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Actor Khalid Abdalla on filmmaking as activism, image of Arabs in cinema
Nourhan Tewfik , Saturday 26 Dec 2015
Ahram Online met with renowned Egyptian-British actor Khalid Abdalla and discussed his varied repertoire as a filmmaker, producer, co-founder of important film initiatives and also as a political activist
Egyptian-British actor, producer, filmmaker and political activist Khalid Abdalla (Photo: Rena Effendi)
Cinema as a tool to humanise the refugee question: A talk with filmmaker Hisham Zaman
'The Narrow Frame of Midnight': On a Middle East caught between yesterday and tomorrow
Cimatheque: A new space to explore alternative cinema in Egypt
"It was a World War I play. We were in a classroom. All the chairs were moved to the side and there was a square made in the middle. The first character went in. There was nothing there, but he pretended to have made a mess."
So says Egyptian-British actor, producer, filmmaker and political activist Khalid Abdalla of his first-ever play rehearsal at the age of 15. Abdalla's English teacher had urged him to audition for the play, to Abdalla's utter surprise.
"I was the second character to come in, and I remember standing outside feeling an incredible pleasure inside of me, knowing that this space had completely different rules to everything outside it. And from that moment I think I was completely hooked," says Abdalla, who has thus far starred in major Hollywood productions like United 93, Green Zone and The Kite Runner, in addition to the documentary The Square, which was nominated for an Oscar, and most recently, The Narrow Frame of Midnight, which made its Egypt premiere earlier this month at the 8th Panorama of the European Film.
Abdalla currently has three feature films in post-production phase, including Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El-Said's first feature length film The Last Days of the City.
Born and raised in the UK, Abdalla lives between Cairo and London. He has also co-founded three important film initiatives: Zero Production, an independent film production company; Mosireen Film Collective; and Cimatheque Alternative Film Centre.
Early beginnings
At King's College school in Wimbledon, another English teacher who owned a successful theatre company further pushed Abdalla in the direction of theatre, allowing Abdalla to direct his first play at the age of 17, and thus making him the "youngest director to get a five-star on the [Edinburgh] Fringe Festival at the time."
Later, as a student of English Literature at Cambridge University, Abdalla would co-found with British-American actress Rebecca Hall his own theatre company, which also included actress and cinematographer Cressida Trew, who is now Abdalla's wife. The company presented important theatre productions like Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and secured awards at the university's student contest as well as the National Student Drama Festival.
Upon graduation, and after making an unsuccessful attempt to turn this theatre company into a professional one, Abdalla headed to Paris, where he studied a one-year theatre course with Philippe Gaulier, a famous clown and renowned French teacher of theatre.
As Abdalla focused on theatre, thinking "film was not a place where I would find myself," he was approached to audition for United 93, a film about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and which he was "very resistant to in the beginning" before a conversation with director Paul Greengrass revealed the latter's disinterest in a film steeped in stereotypes.
Abdalla, who played the role of the Lebanese lead hijacker Ziad Jarrah in the film, describes United 93 as "an extraordinary encounter, which besides testing me as an actor, a human being, on the level of language, and also when it comes to improvisation, it also tested me politically."
"What do I think? What do I believe film can do? [I was also tested] in my encounters subsequently with the families of people who had died, and what my responsibility to them was after and through the film," he says.
Abdalla would follow United 93 with The Kite Runner and Green Zone, completing what he calls "a war of terror trilogy."
Still from The Kite Runner
From color blindness to consciousness of one's 'Arab identity'
Abdalla's early consciousness of his Egyptian identity manifested itself in his decision to spend his gap year in Egypt working at Al-Ahram Weekly and studying classical Arabic, and later when he went on a trip to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Morocco.
Moreover, "the dinner table [at home] was always very political and I've always been inspired by my grandfather and father's acts of conscience," says Abdalla, whose father Hossam was involved in the 1970s student movement in Egypt, and was jailed under Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat, turning to Iraq and then to the UK. Likewise, Abdalla's grandfather, Ibrahim Saad El-Din, a renowned economist and staunch leftist, was imprisoned under president Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
But being brought up in the UK also meant that Abdalla was surrounded by "family friends who were Palestinian, Syrian or from other parts of the Arab world."
"Also what is happening in Palestine, Libya and Iraq was part of how people would interact with me, or think of me or my family," which altogether meant that Abdalla's consciousness transcended the Egyptian component of his identity to incorporate the Arab one.
"I'd say my Arab identity has allowed me to maintain a proximity…I'd always felt that if I were ever to let go of the language, or not feel that I had a real connection with Egypt, then I would also somehow lose my relationship with that sense of justice and what is wrong with the world."
But despite such profound awareness of his Arab identity, Abdalla, who had acted in an array of productions from Shakespeare all the way to American plays and considered himself to "have a command as an actor over the English language," had up till United 93 believed in "color blindness as the solution."
"But through film, I really began to encounter the racism in how we're seen. I became an Arab actor, and from that came a series of responsibilities.
"Of course I'm up for playing all sorts of different roles, but it's important to maintain that Arab identity while doing so. [In other words], I think there are challenges in what an Arab identity is, and they need to be owned on an international stage," he adds.
On experiencing and challenging the infrastructure
In April 2008, Abdalla experienced three encounters, which juxtaposed together orient the next five to seven years of his life.
The first encounter unfolds in Palestine, where Abdalla goes for a week with the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest), accompanying novelist and PalFest founder Ahdaf Soueif, PalFest producer and writer Omar Hamilton and others who would become collaborators with him over the next few years. The second encounter takes place in London, where he meets with Moroccan-Iraqi filmmaker Tala Hadid for the first time, and is told by Hadid that he has not "suffered enough" to take on the lead role of Zacaria in her then-budding film project The Narrow Frame of Midnight.
Before meeting Tala in London, Abdalla lands in Cairo for a week, meets Tamer El-Said, Hala Lotfy and Ibrahim El-Batoot in Zero Production, as well as other filmmakers who are "the foundation of this wave of alternative independent cinema in Egypt."
"In a cinematic sense, I fall in love. This is what I want to do, these are the people I want to work with, and there's this beautiful film that we want to do," says Abdalla, referring to El-Said's film project In the Last Days of the City, which was introduced to Abdalla as early as 2007, but which he could not pursue then due to his involvement in Green Zone. El-Said, who ended up not finding the film's lead actor, traveled to London later in 2007 where he met Abdalla and they had an important conversation that revealed the "possibility of an extraordinary collaboration."
Still from The Narrow Frame of Midnight. (Photo: Zawya)
This time around in Cairo, Abdalla, who was done filming Green Zone, decided to pursue the film and both Abdalla and El-Said began shooting "with none of the money in place, thinking that somehow just by ourselves, we'd be able to carry it."
But an array of production challenges quickly brought Abdalla face to face with "the infrastructure that lies underneath filmmaking" and "why it's so difficult to make that kind of film in Egypt and in this region."
"I think it's often very easy to think of film-making or image production just through its final product, but there are infrastructure reasons why some stories get told and others don't. And when we talk about infrastructure, we're fundamentally talking about politics. Who benefits from certain stories being told? Who is willing to be criticised and who isn't?"
As Abdalla and El-Said proceeded to respond to those production challenges, which ranged from "locations falling apart, to actors dropping out, to having to change the script. And how the level of the quality of the image that you produce demands extraordinary preparation, which requires people who have the experience and the skill to do that," Zero Production became a "hub where people would hang out, talk and edit."
Then, Abdalla explains, came the idea of also "using the film as a method to try and build an infrastructure which can support more films being made" by setting up Cimatheque, a hub to support alternative cinema which itself becomes "part of that regional battle over our image in cinema."
At the heart of this battle are questions like, "how can we have a stronger cinema? How can we alter the future of this incredibly detrimental image that we have?"
The Narrow Frame of Midnight: On hybridity and the Egyptian revolution
By 2010, and as Abdalla approaches the end of The last Days of the City's two-year shoot, Tala Hadid watches Green Zone and sees him "completely transformed into someone different." As such, Hadid decides that she wants Abdalla to be Zacaria in The Narrow Frame of Midnight.
The importance of the film, Abdalla explains, lies in how Hadid, who with a hybrid identity herself, presents a script, which instead of employing the typical nostalgic framework of a refugee wanting to go back, or pushing towards colour blindness, "owns this hybridity, and asks what it is opening up for the world."
This, Abdalla adds, is especially relevant today when a huge portion of our Arab region is currently displaced, rendering it difficult to "draw the lines between where a decolonised identity starts and where a postcolonial identity begins and ends."
But Zacaria also had something in him as a character which was "a real challenge" for Abdalla, particularly the fears that cripple his ability to do what he aspires, but which nevertheless eventually push him towards pursuing it.
"This takes him on a journey, following his brother, which ends in Baghdad. And this is extremely meaningful because in a way what happens subsequent to that moment is a slightly parallel journey for me," Abdalla asserts; this parallel journey being the 25th of January Revolution.
"Because the narrow frame of midnight means this period of very clearly the end of something and very clearly the beginning of something else. The question therefore becomes how do you live in the narrow frame of midnight when you're stuck in a place that is in between, and everything you thought you knew is brought into question?"
Abdalla would respond to this historical juncture, interacting with the revolution from a filmmaking perspective through co-founding Mosireen and also by starring in Jehane Noujaim's The Square.
Still from The Square
"It's an entire film-related experience of what that intervention means with a political moment of the scale," Abdalla asserts.
But the same philosophy is also true of Abdalla's entire filmography, as well as his different film initiatives, from Zero Production to Cimatheque.
Each element of Abdalla's repertoire functions as a manifestation of his profound understanding of his Arab identity, an awareness of the infrastructure that underpins the Arab image in cinema, a dismissal of colour blindness and rejection of stereotypes in cinema, as well as an audacious commitment to alter such stereotypes.
"This is why the hardest question for me to answer in one word is 'what do you do?' Because for me, it's what draws all of these things together. In order to fight that battle, sometimes I need to work in Hollywood, other times in the region. Sometimes I need to act, direct, write or work as a producer. Other times I need to work in culture production, open spaces, build an archive, and sometimes I need to do all of those things at the same time."
For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
Khalid Abdalla
The Narrow Frame of Midnight
8th Panorama of the European Film
United 93
Zero Production
Tamer El-Said
In the Last Days of the City
Mosireen
Cimatheque
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Three quarters of the world's international land boundaries follow rivers for at least part of their course. In addition, nearly 300 river basins are shared by two or more states. Both the definition of river boundaries and the management of shared rivers generate a multitude of legal, technical and functional challenges, for which no instruction manual has yet been written.
This unique course is designed to help governments and boundary practitioners develop effective strategies for turning river boundaries and international rivers into assets rather than a source of friction between the riparian states. Led by expert tutors with extensive practical experience of resolving problems associated with shared rivers, the workshop will cover issues such as: defining and demarcating river boundaries; identifying key river features such as the thalweg, the 'main channel' and the 'banks'; islands in boundary rivers; monitoring and accommodating physical changes in river boundaries; managing access and resource use in shared rivers; and resolving disputes over river boundaries and international rivers. The workshop will combine instruction in the principles and practice of river boundary definition and management, detailed case studies and practical exercises.
IBRU is delighted to be organizing the workshop in collaboration with GIZ, which has been supporting boundary reaffirmation and demarcation projects in Africa since 2008.
Please visit the Support to the African Union Border Programme website to see more on the work of GIZ in Africa.
This workshop will be delivered in English but an English/French translation service will be available throughout the workshop.


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Operation High Roller was a series of fraud in the banking system in different parts of the world that used cyber-collection agents in order to collect PC and smart-phone information to electronically raid bank accounts. It was dissected in 2012 by McAfee and Guardian Analytics. A total of roughly $78 million was siphoned out of bank accounts due to this attack. The attackers were operating from servers in Russia, Albania and China to carry out electronic fund transfers.

Specifications
This cyber attack is described to have the following features:

 Bypassed Chip and PIN authentication.
 Required no human participation.
 Instruction came from cloud-based servers (rather than the hacker's PC) to further hide the identity of the attacker.
 Included elements of "insider levels of understanding".
 Banks in Europe, the United States and Colombia were targeted.
 Impacted several classes of financial institution such as credit unions, large global banks, regional banks, and high-net-worth individuals.

While some sources have suggested it to be an extension of man-in-the-browser attack Operation High Roller is reported to have harnessed a more extensive level of automation distinguishing it from the traditional methods.

See also

Bundestrojaner
Cyber-collection
Duqu
Flame
Guardian Analytics
McAfee
Stuxnet

References

External links
 Dissecting operation high roller on McAfee/Guardian Analytics report
 Operation high roller on CNN Money
 Operation high roller on Fox News report
 Operation high roller on Yahoo Finance
 Operation high roller revisited

Hacking (computer security)
Cyberwarfare
Hacker groups

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Race leader Cheminees Poujoulat has made short work of the South Atlantic trade winds and is quickly approaching the equator. While the doldrums are further south and typically less significant this time of year, there will still be some light and variable conditions in the next couple of days before they transition into the North Atlantic trade winds. Neutrogeana and GEAS Centros Auditivos are working their way up to the trade winds, but still somewhat fickle conditions. There isn t quite a clear lane of trades until they are north of about 25S. We Are Water and One Planet have cleared Cape Horn and are taking advantage of strong W/WNW winds to make some quick easting, and will pass well southeast of the Falkland Islands. Renault Captur is in easing W lies at the moment, but a very fast developing low pressure is expected to chase them and could bring storm force conditions as they approach Cape Horn. Spirit of Hungary is in a building SW flow that will give them a few days of quick easting north of the Ice Exclusion Boundary.


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At three feet of sea-level rise, Miami Beach looks like this.... (Click for an animation of the rise)
Photo: Illustration by Joe Darrow
... At six feet, Miami Beach is swimming. (Click for an animation of the rise)
The government could adopt a policy of abandoning vulnerable areas if they're devastated by a storm rather than facilitating recovery.
Save the Glades? At two feet of sea-level rise, a lot of Everglades National Park goes underwater.
Florida shrinks at six-feet of sea-level rise.
Learning to live with water
Sea-level rise and Florida: Present - 2025
Sea-level rise and Florida: 2025 - 2050
Mike Vogel | 10/26/2017
What We'll See
Millennial generation Floridians, by this period in their senior years, will be living in a Florida much changed from that of their youth.
In Pinellas, as sea-level rise reaches three to four feet, major chunks of the barrier islands will be lost.
In central Florida, Lake Monroe, far inland, swells to absorb connected lakes.
You'll need a kayak to get to the door of Cedar Key City Hall.
Kennedy Space Center and the commercial rocket industry grow increasingly isolated by rising water.
Fort Lauderdale indeed becomes America's Venice, with water at residential doorsteps, U.S. 1 under water and downtown awash at three feet and gone at four. The corporate descendant of Flagler's railroad will need to span long stretches of Broward water — imitating his ill-fated original Overseas Railroad in the Keys — to remain operational.
At three feet, Miami Beach is gone but for a spine close to the Atlantic. Brickell has standing water, and the Miami River widens up through central Miami-Dade. Water penetration from the former Everglades consumes western urbanized Miami-Dade.
In the Keys, at 24 inches of rise, nuisance floods occur 672 times per year — nearly every daily high tide.
Save the Glades?
At two feet of sea-level rise, a vast section of the southern part of the Everglades, including a lot of Everglades National Park, goes underwater. That eventuality carries the clear implication that the current project to restore the Everglades needs to be rethought with the focus on safeguarding urban south Florida and its water supply while preserving a sliver of the southernmost River of Grass. That holds even more so if the sea rises three feet by 2060, when the project is supposed to be finished.
In this period, sealevel rise will likely force substantial migration within the state — and out of it. Planners envision differing scenarios: A collective, thought-out retreat with government direction and financial assistance. Or piecemeal decisions driven by economics and repeated flood hits. Some foresee "storms of opportunity" in which a hurricane devastates a vulnerable area, prompting residents and investors to leave and government to withdraw infrastructure support.
The Heartland Prospers
The map shows the effects of six feet of sea-level rise along Florida's coasts and rivers. Absent successful accommodation, rising seas will pressure coastal Florida and even sites well inland. Barrier-island and low-lying communities face a spiral of shrinking property values and increasing costs. A century after the great migration to Florida was set in motion by the availability of air conditioning and other societal forces, a migration away from the sea will occur. Central Florida, its heartland interior and the state's lightly populated northern counties will see increasing economic opportunity. Union, Bradford, Columbia, Lafayette, Hamilton, Gadsden — your time is coming.
Tags: Environment, Sea-Level Rise

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife" at 60 December 19, 2018
Tags: 1958, 1959, Ahmet Ertegun, Atco, Atlantic, Bertold Brecht, Bobby Darin, Brian Setzer, Cole Porter, Dean Martin, Decca, Dick Clark, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Jerry Wexler, Johnny Mercer, Kevin Spacey, Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Louis Armstrong, Macheath, Mack the Knife, Michael Buble, Richard Wess, Satchmo, Simon Cowell, That's All, Threepenny Opera, Tony Bennett
Sixty years ago today – Dec. 19, 1958 – more music recording history was made. Specifically, Bobby Darin cut his biggest hit, "Mack The Knife". Released first as a single and later on his career-defining album "That's All", it was a song that would help define an era just as said era was coming to an end.
The song itself was not new. For that matter, neither was the musical style in which it was recorded. This alone would be an odd juxtaposition in a time when newer car styles and newer technologies were rapidly entering society. Yet this record would go on to win the Grammy for Record of the Year for 1959; in the fall of 1959, it stayed No. 1 on the charts for nine consecutive weeks. Some polls hold it up as the fifth-ranked song of the 1955-1959 Rock Era, despite the song clearly not being rock. And it all started with one legendary recording session 60 years ago today.
The actual, written song was already 30 years old when Darin recorded it on the Atco label, which was an Atlantic Records subsidiary. Indeed, the record's producers were Atlantic's usual suspects of Ahmet Ertegun (its founder), brother Neshui Ertegun, and Jerry Wexler.
Kurt Weill wrote the melody and poet/writer Bertold Brecht wrote the original lyrics for "Moriat" (its original title) as part of their musical drama "Die Dreigrosschenoper", or "The Threepenny Opera" in English. In the musical play, an organ grinder sings the song which tells the tale of Mackie Messer, a murderous criminal who in turn was based on the Macheath character from John Gay's "Beggar's Opera" from 1728. So yes, it's all very derivative.
The word "Messer" means "knife" in German, hence the easy transition from Mackie Messer to Mack the Knife. And yes, the original lyrics to "Moriat" were indeed auf Deutsch.
An English-language version of the opera was first offered to the public five years later (1933), with translated lyrics by Gifford Cochran and Jerrold Krimsky. The production had a run of only ten days. In 1954, though, another English-language production of the Threepenny Opera was staged, and it enjoyed an off-Broadway run of six years. Mark Blitzstein used his own English translation of the murder ballad of Mack the Knife, and these lyrics became the standard we know and love today.
Louis Armstrong actually beat Darin to the punch in having a pop hit with this song, recording his rendition in 1956, and giving it his typical Dixieland-inspired flavor. But despite Satchmo's first-mover advantage, the song today is associated with Darin, and rightly so.
This is not to say that the song's success came easily. Recording it was not even an easy sell. Dick Clark advised Darin not to record the song because he feared its perception as an opera song would alienate rock n' roll-oriented audiences. But rather than repel such audiences, it attracted them instead. Moreover, while Darin's traditional young target demographics embraced his more mature music, the parents of the young audiences were reassured by the record's strong Big Band sound (shouts to Richard Wess, who directed the orchestra for this track and indeed, the whole album), and enjoyed the record, too, as a result. In short, this timeless track appealed to a massive range of the buying public, which clearly was a leading factor in its stunning success.
Other notable names soon jumped on the bandwagon with their own versions of "Mack the Knife", such as Ella Fitzgerald recording a live rendition in 1960, and Dean Martin doing a nice, live version the previous year. Frank Sinatra recorded it with Quincy Jones as part of his 1984 album "L.A. is My Lady", yet he himself confessed that Bobby Darin did the better version. Other notables offering their respective takes on the tune include Tony Bennett, Brain Setzer, Kevin Spacey, and, not surprisingly, Michael Bublé. Bill Haley and His Comets recorded an instrumental version of the tune in 1959, which would be the last track the legendary singer and group would cut for the Decca label. Other notable acts have recorded variations and instrumentals of the song over the years.
One sterling example of the song's timeless appeal: superstar music judge Simon Cowell once named "Mack the Knife" as the greatest song ever written. That is a stretch, to say the least, considering the bodies of work of Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, and Jerome Kern, to say nothing of George and Ira Gershwin. But on the other hand, it's refreshing to hear a current superstar with a credibly discerning ear remind us of what a great song "Mack the Knife" is. It might not be the best ever, but it surely ranks up there.
Cool trivia: both Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin give a nod to actress Lotte Lenya in their respective versions. Lenya was Kurt Weill's wife, and she introduced the song during the first productions of Die Dreigrosschenoper.
America's Greatest Music: The Diamond Anniversary of two Artie Shaw Classics November 18, 2013
Tags: 75th, anniversary, Artie Shaw, As In A Morning Sunrise, Between a Kiss and a Sigh, Cole Porter, Copenhagen, Deep in a Dream, diamond, Helen Forrest, Ira Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II, RCA Bluebird, Softly
The legendary Artie Shaw and his band recorded two songs 75 years ago today that personified why he was one of the best of the best of that era or of any era.
Seventy-five years ago today, the great Artie Shaw recorded two of his greatest records. No, not the greatest of them all, which of course is his venerable, timeless, "Begin the Beguine", but these two are quite close to the top.
One of which is "Between A Kiss And A Sigh",
While the other is "Deep In A Dream". Both feature the superb lyrics of a young Helen Forrest, who made her major league debut with Shaw's band before moving on to Benny Goodman at the beginning of 1940.
Both recordings are wonderful in that they personify the difficult combination of music that exudes smoothness while at the same time maintaining a good, bouncy tempo. These two tunes give the sensation of being in a high-brow Art Deco nightclub in the late 1930s, which is always the ideal of where one wants to be for a night on the town!
As far as the lyrics go, they are relatively simple compared to the unmatched eloquence of something penned by, say, Cole Porter or Ira Gershwin. This particularly pertains to the former song, though the latter is not devoid of vivid lyrics. One example:
"The smoke makes a stairway for you to descend: You come to my arms; my this bliss never end!"
What this shows is that even songs that would by themselves not make the cut for the Great American Songbook are still timeless when given the right kind of arrangement and are paired with the right performer. Obviously this is the case with both of these records. But what is also shows is that even if their lyrics cannot match the poignance of Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me" or the vivid metaphors of Porter's "You're the Top," they nevertheless are well-written enough to remind us yet again that when it came to writing songs and making music in general, these tunes were from a time when there was an embarrassments of riches — of great lyrics!
And on top of that, they're just great records.
But wait, there's more! In addition to the two aforementioned hits, he recorded a few others on Nov. 17 , 1938 as well, such as his version of "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise," the lyrics of which were written by none other than Oscar Hammerstein II in 1928. But in typical Artie Shaw fashion, he scrapped the lyrics this time and concentrated on the music itself.
Disclaimer: Artie Shaw recorded on RCA Bluebird. What they show in the video is a mid-1950s Mercury label. Why, I don't know. Furthermore, all of these tunes would have been cut and pressed on 78 RPM records, not 45's, which were not introduced until 1949.
But I digress. The band also recorded one of their versions of "Copenhagen" during this same session.
If that's not enough, Artie Shaw and his band also cut a nice ditty in "Thanks For Everything", surely a sentiment we love to share with friends, loved ones, and significant others alike. Naturally, Helen Forrest's vocals add just the right tough to this track.
America's Greatest Music – It's De-Lovely October 25, 2013
Tags: 1936, 1956, Anything Goes, Bob Hope, Cole Porter, Eddy Duchin, Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Merman, Great American, I Get a Kick out of You, I've Got You, It's De-Lovely, Night and Day, Red Hot and Blue, Shep Fields, Songbook, swing era, Under My Skin, Vincent Lopez
"It's delightful, it's delicious, it's de-lovely…" Those are some of the most famous lyrics within the body of work of Cole Porter, the last two of which being the title of the in question. Given that it is one of Porter's most recognizable songs (save for "Night and Day," "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Anything Goes," "I Get A Kick Out Of You", and several others), it merits a very prominent place in the Great American Songbook.
Here's the catch, though; despite it being a great song, few of us can think of lots of notable recorded renditions of it. Sure, a number of second-tier bands had moderate hits with it in the mid-1930s, but that will not turn lots of heads of music listeners who are not passionate and/or academic about the Swing Era.
The song originated when Cole Porter wrote it in 1936 for the show "Red Hot and Blue." On the big screen, it was introduced to the masses by Ethel Merman and Bob Hope. Indeed, Merman would record a studio version of the song, which can be heard below. Note that the approach she takes to the song is one that would highlight the potential silliness/gayety of the situation described.
As mentioned earlier, several second-tier bands promptly recorded their respective renditions of the song, including Eddy Duchin, Shep Fields, and Vincent Lopez, whose 1936 version can be heard below:
But one version easily stands out over all, and that is Ella Fitzgerald's take on the tune from 1956 (which would be the same time of decade when she would tackle the "Cole Porter Songbook" and leave many wonderful records for posterity in so doing). Frankly, nothing compares to this rendition.
Notice, in contrast to Ethel Merman's approach from 20 years earlier, Ella puts all kidding aside and focuses on the shear passion that this tune can excite, what with being with the right gal (or guy) at the right time, along with the ensuing opportunity to create a magical evening.
America's Greatest Music: Artie Shaw's "Non-Stop Flight" and others September 27, 2013
Tags: America, American, Artie Shaw, Begin the Beguine, Benny Goodman, Clark Gable, Cole Porter, diamond anniversary, Gowns for Roberta, Great, Greatest, Helen Forrest, Howard Hughes, I Have Eyes, Jerome Kern, lindy hopper, Martin Scorsese, music, Night and Day, Nightmare, Non-Stop Flight, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Songbook, The Aviator, What Is This Thing Called Love?, You're a Sweet Little Headache
As I stated in my previous AGM entry, there are those occasional recording sessions in history where not just one legendary record is cut, but a whole plethora. Today (Sept. 27) marks the Diamond Anniversary (that's 75 years, for those of you who are graduates of Indiana University — or the University of Kentucky, for that matter) of one such session undertaken by Artie Shaw and his orchestra. On Sept. 27, he and his band cut, for one, "Nightmare", a haunting tune which he used, oddly enough, to open all of his live gigs.
But that is not the half of it. In addition to "Nightmare" (also used frequently throughout the Martin Scorsese biopic "The Aviator" about Howard Hughes), Artie Shaw also cut the definitive rendition of "Non-Stop Flight," a popular staple with Lindy Hoppers to this very day!
Things did not stop there, for Artie Shaw and his band also recorded the Jerome Kern hit "Yesterdays" from his musical "Gowns for Roberta" (the same musical in which Kern also wrote the legendary song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), and thus we have the triple-whammy of one of the greatest of all songwriters writing a song that belongs in — or at least near — the upper echelons of the Great American Songbook, and the record is performed by one of the greatest legends in American Popular Music in Artie Shaw. The quality of music does live up to the billing, too!
Next up we have "What Is This Thing Called Love?" Much like the aforementioned "Yesterdays", it too is the same sort of "triple-whammy," except this time it was penned by Cole Porter, not Jerome Kern. Artie Shaw had an incredible knack for scrapping the wonderful lyrics of Cole Porter tunes and rendering them as instrumentals, yet somehow still doing the songs considerable justice (e.g., "Night and Day," "Begin the Beguine," "What Is This Thing Called Love?", just to name a few). No wonder that when Porter finally met Shaw face-to-face in the late 1930s, the first thing he said to the King of the Clarinet was "[H]appy to meet my collaborator"!
For the last two tracks, Shaw brought in Helen Forrest on the vocals to sing a nice little ditty already featured in this blog, "You're a Sweet Little Headache". Part of that song can be heard in a scene in the very-underrated 1991 film "The Rocketeer".
The other tune for which Helen Forrest sang was "I Have Eyes". Much like the previously-mentioned tune, Benny Goodman recorded it around the same time, during the same year, and Martha Tilton provided the vocals for both. It therefore makes for a fun time for vintage music devotees to compare and contrast the respective merits of both songs and their counterpart recordings!
The Goodman version can be heard below for reference:
While I personally prefer the sound of the reed section in the Goodman rendition, overall I prefer the Artie Shaw version, for its sound is smoother, Shaw's clarinet is more melodious, Helen Forrest's vocals "click" a bit more effectively with that tune than Tilton's for the same song, and the tempo on the Shaw record is much bouncier. Moreover, I say all of this as a Goodman fan! Such is miraculous effect that Artie Shaw had on key records, so relatively many of which were produced 75 years ago today.
Why are all these Artie Shaw records such a big deal? A huge chunk of that answer lies in the fact that he left an indelible impression on our cultural landscape. To wit, as Mark Steyn pointed out in his fantastic obituary piece on Shaw over nine years ago:
"On the eve of World War II, Time reported that to Germans America meant 'skyscrapers, Clark Gable and Artie Shaw.'"
America's Greatest Music: You're a Sweet Little Headache September 12, 2013
Tags: 1938, 75, American, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, big band, Bing Crosby, Cole Porter, diamond anniversary, Disney, golden age, Helen Forrest, Indiana Jones, Irving Berlin, Last Crusade, Martha Tilton, pop culture, RCA, standard, swing era, The Rocketeer, You're a Sweet Little Headache
In a slight change of pace, this particular tune does not merit itself into the Great American Songbook. Nevertheless, it is a lovely little ditty, one that a few bands recorded during the Swing Era. The main reason we highlight this tune right now is because it was recorded on this day (Sept. 12) 75 years ago.
One thing is for certain, and that is that Benny Goodman's "sound" certainly did the tune justice. An uptempo "businessman's bounce" — something at which Benny's band excelled — this record is also a good example of the lilting tone effect heard in Goodman's woodwind section, something he practically perfected that year.
While Benny Goodman did not have a monopoly on this song, his is arguably the definitive version, what with his aforementioned sound, combined with his gutsy style of play. Martha Tilton's vocals make for a very nice addition, too. With all that said, other prominent recording stars took their stab at this song around the same time, including RCA stablemate Artie Shaw (who recorded it with Helen Forrest singing the lyrics that same year [1938])*, and even Bing Crosby lent his vocal talents to the ditty in question the following year.
A more modern pop cultural reference to this recording can be heard in the ever-popular film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" during the apartment scene in Venice, where one can hear the Elsa Schneider character play the tune on an acoustic phonograph (making the recording sound 10-15 years older than it actually was!).
So while the lyrics do not rate the song itself as highly as a good Cole Porter or Irving Berlin standard, it nevertheless merits our attention as a solid record during the golden age of American popular culture — enjoy!
*The Artie Shaw version one can briefly heard in the very underrated 1991 Disney Film "The Rocketeer," which also takes place in 1938.


text:
package com.inari.dash.game.tasks;

import com.inari.commons.geom.PositionF;
import com.inari.dash.game.cave.CaveSystem;
import com.inari.dash.game.cave.unit.Unit;
import com.inari.dash.game.cave.unit.UnitType;
import com.inari.firefly.asset.AssetSystem;
import com.inari.firefly.control.ControllerSystem;
import com.inari.firefly.control.task.Task;
import com.inari.firefly.entity.EntitySystem;
import com.inari.firefly.graphics.tile.TileGridSystem;
import com.inari.firefly.graphics.view.ViewSystem;
import com.inari.firefly.prototype.Prototype;
import com.inari.firefly.scene.SceneSystemEvent;

public final class DisposeCave extends Task {

    protected DisposeCave( int id ) {
        super( id );
    }

    @Override
    public final void runTask() {
        AssetSystem assetSystem = context.getSystem( AssetSystem.SYSTEM_KEY );
        TileGridSystem tileGridSystem = context.getSystem( TileGridSystem.SYSTEM_KEY );
        ControllerSystem controllerSystem = context.getSystem( ControllerSystem.SYSTEM_KEY );
        EntitySystem entitySystem = context.getSystem( EntitySystem.SYSTEM_KEY );
        ViewSystem viewSystem = context.getSystem( ViewSystem.SYSTEM_KEY );

        context.notify( new SceneSystemEvent( CaveSystem.CAVE_INIT_SCENE_NAME, SceneSystemEvent.EventType.DELETE ) );

        // dispose all units
        for ( UnitType unitType : UnitType.values() ) {
            context.getSystemComponent( Prototype.TYPE_KEY, unitType.ordinal(), Unit.class ).dispose( context );
        }

        entitySystem.deleteAllActive();
        assetSystem.disposeAsset( CaveSystem.GAME_UNIT_TEXTURE_NAME );

        int caveViewId = viewSystem.getViewId( CaveSystem.CAVE_VIEW_NAME );
        tileGridSystem.deleteAllTileGrid( caveViewId );
        controllerSystem.deleteController( CaveSystem.CAVE_CONTROLLER_NAME );
        PositionF worldPosition = viewSystem.getView( caveViewId ).getWorldPosition();
        worldPosition.x = 0;
        worldPosition.y = 0;
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Safety: The Unknown Risks of PEDs
By David Evans | September 1, 1999
Somehow, errant electrons traveled through the wiring and into the dark confines of the center wing tank on the Boeing 747 flying as TWA Flight 800. There, encountering a tiny breach in the wire insulation, those electrons created a spark. That tiny bolt of lighting may have released an almost insignificant amount of energy, equivalent to dropping a dime three-eighths of an inch. But that small spark in the eternal night of the tank was enough to ignite explosive vapors.
The airplane exploded spectacularly, killing all 230 aboard in the twilight hours of July 17, 1996. Now, three years later, the most intensive, costly accident investigation in the history of U.S. aviation remains open.
The primary question remains unanswered: what was the source of energy that caused the fatal spark? One possibility is a passenger electronic device. It's not known for sure, but a portable electronic device carried aboard by a passenger is in the lineup of suspects.
In a recent interview on the third anniversary of the TWA 800 tragedy, Dr. Bernard Loeb, head of aviation accident investigations for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), outlined three possibilities that are under examination. What he has to say has profound implications for the design of avionics systems and their tolerance to interference.
"There are three ways in which you potentially can get power into the center tank and, perhaps, get enough energy to cause an ignition source, perhaps through electromagnetic interference or induction or whatever," Loeb hypothesized.
One means may be from electromagnetic interference from an external source, such as from a radar. "One of the things that is going to come out of this," Loeb said, "is that when an airplane takes off at JFK [New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, the departure airfield for TWA 800] and it is near the radar, it is exposed to more than almost anything else that is going to be out there, and these planes are going in and out of there every day." Not to put too fine a point on it, but it seems that airplanes are routinely flying through the equivalent of a microwave oven.
Systems within the airplane itself are the second possibility as the source of the current that caused the spark. "When you turn on and off devices within the airplane itself, could you somehow get crossed or shorted wires, or whatever, just from that alone to produce sufficient energy?" Loeb pondered.
The third suspect is passenger electronic devices (PEDs). "We're actually having work done on that," Loeb said. "Could somebody with a cellular telephone or laptop [computer], or one of these devices have triggered it, and it [the current] goes into the tank?"
"So we're looking at PEDs just to see," he added. With research ongoing, Loeb naturally was circumspect about drawing too many inferences from any one of these scenarios. But he said one thing that should give pause: "It is incredible how little has been done in a hard way on PEDs."
The current policy is to restrict the use of PEDs while the aircraft is below 10,000 feet. Some carriers are permitting passengers to use their cell phones and other devices on the ground, so long as the aircraft doors are open.
Neither policy seems wholly satisfactory. One captain expressed discomfort with the practice of allowing passengers to use PEDs until the doors are shut. The emissions, he said, could give a false reading of cockpit instruments during execution of preflight checklists.
In many cases, passengers have been extremely reluctant to cease using their devices after pushback. A flight attendant recounted spotting a passenger shrinking down into his seat, trying to evade observation while continuing to use his cell phone during taxi to the takeoff position. (It seems that calls on cell phones are cheaper than on the electronically shielded air phones installed in the airplane, creating a built-in disincentive to use the seat-back equipment.)
In the air, there are reported cases of surreptitious cell phone use below 10,000 feet. One passenger, for example, made a call with his cell phone, claiming an in-flight medical emergency on the aircraft in the hopes of circumventing an air traffic control delay.
Two-way pagers appear to be a particular problem. These new devices, by the way, are not among the items of concern listed in the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's latest advisory circular on the subject of PEDs. That circular permits PED use except in "critical phases of flight," which is the essence of the no-use below 10,000 feet rule. The circular references a 1997 RTCA Inc. report that called for continued testing for potential interference with aircraft systems. Among the items mentioned specifically in the RTCA document: two-way pagers.
In a September 1998 case involving interference with the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) on a DC-9 at 7,000 feet over Wisconsin, the batteries in a passenger's two-way pager had to be removed to solve the problem. In his report to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), the captain stated, "This was my sixth pager... interference incident in nine months...I urge the FAA to add pagers to the list of specifically banned PEDs and to change the in-flight cabin announcement to reflect this."
In addition, the sky above 10,000 feet hardly seems to be a safe haven. In October of 1998 the captain of a 757 flying at 37,000 feet over the state of Washington experienced a rash of autopilot disconnects, on all three systems, for a period of three to four hours. The problem eventually was traced to a severely hearing-impaired passenger who was using a device with a headphone and a microprocessor in his pocket.
In his ASRS report the captain surmised, "Recalling that interference...is normally associated with wired devices not contained within the microprocessor case, and that PED interference is very site-specific, I asked the flight attendant to move the passenger forward not less than three rows, but preferably six rows." This was done and the autopilots calmed down.
However, the captain added a few more points when an ASRS official telephoned for a follow-up. "The captain has had previous experience with...passenger-operated games which are interconnected with a wiring harness. He states wiring acts as an antenna capable of radiating an RF [radio frequency] signal...the captain wonders why the aircraft manufacturer does not properly shield the aircraft electronics to prevent such interference."
Given these chilling incidents, and Loeb's assertion regarding the "incredible" lack of hard data, one is left with this discomfiting apprehension: data-free analysis has led to an analysis-free policy. And, for sure, this question comes to mind: do the current liberal use policies regarding passenger electronic devices reflect the triumph of marketing and convenience over prudence and safety?
First AW101 Merlin Mk4 with Upgraded Avionics Takes Maiden Flight
Embraer KC-390 Completes First Flight
Column: Avionics and Rosetta Stone
AirMap Aims to Alleviate the Guessing Game in UAS Operations


text:
St. George water park proposed
David DeMille
There is a decades-old St. George summer tradition of area residents, especially those with children, stepping out into the triple-digit temperatures and wondering aloud about why St. George doesn't have a water park.
Depending on how the next few months play out, that tradition could be ending.
The city planning commission gave its approval Tuesday to at least some of the plans for a new 10-acre water park, complete with an 80-foot slide tower and 900-foot lazy river, next door to a trailer park and up against the border with Washington City at approximately 2200 East Middleton Drive, just south of the Green Spring exit of Interstate 15.
Whether the park is approved depends on several additional approvals, including an agreement between the state and city council to abandon a roadway that passes through the location of the park, but developers said they hope to move through the process and aim for a 2018 opening date. The item could go before the city council sometime in the next several weeks.
The proposal, dubbed Splash City Adventure Park by developers, would be themed like a Polynesian-style tropical resort, right splash in the middle of the surrounding red rock desert, said Shayne Barney, a broker representing the team of investors involved in the project.
At 10 acres, it would be comparable in size to the Seven Peaks parks in Salt Lake City and Provo, about half the size of Cowabunga Bay and Wet N Wild in Las Vegas.
Although the area is zoned for commercial uses, some residential areas are close by, including an apartment building on commercially-zoned land right next door. If the park is built out as planned, the building would be roughly 40 feet away from the main slide tower, Barney said.
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However, Barney said the developers are committed to buffering the area with trees, small "cabana" structures and other elements as part of a larger effort to be good neighbors.
"They're going to know we're there, but we're going to do everything the city allows us to do to mitigate it," he said, noting that noise from the park probably wouldn't be louder than the nearby freeway or other nearby commercial areas.
About two dozen residents sent in letters or addressed the planning commission with concerns about noise, traffic, and how the park could affect the property values of nearby homes.
The location is already zoned for projects like a water park, but it still needs city approval for several items. The planning commission had to consider this week whether the plan included adequate parking and a site plan that meets city code. The proposal is to build out to 387 parking spaces, or about 40 per acre, roughly on par with similar parks.
The developers also needed to receive a height variance to build a large slide tower at the park. Seven different slides would fall off of a single tower near the park's northwestern edge. At 80 feet, the tower would be among the tallest structures in the city, nearly as high as the top of the federal courthouse on Tabernacle Street.
A large building that would house entertainment like arcades, party space and other indoor activities is also included in the plans.
The project's size requires a site plan review, meaning the city must approve project details like color, building materials and design.
Another part of the plan involves the city abandoning a section of Middleton Drive to make room for the parking lots, with the developers then providing another access to Red Hills Parkway, but that item was not part of the review this week by the planning commission and will need to be addressed at later meetings.
In a written narrative provided with the application documents, developers propose seasonal dates, with operating hours between 10:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, and potentially later closing times on Fridays and Saturdays.
A pair of spots for restaurants are identified in the company's site plans for the location. Any new businesses there would also require city approval.
Eric McFadden, project engineer, said the location was also picked with an eye toward future expansion at some point.
Water use was a concern of several members of the planning commission, but Barney said most of the water would be recycled and filtered, limiting supply needs.
He said the park would likely need about 140,000 gallons on peak summer days to get all of the facilities operating, but then water recycling would lower demand.
Compared to how much water would be required if all the park's visitors instead used private home pools or backyard sprinklers to cool off, the amount is comparatively small, Barney suggested, saying usage would be significantly less than if a new residential neighborhood or park with lawns was built in the same place.
Past efforts to build a water park in the area haven't panned out. In 2014, the city reached a purchase agreement to sell public property near the Dixie Center to make room for a 13-acre park, but the developers, which included some of the same investors as the new proposal, never moved forward with the project.
Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SpectrumDeMille. Call him at 435-674-6261 or email to ddemille@thespectrum.com.


text:
BUGATTI CHIRON LAUNCH
When the Bugatti Veyron was launched in 2005, it was a true technological tour-de-force. With over 1000 bhp and a top speed over 250 mph, the Veyron was not only fast but also refined. It was the first car that could allow passengers to easily pass 200 mph while still being perfectly comfortable and civilized. Bugatti's values of refinement and ultra-performance carry over to the new Chiron hypercar. The 8.0 liter quad-turbocharged W16 engine from the Veyron is heavily revised with direct injection and electronically controlled turbos to minimize any potential turbo lag. The Chiron produces 1,479 bhp and 1,180 lb ft of torque sent to all four wheels via an advanced 7-speed dual clutch automated manual transmission. With these four-digit power figures, Chiron does not disappoint. The 0-60 mph time takes less than 2.5 seconds and the projected top speed is in excess of 290 mph. With these performance figures, there is no doubt that Chiron will be one of, if not the fastest production car in the world. Chiron is fully customizable to the owner's preferences, and the level of individuality that can be achieved with Chiron is subject to very few limitations. The Chiron is a true beast that is designed to be easy to tame and thus offers more possibilities to the driver than almost any other vehicle in the world.


text:
Mr Rob Ryan
Academic Board of Governance Member & Associate Consultant
Mr Rob Ryan is a Senior Associate of NIODA Consulting and provides consulting services in team and leadership development, strategic planning and evaluation, organisation and service reviews, stakeholder engagement and executive coaching in government, business and not-for-profit sectors.
In his twenty-three years of working with government, not-for-profits and educational organisations, Rob has worked creatively and successfully, consulting to a wide range of clients in leadership, transitions and change management.
Rob also previously had ten years of senior management experience in a University service organisation, including the role of CEO. He has high-level skills in designing and leading large change projects and guiding individuals and teams in their professional development (e.g. board chairs, CEOs, leadership teams and other workgroups).
He has supported many organisations in reviewing and developing their roles, structures and processes; he has coached many leaders and has also held elected leadership roles in many not-for-profit organisations. Currently, this includes the roles of Administrative Director of ISPSO and regional co-convenor for ISPSO in Australia.
Rob Ryan
Bachelor of Science (Education), University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Education, Monash University
Graduate Diploma of Business (Organisation, Change and Development), RMIT University
Accredited in Myers-Briggs Typology
Accredited in Belbin Team Roles
Practitioner of socioanalytic and systems psychodynamic methodologies
Group Relations Australia, Member
International Society for the Psychoanalytical Study of Organizations
Member and co-Regional Convenor with Nuala Dent
Organisation for Psychological Understanding of Society Member
PO box 287, Collins Street West, Melbourne 8007 Australia


text:
Q: can we use 'entered' without 'into' The Bank entered into an agreement with X.
The Bank entered an agreement with X.
I have always found 'entered into' being used but does the modern usage allow omission of 'into'?

A:
The Bank entered an agreement with X.

The problem with this in my opinion is that it encroaches on a different usage of 'to enter'.

7  to make report of (a ship or its cargo) to customs authorities
8 to place in proper form before a court of law or upon record (enter a writ)
9 :  to go into or upon and take actual possession of (as land)
10 :  to put formally on record (entering a complaint)
Merriam-Webster

Without context to the contrary I would naturally tend to think that 'the Bank entered an agreement with X'  followed definitions 8 or 10.
However
It is clear from this Google ngram: enter into an agreement,enter an agreement that there is a gradual increase taking place in the usage you suggest - and indeed a reduction in the more traditional version.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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Does "Web 2.0" mean anything? Till recently I thought it didn't, but the truth turns out to be more complicated. Originally, yes, it was meaningless. Now it seems to have acquired a meaning. And yet those who dislike the term are probably right, because if it means what I think it does, we don't need it.
I first heard the phrase "Web 2.0" in the name of the Web 2.0 conference in 2004. At the time it was supposed to mean using "the web as a platform," which I took to refer to web-based applications. [1]
So I was surprised at a conference this summer when Tim O'Reilly led a session intended to figure out a definition of "Web 2.0." Didn't it already mean using the web as a platform? And if it didn't already mean something, why did we need the phrase at all?
Tim says the phrase "Web 2.0" first arose in "a brainstorming session between O'Reilly and Medialive International." What is Medialive International? "Producers of technology tradeshows and conferences," according to their site. So presumably that's what this brainstorming session was about. O'Reilly wanted to organize a conference about the web, and they were wondering what to call it.
I don't think there was any deliberate plan to suggest there was a new version of the web. They just wanted to make the point that the web mattered again. It was a kind of semantic deficit spending: they knew new things were coming, and the "2.0" referred to whatever those might turn out to be.
And they were right. New things were coming. But the new version number led to some awkwardness in the short term. In the process of developing the pitch for the first conference, someone must have decided they'd better take a stab at explaining what that "2.0" referred to. Whatever it meant, "the web as a platform" was at least not too constricting.
The story about "Web 2.0" meaning the web as a platform didn't live much past the first conference. By the second conference, what "Web 2.0" seemed to mean was something about democracy. At least, it did when people wrote about it online. The conference itself didn't seem very grassroots. It cost $2800, so the only people who could afford to go were VCs and people from big companies.
And yet, oddly enough, Ryan Singel's article about the conference in Wired News spoke of "throngs of geeks." When a friend of mine asked Ryan about this, it was news to him. He said he'd originally written something like "throngs of VCs and biz dev guys" but had later shortened it just to "throngs," and that this must have in turn been expanded by the editors into "throngs of geeks." After all, a Web 2.0 conference would presumably be full of geeks, right?
Well, no. There were about 7. Even Tim O'Reilly was wearing a suit, a sight so alien I couldn't parse it at first. I saw him walk by and said to one of the O'Reilly people "that guy looks just like Tim."
"Oh, that's Tim. He bought a suit." I ran after him, and sure enough, it was. He explained that he'd just bought it in Thailand.
The 2005 Web 2.0 conference reminded me of Internet trade shows during the Bubble, full of prowling VCs looking for the next hot startup. There was that same odd atmosphere created by a large number of people determined not to miss out. Miss out on what? They didn't know. Whatever was going to happen—whatever Web 2.0 turned out to be.
I wouldn't quite call it "Bubble 2.0" just because VCs are eager to invest again. The Internet is a genuinely big deal. The bust was as much an overreaction as the boom. It's to be expected that once we started to pull out of the bust, there would be a lot of growth in this area, just as there was in the industries that spiked the sharpest before the Depression.
The reason this won't turn into a second Bubble is that the IPO market is gone. Venture investors are driven by exit strategies. The reason they were funding all those laughable startups during the late 90s was that they hoped to sell them to gullible retail investors; they hoped to be laughing all the way to the bank. Now that route is closed. Now the default exit strategy is to get bought, and acquirers are less prone to irrational exuberance than IPO investors. The closest you'll get to Bubble valuations is Rupert Murdoch paying $580 million for Myspace. That's only off by a factor of 10 or so.
1. Ajax
Does "Web 2.0" mean anything more than the name of a conference yet? I don't like to admit it, but it's starting to. When people say "Web 2.0" now, I have some idea what they mean. And the fact that I both despise the phrase and understand it is the surest proof that it has started to mean something.
One ingredient of its meaning is certainly Ajax, which I can still only just bear to use without scare quotes. Basically, what "Ajax" means is "Javascript now works." And that in turn means that web-based applications can now be made to work much more like desktop ones.
As you read this, a whole new generation of software is being written to take advantage of Ajax. There hasn't been such a wave of new applications since microcomputers first appeared. Even Microsoft sees it, but it's too late for them to do anything more than leak "internal" documents designed to give the impression they're on top of this new trend.
In fact the new generation of software is being written way too fast for Microsoft even to channel it, let alone write their own in house. Their only hope now is to buy all the best Ajax startups before Google does. And even that's going to be hard, because Google has as big a head start in buying microstartups as it did in search a few years ago. After all, Google Maps, the canonical Ajax application, was the result of a startup they bought.
So ironically the original description of the Web 2.0 conference turned out to be partially right: web-based applications are a big component of Web 2.0. But I'm convinced they got this right by accident. The Ajax boom didn't start till early 2005, when Google Maps appeared and the term "Ajax" was coined.
The second big element of Web 2.0 is democracy. We now have several examples to prove that amateurs can surpass professionals, when they have the right kind of system to channel their efforts. Wikipedia may be the most famous. Experts have given Wikipedia middling reviews, but they miss the critical point: it's good enough. And it's free, which means people actually read it. On the web, articles you have to pay for might as well not exist. Even if you were willing to pay to read them yourself, you can't link to them. They're not part of the conversation.
Another place democracy seems to win is in deciding what counts as news. I never look at any news site now except Reddit. [2] I know if something major happens, or someone writes a particularly interesting article, it will show up there. Why bother checking the front page of any specific paper or magazine? Reddit's like an RSS feed for the whole web, with a filter for quality. Similar sites include Digg, a technology news site that's rapidly approaching Slashdot in popularity, and del.icio.us, the collaborative bookmarking network that set off the "tagging" movement. And whereas Wikipedia's main appeal is that it's good enough and free, these sites suggest that voters do a significantly better job than human editors.
The most dramatic example of Web 2.0 democracy is not in the selection of ideas, but their production. I've noticed for a while that the stuff I read on individual people's sites is as good as or better than the stuff I read in newspapers and magazines. And now I have independent evidence: the top links on Reddit are generally links to individual people's sites rather than to magazine articles or news stories.
My experience of writing for magazines suggests an explanation. Editors. They control the topics you can write about, and they can generally rewrite whatever you produce. The result is to damp extremes. Editing yields 95th percentile writing—95% of articles are improved by it, but 5% are dragged down. 5% of the time you get "throngs of geeks."
On the web, people can publish whatever they want. Nearly all of it falls short of the editor-damped writing in print publications. But the pool of writers is very, very large. If it's large enough, the lack of damping means the best writing online should surpass the best in print. [3] And now that the web has evolved mechanisms for selecting good stuff, the web wins net. Selection beats damping, for the same reason market economies beat centrally planned ones.
Even the startups are different this time around. They are to the startups of the Bubble what bloggers are to the print media. During the Bubble, a startup meant a company headed by an MBA that was blowing through several million dollars of VC money to "get big fast" in the most literal sense. Now it means a smaller, younger, more technical group that just decided to make something great. They'll decide later if they want to raise VC-scale funding, and if they take it, they'll take it on their terms.
3. Don't Maltreat Users
I think everyone would agree that democracy and Ajax are elements of "Web 2.0." I also see a third: not to maltreat users. During the Bubble a lot of popular sites were quite high-handed with users. And not just in obvious ways, like making them register, or subjecting them to annoying ads. The very design of the average site in the late 90s was an abuse. Many of the most popular sites were loaded with obtrusive branding that made them slow to load and sent the user the message: this is our site, not yours. (There's a physical analog in the Intel and Microsoft stickers that come on some laptops.)
I think the root of the problem was that sites felt they were giving something away for free, and till recently a company giving anything away for free could be pretty high-handed about it. Sometimes it reached the point of economic sadism: site owners assumed that the more pain they caused the user, the more benefit it must be to them. The most dramatic remnant of this model may be at salon.com, where you can read the beginning of a story, but to get the rest you have sit through a movie.
At Y Combinator we advise all the startups we fund never to lord it over users. Never make users register, unless you need to in order to store something for them. If you do make users register, never make them wait for a confirmation link in an email; in fact, don't even ask for their email address unless you need it for some reason. Don't ask them any unnecessary questions. Never send them email unless they explicitly ask for it. Never frame pages you link to, or open them in new windows. If you have a free version and a pay version, don't make the free version too restricted. And if you find yourself asking "should we allow users to do x?" just answer "yes" whenever you're unsure. Err on the side of generosity.
In How to Start a Startup I advised startups never to let anyone fly under them, meaning never to let any other company offer a cheaper, easier solution. Another way to fly low is to give users more power. Let users do what they want. If you don't and a competitor does, you're in trouble.
iTunes is Web 2.0ish in this sense. Finally you can buy individual songs instead of having to buy whole albums. The recording industry hated the idea and resisted it as long as possible. But it was obvious what users wanted, so Apple flew under the labels. [4] Though really it might be better to describe iTunes as Web 1.5. Web 2.0 applied to music would probably mean individual bands giving away DRMless songs for free.
The ultimate way to be nice to users is to give them something for free that competitors charge for. During the 90s a lot of people probably thought we'd have some working system for micropayments by now. In fact things have gone in the other direction. The most successful sites are the ones that figure out new ways to give stuff away for free. Craigslist has largely destroyed the classified ad sites of the 90s, and OkCupid looks likely to do the same to the previous generation of dating sites.
Serving web pages is very, very cheap. If you can make even a fraction of a cent per page view, you can make a profit. And technology for targeting ads continues to improve. I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now eBay had been supplanted by an ad-supported freeBay (or, more likely, gBay).
Odd as it might sound, we tell startups that they should try to make as little money as possible. If you can figure out a way to turn a billion dollar industry into a fifty million dollar industry, so much the better, if all fifty million go to you. Though indeed, making things cheaper often turns out to generate more money in the end, just as automating things often turns out to generate more jobs.
The ultimate target is Microsoft. What a bang that balloon is going to make when someone pops it by offering a free web-based alternative to MS Office. [5] Who will? Google? They seem to be taking their time. I suspect the pin will be wielded by a couple of 20 year old hackers who are too naive to be intimidated by the idea. (How hard can it be?)
The Common Thread
Ajax, democracy, and not dissing users. What do they all have in common? I didn't realize they had anything in common till recently, which is one of the reasons I disliked the term "Web 2.0" so much. It seemed that it was being used as a label for whatever happened to be new—that it didn't predict anything.
But there is a common thread. Web 2.0 means using the web the way it's meant to be used. The "trends" we're seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it during the Bubble.
I realized this when I read an interview with Joe Kraus, the co-founder of Excite. [6]
Excite really never got the business model right at all. We fell into the classic problem of how when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium—which fails, and then the more appropriate models get figured out.
It may have seemed as if not much was happening during the years after the Bubble burst. But in retrospect, something was happening: the web was finding its natural angle of repose. The democracy component, for example—that's not an innovation, in the sense of something someone made happen. That's what the web naturally tends to produce.
Ditto for the idea of delivering desktop-like applications over the web. That idea is almost as old as the web. But the first time around it was co-opted by Sun, and we got Java applets. Java has since been remade into a generic replacement for C++, but in 1996 the story about Java was that it represented a new model of software. Instead of desktop applications, you'd run Java "applets" delivered from a server.
This plan collapsed under its own weight. Microsoft helped kill it, but it would have died anyway. There was no uptake among hackers. When you find PR firms promoting something as the next development platform, you can be sure it's not. If it were, you wouldn't need PR firms to tell you, because hackers would already be writing stuff on top of it, the way sites like Busmonster used Google Maps as a platform before Google even meant it to be one.
The proof that Ajax is the next hot platform is that thousands of hackers have spontaneously started building things on top of it. Mikey likes it.
There's another thing all three components of Web 2.0 have in common. Here's a clue. Suppose you approached investors with the following idea for a Web 2.0 startup:
Sites like del.icio.us and flickr allow users to "tag" content with descriptive tokens. But there is also huge source of implicit tags that they ignore: the text within web links. Moreover, these links represent a social network connecting the individuals and organizations who created the pages, and by using graph theory we can compute from this network an estimate of the reputation of each member. We plan to mine the web for these implicit tags, and use them together with the reputation hierarchy they embody to enhance web searches.
How long do you think it would take them on average to realize that it was a description of Google?
Google was a pioneer in all three components of Web 2.0: their core business sounds crushingly hip when described in Web 2.0 terms, "Don't maltreat users" is a subset of "Don't be evil," and of course Google set off the whole Ajax boom with Google Maps.
Web 2.0 means using the web as it was meant to be used, and Google does. That's their secret. They're sailing with the wind, instead of sitting becalmed praying for a business model, like the print media, or trying to tack upwind by suing their customers, like Microsoft and the record labels. [7]
Google doesn't try to force things to happen their way. They try to figure out what's going to happen, and arrange to be standing there when it does. That's the way to approach technology—and as business includes an ever larger technological component, the right way to do business.
The fact that Google is a "Web 2.0" company shows that, while meaningful, the term is also rather bogus. It's like the word "allopathic." It just means doing things right, and it's a bad sign when you have a special word for that.
[1] From the conference site, June 2004: "While the first wave of the Web was closely tied to the browser, the second wave extends applications across the web and enables a new generation of services and business opportunities." To the extent this means anything, it seems to be about web-based applications.
[2] Disclosure: Reddit was funded by Y Combinator. But although I started using it out of loyalty to the home team, I've become a genuine addict. While we're at it, I'm also an investor in !MSFT, having sold all my shares earlier this year.
[3] I'm not against editing. I spend more time editing than writing, and I have a group of picky friends who proofread almost everything I write. What I dislike is editing done after the fact by someone else.
[4] Obvious is an understatement. Users had been climbing in through the window for years before Apple finally moved the door.
[5] Hint: the way to create a web-based alternative to Office may not be to write every component yourself, but to establish a protocol for web-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. Or it may be to write it all yourself.
[6] In Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work.
[7] Microsoft didn't sue their customers directly, but they seem to have done all they could to help SCO sue them.
Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Sarah Harlin, Jessica Livingston, Peter Norvig, Aaron Swartz, and Jeff Weiner for reading drafts of this, and to the guys at O'Reilly and Adaptive Path for answering my questions.
Posted in Web 2.0 | Tagged Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment


A rich, illuminating skin-perfector, Glowtion Day Dew is the ultimate everyday treat for lacklustre complexions. Hydrating, nourishing and radiance-boosting, this glides over skin to blur the visibility of imperfections while enhancing luminosity with light-reflective pigments – so you look naturally lit-from-within. Refreshing when applied (this floods cells with moisture) this moisturiser is ideal for dulled, dehydrated and congested complexions – unifying skin's appearance while gradually restoring clarity thanks to purifying kaolin and calming lavender oil. A beautiful, glow-giving base for foundation, it's also lovely worn alone on 'good skin' days – creating an enviable, ethereal skin finish (without too much shine).


Here, you'll find the largest choice of engineering and built environment courses in the East of England, many of which are accredited by professional bodies.
We're located in Chelmsford, and also offer courses across East Anglia with our regional partner institutions.
Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).
In addition to providing undergraduate, postgraduate and research courses, we also train and provide research support to private and public sector organisations. We'll encourage you to gain the right work experience during your studies and support you with this, as well as offering the option of taking a sandwich year placement with an industry-relevant partner.
Our team of academic, technical and support staff take pride in delivering an up-to-date and exciting curriculum, while offering a friendly atmosphere in which you can thrive.
We offer exceptional facilities to support our students, researchers and the businesses we work with. From modern architecture studios and workshop space to dedicated medical engineering labs. Explore our Mechanical and Civil Engineering labs and 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing) facilities.
If you're thinking of studying one of our courses the best way to find out what makes us unique is by visiting our next Open Day. See exactly what we have to offer, have a tour of our facilities and chat to staff and students.


While continual evolution is part of our DNA, there's no denying SmallBox is in the midst of a pivotal shift. Jeb dubbed our current changes "The Journey to 3.0." It seems inevitable this Factory Week will mark a key turning point from who we once were to the company we are becoming. This edition of Factory Week is all about refining our mission, reimagining how we invest in our community, and building our shared language to shape our story and brand. Oh, and one more important thing – plenty of time for exploring and play. This Factory Week takes places August 8-12, 2016.
After a pretty packed week, we started our final day of Factory Week with some forest bathing. What's that you ask?


text:
namespace base {
class SingleThreadTaskRunner;
}

namespace mojo {
class ServiceProvider;
}

namespace media {
class DemuxerStreamProvider;

// A media::Renderer that proxies to a mojo::MediaRenderer. That
// mojo::MediaRenderer proxies back to the MojoRendererImpl via the
// mojo::MediaRendererClient interface.
//
// MojoRendererImpl implements media::Renderer for use as either an audio
// or video renderer.
//
// TODO(tim): Only audio is currently supported. http://crbug.com/410451.
class MojoRendererImpl : public Renderer, public mojo::MediaRendererClient {
 public:
  // |task_runner| is the TaskRunner on which all methods are invoked.
  // |demuxer_stream_provider| provides encoded streams for decoding and
  //     rendering.
  // |audio_renderer_provider| is a ServiceProvider from a connected
  //     Application that is hosting a mojo::MediaRenderer.
  MojoRendererImpl(
      const scoped_refptr<base::SingleThreadTaskRunner>& task_runner,
      DemuxerStreamProvider* demuxer_stream_provider,
      mojo::ServiceProvider* audio_renderer_provider);
  virtual ~MojoRendererImpl();

  // Renderer implementation.
  virtual void Initialize(const base::Closure& init_cb,
                          const StatisticsCB& statistics_cb,
                          const base::Closure& ended_cb,
                          const PipelineStatusCB& error_cb,
                          const BufferingStateCB& buffering_state_cb) OVERRIDE;
  virtual void Flush(const base::Closure& flush_cb) OVERRIDE;
  virtual void StartPlayingFrom(base::TimeDelta time) OVERRIDE;
  virtual void SetPlaybackRate(float playback_rate) OVERRIDE;
  virtual void SetVolume(float volume) OVERRIDE;
  virtual base::TimeDelta GetMediaTime() OVERRIDE;
  virtual bool HasAudio() OVERRIDE;
  virtual bool HasVideo() OVERRIDE;
  virtual void SetCdm(MediaKeys* cdm) OVERRIDE;

  // mojo::MediaRendererClient implementation.
  virtual void OnTimeUpdate(int64_t time_usec,
                            int64_t max_time_usec) MOJO_OVERRIDE;
  virtual void OnBufferingStateChange(mojo::BufferingState state) MOJO_OVERRIDE;
  virtual void OnEnded() MOJO_OVERRIDE;
  virtual void OnError() MOJO_OVERRIDE;

 private:
  // Called when |remote_audio_renderer_| has finished initializing.
  void OnInitialized();

  // Task runner used to execute pipeline tasks.
  scoped_refptr<base::SingleThreadTaskRunner> task_runner_;

  DemuxerStreamProvider* demuxer_stream_provider_;
  mojo::MediaRendererPtr remote_audio_renderer_;

  // Callbacks passed to Initialize() that we forward messages from
  // |remote_audio_renderer_| through.
  base::Closure init_cb_;
  base::Closure ended_cb_;
  PipelineStatusCB error_cb_;
  BufferingStateCB buffering_state_cb_;

  base::WeakPtrFactory<MojoRendererImpl> weak_factory_;
  DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN(MojoRendererImpl);
};

}  // namespace media

#endif  // MEDIA_MOJO_SERVICES_MOJO_RENDERER_IMPL_H_


This tutorial on Visual Composer for WordPress shows you how to create & apply custom CSS classes and assign them to individual page elements created with Visual Composer & style them on an individual or global basis.
Using these simple techniques you can easily customize almost any of the Visual Composer widgets throughout your entire site.
See how easy it is to implement these powerful features on your WordPress powered website.


Meet the secure, tamper-proof lock from Nest and Yale. It's keyless, so you can lock and unlock the door from anywhere with the Nest app.* Give people you trust a unique passcode and get alerts when they come and go. Lock the door with a tap. If you forget, you'll get a reminder. And the Nest x Yale Lock works with the Nest Secure alarm system. When you unlock the door, you disarm the alarm.
The Nest x Yale Lock connects to your Wi-Fi and the Nest app through the included Nest Connect.
Easy installation - replaces your existing deadbolt.
Alerts you when batteries start to run low.
Let someone in from anywhere you are using the Nest app.
Get alerts when someone unlocks and locks the door.
Check the status of your door and lock hands-free with the Google Assistant.
Pair with other Nest products to monitor your home.
Not compatible: The Nest × Yale Lock is not designed to be used on glass or sliding doors. It was also not designed to work with Mortise locks or multi-point locks.
Backset: Backset refers to the distance between the edge of your door and the center for the hole your deadbolt. If your deadbolt is more than 2-3/4 in (70mm) away from the edge of your door, it's not compatible. You can check the install guide for more information.


Murder of Crows is the second book in Anne Bishop's The Others series.
Meg is trying to settle in to life away from the Compound where she was held captive and used for the first 24 years of her life. When two addictive drugs show up and start effecting humans and Others alike, and Meg sees a prophecy filled with blood and feathers in the snow, Simon Wolfgard and the rest of the terra indigene in the Courtyard need to piece together what Meg's vision means – before more death occurs.
I enjoy Meg, Simon and the other cast of characters from the Courtyard, plus those we've gotten to know from outside the Courtyard. The human cops assigned to the area as well as others made this a rich, entertaining experience. Bishop does suspense very well. Coupled with the strong character studies, Murder of Crows was a very compelling read that built on the strong foundation Bishop laid with Written in Red.
Enter a world inhabited by the Others, unearthly entities - vampires and shape-shifters among them - who rule the earth and whose prey are humans.
Meg Corbyn is cassandra sangue, a blood prophet, who can speak prophecy when her skin is cut. Because the blood prophets become addicted to the euphoria that veils their mind when they speak prophecy, many years ago it was decided benevolent ownership of them when be given to caretakers "for their own protection". The majority of whom then used them for profit. For 24 years Meg has lived in such a compound, being used and abused by her owners, taught only what she needed to know to speak prophecy. Until she becomes desperate and escapes. She ends up in Lakeside at a Terra Indigene (The Others) Courtyard. The Others are Earth Natives who rule the continent of Thaisia. They allow humans to lease the land from them, but they have Courtyards in each major city so The Others can keep an eye on what the humans are doing.
Simon Wolfgard is an "Other", a Terra Indigene (Earth Native), who can shift into the shape of the wolf. He's the leader of the Lakeside Courtyard. To The Others, humans are just clever meat. Meg is a human, but she doesn't smell like prey. This intrigues him enough that he hires her to be their Human Liaison. He knows she's keeping secrets and lying to him, but it isn't long before she's won the hearts of all the residents of the Courtyard, including his. When her secrets come to light he'll have to decide if she's worth possibly going to war to protect.
Equal parts humor, intrigue and horror, Written in Red sucked me in from page one. The world-building in the first few chapters was somewhat dense, but Meg's interactions with The Others and her struggle to settle in to life outside the Compound kept me glued to the pages. From there things only got better. Simon's struggle to pin down why he reacted differently to Meg who smelled like not-prey; His nephew Sam and the emotional trauma he suffered after the death of his mother; Meg befriending everyone in the Courtyard, most of them in spite of themselves; The Elementals (who control the weather) and their Steeds…all of this, and more, pulled me in. I was fully immersed in the Courtyard and the lives of those who inhabit it. Bishop tackles heavy issues like racism and abuse, yet does it so expertly I didn't feel preached to – or at.
I immediately picked up the second book in series.


text:
Playtime Posted at The Look on Mistika
Thu, 01/23/2014 - 14:42 -- Nick Dager
The Look has finished Playtime, a 70-minute, seven-screen artwork installation created by celebrated video artist Isaac Julien. Designed to explore the relevant and dramatically nuanced subject of capital, the creatively and technically challenging feat is available for viewing January 24 through March 1 at Victoria Miro Gallery in London before being showcased around the world.
The seven-screen projection is made up of five films at 5K resolution with 30Tb of Red material conformed on The Look's Mistika system. Colorist Thomas Urbye graded from the Raw Red files using Mistika's advanced grading toolset, initially grading each screen, and then combining all seven into Mistika's unique grouping mode for client review on The Look's 4m projection screen. Complex visual effects were completed by The Look's VFX partners Lexhag and imported into Mistika to maximize the dynamic range.
The Look managing director and colorist Thomas Urbye said, "This was one of the largest projects we have ever worked on, 70 minutes of 5K is daunting enough, but multiply it by 7 and you have a truly epic project. The Mistika's ability to work from the Red files so well, and at such a high resolution, meant that it was perfectly suited to this kind of project. The piece was as creatively challenging as anything I've worked on, Isaac Julien is one of the world's leading video artists and this work is eagerly anticipated in the art world. Great care has been taken to make the images seen in these films as breathtaking and moving as possible."
The films were shot in London, Dubai and Iceland on the Red Epic and feature James Franco, Colin Salmon, Maggie Cheung, Ingvar Eggert Sigurğsson and Mercedes Cabral. A shorter single screen version of the work was shown in New York's Time Square in December and at Metro Pictures Gallery.
Playtime http://www.thelooklondon.com/work/video-art/isaac-julien-playtime/


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