text:
Etiqueta: Germany
[Leer cuento en español]
By now, the odor of abandon and decaying food has almost dissipated from Mischi's apartment in Queens. She has been paying rent for a vacant apartment since her death, and now Ruth and her son, Mark, have come all the way from California to dust it off, to expel the mustiness, to empty it of history and the tangible void of the last few months so that it can be released back to its owner once and for all.
Everything has been in disarray since the beginning of March, because the sudden news of her mother's death sent Ruth rushing to New York to take care of the barest necessities. She stayed only a few days, convinced that she would be back in a couple of weeks to arrange everything properly. It had never crossed her mind that five months of purgatory would pass before her return. Yes, the virus was filling the news then, and New York was already giving hints that it would become one of the world's epicenters, but it still seemed like a distant, foreign scourge, not quite real. In March, she took care of the basics. Collecting the ashes from Staten Island, she faced the same views of the Statue of Liberty that had greeted her mother arriving on these alien shores. Curious about a church she'd never seen before, she entered on a whim, and the remains started to writhe within their urn, because it seemed Mischi's repulsion to Christianity survived even incineration. Back at the apartment, she recited the Kaddish, the prayer of the dead, with a minyan formed of the hodgepodge of nonagenarians and former employees Mischi hadn't been nasty enough to drive away permanently. She ended up kissing and hugging these near-strangers as if everyone had forgotten that in these times, death lurked in every breath.
Ruth performed these obligations by ritualistic instinct, relief growing as she closed out this chapter of her life full of fighting and anger. Eager to be done and feeling slightly dazed, she threw things away with abandon, emptying the apartment as quickly as possible. Later, when she realized that in her cleansing frenzy, she'd thrown away all the death certificates she'd just paid for, she allowed the thought to cross her mind that maybe the anger hadn't been completely surmounted. The one thing she kept without a second thought was the suitcase that Mischi brought on the Gripsholm, the Swedish ship that carried her to a new life in New York. In March, Ruth set this luggage in a corner and there it remained, oblivious to the march of history and the absence of Mischi. She still doesn't feel ready to face whatever's inside that shabby and enigmatic suitcase and has been postponing opening it all week long, knowing the memories it holds might shatter her.
Perhaps she'll open it today, taking advantage of being on her own, since Mark set off for a Saturday in Manhattan and shows no signs of returning. Both mother and son deserve a break today, after a frenzied week trying to dispose of the seemingly inexhaustible stores of books, documents, tchotchkes, furniture, clothing, medical equipment, and now-obscure devices that accumulate over more than half a century of a life in the same apartment. Who'd have thought giving valuable items away could prove so difficult? Ruth has enjoyed strengthening her relationship with Mark over these days, but now she is lured by the idea of solitude, which seems to her like a chance for the long-awaited closure to the mourning that has clouded her since spring. She will say goodbye for the last time to that apartment where she spent most of her childhood and adolescence with her parents and sister, all of whom, it hits her, now exist only as memories, many of which are staged within these four walls.
Mischi made her exit at the right time; how awful it would have been for her to live through the pandemic. And what would Ruth have done? Expose herself repeatedly to the menacing, panting crowds of airports or move in with her mother? Both options sound potentially deadly, and just thinking about it sends a chill down her spine. Fortunately, Mischi died exactly as she wished — at home, suddenly, painlessly, after a long life, able to claim a moral victory over the cancer the doctors had said would kill her in three months all the way back in early 2017. It was almost to be expected, because by the age of eleven, she was already a reluctant expert on the necessities of survival, leaving behind all friends and family to escape to England on one of the first trains of the Kindertransport. But a week before she'd died, she announced on a phone call with Ruth that she was more than ready to leave this world behind too, and she finally did so at the age of ninety-two.
Over these days that mother and son have been confined to the apartment in Queens, they have erected a giant, chaotic pyramid on the Persian rug out of every document that exudes the slightest whiff of interest, and Ruth's goal for today is to do a thorough winnowing.
She is eager to plunge into the maelstrom of paper because the written words are serving as stitches for a wound that has gaped open for decades. For some unknowable reason, Mischi spent more than thirty years bad-mouthing her as greedy and conniving, even threatening to disinherit her in later years, as if determined to perpetuate the pain she had suffered when her own father did the same to her.
Hence, Ruth was astonished when she read the will in March and discovered that Mischi's last testament contradicted those lacerating, inexhaustible curses, not only granting her daughter her rightful share of the estate but giving her absolute power as the sole executor. This unanticipated posthumous gift was a tremendous emotional reprieve, a far cry from the single table and lamp granted to Ruth in an earlier will tauntingly shown to her by her mother.
Now she sits before an overwhelming epistolary expanse and reads and reads without respite. Through her hands pass dozens and dozens of angry letters, from forgotten battles that took place between 1952 and 2016, and she separates them into two piles. On the right, she places the letters returned to Mischi which trace her fierce advocacy for Black civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. She had already known the broad details of her mother's education campaigning, but the deep commitment to fair housing was all new to her. On the left, she puts the Byzantine labyrinth of correspondence relating to her attempts to recover the family businesses, real estate, and works of art, in a struggle that spanned seven decades, with restitution of pennies on the dollar granted in spurts and dribbles. At the age of eighty-eight, her life already behind her, she received a tidy sum from the German government that allowed her, in her 90s, to finally discover the pleasure of spending money. Inextricably intertwined with this saga is her ultimately futile fight to recover her rightful share of her parents' estate, traced in drifts of letters from a dozen different lawyers. Ruth has always wondered what led them to disinherit her — an impossibility in German law, as Mischi later discovered — because, from the correspondence she comes across, it seems they never stopped caring for their daughter.
Just minutes ago, she discovered a letter from 1944, in which Dr. Hilde Lion — founder of Stoatley Rough, the English boarding school for German refugee children where Mischi spent the war years — assures Lily and Hermann Matthiessen that their daughter loves to receive news and photos of them, that they don't have to worry about any lack of affection, and that she is a good-looking, tall girl, very practical and quite capable to organise.
She finds a diary of Mischi's. She skims through it, skipping whole sections, until she comes to a 1959 entry in which, exhausted and lovesick, Mischi contemplates suicide. Ruth's first overwhelming impression is how much her mother truly loved her father, and the letters she's found demonstrate that this endured until the end, even decades after their separation. But she can't help the nagging realization that, conversely, Ruth and her sister, Irene, are mentioned only in passing, as if they were irrelevant to this decision… her mother has been ignoring her for even longer than she thought.
She tosses the journal away in a moment of ire, and glances out of the corner of her eye at the Gripsholm luggage, as if to say that now she has seen everything she needed to, that she is ready. But something is still holding her back: she knows her mother treasured that suitcase for decades. It's ridiculous, because Ruth has never felt intimidated by objects, but she cannot open it yet; she does not feel strong enough to face its contents, maybe because of the weight of history.
Instead, she grabs a small file cabinet with a label that reads "Kochrezepte," which holds the recipes of her great-grandmother Helene Dobrin, Mischi's beloved grandmother who was killed in Theresienstadt, the concentration camp near Prague. Helene and her husband Moritz founded the Dobrin Konditoreien, which quickly grew to many branches across the ritziest neighborhoods of Berlin, so successful that it became a fixture in guidebooks and even literature of the epoch. Family legend has it that Helene introduced the banana split to the German capital, and she was unquestionably a savant with desserts, so Ruth strokes the autumnal pages and vows to cook Schokoladencreme and Zitronen-Eis and Kastanientorte when they return to California.
Suddenly, an envelope drops from the file cabinet with a small note pinned to it: "Last letter from Helene to Lily before she was sent to Theresienstadt." The ink is still crystal clear, as if written yesterday, but it is in German, the precise, old-fashioned cursive on the pristine onionskin so elongated that it resembles Cyrillic. Ruth is almost relieved that the message is indecipherable for now, and she places the letter next to the green passport with a large swastika that Lily used to flee to the United States via a tortuous journey overland through wartime France, Spain, and Portugal.
Generations of a family reside in these epistles that flood the Persian rug, yellowing papers with ink spilled in love and anger and confession by people who now must be conjured out of this correspondence that oscillates between futility and transcendence. They speak of music, literature, food and all the routines of a life, but the letters also served as a means for Ruth's father, Stanley, to reveal his homosexuality, and for her sister to tell her that she had terminal cancer, shortly before her death at the age of forty-five. At this remove in time, there is indeed a curious flattening in which the mundane has become as important as the momentous.
Ruth is besieged by so many simultaneous sensations that no single emotion can break through, and she feels absolutely nothing except dread of that brown, battered suitcase. She focuses again on the letters: she reads them quickly, with a curiosity that is both historical and familial, and she is especially amazed by those from the post-war period, because, in a single letter, Mischi is able to casually mix book recommendations with news of relatives killed in Auschwitz, and the pleasure of a night at the theater seeing The Rivals with the the horror stories of her grandfather Moritz about surviving Theresienstadt.
Among the countless letters between Mischi and Stanley, who couldn't resist painting their love in ink even when living under the same roof, Ruth stumbles upon love letters to Mischi from a boyfriend in the 1940s, Hans, never mentioned by her mother in 70 years, yet apparently a key figure of her youth, and of her life. There, another side of Mischi appears, vivacious, chattily romantic, reproving him lightly for calling her "sweetheart" and "honey," blaming it on pernicious American influence on newly-arrived Hans or perhaps a heat wave addling his mind. In a letter written a month before the end of World War II, Hans resorts to German words and uses the affectionate nickname "Mischilein," expressing his impatience to be reunited with her in New York, which he describes as an amazing and dizzying city, as well as a place full of fruit and chocolate, so unlike England. He tells her that he has met with Lily and Hermann who, after so many years of separation from their daughter, are forced to ask this stranger whether she is tall or short, fat or thin, beautiful or ugly, straight or hunched. And Ruth suddenly makes a connection in her mind and realizes that this Hans is the same person as that mysterious figure who finally convinced Mischi's parents to bring her over from England and reunite her with them.
A curious and slightly jarring phrase jumps out at her. Hans assures Mischi that he has not said a word to her parents about her "slightly fat hams". At first it seems vaguely insulting, especially since Mischi has always been rather skinny, if anything, in her youth but then she sees its sweetness. This is clearly one of the inside jokes of a playful young couple (likely born in the awkward transition from Germanophone to Anglophone), repeatedly endlessly by flirtatious lovers who see a lifetime before them, until suddenly it is never repeated again. It was never intended to be seen, seventy-five years later, by the prying eyes of someone who exists only thanks to the disintegration of that romance.
After surviving all the stresses of a year apart, why did their love collapse so quickly once Mischi rejoined him in New York? Perhaps she didn't marry Hans because for her, New York was always supposed to be a blank slate. She fervently refused to play the role of the pitiable Jewish refugee and strove to disassociate herself from anyone else who had escaped the Nazis. Driven by an instinct for self-protection and rebelliousness against her family, she preferred to marry the most Aryan-looking man she met, an intellectual Christian from rural Indiana, and to celebrate Christmas with her daughters instead of Hanukkah.
The explorer on the Persian rug also comes across less exciting but less distant messages, which had fallen into the oblivion of forgetfulness, and the Ruth of the present stares into the eyes of the Ruth of the past, who, apparently, was already obsessed with food and J. D. Salinger and casually bandying about Freudian terms to describe her feelings at the age of nine. But what surprises her most is to read how she and her mother joked with each other and talked to each other with love, and it brings her back to the first 20 years of her life, when she had admired her mother so much, before everything soured.
Mischi's cooking is one bright memory she always kept, and Ruth clings to it. She opens the freezer, where the last taste of her mother awaits her, and the soup that Mischi froze the previous Passover still tastes like youth and life all these months later.
After this culinary reconciliation, Ruth returns to the fray and grabs a few more folders. She knew Mischi always had some aspirations as a writer, but she had no idea how complex her poetry was, or that she had gotten interest from publishers about short stories and even a novel. How could she have hidden this part of her life from her daughter? She finds a rejection letter from an Annie Laurie Williams, who regrets being unable to publish Mischi's story, Exodus, but expresses great interest in her upcoming novel.
Ruth reads the first sentence of the novel, apparently untitled — "When the Jacksons did their customary entertaining on Saturday nights, Harriet Jackson underwent a complete metamorphosis" — and falls into the reader's trap of wondering if Harriet is an alter ego of her mother. She leafs through the sheets and jumps from page to page until she reaches Harriet's suicide, and she is stung once again by Mischi's attitude.
She turns around and sees only photos full of inhabitants of the past which, instead of saddening her, suddenly make her feel an enormous gratitude for this world-wide caesura. Plunged by Death into dissociation, confusion and uncertainty, she has been able to take refuge in silence, isolation and freedom from distractions, the perfect ingredients for a generous balm, all of which she would have lacked under normal circumstances, since in American culture everything must be overcome from one day to the next, because it holds no place for mourning.
Seen as a unified story, the pile of documents floods Ruth with sympathy, compassion and appreciation. With the safety and perspective of time, reified on the Persian carpet of that apartment in Queens, her mother has been transformed into a literary character with multiple names — Marion, Mischi, Mischilein, — a stranger with a fascinating life that her daughter was often barely aware of. It seems to her that this post-mortem portrait exudes intelligence, humor and sensitivity, and Ruth forgives her mother all the years of threats and negativity.
Now she feels emotionally ready to face the suitcase. Ruth carries it next to the window to illuminate it clearly and, even though she's not normally one for photos, she snaps a couple as a memento, because she's afraid the valise will crumble in her hands. She wipes off her glasses, takes a deep breath, smiles, and steels herself to open the case, knowing she can take any painful memory or discovery. She has History before her eyes and feels powerful confronting that suitcase which bore her mother's dreams and sighs on the long boat ride from Liverpool to New York and the unknown. For a second after it falls open, Ruth's brain can't process what's before her eyes, and then she giggles helplessly as she realizes the case is filled entirely with the tackiest Christmas decorations she's ever seen.
Etiquetado Auschwitz, death, England, family, familysecrets, Germany, holocaust, Kindertransport, letters, literature, loveinthetimeofconoravirus, pandemicstories, quarantinestories, Second World War, secondworldwar, shortstories, Stoatley Rough, stories, survivors, tales, Theresienstadt, United States, USA, warDeja un comentario
Autarchy
Beyoncé is trapped in her gel nails. Well, not Beyoncé Beyoncé, it's just that Maria refuses to allow her real name to be used, because it's simply too distinctive, and she prefers not to be recognized in the street. So we'll have to turn to her idol for a pseudonym (surely, there must be more Beyoncé fans than Marias in the world). Anyway, what happened is that Beyonce got sick before the virus got its official papers cleared to leave China, and she endured nine days of fever and misery, but she didn't die, because she took good care of herself, and because she was lucky, and because she's not in a high-risk demographic, and because she doesn't know if she had coronavirus or just the flu or who knows the hell what.
Now she's completely cured. She may not know the precise nature of what she had, but she's definitely cured. To celebrate her recovery, she'd forked over twenty euros for an old Chinese lady to attach some beautiful pink — natural-toned — gel nails, with a little flower at the edge, natural in a totally different way. To attach them tightly to the nail plate, attach them very, very tightly.
It was the first time she'd ever gotten gel nails, but she deserved it, for fuck's sake; she'd been clinging on to life by a thread (or at least had a really nasty fever) for nine days. She deserved some gel nails as a reward. Of course she deserved it.
The only hitch was the arrival of the pandemic, this time officially and with a stamped tourist visa, so all businesses that weren't strictly essential had been required to close indefinitely, by decree of the Bundesregierung. And now it turns out that gel nails aren't a necessity. Unfuckingbelievable. All the Chinese nail salons closed. Every single one.
And now two weeks have gone by since she stuck her hand in that device with a UV lamp that burned like bloody hell. Two weeks — the nails are starting to look battered. Wikipedia informs her that nails grow an average of 0.1 millimeters per day. So that's 1.4 millimeters already. Beyoncé's voracious half-moons are encroaching further and further onto her cuticle.
Poor Beyonce, half-heartedly telecommuting from the confinement of her apartment, types endlessly on her laptop and misenters number after number in Excel because those damn claws protrude farther every day and stick themselves where they're not wanted, and everything gets messed up. She has to pore over every formula with a microscope.
And worst of all, she can't concentrate, because her friend Carmen (we're going to have to call her Gwyneth due to privacy concerns) told her that oy, oy, oy, those nails and that gel must be veritable nests of coronavirus. Disinfect, disinfect. Ne-e-sts.
Beyoncé checks the cells, half of them wrong, because those nests of coronavirus relish chaos. She is completely incapable of concentration, Gwyneth's words a relentless drumbeat behind every thought. Plus, the laptop was brought to her from the office only a few days ago; no doubt it's still bathed in viruses. She sprays her nails with disinfectant at every chance. Calculation, psss, psss, correction, psss, multiplication, psss, psss, etcetera, psss, psss, psss.
And then there's grocery shopping, yet another ordeal. She couldn't get it delivered without pawning one of her more important organs, because she lives alone, and you have to buy provisions for a football team to qualify for free delivery. So she goes to the supermarket, whatcha gonna do? At least she gambles the lives of her gel nails: on previous excursions, two of them were ripped off by the cursed, blessed handles of the shopping bags, but she can't have such misfortune every time (no matter how hard she tries).
When she ventures into the terrifying world outside her apartment, she applies every last tip forwarded to her on WhatsApp: she wears gloves and a mask, she doesn't touch anything at all, she scolds a woman who is manhandling loaf after loaf of bread with her bare hands (c'mon, lady, Jesus Christ!), she keeps six feet apart in the queue, she sprints across to the other sidewalk when she spots a figure approaching in the distance. Look what she's come to. When she arrives home, she initiates disinfection protocols as soon as she reaches the landing — a bucket of bleach at the entrance for her shoes, plastic bags to shield the plastic bags, coat banished to the disinfection zone (which she doesn't have, of course, because she lives in a studio, not a mansion). She washes her hands as if digging for a secret layer of skin. She scrubs and scrubs the nests of coronavirus, which have been well and truly exposed. And then she rounds it off with a psss, psss, psss, and then a few more for good measure.
She feels hideous, with her nails in this state. One day she straightens her hair, which she always keeps curly nowadays, unstraightened since her last wild night at Fabrik; pwah, more than five years ago. She looks strange: between that hair and those nails, she looks like God knows what. She Skypes her mother, how ugly you are, then her best friend, how ugly, how ugly. And she sulkily washes her hair to bring back the glory of her curls, but her nails don't fall out no matter how long she keeps on at her scalp.
She has learned to knit from YouTube videos, and the hours fly by, but she can't get her nails out of her head, because they are always before her eyes, dancing to and fro with the needles. The nails without gel, the ones that broke carrying the groceries, still have remnants stubbornly glued on, and those can't be pried off either. The other nails are increasingly on their last legs, but well-anchored, shining pinkly and in bloom, the half moon on the cuticles now full. Perhaps the cure is worse than the disease.
Beyoncé only leaves the house to go shopping, but what truly makes her feel trapped are those tacky gel nails: what on Earth was I thinking when I get them done, I want my twenty euros back, I'll never get gel nails ever again in my life, never.
With all her fretting about nails this and not nails that, the days rush by: she watches a film about explosions and sweat starring Angelina Jolie, and she forgets her nails; cooks and there her nails are, staring at her; psss, psss; sunbathes on her balcony in the breaks between the Berlin snow and nails? what nails?; does a HIIT workout and everything hurts except her nails; sews and sews and nails and nails and psss; she takes a nap and dreams about nails; reads Julia Navarro and sometimes they creep past the edge of the page, psss, psss, and other times, they are lost in the drama of the novel; she organizes bingo games over Skype and the nails knock the balls away when she tries to pick them up, psss, but it's fun, and she doesn't mind so much — not for nothing was she crowned "Online Bingo Queen."
She's already been confined for 2.1 millimeters (or three weeks), and it seems like it's going to be long-term, but the days are losing form, are losing form more and more. Her main concern in life is whether the Chinese women will open the nail salons. Well. Perhaps someday the gel nails will plunge over the finger cliff inevitable with the march of time. Perhaps that day will arrive before the uncertain date of the end of the quarantine. Perhaps.
Etiquetado Berlin, Beyoncé, Coronavirus, First World Problems, Gel Nails, Germany, literature, loveinthetimeofconoravirus, pandemicstories, quarantinestories, shortstories, stories, talesDeja un comentario


It's Celebration Time Again!!!!! Santana Row has been here for 16 Years and it seems like just yesterday we were buying flowers at the former Bunches Flower Shop. But lo and behold, their departure led to our existence and your favorite people-watching, sun-soaking, wine-sipping, see and be seen wine patio in the garden. We'll have a special Birthday celebration menu featuring TWELVE Dollar Wines by the glass (heavy on the Champagne).


My dog's name is Rusty, and he is a labradoodle. He is gold/red, replicating rust, which is why we named him Rusty. When we first got him 3 years ago, he was 1.5 pounds, and he was the runt of his litter. Now, he is treated like a king, and he isn't underweight. The other day, he got in a fight with a stink bug. The stink bug won. He now smells like burnt hand sanitizer. Sometimes, he isn't the brightest, but he's so lovable, it's hard to be mad at him.
I am currently reading Everything Everything by: Nicola Yoon. I have read this book in the past, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I am reading it again. Everything Everything would fall under the realistic fiction, and romance genres. The main character's name is Madeline. Madeline has been sick, and hasn't been able to leave her house since she was a baby. One day, a new neighbor moves next door to her, a boy named Olly. She begins to obsess over him, and his family, but she can't meet them because of her illness. Madeline and Olly begin messaging each other, and they become friends Soon after, Madeline begins feeling something that she's only ever read about. She has fallen in love with Olly. She has been craving to go outside, and talk to him in person. Her mother would never allow Olly in the house though. What measures would Madeline take to be with Olly? You'll have to read the book to find out.
This video is a guide for kids about an endoscopy!
ppillay4 on Surgery is Cool!
Dominique on Surgery is Cool!


text:
The Rest is Silence
By: Kathleen Chamberlin
The soft light of the candle caressed her eyes as she explained the relationship between words and meaning.
"Take wanton," she said leaning back in her chair,gazing upward under lashes lightly dressed in mascara.
"Wanton? Why wanton?" the earnest voice across the table in the dimly lit alcove asked.
"Well, first of all, it's a "w" word and those are always words that make me exhale and that's sensual," she said smiling and leaning slightly toward him. "But it has two words within it that emphasize its meaning. Definitely 'want'. The emphatic desire followed by the word 'on', as if the desire is unchecked, stretching into the future," she finished, lifting her glass to him to punctuate her conclusion.
He looked skeptical but he grinned. "What other words have you deciphered by sounds or by their inner construction?"
She held his gaze fully before sipping her bourbon, deciding how revealing she'd be with this handsome man whose attention she'd worked hard to attract. His eyes were soulful, and she wondered if they were the eyes she wanted to look into for the rest of her life. She hesitated a few seconds more, head titled slightly, thinking, an index finger playing across her bottom lip.
"Mercurial and procrastination," she said, pointing to wherever the words floated in the surrounding air. "Mercurial means rapidly changing and the sounds and rhythm of the syllables does just that, changing from long to short vowels. And procrastination is not only a lengthy word but has all those long vowels in it, essentially delivering the anticipated delay the word intends."
His laughter tumbled out unencumbered. "Right! Ah, but what do you make of a word like spontaneous?"
She grimaced, shaking her head from side to side. "Awful! It's a horrible word to represent that action. First of all, it takes waaay too long to say it: --spon--tane--e--ous--; that dilutes the meaning, doesn't it." She didn't offer it as a question, waiting for him to voice an opinion, but as a fact, not to be challenged.
"What about abrupt? Does that fill your requirements?" His interest was definitely piqued by this intellectual flirting. Her laugh was throaty and intimate, hinting at deep sensuality.
"Abrupt is perfect," she replied. "That short 'a', the 'uh' sound, makes you draw breath in, followed by the harsh consonants 'b', 'r', crushing the next 'u' between the 'p' and the final firm 't'. So, it's perfect."
Throughout the evening, between their entrées and replenished drinks, they disagreed about a local artist whose work was gaining attention in the "right" circles, he admiring its boldness, she calling it pretentious. They agreed that the music of the 60s and 70s was unequaled, though both were enthusiastic about select recent songs while not endorsing an album in its entirety.
"It can't live up to Rubber Soul," she announced, again voicing a judgment that left no room for disagreement, he thought.Or was it a challenge, a "disagree if you dare", to see if he could stand his ground and engage in debate?
"Is there any group, any at all, that you think can equal or rival the Beatles?Or do they sit highest in your musical pantheon?"
She was quiet for a moment, and he imagined her scanning what he thought of as the symphonic archives behind her eyes. "No, not really. I mean, I can agree that there have been some very good albums, good collaborative efforts marrying music and lyrics like Foreigner and Journey and one or two others, but" and here she turned her palms up and shrugged her shoulders, "there just isn't anyone whose music has been as innovative and emotionally impactful as those four. "
He nodded, more out of polite reflex than agreement, and asked "What's more important to you about a song, the music or the lyrics? "
She smiled, sipped her drink, noticed it was nearly empty, and answered him as he motioned to their waiter to bring refills.
"That's a difficult question to answer because, of course, it's not as if one can be divorced from the other. But" she raised her glass in his direction, "if I had to choose, I would have to say the lyrics. I've heard way too many interesting melodies ruined by bland, repetitive mutterings. So, definitely the lyrics."
He took the empty glass from her hand, lightly brushing her fingers. "I never would have guessed." The waiter's arrival with their drinks allowed her the time to recover from the disorienting surge of erotic pleasure his brief touch had ignited. Settling his back comfortably against the plush quilted fabric that lined their booth, he asked, "So, of all their songs, what's your favorite Beatles song?"
She didn't hesitate. "In My Life. Yours?"
"What makes you think that I have one?" he teased, then laughed as her jaw had dropped in shock. "The Long and Winding Road", he said reaching across the table to capture her hand. "It's a beautiful love song, just like In My Life, don't you agree?"
She nodded, the sensations his touch aroused in her made her voice untrustworthy. He seemed not to notice, looking into her eyes again, forcing her to notice how warm his eyes were, eyes so easy to get lost in. "What do you make of the difference in the word choices in each song? They are quite..."
"Unique, " she interrupted before he could finish his thought and he recognized that whatever he had intended to say would have missed the mark, while she had been spot on.
"Yes, unique."
She shifted back in her chair, her hand sliding out from under his as she stared at the remnants of the bread in the metal bread tray as if the answer could be found among the crumbs. Her fingertips thrummed lightly on the tabletop. Seconds ticked by and finally she said, "In My Life is a more hopeful song, I think, recalling a life filled with love and lovers, without regret, maintaining positive feelings for the past but placing the current love on a higher plane. It's not poignant or heart-wrenching. It's affirming what is, in the simplest terms: friends, places, some, all, no one. 'Some' strikes me as the key word because of the number of times it's repeated. The song's path is a straight linear experience that builds to a straightforward statement: I loved you more. And the melody echoes that simplicity."
She paused to look at him. Did he understand her explanation and agree with it?Then she forged ahead. "The Long and Winding Road is more melancholy, the tone completely different, the loneliness is palpable and the melody aches with longing. Think about all those long vowels in the opening. The lyrics and melody suggest a struggle to arrive at a destination and the destination is one specific door. And the journey is the same, repeatedly. It's accentuated by the word 'many'." She stopped speaking, realizing that she'd become lost in her own analysis, nearly forgetting about the handsome man sitting across from her. She smiled sheepishly. Some habits were hard to break. "Sorry about that. "
"No apologies necessary. I've never considered music that way before. But, you know what?"
"What?" she asked quietly. His smile broadened. "I don't think In My Life is your favorite Beatles song, after all. I think it's The Long and Winding Road. How do you feel about dessert?"
"To order or analyze?"
"Both."
They laughed and he signaled their waiter. They scanned the dessert choices. He settled on carrot cake, and she ordered chocolate lava cake.
"What is it about women and chocolate?" he asked as they dove into their desserts, and he watched as her face had been transformed into the one, he often saw on women in bed.
She giggled. Taking another bite of the rich cake and, hot fudge leaking out, she spoke again. "It's just so rapturous," she said closing her eyes and emitting a deeply satisfying sigh. "It's as close to causing an orgasm as food can get." Then, she remembered that this was a first date and gushing about orgasms, even if food induced, might not be the direction their conversation should be moving in. Too late now, as he cocked his head to one side, and she poked at the oozing cake, reluctant to take another bite and unable to think of what to say next.
"Orgasm? ORGASM? If cake can bring about an orgasm, we men are definitely in trouble, very deep trouble. "
She was relieved by his lighthearted reply, deciding she could risk another bite of cake, and then he said, "What do you think about orgasms?"
Nearly spitting the cake across the table, but quickly covering her mouth with her napkin she managed a 'save the moment', as she wiped her lips and said, "Excuse me?"
He chuckled at her obvious discomfort. "The word, not the experience. I assume you approve of the experience. How does the word measure up, according to your sound analysis?"
She looked at him, decided he wasn't mocking her but noting that he had clearly upped the ante. "Well, let me think," she said, immediately conjuring the image of Meg Ryan sitting opposite Billy Crystal banging on the table moaning ever more loudly with complete abandon, shouting 'Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!'.
"It begins with almost a growl: 'orrr', letting air out of the chest, ending with the harsh 'r'. Then, 'gaz', which is abrupt, sucking the air into chest, reminiscent of a gasp, followed by the final m sound, drawn out, 'mmmm', indicating pleasure...so, yes, it's a good representation of the experience. "Despite trying to be analytical, she felt the heat in her cheeks and, if she was honest, spreading out from a place somewhere further south.
"Bravo! I totally agree with your analysis, especially if the participants are giving their best efforts to bring it about ". He gave her a wink and returned to his carrot cake, attacking it with gusto. "What's your favorite word? " He asked.
She cocked her head to one side, a motion he now clearly identified as her "thinking pose". He expected her to say LOVE since, in his experience, most women seemed to structure their lives around seeking, finding, and exploring that emotional Everest.
"Evermore," she replied, loading another forkful of cake into her mouth. Once it had been safely delivered, she used her fork to accentuate her point. "It's such a beautiful, longing word. The final syllable stretching into the future."
"Why not eternity?" he asked.
"Another perfect word!" She spread her arms wide, then brought them back together, leaning forward, balancing on her elbows. "If you listen to the vowels, they keep drawing the word out, further and further with each syllable." She paused. "It's odd you should choose that word because I used to imagine a short story about two lovers", she continued, noting his eyebrow arched in curiosity, "two lovers who held hands as she lay dying, and she whispered 'evermore', and he whispered back 'eternity' and then she dies." Her eyes were peering into a world he couldn't see and remained there a beat more before returning to their table. "But I never wrote it because it seemed too sappy."
"Maybe you should write it some day. After all, what do you have to lose?"
"Oh, only my fragile writer's ego being crushed under the boots of rejection," she said with a smile but with a cold truth underlying her throw away reply. She really was afraid her work would be rejected, classified as amateurish or trite.
"I like that idea, really.It sounds very tender and, " he paused to look her directly in the eye, "romantic. As if the love they had could survive beyond death."
Wow, she thought. He understood. Might he be more than just second date material?Possibly be the one she had been looking for? The one who "got" her? Finally, a man who respected her mind and didn't just want to get her out of her pants?
"Hey," he said, "let's get some cognac. I always find it a nice way to finish a meal. Yes?". She smiled and nodded. "Yes. That sounds nice. Let's."
They ended up having more than one after dinner drink, laughing and smiling and moving to the rhythmic beats of the ritualistic mating dance, identifiable but far more subtle than the displays most species performed. When he finally paid the check, retrieved their coats, and ventured into the bitter January night, she was certainly feeling the effects of the cognac, her cheeks flushed and her gait a bit unsteady.
This was the moment, he thought, the time to choose one of two possible outcomes. It was usually a simple process that required little or no deliberation. Not tonight, though. There was just something so engaging about her, something pure and life affirming, that was difficult to ignore. He had to admit that she was entirely different from the women he had previously walked this path with. They had all been needy, a little overwhelmed by his good looks and charm, a little too eager to lean against him and lick their lips, hungry for opportunistic sex.
He had obliged most every time, except for the ones who passed out once they'd opened their apartment doors. And the others? Well. After the intensity of his climax, rather than staying in bed, he insisted they shower together, turning the water on high, stepping closely behind them, hugging their bodies tightly to his, one arm reaching securely across the collarbone, resting easily on the shoulder in a lover's embrace up until the moment his other hand reached out, pulling the neck sharply, snapping it like a brittle twig.
Stepping out of the shower, leaving the limp corpse lying awkwardly against the wall, he'd grab a towel, drying off, dressing quickly, and strip the bed linens, stuffing them into a pillowcase. Using the towel to carefully erase his presence, he'd ease out the apartment door, closing it and carrying his bundle down the stairs before depositing it in a dumpster two streets over.
For the last three years, in cities large enough to provide anonymity, he had been able to satisfy a primal hunger deeper than the need for sexual gratification. He knew he had the same effortless charm that allowed Ted Bundy not only to entice his victims and also elude capture for so long. He knew that he was smarter than Bundy and had learned from Bundy's mistakes.
"I think that I might have had a touch too much to drink," she said, attempting to make light of her condition, though embarrassment was evident in her voice. Then, she abandoned the pretext and with lips loosened by alcohol confessed, "You may not believe this, but I am mortified, really mor-ti-fied.I so wanted NOT to make a bad impression, but, well, I think I have because here I am, just a wee bit tipsy." Her voice had a mournful, sing-song quality, tinged with regret. "Can we try lunch or coffee next time? That is, if there is a next time?"
That was the real question, he thought. Would this night end with a guarantee of a tomorrow or with yellow police tape and a coroner's report?
"How about I walk you home? We aren't that far away, right?"
"Oh, that's so sweet of you but I think maybe I'd better call an Uber. I don't think I can trust my feet to cover any more ground."
"How about this, then. I'll ride with you as far as your apartment, see you safely inside and be on my way. How does that sound, Miss Evermore?"
"Perfect, Mr. Eternity" she said, happily picking up the reference to the lovers she had described to him.
Yes, perfect, he thought as they waited for their driver. Either evermore or eternity would await them at the trip's end.
Rate Kathleen Chamberlin's The Rest is Silence
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Join GE Additive and the AddWorks™ team for this hands-on workshop to understand how your organization can create a business case for metal additive manufacturing.
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The internet has been set ablaze by the announcement of a Hawkeye show in development at Disney +. Little is known about the series, which will star Jeremy Renner, but recent plot leaks have given us some clues, including the identity of the main antagonist for the show.
"The Barber" is a new character that has been specifically invented for the show. It's not been confirmed, but it is likely that The Barber will be revealed as the man who gave Clint Barton his infamous Avengers: Endgame haircut. Early reports indicate that the series will focus on Hawkeye's revenge mission to find and kill the man responsible for the haircut.
It's unclear how Hawkeye protegee Kate Bishop plays into this plot, but it certainly seems like this show will be a deep dive into Hawkeye's psyche. Bishop is an incredibly popular comic-book character and it will be crucial for the show to get her characterization right, especially if she ends up taking on the mantle of Hawkeye in future Avengers movies.
Are you excited for Hawkeye to track down the villain responsible for his atrocious haircut? Let us know in the comments below.


I finally got a chance to dive into Sarah Waters' work and I am content. I have made a special note that the fall season really is the best time to experience her work, so I'm looking forward to Carl's RIP Challenge this year even more so.
BookLust reviewed the audiobook and as I was coming off audios which really weren't up my alley, I went ahead and downloaded The Little Stranger. This Gothic tale had the right amount of spooky atmosphere, psychological thriller, and bump-in-the-night ghost story tale to wonderfully keep me a bit on edge when I'd listen to it in the car on a cold and dark night.
Dr. Farady has a long history with Hundreds Hall, a rambling and sprawling English manor that has seen better days. When once his mother used to work there in the prime of pre-World War II life, the post-war era certainly has a crumbling result, both to the home and to the family. With only two servants now supporting the house, and the Ayers family living an eccentric life, Dr. Faraday's relationship begins. It's a slow and quiet build-up of eerie tension and with Dr. Faraday building an uncomfortable attachment to the house and family, there is the sense that perhaps he is an unreliable narrator. Although he delivers the events as they happen to him and the family, part of me questioned whether or not I should believe him. Needless to say, that contributed to the success of the disturbing tale.
Simon Vance was a phenomenal narrator, and you may recall that while I didn't like the story of Dr. No, I finished the audio only because of Simon Vance.
Fans of Asylum by Patrick McGrath will be pleased with this story.
Sarah Waters, a Welsh novelist, is the author of five novels: Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, Fingersmith, The Night Watch, and The Little Stranger. All of them have either already been adapted for television, or the film rights have been optioned.
I still can't believe I haven't read this. My only excuse is that I adored Fingersmith and Affinity, so I want to draw out my reading of Waters as much as possible. Glad this was a win for you, and I totally agree about Simon Vance. I love his reading of the Bond books.
I read this in print form but still missed the WOW at the end. I had to have another blogger explain it to me. LOL.
I can only imagine this made a fantastic audiobook. There was something about it in print that didn't work for me, although I did really enjoy the story. I guess I felt it wasn't spooky enough?
You can't go wrong with Simon Vance!
I thought the audiobook was excellent too. The beginning was a little slow but Simon Vance was so good I kept going and was glad I did.
This was my very first Sarah Waters (on audio as well!) and it certainly inspired me to read everything the woman has ever written. As I like to say, at this point I would bear her children (or Tana French's). And that ending! Holy crap. So powerful but subtle.
I loved this book! I read it for Carl's RIP challenge last year and couldn't believe that I had waited so long to read any Waters' books. And you are so right - certain books should be read at certain times, which is why I figured this one would be perfect for RIP ;) I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Definitely gave me the creeps at time and I loved it. Great post!
I am off to grab this one on audio, even though I have the print version. I love good narrators, and they can make or break a book for me. I have listened to a few from Vance, and I like him. I also really like Waters, and have all her books. Have you read Fingersmith yet? That one is totally phenomenal! Loved your review today. You said it all without giving a thing away.
I got the same feel for this reading it but I'm sure Vance really added to the enjoyment.
Audio doesn't work for me but I have SaraW as a must read for the amazing gothic feel. Karl's RIP sounds like a great time to try it.
Oh! This one has been sitting on my shelf for so long! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, I definitely need to finally get to it.
I'm not a Waters fan (worst lesbian ever) but my wife likes her -- I'll get this for her. She walks rather than takes the subway, too, so audiobooks work better for her.
I really, really loved this book. Never thought of listening to the audio, but reading your review of it, I bet it would be so much fun to listen to it in the Fall by the fireplace!
I really, really loved this book. I never thought to listen to the audio, but after reading your review, I think it would be a lot of fun to listen to it in the Fall, by the fireplace!
Never read Waters. I really should. I'm getting a bit set in my reading habits, now. Enjoyed your review.
I haven't read this one but I agree that Simon Vance is an excellent narrator! The fact that he has name recognition says a lot.


Houston, Texas (15 March 2010) The Houston Police Department (HPD) central Property and Evidence facility has achieved LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. With the new property room facility, HPD has consolidated functions previously housed in outdated and inadequate structures into a highly functional 21st Century building.
Recycled and regional materials were used throughout the construction process, and the contractor utilized construction waste management to divert 75% of the construction waste from local landfills.
The project was constructed with recycled content materials as well as with materials extracted and produced within 500 miles of the site.
The Thermoplastic roof system has a reflectance of 78% to reduce the mechanical and energy loads.
Interior lighting is activated by motion sensors resulting in electricity savings for areas that are not fully occupied.
Interior finish materials are low emitting to enhance the indoor air quality.
Predicted energy savings for the building exceed 25% more than a conventionally designed baseline building.
The project is located on an urban infill site with close proximity to public transit.
The 2.4-acre site was master planned to accommodate the new HPD Property Room building along with future HPD facilities. The buildings have been sited to facilitate evidence and property flow throughout the complex and to maximize utilization of the space on the site.
The facility was designed to maintain the integrity of evidence through proper security and climate control. A storage system of high and/or movable shelving allows each item to be radio frequency tagged and accessible for retrieval without moving another object. Utilizing the high warehouse storage capacity efficiently helps double or even triple the amount of inventory able to be stored in the warehouse.
PageSoutherlandPage team members include: Programming: Anthony Wright, Jamie Flatt Hickey and Kevin Kelly; Architecture: Joan Albert, Autumn Anderson, Melanie Starman Bash, Ken Black, Jeff Bricker, Trinisha Bugg, Rob Owens and Jun Zou; MEP Engineering: Sebastian Asvaraksh, Bill Cherne, Ben Clemons, Mike Huszka, George Logan, Garrett Neubauer, Cyril Unger, Darrell Widner and Chris Wilson; Interiors: David Hildebrand and Marissa Yu; and LEED/Commissioning: Jonathan Vaughan and Joanna Yaghooti.


text:
Evec Vibration Meter for Whole Body Vibration
01EVEC
The Evec is an easy and cost-effective, wireless and standardised measurement of whole body vibration.
Evec was designed to facilitate the measurement and evaluation of whole-body vibration, offering advanced technology which can be learned easily and quickly, even by untrained users. The seat sensor, including its integrated memory, is just placed on the driver's seat - without having to be mounted mechanically and without needing any disturbing cables. The sensor is activated and the measurement thus started with just a few operator steps.
Include Software +£747.00
Evec was designed to facilitate the measurement and evaluation of whole-body vibration. Evec offers advanced technology which can be learned easily and quickly, even by untrained users. The seat sensor, including its integrated memory, is just placed on the driver's seat - without having to be mounted mechanically and without needing any disturbing cables. The sensor is activated and the measurement thus started with just a few operator steps.
Wireless and user-friendly operation (can be used by non-experts).
Automatic measurement and computation of the exposure levels as defined in the 2002/44/CE european directive.
Automatic measurement of exposure time.
Automatic identification and removal of unwanted effects.
Direct access to measurement results using a laptop or an android application.
Very short learning curve.
The necessary software can be installed on a PDA or a notebook with Bluetooth interface. You need just a few settings – and your evec system is ready for use. The data recorded is also read from the seat sensor through Bluetooth. There are no annoying cables which might be damaged during the measurement. The driver does not have to do anything. The evec system automatically registers when the driver gets up and, complying with EN 14253, cuts off the peaks when the driver sits down too energetically. This allows precise measurements of the load to which the driver is exposed through the effect of vibrations.
Special data preparation is not necessary. Conforming to EU Directive 2002/44/EC, the evec software calculates the A(8) value of the daily exposure, no matter whether the measurement covered the full span of eight hours or whether evaluation is based on a shorter time period.
Standardized Measurement Any measurement series may be subject to undesired effects which falsify the calculated day load, for example, if the driver gets up and sits down frequently. The intelligent triaxial sensor excludes all of these undesired effects from calculation. The evec system takes such exceptional loads as well as breaks into account and, conforming to EN 14253, automatically eliminates such peaks and breaks from calculation of the total load. This excludes any manipulation of the measurement on the driver's part.
Evec Benefits
Easy-to-operate
Short training period
Automatic identification and elimination of undesired effects
Automatic calculation of exposure time (ET) and daily exposure A(8)
Direct access to measurement results through PDA or notebook / PC (PDA not included)
Excellent price-performance ratio
Evec Performance Hardware
Evec seat pad according to ISO 10326 (in black) with integrated triaxial acceleration sensor
Microcontroller for evaluating acceleration signals according to ISO 2631
Algorithm for identifying and eliminating undesired effects
Driver-seat contact sensor
Wireless communication between sensor and PDA or Notebook/PC
Evec Standards Met
EU Directive 2002/44/EC of 25th February 2002, governing the protection of workers against risks arising from vibrations
Decree of 6th March 2007, regulating the adoption of EU Directive 2002/44/EC
ISO 2631 – Mechanical vibration and shock
ISO 10326 – Mechanical vibration – Laboratory method for evaluating vehicle seat vibration
ISO 8041 – Human response to vibration
VDI 2057 – Human exposure to mechanical vibrations –Wholebody vibration
Evec Software
Evec seat pad activated for measurement through Bluetooth®
Measurement data downloaded through Bluetooth®
Exposure values automatically calculated and displayed according to EU Directive 2002/44/EC
Values displayed in three directions (x, y, z)
Extrapolation of measurement data with reduced measurement times
Storage of all relevant measurement data
Printed report
ASCII export of measurement data
The scope of delivery of the evec system for measuring whole-body vibration comprises the following components:
Evec seat pad with integrated sensor
CD-ROM with software for PDA and notebook (PDA not included)
evec battery charger incl. batteries
Plastic case with magnetic on-off switch
Operating instructions in English
Optional: PDA or notebook with preinstalled software
Evec Target Groups
Engineers, specialists and experts involved in safety at work, from public service and industrial sectors
Companies from the logistics, forwarding and construction trades, bus and port operators, airports, trans-shipment centers
Operators of all further motor vehicles, aircraft, rail vehicles and watercraft
Users in the fields of mechanical engineering, agriculture, forestry, and building trade
Measurement and development engineers
Occupational health practitioners
Experts from the fields of comfort analysis and evaluation
The evec system is suitable for a very great number of applications. Every sedentary occupation involving the protection of working humans from undesired vibration requires the use of the evec system. The evec system provides the ideal solution for measuring whole-body-vibration, whether relating to fork-lift truck drivers, long-haul truck drivers or horseback riders.
Mobility without limits evec seat pads are wireless devices that communicate through Bluetooth® serial connections. The accompanying software to operate the evec seat pad can be installed on any computer device running Windows XP/Vista or Windows Mobile 5 equipped with a Bluetooth interface. Suitable computer devices are PCs, Notebooks, PDAs, mobile/ cell phones with suitable input peripherals and other mobile devices complying with the above specifications. To install evec software on a Windows Mobile 5 mobile device, both a connection with a Windows XP/Vista PC or Notebook and an operational recent release of Microsoft ActiveSync are needed.
Standards Met ISO 2631, ISO 10326, ISO 8041, VDI 2057, EN 14253, ISO 10326
Frequency evaluations according to ISO 2631 Wd for x– and y-directions, Wk for z-direction
Results Display A(8) value, exposure time (ET), acceleration values in 3 directions
Dynamics Range 60 dB
Temperature Range -10° to +50° C
Shock Limit 100G
Bluetooth® communication Class 2
EMC According to EN 55022 and EN61000-4-8/6/2/3
Battery Run-Time > 20 hours
Storage Capacity for a measurement of 36 hours
Charging Time Approximately 2.5 hours
Dimensions (seat pad) Diameter: 205 mm; height: 12 mm (conforming to ISO 10326-1)
Weight (seat pad) 350 grams
Evec Whole Body Vibration System


Sprott Energy Fund Portfolio Manager Eric Nuttall wants an edge when he can find one. He's bullish on oil, but he prefers to play the good oil story, not the commodity. And even though he's bearish on natural gas, he's finding names that may provide exceptional growth. Eric shares his best ideas in this exclusive interview with The Energy Report.
Companies Mentioned: Apache Corporation - Bankers Petroleum Ltd. - Cheniere Energy Partners L.P. - Encana Corporation - EOG Resources, Inc. - Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. - Open Range Energy Corp. - Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. - Suncor Energy Inc. - Vero Energy Inc. - WestFire Energy Ltd.
The oil demand story is about emerging economies. China was responsible for 33% of incremental demand in 2010, and in the most recent data from May, demand is up 13% year-over-year (YOY). China now consumes more than 9 MMbpd, a net change of over 1 MMbpd. I'm looking for demand destruction in the developed economies; however, incremental net demand out of China, India and even parts of Africa more than outweighs that demand destruction. The oil market is tight today, and I think that it'll continue to get increasingly so. Today, we consume 89 MMbpd globally; if the world continues to increase demand by roughly 1�2 MMbpd per year, it's very easy to see a scenario in which OPEC spare capacity could get down to 1 MMbpd within the next two years. In that environment, I think the price of oil has to go higher.
TER: When you last spoke to The Energy Report in the fall of 2010, you said that equity valuations�not commodity prices�would be your guide. Since that time, Brent Crude is up about $30/bbl or about 40%. Have you become a bit more commodity-driven since then?
EN: I wouldn't say so. I think Brent is a more relevant benchmark to use than is West Texas Intermediate (WTI) because of the landlocked-storage issues that Cushing, Oklahoma has been experiencing. So, when I look at a $105/bbl Brent price, it tells me that world oil demand is very, very strong. But at the same time, my forte is not top-down analysis of the commodity markets�it's trying to find mispriced stocks. I personally believe that global supply and demand now support a price of approximately $100/bbl WTI, so you could call it about a $110/bbl Brent price. I think that price level is defendable for the next couple of years, with an upward bias toward maybe $5�$10/bbl per year.
EN: I am. I believe that it's going to be capped at around $5/Mcf (thousand cubic feet). I think we're stuck in a $4�$5/Mcf trading range until 2015, at which time North America will become an exporter of natural gas. In Canada, the Kitimat LNG (liquefied natural gas facility) will be constructed by around 2015. Kitimat is jointly owned by Apache Corp. (NYSE:APA), EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE:EOG) and Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA; NYSE:ECA). In addition, Cheniere Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE.A:CQP) got expanded approval to be a natural gas exporter. I think we're going to see a lot more regasification facilities on the Gulf of Mexico seek approval to become exporters.
Technology has unlocked an unbelievably large amount of natural gas that is now quite economic at low prices. Four or five years ago, I would've said the required price to achieve a decent economic threshold was $7/Mcf. Today, I think that threshold is about a $4�$5/Mcf price among most of the shale plays, which would be Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Marcellus�the largest sources of new supply in both the United States and North America. Rig count has continued to expand in all of those plays. Even in a depressed natural gas price environment, producers continue to drill.
EN: Yes, there's a huge arbitrage in that. The global LNG pricing on average has been around $10�$12/MMBtu (million British thermal units). There are times when it spikes due to seasonal factors, but there's a huge price differential. That's why I think the plays that are close to key export terminals are going to become highly strategic. Some of my top holdings are companies involved in what I think will become increasingly strategic areas.
EN: I look for companies in which I think I have an edge in my analysis to determine if they truly are undervalued, or whether they're just value traps. Because we've seen names fall 10%�15% in May, and then by another 15%�20% in June, you could almost throw a dart at a board and make money in the energy sector over the next couple of months. But where I'm finding value, and where I think you get the best risk/reward, is in companies that are levered to oil that are in that sub-$2 billion market-cap space. There are also opportunities in the natural gas space. In a $4�$5/Mcf gas-price environment, some companies are earning about a 75% margin. I'm looking where the risk/reward of an investment opportunity is highly, highly skewed to the upside.
EN: In terms of size, my largest current position is Legacy Oil & Gas Inc. (TSX:LEG). It's a $2 billion-market cap light oil company, and it's a case study of how we try to look at things differently. There was a management change within a major shareholder, Fidelity Investments, and the manager had to blow out 18 million shares. That took the share price from $17.50 down to around $11.50; not for any fundamental reason�it was due to fund flow. The stock trades at around $12 today, but I was aggressively buying at around $12.50 and was buying every share I could at around $11.50.
EN: Again, I don't think it will be around that long. It could be easily taken out from $17.50�$20/share over the next year or two. Internally, I think fair value is around $20/share. So, I'd be comfortable saying it's close to 100% potential upside.
My third-largest holding is WestFire Energy Ltd. (TSX:WFE), which is almost a pure play on an emerging tight, light oil play called the Viking Formation in Canada. The company has spent several years aggregating acreage in this play, and I believe it has about 800 risked locations. If one believes in $100/bbl oil, then that works out to about $25 of risked value per share�and the stock is trading at $6.85 now and at 3.9x 2011 cash flow. It's very, very cheap on current production. WFE's balance sheet is healthy, and I think production will grow by more than 20% in 2012 over 2011. I like the management; the team members have a lot of their own skin in the game, so they're highly motivated to sell the company when the right time comes.
EN: Well, it's important to distinguish between a value stock and a value trap. A value stock can be a cheap stock with no catalyst to revalue the company. I always look for names where I think my downside's limited because it's trading at a cheap multiple based on current production. At the same time, there has to be some catalyst to the name�otherwise, the stock can languish at a cheap multiple for years. Sometimes cheap stocks are cheap for a reason; my job is to try to find those opportunities where, in my opinion, the market is looking at something incorrectly.
EN: After Open Range would be Bankers Petroleum Ltd. (TSX:BNK). It's fallen from a high of $10 around the beginning of March to near $7, and so the stock's down 30%. At the same time, it's marked off of Brent oil, and it's developing the largest onshore oil field in Eastern Europe, the Patos-Marinza field in Albania. Bankers is producing around 12,000 bpd, and will be exiting at around 18,000�20,000 bpd at the end of this year. It's been very successful at employing Canadian technology in an old field to rehabilitate it and to grow production, primarily using horizontal wells with good success.
EN: Yes, it's that sweet spot. Larger companies are very difficult. With a Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX.V:SU; NYSE:SU) or an Encana, which is a $40�$50 billion market-cap company, it would be very difficult for me to have an edge over my competitors. If I buy that company, I should expect to do as well as the index. My unit holders are not paying me to perform as the index would. They're looking for me to beat it. I'm looking for opportunities in which I've got edge and that will typically lead me to a sub-$2 billion market.


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"The Art of the Jazz Violin" with MacArthur Genius Award Winner Regina Carter
Fri, May 20th 7:30 PM -- 9:00 PM
Grammy-nominated artist Regina Carter explores the power of music through the voice of the violin in a wide range of genres—including jazz, R&B, Latin, classical, blues, country, pop, and African. A recipient of the MacArthur "genius" award and a Doris Duke Artist Award, she has been widely hailed for her mastery of her instrument and her drive to expand its possibilities.
Regina tours with her own group and has appeared frequently as a guest soloist, including with such performers as Kenny Barron, the late bassist Ray Brown, Akua Dixon, Arturo O'Farrill, Rhiannon Giddens and others. She has also been a guest soloist with several major symphony orchestras, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.
Regina is artistic director of the Geri Allen Jazz Camp, a unique summer immersion program sponsored by NJPAC for aspiring women jazz professionals. She is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and New Jersey City University and is artist in residence at the Oakland University School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.


I'm sure over Christmas everyone got atleast one gift set. I have many from various different brands but I do have a favourite – the Benefit Number Ones set. This set includes all of Benefits best sellers in mini versions- high beam, hoola bronzer, rockateur blush, they're real liner and mascara, porefessional primer and eye cream.
First of all – how gorgeous is the packaging! The polkadots look so pretty against the gold foil background. My favourite product in this set is definitely the boi-ing concealer. It has such high coverage and blends in really nicely.
The high beam highlight has been raved about by so many bloggers and I can't disagree with them. I use it under my brow bone and on my cheekbone and blend it out to create a pearly effect which is really pretty.
Something I have used a couple of times is the hoola bronzer. This is so pigmented and blends in really well. The bronzer in this set is a smaller version of the actual one, but is the perfect size for people who are starting out in makeup.
These are a few of my favourites from the set. I'd defiantly recommend this as a kind of " starter pack " for people who are wanting to get into makeup as its perfect and has all of the mini bestsellers. I think Benefit – although quite pricey- has great products that can create a really lovely make up look.
P.s, has anyone seen my new theme? I've decided to update my blog as I thought it was more me. When I started my blog I was in love with the colour pink, I've decided to kelp my blog more neautral now and I hope you all enjoy it!
I received the Benefit 12 days of Christmas set and it is awesome! It came with High Beam also and I love it!


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Our municipality can be called without exaggeration the "Municipality of Memorial Trees". The people who have lived in this area since ancient times have probably valued trees and thought wisely when it was necessary to take an axe and a saw. Let us wish the trees and the people, not only here, to continue to make each other's lives more pleasant and not shorter.
THE 10TH LIME TREE UNDER THE PANORAMA
European linden, a tree declared monumental in 1998, basic data at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 500 cm, tree height 23 m, estimated age 250 - 300 years. At present it is a deciduous monument tree, growing in the highest position in the Jeseníky Mountains (over 800 metres above sea level).
11. LINDEN ABOVE OVČÍN
Heart linden, a tree declared monumental in 1998, basic data at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 526 cm, tree height 22 m, estimated age 250 - 350 years. (In the 1950s - 1960s there used to be a pastoral cooperative in Nová Ves, which had a sheepfold nearby.) The tree also grows near the remains of a large mountain estate and was probably one of the "family" trees.
12. ASH TREE IN THE BEND BELOW THE CHURCH IN NOVÁ VES
Ash tree, declared a monumental tree in 1998, basic data at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 309 cm, tree height 25 m, estimated age 160 - 200 years. A tree with a characteristic habit (appearance, growth) with a presumption of a long-term perspective.
13. CHESTNUT TREE IN THE NEW VILLAGE
A tree declared a monumental tree in 1998, basic parameters at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 577 cm, tree height 23 m, estimated age 300 - 350 years. The tree is one of the largest of its kind in the Czech Republic and is probably one of the first sycamores to be planted in the Czech Republic.
14. LIME TREE NEAR FRANZ - FRANZE
Lime tree with large leaves, a memorial tree declared in 1998, basic data at the time of declaration: trunk circumference 466 cm, tree height 16 m, estimated age 260 - 320 years. Before the war there was a large estate with an inn of this name in the vicinity.) Its appearance makes it one of the most impressive trees.
15. LARCH ABOVE HORNÍ MORAVICÍ
European larch, a tree declared a monumental tree in 2001. Basic parameters at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 260 cm, tree height 28 m, estimated age 120-160 years. The tree is one of the bravest larches in Jeseník. At the crest of the slope it has to endure winds and frost in less deep and nutrient-poor soil, yet it bravely resists and proudly looks down into the valley of the Moravický Brook.
THE 16TH LIME TREE BY THE FORMER ROMER FARM
European linden, a monumental tree declared a monumental tree in 1998. Basic data at the time of designation: Trunk circumference 405 cm, tree height 21 m, estimated age 230 - 280 years. Nearby was a well-known old large farmhouse, which was demolished in the 1950s.
17. THE SNAKE QUEEN LINDEN
The large-leaved lime tree, a tree designated as a landmark in 1998. The Snake Queen is the largest monumental tree of the Moravian-Silesian Region and the Jeseníky Protected Landscape Area. Botanically, it is a large-leaved lime tree with a very strong and untypical trunk.
Indeed, the most impressive thing about the tree is its circumference, which according to the latest measurements (2020) exceeded 1000 cm, i.e. 10 m. Compared to previous years, the height of the tree itself has been reduced quite a bit, currently around 20m, and figures of around 33m have also been quoted. The reduction has occurred after health pruning and possible spontaneous breakage of the upper branches. The height of the trunk is given in 5 m, the crown width 25 m. The most important figure, the age of the tree, is estimated at 400-500 years.
The tree is so interesting that it even got its own tourist card.
The legend of the cottager and the snake queen is connected to the linden tree. The cottager was looking for a stone under the old lime tree to repair his yard. When he picked one up, he found a white snake with a golden crown on its head. He waited for nothing, took the golden crown and ran home. He wondered what he could buy with the crown. But at night he couldn't sleep and all he kept hearing was, "You'll come back! "You'll come back". In the morning, he found that all his poultry had died during the night, and the only cow in the barn had died... the curse of the snake. That's when the storm started. The cottager didn't hesitate any longer, took the crown and ran with it back to the old lime tree, where he returned it under the stone. But it was too late. When he returned home, all that was left of the cottage was a smoldering burn.
Today, a well, whose source springs from the ground nearby, comes to the lime tree to open and close. "We have a well fairy here who always greets everyone and says hello to them and opens the wells in the spring and closes them again in the autumn."
The lime tree grows in the upper part of the Lower Moravice section of Upper Moravice, it is off the main road but can be discovered quite easily from the turn off.
THE 18TH ELM BY THE BRICK SUBSTATION
Maple maple, a tree designated as a memorial tree in 1998. Basic parameters at the time of designation: trunk circumference 347 cm, tree height 20 m. Estimated age 160 - 200 years. The oldest mountain maple in the municipality. It dominates the surroundings with its magnificent growth.
19. ASH TREE NEAR NO. 47 IN HORNÍ MORAVICE
The ash tree, a monumental tree declared in 1998. Basic data at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 349 cm, tree height 20 m, estimated age 170-220 years. The tree had an unusual crown shape for this species, with a width greater than its height. (This shape was unfortunately affected by a health cut that eliminated the largely dried-out northern part.)
20. OAK BY THE FIRE STATION
A hybrid of a winter and summer oak, this tree was designated a landmark tree in 1999. Basic parameters at the time of designation: trunk circumference 313 cm, tree height 24 m, estimated age 160 - 200 years. One of the oldest oaks in this climate. The oaks here are already above the upper limit of their natural range.
21. TWO LIME TREES BY THE STATUE OF ST. OF ST. JOHN OF NEPOMUK
Heart lime trees, monumental trees declared in 1999. Basic data at the time of declaration: (both trees identical) Trunk circumference 340 cm, tree height 20 m, estimated age 150 - 200 years. The trees are a living addition to the cultural monument of the St. John of Nepomuk statues from 1751.
22. LIME TREE BY THE STATUE OF IMACULATA
Large-leaved linden, a tree declared a monumental tree in 1999. Basic parameters at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 625 cm, tree height 28 m, estimated age 25 - 350 years. The tree is currently a living addition to a cultural monument, a statue that dates back to 1764. The linden was probably already a mature tree at the time the statue was installed.
23. LIME TREE BY THE PLAYGROUND
European linden, a tree declared monumental in 2001, basic parameters at the time of the declaration: trunk circumference 530 cm, tree height 22 m, estimated age 250-300 years. The tree forms a landscape landmark at the boundary between the built-up part of the village and the open countryside.
Download the map of monumental trees here
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Everyone knows the essentials, but here are some not-so-obvious items you'll want to take on your cruise. Packing for a cruise can be a daunting task, and once you've crammed everything into a suitcase you may be left thinking: what else do I need?
Our experts have planned over 100,000 vacations, so we've listened to our clients and learned a few tricks and tips over the years about helpful items you should definitely bring along to ensure your cruise getaway goes even smoother.
Enjoy our handy cruise packing hacks below; a dozen items you'd probably never think to bring on your next voyage but will be happy you did!
With a lot of devices to charge and a limited number of outlets in most cabins, small power strips with USB ports are essential for charging electronics—computers, phones, cameras, tablets, walkie talkies, hair dryers, curling irons and more. Make sure it's small enough to pack and while most cruise lines allow them now, ask your advisor prior to packing one just in case.
Did you know that most walls on cruise ships are made of metal? Probably not—but, we do! Use magnets to help display and organize the daily newsletters, cruise documents, notes and more. Have a shore excursion confirmation you don't want to lose or a dining reservation you want to remember? Use a magnet to stick it to the wall nearest the door so you can grab it on your way out.
Since most cruise ships are built overseas, they are usually equipped with both 110 US-style plug outlets and European-style 220 volt electrical systems. Having an international all-in-one adapter means you can take advantage of these additional outlets. And if you're staying in a foreign hotel pre or post-cruise, these universal adapters are affordable and an absolute must.
Most people would never think to bring glow sticks on a cruise ship, but these handy, inexpensive items can be used for more than just late-night discos or kids' parties. Cruise cabins are notorious for inconsistent lighting, either way too bright or way too dark, with no in-between. Glow sticks offer the perfect solution for adding subtle ambient light without ever waking anyone in your cabin.
Cruise ships are a "cashless society". Other than casinos, money is rarely used on-ship, so the only thing you'll need is your room key and maybe your cell phone. Consider a cheap, adhesive cell phone wallet so you can leave your cash, credit cards and bulky wallet in your stateroom's safe. Cell phone wallets are a simple, streamlined solution for no-worry wandering while on-board.
These small, everyday items may seem like an odd thing to take on a cruise, but trust us, binder clips can make a world of difference on board and have a variety of uses. Use them to hold cabin curtains together so the sun can't creep in, for securing your towel to your lounge chair on a windy deck, or for hanging up wet bathing suits on a balcony or in the shower. The uses are endless.
You'll probably be doing some shopping on your vacation—gifts, souvenirs, local artwork, clothing and more—so avoid those unnecessary airline luggage fees on your return trip by weighing your bags yourself. Today's travel scales are surprisingly small and amazingly accurate and could save you hundreds of dollars in extra fees—money you should be spending on fun!
One of the best parts about cruising is the variety of activities and adventures available onboard. But with so much going on, it can be a bit frustrating to stay in contact with your party. Sticky notes are an awesome way to exchange messages. Leave little notes in the cabin so others know where you are, as instructions for stateroom stewards or on cabin doors of new friends you make on the voyage.
Plastic bags are one of the handiest things you can bring on your cruise. Use them to keep lotion or shampoo from leaking into luggage. They're perfect for "waterproofing" so your essentials stay dry by the pool or at the beach. Larger bags can even be used to pack wet swimsuits and dirty shoes or to seperate laundry and liquids for your trip back home.
Cruise ships take fire prevention very seriously, so candles and open flames aren't allowed in any cabins. But perhaps you want to create a more romantic atmosphere, or enjoy a "candle-lit" room-service dinner on your balcony, or just want some soft "mood lighting" in your luxurious suite. LED tea lights offer a safe, simple and subtle lighting solution for every stateroom.
Some cruise ships are like floating cities, which often makes finding people onboard challenging. Walkie-talkies are a novel way to keep in contact with your entire party on-board without racking up expensive charges on your mobile phone. It's an easy and convenient tool for everyone to stay connected, both onboard and onshore. Find a unique frequency and let the fun begin!
Most people prefer to disconnect on vacation, but cellphones are still prevalent on cruises. Whether used as a camera or to stay connected, as an e-reader or for emails, for Facebook updates or for music, our phones rarely leave our side . . . and almost always lose their power. Get a lightweight travel phone charger so you can focus on life at sea instead of the life of your battery.
Speak to a CruiseInsider expert at 1 (877) 734-6858 for more travel tips.


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Watch new teaser trailer for 'The Walking Dead'
Talia Soghomonian Jan 31, 2014 11:23 am GMT
Credit: Press
Zombie show returns from mid-season break in February
A new teaser trailer for the fourth series of The Walking Dead has been unveiled – scroll down and click to watch.
The short clip shows the zombie show's protagonist Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, and his fellow survivors separated and trying to take on hordes of the undead on their own.
The Walking Deadis set to return from its mid-season break in the US on February 9, and it was revealed in October last year that the show had been renewed for a fifth season. It is currently the most-watched show in America among adults aged 18-49 and the premiere episode of season four drew a best ever audience of 16 million viewers.
"We are very happy to make what has to be one of the most anti-climactic renewal announcements ever: The Walking Dead is renewed for a fifth season," AMC president's Charlie Collier said in a statement.
"This is a show that has erased traditional distinctions between cable and broadcast. Its expanding base of passionate fans has grown every season, most recently – and most notably – with the season four premiere earlier this month, which broke viewership records for the series and became the biggest non-sports telecast in cable history. On behalf of the incredible team on both sides of the camera, thank you to the fans and here's to more Dead."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3KJiQN0hWI
St. Vincent and Jack Antonoff Credit: Getty
Watch St. Vincent and Jack Antonoff star in Red Hearse's eerie new video for 'Half Love'
Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich with Lady Gaga Credit: Getty
Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich set to step down in 2020
Rod Stewart / A$AP Rocky Credit: Getty
Rod Stewart voices his support for "my mate" A$AP Rocky following his arrest in Sweden


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Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Main battle tanks, Military equipment of the People's Republic of China
Type 99 Main Battle Tank
The ZTZ99 (also known as Type 99, industrial designation WZ123) manufactured by China Northern Industries Group Corporation (CNGC) is the most advanced main battle tank (MBT) fielded by the PLA. First entering the PLA service in late 2001, the ZTZ99 provides a significant improvement in firepower, mobility, and protection compared to older Chinese-made tanks. As a 'high-end' MBT, the ZTZ99 was only built in a small number (~200) due to high unit price (~US$2 million). These tanks are currently deployed by two elite armour regiments in Beijing and Shenyang Military Region respectively. Some of the ZTZ99's technologies have been used to upgrade the less expensive ZTZ96 MBT.
Design[edit | edit source]
A Type 99 tank at the China People's Revolution Military Museum in Beijing in 2007
The ZTZ99 was a direct result of the PLA's third-generation MBT programme which first commenced in the late 1970s. An early prototype known as Type 90 featuring a Russian-style 125mm gun with autoloader was built and tested in early 1990. However, close observation of the 1990s Gulf War made the PLA realise that the tank was still no match to Western MBT designs such as the M1A1 Abrams and Challenger 2. A revised design known as Type 98 featuring a T-72-like hull was first revealed in October 1999 during the national day parade held in Beijing. A further improved variant known as ZTZ99 (originally known as Type 98G) featuring improved armour protection and a more powerful engine was introduced in 2000 and the tank entered service with the PLA in late 2001.
The ZTZ99 MBT shows a mixture of Russian and Western influence in its design and technology. The hull of the tank is very similar to that of the Russian T-72, though the angular welded turret is clearly of Western style. The 125mm smoothbore main gun and the autoloader, which allows the crew of the tank to be reduced to three man, are both believed to be of Soviet/Russian origin. The ZTZ99 carries the Russian 9M119 Refleks (NATO codename: AT-11 Sniper) anti-tank guided missile locally produced in China under license. The tank's liquid-cooled, turbo-charged diesel engine was said to be based on the German technology.
The ZTZ99 is generally similar to the ZTZ98 (Type 98) MBT, which was briefly displayed during the parade on 1 October 1999 in Beijing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The ZTZ99 was incorporated with a number of improvements. The vertically faced front armour on the Type 98 turret was replaced by Leopard 2A5-style arrow-shaped spaced add-on armour modules. Externally-mounted explosive reaction armour (ERA) modules were added to the hull front and turret to provide additional protection. The original 1,200 hp diesel engine used by the ZTZ98 was replaced by a 1,500 hp diesel engine on the ZTZ99.
The hull of the ZTZ99 is very similar to that of the T-72, but is about one metre longer. The tank adopts a conventional layout, with the driving compartment at the front, the fighting compartment in the centre, and the engine compartment at the rear. The tank has a crew of three. The driver is seated centre in the hull and forward of the turret, while the gunner and tank commander occupy the turret. The tank commander is situated to the right of the main gun and the gunner sits on the left side. The tank commander is also responsible for operating the 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on turret roof of the turret. Tank crew is protected by an over-pressure collective NBC protection and a fully automatic fire suppression system. The turret and hull are of all-welded steel armour construction. The front arc on the turret can be added with a layer of composite armour, or arrow-shaped spaced add-on armour modules. The armour package is of modular design, enabling damaged sections to be replaced or upgrades installed throughout service life. With the arrow-shaped add-on armour modules on the turret front and explosive reactive armour (ERA) modules on the turret and hull, the tank's front armour protection is equivalent to 400 mm vs APFSDS, 500 mm vs HEAT on the Type 98 up to the Type 99A1, 500 mm vs APFSDS, 600 mm vs HEAT on the Type 99A2, 700 mm vs APFSDS, and 850 mm vs HEAT.
Despite a Western-style welded turret in appearance, the inside layout of the ZTZ99's turret is very much of Russian style. The ZTZ99 directly inherited the Russian 2A46M autoloader design, with the extra ammunitions placed inside the fighting compartment. This arrangement makes the tank highly vulnerable to catastrophic fire once being penetrated, a lesson learned in many conflicts in which T-72s and T-80s have participated. China has yet been able to produce a Western-style bustle autoloader for its MBT and can reload 4 rounds a minute.
It has been long speculated that CNGC has been developing a further modified version of the ZTZ99, possibly known as ZTZ99G. A photo released by the Chinese official Xinhua News Agency in February 2008 revealed an improved variant of the ZTZ99 that features newly designed observation and active protection system (APS). The commander viewer of the new tank appears to be slightly larger than that of the basic variant ZTZ99, suggesting a possible independent commander thermal imaging viewer. The electro-optical countermeasures device on the original ZTZ99 has been replaced by a new design being placed at a higher position. The pole laser warning receiver on the basic variant ZTZ99 is also missing and possibly replaced by the small box-shape installed by the commander hatch.
Specifications[edit | edit source]
Type Tracked, armoured
Crew 3 (commander, gunner, driver)
Width 3.4m
Height 2.2m
Empty Weight: 54 tonnes(Type 98 - Type 99G) 57 tonnes(Type 99A1) 58 tonnes(Type 99A2) 75 tonnes(Type 99KM)
Combat Weight: 59 tonnes(Type 98 - Type 99G) 62 tonnes(Type 99A1) 63 tonnes(Type 99A2) 100 tonnes(Type 99KM)
Engine 150HB liquid-cooled, turbocharged diesel
Engine power 1,500 hp(Type 98 - Type 99A2) 2,100 hp(Type 99KM)
Fuel capacity Unavailable
Transmission Mechanical, planetary
Suspension Torsion bar
Track Metallic, with removable rubber pads and rubber-tyred road wheels
Cruising range 400 km, or 500 km with external fuel tanks
Maximum speed (road) 80 km/h(Type 98 - Type 99G and Type 99KM) 75 km/h(Type 99A1) 70 km/h(Type 99A2)
Maximum speed (off-road) 40 km/h(All Models)
Average cross-country 25~30 km/h
Fording depth 4m with snorkel
125mm/50-calibre smoothbore gun (39 rounds) with autoloader with a maximum rate of fire of 4 rounds a minute and with a maximum main gun penetration of 690 mm of steel armor(Type 98G - Type 99A2) Manual loading(Type 98) 155 mm smoothbore gun(18 rounds) with autoloader with a maximum rate of fire of 5 rounds a minute and with a maximum main gun penetration of 810 mm of steel armor(Type 99KM)
Auxiliary weapons 1X 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun (200 rounds)
1X 7.62mm coaxial machine gun (1,000 rounds)
Self-defence Optic-electronic countermeasures suite
Radio Receive/transmit, telephone, laser communications and IFF
NBC protection Collective, over-pressure
Fire suppression Automatic
EE-T1 Osório
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Military equipment of the People's Republic of China