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Timestamp #70: The Time Warrior
May 11, 2016 May 16, 2018 Michael Falkner10 Comments
Doctor Who: The Time Warrior
(4 episodes, s11e01-e04, 1973-74)
Welcome to Series Eleven and a serial chock full of firsts for the franchise. I really like the new title sequence and logo, which combines Star Trek-style warp speed rainbow star streak effects and 1970s psychedelic wormholes.
The story begins with a group of medieval warriors who are complaining about the poor stores in their seized castle, including sour wine and rancid meat, when they see a falling star. After a series of well-done effects for the crash, the raiders investigate and encounter a spaceship piloted by a Sontaran.
A Sontaran!
His name is Linx and his ship needs repair. After he claims Earth for the Sontaran Empire, the medieval warriors exchange their help for super weapons that would make them invincible. Flashing forward to the 20th century, the Doctor and the Brigadier investigate the disappearance of a dozen leading scientists and their hardware. Linx is the culprit, having kidnapped them through time so that they can repair his ship. True to his word, Linx has also provided Irongron, the lead human warrior, with a rifle.
During the investigation, the Doctor provides his name (once again) as Doctor John Smith, and we meet Sarah Jane Smith.
Sarah Jane!
Sarah Jane is a journalist posing as her aunt, a scientist. When another scientist, Professor Rubeish, goes missing, the Doctor traces him through time and Sarah Jane stows away on the TARDIS. When the Doctor sets his course for medieval times, Sarah Jane disrupts an archer who is trying to assassinate Irongron, and then gets captured by his forces.
I loved the Doctor's quote: "A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting."
The Doctor witnesses Linx removing his helmet and, you know, the Sontarans really haven't changed that much over the years. Sarah Jane is brought before Irongron, who is in a poor mood. Linx arrives, interrogates Sarah Jane, and provides a robotic knight for Irongron's exploits. Irongron tests it by pitting the assassin archer against the robot for sport, but the Doctor stops the machine with an arrow to its remote control. The archer escapes with Sarah Jane, and the Doctor breaks into Linx's lab after Irongron calls the Sontaran away to diagnose the robot. The Doctor discovers the missing scientists, including Rubeish, who couldn't be hypnotized like the others because he left his glasses in the future, but the Doctor is soon ambushed by Linx. Linx interrogates the Doctor, who discloses that he is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.
Gallifrey!
Sarah Jane is taken to the Wessex Castle where she meets the lord who wants to defeat Irongron, and they all assume that the Doctor is behind the plot to kidnap the scientists. They develop a plan to kidnap the Doctor and stop the insanity. Back in the makeshift lab, Linx restrains the Doctor with a headset that provides a shock when he strays from his assigned task. Rubeish helps him to escape, but the Doctor encounters the human warriors and is nearly beheaded by Irongron. He is saved by the archer Hal and Sarah Jane, but they spirit him away to Wessex Castle. They confront him about his role in the affair, but he convinces them that he is the good guy.
Irongron attacks Wessex Castle and is nearly dissuaded by the dummies that impersonate a superior force, but Linx shows Irongron how to shoot the rifles and they discover the ruse. The Doctor and Sarah Jane drive the warriors back with chemical warfare. Irongron is angered by the failure, and Linx is angry with Irongron.
The Doctor and Sarah Jane lead an attack on Irongron's castle, and they sneak in disguised as friars. They discover the scientists suffering from starvation and sleep deprivation. When Linx returns to the lab, the Doctor offers to help him fix his ship in exchange for the scientists' lives. Linx attacks in response, and while the Sontaran is distracted by the weakened Doctor, Rubeish hits Linx right in the probic vent, his only weak spot, and knocks him out.
Irongron summons Linx, and the Doctor responds in the guise of an upgraded robot knight. He is soon defeated and captured, and subjected to a firing squad to offer Irongron's men practice with their rifles. Sarah Jane sneaks into the kitchen and slips a knockout draught into the food, and then helps the Doctor escape the rogues and their poor aim. Rubeish removes the scientists' trance and works to send them all back to their time.
At this point, it's Linx versus everyone else: When Linx's spacecraft lifts off, it will produce a shock wave that will level the castle, and the Doctor wants to save the innocents from that fate. Linx begins the power-up sequence on his craft as the guards fall prey to Sarah Jane's culinary sabotage. The Doctor figures out how to send the scientists home and leaves Rubeish in charge as he faces off against Linx.
Only Irongron remains standing from the drugged stew. He bursts in to confront Linx, but the Sontaran kills him. Hal warns the rogues that the castle is about to be destroyed, and then arrives just in time to shoot Linx in the probic vent with an arrow. Linx dies, but falls on the activation button for his ship, and the castle is destroyed as the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Hal escape.
Irongron is dead, his marauders are scattered, Wessex is safe, and the Doctor and his stowaway companion set course for home.
This was a fun episode with so many pieces of the mythology. Sarah Jane is an empowered and very spirited woman. She takes charge and fights hard, but is also willing to admit when she's wrong. She's a fantastic character right from the start. I'm eager to see how she develops as a companion.
Grading this one was easy.
UP NEXT – Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Smith, Sontarans, Third Doctor
Timestamp: Tenth Series Summary
Timestamp #71: Invasion of the Dinosaurs
10 thoughts on "Timestamp #70: The Time Warrior"
Nathan Laws says:
It's funny that Robert Holmes, the writer of this story, said that he didn't like writing stories in history because he said that they were boring because this and another one that he writes years later in the Tom Baker era are usually regarded as some of the best Doctor Who ever.
Most people prefers Sarah Jane with Tom, but I like her at her more firey with Pertwee. Those two spark off each other right away.
My favorite line in this:
Sarah: You're serious aren't you?
Doctor: About what I do, yes, not necessarily about how I do it.
That sums up the Doctor so well.
Timestamp: Eleventh Series and Third Doctor Summary | Creative Criticality says:
[…] dip in the Tenth Series, but that's not without caveats. Two of the stories were easy marks: The Time Warrior was a straight-up 5, and The Monster of Peladon – rest in peace, brave Aggedor – was a solid […]
Timestamp #75: Robot | Creative Criticality says:
[…] of miss the warp stars. The story itself kicks off with a delirious Doctor who mentions previous adventures as Lieutenant Harry Sullivan, UNIT's staff physician, takes the Time Lord to the infirmary. […]
Timestamp #77: The Sontaran Experiment | Creative Criticality says:
[…] Jane is surprised to see the Sontaran since he look just like the one who died in 13th century England. Sure, Sarah Jane, they both look like a potato in armor, but Linx looked more like an undead […]
Timestamp #83: The Android Invasion | Creative Criticality says:
[…] drinks, those strange coins, and not much else, and Sarah Jane remembers from her days as a journalist that the space center is a short distance […]
Timestamp #84: The Brain of Morbius | Creative Criticality says:
[…] The Doctor offhandedly remarks his previous heads, including the Third's grey one (which Sarah Jane really liked). Solon entertains the travelers, and the Doctor investigates the man's obsession with […]
Timestamp #92: Horror of Fang Rock | Creative Criticality says:
[…] to the lamp room as he confronts the alien, which he finally recognizes as a Rutan, the foe of the […]
Timestamp #102: The Power of Kroll | Creative Criticality says:
[…] of the highest ratings in the Timestamps Project – Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, The Time Warrior, The Ark in Space, Pyramids of Mars, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and The Ribos Operation – […]
Timestamp Special #3: A Girl's Best Friend | Creative Criticality says:
[…] After a set of trippy opening credits, we come to a cult ceremony where two goat-headed figures are leading a chant against a heretic: Sarah Jane Smith's aunt Lavinia. We last heard of her in The Time Warrior. […]
[…] argue about who has had more experience with the Doctor – references include Pyramids of Mars, The Time Warrior, Robot, The Sontaran Experiment, Revenge of the Cybermen, The Android Invasion, The Five Doctors, […]


First I will say that I normally create Nascar decal artwork. Any of my decals can be seen at the link below.
I wanted to try my hand at something different and decided to give Danica's Prelude ride a shot. Below is just a work in progress preview. I will show the finished product when it is completed.
Will be keeping an eye on this decal, just might be my first late model build.


Discover the power of God's Word to change lives and transform cultures in an intensive course that will also deeply challenge you on a personal level.
A must-have experience for anyone looking to use their unique skills and talents to make a difference in the world.
DMT Foundation and DMT Advanced are prerequisites for all accredited training through UFCE.
Discipleship Mission Training - Lives changed to change lives.


resolvconf.conf is the configuration file for resolvconf(8). The resolvconf.conf file is a shell script that is sourced by resolvconf(8), meaning that resolvconf.conf must contain valid shell commands. Listed below are the standard resolvconf.conf variables that may be set. If the values contain whitespace, wildcards or other special shell characters, ensure they are quoted and escaped correctly. See the replace variable for an example on quoting.
After updating this file, you may wish to run resolvconf to apply the new configuration.
When a dynamically generated list is appended or prepended to, the whole is made unique where left-most wins.
Set to NO to disable resolvconf from running any subscribers. Defaults to YES.
Ignore any exlcusive marking for these interfaces. This is handy when 3rd party integrations force the resolvconf option and you want to disable it easily.
Prepend name servers to the dynamically generated list. You should set this to 127.0.0.1 if you use a local name server other than libc.
These interfaces name servers will only be queried for the domains listed in their resolv.conf. Useful for VPN domains. Setting private_interfaces="*" will stop the forwarding of the root zone and allows the local resolver to recursively query the root servers directly. Requires a local nameserver other than libc. This is equivalent to the resolvconf option.
Force these interface to be public, overriding the private marking. This is handy when 3rd party integrations force the resolvconf option and you want to disable it easily.
Override the default state directory of /var/run/resolvconf. This should not be changed once resolvconf is in use unless the old directory is copied to the new one.
When set to YES the latest resolv.conf is written to resolv_conf without any alteration. When set to /dev/null or NULL, resolv_conf_local_only is defaulted to NO, local_nameservers is unset unless overridden and only the information set in resolvconf.conf is written to resolv_conf.
A libc resolver sortlist, as specified in resolv.conf(5).
If a local name server is configured then the default is just to specify that and ignore all other entries as they will be configured for the local name server. Set this to NO to also list non-local nameservers. This will give you working DNS even if the local nameserver stops functioning at the expense of duplicated server queries.
Prepend name servers to the dynamically generated list.
openresolv ships with subscribers for the name servers dnsmasq(8), named(8), pdnsd(8) and unbound(8). Each subscriber can create configuration files which should be included in in the subscribers main configuration file.
This file tells dnsmasq which name servers to use for specific domains.
This file tells dnsmasq which name servers to use for global lookups.
Include this file in the named options block. This file tells named which name servers to use for global lookups.
Include this file in the named global scope, after the options block. This file tells named which name servers to use for specific domains.
This is the main pdnsd configuration file which we modify to add our forward domains to. If this variable is not set then we rely on the pdnsd configuration file setup to read pdnsd_resolv as documented below.
This file tells pdnsd about global name servers. If this variable is not set then it's written to pdnsd_conf.
This file tells unbound about specific and global name servers.
When set to YES, unbound marks the domains as insecure, thus ignoring DNSSEC.
Not all distributions store the files the subscribers need in the same locations. For example, named service scripts have been called named, bind and rc.bind and they could be located in a directory called /etc/rc.d, /etc/init.d or similar. Each subscriber attempts to automatically configure itself, but not every distribution has been catered for. Also, users could equally want to use a different version from the one installed by default, such as bind8 and bind9. To accommodate this, the subscribers have these files in configurable variables, documented below.
Name of the dnsmasq service.
Command to restart the dnsmasq service.
Location of the dnsmasq pidfile.
Name of the libc service.
Command to restart the libc service.
Name of the named service.
Command to restart the named service.
Command to restart the pdnsd service.
Name of the unbound service.
Command to restart the unbound service.
Location of the unbound pidfile.
Each distribution is a special snowflake and likes to name the same thing differently, namely the named service script.


On a visit to SoCal author Peter Heller decided to teach himself to surf…with disastrous results. Then, when he was parked across from the Seal Beach Pier watching the waves, a van pulled in and Michael Pless Sr. got out.
This entry was posted in Friends, In the News, Publicity.


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2020 Tokyo Olympics – Day 3 Results
25th Jul
Four Irish boats were racing on the third day of rowing at the Tokyo Olympics. Three Irish boats qualified for the A/B Semi-Finals and the Men's Double will race in the B Final.
The Women's Pair of Aileen Crowley & Monika Dukarska finished third in the Repechage this morning. Aileen and Monika competed against Megan Kalmoe & Tracey Eisser (USA), Kaifeng Huang & Jinchao Liu (China) and Maria Kyridou & Christina Ioanna Bourmpou (Greece). Aileen and Monika finished with a time of 07:31.99. Aileen and Monika will race in the A/B Semi-Final Tuesday morning
Margaret Cremen and Aoife Casey finished third in the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls Repechage. Margaret and Aoife competed against Valentina Cavallar & Louisa Altenhuber (Austria), Thi Thao Luong & Thi Hao Dinh (Vietnam), Patricia Merz & Frederique Rol (Switzerland), Yulisa Lopez & Jennieffer Zuinga (Guatemala) and Anatasia Lebedeva & Maria Botalova (Russian Olympic Committee). Margaret and Aoife finished with a time of 07:23.46. Margaret and Aoife will race in the A/B Semi-Final Tuesday morning.
Sanita Pušpure finished first in the Women's Single Sculls Quarter-Final. Sanita faced competition from Wing Yan Winnie Hung (Hong Kong), Jovana Arsic (Serbia), Kara Kohler (USA), Yan Jiang (China) and Alejandra Alonso (Paraguay). Sanita won the Heat comfortably with a time of 07:58.30 finishing ahead of Kara Kohler (USA) and Yan Jiang (China). Sanita will now race in the A/B Semi-Final on Wednesday morning.
Ronan Byrne and Philip Doyle finished sixth in the Men's Double Sculls A/B Semi-Final. Ronan and Phil competed against Miroslaw Zietarski & Mateusz Biskup (Poland), Jack Lopas & Christopher Harris (New Zealand), Graeme Thomas & John Collins (Great Britain), Hugo Boucheron & Matthew Androdias (France), and Stephan Krueger & Marc Weber (Germany). Ronan and Phil finished with a time of 06.49.06 and Ronan and Phil will now race in the B Final on Wednesday morning.
Women's Pair (W2-) Monika Dukarska & Aileen Crowley – 4th – 07:31.99
Lightweight Women's Double Sculls (LW2x) – Margaret Cremen & Aoife Casey – 3rd – 07:23.46
Women's Single Sculls (W1x) – Sanita Puspure – 1st – 07:58.30
A/B Semi-Final
Men's Double Sculls (M2x) – Ronan Byrne & Philip Doyle – 6th – 06.49.06
Next Irish Races (Confirmed)
Wednesday 28th Racing (IST)
B Final
Men's Double Sculls (M2x) – Ronan Byrne & Philip Doyle – 12:20
A Final
Women's Four (W4-) – Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Emily Hegarty & Fiona Murtagh – 01:50
Lightweight Men's Double Sculls (LM2x) – Fintan McCarthy & Paul O'Donovan – 03:30
Lightweight Women's Double Sculls (LW2x) – Margaret Cremen & Aoife Casey – 03:40
Women's Pair (W2-) Monika Dukarska & Aileen Crowley – 04:20
Thursday 29th Racing (IST)
Women's Single Sculls (W1x) – Sanita Puspure – 02:30
Olympic Coverage
Full coverage of the Olympic Games will be available live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 1:30 am each night. Rowing highlights will also feature on RTÉ2 at 9 am and 7 pm.
Extensive results will be covered on Rowing Ireland's website and social channels throughout the week.
Official Selection for Tokyo
Lightweight Men's Double Scull (LM2x)
Fintan McCarthy (Skibbereen Rowing Club)
Paul O'Donovan (UCC Rowing Club)
Gary O'Donovan (Skibbereen Rowing Club) – Reserve
Women's Single (W1x)
Sanita Pušpure (Old Collegians Boat Club)
Men's Double Scull (M2x)
Ronan Byrne (UCC Rowing Club)
Philip Doyle (Belfast Boat Club)
Daire Lynch (Clonmel Rowing Club) – Reserve
Women's Four (W4-)
Emily Hegarty (UCC Rowing Club)
Fiona Murtagh (National University of Ireland Boat Club)
Eimear Lambe (Old Collegians Boat Club)
Aifric Keogh (UCC Rowing Club)
Tara Hanlon (UCC Rowing Club) – Reserve
Women's Pair (W2-)
Monika Dukarska (Killorglin Rowing Club)
Aileen Crowley (Old Collegians Boat Club)
Lightweight Women's Double Scull (LW2x)
Aoife Casey (UCC Rowing Club)
Margaret Cremen (UCC Rowing Club)
Lydia Heaphy (UCC Rowing Club) – Reserve
Antonio Maurogiovanni – High-Performance Director
Fran Keane (Athlone Boat Club/Pres Rowing Club) – Coach
Dominic Casey (Skibbereen Rowing Club) – Coach
Giuseppe DeVita (UCD Boat Club)- Coach
Ciro Prisco (NUIG Boat Club)- Coach
Sinead Murphy – Physiotherapist
Feargal O'Callaghan (Shannon Rowing Club)- Team Manager
For any further information or media queries please contact: communications@rowingireland.ie
2020 Tokyo Olympics Day 3 - Preview
2020 Tokyo Olympics Day 3 – Recap

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I was a bit sceptical on spending this amount at first, but when I saw the quality of the climbing frame, it really speaks for itself, these things will last you double the 10 year guarantee you get on them. The kids ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I am now the 'best mummy ever'. So happy with this climbing frame, I would recommend it to anyone.


text:
package com.gajdulewicz.finush.services

import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger
import javax.inject.{Inject, Singleton}

import com.gajdulewicz.finush.model.Url

import scala.collection.JavaConversions._

trait UrlStorage {
  def get(id: String): Url

  def create(long: String): Url

  def getAll(): Seq[Url]
}

@Singleton
class MemoryUrlStorage @Inject()() extends UrlStorage {

  val cnt = new AtomicInteger(0)
  val store = new ConcurrentHashMap[String, Url]

  override def get(id: String): Url = {
    store.get(id)
  }

  override def create(long: String): Url = {
    val id = cnt.incrementAndGet()
    val url = Url(id.toString, long)
    store.put(url.id, url)
    url
  }

  override def getAll(): Seq[Url] = {
    store.values().toSeq
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Manchester Academy
Lil Pump announces Manchester date on UK tour - here's how to get tickets
The rapper is bringing his Harverd Dropout Tour to the UK
Lil Pump has announced details of a headline UK tour.
The rapper will bring his Harverd Dropout Tour to Manchester Academy on November 18.
It'll be in support of his upcoming second studio album of the same name.
Due for release later this year, it features singles Designer and Esskeetit. The LP follows up his debut album which featured breakthrough track Gucci Gang.
Lil Pump will headline Manchester Academy this November (Image: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for MTV)
Originally released on his SoundCloud, the single garnered attention from both fans on the Internet and record labels. It went on to reach the top five in the US and chart in the UK, Australia and Canada.
This winter he'll also head to Glasgow, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol and London on the tour.
Find out how to get tickets below.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday, August 31. They will be available from ticketmaster.co.uk or seetickets.com.
Tickets are priced at £25.95, plus a standard booking fee.
November 14 - Glasgow, O2 Academy
November 15 - Birmingham, O2 Academy
November 16 - Nottingham, Rock City
November 18 - Manchester Academy
November 19 - Bristol, O2 Academy
November 20 - London, O2 Brixton Academy


The Delaware River Region is an area in southwestern New Jersey.
Cherry Hill — Regionally significant commercial and residential center, with lots of hotels, parkland (Cooper River Park), and shopping (Cherry Hill Mall).
Haddonfield — Wealthy, vibrant town on the old King's Road in Camden County. Colonial history -- and the discovery site of the world's first dinosaur skeleton!
Princeton — Home of Princeton University, as well as many research and technology organizations.
Bordentown — Site of the former homes of many famous New Jersey residents like Clara Barton and Joseph Bonaparte.
Glassboro - Sizable community home to Rowan University.
Burlington City - Burlington County's historic seat with a vibrant Main Street and colonial-era history.
The Delaware River region is the part of the state that is under the heaviest sphere of influence of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. This means that this is a region that serves as a bedroom community for those who work in Philadelphia and hence commute there. Moreover locals in this part of the state get their local television and radio from Philadelphia, as well as root for major sports teams based there.
The Mercer county area, which contains the state capital Trenton however is mixed between New York and Philadelphia media which means that locals get television and radio from both markets and it's also common to see sports fans from both areas converge side-by-side in this county.
Just as in other areas of the state, New Jersey Transit provides commuter rail and bus service within the region.
If traveling to Camden, stay close to the Rutgers-Camden and Riverfront areas, especially at night. Many parts of Camden have very high crime rates and are not safe for independent sightseeing.
Despite southern Jersey being far from New York City, traffic is still very congested - especially on major roads like 42 and 295 - and cars do speed well above the limit in the left lanes. Take extra caution driving. Stick to the right lanes on major highways if you feel uncomfortable.
The region is near the city of Philadelphia, which has many attractions. It is also near Delaware and the New Jersey shore. The cities of New York and Baltimore are both less than two hours away by car.
This page was last edited on 22 January 2018, at 13:58.


A mine worker was struck by a pipe that sent him flying more than three metres into a wall, killing him. An inquest into his death just began. The incident happened about a 10- to 15-minute drive underground from the elevator entrance where the emergency vehicle is kept. It took co-workers about 50 minutes to get the injured worker to the surface. By that time, his eyes were fixed and he wasn't responding.


Home Channels Get to know…Shalom!
The Rev. Shalom Agtarap serves as the Associate Director of Strategic Faith Community Development. During the joint Annual Conference Session last June, she presented the message "Rivers of Life" during the Memorial Service. See this message below.
What is your role at PNWUMC?
I serve as the Associate Director of Strategic Faith Community Development which resources current and future innovations in ministry. We've already made great strides in shifting the culture from parachute drops to our cohort model (Syndeo) that help us learn from one another and support each other. My job is to make sure our PNW projects are well-resourced and supported.
What are some ministerial career highlights that are memorable and relevant to your work ahead?
Building a campus ministry in Ellensburg was hard work and the fact that it continues today is a testament to the God-sized that the people of that community still nurture. Mentoring people into seminary and formal ministry is a call I believe all ordained persons are invited to invest in. Most recently, my work in Burien of joining community members at the organizing table helped me understand communities of color in a new way and also interface with the school district, city council, and labor unions working in the area.
These three highlights, while rewarding, have filled my toolbox with lessons and effective tools to innovate new United Methodist communities.
Children. And not in an "I believe the children are the future" kind of way, but in awe and wonder about human development. It really is how I know God is real. My toddler niece is learning the mechanics of language, fine-tuning her motor skills, and picking up on what rituals are important and how to elicit a joy-filled response from people. How did she know what she didn't know before? I'm filled with awe and then gratitude for the Creative Source of that knowledge.
How do you fulfill the mission of the Church and your own personal mission as a minister?
The mission of the church, as I understand it, is a collective effort. The body of Christ is a collective. God, in God's self, is communal relationship. So the best thing I can do is to understand my personal mission as it relates to Christ, and once I understand that, do my part in relationship to the rest of the body of Christ.
Where are your favorite places to focus and relax?
Compline service at St. Mark's on Capitol Hill and hiking trails are go-to spaces for me to both focus and relax. The silence in those places is very different yet both hold the space for me to remember that all is holy, all is blessed. I simply need to return to the loving embrace of the Beloved.
If it comes from a home kitchen, I'll most likely love it. The great thing about growing up and moving around is discovering new spaces and new cuisines. My father's pancit malabon, my grandmother's fried chicken, and my sister's lumpia, will be always be staples. A recent addition is Mexican mole (from scratch, of course) and pulled pork will make me happy any day.
The Rev. Shalom Agtarap serves as the Associate Director of Strategic Faith Community Development in the PNW Conference's Office of Connectional Ministries. Photos courtesy of Patrick Scriven, director of Communications, Young People's Ministries for the PNWUMC.
Shalom is all this and so much more!


Today brings us to the last installment of our Egypt travel series. While there are still a few tombs and temples to explore, we also go to a beach town on the Red Sea for some much needed R & R.
We actually started our Egypt trip in Luxor, thinking (correctly) that it would make for an easier transition after the long flight than chaotic Cairo. For our exact itinerary, click here. Luxor, formerly known as Thebes, was the site of the pharaoh's capital during the height of their power – the 16th to 11th centuries BCE. It now contains some of the best preserved monuments of this time.
Karnak and Luxor Temples are the two most popular sites on the East Bank. Ambitious travelers may also want to considering visiting the Luxor Museum, Mummification Museum and the Luxor Bazaar. And be sure to check out the newly excavated mile-long Avenue of Sphinx that were discovered running from Karnak to Luxor Temple!
Most, although not all, tourist hotels are also located on the East Bank of Luxor. We stayed at the Luxor Hilton, arguably the most posh property in town. Rates were low when we visited but for "point enthusiasts" it runs 20,000 points per night. Free airport transfer is available for those with Gold status or higher. There is also a complementary shuttle that runs to town several times each evening. Easy-peasy!
It's a bit out town compared to most other hotels but we really loved the location! It was about a 10 minute walk to Karnak Temple and taking this walk was one of our favorite things to do in Luxor. It's 10 minutes of a much more local experience – kids walking to and from school, local poultry and butcher stands, farmers coming into town via donkey cart, etc.
We did most of our sightseeing in the morning, before it got too hot, and really enjoyed coming back to the Hilton's lush gardens and blue infinity pools set right on the bank of the Nile each afternoon.
The West Bank is home to the Valley of the Kings (and Queens) as well as the Colossi of Memnon and the Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari). Medinet Habu is a lesser visited sight but recommended if you have a longer stay. The West is considered the side of the dead (hence all the tombs) as it was where the sun "died" each evening, only to be resurrected again in the East.
If visiting the Valley of the Kings, buy the photography pass that lets you film inside the tombs. While others try offering bribes to the guards, a pass just makes life a lot simpler. This holds true for most of the sights in Egypt where photo passes are required.
Know your tombs as they're not all equally impressive. Either go with a guide that will steer you to the best or do your own independent research. Your entry ticket includes 3 tombs not including special purchase tombs like Ramses IX, Seti 1 and Tut. If you want to see more of the "non-special" tombs, you can buy a second entry giving you 6 but this will result in a very long, hot day. Be prepared.
Abu Simbel is the second most visited site in Egypt after the Pyramids at Giza. And the incredible thing? Most tourists (including us) FLY to make their visit, which is typically just over two hours long!
So, why the hype? Impressive for it's enormous size (the main temple is over 100 feet tall with 65 foot statues on each side), Abu Simbel becomes even more distinctive when you learn that the site was moved, in it's entirety, by UNESCO in the mid to late 1960's. The planned building of the Aswan High Dam would have submerged the temples so they were moved 700 feet Northwest and 200 feet higher than their original location.
INCREDIBLE! The video below gives a short depiction of how they pulled off this feat of engineering (no audio).
Getting There: Egypt Air offers multiple flights per day from Aswan to Abu Simbel. The trip takes only 45 minutes and the airline provides a free transfer bus to the temple that is perfectly timed for you to have a 2-3 hour visit prior to your return flight. While you can visit Abu Simbel by car or bus, it is a three hour trip each way through wide-open, empty desert.
On our more adventurous trips we typically like to schedule a few down days before we head for home. All that sightseeing can be fatiguing! In Egypt we chose to visit the beach town of Sharm el Sheikh. Located on the Red Sea, Sharm el Sheikh is bucket list destination for divers and snorkelers. Underwater visibility is phenomenal – often times reaching over 150 feet. Recent years' downturn in tourism has also helped in keeping the reefs pristine. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Sharm el Sheikh which had spectacular reefs right off the property.
Ras Mohammed – So many fish!
The landscape of the Sinai is a bit different from the rest of Egypt with large, striking mountains rising up inland from the coastline. While we were done sightseeing, one place you may want to check out on a visit here is the Monastery of St. Catherine in the foothills of the Sinai.
Town struck me as a bit of mixture between Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas. Casinos, water parks and line after line of hookah bars – quite unlike anyplace else we visited in Egypt. While Americans and Western Europeans have yet to return to Sharm, we did encounter quite a few Russian and Ukrainian tourists.
Hope you've enjoyed this armchair travel series! If you missed the first two Egypt installments you can catch them here and here. Have a specific question on travel to Egypt? I'd love to hear from you via my contact form or in the comments below!
LOVE this series!!! Looks like you had a wonderful time.
Thanks so much – glad you enjoyed! It was fun getting to reminisce as I wrote each post. TGIF and have a great weekend!
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While the main focus of the legislature is on Governor Hogan's budget and what we can do to restore the funds he has cut for education and Medicaid reimbursement in Prince George's County, there are a lot of other controversial issues, and I would like to know how you feel.
When you elected me you gave me the authority to vote on these issues, but it is often very helpful to find out what my constituents feel on a certain issue. There are lots of issues are not very controversial and I have a good idea how people want me to vote but here are some of the issues where I would like to know how you feel. To let me know your answers, click on the survey link at the end of this legislative report, and fill out the survey.
If you would like to more about any of the bills, you can go to the MD General Assembly website ( http://mgaleg.maryland.gov ) and look up the bill; or send me an email. If you have a strong interest in any of these bills and want to know more about them, I encourage you to come to Annapolis and attend hearings. or watch them on line at the state legislative website.


Alligators in the backyard pool are a relatively common, though always exciting, nuisance in the Southeastern states. We think this particular alligator can be excused though...a pool that green could easily be confused with a swamp! If your pool is similarly hued, read this next!


text:
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text:
Popowo-Parcele  is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Somianka, within Wyszków County, Masovian Voivodeship(province), in east-central Poland. It lies approximately  south-west of Somianka,  west of Wyszków, and  north of Warsaw.

The village has a population of 100.

References

Popowo-Parcele

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I updated the bios on my jukebox pc and at the time did not realize I should deregister software.
I now have the Product Registration screen coming up asking to Buy Try Register.
I have my original key but it says it is in use on another pc.


text:
<<Prev Day <Wk <Mo <Yr
>Yr >Mo >Wk >>Next Day
TD YD Title (Click to View) Studio Daily Gross % +/- YD / LW Theaters / Avg Gross To-Date Day
1 2 Anger Management SonR $7,077,718 +43% -26% 3,656 $1,936 $100,548,344 16
2 1 Identity Sony $6,802,283 +17% - 2,733 $2,489 $12,616,479 2
3 3 Holes BV $5,777,113 +48% +0% 2,349 $2,459 $33,519,207 9
4 4 Malibu's Most Wanted WB $3,303,676 +31% -24% 2,503 $1,320 $22,338,265 9
5 5 Confidence Lions $2,052,000 +38% - 1,871 $1,097 $3,539,000 2
6 6 Bulletproof Monk MGM $1,915,314 +43% -39% 2,955 $648 $17,805,876 11
7 7 What a Girl Wants WB $1,516,337 +54% -4% 2,450 $619 $32,122,271 23
8 8 Phone Booth Fox $1,390,634 +48% -36% 2,113 $658 $39,493,345 23
9 9 It Runs in the Family MGM $1,317,531 +50% - 1,207 $1,092 $2,196,302 2
10 11 Bringing Down the House BV $1,004,434 +53% -21% 1,668 $602 $125,653,661 51
11 13 Chicago Mira. $783,000 +62% -23% 1,209 $648 $163,182,263 121
12 10 The Real Cancun NL $781,000 -7% - 2,261 $345 $1,618,000 2
13 14 Bend It Like Beckham FoxS $774,011 +79% -4% 421 $1,839 $8,729,881 46
14 15 A Mighty Wind WB $665,725 +66% -23% 155 $4,295 $4,454,515 11
15 12 House of 1,000 Corpses Lions $618,000 +22% -34% 815 $758 $9,281,969 16
16 17 A Man Apart NL $520,000 +44% -50% 1,235 $421 $24,786,948 23
17 18 Chasing Papi Fox $480,547 +56% -45% 584 $823 $4,604,314 11
18 19 Head of State DW $439,331 +48% -47% 1,006 $437 $36,188,876 30
19 16 Better Luck Tomorrow Par. $410,088 +5% +126% 380 $1,079 $1,965,218 16
20 20 Agent Cody Banks MGM $383,718 +84% +31% 1,422 $270 $46,072,495 44
21 23 Piglet's Big Movie BV $298,000 +119% -10% 744 $401 $21,880,000 37
22 21 The Core Par. $283,530 +57% -60% 1,228 $231 $29,959,908 30
23 22 The Pianist Focus $278,000 +88% -40% 539 $516 $31,119,106 123
24 24 The Good Thief FoxS $233,369 +77% -9% 202 $1,155 $1,901,304 25
25 25 Basic Sony $158,684 +47% -64% 438 $362 $26,331,700 30
26 26 Nowhere in Africa Zeit. $150,800 +107% -2% 67 $2,251 $2,344,059 51
27 27 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers NL $116,744 +72% -16% 269 $434 $337,887,458 130
28 30 Laurel Canyon SPC $108,369 +82% -6% 117 $926 $2,571,437 51
29 28 Shanghai Knights BV $101,000 +50% +312% 275 $367 $59,618,795 79
30 32 The Quiet American Mira. $95,974 +93% -21% 225 $427 $12,251,314 156
31 29 How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days Par. $79,606 +31% -31% 219 $363 $103,860,905 79
32 31 Raising Victor Vargas IDP $79,532 +59% - 53 $1,501 $513,924 30
33 37 The Jungle Book 2 BV $69,000 +101% -22% 292 $236 $47,513,535 72
34 36 Daredevil Fox $57,504 +62% -23% 160 $359 $100,772,927 72
35 33 Old School DW $56,220 +28% -46% 211 $266 $74,582,676 65
36 34 Dreamcatcher WB $54,724 +49% -70% 196 $279 $33,302,371 37
37 35 Kangaroo Jack WB $54,134 +47% +5% 248 $218 $66,370,903 100
38 39 Bowling for Columbine UA $51,158 +68% -26% 100 $512 $20,985,858 198
39 40 About Schmidt NL $45,112 +57% -27% 161 $280 $64,687,924 135
40 38 The Recruit BV $44,600 +34% - 184 $242 $52,594,008 86
41 42 City of God Mira. $36,067 +74% -30% 74 $487 $3,773,339 100
42 44 The Man Without a Past SPC $36,002 +83% +74% 16 $2,250 $216,089 23
43 43 Cradle 2 the Grave WB $31,470 +55% +347% 184 $171 $34,483,847 58
44 - Assassination Tango UA $29,622 +88% -47% 38 $780 $631,353 30
45 - The Hours Par. $29,483 +105% -30% 94 $314 $41,327,308 121
46 45 National Security Sony $29,096 +61% -17% 94 $310 $36,094,074 100
47 41 The Hunted Par. $28,004 +33% -63% 213 $131 $33,899,204 44
48 - Talk to Her SPC $27,389 +105% -38% 58 $472 $9,126,262 156
- - Final Destination 2 NL $21,654 +54% +13% 70 $309 $46,742,576 86
- - Tears of the Sun SonR $21,320 +70% -39% 71 $300 $43,498,954 51
- - Winged Migration SPC $16,594 +111% +32% 2 $8,297 $77,109 9
- - Catch Me If You Can DW $16,108 +30% -50% 60 $268 $164,497,823 123
- - People I Know Mira. $15,353 +64% - 5 $3,071 $24,689 4
- - City of Ghosts UA $13,709 +47% - 6 $2,285 $23,009 2
- - Cowboy Bebop IDP $13,536 +52% -56% 22 $615 $609,558 23
- - DysFunKtional Family Mira. $13,535 +59% -69% 50 $271 $2,217,360 23
- - Spirited Away BV $13,283 +101% -64% 47 $283 $9,928,280 219
- - Spider SPC $12,839 +35% -37% 30 $428 $1,399,686 128
- - View from the Top Mira. $11,254 +24% -78% 68 $166 $15,584,384 37
- - Just Married Fox $11,237 +48% -29% 42 $268 $56,087,228 107
- - Adaptation. Sony $9,859 +62% -39% 39 $253 $22,292,961 142
- - XX/XY IFC $5,352 +95% +83% 10 $535 $42,348 16
- - Spun NM $5,283 +42% -45% 15 $352 $375,479 44
- - Gods and Generals WB $4,992 +59% -65% 27 $185 $12,868,375 65
- - The Cremaster Cycle Palm $4,051 +17% - 1 $4,051 $7,526 2
- - Gangs of New York Mira. $3,910 +68% -36% 14 $279 $77,719,753 128
- - Marooned in Iraq Wells $3,531 +101% - 1 $3,531 $5,292 2
- - House of Fools ParC $3,234 +71% - 3 $1,078 $5,127 2
- - Levity SPC $3,230 +73% - 4 $808 $87,710 23
- - Manic IFC $2,735 +10% - 1 $2,735 $5,223 2
- - Irreversible Lions $2,705 +35% -76% 5 $541 $771,580 51
- - Antwone Fisher FoxS $2,679 +90% -41% 19 $141 $21,062,627 129
- - Two Weeks Notice WB $2,641 +13% -45% 12 $220 $93,348,039 128
- - The Life of David Gale Uni. $2,360 +61% +13% 7 $337 $19,688,028 65
- - Maid in Manhattan SonR $1,856 +577% - 1 $1,856 $93,929,959 135
- - The Guru Uni. $1,386 +69% -17% 5 $277 $3,047,111 86
- - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets WB $1,346 +48% -17% 7 $192 $261,987,395 163
- - The Hot Chick BV $1,088 +36% -17% 5 $218 $35,078,737 135
- - Attack of the Clones: The IMAX Experience (IMAX) Fox $1,000 -6% +100% 1 $1,000 $8,483,860 177
- - The Way Home ParC $970 +135% -4% 4 $243 $442,791 163
- - Biker Boyz DW $945 +62% -67% 3 $315 $21,905,688 86
- - The Wild Thornberrys Par. $677 +53% -71% 36 $19 $39,880,094 128
- - Willard NL $553 +43% -74% 8 $69 $6,878,403 44
- - Till Human Voices Wake Us ParC $277 +340% -84% 1 $277 $117,808 65


Gilles Galludec is the Global Head Retail and Micro for IFC's advisory work in Access to Finance. He has served as country manager for IFC in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, where he managed the advisory facility for both countries. Galludec has 22 years of experience in the banking sector, mostly spent in developing countries at the managerial level.


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What's old is new again. 2019 will see a an optimistic redux of early-tech, with like purple, blue, and pink duotone gradients, basic vector graphics, and dreamy synth music, according to anew report looking into upcoming creative trends.
The eighth annual 2019 Creative Trends Report. This year's eleven design styles, many of which echo the past in a playful and in a decadent way, predict the top influences for design and visual production in 2019.
Zine Culture- The raw, homemade aesthetic gets a digital update. With a 1376% increase in searches for "contemporary art collage", zine culture clearly lives on in the decentralized mindset of the digital age through social media, where independent makers can share and niche groups can discover. Built on principles of collage and largely influenced by the invention of the photocopier, it is paper cutouts, noise and grain textures, and rough-edged layers that define this trend.
80s Opulence- The '80s are back and ready to party. The term "chain print" is up 731% and "elegance pattern" searches increased 1060%. Forget good taste, this is about good times. Clashing is the key word for this trend. Think leopard print (up 167%) and snakeskin (up 157%), peacock feathers and gold chain belts, soft fur and hard metal textures.
Yesterday's Tomorrow- What's old is new again. With interest in terms like "Synthwave" increasing 717%, "Retrowave" up 676% and "Duotone" up 230%, this trend is an optimistic redux of early-tech – a focus on what yesterday's tomorrow looked like. It's all about the looks and sounds that defined futurism at the dawn of the digital age like bold purple, blue, and pink duotone gradients, basic vector graphics, and dreamy synth music.
In addition to the top trends, the report outlines eight rising stars; some are joyful and made for escapism such as "Tempting Typography" and unique "Kawaii" illustrations, while others put reality into sharp focus including the urgent issue of "Beyond Plastic". Global Trends outlines the fastest growing trends in 20 countries around the world with "Colorful Cartoon Art" dominating in the U.S. and "Intelligent Space" in the U.K.
Shutterstock's global customer base of over 1.9 million creatives include designers, art directors, marketers and filmmakers whose search behaviors and download choices help forecast trends in the advertising, film, and media industries. The data gathered and analyzed across images, video and music includes billions of searches and downloads within Shutterstock's collection of 225 million images by customers around the world. The year-over-year search increases provide insights that are not only helpful for other marketers as they prepare for campaigns throughout the year, but also valuable to artists, photographers, videographers and musicians all over the world as an inspirational guide for creating new content for the Shutterstock collection.


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Aqua Nusa offers luxury private villa accommodation in the most desirable location on Nusa Lembongan.
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Villa Bunga is our largest villa set on 265m2 block amongst traditional Balinese style gardens. The villa features 3-bedrooms each with private marble ensuites as well as separate powder room by the private pool.
Situated on the Jungut Batu Hill in Nusa Lembongan this large villa is brilliantly located yet designed as the perfect private retreat for couples or small groups staying on the island. IT is located close to the bars and restaurants along the waterfront.
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Located a short walk away from restaurants and bars, you will find that this villa is extremely convenient should you choose to dine out or if you would prefer a romantic evening in the villa then simply order takeaway from on the many options.
This brand new one bedroom villa is situated at the very top of the hill in Lembongan on our upper level. This beautifully appointed 1- bedroom private retreat, offers guests exceptional views of the island and surrounding area; proving the best views Aqua Nusa has to offer.
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This brand new one bedroom villa is situated at the very top of the hill in Lembongan on our lower level. This beautifully appointed 1- bedroom private retreat, offers guests exceptional views of the island and surrounding area.
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With the best views Aqua Nusa has to offer, this premier two bedroom villa occupying 135m2 is situated at the very top of hill in Lembongan. The villa is a beautifully appointed two bedroom, two bathroom private retreat with two large, spacious bedrooms each with their own private ensuites expanding onto the open plan living area and large balcony with plunge pool and breathtaking views of the island.
From the master bedroom, your doors open to look directly to the pool and the panoramic island views beyond.
Featuring a small self- contained kitchen and large lounge area, this villa offers ample space for groups to relax in the privacy and comfort of their own villa.
Villa Tinggi is a brand new, luxury 135m2 two bedroom villa situated at the very top of hill in Lembongan. Two large, spacious bedrooms each with their own private ensuites expanding to an open plan living area, large expansive balcony and private plunge pool. This villa is perfect for families and small groups alike.
The private plunge pool is situated on the balcony, offering beautiful of the island surroundings.


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So, how serious is the new NFL commish?
By winterSmith on May 27, 2007 • ( 19 Comments )
If you follow the NFL at all you know that the league has a new commissioner, Roger Goodell, and that he's apparently made it his mission to clean up the league's little crime problem. His early actions suggest he's serious about it, too. He dropped an 8-game ban on Cincinnati Bengals wide recidivist receiver Chris Henry and busted Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones for a whole season. Both penalties are richly deserved, and here's hoping the boot of justice stomps equally hard on other members of the league's fraternity of thugs.
There's an emerging story that might define Goodell's tenure almost as soon as it's started. One of the league's biggest stars, the tremendously overrated Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, is allegedly involved in pit bull fighting. The story has been leaking out bit by bit over the past few weeks, beginning with a massive bust at a home Vick owns. The story has progressed, as these sorts of things often do, from "home Vick owns" to "Vick was aware of it" to "Vick was involved," and today we have a new level of allegation to chew on: "He's one of the heavyweights."
So let's play a round or two of one of my favorite games, What If Sam Were Commissioner?
First, Vick has been accused, not convicted, and so far none of the sources are really radiating that Mother Teresa thing. His accusers range from anonymous to low-credibility, so until the prosecutors at least develop enough evidence to charge him, we're going to have to hold fire. (However, my gut feeling here isn't good – this case stinks to high heaven, and if Vick proves to be innocent I'll be surprised.)
Second, there's no reason to hold fire on Clinton Portis at all. His punk ass popped off this past week defending Vick's right to fight pit bulls if he wanted:
"I don't know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it's his property, it's his dog," Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis told WAVY-TV in Virginia. "If that's what he wants to do, do it. I think people should mind their business."When told that dog fighting is a felony, Portis replied, "It can't be too bad of a crime." (Story.)
Yes, moron, it can be too bad of a crime. Not that America has historically looked to the University of Miami football program for intellectual or moral leadership, but this is one of the most disgusting, subhuman activities you can engage in. If I'm the commish, you get in front a microphone and advocate for a particularly appalling felony, you're gone for half a season. And that's if I'm in a good mood.
Bad sign: Goodell said, "I'm extremely disappointed and embarrassed for Clinton Portis. This does not reflect the sentiments of the Redskins, the NFL or NFL players." But Goodell did nothing.
So, hypothetically, say that Vick is eventually charged and that when I see the evidence I'm convinced that he's guilty. That makes him a fourth-rate waste of skin as a human being, just like everybody else associated with the activity, and it makes him the very definition of the kind of citizen I don't want my league associated with. Now or ever. Lifetime ban. And with luck, he spends a good bit of time in prison, too.
Vick doesn't like it? Sue me. We'll fight it all the way to the Supreme Court. Owners don't like it? Fire me – and then see how the PR war plays out. There's just no compromise on some things, and trust me when I tell you that Vick fares a lot better in What If Sam Were Commissioner? than he does in What If Sam Were King of the World?
I hope Goodell is serious about setting the bar for personal conduct higher than it has been. A lot higher. And here's hoping the NBA, NHL and MLB follow suit. No organization should tolerate something as brutal as dogfighting. And no American sports fan should spend a penny on any league that allows dog fighters on one of its rosters.
Tagged as: Michael Vick, pit bulls, Roger Goodell
Fewer troops – and a pony for you too!
Sing along with Hillary
Curt Schilling says:
Goodell, Tagliabue, Selig, Stern—it hardly matters.
Only money is important. These TV Network fans love the steroids and violence. They demand it.
Dog fights, murders, drunk driving, sexual assault and spousal absue are small prices to pay for entertainment.
Ask Tony LaRussa and Josh Hancok's father.
Well, if all this is true, then we have only to study Rome for a glimpse of our fate.
Rome did not have Disney Holding/ESPN/ABC and George Mitchell (Chairman) running that freak show.
They did NOT have steroids and blood doping either.
Only lions and cruelty.
ESPN trumps that pain.
ldiotkid says:
Let's wait a minute here. We're banning Portis for being a moron? I know you have absolutely no tolerance for morons, but this seems harsh even for you. Granted, I know you love canine-kind more than mankind, but the 1st Amendment protects Portis' right to stick his foot in his mouth.
While we're at it, a lifetime ban for Vick seems needless. Let's assume for a minute that Vick is guilty. The prosecutors go out of their way to make an example out of him and give him the max – five years in prison and the cost of sheltering the dogs they confiscated. Vick, while gifted with outrageous athleticism, doesn't have much accuracy or football brains. Throw on five years of rust and maybe a year suspension, and I don't see Vick bouncing back from this.
ThoroughlyDisgusted says:
Good words Sam!
Agreed on all counts. If Vick actually did some time maybe the idiots that look up to him would see that while they don't find anything wrong with dogfighting, civilized society does. I imagine Vick calls himself a Christian, too.
If he does and we have some documentation, PLEASE send it along….
I think you've been too kind – I think Goodell, Selig, Stern, and Bettman should have this tattooed on their foreheads like the "ecnalubma" on an emergency vehicle so they can read it while they shave: WWKLD? (What Would Kennesaw Landis Do?). There's a difference between civil rights and the rights of employees. Put people who can't/won't behave in legally acceptable ways out of work. The word will get around quickly enough.
Your best shot here: "the tremendously overrated Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick"
Thank you. Best description of the guy I've heard or read. Nails him.
What difference does it make if Vick isn't yet convicted? IIRC, Pacman Jones was not charged with any crime, yet he got a whole year. Chris Henry was already punished (two games) for his transgressions, leaving just one infraction (driving on a suspended license, which I think was later dismissed or reduced) to cause an 8 game ban.
Goodell has done a poor job illustrating where the line is. At the moment, a mere accusation of trouble (or just being a bystander to trouble) is enough. And if it's enough to punish Jones, it's enough to punish Vick.
You Know Me says:
How is dog fighting that much different than the "ultimate fighter" TV shows that enough morons apparently watch to keep the shows on the air? Just for the record I think both activities appeal to the morons amongst us.
Easy – no innocent animals are being killed for entertainment purposes.
pitbullguy says:
My stomach turns each time a new revelation comes out about this.
Fuck the NFL. They will get none of my money or attention this year.
Vick is a two-bit thug and the only fit punishment when he's actually convicted of some dogfighting charge is is throw hit in the ring with the poor dogs he's ruined. Throw Goodell in too if he won't do anything about it.
I'll bet you those dogs belonged to Roger Goodell and Paul Taglibue.
It suits their twisted belief systems.
Their personal income is tied to steroids, cortisone, amphetamines and VIOLENCE!
Incase Vick plays this season, all 8 teams that will play Atlanta in their respected barns have already downloaded and cued that shit song "Who let the dogs out" God bless the witty stadium DJ's.
I feel almost certain the league wouldn't tolerate THAT. How ironic would it be if they did and the league landed on THEM instead of Vick.
I don't know – I can live without the NFL, and if Vick is guilty and they don't land on him with both boots I may just have to find some other way of spending my Sunday afternoon cash from here on out. I feel about the same way on this one that I did on Todd Bertuzzi's maiming of Steve Moore, and I STILL haven't spent a penny on the NHL since that happened.
The NFL is wholly corrupt.
WWE is the clean version of steroid fighting.
The NFL and college football is doped out of control.
Roger Goodell and Pete Carroll both love it! It pays their bills nicely.
A couple of years ago I went to a Bills v Falcons game and the NFL kicked fans out who wore Vick Jerseys with "Mexico" on the back of them. Again solidifying the moniker No Fun League. Of course we all wore sombraros and chanted Meixco along with the usual "over rated" chant. Otherwise a typical home game in B-Lo.
I hope Ricky Williams goes Postal on Goodell & Tagliabue's BBQs this summer.
Maybe OJ Simpson has a thought on this wacky pharma behavior.
Still not rounding up the kinds of high-cred witnesses you'd like to be able to put on the stand, but prosecutors appear to making their way in the direction of charging Vick. More informants are coming forward (although what their motivation would be is still unclear).


This article describes the new CloudReady RDP Sensor that can be used to monitor Remote Desktop Services (formerly known as Terminal Services), Remote Desktops, RDP Performance and even Citrix XenApp. Frequently, we have customers that use CloudReady to monitor Office 365 within Remote Desktop Services (RDS) environments. Often, applications like Office 365 and Outlook are delivered via RDS or XenApp environments for security and control. And our customers have asked for the ability to monitor Remote Desktop Services and perform load-testing for RDS.
Now with the release of our new CloudReady RDP Sensor, customers can proactively monitor Microsoft RDS and Citrix XenApp environments with the same ease as they monitor their cloud services. Now you can monitor RDS performance alongside all of your cloud/SaaS apps, inside-out, outside-in all from the same single-pane-of-glass.
In a nutshell, the CloudReady RDP sensor signs into remote sessions, optionally through a Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway), and automates the launch of an application just how a user would. The RDP Sensor can do this once every 5 minutes from locations behind the firewall or out in the cloud.
Along with exercising the RDP services and stack, the sensor captures the timings and availability of how long the different operations take. Additionally, most of the metrics are crowd-sourced like the rest of the CloudReady Sensors so that you can see how your RDS, Terminal Services or XenApp compares to other Exoprise Customer's environments. This is crucial to load-testing, base-lining and overall performance tuning.
The RDP sensor automates the Remote Desktop Client control and uses OCR technology to read the session screen. Screen reading eliminates the need for server/RDP extensions and emulates a user seeing the screen results. No server side alterations are required for the CloudReady RDP sensor. Currently, the sensor supports a single interaction once connected to a session – you can specify a command line to launch an application and then provide text to search for within the application. This enables you to measure how long it takes to login to a remote RDP session, start an application and wait for the app to start and present its interface – as long as the text is present within the interface. Read on for more setup details.
Slow Remote Sessions? Lousy Application Startup? Not Enough Bandwidth for RDP?
Some customers deliver their entire end-user application tier via Remote Desktop Services and don't have any insight or ability to monitor Remote Desktop Server performance from the end-user perspective. Whether you use Remote Desktop for mobile access, branch offices, remote contractors, or just centralized application control you need to understand how the Remote Desktop Protocol performs in your environment as well as how your Remote Desktop Servers are performing for application launch.
With the CloudReady RDP Sensor you can now continuously measure for performance and availability of your Remote Desktop infrastructure end-to-end. The following metrics are captured, analyzed, trended, and crowd-sourced. The metrics are stored for 90 days.
Quality of the RDP connection as measured by the Remote Desktop Client. Quality is reported as a number between 1 and 4 with 1 being a poor connection and 4 being a good connection. Bandwidth and latency (RTT) will influence the quality of the RDP session.
This is the time it takes launch the program after inputting the configured command-line and recognizing the input text. If you are interested in how long it takes for an end-user to launch an application in a remote desktop as part of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) then this value can be helpful.
This is the total from login to the desktop (where the desktop/menu/taskbar is presented) to recognizing that the configured program is launched and running.
Logoff time is the time it takes to logoff of the remote RDP session. The CloudReady RDP Sensor logs off each remote session that it has to reset the session.
By default the most critical elements are automatically configured to alert you when there is a problem. You are also notified if any of the steps fail or produce an error.
What's it Take to Get Started?
You want to monitor RDP performance from your end-users perspective to understand end-to-end network, bandwidth, latency and quality issues in real-time. Read more about how easy we make it to deploy sites. We recommend putting our agent in similar networking conditions as your users will access the application from.
An RDP sensor creates a remote session against any Remote Desktop Server farm, VDI instance or Virtual Machine as a valid user account. The user can be local to the server or be a member within the domain. Exoprise recommends creating dedicated accounts for the RDP sensors within the farm as each sensor will login and logoff from their session for each sensor run.
In a load-testing scenario you can utilize PowerShell to create accounts within the Remote Desktop Environment at the same time as you allocate and deploy CloudReady RDP sensor(s). See more about our PowerShell Management API and how it can be utilized to automate sensor creation. This is helpful if you plan on spinning up dozens of sensors at the same time for load-testing your Remote Desktop Services.
Enter the login credentials for the account that you just created. For testing, you can enter your own account to see what it does. All supplied information will be validated and tested before the sensor is deployed.
Optionally, you can have the RDP sensor launch an application once its signed into the remote session. This can be used to test how long it takes from login to launch of an application. We have customers using this for load-testing their XenApp and Remote Desktop Server farms and for disaster recovery scenarios. By continuously testing the launch time of any application, customers can be certain they are always prepared to deliver mission-critical applications via remote desktop, VDI or Terminal Services.
In this example, we are launching Internet Explorer in the Remote Desktop session and having it navigate to www.exoprise.com. We are going to have it look for the text that we know is on the front page of our site, "Monitor Your Cloud". When the sensor reads the screen and sees this text, it will know the application has finished launching. You can supply any path to a custom application and have it search for text in the title-bar or within the application.
Before you can deploy a sensor to a Private Site you must validate its configuration. Once you click next, the sensor will be tested with the current configuration. For the RDP sensor this can take a few minutes while the sensor is downloaded, the session is launched and tested. The cool thing about the RDP sensor is that it captures screenshots of the RDP session during validation and presents them when it is finished.
By capturing the screenshots you can see if the correct application is being launched and that the condition for successful launch is being met. Unless the application launch is successfully detected, you won't be able to continue with the deployment of the RDP sensor.
Once you deploy your sensor you will be continuously monitoring the delivery of your application within your Remote Desktop environment! This can be used for end-to-end monitoring of your Remote Desktop Server, Citrix Xenapp or older Terminal Services environment.
Here's an example of the visualization of our RDP sensor monitoring Remote Desktop Services.
Proactively monitoring the performance, up-time and availability of your end-to-end remote desktop or VDI infrastructure is critical to successfully delivering Remote Desktop Services. With CloudReady you get the additional benefit of being able to compare your private-cloud desktop performance to other customers, anonymously and in aggregate, to gauge just how great your own setup is performing. Give it a try.


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So how many people do some level of maintenance themselves
Tom from Silicon Valley
So how hard are ferrari's to work on for the average home mechanic? I'm especially interested in the 550 and 355 models.
Well Tom, I am a collector. I just have a 308 GTS, Which is fairly easy to work on . Timing belts, tune ups, A/C repairs all done in the car. Now a 550 well if it is like the other 12 cyls you have to remove the engine to do about anything. Not much of a DIY car. JMO
Pete04222
I also have a 308 GTS and do all my own work. I disagree with Magoo when he says the 308 is easy to work on. I have a Jeep that when I want to change the oil I just slide a 5 gallon bucket under the car and pull the plug. Now that is easy. The 308 is another matter. If Magoo considers the 308 an easy car to work on, I can't imagine what the 550 or 355 would be like.
Capt. Pete
'79 308 GTS, '82 Jeep CJ7 Jamboree
"Time is what prevents everything from happening all at once."
Pete, I have been working on various cars including collector cars all my life. I seem to have grease in my veins. The 308 compared to other Ferraris such as the 550 is not difficult at all. Peter GT4 , on this chat line and Ed Gualt completely overhauled their 308s. My car is a low mileage car and knock on wood I haven't had any major problems yet. When it comes time to change timing belts, clutch replace, water pump and other service items I will do them myself. My point was that when it comes to most of the 12 cyls. the engine has to come out to do some of the service items which a 308 does not.
F355 Challenge
I think Magoo, Peter and Ed together could publish a service manual for the 308 series. I've seen their step-by-step photographs of various service procedures which are detailed and intuitive.
Sometimes you need to ease off in order to go faster - Jackie Stewart
Edward Gault
Since I am a Professional Automotove Technician, I naturally do all repairs on my 82 308. I have had every nut and bolt out of my car in the last two years.
I do all my own on my 8 cylinders and 12. I also tackle major maintenances. I do not recommend this to any one who does not have a killer set of tools and mechanical ability.
hogster40
Are these 308's tweak machines? How reliable are they?
288GTO, one of the best.
When you get one right. And it can take some doing.They run well.injected are a little more dependable than carbed. but carbs are where all the fun, hp and sound is. Once carbs are set they usually stay set.
'75 308 GT4 (Peter)
I would forget about the idea of working on a 355 or 550 at home, other than simple fluid changes.
These cars are equiped with diagnostic computers, some specialised and any running problem must be examined and/or fixed by one.
The 308 series are complex machines, but totally mechanical (with the exception of a few electrically-powered accessories, triggered/operated by simple relay/switch systems) and everything is exposed and was put together by hands. You need some skills and many metric tools, but patience and time is needed most.
1975 Ferrari Dino 308 GT4
http://www.dino-gt4-registry.com/
bretm
Disclaimer (lol, who puts a disclaimer in there messages): Somewhat long winded, but probably worth reading if you're intrested in the topic.
Although I'm not as good a mechanic as Edward, Im working as a mechanic for Ferrari, more of an apprentice at this point, when I'm not at school. So under a watchful eye (the head mechanic, he's the man, and since there are only three mechanics including me it is very cool) I've replaced clutches, cleaned a lot of parts, done major services, etc. on just about every ferrari from the 1970s on.
I too have a jeep wrangler and it is in fact very easy to work on. It's such a pain in the ass though to tune the damn thing. I've swapped it to a weber carb and a DUI distributor, and then had everything else apart to replace/fix as it has 253K miles on it now. The original clutch was just replaced 15k miles ago actually (I didn't do that), nor did I rebuild the engine when that was done. But every other part on the car I have taken apart. The Ferrari is definitely not the jeep. How many Ferraris get 200K miles without doing any real maintenance other than oil changes? The Ferrari is a whole hell of a lot more fun to work on though. Going down to work on the Fcar is fun, I may curse alot and occasionally catch myself preparing to throw a wrench at it, but it is fun. Working on the jeep is simply work to keep it running. So even though a Ferrari is a lot more work than a jeep (no matter what anyone tells you, it is a hell of a lot more) it is enjoyable.
Another random point of mine on maintenance: people will tell you a Ferrari is reliable, these people are 1. mechanics that own a Ferrari. 2. someone that has there car serviced every year. Ferraris are not reliable if treated as a normal, disposable car.
Now as an answer to the question. (Now remember through the rambling I said that the jeep is an easy car to work on and the 308 is hard compared to it, so everything here is Ferrari terms): The 308s are easy to work on. They are simple and parts are cheap (if you don't get them from Ferrari). 308s can be a royal pain in the ass to tune though, especially carbed cars (carbs and mechanical distributors - do any two actually advance the same?). All and all though, 308 is a good car, especially when you get to the later models where it avoids some of the older mechanical calibrations and switches to digiplex.
The 355 is the best made Ferrari ever. 9 out of 10 (maybe even 10 out of 10) mechanics will tell you that if they had a Ferrari, the 355 would be it. Ferrari just though of everything when they designed it and the thing is near bombproof. If you're mechanically inclined you can do a lot. It is somewhat tricky though and you have to be near a full blown mechanic to do everything. At my level now I could do nearly everything on a 355 so it's not impossible. The more modern cars are alot of it works or it doesnt work, i.e. the computer is working. So when it doesnt work you go down to Ferrari, bend over, and leave with a new part that all you have to do is install and tada it's working like there was never a problem. General maintenance can be done though in a household garage. When something is totally f_ed up though to Ferrari the car would have to go for diagnostic check and for someone that works on them 50-60 hours a week to look at.
The 550 is like the 355, a little tougher though to work on, in particular trans related things. Also, parts on the 550 are more expensive. The 550 isn't quite as good as the 355 imo regarding reliability, close though.
So, if I had a 355 and 550, I'd be rich. But if I was rich and bored, then I would work on them except for crazy things related to the computers, where you need the diagnostic stuff and a lot of spare parts to swap in and out, etc to see what's gone haywire. Another point here is that very little goes wrong with the newer cars. We get a fair amount of computer stuff, convertible tops leaking (the pistons, not the top itself), but this amounts for maybe 40% of the day to day work that comes in. The rest could be done at home if the person was a mechanic and had a household garage with a lot of tools. For someone who is not a mechanic, the 355 is kind of bordering on being a car to work on and not, the 550 most of the time is a little too "interesting" though to do at home though. It would depend entirely on the owner's ability, neither the 355 or 550 is a car to learn on though.
Bretm,
Great post. I appreciate the perspective. When you refer to a 308 as a "disposable" car, are you referring to daily driver, weekend car that's hot-rodded, etc.?? Thanks.
Forza,
1981 Ferrari 308GTSi #37383
The 308 is best when driven everyday. When I was in High School and could use it everyday, by gosh I did rain or shine. The salty roads and snow I left to the jeep though. I was meaning more like how most people look at a car, not washing it, no maintenance except for when it breaks down, etc. I bet nowadays more than half the people never pop the hood of their car once. Especially with leasing where they know they're not keeping it. That type of mentality where a car will someday be destined for shipment to a lower country or the junkyard. They are simply using it until the next greatest thing comes out, and they don't ultimately care what comes of the car later in its life. Picture a 95 Toyota Camry, not that it's a bad car by any means, but people that own it don't think about having it 20 years from now, so it's disposable. Some people that own a 95 355 look at it that they might have it later on or at least want to protect the amount of money they spent. A lot though look at it just as though with a lesser financial capability look at the Camry. Same mentality, just one person has a lot of money.
Got it and understand. Well said. Thanks very much.
My first new car was a 1970 Hornet. It had two extras, heavy duty cooling and 4 doors. Other than those, nothing. It was a straight six with a three-speed column. Well, I put in my radio, air conditioning, and tweak the engine somewhat. My next new car was a 1980 Eagle. It had the same engine. When I opened the hood, all I saw were tubes, lines, wires, & etc. I said the heck with this noise. I quit changing my own oil when the thrash man refused to take it.
Now, I let the young bucks do the work on my cars. My question is:
does washing your own car count as maintaining it?
:green:
12 cylinders or walk
Glassman
Bart,
I was reading your slogan, never drive less than 12. Unless you can drive both, like a 12 and an 8, or a 12 and an 8 and a 4.
Thats it I think a 12 an 8 and a 4 is the way to go.
Glassman Jan 9, 2003


text:
E-passports ready, despite doubters: DFAT
Just months before the launch of Australia's e-passport, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has tried to alleviate concerns the technology might not be up to the task.Speaking at a smartcard conference in Sydney, DFAT's head of passports, Bob Nash, rejected criticism the new passport wouldnot be a durable, long-term solution.
By Steven Deare | June 30, 2005 -- 00:16 GMT (17:16 PDT) | Topic: Innovation
Just months before the launch of Australia's e-passport, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has tried to alleviate concerns the technology might not be up to the task.
Speaking at a smartcard conference in Sydney, DFAT's head of passports, Bob Nash, rejected criticism the new passport would not be a durable, long-term solution.
"Lots of people in the US and others tell me this [system] won't last for more than five years," Nash said.
"Then why would the manufacturer guarantee it for 12 years?" he asked.
The facial recognition system includes 16 page passport booklets containing microchips produced by Sharp Corporation.
"We've hit them with hammers, we've broken them...we've poured beer on them!," he said, referring to testing.
DFAT had also conducted tests in Japan of the passports under 16 different electronic scanning devices. Only one machine failed to read the passport due to its own configuration issues, he said.
DFAT currently pilots the e-passport using its 'Smartgate 2' biometric devices in Sydney and Melbourne airports. Since December, a group of 2500 Qantas staff have tested the system on their re-entry to Australia.
"We've had no failures in the 2,000 [passports] currently being tested by Qantas staff," Nash said.
The results meant the system was "98 percent accurate" at the moment, he said.
About 10 000 e-passports have already been mass-produced, according to Nash.
The main challenge of the project then would be comparing e-passport applicants' identities with the "several million images" on DFAT databses, he said.
E-passports will only be issued to individuals needing replacements, rather than DFAT recalling every passport in Australia.
Still, the matching of prospective e-passport holders to the database was not an easy task, according to Nash.
Some cases of multiple matches with the database had occurred, he said.
"We had one bloke who has six [matches on the system]!"
Nevertheless, the October launch date would be achieved, Nash said.
"We've been working on this for five years.
"And we will be one of the first countries to introduce an e-passport."
CXO Digital Transformation Tech Industry Smart Cities Cloud


text:
The Office of University Outreach and Engagement facilitates university-wide efforts to create an ecosystem of engagement by supporting the engaged activities of faculty, staff, and students; fostering public access to university expertise and resources; and by advocating for exemplary engaged scholarship, nationally and internationally. In all of its work, UOE emphasizes university-community partnerships that are collaborative, participatory, empowering, systemic, transformative, and anchored in scholarship.
This scholarship focus is applied to a broad range of community-defined needs, with special focus on:
Arts and cultural initiatives
Children, youth, and families
Human-technology interaction
PreK-16 education
Scholarship of engagement
Service-learning and civic engagement
MSU has also assumed a leadership role with respect to national conversations about the scholarship of engagement—defining, measuring, and evaluating best practices.
We welcome an opportunity to talk with you about how you might become active in the outreach and engagement enterprise.
The Provost's Committee on University Outreach (1993) defined outreach as scholarship that cuts across teaching, research, and service. It involves generating, transmitting, applying, and preserving knowledge for the direct benefit of external audiences.
MSU advocates a scholarly model of outreach and engagement that involves the co-creation and application of knowledge, a relationship that increases both partners' capacity to address issues.
For more information on UOE's approach to scholarly engagement, please refer to the following resources:
MSU seminal documents and reports
Definitions of common types of community-engaged scholarship
Community-based Engagement Approaches
What University Outreach and Engagement does...
Serves the interests of communities
Bringing together community expertise and interests with the best of MSU research, UOE works to empower positive change through mutually beneficial partnerships.
Supports community-engaged scholarship
UOE facilitates networks of MSU faculty engaged with communities throughout Michigan to address complex issues that often require interdisciplinary collaboration. It also fosters community-based initiatives in cities like Detroit, Flint, and Lansing, organized to advance such priorities as regional economic development, sustainable food systems, early childhood development, education and learning, and community systems change.
Involves MSU students locally and globally
The Center for Community Engaged Learning registers students in over 30,000 placements a year, engaging them with market research, communication planning, adult literacy tutoring, and other forms of community service.
Advocates for community engagement
UOE advances understanding about community-engaged scholarship in the academy and promotes policies and practices that encourage it, both at MSU and institutions across higher education.
Conducts research and evaluation
UOE-based research centers and institutes work with communities, organizations, and other universities to answer important questions, improve programs, conduct institutional research, develop successful initiatives, build capacity for evidence-based practice, and improve sustainability and funding potential.
Provides learning opportunities
UOE offers professional development programs focused on best practices in outreach and engagement.
Tells MSU's community engagement story
UOE showcases exemplary community-engaged scholarship through its publications and websites, and works with individual faculty to develop their own communication plans.
Promotes public access
UOE offers and supports resources that provide greater public access to the University and its faculty through:
Educational programs for K-12 students like Gifted and Talented Education and College Access Initiatives and participation in the Michigan Science Olympiad State Tournament
Public festivals, including the Summer Solstice Jazz Festival and the MSU Science Festival
Community-based hubs, such as the Center for Community and Economic Development in Lansing and the MSU Detroit Center in Michigan's largest city
Catalog websites of programs and resources:
For professionals and practitioners
For pre-kindergarten children through 12th grade students
For anyone who is interested in MSU's cultural offerings


Dr. Gang CHEN is currently a co-founder and the CEO of WeGene, which is a leading direct-to-consumer genetic testing and population genomics company in China. Dr. Chen was an adjunct assistant professor of Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2013 to 2016 and a big data consultant of Hospital Authority of Hong Kong from 2016 to 2017. Dr. Chen is a committee member of bioinformatics group of Chinese Computer Federation. Before he joined WeGene, he worked as a Vice President of internet and cloud computing at BGI-Tech and a senior researcher at BGI-Research.
Large-scale genomics researches help us identify the relationship among genome, phenotype, clinical features, and even social behaviors. Management, sharing and analysis of large-scale genomics data is a challenging task to convert the raw data to research results and healthcare applications. The speaker will share their experiences in the usage of cutting-edge information technologies, such as distributed storage and computation, deep learning and blockchain, to build the largest DTC and cohort based population genomics research and application platform in China.


text:
← Ada Colau: "We are going to need more social mobilisation than ever"
There Be Dragons →
No Big Words Please, We're British
Owen Jones and Iñigo Errejón
Owen Jones has an article on The Guardian website today, contrasting Podemos's approach to political communication with that of 'the British left'. He says that the latter must 'abandon the old shackles of the left', and that its language 'often seems intended to exclude, full of rhetoric and terminology that only those who have associated with leftwing milieus could ever hope to digest'. He also criticises the culture of 'the British left', describing it as 'operating in the most rampantly individualistic way'.
The first thing that struck me when reading this is that in fact, there are parts of 'the British left' – I apologise if my scare quotes appear post-modern, let me assure you they are necessary- who are communicating just fine. For example, in Scotland.
Secondly, it is not as if Podemos itself speaks with one voice. True enough, Pablo Iglesias and others are skilled media communicators. But some of the main figures also write things that are as indigestible for the uninitiated as anything you will ever come across in Britain. Take for example the writings of its political secretary, Owen Jones-lookalike Iñigo Errejón. Here is a translated excerpt of a sentence of his:
Let us recall that old conservative liberal fantasy that flirted with the possibility of the existence of a democracy without a people –it is surely from here that we get the hysteria unleashed in the use of the term 'populist'-, a democracy of citizen consumers lacking in collective will.
I don't think there's anything wrong with writing something like the above: on the contrary. Some concepts are difficult, and they need to be explored with specialised language. The world, including the political world, is complex, and not every decent idea can be pared down to one syllable words with the meaning left intact.
Raymond Williams knew this. In his collected series of interviews Politics and Letters, the Welsh cultural critic mentions his impression that when listening to a French militant or trade union leader being interviewed:
'they command a much greater vocabulary than their English social equivalents, which may eventually have an effect of the quality of what they say.'
Williams also speaks of his 'distress' during his years in adult education, at
'the blocks people encountered when some perfectly necessary concept was used, and the easy way that could slip into anti-intellectualism, or the more unfortunate case of somebody who comes across a word but doesn't fully understand it, yet starts to use it, often in the labour movement.'
When Williams sought
'to write a series in Tribune on words that caused difficulty – typically enough, they were not interested. I had a very strong sense, as in everything else, that working-class people needed to command all the tools with which social transactions are conducted'.
That is, the development of a specialised vocabulary is something working-class people –or, if you like, everyday people- actually need in order to empower themselves.
What Owen Jones describes as 'online "safe spaces"' aren't necessarily a bad thing. True, there may be plenty of jargon-heavy writing, and confused writing, and people showing off. But again, not everyone can describe their predicament, the way they encounter the world, in the simplest of terms. This is because things are rarely that simple, as people's lives are full of complexity and contradiction. To put it another way, let's use the analogy of a musical instrument. You need to spend a great many hours playing badly before you start playing well. That is not to say that everyone will become a virtuoso, or even competently, but sometimes just trying to put things into words helps clarify things in your mind.
Also, not all the 'British left' is averse to keeping things simple. If you read a copy of Socialist Worker, for example, the prose is usually clear enough. Whether people are convinced by it and want to come back for more is another matter.
When Owen Jones talks about the way Podemos communicates, he seems to have severed it from everything else that has been going on in Spanish society for the last few years, including many phenomena that really have not come to the fore in British society, at least not on the same level. I am thinking here, of course, of 15M, without which Podemos would simply not exist.
Owen Jones cites the need for
'a wide-ranging discussion about how we best achieve political representation for working people and all those denied a voice.'
But by placing this as his foremost concern, or even his only concern, he ignores one of the crucial factors in 15M's explosive impact on Spanish politics as society: not the idea that such people need proper representatives, but that they are unrepresentable, that they have the capacity speak with their own voice. That is, a rejection of representative democracy as the sine qua non of popular emancipation. We see this crucial element expressed in a recent interview with the mayor-elect of Barcelona, Ada Colau:
'We can never go back to delegating democracy: it is voting every four years that has got us into this'
But also in writing from other members of Podemos:
'the Podemos method has given expression to a common sense that has been hegemonic in this country for some time, but which political representation and electoral arithmetic have however systematically prevented from making a reality. The central themes of Podemos's programme and campaign (the fight against corruption, the audit of debt, the sharing of work and wealth, the defence of social rights and public services) expresses clearly, precisely and resoundingly a common sense of the majority that does not fit within the institutions. And these matters have not been defined and articulated from above, but through the active work and participation of ordinary people.'
To repeat: 'these matters have not been defined and articulated from above, but through the active work and participation of ordinary people.' Most of this work was done pre-Podemos, before figureheads such as Pablo Iglesias came to the fore, and the major controversy within Podemos, since the Citizen Assembly that established the organisational structure of Podemos, has been the way in which all this involvement of everyday people, a politics of everyone and anyone, has been subordinated and marginalised, so as to give way to the primacy of the mediated spectacle of Iglesias and others.
There were resounding successes in the municipal elections in Spain: in Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza, to name the three most important places. These platforms included participants in Podemos, but their crucial success factor was widespread participation from a great many others outside these ranks. By contrast, there were much more modest wins for Podemos proper in the regional government elections, far below the expectations raised by the high-flown rhetoric of the top tier.
If this tells us anything, it is that the terminology and rhetoric of Podemos's top tier –which is indeed geared towards what Owen Jones calls 'political representation for working people', is not the most important thing, but rather. the realisation that it is when those excluded from representative institutions re-establish politics on their own terms, in their own language, that real democratic empowerment is realised.
It is a terrible thing that the Tories have taken power in Britain again, dismantling what remains of the welfare state and embarking on the most brutal and vindictive measures against the poorest in British society. Bar an initial flare-up of protest, there does not seem to be any grasp taken as yet of what so many people in Spain already know: that representative democracy –with its supporting media institutions- is not real democracy, that it is not designed to give people a voice, but to take it away from them. And hence some radical reconfiguration, that goes way beyond the kind of language used, is needed. But first comes the break with the legitimacy of the established order.
People in Scotland certainly seem more aware of this than the more established formations on the British left. On the whole, though, the broad understanding of democracy appears stuck within Churchill's formulation of 'the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper', and Orwell's urging for plainness and simplicity. Is it not high time to get beyond the idea of democratic politics as coming up with the right little words to convince the little people?
2 responses to "No Big Words Please, We're British"
Nicholas Kiersey
Reblogged this on #OCCUPYIRTHEORY.
Sphere Point
you sure do have a way much better grasp of the role and importance of the 15M than Owen Jones. Podemos was not an established party of the left that changed and modernised, but rather a product of the most active and ambitious grassroots movement; the 15M. without which none of the radical changes in spanish politics would have happened. and without something similar, no change can be properly iniciated in Britain. This as you say, has to start from the bottom up.