text:
COVID-19 Vaccine Home
COVID-19 Vaccine Guide
COVID Vaccine Boosters
COVID-19 Vaccine & Pregnancy
COVID-19 Vaccine & Kids
COVID Boosters for Immunocompromised
Related to COVID-19 Vaccine
Coronavirus in Context
Adult Vaccines
Children's Vaccines
U.S. Vaccine Safety System Still Has Gaps
By JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News
Monday, May 03, 2021 (Kaiser News) -- The quick detection of an ultra-rare blood clotting reaction in some covid-19 vaccine recipients showed the power of a federal warning system for vaccine safety issues, but experts worry that blind spots in the program could hamper detection of other unexpected side effects.
Before the pandemic began, the Food and Drug Administration had scaled back a program it used successfully to track adverse events during and after the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and the agency is still ramping up its replacement, said Dr. Robert Chen, scientific director of the Brighton Collaboration, a nonprofit global vaccine safety network.
"It's purely bad luck they were in between systems when covid hit," said Chen, who helped create the existing U.S. vaccine safety systems during nearly 30 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
FDA officials acknowledged that some data analysis won't start for weeks or months, but said the government is watching for vaccine reactions with "state-of-the-art" systems.
"FDA and CDC have robust safety and effectiveness surveillance systems in place to monitor COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S.," Abby Capobianco, an FDA spokesperson, wrote in an email.
No question, the nation's vaccine surveillance system performed as expected this spring when it identified unusual cases of blood clots combined with low platelet counts in 15 people who had received Johnson & Johnson's one-shot covid vaccine, said Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former chief scientist with the FDA. Three people died.
"The good news for a very rare event is it will pop up on VAERS," Goodman said on a call with reporters, referring to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System jointly run by the FDA and CDC since 1990.
But other potentially dangerous, unanticipated reactions to vaccines may not be so obvious in VAERS, a system that is believed to miss many potential side effects — or in the nation's additional monitoring systems, including the Vaccine Safety Datalink and the CDC's new phone-based tracking program, v-safe.
"It's quite a hodgepodge of different systems of collecting data," said Dr. Katherine Yih, a biologist and epidemiologist who specializes in vaccine surveillance at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. "It's worth stating that it's not as good as it could be."
The Vaccine Safety Datalink, though highly regarded, did not include enough vaccinations within its data from nine hospital systems covering 12 million people to catch the J&J issue, CDC officials said. And enrollment in v-safe has been less than expected, with about 6 million people enrolled by the end of March, just 6.4% of those who had been vaccinated at that point.
That means that, at a time when about 100 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against covid, the U.S. continues to rely on a patchwork network of vaccine monitoring systems that may fail to monitor a large enough swath of the population, experts told KHN.
"I'm very concerned about this," said Goodman, who also led the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, or CBER, and is now a professor of infectious diseases at Georgetown University. "I think we should be seeing that reporting on all of these vaccines. It was promised four months ago that it was happening."
The three vaccines in use in the U.S. — produced by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — were shown to be safe and effective during clinical trials of tens of thousands of volunteers.
But even the best trials aren't large enough to capture all problems, especially rare ones, if they occur only in certain groups or outside a specific time frame. It's important to track side effects once vaccines are distributed throughout the population — an effort known as pharmacovigilance — to ensure not only safety, but also public confidence.
Vaccine safety experts said they were concerned that the FDA scaled back a system known as the Post-Licensure Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring network, or PRISM, long regarded as a workhorse of surveillance.
"Prior to PRISM, I felt like we were sort of in the dark ages," Steve Anderson, director of the FDA's Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, said at a 2016 workshop. "When PRISM came along, for us it was really a game changer."
PRISM linked four large health plans in different parts of the country with eight state immunization registries. During the H1N1 pandemic, it detected signals for three adverse events possibly linked to the vaccines and was used to rule out the two that weren't related and the one, Guillain-Barré syndrome, that was.
The system included records from nearly 40 million people, said Daniel Salmon, former director of vaccine safety at the National Vaccine Program Office. Having a large volume of records of vaccinated people "really drives your ability to figure out what's going on," he said.
PRISM, which was repurposed for drug safety, now contains data from about 60 million people, but it has not been used to track vaccine reactions during the covid pandemic, said Salmon, who oversaw safety monitoring for the H1N1 vaccine.
"With PRISM, we tested it in a crisis and it operated for a decade," he said. "I was really surprised when it wasn't used for covid. That was why we built it."
A newer system, called the Biologics Effectiveness and Safety System, or BEST, was started in 2017, but only recently began monitoring data weekly for 15 pre-specified adverse events among Medicare recipients. It will be expanded to include commercial databases starting by the end of June, according to Capobianco, the FDA spokesperson.
A search for possible cases of the rare condition linked to the J&J vaccine began in mid-April and will be expanded in the next few weeks, she added.
FDA officials said PRISM's capabilities have been incorporated into BEST, which can examine data from 100 million people. Experts told KHN that it has not been used extensively to monitor post-vaccination effects, but Capobianco said: "We disagree."
"BEST is built as a state-of-the-art active surveillance system," she wrote.
The concern is that officials have leaned heavily on VAERS, a "passive" system that relies on reports from patients and health care providers to flag issues after vaccination that may or may not be related to the shots. A robust "active" surveillance system can search large volumes of patient care records to compare rates of adverse events in people who received vaccines with those who didn't.
In addition, some vaccine safety experts point to a lack of clear authority in the area. The Trump administration shut down the NVPO, a federal office with expertise in monitoring vaccine safety, merging it into a government agency focused on infectious diseases.
As a result, monitoring of covid vaccine safety is fragmented among federal agencies, said Salmon, who now directs the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"There is no single person in charge," he said. "You need to have somebody in charge."
Biden administration officials have praised the nation's vaccine monitoring system, pointing out that it flagged the Johnson & Johnson problems within weeks of the vaccine's rollout. Federal officials paused distribution to assess additional cases and next steps. (They were helped by the fact that European regulators had found similar problems in another vaccine.)
"VAERS performed exactly as intended in this case," said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, head of the CDC's COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.
That's true, said Dr. Steven Black, co-director of the Global Vaccine Data Network. Still, he noted, there's room for improvement, particularly more funding and better collaboration.
"This is a safeguard for our population," Black said. "Whether it's for the flu vaccines or the covid vaccines, you need to have a viable and strong system. Just because we think they're safe doesn't mean you don't need systems in place to back up that opinion."
©2013-2022 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved. View privacy policy and trust info
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text:
'use strict';

var extend           = require('../../node/#/_extend')
  , documentFragment = require('../valid-document-fragment');

module.exports = function (child/*, …children*/) {
	documentFragment(this);
	return extend.apply(this, arguments);
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Promise does not resolve this This simplified code:
class A {
  constructor() {
    this.promise = new Promise(async resolve => {
      this.resolve = resolve
    })
  }

  then() {
    this.promise.then(...arguments)
    this.resolve(this)
  }
}

const x = new A()
x.then(res => {
  console.log(res)
})

Fails to resolve.
If you change this.resolve(this) to this.resolve('done') it works.  Any ideas why?

A: The item being returned (the this) has a .then method, and the Promise resolver (resolve) sees that, thinks that you called it with a Promise, so it tries to resolve that Promise as well:

class A {
  constructor() {
    this.promise = new Promise(async resolve => {
      this.resolve = resolve
      await setTimeout(() => {
        this.x = 1
      }, 1000)
    })
  }

  then() {
    this.promise.then(...arguments)
    this.fin()
    console.log('then running');
  }

  fin() {
    this.resolve(this)
  }
}

const x = new A()
x.then(res => {
  console.log(res)
})

One possible solution would be to call resolve with an object which wraps the this instead, so that the resolver function doesn't see the .then method and try to unwrap it as well:

class A {
  constructor() {
    this.promise = new Promise(async resolve => {
      this.resolve = resolve
      await setTimeout(() => {
        this.x = 1
      }, 1000)
    })
  }

  then() {
    this.promise.then(...arguments)
    return this.fin();
  }

  fin() {
    this.resolve({ result: this })
  }
}

const x = new A()
x.then(res => {
  console.log(res.result)
})

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Solar Company Acquired
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. has entered into agreements with N.V. Bekaert S.A. and an affiliate (Bekaert) whereby ECD has acquired all of Bekaert's interests in the photovoltaic joint ventures United Solar Systems Corp. and Bekaert ECD Solar Systems LLC (Uni- Solar) established in April 2000 by ECD and Bekaert to manufacture, market and sell photovoltaic products and systems.
Rochester Hills, Michigan – May 15, 2003 [SolarAccess.com] Material terms of the agreements provide that: * ECD will pay Bekaert US$6 million; * ECD will assume Bekaert's guarantees with respect to certain liabilities of the joint ventures amounting to approximately US$25 million; * Bekaert will receive rights to technologies outside the field of photovoltaics and rights limited to build sputtering machines outside the field of triple-junction photovoltaics. ECD is committed to rapidly ramping up Uni-Solar's production and sales. Uni-Solar is currently shipping products from its new 30 MW manufacturing equipment, the world's largest production machine for the manufacture of thin-film amorphous silicon alloy solar cells. It is capable of producing nine miles and six tons of solar cells in three days, which makes Uni-Solar one of the four largest manufacturers of solar cells and related products in the United States as well as the only mass producer of thin-film amorphous silicon solar products. In connection with the assumption of certain Bekaert guarantees, ECD provided US$36 million to the joint ventures to terminate a sale-and-lease-back arrangement related to equipment financing and, as a result, freed up US$20 million that had been restricted in support of the guarantee of this lease. ECD currently is in negotiations to enter into a new sale-and-lease-back arrangement. IAS Equities, Inc., an investment banking and consulting firm, acted as ECD's financial advisor in the transaction. "We understand Bekaert's need to exit the ventures and appreciate its past support and role in enabling us to expand our manufacturing capacity," said Stanford R. Ovshinsky, ECD President and CEO and Chairman and CEO of Uni-Solar, and Robert C. Stempel, ECD Chairman. "Due to the success of and response to products being manufactured by the 30 MW machine, we will continue to offer our unique proprietary solar solution to grow the much-needed global solar business. ECD will seek new strategic alliances with third parties to continue to increase market share." "Our companies have the people and the resources to expand our business around the world. With Uni-Solar's proprietary advanced manufacturing facility and the strong sales and marketing program the company is implementing, we are in a very strong position to continue to build a successful business," said Subhendu Guha, President and Chief Operating Officer of Uni-Solar. ECD and Bekaert formed the Uni-Solar joint venture in 2000. While continuing to have confidence in Uni-Solar's unique products and technology as well as the long-term potential of photovoltaics, the new management team at Bekaert has decided to concentrate on the company's core business and exit the photovoltaic joint ventures.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The phones have not been idle for the folks at Cruise America. More and more travelers are discovering the many benefits of renting or purchasing an RV for their travels. Low prices, cheaper gas and rising wages have boosted the RV travel industry substantially since 2016.
First Time Renting an RV?
Renting a motorhome is a great way to enjoy the RV lifestyle. If you haven't tried traveling in an RV, your first experience will be a real treat! There are all kinds of resources that will tell you just what steps to take to rent and operate an RV, along with how to utilize all the amenities that it has to offer. However, there are not a lot of resources that explain a few of the things NOT to do.
RV manufacturers anticipate shipping a record-breaking 446,000 recreational vehicles in 2017, up from last year's 430,691, which was also a record. But what has instigated such growth?
One of the activities that goes along with camping in the great outdoors, is photography. So many of our travelers are constantly showing us photographs of their trips, and we love it! That's why we sponsor a photography contest from time to time … because we know that you're going to take plenty of photos while on your RV adventure.
This is the last chapter of the three-week adventure we titled "Sherman's March to the Sea. Please see our previous blog entries on the Cruise America blog page.
Throughout Sherman's March to the Sea, we've had some great stops along the way. Helen (adorable wife) and I both loved White Sands, NM, and Cottonwood, AZ, but we probably saved the best for last.
Where Will You Be for the Big Show?
Sherman, our Cruise America RV, pulled out of Kirtland AFB raring' to go. We had rented a car for a couple of days to explore the area around Santa Fe, so Sherman was given the weekend off. Now, rested, ready, and with a full tank of gas, he was heading due west on I-40 to Cottonwood, AZ.
It's just a matter of days before the Great American Total Solar Eclipse will manifest itself as it makes its way across the nation—from coast to coast. On August 21, 2017, America will witness something that hasn't been seen in over 100 years; a total eclipse of the sun that will travel the width of the United States, and will be visible from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans.
Where do You Stand Statistically?
According to a survey conducted by The Associated press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the number 1 thing that Americans want to do while on vacation is … nothing! In fact, close to 75% of Americans say that relaxing while on vacation is extremely important to them. They are perfectly willing to turn in their hiking shoes for a good, comfy hammock.
What About the Traditional Staycation?
We were on the eighth day of Sherman's march to the sea and staying at the Kirtland AFB FamCamp. Our seventh day had been spent taking in the sights around Albuquerque (see previous post) and today, the eighth, would be devoted to Santa Fe and some shopping.


Recommended: How to Use JAMB Admission Status Checking Portal for Free.
plz i was offered an admission by Nuhu Bamali polytechnic in Kaduna State. am trying to login to my profile to accept and print my admission letter but its not logging in what do i do plz?????????????
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I Am My Name Zaharadeen Ahmadu From Platue State I Gat Atmision From Bauchi State University Than I Did My Screening Both After Know I Not See My Atmision Latter For Jamb And School My Registration Number Is 86219851gf Please I Net Hape.
Comment Text*p ls I scored 201 in jamb and I applied for funai, i got 220 in supplementary all the lists r out but my is still showing me sorry no admission, w what's wrong, am i qualified to get d admission or not, pls answer me sir.
I got 192 in jamb I applied de too but for nursing science institution is unijos can't I be admitted because I checked on line is showing sorry not admitted yet are we waiting 4 another list?
if i was admited by jamb and school did not give me admission can i get admission??
please I have been offer admission on jamb but not yet admission on my school.
Comment Text*pls and pls sir if we check our admission status they are saying that sorry no admission is giving yet sir we don't have something to do about it sir help us about it sir this is my Reg number 86870094AG pls and pls sir.
I wrote jamb 2019 and I score 139 in my UTME. can't I gain admission in to any institution.
i have been offerred admission on jamb caps,but when i want to print my admission letter is showed candidate not admitted what is wrong pls i need help.


text:
Explore Freedom » Daily Articles » Clinton's Legacy, Part 2: The Attacks on 9/11
Clinton's Legacy, Part 2: The Attacks on 9/11
Last month I sought to correct the record by showing that the administration of Bill Clinton (1993–2001), which is almost universally viewed with nostalgia, played a major role in inflating the housing bubble, which led to the Great Recession, thanks to aggressive polices pushed by his second secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo.
That should be enough to cause people to rethink the Clinton years, but another catastrophe also may be laid in part at Clinton's door: the attacks on 9/11, which provided the pretext for more than a decade of war (the so-called war on terror), a more explicit American empire, and an array of policies that violate civil liberties.
How can Clinton, who left office January 20, 2001, share responsibility for the al-Qaeda attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001?
The answer is that throughout his two terms, Clinton (1) continued devastating economic sanctions on Iraq, which were begun by his predecessor, George H.W. Bush, and the United Nations after the army of Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait in 1990; (2) kept U.S. troops near Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia (the troops had been stationed there to facilitate the Gulf War of 1991, which ousted Iraqi forces from Kuwait); and (3) allied the U.S. government more closely with Israel, reinforcing the U.S. role as facilitator of the occupation of Palestinian land and oppressor of the non-Jewish population. As it happens, those were the three explicit grounds for al-Qaeda's determination to inflict harm on the United States.
In 1996 Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda, issued a fatwa against the United States titled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places." Bin Laden called the occupation "the latest and the greatest of … aggressions [by the West], incurred by the Muslims since the death of the Prophet." Bin Laden, who hated Saddam and his secular regime, implied that a short-term presence of U.S. troops would have been tolerable in order to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait five years earlier. However, he said, "It is out of date and no longer acceptable to claim that the presence of the crusaders is [a] necessity and only a temporary measures [sic] to protect the land of the two Holy Places." He specifically condemned "the rejection of the idea of replacing the crusaders' forces by an Islamic force composed of the sons of the country and other Muslim people."
Bin Laden went on to designate the crushing economic sanctions on Iraq as grounds for his fatwa: "More than 600,000 Iraqi children have died due to lack of food and medicine and as a result of the unjustifiable aggression (sanction) imposed on Iraq and its nation. The children of Iraq are our children. You, the USA, together with the Saudi regime are responsible for the shedding of the blood of these innocent children."
Finally, bin laden noted that "Americans … are assisting their Zionist brothers in occupying Palestine and in evicting and killing the Muslims there, by providing arms, men, and financial supports."
He issued a second declaration in 1998 and returned to these themes. "The Arabian Peninsula has never — since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas — been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food," he said.
"No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:
"First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.
"If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.
"Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded
1 million … despite all this, the Americans are once again trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation….
"Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve [Israel] and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there."
During the Clinton years, al-Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center in 1993; apparently blew up Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. Air Force personnel; attacked two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 after the second fatwa was issued; and attacked the USS Cole in 2000.
The upshot is that al-Qaeda's grounds for the 9/11 attacks all involved policies carried on by Bill Clinton's presidency. None of those U.S. policies justified al-Qaeda's attacks on civilians, but the policies do explain the motivation for men's willingness to fly suicide missions against the United States. Clinton had a chance to break with George H.W. Bush and defuse tensions with Arabs and Muslims but chose not to. Instead he intensified the offending policies. Let's take the Iraqi sanctions as an example.
The sanctions
The Bush/Clinton policy toward Iraq was seamless. The Bush administration's harsh economic sanctions, pursued vigorously by Clinton, aimed at regime change. Besides that, the U.S. government demanded full UN inspections in an effort to ensure that Saddam wasn't building nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. The U.S. Air Force was also patrolling no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq (with Britain and France but without UN authorization), dropping bombs and inflicting civilian causalities. As John Pilger wrote in 2000,
The Royal Air Force, together with the US, bombs Iraq almost every day. Since December 1998, the Ministry of Defence has admitted dropping 780 tonnes of bombs on a country with which Britain is not at war. During the same period, the United States has conducted 24,000 combat missions over southern Iraq alone, mostly in populated areas. In one five-month period, 41 per cent of casualties were civilians: farmers, fishermen, shepherds, their children and their sheep — the circumstances of their killing were documented by the United Nations Security Sector…. In truth, it is the longest such campaign since the Second World War.
The economic sanctions against Iraq were widely regarded as a gross human-rights violation, with the greatest hardship imposed on children. During the Gulf War, U.S. bombs destroyed Iraq's infrastructure, including electric-generation, sewage-treatment, and water-treatment plants. After the war and until the start of the Iraq war in 2003, the sanctions kept equipment necessary for the repair of those facilities from being imported. Thus public health deteriorated, leading to many deaths and illnesses.
Of course the most notorious moment with respect to the sanctions policy came during a 60 Minutes interview with Clinton's UN ambassador, Madeleine Albright, in May 1996. Interviewer Lesley Stahl asked, "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"
To which Albright responded, "I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it."
That clip was no doubt replayed many times throughout the Middle East. Bin Laden's first fatwa came about three months later. As I've written previously,
That remark caused no public outcry [in the United States]. In fact, in January the following year Albright was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as President Clinton's secretary of State. In her opening statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering her appointment, she said, "We will insist on maintaining tough UN sanctions against Iraq unless and until that regime complies with relevant Security Council resolutions."
While in office Albright never apologized for her callous words. She later wrote in her memoir that she regretted what she had said, criticizing Stahl for setting a trap that she carelessly fell into. She also said that any casualties from the embargo were attributable to Saddam, since he could have had it lifted by complying with U.S./UN demands. But that is misleading. For one thing, the Clinton administration did not only demand that Saddam permit weapons inspections; it demanded an end to Saddam's regime — which could only be expected to make him dig in.
Moreover, the U.S. obstructed the import of needed goods even when Saddam did cooperate. As Joy Gordon reported in the November 2001 Harper's, "The United States has fought aggressively throughout the last decade to purposefully minimize the humanitarian goods that enter the country."
No wonder two UN humanitarian coordinators quit over the sanctions. As one of them, Denis Halliday, said when he left in 1998, "I've been using the word 'genocide' because this is a deliberate policy to destroy the people of Iraq. I'm afraid I have no other view."
No one can say with certainty that a Clinton reversal of his monstrous Middle East policies would have averted the attacks on 9/11 (or the earlier strikes). What we do know is that al-Qaeda and its operatives repeatedly referred to them whenever they had the opportunity. Clinton must accept his share of responsibility for provoking terrorism against the Unites States.
Categories: Freedom Daily Archive, War on Terrorism


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Q: How to call a macro script in qtp and to run that macro script in excel I have a created a macro script by recording in excel. Now I need to run this macro script in newly opened excel via QTP (Vb script) . Can anyone suggest me , what call function can be used in qtp to run this macro script in excel?
my macro script is
Sub csi()
    ' csi Macro
    ' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+c
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "test test test "
    Range("B1").Select
End Sub

A: As explained as an answer to a similar question it is not very difficult:
Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.Application.Run "test.xls!csi"

or
objExcel.Application.Run "test.xls!sheet1.csi"

Depending if the macro resides in a module or in a sheet.


text:
Eco Expo Asia to Feature Energy Innovation
Asia's leading environmental protection fair, The Eco Expo Asia will be held from 3rd to 6th November in Hong Kong. It will showcase the latest innovations in renewable energy, energy efficiency, natural resource protection and eco-friendly products. This second edition of the event is organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd.
Clothing Swaps to Cut Carbon Footprint & Aid Domestic Violence Shelters
Here's a great idea. Clothing swaps can prove to be a move towards going green, and the effort could also help endeavors to raise money for a charity initiative. Swap for Good, a grassroots, volunteer-led campaign aims at encouraging people to host clothing swaps, as a way to raise money for local domestic violence shelters.
Finca Bellavista, the Energy Efficient Tree House Enclave in the Costa Rican Jungle
October 1, 2010 / No Comments
A solar-powered tree house community has been built in the Costa Rican Jungle, and it is considered the world's first modern, planned, sustainable tree house community. Named 'Finca Bellavista', the enclave near the Pan-American Highway is the idea of Matt Hogan and his wife Erica.
Wal-Mart Plans More Energy-Efficient Stores
Wal-Mart plans to start a series of new stores designed to be 25 to 30 percent more energy efficient and produce up to 30 percent fewer greenhouse gases. The company has already opened three stores designed to use 20 percent less energy, four stores designed to use 25 percent less energy and one store designed to use 45 percent less ...
Philips Develops World's first AC-Powered OLED
The first ever OLED (organic light emitting module) that can be powered from an AC source have been developed by the scientists of Philips. This invention helps to reduce the need of huge power management circuitry. This development can innovate and simplify luminaire design for future OLED based systems.
Italian Gas Stations to Have Hydrogen Fuel Pumps
August 27, 2010 / No Comments
Euopean clean energy company, Acta, has announced their plans for creating a network of solar-powered hydrogen fueling stations throughout Italy. The new pumps will work by harnessing solar energy to produce hydrogen fuel from water through the process of electrolysis.
Residential Skyscraper With Inbuilt Wind Turbines Goes On Stream In London
July 27, 2010 / 1 Comment
The tallest residential building in central London is also unique for being the first skyscraper in the world that has wind turbines integrated directly into its building fabric. Although the building is officially called the Strata Tower, it has been nicknamed the Razor. An apt enough nickname for the silver and black building that stands 147 meters (485 ft.) tall. ...
Generate Energy From Flush Water!
July 27, 2010 / No Comments
More good news for green enthusiasts! A new device has been created that is designed to harvest water from waste water that falls inside the pipes of high rise buildings. The device has been designed by Tom Broadbent, who is a design graduate at Leicester de Montfort University.
Spaniards On A Winning Spree In Solar Production As Well
Close on the heels of top sports victories; Spain is continuing to make its mark globally in other arenas as well. Till now, the United States was the leader in the field of solar energy. Not any more. Spain has just been declared to have just taken the top spot here too. In the Spanish state of Navarra, the new ...
Green Battery: Shake It To Generate Energy With Vibration
An amazing new green device - - Vibration powered Generating Battery - has been developed by Brother Industries. The uniqueness of this device is that it is a small vibration-powered generator that can replace AA and AAA batteries. If the battery is being used in a torch or a remote control, all the user has to do to generate the ...
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These custom made personalised illustrations drawn in the Perfect Moments pop art inspired style make the perfect gift for your favourite couple! These portraits make wonderful personal gifts for weddings, engagements, Valentine's Day presents or just because.
Choose to have with wording or without. Each portrait is drawn in our Perfect Moments graphical pop style and will be a stylized representation of the couple.
Once you have placed your order we will be in touch to request a photograph of the couple.
We will first send you a digital version of the portrait, here's your opportunity to let us know if you would like any changes made. Next step, the design is then sent to print. Final step, your personalised couple keepsake card is on its way to you in the post.


Osteopaths take pride in skilfully applying manual techniques in combination with current medical testing procedures to provide the highest standard of care. Some of the manual methods used include: massage, stretching, manipulation and other gentle joint release techniques. A comprehensive list of techniques is provided below. Because no two people are the same, osteopaths will tailor these techniques to each patient and their presenting problem. Exercise and postural advice are also provided. Combined with the Osteopathic philosophy this approach delivers the most effective treatment outcome. Osteopaths are bound by strict codes of practice to use the greatest care, privacy and safety in their work.
Soft tissue techniques: a variety of massage techniques many unique to Osteopathy. These can be used as stand alone techniques or as preparation for other techniques. They are designed to stretch and relax muscles and can be used in many conditions including sports injuries, back pain, overuse injuries and many other areas.
Myofascial release: a gentler form of massage technique designed to slowly release areas of tight muscles and joints. Good for acute or very painful conditions as well as treating conditions of many years duration.
Manipulation: Quick joint release techniques usually accompanied by a "popping sound". They are designed to improve mobility and alignment and decrease pain. Osteopaths are experts in determining the best way to use these techniques so they are both painless and effective.
Counterstrain: Also known as "positional release". Here a joint, muscle or tendon is taken into a position of comfort and held for a short time to release or reduce the pain or spasm in the area.
Osteopathy in the cranial field: gentle techniques applied to the structures around the head, face and jaw. These powerful techniques can have a profound influence on a variety of hard to treat conditions. Such conditions include headaches, jaw problems, some forms of tinnitus, neuralgia, post traumatic incidents, whiplash etc.
Functional: Another gentle technique used in both acute and chronic conditions. These techniques are very specific and are especially effective in reducing stiffness around spinal and other joints. They work by "re-educating" the central nervous system to reset muscles and ligaments to a more normal level of functioning. They help provide more long term solutions to problems that are constantly returning.
Articulation: a variety of repetitive gentle techniques designed to mobilise stiff joints and chronic areas of tightness. Good for long standing conditions and to improve circulation.
Muscle energy techniques: so named because the patients own muscular force is used to help with the techniques. In this way the patient can control the amount of force used. These are a comprehensive set of techniques designed to realign and balance the body especially the pelvic area. They are also useful to mobilise joints, stretch and strengthen muscle and reduce muscle tightness.
Osteopathic treatment consists of a combination of the above approaches. They will obviously change from treatment to treatment depending on the patient's progress. They will also change according to patient preference. It is the Osteopathic philosophy of treatment which determines how and in what sequence these techniques will be applied and this is what makes the osteopathic approach unique.
Our practitioners treat a broad range of people from the elite athlete to the couch potatoes as well as children and babies. We understand that some patients prefer a "gentle" approach to treatment using non-force techniques while others prefer " firmer" treatments utilising deep massage and manipulation. Feel free to discuss your past treatment experiences so we can formulate an approach which best suites you.


I didn't know if I should write here, but I really want to share with you one thing about sudoku! My friend is the games-writter and he realised that sudoku is as great game that he had to make for more than one person. He wrote a game called "sudoku kinoku". It is a great board game for maximum 4 people. You can competete and have fun playing it. There is a short movie on YT (about 1 minute)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTIedoGSgM8 Could yu tell me what do you think about it? What is your impression and so on?


QNAP TR-002 2-bay 2-bay 3.5" SATA HDD USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps type-C hardware RAID external enclosure. USB-C to USB-A cable included. Expansion unit for QNAP NAS, Windows, Mac, Linux computers.
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Q: Getting project in custom build task in imported .targets While creating a NuGet package for a custom build task I was wanting to use a separate .targets file in the /build/ folder of the NuGet package.
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <UsingTask TaskName="MyTask" AssemblyFile="..\tools\MyTask.dll" />
    <Target Name="MyTarget">
        <MyTask />
    </Target>
</Project>

To have NuGet automatically import the .targets file as described under "Import MSBuild targets and props files into project" here.
Now to my problem. My Task gets the path of the project file being built usingProjectFileOfTaskNode. But when the task is declared in an imported .targets file, the path of the .targets file is returned.
Is there a way to get at the path of the project file that imported the .targets file?
Looked as if there possibly was a way to get at the information through some non-public fields on Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskHost using reflection. But I would rather avoid that if there's a more open way of getting it.


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ESR School of Networks – a successful ICT training model
Over the last decade, ESR – Escola Superior de Redes (Superior School of Networks) has significantly contributed to the advancement of ICT across Brazil. An initiative of RNP (the Brazilian NREN), ESR offers courses to address issues in the areas of Management and Network Design, IT Governance, Security, Support to Digital Collaboration Media and System Administration.
This successful training model has now been rolled out to other countries in Latin America and further afield, where RNP partners up with the respective NREN to provide expertise and qualification.
Provider of knowledge
Ten years after its creation, RNP's Networks School (Escola Superior de Redes – ESR) has established itself in the Brazilian market as a provider of knowledge and qualification.
The numbers emphasise the success: over 50 courses in seven areas of education, 15,000 professionals qualified in five regions of the country, eight units located in different Brazilian capitals: Brasília (Federal District), Belém (State of Pará), Cuiabá (State of Mato Grosso), João Pessoa (State of Paraíba), Porto Alegre (State of Rio Grande do Sul), Rio de Janeiro (State of Rio de Janeiro), Salvador (State of Bahia) and Manaus (State of Amazonas).
The work carried out is leaping across geographic barriers. In Africa, ESR created a qualification centre in the city of Maputo, capital of Mozambique, to offer training and bring the RNP's expertise to the African continent. The action is included within the scope of the cooperation between RNP and the Mozambican academic network, MoRENet.
Advanced security skills
The first remote qualification programme for technicians of the universities of Mozambique took place at the end of September 2015 and focused on "Web Applications Invasion Testing", a theme reflecting the need of advanced security skills.
In line with a 'train the trainers' approach, Mozambican specialists have been trained by ESR and are already giving network and system administration courses at São Tomás University of Mozambique.
In Colombia, it served as model for the creation of the Escuela Superior de Redes Colombia, founded in Bogotá, in partnership with Renata, the local NREN.
Recently, the academic coordinator of ESR's IT Governance and Security department, Edson Kowask, visited the Colombian capital to deliver part of the "IT Governance Basics" course at the unit.
Giving support
"With MoRENet, our cooperation agreement is intended to provide support to the process of implementation and consolidation of the African network, by IT technical qualification and sharing of information and good practices in engineering, management and governance of advanced nation-wide networks," ESR's coordinator, Luiz Coelho, explains.
"With Renata, we are taking part in some courses in the IT Governance segment, with specialization in Government and Management and in Government and Security."
With ten years of experience and a team specialized in modelling and meeting the demand for IT professionals' qualification, ESR is also planning on building other qualification centres outside Brazil and entering into new partnerships in the future.
Its main clients currently include the Brazilian Ministries of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Education (MEC) and Health (MS), the Armed Forces and the Brazilian Judicial System.
The National Science Library of Georgia at the forefront of Open Science
Preparing for great strides forward in Oregon tribal connectivity
Internet for 700,000 students in Brazil
Oman is roaming ahead full speed


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How New Technology at SJC is Improving Passenger Experiences
Categories: Aviation, San Jose
There's no question that the pandemic has changed our outlook on travel, as well as the future of airport technology, cleanliness and design. With travelers having to adapt to these profound changes, airports around the world, including Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), are implementing new ideas to keep passengers happy and safe.
SJC has recently implemented staff monitoring technology to improve efficiency. This system allows Flagship Airport Ambassadors and SJC to track and manage employees throughout the airport, manage tasks and keep up-to-the-minute knowledge of inventory.
"The system is easy to use and works great! We find a lot of value by tracking when employees start cleaning, disinfecting, and restocking rooms and measuring how long it takes," said Abraham Regalado, Flagship Site Manager at SJC. "Even when days are slow and we have to change our cleaning time regiment, the employee tracking is very beneficial in the system."
"Our dynamic team is always seeking ways to improve the customer experience at SJC," said Assistant Director of Aviation, Judy Ross. "We're very proud of the range of improvements we have accomplished during the pandemic, and this new technology adds to a list of measures we've undertaken to promote the confidence our industry needs right now."
Staff monitoring systems use proximity badging that ping at certain Wi-Fi connection points around the airport. The system tracks the badge's location and the time spent at each area. This system creates accountability and visibility for frontline teams and SJC operational staff. It provides real-time information viewable through Flagship's Intuition software platform.
The system is designed to improve operational efficiency and enhance the passenger experience. While visiting SJC, passengers can see the benefit of the technology in the form of a consistently cleaner and safer airport.
Throughout the pandemic, Flagship's frontline heroes at SJC, have been fighting the COVID-19 virus and winning. In fact, in the midst of the current pandemic, SJC became the very first California airport to achieve global accreditation status for having the highest levels of cleanliness and safety, earning recognition from the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) and the GBAC STARTM Facility Accreditation Program.
The technology behind the staff monitoring system and Intuition software is powered and supported by TRAX Analytics, LLC (TRAX). Flagship has partnered up with TRAX to bring Smart Restroom Technology to SJC to ensure that passengers are greeted with a clean and disinfected environment.
For more information about SJC's health and safety measures, visit flysanjose.com/coronavirus.
About Flagship Facility Services, Inc.
Flagship has over 6,000 employees dedicated to creating the best facility experience for customers. With operations in Culinary Services, Facility Services, and Aviation Services, Flagship offers Integrated Facilities Management and a multitude of a la carte facilities services, including janitorial, engineering, and maintenance services, for large-scale organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Learn more at flagshipinc.com.
About TRAX Analytics, LLC.
TRAX Analytics ensures quality cleaning service and guest satisfaction by turning the day-to-day management of a facility into a demand-driven process. With the use of smart technologies, mobile application, and data analysis, we provide teams the tools to improve communication across an organization to identify and monitor trends for a more proactive approach to cleaning and quality assurance. By equipping our clients with state-of-the-art technology and a business intelligence platform, TRAX gives organizations the power to measure staff and facility performance efficiently.
SJC: Transforming How Silicon Valley Travels
Mineta San José International Airport (SJC) is Silicon Valley's airport, a self‐supporting enterprise owned and operated by the City of San Jose. The airport, now in its 71st year, served nearly 15.7 million passengers in 2019, with nonstop service across North America and to Europe and Asia. SJC was America's fastest‐growing major airport the past four years, based on percentage increase in passengers served. For more airport information, visit https://www.flysanjose.com.
Stay up to date with the latest facility management tips and news.
Flagship Aviation Services to Exhibit at AAAE
$8 billion in Grant Funding Available to U.S. Airports


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Fossils Give Us a Snapshot of Life Right After a Huge Meteorite Impact
Mark Strauss
Filed to: geologyFiled to: geology
About 14.6 million years ago, a meteorite over half a mile wide smashed into the Earth, creating a massive crater of melted rock. Although temperatures there were as high as 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers have found that life took hold there soon after.
The discovery—made at the Nördlinger Ries crater, located in Bavaria, Germany—has important implications for the search for life elsewhere in our solar system, since impact craters on other planets could serve as valuable fossil sites—the extraterrestrial equivalents of the Burgess Shale Formation.
Until the 1960s, scientists were unaware that Nördlinger Ries was actually a crater. They had previously assumed that the 15-mile-wide depression had been formed by volcanic activity. Even from space, the crater is difficult to discern.
That's because the deep crater only existed for a few seconds. After the initial melting occurred, the rock cooled quickly to form impact glass, or impactite, which contains various microscopic structures and crystals. The crystalline floor of the crater rose up at the center and collapsed, forming an elevated inner ring. Then, large blocks of rock slid down the crater wall, filling in the hole even further.
Scientists at the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration at Western University in Canada recently studied the Ries site and found enigmatic tubular features—approximately one-millionth to three-millionths of a meter in diameter—embedded within the crystalline rocks. They believe the tubes to be ichnofossils, which are geological records of biological activity. The researchers suspect that life crept into the crater after the impact heated groundwater, creating a viable ecosystem.
According to Gordon Osinski, one of the researchers, meteor impact craters could serve as unique time capsules, since they once provided an environment for lifeforms to thrive while also keeping records of their existence: "The preservation of biological activity in impact glass has significant astrobiological implications for life on early Earth, as well as for the search for life on other planets."
Recent from Mark Strauss
Physics students at the University of Leicester claim to have calculated the amount of energy required to transform water into…
How To Forge Bilbo's Sword Sting Into A Glowing Wi-Fi Detector
Meet The Pediatricians Who Assist Anti-Vaxxers


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Home › The Sleeping Bride & The Deadly Travellers by Dorothy Eden Hardcover Romance/Suspense
The Sleeping Bride & The Deadly Travellers by Dorothy Eden Hardcover Romance/Suspense
The Sleeping Bride introduces not one - but two - exciting heroines:
Aurora, beautiful, glamorous, immensely attractive to men; and her sister Lydia, whose beauty is of a quiet nature. Although she could have had any man she wanted, Aurora impulsively chose Philip Nash, a young artist she had met only recently. Then, on the very eve of her wedding, she disappeared without a trace! In the frantic weeks that followed, Philip and Lydia were together constantly in their search for the missing bride, and it soon became evident to Philip that Aurora's plainer sister was the one he loved.
But could Lydia, aware of her own growing desire for her sister's fiance, dare take what she wanted, as her sister had always done? And where was Aurora? Had she run away voluntarily, or was there something sinister about her life that no one - least of all her sister - had ever guessed?
The Deadly Travellers describes the eerie adventures of pretty, vivacious Kate Tempest, a young woman alone in the world and free to follow her whims. When Kate accepted the job of escorting a little Italian girl from Rome to London, she knew it would be a challenging assignment, for she spoke no Italian, and the child, Francesca, knew no English. En route, not only did Francesca vanish from the Paris Express, but Kate could find no witness to the fact that the child had ever been aboard! Then, just as she had begun to question her own sanity, Kate met two attractive men, both of whom offered their help - and their love.
Caught in a terrifying web of deception and betrayal, she soon realized that one of these men was actually involved in the cruel plot - and that her own life was in mortal danger.
© 1959 Hardcover
Excellent condition, "read" written on inside front cover. No dust jacket.


Why are we having a strike vote?
We are members of CUPE 3903, and we are holding a strike mandate vote at York University from January 26 to 30.
Watch this video to find out why we're having a strike vote, and how it affects you.
We believe a better York is possible. One of the ways we build a better York is through collective bargaining – the process of negotiating a contract with York University. Our contract expired on August 31, 2014, and we're trying to negotiate a new one.
We want a fair deal for everyone, but the administration is dragging its feet. A strong strike mandate will show that we're serious about bargaining – and help us avoid a strike. A strong strike mandate will also give us leverage at the bargaining table, and help us build a better York for everyone, not just our members.
Check out these FAQs to learn more about the strike vote, and whether a strike will happen at York this semester.
For regular updates, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. In the meantime, check out this link – and you could win a free iPad!


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Tag Archive: films
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING NEW IN GIL PORTES' BARCELONA
Filed under: Cinema — 2 Comments
This is how this writer sums up Gil Portes' latest film. Aptly titled Barcelona, this didactic melodrama is another retelling of the plight of our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW's), much in the same vein as the well-made romance/drama Milan (2004), the loud Dubai (2005), and the superior Sana Maulit Muli (1995) from a several years back. Simply put, Barcelona tragically pales in comparison to the other films mentioned.
Clarissa is a mysterious young woman who left the Philippines for Barcelona, Spain in search for her lost husband. While in that Castilian city, she meets and is immersed in the plight of her compatriots. There, she experiences utter loneliness, hopelessness, friendship, and the blossoming of new love.
The material itself is quite provocative and juicy, as there surely is something new to say about the plight of our countrymen in Spain. Sadly, the film just becomes a silly homily, led by the director's heavy-handed direction, and the writers' antiquated and totally contrived vision.
The technical flaws were just simply overwhelming. The sound is bad and seems hollow at times, the editing is painfully slow and dull, some parts of the movie were overscored, and the cinematography is bad. Sure, the film is in digital format. But it simply isn't an excuse to photograph scenes in distractingly dark shots while being overly suffused with natural light in other parts. Even as a travelogue, where camerawork is very important, the film still fails miserably.
The acting ranges from mediocre to bad. Alessandra De Rossi, who plays the lead role and Robert Arevalo who played a tormented widower turned in average performances – plain and passable. Tina Paner, who plays herself, acts in a very hectic and unnatural manner. The rest of the supporting cast and extras were obviously waiting for queues from the director, hence performing in a very amateurish manner.
Sadly, this has got to be Portes' and Senedy Que's lousiest screenplay, as their final output examines nothing new about the OFW experience. Absolutely nothing! None of the issues too were uniquely endemic to the OFW's of Barcelona that one would even wonder why the filmmakers needed to make a film in Barcelona when it could have been shot here in the Philippines (even name it Tagaytay, Fairview, or Novaliches so as to make it a little less pretentious) with a better cast and much better production values. Moreover, the metaphysical/philosophical twist in the end is not really enlightening nor unpredictable – just plain silly and contrived.
On a more tragic note, this film is probably Portes' sorriest. After the success of his Mga Munting Tinig (which is quite an outstanding film), Portes has been hitting lows one after the other. A calculated melodrama in Beautiful Life, a long-winded narrative in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and now, a really bad and unfortunate film like Barcelona.
The public could not be faulted for largely snubbing this preachy digital feature. When this writer saw the film, less than ten people were inside the moviehouse. Save your cash would be the best advice for anyone reading this article and has yet to see the film.
All in all, a film like Barcelona is the perfect Christmas present that a respected director like Gil Portes could offer the Filipino viewer. That is, if he hated us – each and everyone of us.
Tags: alessandra de rossi, asian cinema, bad films, barcelona, films, gil portes, independent film, indie, movies, ofw, philippine cinema, southeast asian cinema
"Crying Ladies" – Flawed but OK
Filed under: Cinema — Leave a comment
New directors are much welcome in a desperately wanting film industry like ours, at a time when most of our films are suffering from a drought in creativity, integrity and intelligence And truth to tell, Meily's debut film from the Palanca award-winning script which he also wrote is a minor cinematic gem on its own.
A very welcome breath of fresh air for the Philippine movie industry ushered in this Christmas season through rookie filmmaker Mark Meily's Crying Ladies, which is probably the most original entry in this year's Metro Manila Film Festival.
The movie centers on Stella Mate, played by the most commercially viable actress for the last twenty years or so, Sharon Cuneta. Stella was previously convicted of estafa and had just come out of prison to start a new life. She seeks for her son which is now in the arms of the boy's father (Ricky Davao), who has already taken in a new family and is planning to transfer to Cagayan de Oro together with his new wife and his son by Stella. Unable to find a stable job, she accepts the offer of the son of a Chinese man who had just passed away, played by Eric Quizon, as a professional mourner, payed to cry during the wake up until the actual burial.
As for the other Crying Ladies, Hilda Coronel portrays the role of a starlet during the 70's who just can't seem to wake up from her dream of becoming famous, which never quite materialized. Angel Aquino, in turn, plays a religious woman who is always torn between saying no and continually sleeping with a married man, played by Raymond Bagatsing.
The situations facing the characters in this movie are not really big. Instead, their problems are the problems of the common man, desperate to find, define, and redefine their purpose in life.
With this much of the plot laid down, it is easy to turn the film into a forgettable melodrama. But the miracle is, this film is actually an intelligent comedy about life, hope and the need to move on.
The scenes which lengthily show crying are actually scenes where the characters really do have to cry, because they are paid to do so. However, as the film tackles the lives of the three characters, the audience is made to laugh and feel amused with the three women, no matter how real their trials are. Stella is about to be separated from her son, which she has made the hub of her life. She tries everything to get a stable job which could earn her the right to keep her son for good. In the end, she still loses him to her son's father. The other crying lady (Coronel) is still trying to earn credit for her bit role in a silly 70's film, for it is the only way in which she could feel good and worthy. The last of the three (Aquino) was able to say no to the call of the flesh in the end. But for how long, is still pretty much up in the air.These real situations, finely illustrated in this comedy, underscores the scriptwriter/director's message of the need to be hopeful, to unhook and move on with our lives. Yet, he tackles this in a non-simplistic way for in the film, none of the conflicts and problems of the characters are resolved fully. Instead, the film ends with a message of hope for the characters as they get another chance in life. Hence, it is enough to say that hope is enough to once again ride the motorcycle of life.
The technical elements of cinematography, production design, music, editing and sound are all outstanding. In truth, this is actually one of the best photographed films of the year.
Meily's direction is competent as well. He knows how to stage his scenes very well and he gets his actors as well as the technical aspects of the film to work in almost perfect harmony. This is the advantage of being the scriptwriter and the director at the same time.
However, though the cast was generally okay and the actors obviously dished out their best in handling their respective roles, there surely were flaws that unfortunately make the film less believable.
Ricky Davao, who plays a security guard and the father of Stella's son, doesn't fit in his role. He looks too clean and even the language that he and his new wife employs does not fall to the socioeconomic class that they are actually portraying. Stella's son looks like the son of a CEO who lives in Forbes Park and certainly not the son of a securitiy guard and a streetwise mom cum ex-convict. Moreover, Hilda Coronel, whose performance in this film is not bad at all, suffers from a rustic characterization which was taken from earlier films. To her credit, her performance in the film gave her role more meat than it actually has. Lastly, Cuneta, with her smooth-skin and mestiza features, could never make this author believe that she is actually portraying the role of a streetsmart woman who had just gone out of prison. Though she learned the typical moves, language and expressions of her character, her appearance could have been improved through make-up and costume.
On the other hand, Quizon is so effective as the bereaved Chinese son who still has a bitter heart over his dead father. Angel Aquino gave out the best performance among the three ladies, which is actually a feat because she had the least scenes and screentime among the three ladies. So did Bagatsing.
Granted the film's merits and its undeniable flaws, this movie is actually a giant leap forward in introducing a kind of comedy in Philippine cinema that makes use of the brain, the senses and the heart – amid an industry long enamored with slapstick comedy and toilet humor. Truly, this film is a milestone in introducing comedy in Philippine movies that is polished, realistic and most of all, intelligent.
All in all, Crying Ladies is a completely enjoyable film that does not violate the viewer's ability to think and take a closer peek into the meaning of living. It is an enduring message of hope that life, in its numerous trials and tribulations, is still worth living.
Tags: angel aquino, asian cinema, crying ladies, female films, film festival, films, hilda koronel, independent, indie, intelligent comedy, mark meily, movies, philippine cinema, sharol cuneta, sharon cuneta, southeast asian cinema, unitel
Joel Lamangan's "I Will Survive": Funny and Entertaining but Shallow
Filed under: Cinema — 1 Comment
In the tradition of tasteful comedy films like Mark Meily's Crying Ladies and Jeffrey Jeturian's Bridal Shower, Regal matriarch Lily Monteverde presents a comedy that pales in comparison to the other two movies mentioned. I Will Survive, directed by Joel Lamangan and scripted by Ricky Lee, has its dose of funny moments and amusing situations. However, the film is utterly shallow, arguably awkward, and in the end, rather forgettable.
The film revolves around the lives of three contemporary women played by Maricel Soriano, Dina Bonnevie and Judy Ann Santos. Adding to the trio is a gay foster father portrayed by Eric Quizon.
The main characters have their own problems to remedy. Soriano has a very sexually aggressive son and a philandering husband who contaminates her with a sexually transmitted disease. Bonnevie, in turn, is a beautiful and much-adored model turned wife and mother of an adolescent girl who seems to be her exact opposite in terms of looks and personality. On the other hand, Judy Ann Santos plays an Overseas Foreign Worker based in Qatar who comes home only to find out that her daughter barely knows her and that her husband, also an OFW based in Australia, has been keeping a secret from her for the longest time. Finally, Eric Quizon is a gay man who is still hiding inside his closet – as far as his two sons are concerned.
Each character stands for certain individuals that are very common in Philippine contemporary life. Soriano is a woman who finds herself caught up in a sexually-awakened society that so easily crosses the line between old-fashioned timidity and sexual promiscuity. Her character also introduces the once taboo issue of women who contract STDs from their promiscuous partners – perhaps taking its queue from reality by way of a TV host/actress who publicly confessed to having STD from her incurably womanizing live-in partner. Bonnevie's character, on the other hand, tries to reflect the effects of a society that gives too much premium on vanity and one's physical appearance. In the film, she is a woman much adored by her husband and the people around her that directly causes her alienation from her daughter who refuses to keep up with her mom's established persona. Soap opera queen Judy Ann Santos is a wife and mother who finds financial security in a foreign country. However, upon her return, she finds her family in a state of disarray. Quizon's character, lastly, tries to rebuff the notions of what it takes to be good father and what it takes to be a "man."
In the end, Soriano's sexually awkward character in the film learns to fully take charge of her own sexuality. Aside from that, Bonnevie learns to accept the individuality of her daughter and Santos learns to forgive herself and her husband. And finally, Quizon is accepted by his first adopted son when he proves himself capable of being "man enough" for his foster child.
Ricky Lee's light hearted and highly amusing script succeeds in creating realistic and very interesting characters. Rising from stereotypes, Lee manages to embellish his characters with a very "NOW" feel and with a seeming sense of urgency as if the characters were easily one's neighbors. Of course, his skilled scriptwriting skills and characterizations were well matched by the generally fine performances of the actors. Joel Lamangan, a proven actor's director, succeeds in bringing out the best in fleshing out the main protagonists. All four lead actors were very believable in their respective portrayals. However, the supporting cast ranged from excellent to so-so. Serena Dalrymple is very good as an insecure daughter who rebels against her mother. So is Tonton Gutierrez as Bonnevie's overly-adoring husband. However, the rest of the cast are under-utilized and have litmus paper-thin characterizations. Perhaps, the writer and the director focused too much on the four protagonists.
Just like Lamangan's Filipinas, I Will Survive again has a somewhat erratic cinematography, using improper zooms and silly camera movement in some parts. The production design is just fine and the editing is rather superb. In fact, the movie is fast paced and it wastes no time. Nevertheless, there clearly were some incoherencies when it comes to sound and the dubbing sometimes does not follow the actual speaking of the actors.
What's rather interesting in this film is its use of song and dance numbers. Regal's signature musical numbers seen in its films back in the 80's were again dusted off and marched back on stage in this film. But what separates this film from those silly slapstick comedies of yesteryears is that I Will Survive has a clear intention and is highly committed to good storytelling. As far as the author is concerned, the song and dance numbers greatly added in the film's entertainment value without violating the brains of the thinking viewer. Moreover, although some comedic attempts are unsuccessful, the film is still miles and miles better than the lousy Star Cinema films starring Bayani Agbayani or Vhong Navarro shown in recent years.
Given the film's merits and flaws, the biggest turn off in this film is its very shallow take and simplistic resolutions on such valid and realistic contemporary issues such as vanity, sexuality, STD, family, the OFW, and gender roles. Even though the scriptwriter and director clearly had good intentions in the making of this film, the issues presented in the film end up romanticized, predictable, and even taken for granted. They are suddenly resolved through one single action. This hardly happens in reality.
Hence, overall, the film's ambitious efforts end up in a shallow platter where the real issues that reflect reality evaporate along with the musical numbers. This, sadly, leaves a half-baked effort that is funny and entertaining but suffers in its highly simplistic resolutions and shallow treatment of realistic issues that may be comparable to a doughnut – sweet and delicious on the sides but hollow at the very center.
Tags: asian cinema, Cinema, dina bonnevie, eric quizon, filipino comedy, films, joel lamangan, judy ann snatos, maricel soriano, movies, musical, philippine cinema, regal films, slapstick, southeast asian cinema
The Top 10 Filipino Films of 2007—a LONG DELAYED personal list
Hey everyone! How's everyone doing?
Enough of the Brown Raise Movement for the moment. Let's now take a peek at Philippine cinematic output of 2007. I am an avid movie fan and thank God for independent films and digital technology, Philippine Cinema is now coming out of its half-dead state. It's a joy to finally see the quality outputs of younger and more daring filmmakers, who dare to challenge the formulaic tendencies of mainstream Philippine Cinema. It is just my fervent hope that these new auteurs, while already making their presence felt in numerous international film festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, etc.), are accorded a wider patronage locally. It is still a sad reality that the Filipino audience in general still has an aversion for films with no prominent stars on the cast and they also tend to shun films that feature more innovative ways of storytelling aside from the usual linear method.
While these realities continue to limit the advances made by these new talented thespians, there is plenty of hope that Philippine Cinema will soon take its rightful place in world cinema. This, I firmly believe.
Below is my obviously subjective list of the most notable Filipino films of 2007. I know that we are already in the last 4 months of 2008 and this list is rather overdue. However, it still quite interesting to look at the landmark films of the paste year – a year wherein independent films completely outshone their mainstream counterparts.
The list will feature film synopses first. Detailed reviews of each film will be posted in my upcoming posts. Feel free to leave comments. Enjoy watching, er, reading!
1. Foster Child by Brillante Mendoza (screened at the Directors' Fortnight of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival) –
Director Brillante Mendoza tells the affectionate tale of a poor family living in the Philippines that is hired by a local Foster Care Facility to provide temporary care and shelter for abandoned babies. Thelma and her husband Dado live in Manila with their two teenage sons Gerald and Yuri. Despite the fact that her family lives in abject poverty, Thelma receive a fair amount of fulfillment in life by serving as a surrogate mother to abandoned children who are awaiting adoption. A young three year-old named John-John is Thelma's latest charge. Now, as the kind-hearted foster parent prepares to turn the child over to his adoptive American parents, every moment spent with the precious youngster becomes something to be cherished.
2. Tribu/Tribe by Jim Libiran (screened at the 2007 Pusan Film Festival)
The dangerous unlit streets and labyrinthine alleyways in the ghetto district of Tondo in Manila, serves as a claustrophobic backdrop to a random killing that triggers a wild and bloody gang war.
Through the eyes of a 10 year old boy, we are immersed into the normal, impoverished, tough life of Tondo. Through him, we encounter the juvenile yet murderous leaders and members of various gangsta tribes — adolescent thugs and petty criminals whose past time is sex, drugs and their eloquently poetic street rap, delivered in their own unique tongue-twisting machine gun-style.
3. Tirador/Slingshot by Brillante Mendoza (won at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival) –
A tribute to the real potential of digital cinema, Slingshot is a slum epic on steroids. It weaves stories left and right into a shocking tableau about life for the lowest of the low in the Philippine's poorest and most crime-ridden districts.
National elections are coming up so in the usual attempt to appear "tough-on-crime", The Big Boys have been sent in to crack down on the local squatters, thieves and miscreants who litter the film like broken bottles. And since no sweep is ever a clean sweep, the cops' brutal shock-force tactics quickly ripple outwards with jagged repercussions. Starting from the film's amazing night time raid and climaxing with a candle-lit vigil by those insulted by the empty words of the politicians, director Brillante Mendoza uses the camera's apparent attention deficit disorder to maximum effect, investigating lives at every turn and blending their true fictions right onto the city streets of Manila for a rich and incredibly immersive feel.
4. Endo/End of Contract by Jade Francis Castro (screened at the Nantes Film Festival)
Graded "A" by the Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB), Endo is the story of Leo (Jason Abalos), a temp worker who is used to the temporary. Typical of many young Filipinos, he hops from one contractual job to the next in order to earn a living for himself and his family. His relationships are similarly fleeting. When he meets the spirited dreamer Tanya (Ina Feleo), he is suddenly faced by the promise of a better future, but he doesn't seem equipped to handle it.
5. Confessional by Jerold Tarog (won at the Osian Film Festival)
Lies + Lies = Truth.
Ryan Pastor knows this by heart. As a small time filmmaker, he knows
how sound and images can be manipulated to say anything. And he's
tired of the lies—the lies at work, in his relationships, the lies one
must keep in society just to exist. On a whim, he decides to go to
Cebu to document the Sinulog festival. There he stumbles upon a truth
he didn't ask for and is reluctant to touch. One of his subjects, a
former politician who may or may not be dying, decides to confess his
sins—all the crimes he committed while in office—before Ryan's camera.
What follows is a story of revelations and bitter truths, of buried
secrets and sweet lies. CONFESSIONAL takes you to the heart of a
criminal…or an honest man.
6. Death In The Land of the Poets by Lav Diaz (won at the Venice Film Festival)
The main character of Kagadanan is a Filipino poet named Benjamin Agusan (played by Roeder Camañag). He is the hapless native who returns to his hometown Padang to witness the aftermath of a super typhoon. Director Lav Diaz shot Kagadanan in Padang, Legazpi City, where a village was buried by landslides caused by super typhoon Reming that hit the Bicol region on November 30, 2006.
For the past seven years, Benjamin had been living in an old town called Kaluga in Russia. With his grant and residency, he taught and conducted workshops in a university. The poet published two books of sadness and longing in the process.
In Russia, Benjamin was able to shoot video collages, fell in love with a Slavic beauty, buried a son, and almost went mad. He came back home to bury his loved ones–father, mother, sister and a lover. He came back to face Mount Mayon, the raging beauty and muse of his youth. He came home to confront the country that he so loved and hated, the Philippines. He came back to die in the land of his birth. He wanders around the obliterated village meeting old friends and lovers.
7. Tambolista/Drumbeat by Adolfo Alix Jr. (screened at the Jecheon Film Festival)
Ever wanted something so bad that you would do anything just to get it?
Tambolista focuses on one boy's simple dream of owning his very own drum set. Set in the different slums of Manila, the film is taken from the point of view of 14-year-old Jason. A boy on the verge of manhood whose biggest passion is playing drums.
When his older brother Billy (Coco Martin) impregnates his girlfriend, the brothers and their streetsmart friend Pablo (Sid Lucero) try to come up with any means possible to get money to pay for the abortion. These three men show how the struggle to survive amidst their lives of poverty can also be a struggle for keeping their humanity in this intimate portrait of two brothers living in deprivation. The movie also shows how life is similar to the beat of drums, both having high and low points.
Where every beat counts…
8. Selda/ The Inmate by Paolo Villanuna and Ellen Ramos (competed at the 2008 Montreal Wolrd Film Festival)
Set in two contrasting enivronments that undeline the same premise of imprisonment, Selda tells the story of Rommel, a young man who accidentally kills a boy, resulting in his incarceration. Inside the jail, he befriends another inmate, Esteban, who becomes his rock and protector. Seven years later, Rommel is living in the province as a farmer together with Sita his wife. Esteban tracks down Rommel in hopes of renewing a brewing love affair. Rommel and Sita welcome Esteban into their lives, until their intimacy crosses borderlines and results in the undeniable scourge of self-discovery.
Selda is a return to classiscist forms and delivers a stylish, deliberately-paced treatise on love. At moments strange, Selda is a sublime and disquieting portrait of a young man whose search for happiness, innocence and true love is laden with guilt and doubt.
9. Katas ng Saudi/ Toil From Saudi by Jose Javier Reyes
An overseas worker (Jinggoy Estrada) comes home from Saudi and finds that coming home is harder than he thought it would be. He has to reconnect with his children who have all grown without him, and readapt to a lifestyle that includes his family.
10. Maling Akala/Wrong Assumption by Veronica Paraiso and Pablo Biglang Awa
The bittersweet love story of JP and Teta gives us a glimpse of how a gay man/straight woman relationship works… or doesn't. JP is a fugitive on the run, after having accidentally killed his lover. On the bus, he sits next to Teta, who is 9 months pregnant. When Teta gives birth, JP accompanies mother and child home to their fishpond in Sasmuan, Pampanga. Teta impulsively introduces JP as the father of her child surprising both JP and her parents. When JP and Teta agree to play-act husband and wife, their queer, dysfunctional tale begins.
Tags: 2007, art films, asian cinema, Cinema, digital films, film festivals, films, independent films, indie, movies, pelikula, philippine cinema, philippines, southeast asian cinema, third world cinema


text:
Q: UIImageView rotation animation with easy out I am rotating a round arrow at the moment round in round in circles.. This is cool and all but I am wanting to have something a little more polished when it comes to ending like other views where you can animate them to ease in or out, I was wondering if you can do the same for this.. this is my code as it stands..
- (IBAction)animator:(id)sender
{
    [arrowRotation removeFromSuperview];

    //arrow animation
    arrowRotation = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"arrow.png"]];
    arrowRotation.frame = CGRectMake(148.0, 20.0, 30.0, 30.0);
    [self.view addSubview:arrowRotation];

    CABasicAnimation *fullRotation;
    fullRotation = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"transform.rotation"];
    fullRotation.fromValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:0];
    fullRotation.toValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:((360*M_PI)/180)];
    fullRotation.duration = 0.75f;
    fullRotation.repeatCount = 3;

    [arrowRotation.layer addAnimation:fullRotation forKey:@"360"];
}

So my question is can I make this animation slow down when it comes to the 3 rotation.. like an ease out of a UIView. if that makes sense..
any help would be greatly appreciated.

A: First off, in this line fullRotation.toValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:((360*M_PI)/180)];, your float ((360*M_PI)/180) will rotate the circle 360 degrees, but your numbers are a little excessive. What I mean by this is that you can simplify it to 2*M_PI.
Second: If you want to customize this more, you can use a CAKeyframeAnimation:
CAKeyframeAnimation *rotationAnimation = [CAKeyframeAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"transform.rotation"];

NSArray *rotationValues = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: [NSNumber numberWithFloat: 0], [NSNumber numberWithFloat: (2*M_PI)], nil];

[rotationAnimation setValues:rotationValues];

NSArray *rotationTimes = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.0f],[NSNumber numberWithFloat:1.0f], nil];
[rotationAnimation setKeyTimes:rotationTimes];

NSArray *rotationTimingFunctions = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionLinear],[CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseOut],  nil];
[rotationAnimation setTimingFunctions:rotationTimingFunctions];

rotationAnimation.fillMode = kCAFillModeForwards;
rotationAnimation.removedOnCompletion = NO;
rotationAnimation.duration = 1;

[self.view.layer addAnimation:rotationAnimation forKey:@"animation"];

Hope this helps!

A: Use UIView animateWithDuration:delay:options:animations:completion: to do the animations and use the option UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseOut.  This is the updated, preferred UIView animation method on iOS, and will let you do the ease out you want.
Docs here: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/uiview_class/uiview/uiview.html
Let me know if you have any questions!


2008 vs. Now: Are Novi, Northville or South Lyon Home Owners Using Their Homes as ATM's Again?
The recklessness that accompanied the build-up in equity prior to the last crash does not exist today. That makes this Novi, Northville and South Lyon, Michigan housing market much more secure than the one we had heading into 2008.


1 June was the 100th anniversary of Frank Whittle's birth. When he was a child, and liked making models, no one guessed he would change the world. His fellow RAF pilots do believe in him, and help him launch the company that will build the first jet engine.
Bill and Ann Woodhouse write about Whittle, "Let us remember what the apprentice system opened up for so many people for the benefit of our country - only to be destroyed by socialist dogma."


text:
"Milk" is an important upcoming documentary about historic civil rights icon Harvey Milk. In an interview with actor James Franco on the David Letterman show, Mr. Letterman instead of focusing on the historic nature of the film or talking substance about what the movie is about, focuses on the fact that there is a kiss between the two straight men.
Below you can see the interview, and the lack of seriousness and mockery that goes on regarding an epic film that is about to be released.
"Milk" is not a comedy, it is a film about a major icon in the gay rights movement who was assassinated. The fact that David Letterman finds this to be amusing and is focused on one kissing scene that is irrelevant to the movie says more about him than it does about the film.
Contact the Late Show with David Letterman:
cbsmailbag@aol.com
Labels: asexual videos, david letterman, documentary, harvey milk, james franco, milk, mockery, the late show
It sounds like Dave was making a joke about Franco kissing Sean Penn. He then proceeds to talk about the seriousness of this movie and who Harvey Milk was and what he did. He then goes back to joking about the kiss.
What exactly is your problem here? He doesn't mock the movie, doesn't mock gay people, doesn't mock Harvey Milk. His show is essentially a comedy show. So what's your point with all of this?
MILK is not a documentary. It's a biopic, with actors. The documentary version of Harvey's story is the Oscar-winning "The Times of Harvey Milk" and was released in the late 80's.
Come on, lighten up! David Letterman is comedian and Late Night is a comedy show. He actually said that it was a serious movie, brought up Prop. 8, and said the movie is "a valuable document of those times." There are many things that our community needs to get worked up over, but this is not one of them.
It's a late night show. They make jokes.
You are crying "wolf". Don't be so damn huffy.
While I'm a fan of Letterman, he can be a bit juvenile at times, but honestly wasn't too distressed about it. I was more bothered by the Josh Brolin interview on Leno last night.
http://www.inlookout.com/2008/11/26/josh-brolin-talks-milk-on-leno/
I am not saying he is a homophobe or anything, I just think he does an injustice to the film by focusing solely on the kissing scene. Big deal, two men kissed. I didn't learn anything about the film from the clip.
This is clearly an attempt to stir up a controversy where there is none. David Letterman has been Gay friendly since forever.
You slander a good man with your idle nonsense.
this is rediculous be glad he had him on the show to begin with....There was nothing wrong with this interview what so ever. GROW UP!
Well its obvious that David Letterman's homophobia prevented him from being able to talk about the substance of the film. He was too freaked out by seeing two men kiss for a whole minute. He was also trying to get the actor to participate in his homophobia by trying to get him to complain about the kiss. Props to the actor for refusing to go there with David. We all have to participate in homophobia for it to work. Every time a straight guy resists or interrupts homophobic comments by other men it helps the movement along.
I found nothing offensive about Letterman's interview. He talked about the seriousness of Milk, they discussed the historical aspects, and Franco even gave his own opinion on the "No on 8" campaign. This was a very fair and unbiased interview. I'm gay, too, by the way. Lighten up, people!
I haven't watched David Letterman in a long
time....
I did you hear James Franco say he voted
NO on Prop 8....Makes me like him....
Have a great Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!
TACKLE YOU HUGS!!!!!!!!!!
Yes Letterman is supposed to be a comedic show, however what is funny about two men kissing. This is the same treatment that Brokeback Mountain received.
Dave would not have spent this much time focusing on a love scene that involved a straight couple. What made this an issue is the fact that it was two men.
BTW to all you naysayers just because you as a gay person may not find it offensive does not mean that another gay person is incorrect to find offense. Your opinion no matter how highly you think of yourself is not the last word on any issue.
I am not a fan of Letterman, but also do not consider him to be homophobic, and have never had any reason to. You have the right to your own opinion, and readers of your blog have the right to disagree.
So far your opinion is in the minority, which includes mine. I see no controversy arising from the clip you included. For those who think Dave is a homophobe, simply don't watch his show.
For many, seeing two men kissing on screen is still something they rarely see and worthy of discussion. Dave isn't Oprah. His job is to be funny!
As someone who works as an out producer in the TV world, I think you got this one wrong. Letterman just sold thousands of additional tickets to Milk. People who would never go see a movie about a gay activists will go see Penn and Franco kiss and, in the process, learn from the movie. Just like Brokeback, a lot of people went to see the Jake and Heath love scenes and learned something. Letterman is not a news show, and from a marketing standpoint, he did a great service to Milk.
BTW, saw this great film a while back at a screening the film's producers. These guys and Focus Films are sharp and have a great marketing plan -- so don't bag on Dave.
I just might transcribe this so that there can be no mistaking what was said by these two men on national tv on the first or second most popular late night talk show in the world. I have the time, I just won't remember to do it.
I watched this TV show as it was edited for the West Coast. IMO, it is wonderful. Two het men, those two het men, being honest and even letting go with a bit of homoerotic playfulness on air, while talking seriously about a very special time in California's Queer history. Wonderful!
The names of the people who were there while the kiss was being filmed... Maupin! Legitimacy is automatic with just his name, but there were more that I can't remember right now and I'm too legally 4:20 to try to transcribe it right now.
Please, I was here in California at the time. I'm not saying my take on this is the only one that is valid, I just want to throw my considerable (250) weight behind giving this whole episode another look-see.
I've been in San Diego since 1976 (so I'm a local, but I'll never be a native, darn it). These serious matters were handled in this clip just fine, the humor was natural and they were being especially sensitive. Naturally Dave would not be as tuned in as the guy who just described what it was like to kiss Sean Penn for more than a minute (only one take?), but he was comfortable letting the actor take the lead during the interview. Part of David Letterman's comedic charm is his insistence on being just a tad juvenile, consistently. I'll bet he and his five-year-old son get along like great pals.
I can't wait to see this movie, no matter how stupidly Letterman handled it. I think Sean Penn is one of the best actors of all time. I hope this movie makes a dent in some of the H8 crowd.
I didn't have a problem with this. lighten up-he talked about how serious it was and endorsed it!
I agree with the other comments, in fact I also think you should remove this post...there are larger issues to be fought...
Sofia said...
Attention to the movie is cool. The "hoping to screw it up" and "having to be drunk" to not seem queer is definitely unnecessary and uncomfortable. Franco is awesome for showing that he doesn't associate being queer with something he'd want to avoid.
Honestly, none of you are upset or offended at Letterman talking about how one needs to be drunk to kiss another guy because it's just OMG THAT DISGUSTING? The fact that he had to keep coming back to it and emphasize a few times just how "real men" can't kiss another guy for a role in a movie without homophobic macho posturing about it was disgusting. I don't think we can excuse homophobic humor just because it's "a joke" -- just because it was supposed to be funny (and I don't think it was) doesn't mean he couldn't have joked about the movie in a more neutral way without making gay people seem weird and nasty.
But I'll fair, Letterman isn't really funny most of the time anyway, so I suppose it's no surprise this joke fell flat on its face.
What a mountain out of a mole-hill. Dave even put his fot in his mouth by admitting "we're making fun of the whole thing" but "it's a deadly serious topic", and went on to bring up the concern over Prop 6 and Prop 8. The exchange between Dave and James Franco was lighthearted and positive. Please focus more on the real anti-gay bigots who do way more damage to us like the jerks on FOX and the crazed-out Christian organizations.
mateo, i can't disagree more. the biggets perpetuates of homophobia are not the extremist like phelps or falwell. most of us know they're crazy. the biggest instigators of homophobia are main-stream media monguls like letterman who claim to be of support, but continue to teach the country that gay jokes are okay. kids see this and grow up with it. i think letterman ought to be confronted. it takes being on the margins to see how this kind of 'subtle' humor can be of long-term consequence to a marginalized group.


text:
Third Malaysian minister contracts COVID-19
Hamzah Zainudin has become Malaysia's third minister to contract the coronavirus in less than a week.
The Home Affairs Ministry revealed his test result in a statement today, saying that the 63-year-old has begun his quarantine. It also called on those who had come into contact with Hamzah from Jan. 8 to Monday to get tested.
"YB Dato 'Seri Hamzah Zainudin thanks all those who have prayed for his recovery and apologizes for all the difficulties that arose in this development," the statement said.
Read: COVID-19 swirls among Malaysian cabinet ministers again as two go into quarantine
News of Hamzah's coronavirus infection comes days after his colleagues, Rina Harun, who is the Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, as well as Mustapa Mohamad, who is the Minister for Economic Affairs, tested positive for COVID-19. Close contacts Mohd Redzuan Yusof, who is the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, and Saifuddin Abdullah, who is the Communications and Multimedia Minister, are also being isolated.
All of them are members of the Bersatu political party who had attended a large meeting last week where ministers wore masks and were socially distanced, according to Redzuan.
Malaysia has recorded more than 138,000 COVID-19 infections and 551 deaths since the outbreak began. A total of 2,232 cases were reported yesterday.
Other stories:
No curfews, military coup, elections during state of emergency: PM Muhyiddin
Malaysia's King declares state of emergency as COVID-19 spirals out of control
This article, Third Malaysian minister contracts COVID-19, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.


Kong s.p.a. is organized with a quality management system certified UNI EN ISO 9001 for the planning and delivery of training services for professional purposes, paying particular attention to safety in the workplace.
The standard courses are in catalog or customized according to specific needs, always complying with current legislation.
Training activities are held in our indoor structure, equipped to carry out theoretical and practical sessions, or, if requested, at the customer's premises.
Kong teachers are qualified and experienced with the skills required by current legislation.
Kong s.p.a. also has a reminding system that allows clients to be notified about necessary updating training.
Up to now, more than 30000 hours of training were provided to Special Forces and Police, to emergency rescue technician (Fire Brigade, Civil Defence, etc..) and to ordinary and extraordinary healthcare rescue teams (118, Red Cross and various service associations), as well to operators of adventure parks, professionals and employees of private companies.
Kong s.p.a. is registered to regional register of the entities accredited for services of education and professional training n. 845 of November 3, 2014.


If 1 = A and 9 = I, then 15 = ?
There were a lot of disqualifications this week due to people missing words from their answers or rewording the phrase slightly (the exact wording is "no one", not "no man" and the sound clues given bore that out) so be sure to double check your answers.
Look out for a new puzzle starting on Sunday.