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The Art of Blindness: Part 1
Chim crouched down and peeled a bloody strip of flesh from the Man's side, folded it, and put it in his mouth. He wiped away the blood as he chewed, and licked more from the back of his hand. While he chewed slowly – trying, for once, to taste something – Chim looked at the Man, laid out gray and naked on the floor of Chim's kitchen. The Man was not only alive but conscious, and his eyes were wide, white and blind. Chim was fascinated by those eyes, those buffed and rounded pieces of chalk screwed into his head. He poked with one long, yellow finger at the Man's right eye and said, "You feel that?"
"No," said the Man.
"You feel me take that bite outta you?"
"A little bit."
"Well, I couldn't taste it at all. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's something about you."
Chim shifted his legs – short and bony, with black hair like wire sprouting from his dull yellow skin – so that he could sit, his legs stuck out in front. He planted his hands on the floor behind him. His glasses were still steamed, his dinner-plate eyes trying to look around the lenses. It was still snowing outside.
"You don't know nothin'," Chim said. "What do you know?"
"I know a lot," the Man said. His voice was a defensive murmur.
"Nothin' does me any good."
"Well, why should I care about that?"
Chim shrugged, still chewing. But the Man couldn't see the shrug, of course. All over the Man's body were scabbed-over patches, red and black and oozing, where Chim had ripped food from him.
"If I'm, if you think I'm so defective," the Man said, "then why not let me go? I mean you could – "
"All I said was – "
" – just let me walk out the door. You could go for – "
"I just can't taste you, is all."
"You could get anybody else," the Man finished, raising his voice to be heard.
"Will you shut up?" Chim said. "You think that's an easy thing for me? To get somebody else?"
"Was it so hard getting me?"
"You looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" and Chim had barely finished the sentence before laughter and hacking coughs followed each other from his throat, doubling him over where he sat. "Kid," he said after a while, "you were a snap. But how many'a you'er out there?"
The Man had never seen snow, but he remembered when Chim had found him as being a snowy night, with the flakes sweeping against his face, cold and prickling. But maybe it hadn't been snowing. Maybe he remembered snow because it seemed to him now that it had always been snowing. Every day, Chim came in complaining about fresh snowfall, stamping his boots, and in the early days the Man could feel blasts of cold air and drops of melted snow landing on his face as they flew from Chim's body. Time was skewed now for the Man. Remembering was sometimes like trying to mount icy steps. So it could have been snowing when Chim found him, or it might not have been. And if he thought now that it wasn't, then maybe that came merely from his desire to believe there was something else, some other time in which he'd lived and could get back to if he could only talk to his captor, outsmart him. Chim was not smart, it didn't seem, but he was skeptical and distrustful, which was almost as bad. The Man was smart, though perhaps not in the way he now needed to be. However, he was physically strong, or at least stronger than Chim, who he sensed was very small. So, if the Man could move, he could conceivably kill Chim. Yet he couldn't move except to talk and sometimes eat, could barely even feel, and, of course, he couldn't see. All he could really do was think, and so far that hadn't done him any good.
Something light, ticklish, someone, maybe Chim, running something small, like a pen, over his chest. All along there was a gentle tug as his flesh pulled free. The Man wished he was deaf, as well as blind, so he wouldn't have to hear Chim eating.
"I'm goin' out," Chim said, and the Man could hear the food in his mouth. "Goin' out to see Blue Baby."
"Why do you even bother telling me?" the Man asked. "What difference could it make?"
"It's just for something to say," Chim explained, standing up. Again, the door opened, and again the sound of wind coming in, blowing and bouncing off the walls and sailing unfelt over the Man's skin.
"I'll be back in a little while," Chim said. "We'll talk more then."
"What – " the Man began, confused, but the door had closed.
Sometimes it seemed to Chim that he was walking a white road that never ended and that was surrounded by silent, starless space, and he could float forever if he just took five steps to the left or right, and left the road's path. It would be okay if somebody would just flick on a light, but nobody did around here. Or maybe it was that they didn't open their windows. Blue Baby, he knew, had no windows, but plenty of lights. Plenty of lights to see that fat blue body and all his bottles and other things. But did noe of these buildings have windows? No, they had to; Chim had been inside some of them. There were windows. So open one of the goddamn things, or turn on a fucking light. It made Chim feel like he was it, just him, and moon for light, and anyway, all the moon did was show him the white road more clearly – it gave him no other guidance. If he looked hard enough, stared long enough, then some of the buildings would start to take on half-ghost shapes, but that just made it worse. When he saw those shapes break through the night's surface, how could he be sure they were just buildings? That there wasn't somebody in those shadows who didn't have yellow skin like Chim, skin closer to Blue Baby's, so they could hide better? Chim knew he was small and could be killed easily by somebody even half as big as Blue Baby, so If somebody came out and wanted him for something, wanted this nice black coat he was wearing, Chim could only run. And he was slow, his legs weak, his back stiff. He would get nowhere.
Even though he liked Blue Baby, actually going to the man's home, close though it was, was not something Chim looked forward to – it was always something he did late. Late was when Blue Baby was around. If you tried for him in the morning, his little house might be shuttered up, door nailed closed, sorry, place's been condemned for months. You get there when TV starts running shitty old movies and commercials for sex numbers, then Blue Baby might be there, you might see a light under the door, but he wouldn't let you in. When there's not a TV on, or light, and barely even an eye open anywhere in town, except maybe Chim's own, when the noise from the sewers is all you hear, and now you notice voices along with all the running water, and if you hear anything louder than a whisper then it's a gunshot, and then boots, and then nothing but whispers and running water again, at that hour, Blue Baby might let you in if he knows you.
At Blue Baby's front door, Chim knelt with a slip of paper that said ITS CHIM in pencil, and slid that under the door, into the darkness. Dark, but there might be a light on somewhere in there – when Blue was alone, he liked his lights dim. When he wrote and read, he still kept things burning low.
Chim tried to be a little noisy, in case Blue Baby was dozing off. As soon as the paper slipped under, a light clicked on, and Chim sighed; Blue had probably been working at his desk, with his little desk light on. He heard Blue Baby moving around in there, and when Blue Baby moved, everything everywhere seemed to creak. Whether it came from the floor or Blue himself, Chim didn't know.
Now all that Chim could see was half of a thin, bright rectangle, picking out part of the door's outline. Then the doorknob turned, and part of the blackness began to shift away, opening up the light, which now outlined Blue Baby, who stood in front of Chim, so much taller and so much wider than the yellow man, his sides almost touching the doorframe on either side. And bald and blue, like a bloated infant getting no oxygen.
Blue Baby wore glasses as well; his – unlike Chim's, which were square and clunky, awkward, like there were the first ever pair of glasses – were round and rimless, professorial. He wore them rarely, though. Chim hardly ever saw them. He wore them, apparently, only when he wrote.
The lenses were clouded over by finger-smudges that he had not yet bothered to wipe away. Chim thought he must appear to Blue Baby as a thick blur against the darkness and snow outside.
"Lemme in, Blue," Chim said. He was cold.
"'Please'?" said Blue Baby.
"Please, come on."
Blue Baby slowly stepped aside. He was wearing a big blue coat that touched the floor and hid his feet. It was buttoned clear up to his throat, but its sleeves were short, letting his great blue arms and blue hands breathe and swing. The hem of his giant coat swept quietly against the floor.
The place was small one room, really, with another little room that Blue Baby slept in, and another where he went to the bathroom and, presumably, washed up, because Chim never detected any objectionable odor from him, or from his home. Which Chim thought nothing short of miraculous. And Chim was also a little fascinated by the bedroom, which was just a floor. Not even a blanket, no pillow. It was so completely barren that Chim wasn't sure why Blue Baby couldn't just sleep here, in the main room.
But the main room could get cluttered. There could be jars and shit everywhere, bowls of whatever, green stuff, and red, and brown, and sometimes jars full to the top with mouse heads, or one time just a cat head, eyes closed and sleeping. All types of hair kept in bags; animal horns over his desk, like in the den of a hunter; a dead sheep one time, the whole fucking thing, right there in the middle of the floor. Freshly killed when Chim saw it, cleaned and bloodless, no odor. Blue Baby also kept sheets of skin pinned to his walls, like artwork.
Human skin? Chim had asked once.
Some of it, Blue Baby had said.
And there was artwork, things Blue Baby had created himself: little houses of bones, finger bones, and teeth for bricks, if he was getting really intricate. Little God's-eye-views of the lives of people who lived in homes, all white and shiny and buffed. At one point in Blue Baby's life, he had painted pictures with blood – sometimes with his fingers, sometimes with brushes – but that got fairly boring, and he felt the possibilities were pretty limited, so after a time he quit it altogether. Still, he had one almost mural-like work on the wall across from the door. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a mural because it was done on skin, but it still covered the entire wall, and it showed every day life as Blue Baby saw it. It was all very crude, with stick figures and smudgy child-like caricatures of the sun and cars, and cotton like puffs of smoke from the chimneys of square houses. The women in the picture had smeared triangles over their waists and legs – there were skirts. Many of the men had pipes. One of the men, the one buying a newspaper, had eyeglasses. Again, all very childish and crude, but Chim thought that was part of the charm. Although Chim has used that word once, "charm", while talking about the painting, and Blue had cussed him out good.
Over time, everything in the painting had darkened, and now it looked as though it might have been done in crayon or some strange charcoal, but Chim had been here in the room, sitting cross-legged on the floor, watching as Blue Baby painted it, had seen him dipping his hands into the opened veins for as long as that lasted before moving into the stored jars, warm and sealed. Everything else that he kept, the mouse heads and such, Blue claimed were materials for later works. He just hadn't figured out yet how to use them.
There was also paper everywhere, and every time Chim had managed to sneak a glimpse at the cramped, ruler-straight writing he couldn't decipher it. It might have been a whole different language, for all he knew. Well, usually the paper was there, but apparently Blue Baby had cleaned up recently, because the papers were all stacked neatly on his desk, under the animal horns. Chim stood staring at the clarity of the floor and the two chairs set against the wall adjacent to the painting, and nodded his admiration. He liked a clean home, and he knew the struggle of keeping things neat. Esepcially when your home was so small, and you had as much stuff as Blue Baby.
"It looks nice," Chim said. "You cleaned up?"
"Yes," Blue Baby said. "I was having trouble moving around. I didn't want to damage anything, so I thought maybe I should tidy up."
"Well, it looks nice. I can stand and not feel like I'm stepping on something."
"Yes," said Blue Baby with disinterest. "Well, have a seat, sit down. Do you want anything to drink?"
Chim took a seat, and Blue Baby kept standing there by the door.
"So…what's going on?" he asked. "How's the new one?"
"Okay," said Chim, nodding in agreement with himself.
"Does he have a name? Do I know him?"
"No, I don't think so. I just picked him up a week ago. Just grabbed him at random."
"He was easy. He's blind."
"It's fucking weird, though, you know," said Chim, settling into his chair. "His eyes are white clean through. I have trouble looking at him, he's so weird. At his eyes, anyway."
Blue Baby glanced around his room, and, his eyes landing in a random corner, said, "You don't need the eyes, do you?"
"Not always. So, not this time, I guess."
"You could give them to me. I could, I don't know what. But I feel like I could do something with them. I don't think I've ever had blind eyes before."
"Oh, you must have."
"Well, perhaps, but not like you say his are. So if you're not going to use them…"
"No, yeah, sure. They're yours."
Blue Baby looked at the melted snow that lay in gray lumps and puddles around Chim's boots. If he hadn't just cleaned the place up, who knows what Chim would be ruining with his carelessness. He wanted to go get a towel, make Chim lift up his boots, but he reminded himself that it was just the floor getting wet, just wooden planks, that's all.
Chim sat there, all huddled up in his over-sized black coat, making his yellow face light up, turn on like a lightbulb; his square, stupid glasses, the lenses shining opaque and white against Blue Baby's lamp. Blue Baby had never actually liked Chim, though the little cannibal had been the source of some fascination for him. But now the son of a bitch came over too often, like this was where he lived, not back in that dungeon, that basement kitchen, where he actually ate and slept. He came over about three times a week, Chim did, which wasn't really all that much of an imposition, especially considering that the two of them lived close enough together that Blue Baby could, should the mood strike him, stand at his front door and put a .45 slug in the middle of Chim's forehead when that yellow head first popped out in the morning. But Blue Baby himself was only home three or four times a week, or at least at this home, so it was like Chim was there every night. And what made it worse was that Blue Baby never knew which nights he'd spend here, so of course Chim couldn't know either, but he was still there almost all the time, which led Blue Baby to conclude that the pathetic little shit was there every night, knocking on the door, or slipping notes under it, which was his new thing. Who knew how many notes cheerfully declaring ITS CHIM, slipped inside on nights when Blue was away, had been unwittingly shuffled and wadded up with all the other papers on the floor. Again, if he hadn't just clean up, once Chim left, Blue Baby might have been tempted to dig through and see.
"So," Blue Baby said, hoping to at least keep the conversation on a topic he might find interesting, "what is it about these eyes again? They're…?"
"They're white," said Chim. "Clean through. They look like I could crush 'em into powder."
"Really. Well. That's odd."
"I know. Probably wouldn't taste a thing if I went ahead and an' ate them, but – "
"Chim, they sound pretty interesting. Why not go ahead and let me have them? I'm sure I could find some good use for them."
"Okay. Fine. That's fine."
"I could come by tomorrow. Take a look at them."
"Yeah, that'd be fine. You ain't been by in ages."
"Yes, it'll be nice to be by again."
"Christ, it's not like you live just down the street!"
Blue Baby forced an apologetic laugh and said, "Sorry, but you know I'm hardly ever around. I barely even see my own home."
"I know, I understand," said Chim, and to Blue Baby he seemed to be emphasizing his forgiveness a little too strongly, like he couldn't bare the idea that Blue Baby might think he was angry about something. Which was probably exactly what it was. This idolization that Blue Baby sometimes sensed passing from Chim to himself was something that he could not understand, unless Chim had some sort of artistic ambitions that Blue Baby didn't know about, which, in any case, seemed extremely doubtful. Chim had always at least pretended to be fascinated with the countless paintings, sculptures, and other works of art the flow of which Blue Baby seemed unable to discontinue – or so he'd written in his memoirs – but Blue knew Chim to be someone utterly lost in his own somewhat sleazy drive for life. In fact, the very paints and canvases that Blue Baby used to create, Chim used for primitive sustenance, to bar the path of his own death. Chim believed he was, at any give time, only a few hours from death. Considering his body, a clumsy jumbling of discarded chickenbones, this was understandable. Som vague disease of the bowels did indeed appear to be waiting to suck him dry. As if disease wasn't enough, Chim also seemed to be certain that a stray, or perhaps not so stray, bullet was cutting its way to him, or that a gas truck would suddenly lose a wheel on a sharp turn and then slide over him as smoothly as it would a leaf pressed into the street. To Chim's credit, he seemed resigned to these possible accidents and acts of man, and therefore focused himself on staving off the treacheries of his own body. But to call Chim's physical state the result of anatomical treachery was, apart from being wholly unoriginal, also being terribly kind to him, something Blue was not ordinarily inclined to be.
Blue Baby made it a point not to know too much about how Chim had spent his past – his interest in Chim rested solely in the grotesquely monotonous way he spent his present. To know something about Chim's past might offer up some explanation for this creature's existence, and that was the last thing Blue Baby wanted. Blue Baby avoided the possibility of hearing Chim's life story by, if not exactly nurturing, then at least not crushing Chim's apparent interest in Blue's own life. By talking about himself, and a little about Chim's current activities, Blue managed to remain ignorant of Chim's history, if he even had one, which Blue sometimes tried to doubt. In any case, Chim's rickety state of decay had to be the result of some hideous and repeated activity from years gone by, and had probably reached a level so advanced that no remedy, demented or otherwise, could possibly make a difference.
This was what Blue Baby though, anyway. The point being that such a man had to be too stupid to be an artist. And if not too stupid, then at least too wrapped up in his desperate fight for survival to spend any time creating anything. Blue Baby had certainly never seen any evidence of any form of artistic endeavor during his very few visits to Chim's home. The place couldn't be more drab or spare. The only splash of color Blue had ever noticed was the insectile yellow of Chim himself. Some depraved fools would see that hopeless emptiness as evidence of some quiet artistic genius – anyone that indifferent to outward appearances must be busy conjuring up something glorious. They would deduce that the reclusive Chim was squirreling away his paintings, plays, sculptures, and novels in a secret room, or in the home of his friend or mentor. Or, even better, maybe he destroyed them once they were completed, either our of some depressingly romantic modesty, or a kind of crazed vanity. Either one, it didn't matter.
Still, Chim was one of a very small minority that Blue would spend time with. He found Chim fascinating. Repulsvie, certainly, but why else would he be so interesting? Not interesting as a person – the man never had anything to talk about – but interesting because of his way of life. Such an animalistic desperation for life, and why? For what? He fought for life so that he could continue to fight for life. It was wonderfully pathetic, Blue thought. When a man channeled his energy like Chim did, that is, when every step and breath was only taken in order that he might continue to step and breathe, he would hardly take time out later to stew over some ongoing creative masterwork.
Well, it was silly to dwell on such things, because Chim hardly knew anybody. Especially anybody in the art world, if you didn't count Blue Baby, which Blue didn't, because he had yet to display his work publicly. This was by choice; showing his work around to people was not something that exactly appealed to him. And besides, he had a feeling that, if he ever did attempt to exhibit his work, he would probably meet with resistance.
"So," Chim said after a nice chunk of the kind of silence Blue had grown used to around him had passed, "what're you working on? Anything new?"
"No, not really," Blue Baby replied. "I'm a bit run down at present."
"Really?" And Chim for a moment seemed genuinely concerned. "Why? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm a bit run down, I said. That just means I'm rund down."
"Run down? You mean tired?"
"No, I mean I have throat cancer. That's what 'run down' means."
"Hey, Blue, usually when I come by you're always painting something, or, I don't know, mixing paints or whatever. You're not for once, and I'm just wondering if anything's wrong. I'm just being a friend."
"Yes, I know. I'm touched. But I'm fine. Quit trying to foist your hypochondria off on other people."
"My what?"
"Boy, you're in a mood."
Blue Baby shrugged and turned around to his desk, gazing longingly at the stacks of handwritten pages sitting there, waiting very patiently. He would love to plop himself back down in that chair, where he'd been before Chim came knocking, and just let his pencil go. Let the words pour right the hell out, until they grew so lound in his head that Chim's horsefly whine sounded like a radio playing three doors over. He wasn't run down at all.
"Well," Chim went on, "you know what happened the other day?"
"What?" Blue kept looking at the desk.
"Actually, this is – no, I had the new guy. When was I last here?"
"I don't know. Last night?"
"No, it wasn't last night. Jesus. No, it was last week sometime. Anyway, I guess it was just after I got this new guy, and I'm out hoppin' around all the regular joints – " Blue Baby had no idea what regular joints Chim was referring to; Chim went to Bozz's, and, as far as Blue knew, that was it " – and eventually I end up at Bozz's, and in Bozz's they got a guy behind the bar who, he's always done this, he pours the drinks out before anyone even gets there. You know this guy?"
"No, I don't go to Bozz's."
"Well, he's this youngish-lookin' old guy, his name's Creak. And when he gets there, busy or not, he starts pullin' the drinks. He'll do like four or five of the complicated drinks that only like one guy drinks, and then maybe eight of, eight martinis, say, then when he's got all those done, he starts on whiskey and stuff, doing maybe ten shots of each of whatever, then pourin' a thousand beers. And he's got 'em all layed out there on the bar in front of him, like he's a salesman. But he doesn't go hawkin' this stuff. When the bar start to fill up, a guy'll come up and take whatever he wants, and he'll leave his money in place of it, or if this guy knows you then he'll nod when you take what you want, and he'll keep track in his head. Creak's always done this. Used to drive Bozz crazy. Used to think they must'a been getting' ripped off left and right. But this guy didn't, you know, he didn't, he didn't pour the drinks and then go out and get a sandwich. He watched things. It just went quicker, and people drank more, I guess. I guess that was what he thought. So anyway, last night I go in there, into Bozz's, and there's Creak behind the bar. Place's empty. Not, I mean, not even, like, not even a stool cushion's dented. I say, 'Creak, what's goin' on? Where is everybody?' Creak says, 'Naw, it's nothin'.' I say, 'Creak, this place's – ', I mean, Blue, this is Friday night, right? The place should have guys poppin' out into the street, it's so crowded. So I say, 'Creak, it's Friday.' At first he don't wanna tell me. Then finally he says, 'Well, I got fired.' 'Fired?' I says. He says, 'Yeah.' He says, 'Finally bit me in the ass.' 'What did?' I says. 'The drinks,' he says. He says, 'Some bunch of motherfuckers got it into their heads they could rip me off.' I asked if they did, and he says, 'Yeah, they did.' These guys come in, Blue, and, like, fifteen of them. And the owner's there on Fridays, right? And these fifteen guys come in. They all grab an armful'a drinks. Pfft! Out the door. Spilled half the drinks goin' out, but by then I guess the owner was already busy chewing Creak a brand new asshole. So. But Creak, man."
Blue Baby wasn't sure why Chim had just made up this story, but clearly it was all lies. While it was true that Blue didn't go to Bozz's, he did know it. He knew all about the city, especially at night, and Bozz's had never had a bartender named Creak. Their current Friday night – and most other nights – bbartender was a very beautiful woman, in fact, to keep as many men hovering over the bar and drinking as possible. Her name was Deuryde, or something. She'd been there several months. Apart from that, if Creak had just been fired, why in the world was he the only person in the bar? Normally, Blue would guess that such a poor story had been made up on the spot, but he had a feeling Chim had painstakingly planned it out beforehand.
"Poor guy," Blue said. "Well, he'll find work."
"I don't know," Chim said. "I mean, this great idea of his that he's always braggin' about, now it gets him fired. He doesn't sound like the smartest guy in the world to me."
"No. Maybe not. Well."
Chim rubbed his thumb over his nose, now uncomfortable. Lying didn't sit well with him, maybe, though this was hard to believe about someone like him. His uneasiness had more to do, probably, with the fact this story didn't seem to have gone over very well.
"Anyway, Blue," Chim went on, "I think I'd better get back. The new guy might be starting to move."
"Okay, Chim. I'll come by in the next couple days about the eyes."
"Yeah, that'll be great. Come by any time."
Chim got up from his chair, and waved quickly at Blue as he headed towards the door. Then Chim opened the door, letting the cold air back in, and Blue watch his black coat disappear, leaving his head to shine like the head of a candle before the door closed.
The Man felt a tingle begin to spread through his legs. It was accompanied by bright spots of pain along his legs, stomach, and chest. He could hear his breathing growing fast and broken, and his fingertips were rubbing over the floor. He was aware that his body was slowly coming back to life.
His fingers soon began to move more freely, his nails scratching audibly across wood, but for the most part his hands were still dead. Yet the more he moved his fingers, the more life his hands seemed to gain. In the blackness of his vision, he saw the veins in his wrists and the tingling life coursing through them. He tried to move it, to increase his control with his mind. Perhaps it was just an illusion, but it seemed to be working. The tingling intensified up past his left elbow, and he felt and heard the skin of his forearms slide across the floor. His legs, he tried to pump this life into his legs, but they wouldn't move. They just tingled and itched and felt pain. But his fingers, hands, and arms were moving, so soon his legs might be bending at the knee, while his elbows began to pry his peeled body off the floor.
Chim's front door blasted open and the Man actually felt what seemed to be a mildly cool breeze over his face and chest. He wondered how cold and harsh that wind must really be to pierce his numbness. But he felt it. And as he felt that, he heard Chim stomping across the floor and felt Chim's heavy boot smash into the side of his face. The Man sensed the shock more than he felt it, but he felt it, too, along with a bright flash of pain.
"Motherfucker!" Chim was shrieking, and his voice was so harsh, high and wild that it sounded to the Man like he was being attacked by something, some snake-quick monster that was trying to pull out his lungs. "Piece'a shit motherfucker! I'll kill you!" Chim's boot came down, stomped down square against the Man's face, and he heard his nose break. The Man opened his mouth in confusion, to ask what was wrong, but he was silenced by another kick, and after that one he could feel some of his teeth rattling around in the back of his throat. The teeth seemed to be swimming, and soon he was gagging, his throat hitching frantically, his mouth bubbling over, his head somehow turning sideways to allow him to vomit out the whole mess. As he did this, Chim leapt on top of him, straddling his stomach, and began pounding his fists against the Man['s broad gray chest, each impact making Chim wail in pain. The Man was feeling things better now, unfortunately.
"Jesus, I'm breaking my fucking hands," Chim blubbered, and he stopped punching.
"God, you broke my teeth," the Man said. "What's wrong with you? What happened?" He somehow felt dizzy, even just lying there. His voice was swollen, and he wasn't sure if the words had actually come out as he'd intended them.
"I gotta get some'a this shit into you," Chim wheezed, and the Man felt the whisper of Chim's weight float off him. He could hear Chim rattling around, could hear bottles rolling across hard, flat surfaces, could hear something being uncorked. All the while, the Man was marveling at the movement of his own tongue inside his mouth, over the empty and broken sockets in his gums. He was aware that somehow his hands were balling into fists at his sides. How long would the whole process take? To come back to life? And bounce this son of a bitch off the ceiling?
Chim fell to his knees beside the Man, and what the Man felt when the needle slid into his arm was hardly anything at all.
"Next time," Chim said breathlessly, "I'll eat your fucking heart."
END OF PART ONE
Labels: Fiction, The Art of Blindness
Heard it Before


Health Problems: By necessity, Khalas are a naturally healthy breed. In their countries of origin, veterinary care is seldom available or affordable to the Indian peasants the dogs live with. As with most hairless dogs, adult dentition is very bad. The root system is shallow and even puppy teeth are primitive.
Brief info: From the American Khala Association standard for the breed: "The hairless hound is indigenous to Latin America from Mexico throughout Central and South America. Almost every Latin country has a variety, whether the medium sized, somewhat heavy bodied 'pottery' type or the taller, leaner 'gazehound' type.
The Medio is a medium-sized hound, powerful yet graceful. The Grande gives the impression of a sighthound, well-coordinated and able to move with ease and agility. Color is immaterial, but most Khalas are a dark gray at maturity.


One of the most popular design posts I've written was this, on some of the amazing remodelling ideas for IKEA's DUKTIG play kitchen.
Along with the majority of my friends – we own this £65 kitchen, bought for Charlie's 3rd birthday because it was simple and unisex, so perfect for him and his little sister.
As per usual, it's still waiting to be pimped up – but I LOVE seeing how others transform them.
So by popular demand, here are eight further ways to revamp your DUKTIG.
I LOVE: The marble effect sticky paper covering the worktop and copper painted fixtures.
I LOVE: The 'E' mug (obvs!) and the marble worktop. So chic!
I LOVE: The grey paint job, marble top and silver foil oven door.


This modern, lightweight, and versatile pendant is made by hand. Over 40 pieces of Sterling Silver are fused together to make the mountain range pattern, inspired by the ranges of Colorado. This means no two pendants are exactly alike. The perfect gift for someone who loves the mountains.


How to translate change in the quantum field from addressing "issues in the tissues" as author Sherry Anshara says.
Design and test a variety of covers to create tone and manner of enlightenment juxtaposed with the human experience.
The intricate cover assisted Sherry Anshara reach international best-selling status with her book.
Designed a variety of covers to convey the heart of the book. Then we tested them to see which would best attract attention and interest among readers interested in the tale of 14 people who transformed their lives utilizing the QuantumPathic Energy Method.


text:
Arrival/Getting into the City
I love to fly. I just hate flying to Greece. There is a big difference between a 12 hour flight and 7 time zone changes and a two hour flight with one time zone change. I sat next to a guy who represented a cocklear implant company and we talked about the economic crisis, the worst of which was yet to come. He had already sold his house and was now renting and thankful to get out of his mortgage. "Ownership is bullshit" he told me. "That part of the American dream is over. If you are paying a $400,000 mortage for a house that is worth under two you are crazy to not walk away from it." He told me to buy the book Aftershock and buy gold. "The sky is the limit with the price of gold. Watch and you will see the Chinese and Indians buying it like it is the only thing that matters, and once they do it will be the only thing that matters. The dollar won't be worth the paper it is printed on." I love this kind of financial apocolypse talk, having no mortgage, credit card debts or car payments. I have a house full of books, and about eight thousand hours of college courses on DVD and a sister with an organic vegetable and hog farm so I figure that as long as I have money to pay the electric bill to keep the AC going I will survive and maybe even take in a couple friends. It also makes a two hour flight seem a lot shorter. Next to us was the actor William Fichtner who slept through the whole flight and did not take part in our conversation. I pointed out to my new friend that Fichtner and I were both in The Perfect Storm. He was in the film and I was in the actual storm, though unaware at the time of its perfection.
As the conversation began to peter out I looked out the window to see a vast expanse of blue. Lake Michigan looks like the Aegean on a cloudless midwestern day and I got the same feeling I get while flying over Poros and Aegina before turning to land on the Attika peninsula. As we made our turn the skyline of Chicago appeared on the edge of all this blue, looking like New York City transplanted on the shores of the Mediteranean sea. From that moment I was convinced that I had just discovered the coolest place in the world.
The flight crosses the lake and then over Lake Shore Drive and the low buildings of the north and lands at Ohare Airport and just like that I am in a new world.
Getting into the City
You can find all sorts of transportation into the city. The CTA Blue Line (train) provides service directly into O'Hare Airport. The fully-accessible O'Hare station is situated in the lower level concourse, which connects Airline Terminals 1, 2 and 3, and is conveniently accessed from Terminal 5 by free, frequent airport shuttle trains. The normal travel time on the Blue Line from O'Hare to downtown, is 40-45 minutes. Blue Line trains run 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and all trains leaving the O'Hare station go through downtown.
The CTA Orange Line provides service directly to Midway Airport. The fully-accessible Midway station is right next to the airport terminal building, and connected by an enclosed walkway.
Taxis are available outside of the airport's arrivals area on the lower level curb front. The journey from Chicago Airport into central Chicago will take around 40 minutes, depending on traffic. The airport taxi meters in Chicago start at a basic fare, but additional charges are usually made for luggage, late-night driving and travel on public holidays in Chicago, so ask the taxi driver about these before getting in. Some Chicago Airport taxis accept credit cards. Shared-ride vans are also available from the airport.
Chicago O'Hare is served by public buses that travel from the airport's terminal buildings to central Chicago and other nearby towns. Buses at Chicago Airport run daily at regular intervals and are an inexpensive and useful way to travel into the city. Some hotels also offer a door-to-door courtesy shuttle bus services for their guests, traveling from the airport, directly to the hotel so ask your hotel. The Bus-Shuttle Center at is on the ground floor of the elevated parking garage, and is accessible by tunnels from Terminals 1, 2 and 3. This is also the pickup area for hotel door-to-door courtesy shuttle bus services, and Pace buses, as well as shuttle services for car rental agencies. This service also provides shuttles to north suburban destinations. Continental Airport Express shuttles operate from O'Hare airport every 5-10 minutes, with tickets available at the kiosk outside of the International Terminal and at counters across from baggage claim on the lower levels of Terminals 1, 2 and 3. For transfers to / from Midway and O'Hare International Airports, Omega Airport Shuttle provides an efficient and inexpensive service, with shuttles operating from 07:00 to 22:00.
Return to Chicago Index

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The 2006–07 season was the 82nd season in the history of Fussball-Club Luzern and the club's first season back in the top flight of Swiss football.

Players

First-team squad

Transfers

Competitions

Overall record

Swiss Super League

League table

Results summary

Results by round

Matches

Swiss Cup

References

FC Luzern seasons
Luzern

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I've heard that you can't fight city hall.
I've never tried. I believe in keeping light on your feet and moving fast.
When I had a conversation with the owner of a small manufacturer, I was reminded why I often advise businesses to lease property instead of owning. It gives you more flexibility.
This guy had a problem with zoning and needed help so he could mortgage the building and get operating capital.
My red flags went up and within a few questions I had identified the real problem… one he was working hard to avoid.
Make your business easier to run, more profitable and more easily sold when the day comes by implementing the 13 steps of my Build a Business That People Will Want to Buy System. Learn more and enroll at www.EasySmallBizSystems.com. 30-day guarantee, no risk for you.


text:
Search Results for query 'BREXIT' >
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People: 1 results
Sophie Rhys-Jones (1)
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7b84e86bd448241a8e0db7236ea02272
Norway Brexit
A look at Norway ahead of UK EU referendum
AP TELEVISION
With marching bands and all groups of society out in strength, Norway celebrates Constitution Day, taking pride in its sovereignty.
The small Scandinavian country's independence was hard won, having been ruled by Denmark for more than 400 years, and then by Sweden for nearly another century.
For some people, the experience of having been ruled from afar can explain Norway's reluctance to embrace the European Union project.
"We are on the edge of Europe and we know what it means to be governed from abroad," says Hans Petter Bergseth who is marching with friends from his skiing club. "I think it's deep in our soul that we want to be independent."
But whilst Norway has twice rejected EU membership in referendums in 1972 and 1994, the nation relies on a close relationship with Brussels. Seventy to 80 percent of all Norwegian exports go to the EU markets and cooperation is viewed as essential in the areas of education, research and many more.
Access to the EU's single market comes at a price.
Norway has signed up the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement, and therefore had to implement more than three quarters of all EU laws with no formal influence on how they are drafted.
More importantly, Norway has had to agree to four EU-style freedoms: free movement of goods, services, people and capital.
Today, Norway has more EU migrants per person than Britain. More than 300,000 EU nationals live here, mostly people from Poland and Sweden attracted by the prospects of high-paid jobs and a generous welfare state.
For many companies, this influx of foreign workers has been beneficial. In the small fishing village of Skjervoy several hours north of Tromso, a salmon processing plant has become dependent on foreign workers.
"We don't have enough Norwegian workers who want to work in the fish industry," explains plant manager Tore Pedersen.
Many of these foreign workers are from Romania, like Christian, who arrived nearly four years ago after growing tired of poorly paid jobs in Italy.
"I'm travelling with a Romanian passport, I've had no problem," he explains.
This factory processes 365 tons of fish per day: salmon fillets and whole fish destined for restaurants and dining tables across Europe. It's the main employer in the village, and managers say the business would not be able to grow without foreign workers willing to work the assembly lines.
Here, most workers are unionised and Pedersen says foreign workers are paid the same as Norwegians. Something the unions dispute.
Across the fishing industry, construction industry, hotel and restaurants, they report cases of employers using foreign workers that are not unionized and therefore don't benefit from the collective bargaining agreements that guarantee a minimum wage and regulated working conditions.
"If they don't know the system, they work up to 12 hours," complains union leader Gunn Paulsen, who was picketing a hotel during a four-week long strike across the Norwegian hotel industry calling for better pay. "They ruin it for the next (person) who's coming in, the Norwegians coming in who know the regulations."
Whilst many large hotel groups are unionized, smaller or independent ones without a protection are free to pay their staff whatever they wish. "However low they get in Norway they get higher than in other countries," said Paulsen.
For Professor Bjorn Hersoug from the Arctic University of Tromso, companies that seek to get around ordinary labour conditions by outsourcing the hiring for foreign workers represent a threat to the Norwegian model that balances free markets with a strong social welfare state.
"There is a fear of labour dumping," says Hersoug. "In some instances, it looks like they have working conditions that are considerably worse than agreed through the ordinary agreements for minimum wages for example."
But despite the challenges brought by the EEA agreement, cooperation with the EU and access to the single market remains essential for Norway.
"The EEA agreement is something I would call a corner stone in the Norwegian economy," says Elisabeth Aspaker, the Norwegian Minister of the EEA and EU Affairs.
"We have to face the reality that the EU is our most important market," she says. "We do need cooperation when it comes to research, education, and in many other aspects."
Tromso - 17 May 2016
1. Various of Constitution Day parade
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Hans Petter Bergseth, 53-year-old medical adviser:
"Well, it's a young nation. Quite a proud nation. We are on the edge of Europe and we know what it means to be governed from abroad or we know what it means to be governed by larger countries. So I think it's deep in our soul that we want to be independent pretty much yes."
Skjervoy - 18 May 2016
4. Various of Skjervoy harbour
5. Various exteriors of salmon processing plant
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Tore Pedersen, Fish processing plant manager:
"We have 180 people working here at Skjervoy and 60 percent of the workers are from other countries. It's a fact that we don't have enough Norwegian workers who want to work in the fish industry, so we need people from other countries to come and work at Skjervoy."
7. Christian in front of the processing plant
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Christian, No last Name given, factory worker from Romania:
"My name is Christian and I come from Romania. I've been here for four years - almost four years. I'm travelling with a Romanian passport, I've don't have any problems with travel. We don't need a visa or something like that - it's very easy to come here from Romania. It's a nice country to come to."
9. Various of filleting assembly line
10. Various of salmon packaging line
11. Various of salmon slaughter room
Tromso - 17 May, 2016
12. Various of Tromso seen from onboard a boat in the fjord
13. Various of local hotel staff on strike
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Gunn Paulsen, Union Leader:
"Before the oil strikes (meaning the fall in oil prices) it has been good for Norway because you had to have people working here, but then it started what we call in Norway the 'Monkey business' - that they started to pay lower to the people from other places, because they accept it, because however low they get in Norway they get higher than in other countries. So this is the bad thing."
15. Cutaway
"If they don't know the system, they work up to 12 hours. It's not nice because they ruin it for the next (person) who's coming in, the Norwegians coming in who know the regulations - but you can't say anything to the others working like this, because it's okay, they've always been doing this."
17. Various of Tromso harbour
18. Professor Bjorn Hersoug walking along harbour seafront
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Prof. Bjorn Hersoug, Arctic University of Tromso:
"You know, seen from the Norwegian point of view, if you can get around the ordinary salary conditions, the labour conditions by hiring a company from, for example, from Poland, and you make a deal with this Polish company where they provide you with the labour which is unorganised (non-unionized) then you are getting around the rules. You can legally pay them less, but that kind of undermines the whole Norwegian model in the longer run."
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Prof. Bjorn Hersoug, Arctic University of Tromso
"We see that we have a number of people coming from the European Union countries and in some instances it looks like they have working conditions that are considerably worse than agreed through the ordinary Norwegian agreements for minimum wages for example. So there is kind of a fear of labour dumping."
Tromso, Norway - 17 MAY 2016
Brussels, Belgium - 25 MAY 2016
23. Various of EU flags
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Elisabeth Aspaker, Minister of the EEA and EU Affairs:
"I think Norway is in a very special situation. We have this huge fortune in our oil, we have developed a solid welfare state and people think 'we can do by ourselves' or 'we can go on alone.' But in another way, we have to face the reality that the EU is our most important market, up to 70 or 80 percent of all the exported goods from Norway go to the EU market, and we do need cooperation when it comes to research, education, and in many other aspects. These days it's about migration, it's about security policy. So the EEA agreement is something I would call a corner stone in the Norwegian economy and if you go to the Parliament today, they will be a solid majority for the agreement although we are not a member of the EU."
32. Various of Norway House in Brussels
Constitutions , International agreements , Government pay , Labor economy , European Mass Migration Crisis , Hotel operators , Brexit referendum , Restaurant operators , Minimum wage , Hospitality and leisure industry , Oil and gas industry , Industry regulation , Government regulations , Labor unions , Economy , Food services regulation , Construction industry regulation , Passports and visas , Christianity , Estuaries , Commercial fishing and hunting , Government and politics , International relations , Government business and finance , Business , Government business and finance , Events , Consumer services , Consumer products and services , Industries , Food services , Labor issues , Social issues , Social affairs , Energy industry , Industry regulation , Travel , Lifestyle , Religion , Environment and nature , Agriculture
United Kingdom , Norway , Brussels , Europe , Romania , Poland , Western Europe , Belgium , Eastern Europe
919b89aed65747c5a3b910635b8f9c49
Belgium Carnival
Belgian carnival stereotypes Jews for 2nd year
The carnival in the Belgian city of Aalst on Sunday included stereotypical depictions of Jewish people for the second year in a row in its opening parade.
The Aalst Carnival parade has been criticised by the Belgian government which said that the anti-Semitism in the three-day festival had embarrassed the nation and endangered society.
The Carnival was removed from the United Nations' UNESCO heritage list last year after a float rife with anti-Semitic symbols raised worldwide condemnation.
Yet despite warnings, some floats in this year's carnival were once again offensive towards Jewish people.
Speaking before the carnival, Mayor of Aalst Christoph D'Haese said "Aalst is a warm, open and democratic city".
"It is not at all racist or anti-Semitic."
He added the carnival makes fun of everyone including political figures and various religions, but it is never meant to harm anyone.
Earlier this week, Israel called on Belgium to scrap the annual Aalst parade.
Philippe Markiewicz, President of the Israelite Consistory of Belgium, said his organisation was "disappointed" and "shocked" with the previous year's carnival, but said Aalst is "certainly not an anti-Semitic city" and the decision made by UNESCO was too rapid.
Markiewicz called for a dialogue which included the people of Aalst, saying it's not enough just to condemn it.
The overwhelming majority of the 75-plus official entries in the parade's 92nd edition touched on anything from town hall politics, to Brexit, and global climate change, but several contained depictions which caused complaints.
Carnival groups claims their three-day festival has a right to mock everything, even things which might be hurtful to others.
But even the minister-president of the northern Belgian province of Flanders, where the festival is held, warned against insulting or excessively mocking people.
Last year's festivities featured one float depicting Jewish people with exaggerated features and side locks standing over bags of money.
The caricatures recalled anti-Semitic tropes of the Middle Ages and Nazi Germany.
The Aalst carnival is one of Europe's most famous, and usually is a celebration of unbridled, no-holds-barred humor and satire.
Politicians, religious leaders and the rich and famous are relentlessly ridiculed during the three-day festival ahead of Roman Catholic Lent.
UNESCO, Jewish groups, and the EU all condemned last year's float as anti-Semitic, with the EU saying it conjured up visions of the 1930s.
Aalst - 23 February 2020
1. Aalst Carnival parade starting with performers of "Gilles de Binche" (typical carnival costume from the city of Binche)
2. Various of "Gilles de Binche" performers
3. Banner reading: (English) "RIP UNESCO"
4. Wide of man with the sign reading: (English) "RIP UNESCO"
5. Carnival performers dancing
6. Christoph D'Haese, Mayor of Aalst, in costume
7. D'Haese, at news conference before the carnival ++NEWS CONFERENCE TOOK PLACE BEFORE CARNIVAL++
8. Cameraman
9. SOUNDBITE (Dutch/English) Christoph D'Haese, Mayor of Aalst: ++CONSECUTIVE TRANSLATION FROM SOURCE++
"Aalst is a warm, open and democratic city. There is no racism or anti-Semitism in this city. It is a very nice and warm city where you can shop, tourists visiting and so on."
10. Media
11. SOUNDBITE (Dutch/English) Christoph D'Haese, Mayor of Aalst: ++CONSECUTIVE TRANSLATION FROM SOURCE++
"Everyone can become a 'victim' (in brackets) here, anyone can be in the centre of attention. People start laughing with anything you can imagine; with the royal family for instance, Brexit, local and national politics, with the different religions; Catholic church, Islamic church, the Jewish people. They starting laughing (making fun of) everybody and everything you can imagine, (but it is never to harm anyone.)"
12. Float depicting Western Wall with writing on it including (local Aalst dialect): "The Western Wall" - those walking with the float are wearing fur hats such as those worn by groups within ultra-Orthodox Judaism including Hasidic Jews
13. Wide of a carnival float with writing (local Aalst dialect) referring to local shoe chain Torfs
14. Close of banner reading (English): "Big UNESCO is watching you"
15. Medium of a carnival performers dancing
16. Wide of chariot moving with people in costume banging on barrels
17. Wide of a carnival performers dancing
18. Jeroen (no last name given) with other members a carnival band
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeroen (no last name given), carnival band member:
"Because, like the mayor said, we don't want to have another country or someone else who is going to say to us what we can do or what we can do not. We are still in Aalst, we still want to do our thing. And no matter what the UNESCO says or another one or another country, we still are going to do our thing."
20. Wide tilt up of a float with banner reading (English): "UNESCO FIASCO"
21. Various of floats
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Lieve (no last name given), carnival-goer:
"I have been doing this since I was kid. Ever since I was little, I came to watch the (unintelligible) every year and it is the ambiance, the different people, everyone you meet in the streets, that is what makes it so fantastic."
23. Zoom in on the parade floats
Brussels - 23 February 2020
24. SOUNDBITE (English) of Philippe Markiewicz, President of the Israelite Consistory of Belgium:
"I must tell you that we were very disappointed with the carnival of Aalst last year but after it we had a meeting with the people of Aalst and we explained them all why, the reasons why we are disappointed. It is a pity that the dialogue could not continue because of a decision of UNESCO. This year was not as bad that last year, we are shocked certainly, but it was not so bad as last year. But our prime minister (Sophie Wilmès) made a declaration and she condemned all forms of anti-Semitism and she invited everybody to have a dialogue."
25. Wide of building
26. Close of the door reading (English): "Israeli community of Brussels"
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Markiewicz, President of the Israelite Consistory of Belgium:
"I think that the decision of the UNESCO was too early, they had to wait until 2020. What happened in 2019 was shocking, certainly, but they had to wait to what would happen in 2020. They did not need to go so quickly and there was not any urgency, so I am disappointed with their decision of 2019, but the situation is so, so we have to manage it and we have to continue the dialogue with the people of Aalst. Flanders and Aalst is certainly not an anti-Semitic city or an anti-Semitic country."
28. Close of cameras of the building
"I condemn some of their figures, certainly, but it is not because I condemn that I cannot have a dialogue with them, to explain them what are the regulations of a democracy. We need to speak together. It is not enough to condemn, it is absolutely a priority, the discussion together and the dialogue, we have a duty to have a dialogue with everybody and certainly with the people of Aalst. And so I am trying to be positive because it is my duty as president of the "Consistoire Central of Belgium" with the official institution of Belgium Judaisme."
++EDIT ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
Government and politics , Carnivals , Recreation and leisure , Lifestyle , Carnivals , Leisure travel , Travel , Parades , Religion and politics , Religious issues , Religion , Social affairs , Religious issues , Social issues , Anti-Semitism , Racial and ethnic discrimination , Race and ethnicity , Racial and ethnic discrimination , Discrimination , Human rights and civil liberties , Municipal governments , Local governments , Dance , Performing arts , Entertainment , Arts and entertainment , Fairs and festivals
United Nations, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Brussels , Belgium , Western Europe , Europe


Do you want to know more about the event? Find the ARH 2019 booklet here.
*If you have registered for Lindy Hop Advanced and you would like to attend Lindy Hop Adv 2 or Lindy Hop Adv 3 levels. please make sure you will attend the audition on Friday afternoon (please check the schedule-> Audition Advanced). If you don't attend the audition, you will be assigned to Lindy Hop Adv 1.


text:
The Bad Batch
500 Days Of Film Reviews Horror Drama, The Bad Batch, starring Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Jim Carrey And Keanu Reeves
Exiled to a Texan wasteland fenced off from civilization, Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) struggles to adjust to her new, unforgiving landscape. Things go from bad to worse when she is captured by a savage band of cannibals led by the mysterious Miami Man (Jason Momoa).
With her life on the line, she escapes and makes her way to The Dream (Keanu Reeves) and his colony of outcasts in the desert. As she adjusts to life in 'the bad batch' Arlen discovers that being good or bad is often a matter of perspective.
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How to describe The Bad Batch? Well, you could call it a cannibal fairytale, a savage satire, a psychedelic western or a (dark) romantic adventure. However you characterise it, one thing is for sure: Ana Lily Amirpour's film is one crazy ride.
Having loved her debut movie (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night), I was eager to see The Bad Batch once it was released on Netflix. How would Amirpour follow her superb and atmospheric Iranian vampire tale?
By focusing on cannibalism, of course. In the first scenes of the film, Arlen finds herself cast out, labelled as one of the 'bad batch' of undesirables no longer wanted in America. Before she is able to process her new circumstances, Arlen is kidnapped.
Chained up in a desolate shanty town full of formidable cannibal body builders, she is destined to become dinner - limb by limb. In these early powerful scenes, Amirpour shows us the reality of her situation and it is brutal.
Arlen manages to escape, but where can she go? How can she find meaning in her new life? Vengeance seems an option and one that leads her into the path (via a strange drug-fuelled hallucination) of Jason Momoa's Miami Man. The film then teases us with an unlikely and dangerous romance.
After its powerful and startlingly savage opening scenes, I began to lose interest in The Bad Batch. I couldn't figure out if I was enjoying Amirpour's movie or just tolerating it because of how much I had loved her previous film.
Midway through and I wasn't enjoying this movie. While I understood what the film was trying to do, I became increasingly frustrated and disappointed that The Bad Batch had failed to engage me in its storytelling.
Then something strange happened. The Bad Batch began to grow on me, to grip me and, by the end, I realised that I had loved my experience of watching this film. I warmed to the characters, enjoyed the score and could almost feel the arid heat of the Texan desert - thanks to Lyle Vincent's superb cinematography.
Now knowing where this film is headed, I want to go back and watch it all over again.
The Bad Batch depends on our appreciation of Arlen's journey. I was impressed by Suki Waterhouse's physical performance and found her surprisingly engaging. "I told her she was going to suffer, physically, mentally, suffer, more than she could imagine," Amirpour recalls.
"It's an action movie, with stunts, and prosthetics, shooting in a decayed hot desert, no frills, all pain. And I told her this right up front, to see if she would commit all the way, and she did. She's a true warrior. And beyond that she has a magic about her that can hold your attention no matter what she's doing."
Meanwhile, the rest of the cast have fun with their roles. I enjoyed Jason Momoa's performance, Jim Carrey is brilliant (and borderline unrecognisable) and Keanu Reeves pitches his seedy saviour, The Dream, to perfection.
As with her previous film, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, music is key to The Bad Batch. Amirpour explains that music is "such a crucial element to being creative for me, or just being a human being.
"I think for a movie, a song feels like a character or a place or a scene, and, sometimes I hear a song, and I just want to create a moment in a film for it to exist, so I think it's almost kind of like scoring the film to the music, and most people kind of do it the other way around."
And that's the exciting thing about Ana Lily Amirpour - she is not afraid to do things differently. The Bad Batch may not be for everyone but it certainly won my heart.
Amirpour sent many of her crew members Westerns to study (including El Topo, and Once Upon A Time in the West) before production on The Bad Batch began to give them an idea of what she wanted her film to look like.
If you enjoyed The Bad Batch or not, I would really recommend Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night.
Have you seen The Bad Batch?
If you have, what did you think of Ana Lily Amirpour's film? Let me know by leaving me a comment in the section below or let's chat over on Facebook or Twitter (@500DaysOfFilm).
tagPlaceholderTags: Horror, Rated15, Adventure, AnaLilyAmirpour, Review, 1hr58mins, KeanuReeves, 2017, SukiWaterhouse, JasonMoma, JimCarey


RUSH: I think all of this, folks, is missing the point. The discussion that we're having here on this is missing the point. What if somebody were to say to you, "You can't stop these things from happening"?
"They've happened throughout human history. Mass murder, criminals, evil people. You can't stop them. They're going to be there. There isn't a fix. Not a pure fix." What do you think people's reaction to that would be? (interruption) Well, it'd be stronger than, "We have to try." It would be, "We gotta get people stop listening to Limbaugh," but fact of the matter remains that it's true. As I point out: The worst school, mass death, mass killing in this country was in 1927.
But we live when? We live in a culture where the left wants us to give up oat bran one day and then eat it the next so we'll be healthier. The left wants us to stop drinking sodas that are bigger than 16 ounces, because why? "Well, it's healthier! You might not die." What, you might not get sick? You might live longer? What? Why can't we drink something bigger than 16 ounces? "You can't have trans fats." Why?
We live in a culture where the political activists in our society think they have an answer for everything, that they can prevent and stop everything bad from happening. I would maintain to you that they have done more to exacerbate these problems. Because what they essentially do is put a jackbooted foot on people's freedom and liberty, and sometimes in the most innocent ways. Who cares if I drink a 32-ounce Coke? What business is it of anybody, particularly government's?
Now, Bill Bennett, just to illustrate another point that I like to make. Twenty-five years ago when I started this program, it was filled with warnings. "If we don't get a handle on X, we're gonna end up here, and this is gonna happen, and that's gonna happen," and I maintain to you now: We've arrived. The threat is no longer the problem. The reality is the problem. Now, Bill Bennett is a former education secretary. Back in 1994, Bill Bennett published what he called the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators.
It was an adjunct to the Index of Leading Economic Indicators, which has always been around and is very popular. What Bennett did was to compile how the moral, social, and behavioral conditions of modern American society had changed since 1963, and he chose 1963 to get a 30-year take on things. Here's what he found. In 1994, as compared to 1963, violent crime had increased over 500%.
Illegitimate births had increased 400%. Divorces had increased 400%. Children living in a single parent home had increased 300%. Child abuse was up 340% since 1976. Teenage suicide had increased 200%, and SAT scores had dropped almost 80 points. Now, I remember. I was here, I was there in 1994 when Bennett released these, and he was mocked and made fun of and accused of trying to tell people how to live their lives.
He was Mr. Morality, and "What right did he have?" Yet that stuff all matters. I mean, if you want to try to find out what happens here and if you are serious about preventing it in the future, it's gonna require some courageous honesty. It may also require the acceptance of the fact that you can't stop all of them. Somebody pushed somebody front of a subway the other day. You can't ban subway cars.
People are going to die, in all manners.
At any rate, I think that so much of what's happening here was predicted — and don't forget, it was just a couple weeks ago we went back and repeated from my TV show a monologue about a mass killing in Chicago involving an eight-year-old and a four-year-old. Remember the Bob Greene column? Bob Greene, living in Chicago, asked: "Have we lost our soul?" That bothered people. "Oh, now it's a religious problem?" The thing is they keep happening. They do.
Obama got it right. This is the fourth mass shooting during his first term. It averages out to one a year. (interruption) No, I'm not making any correlation. That's for you to make. If you want to play that game, go ahead. It is interesting we were supposed to be unified and loving one another and at peace and all these wonderful New Age things by now.
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I should have said this at the top of the program. I assumed that people would understand this. I do not come to this program today thinking I know what to do about this, and I don't want anybody to assume that I'm sitting here thinking I have the answers, 'cause I don't. I think I have some pretty good theories as to why we are where we are in our culture, but how to stop this? I'm not qualified. I don't know that it can be. I have such a cynical view about most every health story that comes down the pike sponsored by the left, from this stupid mayor putting a ban on 32-ounce sodas.
It's absurd and I don't think it's responsible. But in the process we've created this belief that if you don't do this and don't do that and don't do that and don't do that, somehow you're never gonna get sick, and you're never gonna die, you're never gonna get cancer, and you're never gonna get leukemia. It's folly. We're lying to people as part of a political agenda to expand the size of our government. I think what's going on is hideous. But I don't want anybody to misunderstand that I think I've got the answers here, in terms of how to prevent this. I don't know that it can be. But I just want to tell you a couple things that I do believe.
I don't believe that you can have a culture, a society where over a million babies are aborted every year and not have a dwindling respect for the sanctity of life. I don't think you can have a culture which talks about euthanasia, the Jack Kevorkian story that was big for a while, killing people later in life for the convenience of the living. I just don't believe that a society which can so easily kill for the convenience of the living can do that without suffering some real consequences when it comes to the sanctity of life. I don't know what role video games play. I don't play video games, so I don't know if a kid playing a video game all of his life actually ends up thinking that people come back to life after you kill them. I don't know that. I don't know if a kid playing a video game forever ends up with a cheapened view of life and a fun, glorified view of killing. I don't know any of that.
But I do know, because I see it each and every day, that young people in this country are obsessed with fame and are willing to do a lot of insane, crazy things to get noticed because they think there's glamour and wealth and love in fame. People watch the famous and think everybody loves them and we all want to be loved. Everybody loves them. Everybody thinks they're cool. They have cool things. They have a lot of friends. They're rich. All these things make people want that. You couple that with the fact that everybody wants their life to matter, to have meaning in their lives, fame, attention. I do know that that's not healthy. And I do know that it has infected a lot of people. But I don't know that it can be proven that a desire to be famous has a role in this episode. Maybe it does and we may never know, but I do know some of these things are just not good for the foundation of the culture in which we live overall.


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January 11, 2018 January 11, 2018 by The Seniors Center Blog
CBS This Morning: awaiting sentencing, a former con-artist offers insight into the motives and techniques of senior scammers
Although it's uncomfortable and might be angering for a law-abiding citizen to hear, there's something to be said for listening on the rare occasion an offender decides to speak.
On this segment of CBS This Morning, correspondent Carter Evans sits down with a 31-year-old charged and awaiting sentence for his participation in the "grandparent scam," a phone con that targets older Americans and exploits their emotions for big payouts.
Though the interviewee requests to have his name withheld, he sits down with Evans to reveal almost everything about how this scam works: what he'd say, who he'd target and why, and what (or what didn't) go through his head when he made off with huge amounts of vulnerable seniors' cash–an amount he says could be as high as "$10,000…in a day if you do it properly."
Paired with the experience of an 81-year-old grandmother who became the unfortunate victim of nearly the exact phone call the scammer describes, it's difficult to hear the scammer's response to Evan's questioning:
"What drives a person like you when you know how much pain it's causing people?"
"I didn't know how much pain this was causing people. I thought people are making $100,000 a year and they would lose a couple thousand here and there…people lose money all the time."
But four years after the airing of this segment, law enforcement is still having trouble getting control of the grandparent scam. The scammers using it are no easier to catch now than they were in 2014. And the techniques are still working.
Despite our best efforts to shut down the bogus call centers where these crooks operate and catch the people victimizing seniors, it still largely falls to seniors themselves to watch out for grandparent scammers. That's where getting into the heads of the scammers themselves can be very useful.
Throughout the segment, the former scammer gives some very useful flags for recognizing this strategy:
Since it's likely the caller won't sound anything like your grandchild, they'll usually offer an excuse for it ("I broke my nose," "I have a cold," or "my connection is bad").
They'll avoid giving their own name since they don't know your actual grandchild's name (in the segment, when the victim asks who's calling, the scammer replied "don't you know?").
After making the ask, they'll heavily stress the need to keep the transaction secret–they'll often beg the victim to not to tell anyone they've asked you for money.
To keep the fraudulent transaction untraceable and irreversible, the caller will ask you to send the money in a form that's as good as cash: a wire transfer or loaded onto several gift cards.
If you're unsure of the caller's identity, a sure-fire way to peg a scammer is asking him or her a personal question only your real grandchild would know the answer to–the former scammer himself makes this suggestion.
Another important takeaway from the interview is the reason why the former scammer says those in his line of work go after seniors: they're home, presumably alone or lonely, and it's easy to tweak their emotions and get them to act without thinking. Afterward, the shame and embarrassment of falling for such a seemingly transparent trick is enough to keep victims from reporting it or speaking about it.
But no one is insusceptible in a heightened emotional state. We are all liable to act on impulse when we think someone we love is in danger. It's important to remember blaming the victim of a crime for the damage done to him by the criminal is NEVER acceptable–it was a CRIME.
The only one who should feel shame or embarrassment about the grandparent scam is the grandparent scammer.
And hopefully this former scammer finally understands the pain he has caused.
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April 27, 2012 / LBD "Nytetrayn"
When Mega Man Legends 3 was initially cancelled, headlines were made all throughout the gaming world, some of which involved the formation of the group whose focus was to prove Capcom wrong; that there is indeed interest in creating a sequel to the long-dormant tale of Diggers, Air Pirates, and Reaverbots. And with the first goal of 100,000 members having been reached, headlines are being made once again. In addition to our colleague Protodude sharing in the occasion, the following are some other outlets which have picked up the story.
100,000 Strong for Mega Man Legends 3 - Mega Man for Smash Bros.
We can definitely appreciate the "never give up" message here, that much is certain.
Of course, Capcom has still yet to respond or openly acknowledge the milestone. If anything comes up, we'll naturally be on top of it and bring it right to you.


This is the brainchild of Jonathan Brinley, who runs a web development company with his wife. This site was sometimes the only place where we could find certain difficult topics discussed. If Jonathan has written about something you need to work on, then it's probably hugely educational to see what he has to say about it.


The coast of Maresme, known for its natural beauty where forests, oaks predominate … and its beautiful sea views!
Each year, more people decide to move to one of the Maresme villages or make it their holiday destination.
The views are a detail that we overlook when we have to choose our home, but it is an important aspect! The views of these houses that we present are a luxury!
Today we are going to enter into Maresme from its wonderful houses for sale, from where to enjoy the best views!
Beautiful newly built house for sale, finished recently, located on a magnificent plot with stunning views over the Mediterranean Sea in a privileged area of the town of Cabrera de Mar, only 30 km away from the city center of Barcelona.
Huge terrace with stunning views and swimming pool with fitted in jacuzzi, garden area surrounded by exotic plants.
An incredible investment! The property in Cabrils is provided with a touristic license. Amazing house for sale 300 m2 living Surface built on a 2,500 m2 spectacular plot (the plot can be divided into two plots).
The whole house is distributed on two floors having spacious and immaculate interior design.
The house has, spectaculars sea views and also to the sky-line of Barcelona. A wide hall with double ceiling height distributes the spaces. The living room has large windows that fill the room with light and also has an exit to the terrace.
Having tourist license, you can get a great performance with the rent.
Modern with sea views in Supermaresme!
Exclusive modern style house for sale located in one of the most prestigious urbanizations in Sant Vicenç de Montalt. It is situated on a 1,961 m2 plot and has a magnificent outdoor space built with tropical wood flooring and travertine marble surrounding the heated saltwater pool with waterfall and jacuzzi.
The living surface built of the house is 708 m2, using highest quality materials. It is divided into two comfortable floors and allows to enjoy panoramic views of the sea from all the rooms.
Mediterranean style House where the combination of old wood, stone, white walls and the materials used make it warm, cozy and special. The house has spectacular views to the Mediterranean Sea and absolute privacy thanks to its almost 8,000 m2 flat plot.
Spectacular and exclusive home in Vilassar de Dalt modern and minimalist design for sale, built using the highest quality materials. Sea panoramic views from all rooms and very well connected to the highway that connects Barcelona.
Highlight the fantastic garden having a large summer terrace with barbecue area and direct access to the beautiful pool deck with spectacular views of the sea.
That house for sale has a privileged location in one of the quietest residential area in Premià de Dalt. Perfect southern orientation, gave to this house natural light all day. Modern and current design that prevails straight lines and asymmetric spaces, always open to the garden and with Seaview from any room. Built on a plot of 1,150 m2, its exterior spaces are highlighted, with a spectacular swimming pool area and private fronton.
Next Next post: House for sale in Cabrils with stunning sea views, reduce its price!


We currently have an exciting role for a full time Admin & Facilities Executive working within our Central Admin Team. This role will is responsible reception duties including welcoming callers and visitors to the Explore office in a professional manner, which enhances the company's image. The Executive is also responsible for the day to day maintenance of the building, for providing organisational and administrative support to other areas of the business and ensuring the customer experience is at the heart of all decisions made.
Explore have been running small group adventure holidays since 1981. We are passionate about what we do and we love to travel. Our experience and knowledge make us one of the most trusted tour operators in the UK. We have over 500 small group trips in 120 countries (including Family Adventures, Cycling & Walking), plus self-guided programmes; so a product range that is second to none in the industry.
Our wide range of activities and experiences, award-winning Tour Leaders, a commitment to responsible travel and a pinch of Explore spirit, keep our customers coming back year after year.
Explore has been a part of the Hotelplan UK group of specialist travel companies since December 2015. We operate as a totally standalone business, but also work closely with our sister companies wherever possible. Other brands within the Hotelplan UK group are Inghams, Esprit, Ski Total, Santa's Lapland and Inntravel.
Greeting visitors entering the building. Answering Reception telephone, screen and direct calls. Taking and relaying messages.
Ensuring the very best service is provided for customers, staff and suppliers at all times.
Monitoring visitor access and maintaining security awareness.
Responsible for Health and Safety in the workplace ensuring compliance to regulations including for Fire and First Aid.
Organise various company events such as Monthly Update Meeting, Birthday Breakfast etc.
Ability to multi-task through effective planning, prioritising and organising of workload.
Experience of dealing with people face to face and over telephone.
Ability to treat people with respect under all circumstances, install trust and uphold the values of the business.
Experience of Health and Safety at work statutory and legislative obligations.
GCSE English and Maths Grade C or above.
One thing we pride ourselves on at Explore is looking after our staff, not only do we offer a competitive salary we also offer an extensive range of benefits that include, Salary Sacrifice Pension Scheme, Profit Related Annual Bonus, Life Assurance, Private Medical Insurance, Health Cash Plan, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Staff Discount on Explore holidays, Season Ticket Loans, Cycle to Work Scheme, On-site Massage Therapist, Employee Reward and Perks Scheme - to name a few!


Brown's Policies Make CA Model for Fascism Without Fences — Jail Him Now!
Gov. Brown Squirt continues his Goebbels propaganda and death march. On April 1, he made 25% water cuts mandatory throughout the state. This policy left discretion to the for-profit and politically powerful water agencies, to orient their distribution to customers who can pay much higher prices, while making the cuts hardest for those who can't pay now, as it is, let alone with higher prices. In essence, privatization of water under the mask of public conservation.
Within a week, by April 8, due to the obvious fascist loopholes in Gov. Brown's executive diktat, there was statewide press coverage of new priorities that would be set by the State Water Resource Board (SWRB), which would supposedly mandate harder cuts to the most affluent communities while giving breaks to the impoverished. However, even these priorities were another blatant PR campaign to cover up what everyone knows is true, but is too afraid to say: that there are Nazis in Sacramento and they want to kill you.
Now, letters written to the State Water Resources Board by both citizens and city agencies have been published online, which make it clear that these cuts are nothing less than fascism with a pen, and are targeting those very citizens Gov. Brown and his squirts say explicitly they will try to spare.
Background: Jerry Brown's Brownshirt Genocidal Policy; If It Is Brown, Flush It!
This is nothing less than a desperate move, already in motion, to kill the people of California en masse, and it is a test case for the nation. Four LaRouche PAC organizers have spent the last two days organizing in the Central Valley, with meetings planned with city councilors and farm groups, and have received a strong response from the population. It is fair to say for those living in CA who have not joined the Nazi ranks, the bleachers of the arena have been taken away — either you end this fascist policy now or you're as good as dead, because YOU are in the arena.
First step: Jail Brown for this criminal program and his blatant deceit of the population.
What Brown and his Squirts are doing is treason to the state and the nation, and we must say it.
The main argument they present, is that, since the biggest change in policy, with Brown's rationing, will be to agricultural use of water, this will have little effect on the state's GDP! This is because 1.) the communities dependent on agriculture have already been affected, and 2.) agriculture is responsible for only 2% of the state's GDP. Thus, a decline in agricultural income "probably would have only a limited impact on the overall state economy." Otherwise, with the exception of agriculture, and possible negative consequences for home construction, the outlook is rosy, as revenues are up, and the deficit is low!
To address the last point first, revenues are up, due to the stock bubble created by Wall Street's trading, using zero-percent-interest money from the Fed to buy stocks. California benefits through Silicon Valley tech companies and start-ups, which created 23 new billionaires in Silicon Valley in 2014, who pay capital gains' taxes. The deficit is lower due to fifteen years of murderous austerity, under Schwarzenegger and Brown, which has reduced spending at the expense of human lives, among the poor — especially children — the sick, and the elderly. But more to the point, is the insanity of separating completely the collapse of the physical economy, from the speculative, saying that the collapse of water usage, which will collapse food production, i.e., consumption, will have only a "limited" economic impact — that is, except for the "useless eaters," who don't deserve to eat, anyway.
This entry was posted in water crisis and tagged California, green genocide, green insanity, Jerry Brown, rebirth of Nazism, water genocide, water infrastructure, water management, western drought. Bookmark the permalink.


The third quarter of 2018 has been characterised by a continued rise in take-up of all electronic communication products and services. In the telephony segment, a rise in mobile traffic volumes materialised alongside the expansion in the local subscriber base for the service. The fixed telephony segment did however experience a drop in traffic volumes despite a rise in subscriptions. Take-up for fixed broadband surged as a result of more households and businesses opting for fast and ultra-fast connections, whilst the client base of the pay-TV segment surge ahead by around 10,000. Significantly, the big majority of new clients for fixed telephony, fixed broadband and pay-TV got a bundle subscription. The mobile telephony segment continues to be immune to this trend possibly due to the fact that consumers deem this service to be better suited for individual use rather than as a bundled service with other electronic communications products.
The mobile telephony subscriber base reached an all-time high of 621,744 at the end of September 2018, up by 16,985 subscriptions year-on-year. This increase is completely attributed to a year-on-year rise 12,218 post-paid subscriptions, as opposed to a marginal decline of 283 pre-paid subscriptions during the same period. This trend may be explained by the additional monthly voice and data allowances that have been in place during this year. The shift in take-up from pre-paid to post-paid plans led to an increase in ARPU of local mobile operators, from €45.12 in Q3 2017 to €46.51 in Q3 2018.
Another notable trend is the rise in mobile data consumption both in terms of roaming and domestic use. On the domestic front, mobile data volumes totalled to 1,622.7 million during the 3rd quarter of 2018, up by 349.5 million MB (or by 26.5%) compared to Q3 2017. Similarly, mobile roaming data used by local subscribers whilst travelling abroad increased from 638.1 million MB in Q3 2017 to 1,229.8 million MB in Q3 2018.
The rise in fixed telephony subscriptions did not translate in higher traffic volumes. It is indeed very likely that this change comes on the back of end-users opting for bundled subscriptions that include fixed telephony, notwithstanding the continued fixed-to-mobile substitution that has been strengthening for years.
Take-up for fixed broadband in Q3 2018 was driven by stronger demand for fast and ultra-fast broadband connections, i.e. those connections supporting speeds of 30Mbps or more. In fact, year-on-year, the number of fixed broadband subscriptions supporting download speeds of 30Mbps but less than 100Mbps was up by 13,985 (or by 14.3%) whilst the number of subscriptions for connections supporting a download speed of 100Mbps or more was up by 28,320 (or by 94.9%).
By the end of Q3 2018, the pay-TV sector recorded an increase of almost 10,000 subscriptions when compared to the same period a year earlier. Growth in this sector was driven by higher take-up of the digital cable service and the IPTV service, with both platforms seeing a 14.6% and 41.5% rise in subscriptions respectively. No analogue pay-TV subscriptions were recorded at the end of Q3 2018.
Postal mail volumes were up by 3.8% in Q3 2018 when compared to Q3 2017. During the quarter under review, postal activity related to bulk mail and registered mail items was the greatest contributor in terms of volume. Upon comparing Q3 2018 with Q3 2017, bulk mail volumes were up by 6.7 % whilst registered mail volumes were up by 8.2%.
By the end of Q3 2018 there was a total of 496 leased line connections, down by 59 connections (or 10.6%) year-on-year. This drop reflects the fall in the number of traditional interface connections, which were down by 62.9% during this period. Conversely, Ethernet interface connections were up by 1.9%.
At the end of Q3 2018, there were 14 international retail leased line connections, marginally down from 15 at the end of the same period a year earlier.


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Q: Docker backup container with startup parameters Im facing the same problem since months now and i dont have an adequate solution.
Im running several Containers based on different images. Some of them were started using portainer with some arguments and volumes. Some of them were started using the CLI and docker start with some arguments and parameters.
Now all these settings are stored somewhere. Because if i stop and retart such a container, everything works well again. but, if i do a commit, backup it with tar and load it on a different system and do a docker start, it has lost all of its settings.
The procedure as described here: https://linuxconfig.org/docker-container-backup-and-recovery does not work in my case.
Now im thinking about to write an own web application which will create me some docker compose files based on my setting rather than to just do a docker start with the correct params. This web application should also take care of the volumes (just folders) and do a incremental backup of them with borg to a remote server.
But actually this is only an idea. Is there a way to "extract" a docker compose file of a running containter? So that i can redeploy a container 1:1 to an other server and just have to run docker run mycontainer and it will have the same settings?
Or do i have to write my web app? Or have i missed some page on google and there is already such a solution?
Thank you!

A: To see the current configuration of a container, you can use:
docker container inspect $container_id

You can then use those configurations to run your container on another machine. There is no easy import/export of these settings to start another container that I'm aware of.
Most people use a docker-compose.yml to define how they want a container run. They also build images with a Dockerfile and transfer them with a registry server rather than a save/load.
The docker-compose.yml can be used with docker-compose or docker stack deploy and allows the configuration of the container to be documented as a configuration file that is tracked in version control, rather than error prone user entered settings. Running containers by hand or starting them with a GUI is useful for a quick test or debugging, but not for reproducibility.

A: You would like to backup the instance but the commands you're providing are to backup the image. I'd suggest to update your Dockerfile to solve the issue. In case you really want to go down the saving the instance current status, you should use the docker export and docker import commands.
Reference:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/import/
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/export/

NOTE: the docker export does not export the content of the volumes anyway, I suggest you to should refer to https://docs.docker.com/engine/admin/volumes/volumes/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A SOAS PhD degree has to be completed within a maximum of four years. A draft of the thesis must be ready at the end of year 3; during year 4 the student is on continuation status, also referred to as an 'extension of writing up'; the completed thesis must be submitted until September 15 of year 4 of registration.
All first year research students are registered for MPhil status. The outcome of a mini-viva at the end of term 3 conducted by the three members of the student's supervisory committee determines whether they will be (a) upgraded to PhD candidate status, (b) continue as MPhil candidates, (c) need to revise his or her proposal, or (d) should terminate registration.
In the first year students develop their specific research projects and plans in consultation with the three members of their supervisory committee. Individual supervisions, the obligatory departmental research writing workshop, and generic core writing courses help students prepare their upgrade submission materials which have to be submitted by the submission deadline in May.
1. Year 1-3/4: Minutes of supervisory meetings have to be recorded by the student on the Moodle logbook throughout.
c. statement on research ethics in case of fieldwork.
a. The three supervisors write individual reports on the submitted documents and circulate them among themselves before the upgrade viva.
b. The 1 hour long 'mini viva' is held with the candidate and his/her three supervisors in May/June.
d. The decision will be communicated to the candidate orally immediately after the viva.
e. The principal supervisor passes a written summary of the three individual reports, containing valuable feedback, to the candidate.
After a successful upgrade to MPhil/PhD status students can go abroad to do fieldwork or do research in local libraries. During the second year student work on their source material, whether it consists of texts, interviews, surveys, or visual, etc., sources.
Regular reports must be submitted to supervisor, via email or in person. The other members of the research committee need to be kept informed as well.
A second core chapter will normally be completed.
During the third year of their PhD students are expected to write a draft of their thesis. This draft must be ready at the end of the year to proceed to continuation status in year 4.
Required presentation at the PhD/MPhil Research Seminar.
Application for continuation status requires the submission of a draft of the thesis at the end of year 3 together with the continuation approval form (not later than 31 August).
All three members of the supervisory committee read the draft and provide written feedback. All committee members sign the Extension of Writing-Up Form (download doc | pdf) if the Committee is satisfied that the draft thesis can be developed into a thesis of a quality worthy for submission for examination in the subsequent academic year. The final date for submission is 15 September.
The student will then be allowed to register on Extension of Writing-up (Continuation) Status in Year 4 at reduced fees during year 4, assuming 4 years are needed to complete the thesis.
Teaching experience may be available in Year Two or Three, depending on Department needs.
The thesis must be completed and submitted by the end of year 4 not later than 15 September.
that the thesis is of a standard to merit publication in whole or in part or in a revised form.


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namespace umeshu {

typedef boost::error_info<struct tag_errinfo_desc, std::string> errinfo_desc;

struct umeshu_error : virtual std::exception, virtual boost::exception { };
struct triangulation_error : virtual umeshu_error { };
struct add_face_error : virtual triangulation_error { };
struct bad_topology_error : virtual triangulation_error { };

} // namespace umeshu

#endif // UMESHU_EXCEPTIONS_H

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Christine Swint created this poetry postcard. She adds this background: The lines from this poem come from a dream I had in February. The photo is of a marginalized neighborhood in downtown Atlanta.
Christine Swint wrote this poem on top of a picture she took in downtown Atlanta.


Public polls pertaining to the Canadian trucking industry.
No registration is needed in order to vote in this forum.
Yes my company pays us overtime.
No, they do not pay overtime but I do work or have worked in excess of 60 hours per week.


1. Check whether the online shopping portal is genuine and authentic. You can verify this by making online search, checking their address and contact details. Beware of portals without address for communication or with incomplete address.
2. Check whether the portal is run by a registered company. If yes then taking legal action against them can be less cumbersome. The company and the directors' information can be obtained from the MCA portal.
3. Always go through the terms and conditions for sale, cancellation and refund rules. Take a print of the rules and preserve it for future reference in case of any possible disputes.
4. Many portals allow refund but only to their wallets. You should be careful in dealing with these sites. You not like any of the product on these portals and you will not be able to use the money in the wallet.
5. If you are dealing with unverified, lesser known shopping portals then do not opt COD. Always pay online through bank / payment gateway so that you can track the beneficiary.
6. Never purchase through social media sites and apps (Whatsap, Facebook, Instagram) unless the seller has proven credentials. It is better to obtain copy of Aadhar Card or Voter Id of the Seller and transfer money only to the name appearing on these cards.
7. Check the product as soon as it is received. If you are gifting a product to someone else who is away from you then ask the person to check the product immediately upon receipt.
8. Any complaints should be reported to the Seller and portal immediately. If complaint is registered over telephone then record the same by sending it through email.
9. If possible, make a video of unboxing. This will help you in case of disputes in relation to receipt of wrong product, empty parcel.
10. If received empty parcel, it is advisable to file a police complaint as soon as possible. Thereafter approach the seller / portal with formal complaint.


At Screenvision Media, we know the world isn't looking for another problem identifier. We are quick-thinkers, creative storytellers and passionate, determined solution-finders. We understand that in an ever-changing media landscape advertisers need inventive ways to reach their increasingly elusive audiences. Come help us meet the demand and be part of one of the advertising industry's fastest growing sectors!


What could be sweeter than the bride's bouquet ivory? This style was created in order to represent femininity, awe, sensuality and tenderness. Luxurious arrangement of white roses and Calla lilies, decorated with greens and beads of pearls. The bouquet will be a worthy accompaniment to the bride during the entire holiday.
Wedding bouquets inexpensive Kiev is in perfect condition, because for each composition florists select only the freshest plants. These flowers will look fabulous with a dress in the Greek style or a wonderful outfit milky color. Bouquet brings freshness, elegance and youth, so will fit well in a spring wedding. Flowers delivery to Kiev you will see that the flowers were received on time. Order flowers work for You on a daily basis, you can request it right here.