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FBI Removes SPLC as "Resource"
In an unexpected and unannounced move, the FBI has apparently dropped the Southern Poverty Law Center from the list of "hate crime resources" on the Bureau's web site.
Several news sources have speculated that the FBI's decision was at least partly due to the SPLC's role in a a recent case of domestic terrorism at the Family Research Council.
In 2012, gunman Floyd Corkins entered the Washington, DC offices of the Family Research Council intent on murdering as many staffers as possible. Fortunately, facilities manager Leo Johnson was able to subdue Corkins before he could embark on his rampage, despite having been shot by Corkins in the scuffle.
While in custody, Corkins admitted that he plotted the attack using SPLC public relation chief Mark Potok's "Hate Map" fundraising tool.
"Asked by the FBI how he picked FRC to attack, Corkins stated, "It was a, uh, Southern Poverty Law, lists, uh, anti-gay groups. I found them online. I did a little bit of research, went to the website, stuff like that."
Hopefully other law enforcement agencies will follow the Bureau's example and purge their offices of all of Mr. Potok's spurious fundraising propaganda.
Though long, long overdue, Watching the Watchdogs commends the Bureau's decision.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/fbi-scrubs-key-hate-crime-partnership/#tcoxTIJm5i0izCW6.99
Tags:Floyd Corkins, hate groups, Hate Map, Mark Potok, propaganda, Southern Poverty Law Center, SPLC
SPLC — Bribing Teachers into Indoctrination
A recent news story in the Hawaii Reporter exposes the Southern Poverty Law Center's latest indoctrination scheme: Pay teachers $250 bucks a head to attend "Teaching Tolerance" training sessions.
"Teaching Tolerance" is the SPLC sub-unit that purports to promote diversity in the K-12 classroom. As we've reported here for years, "Teaching Tolerance" has been led by "whites only" since its inception in 1991.
Fortunately, State Rep. Bob McDermott got wind of the dubious scheme and has filed an ethics complaint against the Hawaii Dept. of Education.
"Are Hawaii teachers being bribed to promote a specific point of view in these materials to their students?" McDermott asked."
This story bears watching.
Tags:Ethics, Maureen Costello, Southern Poverty Law Center, SPLC, Teaching Tolerance
Posted in 3. Ideology | 1 Comment »
SPLC 2014 — The "Hate Group" Bubble Pops!
It's no secret that America has witnessed a decline in manufacturing over the decades. Apparently the Southern Poverty Law Center's manufactured "hate groups" are no longer immune to market forces either. Their latest "Hate Map" fundraising tool, purporting to identify the SPLC's list of "hate groups" for 2013 indicates a 6.6% decrease from the previous year.
While 6.6% may not seem like much in the real world, it is nearly unprecedented in the history of the SPLC. Considering the fact that there is no legal definition for "hate group," the SPLC's Public Relations Chief, Mark Potok, has simply manufactured as many as he needed each year to maintain the organization's ongoing fear campaign. Last year he lowered his "hate group" count by half a percent voluntarily and now a second, much larger cut. What gives?
Since the "supply" of hate groups has never been a problem for Mr. Potok, we can only assume that the recent downward trend represents a collapse in "demand" for his dubious product.
[NOTE: In the spirit of full disclosure, last year we remarked that the 2012 decline in "hate groups" was the first in SPLC history, but as Mr. Potok's own graph below indicates, there was a mysterious, and short-lived, 14% drop recorded in 1999. We stand corrected. WTW]
Click image to enlarge (Source: http://www.splcenter.org)
Mr. Potok acknowledges the drop in his annual "Year in Hate and Extremism" screed, but as we've pointed out on numerous occasions, his claims of "spectacular growth" since the election of President Obama have never held much water.
"After four years of spectacular growth driven by the 2008 election of President Obama and the nearly simultaneous collapse of the economy, the radical right in America saw its first significant decrease in 2013."
2009: The first full year of the Obama Administration and the worst year of the Great Recession returned "spectacular growth" of .6%
2010: Mr. Potok adds 70 new "hate groups" to his map, but at the same time the number of "homeless hate groups," those Mr. Potok cannot locate on any map, including his own, jumped by 99, for a net loss of 2.9%
2011: Mr. Potok adds 16 new "hate groups" to his Hate Map for a mighty increase of 1.6%. That same year Mr. Potok states: "But Potok said the [Ku Klux] Klan has disintegrated. "There is no Klan now," he said, only a collection of squabbling organizations. (www.sanluisobispo.com, March 23, 2011)
Doesn't it seem a little odd that Mr. Potok would proclaim the disintegration of the KKK at the height of his alleged "hate group" boom? Or maybe "bubble" is a more accurate term. After a "spectacular growth" of -.6% for the first Obama Administration, Mr. Potok's "hate groups" went into the visible decline of the past two years. The market can only absorb so much.
"Ah, well," will say the Faithful, "There are still 939 "hate groups" on the Hate Map, [940, by our count, there's one skulking in Alaska– WTW], which obviously proves that Mr. Potok and the SPLC are on to something!" Well, not so much.
If you paste Mr. Potok's "hate group" data into a spreadsheet, which you can download here, you'll find some glaring "irregularities."
If you sort the spreadsheet by Location (Column C), you find that Mr. Potok has no idea where 220 of his 940 groups are hiding. We know they are really, really there because Mr. Potok says they are really there. That's 23% right off the top. THIS is "hard data"?
Let's take New England, for example, sorted by State (Column D):
Mr. Potok designated 32 "hate groups" for New England but he has no idea where 20 of them are hiding. That's 33% off the top for Massachusetts, 66% for Vermont and New Hampshire (IHM and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are located in the same building in flyspeck Richmond, population 1,100 and change), 80% for Connecticut, and an incredibly ridiculous 100% for Maine and Rhode Island.
Again, friends… THIS is hard data?
Observant readers will note that while Mr. Potok fastidiously assigned every New England state its own chapter of the Klan, he doesn't seem to know where any of them are located.
In all fairness to Mr. Potok, it should be noted that the Loyal White Knights are an entirely new Klan group and the problem of locating them goes far beyond the rocky shores and granite hills of New England. Of the 51 chapters of the Loyal White Knights Mr. Potok has assigned to the entire United States, he is not able to locate 36 of them, or 70%.
No wonder they call themselves "The Invisible Empire."
Granted, it's not just new Klan groups that are hard to find. Mr. Potok has misplaced entire groups of Neo-Nazis:
White Nationalists:
And more Racist Skinheads than you can imagine:
And even when Mr. Potok does assign a city or town to one of his designated "hate groups" it still gives us absolutely no evidence that most of these groups even exist.
In 1998, respected investigative journalist Laird Wilcox, who describes himself as a Liberal, pointed out this lack of verifiable evidence in his seminal work, The Watchdogs.
"When the SPLC releases their list, either in print or on the Internet, it fails to contain actual addresses that might be checked by journalists or researchers. Several listings refer to "unknown group" and the name of a city or town." — The Watchdogs, p. 79
Mr. Wilcox set the standard for identifying Conservative and right-wing groups through a series of guides he published through the 1990s:
Mr. Wilcox engaged in actual research and fact-checking, something no one in the modern media will bother to do, to provide usable information that could be cross-checked, verified or debunked:
Mr. Wilcox even did something unthinkable, by Mr. Potok's standards: He documented Progressive and left-wing groups as well as the Radical Right:
The Southern Poverty Law Center doesn't really see much of a problem with the Radical Left. As Mr. Potok explained to Madeleine Morgenstern a couple years ago, "We're not really set up to cover the extreme Left."
And why would they be? There's not nearly as much money in it.
Granted, many of the entries in Mr. Wilcox' guides give little more than a P.O. box, but even that information is useful in helping the public and the Media judge the real potential threats of Mr. Potok's alleged "hate groups."
If Laird Wilcox could come up with this much information working on a shoe-string budget and using 1991 technology, why can't Mark Potok do the same using the Internet and the SPLC's hundreds of millions of cash on hand?
The simple fact is that he doesn't have to. Visit your favorite online news aggregator and do a simple keyword search for "hate groups" and you'll receive hundreds of recent hits, all referring to Mr. Potok's Hate Map fundraising tool and very, very few contesting his spurious claims.
Last year, well-meaning donors believed Mr. Potok's phony numbers and sent the SPLC $37,503,858 donor-dollars, or just over $103,000 every single day. This is why Mr. Potok, who is a public relations guy and not an attorney, received an annual compensation package in excess of $163,000 last year.
It makes no difference if Mr. Potok designates 800, 900 or 1,200 "hate groups" in a given year. His gullible donors will swallow any line he feeds them and Media will never say a word.
Tags:fund raising, fundraising, hate groups, Hate Map, Laird Wilcox, Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center, SPLC
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DEATH NOTE Tries Its Hardest to Live Up to Its Anime Legacy (Review)
by Victoria McNally
Aug 25 2017 • 10:30 AM
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After years of development hell, finally an American adaptation of Death Note has made it to… well, the small screen, technically, since it's been picked up for distribution by Netflix. Of course, it's notoriously difficult to get Western moviegoers to care about a live-action movie of a popular anime, because inevitably your target audience usually already has some kind of familiarity with Japanese version and will inevitably find yours wanting. Death Note tries its hardest and certainly brings something new to the story, but despite its admirable efforts, the movie still might not be enough for some fans to get behind.
For those who know nothing about Death Note, here's a quick primer on this version: Light Turner (Nat Wolff) is a bright high school student who discovers a magical notebook that gives him the power to kill anyone in the world by writing their name down. With the help of his classmate, Mia (Margaret Qualley), he enacts swift justice on criminals of the world as a godlike figure named "Kira," but his father (Shea Wiggum) has joined forces with a mysterious detective known as "L" (Lakeith Stanfield) to find out Kira's true identity and put a stop to his reign of terror.
I will admit that prior to watching this movie, I was internally very conflicted; although I've seen the Death Note anime in its entirely, I would not have call myself a fan prior to watching it, as there are elements of the show that frustrate me. I was also disappointed that a white actor was cast as the lead, because it seemed like another example of Hollywood not being particularly interested in creating roles for Asian American performers, even while adapting stories that would easily afford them that opportunity. (See also: Ghost In The Shell, Edge Of Tomorrow, 21, The Last Airbender, Dragonball Z, Ed Skrein's newly revealed role in the Hellboy reboot as a previously Japanese-American character… I could keep going.)
The good news is, this American adaptation is not completely without merit. Adam Wingard, who also directed two of my favorite recent horror-thrillers in The Guest and You're Next, brings an interesting aesthetic sense to the story that at times feels like a moody '80s teen drama and at other times feels like Final Destination. Lakeith Stanfield does not get nearly enough screen time as L, but it's very clear that he adores the character and manages to give him a lot of depth, even as he's maintaining his eccentric emotional distance. Mia is a refreshing departure from the Japanese Light's love interest, Misa, whose depiction in the show often struck me as a little gross and exploitative at times (even though I dearly missed Rem, her usual supernatural sidekick).
Most surprisingly of all, the movie completely nails its depiction of Ryuk, the god of death whose book Light uses to enact his violent desires. Not only is Willem Dafoe as comfortable and menacing in the role as you'd expect him to be, but the character's foreboding presence makes the focal point of every scene he's in—even though (or, more likely, because) the details of his face are almost always out of focus and obscured by darkness. It's not surprising to learn that Wingard used primarily practical effects to create his Ryuk, because you can really feel the difference compared to previous CGI iterations.
Depending on if and how you enjoy the source material, that might be where the appeal of this adaptation ends. Nat Wolff is certainly giving it his all, but Light Turner, a disaffected outcast who seems completely in over his head (at least until the final few minutes of the film, which make zero sense without context), just doesn't work as a protagonist if what you liked about Light Yagami was his methodical, manipulative nature. Similarly, L and Light barely get the chance to battle each other in their usual game of wits, which is half the fun of the original series; instead, L spends most of his time trying to compel Light to confess, which just feels too soon at this point in the (possible) franchise.
This also speaks to the biggest problem of the movie, which is that it's paced so quickly and is so focused on action that it never really feels quite like Death Note should. As much fun as I had with the gory deaths and the gloomy Seattle weather (and Ryuk, who, again, is magnificent), I sorely missed the careful logic and intense character moments present in the anime, to the point where I felt compelled to revisit the first episode after finishing the film. Luckily, both are currently hosted on Netflix, so the streaming service gets your attention either way—and maybe that might have been their goal all along.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Burritos
Images: James Dittiger/Netflix
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD OF ANIME?
The Death Note director wanted David Bowie to play Ryuk
In This Corner of the World is a beautiful film about life in the times of war
A Saint Seiya reboot is on the way!
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TAGGED: Death Note, adam wingard, lakeith stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Nat Wolff
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Author: Andrew Rostan
A Cinderella Story: The Addison Recorder's Brief Tribute to Harold Ramis
February 24, 2014 by Andrew Rostan	Leave a Comment
Hollywood has sucked hard so far in 2014, in ways that have nothing to do with the quality of movies. The best are dying and dying so fast.
In the aftermath of Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, so eloquently memorialized here by Alex, the number one clip I kept seeing over and over on the Internet was of the Lester Bangs scenes in Almost Famous, the scenes that made Hoffman feel like our cool older brother or uncle. In the same way, Harold Ramis, native of Addisonian territory, graduate of high school in Edgewater, former member of both the Second City and the Chicago Daily News, could truly be seen as a father figure for our generation.
Two examples from my personal life: I got my first pair of glasses just after I turned four years old in 1988 and I've worn them ever since. Back then, I had all the action figures and the Ghost Traps AND the firehouse headquarters playset for Ghostbusters. I watched the movie over and over and never missed the Saturday morning cartoon show. And Dr. Egon Spengler–Harold Ramis–was my hero. Venkman and Ray got the laughs, but Egon knew all the science. Egon came up with the plans that worked and kept the team together. Egon wore glasses and it didn't keep him on the sidelines or make him be treated like a nerd the way all the other characters I saw who wore glasses were treated.
And in my family, every time somebody says the line "I just talked to her last week…she was going to make a pot for me!" we all crack up.
But I need to take this beyond me. All of us who write for The Addison Recorder exercise our purely creative muscles beyond non-fiction in one way or another. Harold Ramis's work shaped our ideas on how to be entertaining. How to be hilarious. How to tell the truth in an inventive way.
Posted in: Films, Obituary
"The Smell of Old People's Houses" : The Great Beauty
After the first woman he ever loved broke his heart, Jep Gambardella wrote a novel called The Human Apparatus. It won major literary prizes and everyone alive in Italy seemed to have read it and been inspired by it. Jep then moved to Rome, became a journalist and an even bigger celebrity, and never wrote another word of fiction. Now he's just turned 65. His two best friends are a playwright lusting after a college girl and the foul-mouthed dwarf woman who edits his newspaper. He interviews performance artists who shave their pubic hair into Communist symbols and run headfirst into aqueducts. His upstairs neighbor in their apartment complex across the street from the Colosseum intrigues him. He's unexpectedly connecting with a 42 year-old stripper. And everyone around him is starting to die. Not in a supernatural or murder mystery sense, but simply from aging, decaying, leaving only traces behind.
Paolo Sorrentino's magnificent The Great Beauty is a film full of dichotomies, and here is the key one…
Posted in: Films
Olympics Recap: Fire On Ice, or, "Believe What You Want But That Glacier's a Fact!"
There's something very special about this skater…read on to find out.
Monday night, while watching Meryl Davis and Charlie White take home a magisterial gold medal for the USA during Ice Dancing, all five male Addisonians ended up in a twitter conversation regarding how attractive the female halves of the pairs were. (Including Travis, heroically joining in from a stalled Megabus.) My own comment was that this relates to why I love figure skating, as mentioned in my earlier recaps: the particular meld of athleticism and aesthetic gracefulness. Female figure skaters in particular look like Gainsborough and Reynolds paintings come to life in their elegance, but more importantly, they have trained their bodies to do things hardly any of us are capable of doing. Quadruple jumps and spins on ice at incredible speeds on bodies that have less muscle? Call me astonished every time.
But no one will equal the grace of bronze medalists Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov, so remarkable that MY MOTHER called to tell me to watch them. Not as technically brilliant as the competition, they conveyed so much emotion and poetry to make up for any deficiencies: many tweeters called it "a true dance on ice."
Ilinykh and Katsalapov
Posted in: Olympics
Philomena and the New Oscars
Miss Williams and I agreed this scene is one of the diamonds of the film. Not saying anything more…
It may surprise you that Philomena has outgrossed both Dallas Buyers Club and her at the American box office. It should not surprise you that Philomena is an excellent movie. Like Gravity and Twelve Years a Slave, it is perfectly executed in that it fully works out its theme, never wastes a minute of its running time without feeling too short or too long, and has a marvelously constructed screenplay by Steve Coogan (who also produced and starred) and Jeff Pope. It's the sort of script where the setups and payoffs are both logical and emotionally earned. There is one scene near the end, for instance, where the action takes a turn I initially thought was far too abrupt; by the end of that scene, however, I understood why the characters were acting the way they did at the beginning and what made them change. And the overall effect of these setups and payoffs was enough for it to be the first Best Picture nominee this year to make me cry. (I saw this with fellow Addisonian Meryl and she basically concurs on these opinions.)
(Editor's Note: As someone who sat next to Andrew during 12 Years a Slave, this is definitely not the first Picture nominee of 2013 to make him cry. – Alex)
(Editor's Note 2: As someone who sat down aisle of Andrew during 12 Years a Slave, I decidedly have to agree. Although he wasn't alone in the crying. No sir. – Travis)
Olympics Recap: Dispatch from the Official Addison Ice Master and Deliverer (PLUS Non-Olympics Postscript)
Maybe a kindler, gentler title will mean less injuries, falls, and general recklessness tonight, eh?
Meredith Viera has taken over the hosting duties in the absence of Costas and Lauer, and while she looks the part of Winter Games host in an all-white ensemble. But she has almost no personality, delivering the results with standard charming morning-show monotone.
CHILLED TO THE MARROW: I am not stopping the skeleton puns for the follow-up to yesterday's first part of the Women's final.
Posted in: Olympics, Sports
Olympics Recap: "I Don't Know How You Escaped My Carnival of the Damned, But You Won't Escape the Taste of My Blade!"
As one of only two single members of the now eight-strong staff, the plan is for me to join J. (and any others who decide to leap into the fray) to cover the Olympics on this Valentine's Eve and Day (I mean, what else am I going to do but help our group?) and again on Wednesday and Thursday. These days were not picked at random: they are the days of my favorite of all Winter Olympic events, maybe Olympic events, period: men's and women's figure skating.
Why do I love figure skating so? I think it's a combination of my great admiration for people who can do things I cannot (if you've ever seen me on the ice rink, you would know the truth of this statement…plus I got into it when I was still overweight, and skaters are among the most superbly built athletic figures of them all) and my own personal aesthetic loves (this goes beyond beautiful women and men who, like William Holden in The Bridge on the River Kwai, I can appreciate…I've come to value good clothing design, and I love classical music, film scores, and Broadway music, so seeing people interpret this in a way even more daring and risky than most modern dancing…this involves wearing blades on your feet like frigging Lotte Lenya in From Russia With Love…is one of the heights of art for me. Art meets sports. Of course this was something I would be very into.)
The Grammys Live Blog, 2014, by Andrew J. Rostan and others
January 26, 2014 by Andrew Rostan	Leave a Comment
Sara Barielles is wearing a magnificent dress of floral appliques. Macklemore beat Kanye West for Best Rap Album. And I've been drinking Crown Royal and other concoctions the past 24 hours as a rapidly-organized gathering of Rostans celebrated the life of my Uncle Donald. But I promised I would live-blog the Grammy broadcast, so here it is.
I spent a long time talking to my father and uncles about music, and they mentioned they could not get into modern sounds…and of course I would take the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, '70s progressive rock Miles and Trane and Monk, over most of today's music any day…it just sounded better, more organic, meant more. But that is not to say today's music is worse, for there are always examples of joy, beauty, and wonder. Pure pop that gives the masses a glorious time, social commentary done in clever ways, songs that cut to the heart of human emotion. And the best writers are getting younger all the time…
Like pop's newest BFFs. Read the Rolling Stone cover story on Lorde: they help each other interior decorate!
So let's see what's the new Sound of Young America (don't sue me, Berry Gordy) in a continuing series of updates after every commercial break (when I'll be composing and refining sentences).
Posted in: Music
The Vision of Martin Scorsese, in a Chorus of "F—s"
"Hookers and blow," Travis said to me when I got home from the cinema Monday night "That's all I kept repeating for half an hour after that movie ended. Hookers and blow."
"Guilt," I said. "So much Catholic guilt."
Travis looked up from where he was grilling burgers, paused, and nodded in acknowledgment that we were both right.
Martin Scorsese, the greatest lapsed Catholic to ever direct movies, is always first to admit that his old faith's morals, iconography, and attitudes form a major undertone—and are quite often vividly on display—in his oeuvre. And that faith's lingering trappings have never risen to the forefront as they do in The Wolf of Wall Street, his magnificent black comedy which doubles as a purging litany, a three-hour documentation of the modern world's sins crafted to highlight their obscene ridiculousness and cancerous effects on humanity, both individually and as a collective. It is by turns hilarious and humiliatingly repulsive. It is a film that people need to see. I'm not sure if it's a great film; it's not in the league of Scorsese's masterpieces (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Departed) but it in some aspects it ranks with Dr. Strangelove in terms of dark satirical power.
The immediate point: the multitudes who are decrying that Scorsese glorified Jordan Belfort and made him into some sort of hero are drastically missing the point. Belfort's introduction to us is immediately smarmy, a man you would have to refrain from punching in the stomach as he smiles at you, and his character only gets worse from there. His sparks of humanity flash only in bursts of seconds. Whenever confronted with a choice between the decent or sensible thing and self-indulgence, he opts for self-indulgence with no hesitation. He surrounds himself with enablers who only exaggerate his worst traits as mentors, friends, and business partners. He has no respect for anything but money and playing off people's need for money. And when he does find two people who try to bring out his best, his self-control, who tell him what sort of man he's becoming, he pushes both of them away for further hedonism. It's almost—ALMOST—a caricature straight out of the Franks, Capra and Tashlin, but sadly, we now have lived long enough under a system which produces more and more accumulators of wealth at the expense of others. Jordan Belfort is no cartoon but a test case. This is, then, a film arriving at an opportune moment, but the pervasive nature of sin is so timeless a theme that, like Wilder and Sturges's pictures, it is also a film that won't date.
Posted in: Awards Season, Films
Slaves, Hustlers, and Space: The 2013 Oscars Conversation Begins
You know it's important when Thor takes charge.
The other day on Facebook, I got involved in a conversation about anticipating the Oscar nominations with an old friend, Clifford Galiher (2007 Jeopardy college champion, defeater of Andrew Rostan in that year's Tournament of Champions), who compared Oscar Nominations day to Christmas Eve, all full of anticipation, but Oscar Night itself to New Year's Eve—we all know what's going to happen, but we still drink and have a great time.
I loved the simile, but I don't think it entirely holds for 2013. This year, I don't think there's a single race you could call certain. Not even Best Animated Feature, because when you put Frozen up against what may be Hayao Miyazaki's last film, you get a fight I don't want to call.
Nowhere is this more pronounced than among the three largest nominees, which present me with an interesting dilemma. Since I first became obsessed with cinema, there are two kinds of movies I have loved and always wanted to see get more Academy recognition, and you can probably blame Annie Hall and 2001: A Space Odyssey and David Lean's movies for this. First, films that aren't serious and weighty with importance but are lots of fun, with great acting, clever writing, plenty of laughs, and still able to leave you with some insight into humanity.
Second, intelligent spectacle, films with imagery and production which take your breath away while still having more on their minds than pure adventure or robots and monsters punching each other (NOT to put down Guillermo…and on the other hand, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the rare exception that proves the rule).
Two movies exactly like these ended up leading the pack with ten nominations each, but they had the bad luck, in my opinion, to come out the same year as a movie that got nine and happens to be, further in my opinion, one of the greatest American movies ever made.
All of them were nominated for Best Picture and Best Director and wracked up a huge presence in the other major categories.
There are plenty of other films to consider besides American Hustle, Gravity, and Twelve Years a Slave, but I'm going to kick off what I think will be an annual conversation with Alex by focusing on these three to ask, and answer, a series of questions which will make me wish Damien Bona was still around to offer smart and sarcastic home truths.
Getting to the Bottom of the Martini Glass: The Joys of "James Bonding"
January 9, 2014 by Andrew Rostan	Leave a Comment
During the first year of the Addison Recorder, I wrote extensively about my admiration for Chris Hardwick and his Nerdist empire. After a brief fall-away from listening to podcasts when I transitioned to a new job, I returned to the Nerdist to find that the show had only increased in quality despite Chris, Matt Mira, and Jonah Ray taking on higher profiles and more jobs (Chris's television show @midnight is worthy of its own Recorder piece one of these days). So in advising our readers on wonderful free sources of entertainment for 2014, I wholeheartedly recommend continual adventures with the Nerdist (and would suggest the episodes with Tom Hanks, Brie Larson, and the Talking Cat?!…you heard it right…as great recent jumping-in points, and then the incredibly moving "Honestly 2013" wrap-up special), but I also want to add another podcast in the roster which has joined the main event as my personal favorite: James Bonding.
Posted in: Podcasts, the Internet
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← Putting Environment on the Front Page Congress Failing Our Students →
A Critical Look at 'Pandora's Promise'
June 28th, 2013 · 2 Comments · energy policy, environment
By Denise Tessier
I'd like to digress from local media criticism to expand on a link I placed in my June 14 post, which directed readers to a New York Times blog discussing the pro-nuclear energy film, "Pandora's Promise."
I had included the link because it gave credence to the notion that despite Fukushima and the still unsolved problem of radioactive waste disposal, nuclear power production is said to be on the cusp of an upswing, which would bring with it a rise in uranium prices – the latter an idea that had been proffered by the manager of the proposed New Mexico uranium mine that would be the nation's largest, as quoted in the Albuquerque Journal.
"Pandora's Promise" has created a stir and some interesting conversations, with even staunch anti-nuclear power critics finding themselves wavering and reconsidering, wondering if nuclear power indeed might be "greener" than the burning of fossil fuels.
As Andrew Revkin wrote in the first of two June 13 New York Times blog posts on the subject:
"Pandora's Promise" is essential viewing because of the way it challenges people, including its protagonists, to examine their own fears or predispositions.
In that vein, I'd like to direct readers to a well-worth-reading dialogue on the topic between one of my favorite naturalist authors, Terry Tempest Williams, and Mark Hertzgaard, environment correspondent for The Nation.
To clarify, I have not seen the film, which opened in several cities the week of June 12 and is scheduled to show in Santa Fe July 12. But because, as Revkin and others have written, it provides a compelling case for nuclear power, it merits scrutiny and discussion.
Revkin and others who have seen the film say five central characters originally opposed to nuclear power came around in support of it in the film. Revkin's first blog includes a round-up of reviews by film critics toward the end, which I won't repeat here, and his second, "Seeking Constructive Debate on Nuclear Energy," includes an entire post by Richard Rhodes, one of the five characters in support of nuclear power.
Revkin also moderated a contentious debate about the film between the film's director, Robert Stone, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latter of whom kicked off the discussion by telling Stone his film was "an elaborate hoax," adding:
Almost every fact in it that's presented as facts is untrue or misleading.
Revkin wrote:
Stone initially rocked in his chair as if absorbing a body blow, but held his ground. Kennedy's most convincing points were on the economics of nuclear energy (an area the film avoids tackling), while Stone effectively challenged assertions about health risks.
Toward the end, I said we'd need to do a blow-by-blow fact-checking exercise to test which assertions were correct. Nonetheless, the video is worth watching as a vivid illustration of how people with deep concerns about human-driven climate change can have starkly different visions of how to blunt warming and limit risks.
However, the primary point of my post is to draw attention to the conversation in The Nation. Tempest Williams made the conversation happen when she wrote to The Nation about her unexpected reaction to the film, given her family history with breast cancer after living downwind from nuclear bomb tests in Nevada.
In that letter, she wrote:
. . .when I say that Robert Stone's film Pandora's Promise challenged my thinking after thirty years of antinuclear activism, it is not a small statement. This crack in my own thinking is heightened by the fact that I am now watching my extended community of plants, animals, rocks, rivers and human beings be ravaged by the oil and gas industry, be it fracking or the razing of vulnerable wildlands. For me, this film's strength was not that it changed my mind, which it did not, but that it expanded it. I am interested in having an open conversation about nuclear energy. We know we must wean ourselves off fossil fuels. So what are the alternatives? Are renewable energy sources enough for the energy-poor around the world?
The resulting conversation — "Pandora's Terrifying Promise: Can Nuclear Power Save the Planet?" – is full of valuable observations, but for purposes of this post, I will include just one, again from Tempest Williams:
Michael Totten, whom I regard as one of the world's leading thinkers about green technologies and ecological sustainability, has set forth these criteria when exploring energy alternatives:
Is it economically affordable, including for the poor?
Is it safe throughout its entire life cycle?
Is it clean throughout its entire lifespan?
Is the risk low and manageable?
Is it resilient and flexible to volatility, surprises, miscalculations and human error?
Is it ecologically sustainable, with no adverse impacts on biodiversity?
Is it environmentally benign in maintaining air, water and soil quality?
If it fails, does it fail gracefully, not catastrophically?
Does it rebound easily and swiftly from failures?
Is it an uninteresting target for malicious disruption, off the radar of terrorists and military planners?
And I think about this: it is possible we haven't come close to understanding the true nature of forms of energy that have little to do with fossil fuels or the splitting of atoms. We cannot talk about the future without talking about the imagination and what it might bring forth.
Speaking of imagination and "what it might bring forth" gives me a transition toward linking to two projects that are neither fossil fuel nor nuclear, but deserve a bit a publicity for the imagination they exhibit.
The first is a proposal for a biomass plant in the north of England, an "area of acute deprivation that was once an industrial heartland." That's how the area is described by Heatherwick Studio, home of the architect Thomas Heatherwick, who designed the Teesside plant and of whom I became aware via this TED video.
As Heatherwick says in the video, "We used to be quite proud of where our power came from," but now instead of showcasing actual plants in advertising, power companies are prone to showing anything but, such as children running through grass (similar to the drug company ads, attempting to show an improved quality of life).
Heatherwick's design for the plant creates a park where children may actually run on grass. Industrial buildings are grouped together instead of spread out, buttressed with dirt to muffle sound. The plant itself is a destination for locals, including a deck from which one has a rare high vantage view of the surrounding area. As Heatherwick says, instead of littering a vast landscape with random buildings, the plant is integrated into one form, insulated by soil to make it almost silent.
The other intriguing project proposal, designed to open in 2020, is a combination desalinization/power plant proposed for location off the coast of Cancun, Mexico.
According to the web site Inhabitat, the "eco ethos" of the Grand Cancun Eco Island, designed by Richard Moreta Castillo, "is all-encompassing:"
The entire surface of the offshore platform will be covered in solar panels that will provide energy for both Grand Cancun and the main city's national grid. Vertical wind turbines and underwater tidal wave energy collectors will produce even more clean energy. A rainwater collection system allows water to be collected and then reused, which combined with a mini desalination plant will make the complex completely self-sufficient.
The zero carbon footprint Grand Cancun mega project is the first marine platform that doesn't seek to exploit its natural resources. Instead, it seeks to remediate the ocean site in which it is placed. In this case, the platform will filter out hydrocarbons and pollutants to ensure that marine creatures will benefit from a healthier ecosystem and the beachfront's natural beauty is restored.
In The Nation article, Hertzgaard says "Pandora's Promise" gives short shrift to alternatives, both established and imagined:
If our options really were as simple as Pandora's Promise maintains—either go nuclear or incinerate the planet with more coal—it'd be a tough call. But that's not the case. To make it seem so, the film trashes all nonnuclear alternatives. It is especially dismissive of wind and solar in what I found to be, frankly, an embarrassingly dated critique, though it fits the meta-narrative of Shellenberger's Breakthrough Institute, some of whose funders helped to finance this film.
Note: This post has been updated to correct the film's release date in New Mexico, which is July 12 Santa Fe.
Tags: ABQ Journal Watch·ABQJournalWatch.com·Albuquerque Journal·Andrew Revkin·Breakthrough Institute·climate change·Denise Tessier·fracking·Grand Cancun Eco Island·Inhabitat·Mark Hertzgaard·Michael Totten·nuclear power·oil and gas·Pandora's Promise·Richard Moreta Castillo·Robert F. Kennedy Jr.·Robert Stone·Teesside Power Plant·Terry Tempest Williams·The Nation·Thomas Heatherwick·uranium mining
Michelle Meaders // Jun 28, 2013 at 8:54 pm
I haven't finished reading your article yet, but this caught my eye:
"To clarify, I have not seen the film, which opened in several cities June 12, including Santa Fe. But because, as Revkin and others have written, it provides a compelling case for nuclear power, it merits scrutiny and discussion."
I thought it wasn't here yet — it's scheduled to open July 12 at the CCA in Santa Fe:
In an email from Nuke Free now on June 13:
"Secondly, on July 12th the film Pandora's Promise will open at the CCA. Pandora's Promise sets out to convince us that nuclear power is the best way forward for sustainable energy production. Many of us believe that this is a short-sighted and, for many reasons, dangerous route to follow. Linda Pentz-Gunter, of Beyond Nuclear, who presented at the Nuke Free Now conference last year, calls the film, "blatant propaganda." Beyond Nuclear have provided a flier that debunks many of the myths presented in the film and is coordinating efforts to make this information available wherever the film is screening. If you would like to help hand out fliers outside the CCA on July 12th, please let us know and we will organize a group of people. In case you feel conflicted about participating in an action that could be seen to be as being in opposition to the CCA, please know that the CCA have been informed about this possibility and have no opposition to this action, indeed they say that they, "encourage the debate.""
Denise Tessier // Jun 29, 2013 at 12:31 am
Michelle, Thank you for writing to point that out. The post has been updated to correct the Santa Fe date.


text:
OtherWords
Republicans, Not Russians, Threaten Our Elections
When turnout climbs, Republicans lose. No wonder they're closing polling places and purging voters all over the country.
Robert P. Alvarez
Communities are taking things into their own hands, advocating for and winning automatic voter registration and same-day registration, upending proposed voter roll purges, and requesting absentee ballots.(Photo: Shutterstock)
Republicans are less likely to win elections when voter turnout is high.
It's true: Four of the five states with the highest voter turnout voted blue in the last presidential and midterm elections. All are crucial swing states.
In 2016, the one that didn't—Wisconsin—instituted a strict voter ID law that suppressed around 200,000 voters. Trump won the state by only 22,000 ballots.
Even Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell agrees. He called the notion of making Election Day a federal holiday, which would make it easier for working people to vote, a "power grab" by Democrats.
Unfortunately for Trump, McConnell, and the Republican Party, 2020 voter turnout is expected to reach record levels.
This leaves the party with two options. They can broaden their message to appeal to an increasingly diverse electorate… or suppress the voters that don't share their values.
Sadly, their attacks on voting rights across the country make it clear which path they chose. Republican-led state legislatures have been rolling back voting rights in virtually every state they control in recent years.
The flood gates opened a few years ago, when the Supreme Court gutted the "pre-clearance rule" of the Voting Rights Act, a capstone achievement of the civil rights movement. That rule required states with histories of racist voter suppression to seek federal approval prior to altering their electoral rules.
The results have been ghastly.
Texas ended temporary voting locations, reducing access for rural voters and college students. Arizona restricted the use of emergency voting centers and passed a more rigid voter ID law targeting Native Americans.
Less than two years ago, Georgia removed over half a million voters from its rolls. Right now it's in the process of purging an additional 330,000 voters, mostly in Democratic-leaning districts.
In recent years, nine Republican-controlled states have closed 1,688 polling places. All nine were previously beholden to the pre-clearance rule, and all nine have significant minority populations.
Plainly, these rollbacks and closures disproportionately harm voters of color.
And it may get worse. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will soon determine whether districts that dilute minority votes through racial gerrymandering can be compelled to redraw their maps to ensure that minorities have an equal opportunity to choose their representatives.
The issue at hand is a section of the Voting Rights Act called the "results test," which forbids any law that has the purpose or effect of curtailing the minority vote. It's just a matter of time before the results test makes its way to the GOP-controlled Supreme Court, which could well strike it down.
Ever since the 2016 elections, politicians have agonized over foreign interference in our elections. But the truth is, it's vote-suppressing Republicans, not Russians, who are the greatest threat to American democracy.
But hope is not lost.
Communities are taking things into their own hands, advocating for and winning automatic voter registration and same-day registration, upending proposed voter roll purges, and requesting absentee ballots.
Then there's the For the People Act, which promises to restore the Voting Rights Act to full strength. It easily passed the House and is now sitting on McConnell's desk itching for a chance to be taken up for a vote in the Senate.
It should get one. I'm not asking for much—just for my right, and the rights of other people of color, to have our votes counted. Political parties aside, our fundamental right to vote must be respected.
Robert P. Alvarez is Communications Assistant at the Institute for Policy Studies.
The Trump Administration Weakens Standards for ICE Detention Facilities
It's 2020 and Florida's Supreme Court Just Ruled in Favor of a Poll Tax
With Bernhardt Running Trump's Interior Dept., Former Corporate Clients Lavishing Tens of Millions in New Lobby Spending
Democracy, Voting Rights, Republican Party, Corruption, Gerrymandering, Mitch McConnell, Discrimination, Texas, Georgia, Civil Rights


PLAY is the fashion consultancy agency, brand developpment office and PR showroom of Veroniki Haritatou Gonzalez. Marketing and Brand Development to fashion & lifestyle brands. Years of experience in Media, Fashion brands, designers, production and client management in advertisement makes PLAY a ground breaking Fashion Consultancy & PR Showroom working closely with unique internationally focused brands to provide strategic development, awareness and customized result. Joining our PLAY team means joining a hub of creatives where uniqueness prevails.


Bioinformatics Software Engineering: Delivering Effective Applications will be useful to anyone who wants to understand how successful software can be developed in a rapidly changing environment.
A handbook, not a textbook, it is not tied to any particular operating system, platform, language, or methodology. Instead it focuses on principles and practices that have been proven in the real world. It is pragmatic, emphasizing the importance of what the author calls Adaptive Programming - doing what works in your situation, and it is concise, covering the whole software development lifecycle in one slim volume.
At each stage, it describes common pitfalls, explains how these can be avoided, and suggests simple techniques which make it easier to deliver better solutions.
Here are some examples from the book itself.
"Writing software properly involves talking to people - often lots of people - and plenty of non-coding work on your part. It requires the ability to dream up new solutions to problems so complicated that they are hard to describe."
"Look for verbs - action words, such as 'does', 'is' and 'views'. Identify nouns - naming words, like 'user', 'home' and 'sequence'. List the adjectives - describing words, for example 'quick', 'simple' or 'precise'.
The verbs are the functions that must be provided by your application. The nouns define the parameters to those functions, and the adjectives specify the constraint conditions under which your program must operate."
"Handle errors. Take in data. Show output. Get going!"
"It may not be physically possible to test every potential combination of situations that could occur as users interact with a program. But one thing that can be done is to test an application at the agreed extremes of its capability: the maximum number of simultaneous users it has to support, the minimum system configuration it must run on, the lowest communication speed it must cope with, and the most complex operations it must perform.
If your program can cope with conditions at the edge of its performance envelope, it is less likely to encounter difficulties in dealing with less challenging situations."
"It can be hard explaining the software development process to people who are unfamiliar with it. Code that to you is nearly finished is simply not working to them, and seeing their dream in bits on the workbench can be disappointing to customers, especially when they were expecting to be able to take it for a test drive."
"If your users find a genuinely reproducible bug in production code, apologize, fix it fast, and then fix the system that allowed it through. And tell your customers what you are doing, and why, so they will be confident that it will not happen again. Everybody makes mistakes. Don't make the same ones twice."
"You have to be a detective, following up clues and examining evidence to discover what has gone wrong and why. And you have to be a politician, understanding what people want, both in public and in private, and how this is likely to affect what you are trying to do. This book cannot teach you how to do all of that, but it can help."


Award winning Musical Director and Conductor, Marc Yarrow, started his professional singing career working for the BBC at the age of 11. He has performed all over the UK, Europe and in America and his repertoire spans from Bach and Beethoven to The Blues Brothers and Beyonce. Having trained as a classical conductor, Marc has over 10 years experience working with bands, choirs and orchestras alike.
He is in high demand as guest conductor and MD and also runs workshops in schools and stage academies. Marc is also a highly accomplished Vocal Consultant and often runs training days for Singing Teachers all over the country. Marc is the Artistic Director of the Brighton Gay Men's Chorus, Musical Director of PZAZZ Singers and Shoreham Oratorio Choir and the Crawley Millennium Concert Band.


Only bookings from non-local guests are accepted. Guests whose residence is within 30 mi (48 km) of the property will not be allowed to check in.
The staff was amazing and very friendly! The breakfast was very good as well! The only complaint I have is regarding the room cooling system. We had our AC set at 70 trying to cool our room down, and we eventually had to turn the temperature to 60 to get it to cool down at all in the room. It was nice and chilly when we woke up the next morning!
My stay was good. I came to Charleston for housewarming but got a room just to relax. I work two jobs right now just wanted to get some rest and stop moving or just minute.
The customer service was great! Everyone we came across was so cordial & went out of their way to make sure we were taken care of. The bed could have been a little more comfortable, but it wasn't bad. We would definitely stay here again.
The room was clean. Restaurants within walking distance. Easy access to the highway to get into Charleston.


Last Friday, I featured the beginnings of a quilt inspired by a digital pattern I found on Pinterest.
Since then I've worked on tinting the black and white version to be able to highlight different parts of the pattern. I like finding secondary and tertiary patterns and playing with those.
My plan is for the finished quilt to include 9 blocks and would therefore end up measuring about 64" x 76".
Because I tend to mentally complete images I can pretty easily imagine the interaction between the different patterns that will be created by just varying the colors and values of the stripe combinations. it's actually very easy to piece. Everything is either a strip or a triangle. No complicated set in seams here.
Do you see it too? Don't sweat it if you don't. But, at some point I noticed a motif that reminded me of another motif that I'd seen and sketched in November of 2012.
I was in Switzerland and visited the Paul Klee museum in Bern where I saw lots of amazing work, made note of many things, but made several sketches of a motif I decided to call "Klee's Trees".
One of the things I'm discovering is the possibility for play just within each block.
I can vary the color of the strips simply to create a bit of difference.
I can vary the color of the strips to emphasize a section or create a secondary pattern.
Or I can vary the color of the background either part or all to emphasize diamond shape of the "tree".
I can even play with the values of the strips that make up the tree and background to make the entire image drop back into the background.
I'm sure I'm not done discovering things about this pattern and maybe even finding new patterns that are outgrowths of this one just as it was an outgrowth of the larger block.
I suppose that's why we all do what we do. You just never know what's around the corner and what little inspiration from the past will come back to play a role in your present and maybe even in your future.
It's always so helpful to see someone else's creative process. Thank you for sharing yours.
first, i love the first block and how simple it really is even while looking complicated! and second, i love that playing brought you back to another idea. wonderful!
This post is amazing and gives me lots to think about! I love how you work.


WhatsApp update introduces New Status Feature Like Snapchat : Whatsapp has re-designed the status tool – which until now has only offered the option to put a piece of text next to your name, like "at the gym" – so now WhatsApp status same as Instagram stories and Snapchat. And it is just the latest Facebook company to do so – Facebook's own app taking its competitors innovations.
Now Folks will able to post pictures similar way to how stories work on Snapchat and now Instagram. They will be able to add pictures with Friends – until they are automatically deleted.
WhatsApp could brakes on Snapchat's international growth with today's launch of WhatsApp Status New Feature, a new tab for sharing decorated photos, videos and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. It's another Facebook-owned Snapchat Stories copycat.
Whatsapp Tested this Feature for Beta Users in November and From today WhatsApp Status Feature Rolling Worldwide on iOS, Android and Window Phone Users. In New Status Feature Users can Watch Updates from Friends and Reply In Private Message Like Instagram Stories, adorn their imagery with drawings and captions and send their creations to all their contacts they've chosen with a persistent privacy setting.
Even after we added messaging in the summer of 2009, we kept the basic "text only" status functionality in WhatsApp. Every year, when Brian and I would plan projects to work on, we always talked about improving and evolving this original "text only" status feature.


text:
Crucial BX300 SSD
The Crucial BX300 has a lot going for it. Its low cost, high-performance results, and accessory package really make it a great value. You just can't go wrong with it, at least the 480GB model we tested today.
-- As reviewed by TheSSDReview
See it on Amazon: $29
Last revision on July 15, 2021
Impressive performance for its class and price
Highly affordable for an MLC NAND SSD
Crucial software package
Capacity tops out at only 480GB
TBW endurance rating could be higher
Short warranty
A-Data Ultimate SU900 SSD
Transcend SSD220S Series SATA 600
OCZ VX500 Series SATA600
Kingston SSDNow UV400 Series SATA600
Samsung 850 Evo SSD
SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD
Crucial M550 SSD
Intel SSD DC S3500
By TopNewReview on April 02, 2018 80
Aggressively priced, but with solid all-around performance. It doesn't do anything spectacular,...
By hardwareslave.com on March 06, 2018 82
It's safe to say the Crucial BX300 is another solid investment from Crucial. SSD's have really come of age, and the third generation of the BX range is more evolution than revolution. There's nothing bad with that at this time, we're only really looking...
By ThinkComputers on December 06, 2017 90
Crucial's "BX" series has always been their entry-level solid state drive series, but the BX300 is a little different. It offers some very solid performance, reliability, and overall good pricing for the entire range. These drives are priced at $59.99...
By thessdreview.com on November 07, 2017 91
We can say without a doubt that the Crucial BX300 is one of the top value SSDs on the market where SATA SSDs are a commodity. Everyone is manufacturing and selling them and thus, it has become a race to the bottom for quite some time.How fast is fast...
By Play3r on October 30, 2017 80
For anyone today that still relies on a mechanical HDD for their boot drive, then the move to any SSD is an absolute no brainer… in fact any SSD would be a vast improvement. For anyone in the market for a good performing SATA3 SSD, that also delivers...
By MyCE on October 08, 2017 90
Let's spend a little time thinking about the past, and especially the Crucial BX series. It all started back in 2015 with the outstanding BX100 SSD, a drive that was affordable and at the same time had zero compromises in build quality, and most...
By relaxedtech.com on October 04, 2017 95
I believe the Crucial BX300 240GB and 480GB SSDs deserve our Elite award.Final Score9.5« Home Page »Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by...
By HotHardware on September 29, 2017 80
Crucial BX300 Series SSDs - Find Them At AmazonAs we have seen with many of the recently released SATA-based solid state drives, the Crucial BX300 is bumping into the limitations of the SATA interface. Even still, a SSD like the BX300 still represents a...
By PCWorld on September 19, 2017 80
This affordable MLC NAND SSD is an outstanding performer, though the somewhat limited capacity (480GB max) might cost it some market share. But if you value speed over capacity, there are very few drives that can match the BX300. Especially given the price.
By techPowerUp! on September 14, 2017 94
The Crucial BX300 480 GB SSD is currently available online for $150. Outstanding price-per-GB Outstanding price/performance Uses more durable MLC flash instead of TLC Good overall performance 7 mm thin—ultrabook compatible Acronis TrueImage HD...
By Kitguru.net on September 07, 2017 80
It has been a while since we've seen a new drive from Crucial and the major surprise about the BX300 is that it's an entry level drive using 3D MLC NAND not the usual 2D Planer or 3D TLC NAND that drives at this end of the market tend to use.The quoted...
By HardwareCanucks on August 30, 2017 80
In the interim, knowledgeable buyers looking for a SATA based solution that does not randomly slow down, and yet does not cost an arm and a leg, need look no further than the BX300 series. Hopefully, at some point in the near future Crucial will offer larger BX300s as this artificial limitation on the capacity front is its only real smudge on an otherwise sterling new series' release.
By realhardwarereviews.com on August 29, 2017 88
With the announcement of their upcoming BX300 series Crucial certainly knew how to make a splash at the recent Computex IT trade show in Taipei. However, what was not announced was how fast this new 'SATA saturating' solid state drive series would be...
By Guru of 3D on August 29, 2017 80
Crucial has made a good step forward with the BX300 coming from the BX200. The choice of (3D) V-NAND helps them in write performance, and armed with dual-caches and the new Silicon Motion SM2258 controller the combination of it all seems to be a rock...


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2015 R 2h 11m Blu-ray / DVD
Among the most notorious characters in Britain's gangster history, identical twins Reginald and Ronald Kray frustrated authorities while transfixing and terrifying the public with untold criminal exploits, as recounted in this riveting biopic.
Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Chazz Palminteri, Tara Fitzgerald, Taron Egerton
Thrillers, Crime Dramas, Crime Thrillers
Violent, Gritty
Blu-ray• DVD • Streaming
English SDH, French, Spanish (Neutral)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: DVS - Descriptive Video Service, Spanish (Neutral): Dolby Digital 5.1, French: DTS-HD Master Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio, English: DVS - Descriptive Video Service, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish (Neutral): Dolby Digital 5.1
Parents need to know that Legend is a crime drama based on the real-life exploits of twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray (both played by Tom Hardy), who dominated the London underworld in the 1960s. One is brutal and not quite sane, the other is brutal and cunning, and the film is filled with scenes of intense, difficult-to-watch violence that leave people bloody, battered, unconscious, or dead. There's a scene of torture involving electrodes, graphic shootings and stabbings, and a man physically abuses a woman (sexual assault is implied but not shown). Aside from the violence, there's plenty of drinking, smoking, and swearing (including "s--t," "f--k," and more), as well as some drug use (one character is dependent on pills and commits suicide by overdosing). Also expect some sexual references and a few passionate kisses.
A few passionate kisses. Some sex talk; racy scenes shown on TV in background.
The Kray twins rule London's East End through intimidation and violence and are only too willing to dispense brutal beatings to show someone who's in charge. Many fist fights -- sometimes involving brass knuckles, hammers, and other battering implements -- that leave people on the floor, bloody and maimed or worse. A few conflicts also involve guns and knives, which result in even more bloodshed (sometimes quite gory, especially one graphic stabbing) and death. A character is hung upside down and tortured (including via electrodes). In one scene, a man beats up his wife, leaving her bruised; further assault (rape) is implied. Suicide.
Plenty of profanity, mainly "f--k," which is used liberally in almost every scene. Other words include "c--t," "bastard," "bitch," "s--t," and plenty of British slang. Some homophobic terms.
Loyalty trumps all; even when Reggie and Ronnie's unswerving dedication to each other is clearly a handicap, they refuse to sell each other out. Though it's not necessarily wise, it's admirable.
Lots of smoking (cigarettes/cigars). Many scenes take place at pubs, nightclubs, and parties and feature plenty of drinking, sometimes to excess. A character who takes prescription pills overdoses.


text:
Learn about planets outside our solar system through Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems by Tahir Yaqoob, Ph.D., a book in our online store book collection.
Portrait of Brent Jett
Brent Jett
Brent Jett is an American astronaut who was born on October 5, 1958, in Michigan. Before he became an astronaut, Jett was a test pilot.
Jett became an astronaut in 1992. He spent over 458 hours in space on two spaceflights.
In 1996, Jett made his first spaceflight aboard STS-72. Jett flew aboard STS-81 in 1997. The crew docked at the Russian Mir Space Station for 8 days.
Our online store includes books on science education, ranging from evolution, classroom research, and the need for science and math literacy!
Science, Evolution, and Creationism
How did life evolve on Earth? The answer to this question can help us understand our past and prepare for our future. Although evolution provides credible and reliable answers, polls show that many people turn away from science, seeking other explanations with which they are more comfortable....more
Andrew Allen
Andrew Allen is an American astronaut who was born on August 4, 1955 in Pennsylvania. Before he became an astronauts, Allen was a Navy and Marines pilot. He has flown over 4500 hours on more than 30 different...more
Jay Apt
Jay Apt is an American astronaut who was born on April 28, 1949 in Massachusetts. Before he became an astronaut, Apt was a physicist who worked on the Venus space probe project. Apt joined NASA in 198...more
Neil Armstrong is an American astronaut who was born in Ohio in 1930. Before entering the space program, he was a pilot for the U.S. Navy and Air Force, flying gliders, helicopters, and jets. Armstrong...more
Ellen Baker
Ellen Baker is an American astronaut who was born on April 27, 1953 in North Carolina. Before she became an astronaut she was a geologist and a medical doctor. Baker joined NASA as a medical officer in...more
Michael Baker is an American astronaut who was born on October 27, 1953 in Tennessee. Before he became an astronaut, Baker was a Navy pilot. He logged over 5000 hours of flight time aboard 50 different...more
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John Blaha is an American astronaut who was born on August 26, 1942 in Texas. Before he became an astronaut, Blaha was an Air Force pilot. He has flown over 5500 hours in 33 different types of aircraft....more
Guion Bluford
Guion Bluford is an American astronaut who was born on November 22, 1942 in Pennsylvania. Before he became an astronaut, Bluford was a pilot for the Air Force. He flew over 4800 hours on several different...more


text:
Q: Functions $X\to \mathcal P(X)$. $X$ is a set and $f: X \to P(X)$ is a mapping, where $P(X)$ is the power set of $X$. Suppose $Z=\{x \in X: x\notin f(x)\}$, what's correct?
1) $Z$ is empty.
2) $Z$ is nonempty.
3) $Z=X$.
4) $Z$ is in $P(X)$.
5) $Z$ complement is in $P(X)$.
Have no idea for solving the problems.

A: (4) and (5) are obviously true because $Z$ and its complement are subsets of $X$.
(2) may not be true: Let $f:X\to P(X)$ by $f(x)=X$. Even easier, if $X=\varnothing$ then $Z=\varnothing$ for any $f$.
(1),(3) may not be true: Let $X$ be a set with more than one element. Pick $a\in X$. Define $f(x)=\{a\}$ for each $x\in X$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
use ::prost::Message;
use bytes::{Bytes, BytesMut};

/// Extension methods on `prost::Message`.
pub trait MessageExt: Message
where
  Self: Sized,
{
  /// Serialize this protobuf message to `bytes::Bytes`.
  fn to_bytes(&self) -> Bytes {
    let mut buf = BytesMut::with_capacity(self.encoded_len());
    self
      .encode(&mut buf)
      .expect("illegal state: encoded_len returned wrong length");
    buf.freeze()
  }
}

// Blanket implementation of MessageExt for all prost::Message types.
impl<M: ::prost::Message> MessageExt for M {}

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
  use prost::Message;
  use prost_types::Timestamp;

  use super::MessageExt;

  #[test]
  fn to_bytes_roundtrip_test() {
    let t1 = Timestamp {
      seconds: 500,
      nanos: 10000,
    };

    let bytes = t1.to_bytes();

    let t2 = Timestamp::decode(bytes).unwrap();

    assert_eq!(t1, t2);
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Double End Tenoners type PAKUE F now offered with new option / extension for "Ungarian-" resp. "French Herringbone" parquet. The machine is modified with 2 servo-motors for driving the feed chains and an extension of the feed chains for a special hopper feed unit. The cutting angle is fully adjustable between 30° and 60°.
Standard and special machines for parquet production – Solid Parquet & Planks – Lamparquet – Mosaic Parquet and engineered flooring. Feeding, machining, grading, handling/automation and stacking. For all requirements of your Parquet production the best possible solution.
Demo-machines and fully reconditioned 2nd-hand machines in top quality with 1 year warranty by the manufacturer. Here you find all our current offers.
The highest quality and reliability of the machines were and still are the most important point. Due to this, only machines for the production of solid wood parquet - classical solid blocks with T & G, Lamparquet and Mosaic parquet - were manufactured over years. Only very few machine producers worldwide can state a similar high percentage of all ever produced machines, still in operation.
Since more than 25 years, machines and production lines for 2-ply parquet blocks as well as for 3-layer parquet planks are manufactured and offered. The high requirements regarding quality and reliability could be fullfilled by applying numerous prooven principles, combined with innovative solutions.
Today the product range offers a large variety of machines and production lines, many of them are presented on these sites. So far, the company is prepared for the future and parquet machines made by SCHROEDER are standing for quality and reliability as well as for innovation and progress.


Management Non Profit Organization Editorials enables you to reach business professionals who are direct mail purchasers of print and electronic formats of Management Non Profit Organization books, journals, sourcebooks, newsletters, and reference materials either at their business or home address. They look to these editorials to help enhance their knowledge and skills that lead to professional growth, personal growth, expand career opportunities. The knowledge gained by these publications helps to ensure that they are as proficient and effective as possible in their field.
Management Non Profit Organization enables you to reach those that work in an organization that does not issue stock shares or distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but uses the funds to help achieve its goals. Non Profit Organizations include charitable organizations, trade unions, trade associations and public arts organizations. These professionals look to business publications to stay abreast of developments in the industry and the overall economy. In addition, they find reasing industry specific business publications to be an effective way to regularly gather current competitve intelligence. Learning new information and techniques benefits all business professions.
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If there is one thing that you need in great abundance when it comes to making improvements to your health and losing some weight in the process and that's motivation, especially when you are young and able. You need this revving up factor to not only get started but also to keep going even when things start getting tough or results are not showing the way you want them to.
So what gives us motivation and what keeps us keen and eager to continue even in the face of adversity? This article takes a look at getting motivated to achieve the kind of health benefits that we are capable of achieving.
One thing that helps more than anything else is having a positive attitude as well as an unwavering belief that we will achieve what we set out to do. You can read a lot of motivational tips for weight loss that will fire you up and give you some impetus to get moving on your chosen strategy, or if you haven't gotten that far yet, then to work out and perfect a personal strategy that suits you and your lifestyle needs.
But back of all external motivational factors must be your own will to win, your desire to succeed and that desire must burn like a brightly burning flame inside of you. Its all about having faith in yourself and in your ability to give yourself a direct order to do what you have set out to do and then following that order without wavering!
That might sound like you are letting yourself in for some serious discipline. Well, in some respects, that is right but it is a discipline that you impose on yourself, not one that comes from anyone else. It's a funny thing, but when you force yourself to do what you tell yourself to do, you actually do it more readily and with tons more motivation than if someone else told you to do it!
So get yourself motivated to lose weight whether you are doing it through a personal diet program or a convenient one like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem (you can learn more about this here: http://nstuf.com), the end result must be that of success. And tell yourself that you are going to do what you are going to do and then do it!
No arguments and no slacking, because it's your own will to succeed and your own desire to lose weight that is driving you now. Not a diet sheet or a fitness guru. It's you, all you and only you!


I've been seeing pictures of some serious "Hens and Chicks" in other vineyards, so I thought I should get out and take a look. I stopped by Starscape and found that this vineyard was looking pretty solid. The first two shots are of Pinot with the second cluster showing the heaviest occurence. The second two shots are Gewürztraminer which is looking pretty much normal. We get "Hens and Chicks" when the cluster starts blooming but then the weather changes extending bloom and some berries polinate much later than the rest of the cluster. We'll take care of most of this when we're thinning the clusters later in the season so it's not likely to impact flavors. With this mild occurence It is likely that most berries can catch up anyway.
OK, back to blending trials.
Pinot 667 clone with some "Hens and Chicks"


Where To Watch The Olympics | NEW YORK RUSH - Culture, food, luxury, fashion, and international outlook, through a New York lens.
If you are going to be one of the million people around the world watching the Olympics kick off this Friday, then why not gather around other Olympic crazy fanatics and watch the opening ceremony kick off from one of the many bars having specials and parties going on all day long?
By now as many know, the summer Olympics are kicking off in the beautiful, exotic, vibrant, Rio De Janeiro. What has not been an easy road for the host country, has finally been able to shed some light into the upcoming ceremony, with much to look forward to. A great opening ceremony to kick off things is just what this country needs in order to get the world going on one of the most popular sporting events in the world. Michael Phelps was announced today as the United States flag bearer, and many Americans are looking forward to the ceremony even more now, as the most decorated Olympian will walk his country in. Thousands are expected to watch the spectacle, but for the millions of others that are not as blessed to be in the Maracana Stadium, a local bar with a Brazilian-themed party may just do the trick.
It all begins Friday here in New York, with the TODAY show having a special broadcast from Rio, and also here in Rockefeller Center as well. Later on in the day, Eurocircle is having a party at LeGrande and will be having drink specials all night with the ceremony broadcasted live. St Pats Bar and Grill right near Times Square is broadcasting the event on many screens and is also having Olympic 'ice breaker' deals and drink specials all night, and on Roosevelt Island, Riverwalk Commons is having a projector screen and four 50 inch TVs showing the opening ceremony with food and drink specials all night.
The opening ceremony will be a memorable one, as hard times are hitting the world, and bringing more attention on sport for two weeks, will shed some light on current situations being dealt with globally. It will also be historical as it is the first Olympics held in South America.
The opening ceremony will begin at 7:30 P.M. ET with live coverage on NBC.


First Lady Michelle Obama visited Howard University today, where she assured a crowd of college students that hey, it's ok if you're not sure exactly what you want to do with your life.
"The question that I hate most that we ask of young people is, 'What are you going to be when you grow up?' And the truth is, I still don't know, and I'm 45 years old," she said. "All I know is that it's important for you to be true to yourselves, not to worry too much about what other people are going to think or make of your choices, because everyone will question what you do and tell you you should've done it the other way."


Elucidate your honorable style in the curated fashion,experience a exclusive and exceptional vista in this impressively crafted deep pink and orange duak tone raw silk wedding sherwani. This designer sherwani comprises detailed mandarin collar,full sleeves,front and side slits. This attire is beautified with zari,sequins and cutdana embroidery throughout the garment. Complimented the outfit with beige colored cotton silk churidar bottom. Style this ensemble with detailed safa,stole and jutis for the bewitching magnificence.


We are a small custom shop, based in The Hague – the Netherlands. We build guitars both on special demand and in small series. Our main goal is to craft affordable guitars.. That's why you won't find any € 3000,- guitar in our workshop. We believe in fair pricing. Value for money.
Excellent guitar! Great build and amazing tone!
Dec 20th, 2017 by Eric K.
Nov 17th, 2018 by Brian J.


No Renter's insurance is inexpensive because few bad things ever happen to an apartment businesses suffer losses frequently, and more expensive losses at that, so business insurance is much more insurance company would pay off a personal loss if they discovered it was really a business loss. Your options are simple: talk with an insurance agent about your business and what coverage you can afford. Understand that most businesses only insure for catastrophic loss, accepting small losses as routine business expenses and insuring only against major losses that might end the business.I have a photography es get dropped, cameras get stolen; lots of things those expenses come out of my because insuring for routine losses would be too costly even though my wife is an insurance broker and gets me the best rates she can.


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Penn State expecting large contingent in early signing period
It has become the biggest day in college football recruiting, and today, Penn State will likely sign its largest class of recruits in a decade.
Question is, will it be the class that helps put the program over the top and into annual playoff discussion?
The Nittany Lions could sign as many as 27 verbally committed recruits — including two stars from Lackawanna College — today, the first day prospects can formally accept scholarship offers from programs during the National Letter of Intent early signing period. Players can sign through Friday night, but if they don't, they'll have to wait until the traditional signing day Feb. 5 to put pen to paper.
That said, most — if not all — of the players verbally committed to the Nittany Lions are on target to sign today, including the class' top prospect, Maryland linebacker Curtis Jacobs. Penn State is also expecting signatures from some of the sport's top position player prospects, four star recruits like Canadian tight end Theo Johnson, Florida running backs Caziah Holmes and Keyvone Lee, and Virginia receiver KeAndre Lambert. Three star quarterback Micah Bowens of Las Vegas also is expected to sign, as will several four-star defensive prospects, like defensive tackles Cole Brevard, Coziah Izzard and Amin Vanover, and defensive back Enzo Jennings.
The Falcons will be well-represented in the 2020 class, as well. Receiver Norval Black, who had seven touchdown catches and averaged 25.9 yards per catch for the national runner-up, is part of the class, as is safety Ji'Ayir Brown, one of the top junior college prospects in the nation who had 34 tackles, five pass breakups and three interceptions in nine games for the Falcons.
As of Tuesday, the Nittany Lions' class ranked No. 12 in the nation, according to recruiting service 247sports.com, and Rivals.com ranked them No. 13. Both services rank the Lions third in the Big Ten, behind Ohio State and Michigan.
Penn State can sign close to 30 players into the 2020 class by the time February rolls around, if it chooses to do so. But, even if it lands only the 27 currently committed, it will be the Nittany Lions' largest class since then-head coach Joe Paterno and his staff signed 27 in 2009. That class ranked just 24th in the country according to Rivals, but it developed several two-star recruits into stars, including guard John Urschel and defensive tackle Jordan Hill. Fellow two-star recruit Garry Gilliam went on to a solid career as an offensive tackle with the Seattle Seahawks, as well.


Providing a brief fire attack video to pick your brain on what you think transitional attack is.
Nice series of video and audio of a Columbia County fire from start to finish.
"If people are already on the ledge, it tells me it's already bad inside." Battalion Chief Ron Schmutzler.
Video from Manhattan two-alarm fire and related material on truck company operations and ventilation.
These basics are so simple, even a caveman could follow them.
Do you know how to operate all the settings on your camera? The difference between knowing camera and not knowing settings helps make the difference in a photos outcome.
An enlightening look at the makeup of our fire service.


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