaphone yells at us. Just as the half-smiling, half-frowning goth clown begins to rush at the camera, we cut away in avoidance.
Hamasaki Ayumi is here confronting us with a question - do we want to see the real Ayu, or do we only think we do? Would honesty on her part really only push us away? If we knew the whole story, would we still love her? And Hamasaki teases us. She makes it look like she's tearing apart images and showing us her real self this time, but usually Hamasaki Ayumi just tears away the image to show us... Hamasaki Ayumi, just more of the same product we've always been shown. When things get real and the family playing cards starts yelling at each other, Hamasaki Ayumi is quick to tear the scene away and bring you back to the illusion.
And who does the "we" turn out to be? Who is the real audience to this video, watching and changing what she sees? The Watcher from "Sexy little things." Here, Ayu is taking some degree of responsibility for what she is and isn't willing to acknowledge about herself and what fans want from Hamasaki Ayumi.
"Sexy little things" was the much more symbolic video, and much easier to make on-set, but I would venture a guess that coming up with the symbols to use in the video was extremely difficult. The most obvious theme in the video is voyeurism. Eyes opening and closing, lights revealing and obscuring, transparency, backs being turned. The entire video is about what you can and can't see. Hands move away from eyes, lights turn on and off. It's likely a comment on how much of what we see in Hamasaki Ayumi is the real Ayu, as that would tie it in to the stories of "Microphone" and "Don't look back." The song itself deals with women in general, but perhaps the video makes the song a comment about female pop idols specifically. How personal can a pop lyricist get without it being risky to her sense of self?
In a particularly poignant part of the video, a model with fake eyes drawn on her hands moves her hands to reveal her real eyes... or does she? More fake eyes are drawn on her eyelids this time, and her real eyes are only truly revealed when she lifts her eyelids. Even then, we don't get the full picture of that model until the camera pulls back. This one moment encapsulates very efficiently how a pop star, a woman, a human being is never completely open or honest about their entire true selves. Hamasaki has tackled the subject before with videos and songs like "ourselves" and obviously "Don't look back," which was covered yesterday.
The outlet screams and bleeds when the Watcher's electrical (but veiny and seemingly organic) eyeball is plugged in, and all through the video the lights pulsate. Science has shown that the human brain is nothing but electrical impulses. If that's the case, then is anything that runs on electricity alive? Is the mythological Hamasaki Ayumi, the product, the person seen in videos, a creature that has taken on a life of her own? Hamasaki Ayumi is not a complete person, consisting only of the pieces of Ayu that we are allowed to see. To some degree, the "blank spaces" in her existence have to be filled in. One way or another, Hamasaki Ayumi is a complete person to each individual audience member, and has a life of her own in the videos we watch and songs we hear.
A pop star has a sense of duty to her audience, a sense of what she should or shouldn't do. A certain amount of decorum must be maintained. No matter how much Ayu may want to bust out of the Hamasaki Ayumi shell, she needs to remain in character. This has gotten very difficult over the last decade, and Ayu is showing herself more and more. This is where the guardsmen come into play. After awhile, the urge to dance overtakes them and they can't help but break formation. Perhaps the girl busting through the back wall is symbolic of the same desire to break free of the rules of idolhood.
After the culmination of the Watcher and Controller's efforts to oversee and coordinate, the Performer comes back into play. The guardsmen are behind her, idols that have come before her and paved the way, and allowed her to come to the forefront. She has their support, or feels that she does. In the meantime, she's carefully carved out her image, polished it to her satisfaction, and is now allowing herse
lf to be whored out. It may seem as though she's an unwilling participant in a machine that puts girls on television for money in an activity akin to prostitution, but as Hamasaki states in the song's lyrics, it's a mistake to think that she's helpless. The profession might drive her crazy, but she's chosen to stick with it, and her reasons are her own.
So then we reach the glaring question. Lady Gaga. Ripoff? Homage? Inspiration? It makes sense in the "Sexy little things" video for Hamasaki to allow herself to resemble the typical Western pop star. Her looks are reminiscent of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Gwen Stefani, all pop divas here in the west who have been marketed a certain way. They are presented as strong, individualistic women with sex appeal and power. The comparisons to Lady Gaga were inevitable when Ayu decided on English avant garde fashion, but plenty of other female singers and stars have worn freaky avant garde fashion before. Does no one ever think of the likes of Bjork, Faye Wong, Grace Jones, or Lee Jung Hyun anymore? Lady Gaga is certainly not the first singer to dress the way she does, and it's insulting to strong, singular, powerful female singers who have come before Gaga to ignore them so entirely. Ayu does her own thing, but she's always adapted other artists' looks (most notably Madonna's) for her own purposes. This video is not notable in this respect at all. Arguably Hamasaki's movements are rather awkwardly Lady Gaga-ish, but it's possible that Ayu picked up some movements subconsciously after watching a few too many Lady Gaga videos - entirely possible given how pervasive she is right now.
That said, the flat, amateurish lighting in the video and the gathering around the couch do look like they're trying and failing to mimic the look of Gaga's "Bad Romance" video, don't they?
Look, you can read into the Ayu-Gaga thing as much as you personally want to, but this podcaster doesn't think that any of it matters. "Sexy little things" does most of what it does more or less correctly, and none of the video's meaning or significance hinges on anything ripped off of Lady Gaga.
Well, that's my analysis, kids! Hope you enjoyed, and do comment if you have opinions you'd like to share.
Rock'n'Roll Circus, hamasaki ayumi, microphone, sexy little things, 浜崎あゆみ
Exclusive, Features, Misc, Review


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Home » More » How German companies violated sanctions to bring Dutch sea platform to luxury marina in Crimea
How German companies violated sanctions to bring Dutch sea platform to luxury marina in Crimea
Self-elevating platform RCP-450 in Balaklava Bay, Russian-occupied Crimea (pictured to the left of the pier). Photo: RFE/RL
Article by: Andriy Pokrovskyi
Translated by: Yuri Zoria
Amid the preparations for the construction of a yacht marina in Balaklava Bay (Sevastopol, the southwest of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, – Ed.), a special self-elevating platform RCP-450, manufactured in Europe, carries out geological exploration of the seabed. According to local media reports, the platform has been in the water area of the bay for several weeks now, while it is uknown which organization the platform belongs to and how the piece of equipment got into the territory under Western sanctions.
Infographic showing the EU Crimea-related sanctions. Source.
The Russian occupation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula started in late February 2014 as unmarked Russian troops seized the buildings of local parliament and government in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, later taking full control of the peninsula.
Then a so-called referendum unrecognized by most world countries was carried out on the status of the peninsula. On March 18, Russia officially annexed Crimea, which resulted in a number of international sanctions against Russia. Particularly, the EU put on restrictions for EU companies on making business in the Russian-occupied Crimea.
The platform RCP-450 spotted by local media is designed for geological research and construction work in the water area of various water bodies; it can operate at depths of up to 32 meters with a maximum length of retractable supports of 48 meters.
Such RCP-type platforms are manufactured by the Dutch company Ravestein Container Pontoon at the shipyard in Deest, the Netherlands. RCP was founded in 1988 and specializes in the construction of a wide range of modular vessels and structures such as flat top barges, self-elevating barges, and dredging equipment.
The seller of the Ravenstein RCP-450 jack-up platform in Russia is the GP Papenburg International GmbH company, which is part of the German concern GP Papenburg. Note the spelling difference: it is Ravestein on the Dutch manufacturer website, but the Russian seller adds the letter N – Ravenstein – on its Russian-language website.
The Russian representative office of GP Papenburg International GmbH is located in Moscow at 4/2, Urzhumskaya. The representative in Russia and CIS countries is Evgeny Rudenko, the sales manager in Eastern Europe is Olga Bodyai.
According to RBC, LLC Papenburg Russland was registered in 2013 in Moscow with Evgeny Rudenko as CEO and GP Papenburg International GMBH and LLC Papenburg Russland as founding bodies. GP Günter Papenburg AG is a group of companies from Hanover.
Another seller of the jack-up platforms RCP-250 and RCP-450 in Russia is one more Germany-linked company, ThyssenKrupp LLC from St. Petersburg. ThyssenKrupp AG is one of the largest industrial concerns in Germany, the world's largest manufacturer of high-alloy steel and metalworking machines.
Ex-chancellor's close friend and the most powerful woman in the German economy
The head of GP Günter Papenburg AG is Günter Papenburg. His companies have been active in Russia and in the former Soviet republics. Gunter Papenburg's contacts with Russian regions are impressive. One day he takes part in the International Forum and Exhibition Riverport Expo 2018 in Moscow. Another day a year later, accompanied by representatives of Lower Saxony businesses, he meets in his hometown of Hannover with a delegation of Russia's Perm Krai, headed by the region's governor, Maxim Reshetnikov.
Moreover, Mr. Papenburg is also a friend of the former German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. Such a close one that he was invited to the fifth wedding of the ex-chancellor.
Since September 2017, Gerhard Schröder, who held the post of Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1998 to 2005, has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC NK Rosneft. That's why, the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, also flew to the wedding of his close colleague.
And then there was also present his equally close friend Matthias Warnig, Managing Director of Nord Stream AG. Warnig is a member of the boards of directors of a number of Russian state and private companies, and from 2003 to 2015 he was a member of the supervisory board of the Rossiya bank, also known as the bank of Putin's friends.
As for the ThyssenKrupp AG concern, its CEO, Martina Merz, was named "the most powerful woman in the German economy", and Forbes ranked her 19th in the 2020 list of the most influential women in the world.
Marina for millionaires
From olden times, the Balaklava Bay attracted sailors by its favorable configuration, as several curves of its fairway protect the harbor well from sea storms, while the mountains surrounding the bay protect the coastal settlement from land winds. People had settled there since ancient times, and since the 19th century, Balaklava has been a resort and tourist center.
Anchorage of small vessels in Balaklava Bay. Photo: RFE/RL
Militarized and restricted to the public during the Soviet era and demilitarized under Ukraine, Balaklava, following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, became a tasty morsel for Russian oligarchs. In 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the construction of a yacht tourism center in Balaklava.
In February 2018, within the framework of the Sochi investment forum, the then Russian governor of Sevastopol, Dmitry Ovsyannikov, signed an agreement with AIP or the Agency for Infrastructure Projects LLC to attract investments in the project for the integrated development of Balaklava Bay. The total amount of money infusions required was estimated at 12 billion Russian rubles (about $200 million).
The owner of AIP is the former commander of the Russian missile forces, General Vladimir Zaritsky, rumored to be a protege of the Rotenberg brothers. The general was involved in several high-profile scandals in Crimea.
In November 2018, an open competition to design and conduct survey works for the project "Creation of a yacht marina, Sevastopol" ended up in the best bid offering 339.347 million rubles, which corresponded to the maximum contract price. The winner of the contract was Stroygazmontazh, owned by Arkady Rotenberg, who is known to be a close friend of President Putin. Earlier, Stroygazmontazh LLC was the contractor for the construction of the Kerch Bridge which put Arkady Rotenberg on the US sanctions list.
In November 2019, Rotenberg unexpectedly sold Stroygazmontazh, the largest contractor of Russian Gazprom. The new sole owner of the Stroygazmontazh company was the non-public joint-stock company Stroyinvestholding, which had been established four months earlier.
In January 2020, Glavgosexpertiza of Russia (the overseer of the Ministry of Construction's contracts, – Ed.) allowed Stroygazmontazh LLC to develop design documentation for the creation of the yacht marina. In December 2020, the Russian authorities of Sevastopol approved the planning and land surveying projects for the yacht marina in Balaklava.
Private yachts moored at the Nazukin embankment, Balaklava Bay. Photo: RFE/RL
Previously, a member of the Union of Architects of Sevastopol, Sergey Pushkarev, criticized the project calling the construction of a yacht marina in an article on his organization's website, "a subjective desire, not supported by objective prerequisites."
"Balaklava Bay is a vivid example of unique natural occurrence that can be attributed to the protected historical natural dominants of the city, along with the surrounding hills and the remains of the Genoese fortress, as well as its protected zone… The project proposed for implementation radically changes the landscape of the area, devalues the basis of the main attraction of Balaklava, which is its ensemble of nature and medieval architecture," he wrote
Sergey Pushkarev is convinced that the authors of the project never took into account both environmental aspects and social ramifications,
"The creation of a yacht mooring for 600 vessels would entail the presence of a powerful repair base, which would occupy the most valuable coastal zones of the bay for public use. In general, the total loads on the territories bounded by mountains and the sea will increase many times, which is obviously unacceptable. The initiators of the project and its executors don't take into account the social background of the situation, namely, the attitude of the local population to such initiatives. Obviously, this 'yacht marina' would be an exorbitant burden for the city, would rather worsen than improve living conditions, increase social tension due to the collision of the interests of the residents of Balaklava (fishermen, sea links with beaches) with those property-wise and socially alien owners of prohibitively expensive 'cottages under sail'," Pushkarev wrote.
Needless to say, the opinion of the expert "wasn't heard." In April 2021, President Putin, in his annual address to the Federal Assembly, said that the development of Crimean resorts, including yacht tourism, is a "priority,"
"Balaklava yacht marina is in the priority development of Russia… Crimea resorts are also in the plan of prospective development," Vladimir Putin mentioned in his address.
Dredging and geological survey
The project of the yacht marina construction provides for dredging works to expand the area of possible "parking lots" for large yachts with a large draft. For this, before dredging, geological exploration gets carried out, using the self-elevating platform.
The self-elevating platform RCP-450 conducts a survey at the pier in the northern end of Balaklava Bay. Photo: RFE/RL
According to Soviet-era research, the width of the Balaklava Bay is 200-400 meters, and at its narrowest point is 45 meters, the depth is 5-10 meters in the upper reaches, up to 25 meters at the beach, and up to 35 meters the bay's the neck. A feature of the bay is being semi-enclosed and having a limited connection with the sea. The configuration of the coastline divides the bay into two parts, the southern deep-water one, connected to the open sea, and the northern shallow one, practically stagnant, more polluted being an entry point for anthropogenic effluents.
Environmentalists have already been sounding the alarm, focusing on the dangers associated with dredging.
"Many experts believe that at the bottom of the Balaklava Bay there is a layer of silt up to 19 meters deep, in which toxic chemicals left by the military could be buried. It's very dangerous to touch all these things, and not only for people but for fish, for phyto- and zooplankton. Balaklava Bay itself is a unique place where dolphins congregate in winter, but recently their number is on the decline. The dredging and construction would only have negative consequences for them," says Crimean ecologist Margarita Litvinenko.
What kind of company has gathered! Gazprom, Rosneft, Nord Stream, GP Günter Papenburg AG, ThyssenKrupp AG. And it doesn't matter at all which of the German concerns had a hand in the sale to Crimea of the unique piece of equipment not produced in Russia.
The emergence in Balaklava Bay of the jack-up platform built in the Netherlands and sold through subsidiaries of German concerns isn't surprising at all. Remember the Siemens turbines for Crimean thermal power plants?
Grundfos says it took all precautions to prevent Crimea sanctions breach, and this raises questions
It is high time for Ukraine to create a domestic sanctions policy
Ukraine prepares sanctions against Austrian firm over flagship opera house in occupied Crimea
NGOs to push for sanctions on 29 Crimea-based enterprises and their 60 Russian collaborators
Russia's occupation of Crimea led to Ukraine losing 75% of its 2013 GDP
Company that brought "little green men" to Crimea violated EU sanctions for four years: investigation
Austrian company secretly continued Crimean opera project after public denials
Russians relocated to occupied Crimea now make up one-third of the population, experts say
Russian-occupied Crimea running out of water despite snowy weather – with Moscow still searching for way out
The wooden anniversary of Crimean Annexation: Five years of lies, deception, abuse
US non-recognition policy regarding Crimea one year on (2019)
Crimean factory gets generators from German company in breach of EU sanctions – media
Powering the Anschluss. How Siemens turbines ended up in Crimea despite sanctions (2017)
Scandal as Dutch companies help build bridge to occupied Crimea, violating sanctions (2017)
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Tags: Crimea, EU sanctions against Russia, Sanctions against Russia
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Radio Liberty
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Inheritance is an institution of great antiquity which has been regarded with favour or even with reverence in a wide variety of cultures. In the King James translation of the Bible, there are about 125 references to inheritance, all favourable; the sense of the word is sometimes material, sometimes moral or spiritual, and sometimes a mixture of the two. The transmission to the next generation of both a moral and a material legacy is regarded as a duty; the members of the present generation are not so much the absolute owners of material possessions as their stewards. The Lord forbid it me, says Naboth to Ahab, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. (I Kings XXI 3).


1.26.15 Very last day of featured artwork at 32auctions!
Can you believe it! Today is the 8th and last day on my initial worship painting collection 2009-2011 held at 32auctionns.com/jbwrshppaintings . !!!!!!!! I want to thank everyone bidders and spectators alike for making this auction a success! I am so pleased that you have taken a part of this special occasion to see that art can be used for the glory of God! Only He takes the glory, and by you participating in this auction makes His light shine on you even brighter! The following image is the last piece featured entitled "Baptism on the Jordan River".
"Baptism on the Jordan River" is the other piece I made inspired from my Israel trip featured in selected worship collection. This is an actual event that took place. My church and I went to the Jordan River as a part of the excursion and one little boy, at the age of 6 years, got baptized. He already confessed Jesus as His personal Lord and Saviour and was baptized in attendance of his father and a Pastor who came with us on the trip. Watching this was an awesome experience. Although I did not get baptized in the Jordan, seeing this, just solidifies the beauty of water. Water is seen as washing agent and being cleansed of my sins. My sins are in the sea of forgetfulness and I am a new creature in Jesus Name!
Thank you Jesus!!!!! I love and I honor you with this piece. Blessed be the highest bidder, a minimum of $192.00 who receives this piece. I would love to hug the person who gets the piece, if possible:). As the highest bidder, you will receive a commissioned portrait, courtesy of Thru His vessel JB. This portrait will be held at the 2016 annual art show. Thank you for your support!!
TO God HAVE ALL OF THE GLORY IN THE UNIVERSE IN HONOR OF HIS NAME!!!!!
If you did not have a chance to register as a bidder, there are 2 more auctions starting February 1st!
Love this piece. Every time I look at it I see joy! What a blessed piece and what a beautiful story behind it.


What MPA does the Philippines have?
Well, ManilaBoy45, what's the answer?
According to AW&ST Feb 6th 2012 issue, the Philippines are looking to acquire two (only two?) Long range maritime patrol aircraft within 24 months of signing a contract. Supposedly a new twin-engined aircraft with at least 8 hours of patrol endurance. Those stipulations should narrow the field.
According to the same issue of AW&ST, the US has offered to deploy P-3Cs on a temporary, rotating basis.
China will not sit still on their territorial claims in the area, and their ambitions must be countered firmly.


text:
Topic: Lollapalooza
List of music festivals
Rock festival
The Secret Machines
Ministry (band)
Urge Overkill
Timeline of alternative rock
Grunge music
US Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
Homerpalooza
Jon Pareles at the Lollapalooza 2006 Festival - New York Times
Lollapalooza's big headliner and grand finale was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and at first I seemed to be the only one there who wasn't enthusiastic.
Lollapalooza, meanwhile, is branded every which way: on stages, on the field, in its advertising.
Lollapalooza is still selective; there are comparatively few duds among this year's big names.
www.nytimes.com /ref/arts/music/lollapalooza2006-journal.html (2112 words)
Lollapalooza - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lollapalooza is an American music festival featuring alternative rock, rap, and punk rock bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths.
The name Lollapalooza means "something outstanding or unusual"; Farrell heard the word in a Three Stooges short film and liked the sound.
Lollapalooza's charter was not just a super-star rock jam -- it was a cultural festival, albeit for the newly-formed 1990s counterculture.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Lollapalooza (1836 words)
Lollapalooza (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Lollapalooza is an American traveling music festival featuring alternative rock, rap, and punk rock bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths.
Organized in 1991 by Perry Farrell, singer for the band Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza ran annually through 1997, and was revived in 2003.
Farrell conceived of the Lollapalooza festival in 1990 as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction.
www.serebella.com /encyclopedia/article-Lollapalooza.html (835 words)
Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Living / Arts / Slow ticket sales cancel Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza, once the jewel of summer music festivals, has been cancel ed this year because of poor ticket sales.
Lollapalooza is the first major casualty in what is already shaping up to be a sluggish concert season, even for such big-draw acts as Dave Matthews, Norah Jones, and Ozzfest, which has been one of summer's biggest festival tours for the past several years.
Lollapalooza would have not only heightened the punk-cabaret duo's profile, but afforded them the chance to interact with other diverse and progressive musicians.
www.boston.com /news/globe/living/articles/2004/06/23/slow_ticket_sales_cancel_lollapalooza (721 words)
Lollapalooza Gets XBox's Addiction - MegaGames console
Lollapalooza, on hiatus since its last tour in 1997, will hit the road starting in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the Ionia County Fairgrounds on July 3 and continue with more than 30 dates throughout the country.
Lollapalooza is known as the nation's leading lifestyle concert tour.
Knowing how closely the Lollapalooza and Xbox audiences mirror each other, we jumped at the opportunity to be a presenting sponsor with the tour, and provide fans with the combination of technology and entertainment that is sweeping the nation, said Mitch Koch, corporate vice president of marketing for Xbox at Microsoft.
www.megagames.com /news/html/console/lollapaloozagetsxboxsaddiction.shtml (549 words)
Lollapalooza Organic Farmers' Markets
Lollapalooza is hoping to help educate concert-goers about the importance of organic farming and buying local by providing a venue for farmers to sell healthy, good tasting fresh products.
Lollapalooza encourages farmers, as well as other vendors, to bring their own small table, tent, canopies, etc. to enhance the presentation.
Although Lollapalooza is an event that runs all day and into the night, the hours of the organic farmers' market will be Noon to 6:00 pm daily (exact time will vary slightly from show to show.) You will be able to set up approximately three hours before the show begins.
www.newfarm.org /features/0603/lollapalooza.shtml (651 words)
PopMatters Music Feature | Lollapa-loser? A critical look inside the rise and fall of Lollapalooza 2004
In a statement last week via the Lollapalooza website, festival founder Perry Farrell explained his emotions and rationale for the cancellation of Lollapalooza 2004, "You can imagine the dismay I share at this moment with the artists and musicians who were looking forward to the tour.
Traditionally, Lollapalooza has always been a one day festival with a handful of bigger name acts on the main stage while the second stage is populated by up and coming and local acts.
You don't often think of Lollapalooza as a venue for metal acts, but throw in past participants like Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age, Alice in Chains, and A Perfect Circle and suddenly the impact of metal bands on this festival is clear.
www.popmatters.com /music/features/040629-lollapaloser.shtml (1594 words)
Lollapalooza Lives--For One Weekend - Apr 22, 2005 - E! Online News (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
The Jane's Addiction frontman and Lollapalooza cofounder has dusted off his famed music festival for a two-day run in the Windy City this summer.
Lollapalooza proved successful in that endeavor; hitting at least 20 cities every summer during the mid 1990s, until the fest took a breather in 1998.
Marc Geiger, a Lollapalooza cofounder and head of contemporary music at the William Morris Agency, told E! Online that he was also happy to be involved with the new-look Lolla.
www.eonline.com /News/Items/0,1,16401,00.html?rssmusic (518 words)
Farrell conceived of the Lollapalooza festival in as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction.
Lollapalooza's charter was not a super-star rock jam -- it was cultural festival albeit for the newly-formed 1990s
The explosion of grunge music in the early 1990s propelled Lollapalooza forward; the 1992 and festivals leaned heavily on grunge acts.
www.freeglossary.com /Lollapalooza (1352 words)
Lollapalooza returns - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Perry Farrell may think Lollapalooza is all about him and Jane's Addiction, but for the kids -- most of whom were in diapers when "Jane Says" ruled college radio -- Incubus is the real draw.
Second Stage at Lollapalooza is always a mixed bag and seldom matches the list of bands that are scheduled to show up.
Lollapalooza also always reserves at least one spot for a local band, which hasn't yet been announced.
www.pittsburghlive.com /x/tribune-review/entertainment/s_144010.html (1583 words)
LOLLAPALOOZA HOUSTON 2003 HOTEL LIMOUSINE NETWORK (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
LOLLAPALOOZA cheap Hotels in Houston are in high demand and the hotel market in Houston seems to cater everyone in Houston.
Lollapalooza cheap Houston hotel lodging limo transfers are also available to Houston restaurants in the Houston area.
Lollapalooza Houston hotel limo transfers will be available for Lollapalooza and exhibits in Houston next year as well as to and from the game and back to their Houston hotel.
www.extremeelegance.com /LOLLAPALOOZA.html (556 words)
Lollapalooza Tour 2003 Kicks Off July 3rd
Lollapalooza returns with a new 2003 North American tour featuring a lineup of some of music's most vital artists, a fully interactive event with a wealth of new sights, sounds and experiences, and its dedication to diversity and spectacle more pronounced than ever.
Lollapalooza was founded in 1991 by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell.
The Lollapalooza 2003 mainstage features original founder Jane's Addiction, claiming its headlining slot, with Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins joined by new bassist Chris Chaney previewing new material live and from their upcoming new album, Hypersonic, to be released on Capitol Records on July 22nd.
www.audiorevolution.com /news/0503/13.lollapalooza.shtml (293 words)
Lollapalooza 2005 Concert - Reviews From the Music Festival in Chicago - New York Times
It was even funnier to hear it played at Lollapalooza, the festival that began as a conduit from indie to mainstream and, in its latest incarnation, was full of bands - like the Killers - whose songs have latched on to old indie styles that now sound so familiar they're accepted by pop radio stations.
From its 1991 inception, Lollapalooza was always, and pointedly, a variety show: a proscriptive one, insisting to its audience that there was music it would be happy to discover.
As Lollapalooza got under way this morning, the earnestness of a new band could be gauged by the retro era it chose.
www.nytimes.com /ref/arts/music/lollapalooza-journal.html?hp (2956 words)
Lollapalooza music fest is Chicago bound
LOS ANGELES - Lollapalooza -- a marquee touring festival of the 1990s that fell on commercial hard times last year -- is returning this year in drastically scaled-down form.
Lollapalooza began life in 1991 as a major vehicle for the exposure of left-field rock talent.
Grosses for Lollapalooza were uneven in 2003: The tour collected $13.7 million from 25 dates, according to Billboard Boxscore, and some dates were killed.
www.azcentral.com /ent/celeb/articles/0330RRlollapalooza.html (304 words)
Lollapalooza Lives! - May 09, 2003 - E! Online News (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
The legendary Los Angeles rockers led by singer Perry Farrell, a Lollapalooza cofounder, will be joined on the bill by Audioslave--the supergroup teaming former Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell with members of Rage Against the Machine--as well as Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus, Jurassic 5, the Donnas and, for a few dates, A Perfect Circle.
"Lollapalooza's mission is to be great and wonderful, to speak to people and speak for the Earth, and to embody music's power to bring people together," says Farrell.
Lollapalooza created the template of the summer touring fests and launched dozens of knock-offs, including Ozzfest, the Vans Warped Tour, H.O.R.D.E., Smokin' Grooves, Lilith Fair and Area One.
www.eonline.com /News/Items/0,1,11758,00.html (812 words)
Disquiet: reports: Lollapalooza 2003, un-wired (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Lollapalooza is widely regarded as having reinvigorated the festival circuit for a generation of music fans raised in the cathode glow of MTV.
It would be hard to argue that the decision to exclude electronic music is primarily financial, since a number of the acts on Lollapalooza 2003 (Burning Brides, Cold, the Distillers, Kings of Leon, the Music) are hardly household names.
Whereas Lollapalooza has been reborn as a largely alternative-rock affair, the generally rootsy jam band community is welcoming electronic music with open arms.
www.disquiet.com /report-20030509-lolla.html (587 words)
Lollapalooza's three-day festival is in Chicago's Grant Park.
The group is booked to perform at this summer's Lollapalooza in Chicago, and will rub elbows with the Flaming Lips, Wilco, the Shins, Sonic Youth and, let's...
The festival encapsulated youth culture for the 1990s much as Woodstock did for the 1960s; Lollapalooza Generation is often used as a synonym for Generation X.
www.wikiverse.org /lollapalooza (1166 words)
Lollapalooza 2005 concert recap
The organizers of this year's Lollapalooza were very smart to announce the lineup well in advance of announcing the schedule.
The southern stages were emblazoned with SBC insignia, a major sponsor of Lollapalooza, and pointed directly towards the northern stages.
Or, perhaps they make it a more traditional Lollapalooza setting and simply have two main stages and a side stage, so that there is less direct competition between the bands.
www.bullz-eye.com /cdreviews/2medsker/concert_lollapalooza_2005_recap.htm (3383 words)
Metroactive Music | Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza attendees witnessed a decade's worth of styles, from Nine Inch Nails' industrial metal shower to Siouxsie and the Banshees' symphonic goth; from Living Colour's uplifting rock to Ice-T's tales from the 'hood.
Following in the Lollapalooza tradition of headlining acts delivering anticlimactic closing sets most fans were heading for the doors by the time Sonic Youth came on to fuss around with feedback.
Perry-patetic: Lollapalooza's Perry Farrell attempts to recapture the spirit of 1991.
www.metroactive.com /papers/metro/05.22.03/lollapalooza-0321.html (1705 words)
Lollapalooza 2004: R.I.P. - Jun 22, 2004 - E! Online News (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Taking the bad news especially hard was Lollapalooza cofounder Perry Farrell, whose band, Jane's Addiction, headlined the inaugural fest back in 1991 as well as last year's edition, which revived the traveling carnival after a five-year layoff.
That's a far cry from Lollapalooza's glorious grungy days, when the road show's main stage played host to such bands as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Beck, Nirvana, Sinead O'Connor, Metallica, Snoop Dogg, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Beastie Boys, making it the hot ticket of summer.
But with poor sales plaguing last year's installment and now scuttling this year's, we may have seen the last of Lollapalooza.
Kanye, Chili Peppers Head Lollapalooza '06 - Mar 16, 2006 - E! Online News (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
As the alternative generation's standard-bearer for touring festivals parks itself in Chicago's Grant Park as a standalone affair for the second year in a row, Lollapalooza is expanding from two days to three, and adding a special emphasis on hip-hop.
That led to Lollapalooza '05 putting down stakes in Chicago with the intention of being a one-stop destination for music lovers as well as compete with the likes of major music festivals Bonnaroo and Coachella which, after ripping a page from the Woodstock-Lolla playbook, have become runaway successes over the last four years.
A three-day Lollapalooza pass costs $130 and is now on sale at Lollapalooza.com--not a bad deal considering the price of a decent seat at a Rolling Stones show.


text:
B-52 Stratofortresses execute Saber Strike 17 missions
By Senior Airman Curt Beach, 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs / Published June 08, 2017
A load crew team from the 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron removes BDU-50s, (inert munitions) general purpose unguided conventional weapons, from a B-52H Stratofortress at RAF Fairford, U.K., June 5, 2017. B-52s and Airmen from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., are working side-by-side NATO allies and partners during BALTOPS, Saber Strike and Arctic Challenge missions. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Curt Beach)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Aldrin Magalong, 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron load crew team chief, communicates with team members during a weapons download at Royal RAF Fairford, U.K., June 5, 2017. Load crews are participating in Saber Strike 2017, an annual, multinational, exercise designed to strengthen interoperability and cohesiveness between NATO allies and partner nations. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Curt Beach)
A B-52H Stratofortress takes off from Royal Air Force Fairford, U.K., June 5, 2017, in support of exercise Saber Strike 17. Saber Strike 17 promotes regional stability and security, while strengthening partner capabilities and fostering trust. The combined training opportunities that it provides greatly improves interoperability among participating NATO Allies and key regional partners. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Curt Beach)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Michael Ruiz, 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron load crew team member, fastens a BDU-50 (inert munition) general purpose unguided conventional weapon to a bomb lift truck at Royal Air Force Fairford, U.K., June 5, 2017. Load crews are participating in Saber Strike 2017, an annual, multinational, exercise designed to strengthen interoperability and cohesiveness between NATO allies and partner nations. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Curt Beach)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Aldrin Magalong, 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron load crew team chief, secures BDU-50s (inert munitions) general purpose unguided conventional weapons to a bomb lift truck at RAF Fairford, U.K., June 5, 2017. Load crews are participating in Saber Strike 2017, an annual, multinational, exercise designed to strengthen interoperability and cohesiveness between NATO allies and partner nations. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Curt Beach)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Michael Ruiz, 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron load crew team member, guides BDU-50s (inert munitions) general purpose unguided conventional weapons at Royal Air Force Fairford, U.K., June 5, 2017. Load crews are participating in Saber Strike 2017, an annual, multinational, exercise designed to strengthen interoperability and cohesiveness between NATO allies and partner nations. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Curt Beach)
RAF FAIRFORD, U.K. -- Three B-52H Stratofortresses and Airmen from U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command began conducting missions in support of Saber Strike 17 at Royal Air Force Fairford, United Kingdom, June 5, 2017.
Saber Strike 17 is this year's iteration of a long-standing U.S. Army Europe-led cooperative training exercise that takes place in multiple locations throughout Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland from May 28 to June 24.
"Our guys are pretty excited. Coming into this environment offers a setting that we're not familiar with, prepping for the unknown," said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Kimmie Samuel, 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron weapons section chief. "The weather, rain, wind…this terrain is significantly different here versus back home."
Saber Strike exercises help facilitate cooperation among NATO allies and partner nation focusing on promoting interoperability, and improving joint operational capability in a variety of missions.
"We'll be working with BDU-50 inert munitions, concrete bombs which are general purpose unguided conventional weapons during this exercise," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Fleming Thompson, 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron wing weapons officer. "We'll take them over to Tapa and work with NATO Joint Tactical Air Control and employ those in a joint environment."
The inclusion of bombers in this exercise has been long-planned and provides an opportunity for bomber crews to integrate and train with other U.S. European Command components, while exercising the U.S.' key bomber capabilities.
"We need to demonstrate that we can operate out of here, and these are good exercises that get us flying," said Thompson. "They set a tempo. They set a bar out there for what they expect of us, and we try to get over the bar."
Exercises such as Saber Strike provide vital opportunities, not only for multiple U.S. services to work together, but also for integrated, total force training with U.S. Reserve and Air National Guard units and our partner nations' militaries to ensure interoperability. This cohesive effort is the bedrock of our collective military capability.
B-52 barksdale Estonia EUCOM Latvia Lithuania NATO Poland Saber Strike USAFE USArmyEurope


text:
Q: What does return do? Nothing is ever returned I have been learning Python for some days now. However, I do not understand return. I have read several explanations from my textbooks and online; they don't help!
Maybe someone can explain what return does in a simple way?
I have written several useful (for me) Python scripts but I have never used return because I don't know what it does.
Could you provide an easy example that shows why return should be used?
It also appears to do nothing:
def sqrt(n):
    approx = n/2.0
    better = (approx + n/approx)/2.0
    while better != approx:
        approx = better
        better = (approx + n/approx)/2.0
    return approx

sqrt(25)

My textbook told me: "Try calling this function with 25 as an argument to confirm that it returns 5.0."
The only way I know how to check this is to use print. But I don't know if that is what they are looking for. The question just says to call with 25. It doesn't say to add anything more to the code to confirm that it returns 5.0.

A: return returns a value from a function:
def addseven(n):
    return n + 7

a = 9
b = addseven(a)
print(b)        # should be 16

It can also be used to exit a function:
def addseventosix(n):
    if n != 6:
        return
    else:
        return n + 7

However, even if you don't have a return statement in a function (or you use it without specifying a value to return), the function still returns something - None.
def functionthatisuseless(n):
    n + 7

print(functionthatisuseless(8))        # should output None

Sometimes you might want to return multiple values from a function. However, you can't have multiple return statements - control flow leaves the function after the first one, so anything after it won't be executed. In Python, we usually use a tuple, and tuple unpacking:
def addsevenandaddeight(n):
    return (n+7, n+8)        # the parentheses aren't necessary, they are just for clarity

seven, eight = addsevenandaddeight(0)
print(seven)        # should be 7
print(eight)        # should be 8

return statements are what allow you to call functions on results of other functions:
def addseven(n):
    return n+7

def timeseight(n):
    return n*8

print(addseven(timeseight(9))

# what the intepreter is doing (kind of):
# print(addseven(72))    # 72 is what is returned when timeseight is called on 9
# print(79)
# 79

A: You either need to add a print or write the whole thing into the interactive interpreter to see the return value.
return makes it possible to get some output/result out of a function. To this value later in the code you have to assign it to a variable:
a = sqrt(25)

A: Your textbook expects you to try things in the interactive interpreter, which shows you values as you enter them. Here's an example of how this looks:
$ python
Python 2.7.5+ (default, Sep 17 2013, 17:31:54)
[GCC 4.8.1] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> def sqrt(n):
...     approx = n/2.0
...     better = (approx + n/approx)/2.0
...     while better != approx:
...         approx = better
...         better = (approx + n/approx)/2.0
...     return approx
...
>>> sqrt(25)
5.0
>>>

The key thing here is the difference between expressions and statements. def is a statement, and produces no result. sqrt, which the def block defines, is a function; and functions always produce a return value, such that they can be used in expressions, like sqrt(25). If your function doesn't contain return or yield this value is None, which the interpreter ignores, but in this case sqrt returned a number which is automatically printed (and stored in a variable called _). In a script, you might replace the last line with print sqrt(25) to get the output to a terminal, but the useful thing about return values is that you can do further processing, such as root=sqrt(25) or print sqrt(25)-5.
If we were to run the exact same lines as a script, instead of in interactive mode, there is no implicit printing. The line sqrt(25) is accepted as a statement of an expression, which means it's calculated - but then the value is simply discarded. It doesn't even go into _ (which is the equivalent of the calculator's Ans button). Normally we use this for functions that cause side effects, like quit(), which causes Python to exit.
By the way, print is a statement in Python 2 but a function in Python 3. That's why more and more uses of it have parenthesis.
Here is a script which relies on sqrt (in this case Python's own version) returning a value:
from math import sqrt
area = float(raw_input("Enter a number: "))
shortside = sqrt(area)
print "Two squares with the area", area, "square meters,",
print "placed side to side, form a rectangle", 2*shortside, "meters long",
print "and", shortside, "meters wide"

A: The return keyword is to exit a function and return a value. To let a function return a value, use the return statement.
As Charlie Duffy comments, when you don't use return anywhere in your function, Python has an implicit return value of None. In other words, if you don't tell a function it should return something, then None is what it returns.

So if you change def gimmieFive(): return 5 to just def gimmieFive(): 5, then someone who runs x = gimmieFive() will have
  x == None, instead of x == 5. The 5 just gets thrown away when
  gimmieFive exits.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Bílý Kostel nad Nisou é um município da República Checa localizada no distrito de Liberec, região de Liberec.

Comunas de Liberec (distrito)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Great News! Indiana's native son Carl Storie is back home again in Indiana. Carl is currently playing with friends Dave Barnes (Faith band drummer), Ron Townsend (bass guitar/vocals), Mark Moran (guitar/vocals) and Barry Brown (keyboards/vocals). Carl and the band are grateful and excited to see so many friends at their shows. Please sign-up now for our mailing list below to receive updates regarding the band and upcoming shows. And, please like our new Carl Store Band Facebook page for additional photos and comments from fans and the band. For booking information please call 317-750-0823.
REGISTER FOR OUR MAILING LIST TODAY!
Carl Storie Band mailing list subscribers are the first to hear about upcoming shows, band news, new song releases and more. Sign-up today.
Join the Carl Storie Band on the 2nd Friday of each month at George's Neighborhood Grill.


Hi! My name is Krystal with Dove Chocolate Discoveries. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes to read about the amazing opportunity Dove Chocolate Discoveries has to offer you.
Dove Chocolate Discoveries™ is the first direct selling chocolate company in the US, and was introduced by Mars Incorporated….I am sure you are aware that Mars manufactures and markets many brands you probably already love like, Dove Chocolate®, M&M's, Snickers, Three Musketeers and Milky Way, to name a few. .
What you may or may not know is Dove Chocolate® is the fastest growing premium chocolate brand in the United States and Dove Chocolate Discoveries™ offers an exclusive line of this premium chocolate that is only available for sale through a Chocolatier.
- In North America, more people crave chocolate than any other food.
- Last year in the US, more than $16 billion of chocolate was purchased.
Whether you want to have a bridal shower, or bachelorette party and taste sweet and savory products or just order chocolate for favors for your upcoming event, I can hekp you out. I can even assist with gift baskets or the making of favors for an additional fee. Give Unique gifts for that chocolate lover, different deals every month!


text:
Der Gouverneur steht für:

 Der Gouverneur (Andrejew), eine Erzählung von Leonid Andrejew
 Der Gouverneur (Film), ein deutsches Filmdrama (1939)


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4. Ed Templeton : tangentially parenthetical.
Davenport, CA : Um Yeah Arts, 2018.
preface: Hanna Heiting ; essay: Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer ; interview: Holly Myers.
9. Abstrakt Zermatt : Aline Diepois & Thomas Gizolme.
edited and photographed by Yukio Futagawa ; introduction and articles by Makoto Suzuki ; drawings by Wayne Nobushi T. Fujii ; designed by Gan Hosoya.


text:
max_qr_bytes=2800

# Prefix string for the PNG images that are produced
image_prefix="QR"

# Argument/usage check
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
	echo "usage: `basename ${0}` <ascii armor key file>"
	exit 1
fi

asc_key=${1}
if [ ! -f "${asc_key}" ]; then
	echo "key file not found: '${asc_key}'"
	exit 1
fi

## Split the key file into usable chunks that the QR encoder can consume
chunks=()
while true; do
    IFS= read -r -d'\0' -n ${max_qr_bytes} s
    if [ ${#s} -gt 0 ]; then
        chunks+=("${s}")
    else
        break
    fi
done < ${asc_key}

## For each chunk, encode it into a qr image
index=1
for c in "${chunks[@]}"; do
    img="${image_prefix}${index}.png"
    echo "generating ${img}"
    echo -n "${c}" | qrencode -o ${img}
	if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
		echo "failed to encode image"
		exit 2
	fi
	index=$((index+1))
done


text:
Manuel Ibáñez i Escofet (Barcelona, 2 d'agost de 1917 - 15 de desembre de 1990) fou un periodista català.

Començà en la professió abans de la Guerra Civil espanyola en la redacció dEl Matí. Durant la postguerra formà part de la Comissió Abat Oliba (1947). No tornà al periodisme fins que el 1952 fou nomenat sotsdirector dEl Correo Catalán, del qual fou promotor de la seva modernització i catalanització, tot incorporant a la seva redacció Josep Pla, Joan Fuster, Jacint Ros i Hombravella, Armand Carabén i Ernest Lluch.

Des del 1968 va dirigir Tele/eXpres i la convertí en una publicació viva i decantada envers els problemes del país, amb col·laboradors destacats com Montserrat Roig, Terenci Moix, Jaume Perich, Josep Maria Huertas Claveria o Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. Tanmateix, la creixent politització dels nous redactors i un atac de cor l'obligaren a deixar la direcció del diari.

El 1976 fou nomenat director adjunt de La Vanguardia. Fou assessor en matèries informatives dels presidents de la Generalitat Josep Tarradellas i Jordi Pujol, i director dels programes de TVE a Catalunya Les nostres coses, Desperta ferro i La nostra gent. També col·laborà esporàdicament a Revista de Girona.

La seva passió pel futbol en general i el F.C. Barcelona en particular es va traduir en la publicació, el 1962, amb el títol de Kubala, un barceloní de Budapest, d'una breu biografia del popular futbolista, i el 1991, pòstumament, el recull d'articles Parlem del Barça.

Ibáñez Escofet va publicar dos reculls d'articles: La corda fluixa (1971, reeditat el 2017, amb motiu del centenari del seu naixement, amb pròleg i notes de Sam Abrams) i Les arrels i les fulles (1985), però destaca sobretot l'èxit notable del seu llibre autobiogràfic La memòria és un gran cementiri (1990), en el qual, a través de les seves vivències personals, professionals i polítiques, repassava més de mig segle de vida catalana. Per aquesta obra li va ser concedit el Premi Crítica Serra d'Or l'any 1991. Abans, el Govern de Catalunya el va distingir amb la Creu de Sant Jordi el 1983 i l'Ajuntament de la seva ciutat, amb el premi Ciutat de Barcelona de Periodisme el 1986.

Obres

  (Premi Crítica Serra d'Or de biografies i memòries, 1991)

Fons personal
El febrer de 2022 el seu fons personal va ser dipositat a l'Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya. En el moment del seu lliurament, el fons tenia un volum de 2,2 m. Es tracta de l'arxiu conservat per la seva vídua Maria Fanés Guasch, morta el mes de juny de 2021, dispers fins ara a les cases familiars de Barcelona i Capmany (Alt Empordà) i recuperat finalment pels fills del periodista.

Cronològicament, el fons abasta pràcticament tota la vida professional d'Ibáñez Escofet, des de començaments de la dècada dels anys quaranta fins a la seva defunció, el 15 de desembre de 1990; per tant, des de les temptatives literàries inicials de postguerra, recorrent tots els estadis de la seva vida professional, fins als anys finals de La Vanguardia. A més, inclou també la correspondència adreçada a la seva vídua per raó del traspàs d'Ibáñez Escofet, i la de premis atorgats i homenatges dedicats posteriorment a la defunció a la premsa i en actes específics.

Referències

Enllaços externs
 Ibáñez Escofet en tres etapas a El País

Periodistes barcelonins
Creus de Sant Jordi 1983
Guanyadors del Premi Ciutat de Barcelona


WHAT is innovation, what does it mean for your business and can anyone become an innovator?
These topics were discussed and local innovators highlighted their success at the recent ETC Business Club breakfast, part of The Mid North Coast Innovation Festival.
Compere Gary Haseldine - local Coffs Harbour speaker, trainer and clinical psychotherapist - stated that anyone can be an innovator by developing behaviours conducive to being innovative.
"It's applying knowledge in a novel way, doing something new with existing technologies. Innovation isn't necessarily invention, rather it is making an invention valuable," Gary said.
This month, the Mid North Coast Innovation Festival has been turning the spotlight on some innovative businesses, inspiring and encouraging other operators to be innovative.
The festival has featured local business identities like Rick Phipps of SEAS (Submersible Equipment and Services).
Speaking at the ETC Business Club breakfast, Rick said the innovative ideas we applied were to adapt our system to meet a client's challenging requirements and by doing so, creating a far more versatile sampling platform.
"I believe our success comes from our ability to listen to our clients and be flexible. We deliver an amazingly innovative and unique product, though at the end of the day we never stop listening to our customers and offer a quality product," Rick said.
Susan Harwood from Mid North Coast Organics Inc and Organic Marketing Company said early on she and her colleagues recognised the benefits of working collaboratively and instead of trying to market single or small product types on their own.
"We now have a marketing manager who represents 40 different farmers and we supply produce locally and domestically and have visions of extending our scope to international markets in the near future," Susan said.
Local businessman Paul Hoffman of Express Coach Builders had a dream to build one bus. Paul's business now employees more than 90 people, operates out of two manufacturing factories and has an impressive list of international clients, including Volvo and Mercedes Benz.
Paul has been the prime driving force behind the company's consistent growth and pursuit of excellence, and is living proof that transport vehicles can still be made in Australia.
"I never considered myself an innovator. I was a man with a plan and I never dreamt that my idea to build one bus would turn into such a success," Paul said.
For further information on the Mid North Coast Innovation Festival please visit http://www.mncinnovationfestival.com.au or for business advice phone ETC on 6648 5400.


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Articles in Eureka Street
Churches standing up to 'pro-Israel' politicians
My following article appears today in Eureka Street: The Australian Jewish News (AJN) was outraged. Its editorial in late July condemned the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) for a resolution calling on Australians to boycott Israeli goods made in the occupied Palestinian territories. The AJN wrote that the move contributed to a global…


After more than forty years, farmers using Monsanto's glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide recently encountered a problem: weeds were becoming resistant to it, making glyphosate no longer an effective treatment.
Experts have long awaited this day.
This is the issue that was outlined by the Washington Post in a recent exposé, writing, "Farmers are locked in an arms race between ever-stronger weeds and ever-stronger weed killers."
Enter dicamba: a chemical that was supposed to be industrial ag's saving grace. The older herbicide had apparently been reformulated to be better, stronger, and safer than both previous dicamba formulations and glyphosate. But the unfortunate reality is that dicamba has turned out to be a farmer's worst nightmare.
The newest formulation of dicamba was first approved for use this spring, designed to guarantee control of herbicide-resistant weeds in soybeans and cotton when used in combination with genetically engineered dicamba-resistant seeds. According to Monsanto, which markets the herbicide under the brand name Xtendimax, more than 20 million acres of these seeds were planted this spring and summer.
But dicamba has posed new problems for farmers, namely the fact that it volatilizes when applied to crops, revaporizing and traveling from the fields where it is sprayed to non-GMO fields.
This has resulted in the damage of more than 3.1 million acres of soybeans according to Kevin Bradley, a University of Missouri researcher, or almost 4 percent of all U.S. soybean acres.
American Soybean Association President Ron Moore noted in late September that there are currently 2,242 complaints related to dicamba in 21 of the 30 American soybean-growing states.
"We expect that number to continue to rise," he says.
The crisis has led to lawsuits, investigations, and an argument that ended in a farmer's shooting death and related murder charges, but believe it or not, farmers aren't the only ones experiencing issues related to dicamba. NPR reports that at a meeting of Arkansas's Plant Board in September, Richard Coy, who manages 13,000 honeybee hives in Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi, reported that honey production fell by 30 to 50 percent in areas where farmers were spraying dicamba, as native plants were being affected, thus depriving the bees of essential sustenance.
According to the Post, some experts claim that the herbicide was approved without enough data on possible drift, but Kastel says that on the contrary, the risks were known.
"There were warning flags raised before these materials and crops became widely adopted, and they were ignored," he says.
Even the Post notes that according to a 2004 assessment, dicamba is 75 to 400 times more dangerous to off-target plants than glyphosate, particularly to non-GMO soybeans. In addition, the newspaper reports that in a July 29 call with the EPA, a dozen state weed scientists shared their "unanimous concern" over the volatility of dicamba: some field tests show that dicamba is volatile for as long as 72 hours after spraying.
Others have linked the increased problems related to dicamba with the fact that it is being used for the first time in summertime, promoting even worse volatility than has been seen before.
Monsanto, however, claims that the issues do not lie with the formulation of the herbicide, but rather with its application by farmers. Scott Partridge, Monsanto's vice president of global strategy, claims that farmers have illegally sprayed older dicamba formulations or used the herbicide with the wrong equipment, and the company has deployed agronomists and climate scientists to visit growers and find out what went wrong.
Meanwhile, dicamba has been banned by regulators in some states where damage is most widespread, including Arkansas, where the State Plant Board voted unanimously to ban the use of dicamba from mid-April to November. Rules have also been tightened in Missouri and Tennessee to help stem the issues related to the herbicide.
The worst part? It seems dicamba won't be solving the glyphosate-resistance problem. Researchers have already shown that pigweed, one of the main targets of dicamba, can develop resistance to the herbicide within as few as three years.
While experts continue to seek out a new chemical solution, the underlying issue seems obvious, at least to Kastel.
But while immediate financial costs may be lower, the environmental costs are astronomical. They may be more expensive to implement, but natural weed management techniques used in organic farming, including crop rotation and the use of cover crops, do not call for genetically engineered seeds and dangerous herbicides like dicamba and glyphosate.
While we're a long way off from seeing these techniques used in a widespread manner, it's worth adding these solutions to the conversation, or risk being caught in an eternal cycle of even more resistant weeds and even more dangerous chemicals to attempt to control them.


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Ducati Panigale V4 bookings reopened, starts from INR 20.53 lakhs
05/04/2018 - 18:19 | Ducati Panigale, Ducati | Praveen M
Ducati India launched its flagship track-friendly motorcycle, the Ducati Panigale V4 in January. The initial 20 units of the bike were booked out within a week of the announcement. Hence, due to heavy demand, the company has reopened its bookings for the bike.
The Ducati Panigale V4 S rivals the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR, Suzuki GSX-R1000R, and Yamaha YZF-R1.
The bike is available in two variants- V4 and V4 S. The Panigale V4 and V4 S are available for bookings at an introductory price of INR 20,53,000 & INR 25,29,000 (Ex-showroom India) respectively with deliveries starting in July 2018. The introductory pricing is the same as the cost of the bikes in the previous lot. The bikes are now available for bookings across Ducati dealerships in Delhi – NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi & Kolkata. Sergi Canovas, Managing Director of Ducati India, commented:
The overwhelming response which the Panigale V4 has received, even before the start of deliveries, is a testament of its domination in the Superbike segment and we are delighted to announce the reopening of bookings to cater to the pending customers' requests that we've collected so far.
Also Read: Ducati celebrates 3 years in India; to launch 4 new products this year
The Ducati Panigale V4 is the Italian brand's first production Ducati motorcycle to mount a 4-cylinder engine, derived directly from the MotoGP Desmosedici. The 1,103 cc 90° V4 with Desmodromic timing, delivers 214 PS at 13,000 rpm. This makes the Panigale V4 the most powerful bike in the segment. A peak torque of 124 Nm comes in at 10,000 rpm.
The bike returns 14.4 km/l, and comes with a 24-month unlimited mileage warranty.
Standard features include multiple Riding Modes, Power Modes, Bosch Cornering ABS EVO, Ducati Traction Control (DTC) EVO, Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC) EVO; Ducati Slide Control (DSC), Engine Brake Control (EBC) EVO, and Auto tyre calibration. The Panigale S comes with Ohlins suspension featuring the Smart EC 2.0 system with a new adjustment interface, and top-drawer components such as forged aluminium wheels and lithium-ion battery. This makes it 3 kg lighter than the standard V4, at 195 kg, kerb.
Ducati Panigale V4 S
BS6 Ducati Scrambler Icon and Scrambler Icon Dark bookings now open
12 new Ducati motorcycles will be launched in India in 2021
2021 Ducati Monster unveiled, packs in 111 hp, weighs 166 kg dry; just fun!
More 2021 Ducati Monster teaser images released, unveiling date revealed
2021 Ducati Monster teased for first time, shows dark matte grey colour
Ducati Diavel 1260 Lamborghini Edition unveiled, limited to only 630 units


Congratulations to the team of S.5D CHAN Chi-lok, HON Shing-hei, LAW Yuen-kei, LEE Yee-lam and PAK Ho-chun for being awarded the Third Prize in the 17th Secondary School Chinese Medicine Quiz Competition organized by the Chinese Medicine Department of Hong Kong Baptist University. They went through a series of assessments, namely a quiz, a video filming project and an oral presentation with encouraging performance. With their unwavering effort, they sucessfully entered the final round.


Leather is a durable and flexible material that produces a clean, finished product that will last.
Learn to work with real leather using snaps, rivets, fasteners and hardware. Heleen will show you how to work the material to create your own no-sew projects.
Create a coin pouch, key ring, necklace charm or bracelet to take home with you. No previous experience necessary.


As part of the Real World Windows Azure series, we talked to Shivaji Dutta, Senior Manager in the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, about using the Windows Azure platform to create the Microsoft Partner Transition Tool.
MSDN: Can you please tell us about the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group and the services you offer?
Dutta: The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group (WPG) supports the more than 400,000 partners globally that make up the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN). WPG is responsible for overseeing communications with these partners and providing official Microsoft guidance on certification requirements, trainings, and benchmarks for key business activities, such as marketing initiatives and sales volume.
MSDN: What business need did the Windows Azure platform help the WPG address?
Dutta: In 2009, Microsoft decided to restructure the requirements for participation in its global Microsoft Partner Network. As of November 2010, we've moved from a three-tier membership structure to a two-tier system. Now, partners work toward achieving either Silver or Gold status in 28 specific business areas or competencies-areas such as Application Integration and Virtualization. It was critical for us to help make the transition to the new program as straightforward as possible. In March 2010, we began working with Tikalogic, a Microsoft partner located in Redmond, to start the process of designing and building a web-based Partner Transition Tool.
MSDN: Can you provide an overview of the process of building and hosting the Partner Transition Tool?
Dutta: The team from Tikalogic used Microsoft Silverlight 4 to develop a web application, which we then published to Windows Azure. By using Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio, the team could access prebuilt templates and documentation for configuring Web and Worker roles, setting up security certificates, and creating the different application environments. The team used the ability to run the application locally and do live debugging through the IntelliTrace tool to save on development time. It took a six-person team six weeks to complete development, which was actually 50 percent faster than we'd expected.
The Partner Transition Tool provides Microsoft partners worldwide with an easy way to track progress toward certification requirements under the newly restructured Microsoft Partner Network program.
MSDN: How did use the Windows Azure platform to meet the security requirements for the Partner Transition Tool?
Dutta: In rolling out the tool, we needed to ensure the highest levels of data security, so partners know that their business information is fully protected every time they interact with the application. We built on support in Windows Azure for user authentication through the Windows Live ID service to meet this goal.
In addition to providing us with a rigorous security mechanism, partners don't need to remember a separate password to access the Partner Transition Tool site. They can just use their Windows Live ID credentials that they established as part of their partner profile.
MSDN: What kinds of benefits have you realized through the use of Windows Azure?
Dutta: The Partner Transition Tool has provided a way for partners in more than 140 countries to ease the transition to the new MPN program requirements. Over the first couple of months since it's been live, we've seen usage of the tool double, and partners continue to tell us that the interface provides an easy way to find all the information that they need. In addition to saving at least three weeks on the development and rollout of the application, we saved on infrastructure costs without sacrificing scalability. Now we have the network resources that we need in place to handle the continued adoption of the tool, and we can scale back quickly and efficiently as the need for the tool declines over time.


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We've known for a while that a Birds of Prey film is coming our way and now we get an ever-so brief look at Harley and friends. There's absolutely nothing about plot here, it just shows us quick glimpses at the motley crew. Along with Margot Robbie the film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ewan McGregor, and Rosie Perez.
The film is directed by Cathy Yan and hits theaters in 2020.
Previous ArticleComics SMASH 1/29/2018: We talk about Fight Club!


Eric Holt-Giménez at AAA 2019!
Alert readers of this blog may already know that Eric Holt-Giménez, executive director of Food First, will provide the distinguished lecture at the joint SAFN and C&A event at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association later this week.
The title of Holt-Giménez' talk is "Food, Capitalism, and Social Movements: Recipe for Transformation?" which is likely to be both timely and provocative. Holt-Giménez has an impressive record as an activist, writer, and scholar. You can read a brief bio here. You may also want to read about Food First, which is an impressive organization with a deep commitment to and long track record in building an effective food movement.
You may also know that SAFN and C&A are holding what promises to be a fabulous reception after the distinguished lecture event.
What you may not know, however, is that the AAA schedule (as of this writing) may be a bit confusing concerning which of these events is which. So, officially, here is what you need to know and where you will want to be on Friday, 11/16.
These are both going to be great events. Hope to see you there!
A Foodie's Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat, Eric Holt-Giménez, Monthly Review Press, 2017.
Working in food studies often means grappling with inequity (and deciding where best to focus our own energies in light of inequity). Yet food systems exist on so many different scales, and connections to health, well-being, and nourishment seem infinite. In the face of this complexity, we become specialists in specific parts of the food system, and can easily lose sight of the broader context. A Foodie's Guide to Capitalism offers a key contextual primer for food researchers and activists. The book provides much-needed context for understanding of the consequences of treating food as a commodity. As such, it provides important tools for good, deep thinking on food systems. Here, the cliché "think global, act local" seems resonant: we become specialists in a particular space and a particular food niche, yet require understanding of broader trends (including capitalism) to work more effectively and avoid triggering a cascade of unintended consequences.
Introduction: Do Foodies Need to Understand Capitalism?
Though we are not likely to lose the commodity form of products any time soon, we can work to change the relation between use and exchange values, and we can change the terms of socially necessary labor time (and working conditions) to make a more sustainable and equitable food system that reduces the exploitation of workers and does not pass off onto society the social costs (the externalities) that the producers ought to bear. (Loc 1065 of 5123).
When voting with our fork, we should remember that the freedom to buy food according to our values does not in and of itself change the power of commodities in our food system. If we want to change the power of commodities in the food system, we will have to change the way we value the labor in our food as well. (Loc 1103 of 5123).
While not intended for an academic audience, this book provides a plain language, big picture understanding of the food system, and would be very well-suited to an undergraduate class. The book is U.S. centric, yet resonates and is applicable to a global audience.


In the previous post, we learnt how to create a basic .NET Core console app. But I think that isn't what you are looking for. You are looking for something that is, even more, fun than a basic console app. You want something that works on the internet! That's right, you want a web app.
In this post, we will see what happens when we choose mvc instead of console while we used the dotnet new command which we used earlier. But before we jump into creating an MVC app, let's try to take our console app and make it a web app. In order to make it a web app we need to add a web server into it.
The Model-View-Controller is a software architectural pattern that divides an application into three interconnected components namely - Model, View and Controller. MVC patter helps in decoupling of these components in order to have a cleaner code base, reusable components and reduced development time. The MVC pattern is widely used in program development with programming languages such as Java, Smalltalk, C++, Ruby and PHP.
Model: Model represents the logical structure of data and class associated with it. This object model does not contain any information about the user interface. It manages the data, logic and rules of the application. Model implements the logic for the application's data domain. Often, model objects retrieve and store model state in a database.
View: Views are the components that display the application's user interface. It is a collection of classes representing the elements in the user interface. View can also update the output to the user based on the change in Model. Typically, this UI is created from the data within the model.
Controller: Controllers are the components that handle user interaction, carry out operations on the model and ultimately select a view to render. Controller connects the model and the view and communicates between the classes in model and view. Controller handles the responses to a user interaction in an application.
Traditionally ASP.NET apps used the IIS web server to run. IIS Express was a lightweight version of IIS which Visual Studio uses to run and preview apps during development. ASP.NET uses a web server called Kestrel. Kestrel is a cross-platform HTTP server based on libuv, a cross-platform asynchronous I/O library.
Kestrel is a web server that can be used in ASP.NET Core applications during development and also if the app is being used within an internal network. But for production, servers like IIS, Apache or Nginx are preferred to be used. This is mostly because these robust servers have better security than the relatively new Kestrel.
That being said, ASP.NET Core is designed to work with Kestral so as to provide consistency across all the platforms. So, these other servers need proxy the requests back to Kestrel. This enables control over the startup process. We'll look more into setting up the servers with Kestral in a later post.
In order to make the console app work as a web app, we need to make some modifications to our code which includes adding Kestral web server. Firstly, let's go ahead and create a Startup.cs file and write the following code into it.
Once we have created the Startup.cs, we need to tell Program.cs file to use our new file and server the page using the Kestrel web server.
Once we run our project now, we see Hello cool! displayed in our browser.
You can see that there are various folders created that include a controllers folder and a views folder. By default there is no models folder, but we will be creating one as we move along. We can also see our familiar CoreMVC.csproj, Program.cs and Startup.cs files too. In addition to these, there are various .json files like appsettings.json, bundleconfig.json and bower,json. We'll see what each of these do as we move on.
Our app is now running on localhost port 5000. Let's open that URL in our browser.
When we open the URL at which our project is served we see a lovely bootstrapped website. This is a basic template that MVC creates using the bootstrap front-end framework. Instead of just using a basic web page, this enables you to edit and extend the application quickly as bootstrap takes care of UI structuring and basic styling.
We can see three links on to namely Home, About and Contact. These are routes that MVC creates for displaying various sections in our app.
If we look at the Program.cs file within our MVC app, we can see that it is almost similar to the our modified Program.cs from our console app that we converted to a web app earlier.
But if you take a look at the Startup.cs file, it is much different from what we had in our console app. We will look deeper into the contents of Startup.cs in the next post in the series.
The above code snippet registers a default route format and also a default route for our app. The name is default and template defines the URL structure for our app. If we call the about method within our HomeController, the URL structure will be http://localhost:5000/Home/About.
We have more items within Startup.cs into which we will take a look in upcoming posts.
So far, after every change, we had to rerun dotnet run to see the changes on the browser. If you have worked with other platforms you would've seen the changes instantly reflecting on the browser upon refreshing the page.
To enable this feature in Core, we need to add a tool called dotnet watch to our project. Open the CoreMVC.csproj file and add this line before the closing </Project> tag.
Once the above line is added, run dotnet restore to pull in the tool into our project. Once this is done, run dotnet watch run which will run your prject and keep a watch for any file changes and rebuild the solution so that the changes reflect upon browser refresh. Any command in Core can be run with watch like dotnet watch test to run your tests while watching for file changes. As you can see, this is an extremely useful utility.
So there you have it, a full fledged MVC web application up and running withing a few minutes. In the upcoming posts,we will dive deeper into each of the components of the Core MVC app and build a real world app out of it.