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Next Updates
I'm off on holiday tomorrow for a week and as I'm unlikely to get to an internet cafe the Euro Crime blog and website won't be updated again until next weekend. I have Carla McKay's reviews to upload to the website on my return. Version 2 of the Euro Crime website should go live soon after my break (fingers crossed).
Posted by Karen (Euro Crime) at 10:40 pm 2 comments:
Holiday book choices...
The day before the holiday has dawned and the final decisions over which books to take have been reached. The idea is that we pick books the other will want to read as the space and weight restrictions inherent in a cycling-camping holiday mean we can only fit in two books. I've chosen 'Murder at the Old Vicarage' (cue much rolling of eyes from partner) aka 'Redemption' by Jill McGown. This is the second (of thirteen) in the cosy-police procedural Lloyd and Hill series, set around a fictionalised Corby. This is off my tbr pile and is also yahoo group 4MA's series read for September.
I usually shy away from taking library books on holiday since we had to pay for a hardback copy of 'Dune' which ironically ended up in the Pacific Ocean along with things like passports when a rogue wave struck, but the second book we're taking is a brand new library paperback of 'Grey Souls' by Philippe Claudel. The short description on amazon is: "A literary detective story about the murder of a young girl in a small town in Northern France in 1917."
New episodes of Dalziel & Pascoe and Rebus next week on UK tv
Dalziel & Pascoe return for a short series of two parters on BBC1 3rd and 4th Sep. The first is Cave Woman featuring guest star Denis Lawson (most recently seen in Bleak House) and the second is Fallen Angel.
On Friday, (8th) Rebus returns on ITV1, in the first of four feature length episodes. The original 'Adam Dalgleish', Roy Marsden, is one of the guest stars.
Midsomer Murders also returns on Sunday.
New book from Carol Smith
Carol Smith's latest book came out on the 3rd August and is entitled 'Without Warning'. It's the first crime book I've seen to (apparently) incorporate the 7/7 bombings in the story. Incendiary (Chris Cleave) and The Passenger (Chris Petit) deal with the aftermath of terrorist attacks (fictional London and Lockerbie respectively) but are there any others about the London incident?
"Rush hour on the underground and a killer is at large in London, striking apparently haphazardly in a series of vicious attacks. Andy Brewster, ex-SAS, on sick leave from active service in Iraq, works undercover for the Metropolitan police with his bomb expert partner, Burgess. Together they must find the killer before he strikes again. So far the victims have all been women with no apparent connection. Beth Hardy, former caterer who now runs a gourmet food shop; her daughter Imogen, dancing at the National; sad Celeste with her terrible secret; widowed Margaret, in to shop; and American tourist, Ellie, stranded there alone. Each of them regularly travels by tube not knowing they could be potential victims. When the July 7 bombs go off and public awareness is raised, Brewster and Burgess have a race against time to apprehend the stalker. But danger comes not just from knives and bombs. Murder is deadlier when the heart is involved." (from amazon.co.uk)
Posted by Karen (Euro Crime) at 12:02 pm 1 comment:
What I'm Reading - M C Beaton
When I'm all of a dither as to what to read next or need a filler book or a palate cleanser I turn to M C Beaton. I began on the Hamish MacBeth books back when Murder One was in Denmark Street. I picked them up as I was going through a regency romance phase and I enjoyed the works of Marion Chesney, aka M C Beaton. It took me ages to start on the Agatha Raisin books as I'd heard a few discouraging remarks but eventually I did and enjoyed them. Agatha Raisin is a former PR executive who sold her firm and took early retirement in the Cotswolds. She and her on-off-on boyfriend/neighbour James solve the many murders that occur in their mostly genteel village of Carsely. For me the Agatha-James relationship began to pall after a few books but I'm pleased to say the one I'm reading now, the 11th - 'Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell' - is a return to form. It's set in Carsely - a plus point, and there's not much of James - another plus point (in my opinion :-)). I've found the books set out of Carsely to be less interesting. The cover on the left is the US cover and it's from my enormous to be read pile. The cover on the right is from the Constable and Robinson UK version published on 24th August. This series is now extremely popular with library patrons, at least where I work :-) .
New Review on Euro Crime
I've just uploaded Karen Chisholm's review of 'Spider Trap' by Barry Maitland. This series is now published first in Australia. The previous book in the series, 'No Trace' is due out in the US in October. Not sure about a date for a UK release though.
Labels: Barry Maitland
News Update to Euro Crime Website & Christian Jungersen
I've added a few links for recent newspaper reviews and articles to the 'news' section of the Euro Crime Website.
The book getting favourable attention this week is 'The Exception' by Danish author, Christian Jungersen.
Four women work at the Danish Centre for Genocide Studies. When two of them start receiving death threats, they suspect they are being stalked by Mirko Zigic, a Bosnian torturer and war criminal. But perhaps he is not the person behind the threats - it could be someone in their very midst. Much of the drama created revolves not only around the scary sense of a killer prowling in the shadows but also around the manipulative games being played between the women in the office as they come under pressure and turn on each other. The irony is that these betrayals and persecutions are taking place amongst professionals who daily analyse cases of appalling cruelty. Now and again, the narrative is broken with extracts from 'articles' dealing with crimes against humanity and the pyschology of evil. Whilst the women apply this to their work with genocide (and the killer), there are parallels to their own behaviour. It's a fabulous pacy read - a real page-turner that resonates with deeper questions. (from amazon.co.uk)
Susanna Yager reviewed it in The Telegraph calling it ..."a powerful yet disquieting study of the psychology of evil, and a tense thriller" and the Independent describes it as "a horribly vivid and fiendishly clever novel".
Labels: Christian Jungersen, Danish Crime Fiction
Orion New Blood - Richard Burke
Richard Burke is the next author on the list for me to do a quick, 'what are they up to now' post.
Richard kindly dropped me an email recently to say that he now has a website. He is the author of two psychological thrillers : Frozen (2003) and Redemption (2006), both published by Orion.
When Matthew's wife Charlotte is kidnapped, his world is thrown into chaos. Who has taken her - and why? There are no demands made for her release, just a threat that if he calls the police, Charlotte will lose the baby she is carrying - and then Matthew will lose her. Matthew is paralysed, haunted by the gloating phonecalls of her captor. As a prison governor, Matthew is convinced that Charlotte's abduction may be related to his job. Unable to talk to anyone in authority, he resorts to the only help he can find - Monk, an ex-prisoner who appears to have gone straight since his release, but has underworld contacts Matthew can only guess at. It's a devil's pact, but time is running out...
When his childhood friend, Verity, is found at the foot of Beachy Head, barely alive, Harry's life is thrown into turmoil. He can't accept that the happy-go-lucky girl he grew up with would try to kill herself. He should know. He was closer to her than anyone, wasn't he? As Verity lies in a coma, damaged beyond repair, Harry is haunted by memories of their childhood and by the knowledge that what they once shared is lost for ever. With the help of his friend Adam and Verity's business partner Sam, Harry begins piecing together the last few weeks of Verity's life. Sam is as baffled as Harry, but Adam thinks Verity's suicide attempt was the inevitable consequence of a life which was clearly spiralling out of control. The deeper Harry gets, the more questions remain unanswered. Why was Verity's flat burgled? Why was she secretly seeing a psychiatrist? And, for Harry, the most haunting question of all: why did Verity kiss him, all those years ago, and then banish him from her life? If Harry can't find the answers, he may have to face the fact that perhaps he never really knew Verity at all...
(synopses from amazon.co.uk)
Mark Billingham blogs
Mark Billingham author of the DI Tom Thorne series, is the guest blogger over on Sarah Weinman's site tomorrow (Friday).
What I'm Reading - Anne Holt
The latest book by Norwegian author Anne Holt, is called 'Punishment' in the UK and 'What is Mine' in the US. I'm reading the UK edition which has an excellent British translation by Kari Dickson. I don't know whether the US version has the same translation or whether it's been de-anglicised.
From the back cover :
"A serial killer is on the loose in Norway - a killer of the worst kind. He is abducting children and murdering them - in an undetectable way that confounds the police. He then returns the child's body to the mother with a desperately cruel note: You Got What You Deserved.
It is a perplexing and terrible case, and Police Superintendent Adam Stubo is the unlucky man in charge of finding the killer. In desperation he recruits former FBI profiler Johanne Vik, a woman with an extensive knowledge and understanding of criminal history. So far the killer has abducted three children, but one child has not yet been returned to her mother. Is there a chance she is still alive...?
This suspenseful and sophisticated crime novel is the first in a brand new series, which has already been a huge bestseller in Europe."
I'm about 3/4 through it now and a paragraph at the beginning of chapter 8 (p25) caught my attention:
"A child doesn't know when it's going to die. It has no concept of death. Instinctively it fights for life, like a lizard that's willing to give up its tail when threatened with extermination. All beings are genetically programmed to fight for survival. Children as well. But they have no concept of death. A child is frightened of real things. The dark. Strangers, perhaps, being separated from their family, pain, scary noises and the loss of objects. Death, on the other hand, is incomprehensible for a mind that is not yet mature.
A child does not know that it is going to die."
From what I've read, both titles are appropriate but I think the US cover (which is similar to the Spanish cover listed on amazon.com) better reflects the content. It's certainly a reasonable representation of an early scene in the book. The UK cover, on the other hand - it's hard to make out the age of the figure and no-one has been blindfolded (so far). It makes the book seem much darker than it actually is. It's a distressing theme but there is little actual violence.
Full review to appear on the Euro Crime Website in a few days.
Labels: Anne Holt
Kafka's Soup
Full article in The Sydney Morning Herald.
"Invite Jane Austen and Geoffrey Chaucer for dinner and serve them Raymond Chandler's lamb with dill sauce.
The brainchild of London photographer and bookish foodie Mark Crick, the recipes in Kafka's Soup - A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes are written in the style of famous authors, from Jane Austen ("It is a truth universally acknowledged that eggs, kept for too long, go off," begins her tarragon eggs recipe) to Irvine Welsh. "
(The recipe for Raymond Chandler's lamb with dill sauce is supplied and begins :)
"I sipped on my whisky sour, ground out my cigarette on the chopping board and watched a bug trying to crawl out of the basin. I needed a table at Maxim's, a hundred bucks and a gorgeous blonde; what I had was a leg of lamb and no clues.
I took hold of the joint. It felt cold and damp, like a coroner's handshake. I took out a knife and cut the lamb into pieces. Feeling the blade in my hand I sliced an onion, and before I knew what I was doing a carrot lay in pieces on the slab. None of them moved."
Guardian's Digested Read
This week's 'digested read' is Secret Asset by Stella Rimington. I'm a bit wary of reading these summaries if I'm going to read the book but if it's not on my wish list then then I'll plunge in. Full (!) summary in The Guardian.
The Observer reviewed it on Sunday.
I've still got 'At Risk' on my to be read book shelves...
Observer Article on European Literature
There's a whole world of literature out there - in Europe, writes Ruaridh Nicoll.
After attending a talk on German translations at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last week, Nicoll reports :
"Michael Kruger, a hugely respected German publisher, said that 50 per cent of the books he takes on are translated from other languages. In Britain however, only 2 or 3 per cent of the novels in the shops are originally written in languages other than English, and this despite many publishers being owned by German conglomerate Bertelsmann. Given how close we are to Europe, this is not only disappointing, it's disturbing; it means we don't really know what the neighbours are thinking.
As the discussion went on, it grew depressing. 'One million British people go to France every year, but they never read any contemporary French authors,' said Kruger. If Britons holidaying in Greece opened a Greek book, he said, it was more likely to be Homer than anything written in the past few years.The nadir was reached when discussing Imre Kertesz, who had only one book translated into English (badly) by the University of Indiana when he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2002."
Full article in the Observer
One of the comments rightly points out how Britain is in Europe and that the title says it all!
New Review on Euro Crime Website
I've just uploaded my review of the audio book of 'A Season for the Dead' by David Hewson.
Labels: David Hewson, Reviews
C J Sansom - Sovereign
The long(ish) wait is now over for the latest instalment of the Matthew Shardlake series. 'Sovereign' came out on Friday and the first review I've seen is in today's Sunday Times which begins :
"Don't open this book if you have anything urgent pending. Its grip is so compulsive that, until you reach its final page, you'll have to be almost physically prised away from it. The latest in CJ Sansom's increasingly thrilling series of 16th-century crime mysteries, it pulls you, like its predecessors, into a tortuous world of Tudor terror."
and concludes :
"Exceptionally gifted at re-creating the look, sound and smell of the period, Sansom also excels at capturing its moral and intellectual climate. Collisions of ideology and collusions of religion and politics fascinate him. Winter in Madrid, his fictional foray into civil war Spain, published earlier this year, further testified to this. But it's in his Tudor novels — of which Sovereign is so intensely imagined an example — that his remarkable talents really blaze out."
News page updated on Euro Crime website & Kit Whitfield
I've added a few links for new reviews and an article on Margery Allingham to the 'news' section of Euro Crime.
One review caught my eye in particular. In The Telegraph, Susanna Yager reviews 'Bareback' by Kit Whitfield - set in a world where 99 per cent of the population are werewolves - concluding "Her intriguing story is narrated by Lola, a DORLA solicitor, whose investigation into the death of a colleague provides the vehicle for a provocative if not particularly subtle commentary on medical ethics, civil rights and the rule of law in a society whose survival relies on class discrimination."
Biology is destiny. For those born feet-first, life is normal. Civil rights are enshrined in law, the world is a comfortable place, and every full moon night, you lock yourself in a secure room to fur up in peace. But for those born head-first, the damage done is more than just physical. For a non, locked in his or her human skin, is first and foremost a conscript, drafted at eighteen into DORLA, the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity. For a DORLA agent, insultingly referred to as a 'bareback', full moon creates a battle zone, where they patrol the silent night in search of citizens breaking the curfew. The rest of the month is a civil service nightmare, mopping up the after-effects of the trespasses, the fights and the maulings. DORLA has lasted centuries, since the Inquisition first set it up, and it's no less hated now than it was then. Lola Galley, twenty-eight and already a scarred veteran, is assigned to defend a curfew-breaker who mutilated a good friend of hers. She doesn't want the case, but she's used to doing things she doesn't want. Only something happens: her maimed friend is murdered before her client can be tried. Lola wants justice. She'll settle for the truth. But in a divided world, asking for the truth may bring answers that you don't want to hear. (from amazon.co.uk)
Kit Whitfield's website, includes a blog and an answer as to why the US edition is called 'Benighted'.
Elizabeth Corley
After a gap of 6 years, Elizabeth Corley's third book came out this week. Her first two books featured DCI Andrew Fenwick but the latest, 'Grave Doubts' is a standalone or the start of a new series.
"Sergeant Louise Nightingale is the model police officer; calm, composed and always in control. All that changes when she takes part in a police sing to trap the prime suspect in a series of killings. The killer has been preying on young women and Nightingale is the perfect bait, but nothing goes according to plan as she finds herself alone with the killer when her colleagues struggle to get to her in time, and she is attacked. Suddenly, Nightingale is in the very nightmare world she tries to protect others from, and her worst fears are about to come true."
(from amazon.co.uk)
Unfortunately I haven't been able to track down a website for her. I look forward to trying 'Grave Doubts' in the future.
One Book Meme
I'm new to this blogging game and I'm a bit unsure about what memes and tags are but I'll try and answer some of the questions as Petrona's kindly 'tagged' me :-).
1. One book that changed your life
Probably the first adult crime novel I read as my life now seems to revolve around books and crime fiction in particular.
2. One book you have read more than once?
I can't recall having ever re-read an adult fiction book. I used to re-read my books when I was a child. I read so fast then I had to read it twice to get value for money. I'd finish the book and go straight back to the beginning and start again.
3. One book you would want on a desert island?
Lord of the Rings has defeated me twice so I'd have to get through it if it was all I had to read!
4. One book that made you cry?
Tricky. I agree with crimefic reader about The Dispossesed. There is a very upsetting scene. I'm sure another one will come to mind later.
5. One book that made you laugh?
The audio books of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May books make me laugh. eg. from The Water Room:
"I hate getting into this vehicle with you", admitted May, eyeing the rusted
yellow Mini Cooper with alarm. "I don't know why you had to get rid of your
old Rover".
"It was starting to steer itself," Bryant said mysteriously. "The man in the
garage said he'd never had a car fail every single item on its MOT before.
He was quite excited. I had to go back to Victor here." The Mini had been
purchased at the height of flower power, and still bore a painted chain of
vermillion daisies around its roof. Its noxious colour-scheme was enough to
make it stand out from the other vehicles in the police car park at
Mornington Crescent. Bryant unwedged the driver's door with the pronged end
of a cheese-knife, which he kept about him for the purpose.
"That's an offensive weapon, you know".
"What am I going to do with it?" asked Bryant. Threaten someone with a slice
of dolcelatte?" He held open the car door. "Come on, it's quite safe."
"No thanks. You nearly killed us the other day, going round Vauxhall
roundabout."
"They'd changed the one-way system without telling any-one."
"I seem to recall that you were on the pavement."
"Sometimes it's hard to tell where the pavement begins these days."
"It's usually the bit with the shoppers on it. No, Arthur. Today we're
taking my car." May bipped his graphite-sleek BMW.
"Wonderful, now we'll look like Camden drug-dealers."
6. One book you wish had been written?
Unsure but I hope Elizabeth Peters lives forever and continues writing Amelia Peabodys and while she's at it what about a Jacqueline Kirby book...
7. One book you wish had never had been written?
One book that deserved better proof reading was 'The Yeare's Midnight' by Ed O'Connor. It had some merits but contained some howlers.
8. One book you are currently reading?
Punishment by Anne Holt (more to come on that soon).
9. One book you have been meaning to read?
Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason.
Denise Mina Blogs
Don't forget that Denise Mina, author of the Garnethill trilogy and now the Paddy Meehan series, is the guest blogger over on Sarah Weinman's splendid site tomorrow (Friday).
Orion New Blood - Alafair Burke
Not Euro Crime, but seems only fair to cover every author. A former deputy district attorney in Portland, Alafair Burke now teaches criminal law at Hofstra School of Law and lives in New York City. She is the daughter of acclaimed crime writer James Lee Burke. So far Orion have published three books featuring Portland based deputy DA Samantha Kincaid. The next book, also published by Orion, is due out in April 2007 and is a standalone featuring Ellie Hatcher, an NYPD detective haunted by her father's murder.
#1 (Apr 2007) Exactly a year after Caroline Hunter was killed, another New Yorker using the same internet dating service is lured to a meeting and strangled. Homicide detective Flann McIlroy drafts in Ellie Hatcher, currently working street crime, who joined the police when she became convinced her cop father was murdered by an infamous Kansas serial killer. Flann has made the connection to the online dating agency and Ellie joins up undercover - but finds herself drawn into emails with one of the potential dates. As Flann and Ellie gather more evidence, they find themselves hindered by higher powers who want for some reason to keep the FirstDate agency out of the investigation. The head of the company, Mark Stern, is obviously influential and refuses to believe that the murders have anything to do with his agency. But Ellie unearths plenty of reasons and won't back down - and soon she's in danger of sharing her father's fate...
#3 (July 2005) When Officer Geoff Hamilton shoots Delores Tompkins, an African American woman, during what should have been a routine traffic stop - all hell breaks loose on the streets of Portland, Oregon. Hamilton claims justified force, but the community want him prosecuted. After a day of intense rioting, things really start to spiral when a local investigative reporter, Percy Crenshaw, is found beaten to death at his home. Crenshaw was loved in the black community and with tensions running high, the DA's Office wants someone on the case from the very start - Samantha gets the job. To begin with, it looks like an open-and-shut case. The night of the riots, two young men went on a massive crime spree near Crenshaw's home. Their baseball bat is found smeared with Crenshaw's blood. But a few details just don't fit - Crenshaw's phone has been tapped and his notes suggest he was in the middle of an investigation into police corruption. When another community activist winds up dead, Sam begins to think there might be a connection. The trail leads back to the North Precinct, where cops operate under a code of secrecy and where DAs are anything but welcome. Samantha is forced to question the behaviour of the local police, which puts her cop-boyfriend in an impossible situation. But Sam can't walk away from a fight, anymore than he can walk away from the force. She must battle to solve a case that seems more dangerous at every turn before the man she loves decides she's more enemy than friend.
#2 (November 2004) In the second entry in this exciting new series, the search for a missing judge leads Samantha Kincaid into Portland politics and a labyrinth of crime, corruption and cover-ups. Deputy DA Samantha Kincaid is back to work after an attempt on her life and a promotion into the Major Crimes Unit. When the husband of Portland judge Clarissa Easterbrook reports her missing and Samantha is called out on the case, she assumes her only job is to make the district attorney look good until the judge reappears none the worse. When the police discover evidence of foul play, however, Samantha finds herself unearthing secrets that Clarissa had wanted to stay hidden, the lingering personal tolls of a crime that occurred decades ago, and corruption at the highest levels of the city's power structure. Her quest for justice could cost her not only her job, but her life.
#1 (December 2003) Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid walks into her office in Portland's Drug and Vice Division one Monday morning to find three police officers waiting for her. A thirteen-year-old girl has been brutally attacked and left for dead on the city's outskirts. Given the lack of evidence, most lawyers would settle for an assault charge; Samantha, unnerved by the viciousness of the crime, decides to go for attempted murder. As Sam prepares for the trial, she uncovers a dangerous trail leading to an earlier high-profile death penalty case, a prostitution ring of underage girls, and a possible serial killer. And she finds her judgement - not only in matters of the law but in her personal life - called into question...
A contributor to DorothyL pointed out it was/is Georgette Heyer's birthday today. She was born in 1902, died in 1974. Whilst at university my flatmates and I pooled and devoured Heyer's regency romances. I've still a few left to read. I did try one of her crime novels, 'A Blunt Instrument', but found the culprint very obvious and was rather disappointed. However a couple of years ago, my reading group 'did' classic crime one month and that included 'Behold, Here's Poison' which I absolutely loved. It was very amusing, a good whodunnit and the hero in it reminded me of her regency heroes. I still haven't read anymore but am willing to try them. The Heyer books have been given spiffy new covers recently, including the crime novels.
When Gregory Matthews, patriarch of the Poplars is found dead one morning, imperious Aunt Harriet blames it on the roast duck he ate for supper, after all, she had warned him about his blood pressure. But a post-mortem determines that the cause of death is much more sinister. Murder by poison. Suspicion falls immediately amongst his bitter, quarrelsome family. Each has a motive; each, opportunity. It falls to Superintendent Hannasyde to sift through all the secrets and lies and discover just who killed Gregory Matthews, before the killer strikes again...(from amazon.co.uk)
The Return of Miss Marple
Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple is to return, so reports Digital Spy.
ITV has greenlit a new four-part adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple dramas.
The first, Towards Zero, sees Geraldine McEwan reprise the title role alongside an all-star cast including Tom Baker (Doctor Who), Julie Graham (William & Mary), Paul Nicholls (EastEnders), Julian Sands (24), Alan Davies (Jonathan Creek) and Dame Eileen Atkins.
Towards Zero wasn't a Miss Marple story originally. I've got it as the last of the Superintendent Battle trilogy.
Sam Bourne - a righteous man?
Belatedly spotted this in the Observer about the Richard and Judy effect.
"Three of the pair's six 'Summer Reads', the recommendations that Richard Madeley and his wife Judy Finnigan discuss on their Channel 4 programme, have taken the top three places in this week's top 50 book bestsellers. Such a dominance linked to one programme is unheard of in this country.
Victoria Hislop's The Island; The Righteous Men by Sam Bourne, the nom de plume of Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland; and Dorothy Koomson's My Best Friend's Girl, have claimed the top three positions in the chart."
and further down :
"Freedland's book shot to success in the charts after Madeley labelled the thriller 'better written and a better story' than Dan Brown's worldwide smash The Da Vinci Code, and the columnist's novel has now sold some 115,000 copies."
Who'd have thought it would do so well after several less than kind reviews in the press including this from Michael Dibdin in The Times:
"Still, you read on, if only out of morbid curiosity about which bit of kabbalistic hokum you're expected to swallow next, and since Dan Brown — a name curiously similar to this pseudonym — has done all right, there must be a market for this sort of stuff.
At least really bad writing can be relied upon to throw up those great lines that you don't find anywhere else — like this reflection on the healing issues of a man who has blown his dad's head apart with a pistol: "Whatever Freud said about Oedipal fantasies, killing one's own father shook the psyche to its foundations." How true."
HarperCollins Competition
Has anyone been able to make any sense of or formulate plausible theories for the crimes committed in HarperCollins' competition, advertised in the Guardian? I've now had a look at three scenarios (I don't know how many there's been over the weeks as I don't check it that frequently) and they've all left me stumped. I, like readers of this blog, read loads of crime fiction but have no clue...
HarperCollins/Guardian Competition - the prize is a weekend in Bologna.
Orion New Blood - Victoria Blake
Victoria Blake was one of the original 9 authors promoted by Orion's New Blood Campaign at the end of 2003/early 2004. I'll be having a quick look at how each author has fared since.
Victoria Blake's third book from Orion will be out in November 2006. She writes a series featuring PI Sam Falconer and all have an Oxford connection.
#3 (November 2006). When a student is found dead in his rooms at St Barnabas College, Oxford, it looks nothing more than an unfortunate suicide. A week later, when Sam Falconer's brother disappears, Sam begins to see a disturbing connection between the events. Then her mother receives a Catholic mass card, announcing that a funeral mass is to be said for their son. Sam begins desperately trying to trace her brother's last movements, attempting to locate the mysterious man he'd spent time with in the days before his disappearance. Behind it all is the nagging fear it could be connected to her father and the murders he committed in Northern Ireland in the seventies. As the trail leads from Oxford to Iraq and back to the troubles in Ireland, Sam learns just how strong blood ties can be ...
#2 (March 2005). The year hasn't got off to the best of starts for PI Sam Falconer. London is frozen in a January blizzard, and everywhere she goes, Sam has the creeping feeling of being watched. When she's asked to investigate the disappearance of a talented young rower from Oxford University, she hopes it will take her mind off her increasing paranoia. Harry was a stunning athlete, one of the most naturally gifted rowers the Oxford coach had ever seen. Then, just as the trials for the Boat Race were beginning, Harry literally vanished into the snow. Following the treacherous, icy waters of the Thames from Putney to Oxford, Sam uncovers the reality of competitive rowing, a world simmering with jealousy and resentment. Then a body surfaces in the water - and it's not Harry's. In discovering the truth about his disappearance, Sam must open a Pandora's Box of secrets, with deadly consequences...
#1 (December 2003). Sam Falconer is pretty good at taking care of herself. Four times world judo champion, she now runs the Gentle Way investigation agency in London. But when her brother Mark asks her to return to Oxford to investigate the disappearance of a young woman, Sam finds herself confronting a past she hoped she'd left behind. Oxford is full of ghosts and Sam has never quite recovered from finding the body of a murdered 4-year-old girl there. To this day, she has no idea what led her to the scene and she dreads being back in the city. As Sam begins to investigate the woman's disappearance, she finds the trail leads back to the university. But the closed academic world is unwilling to share its secrets with a stranger. Soon it becomes clear that someone is determined to frighten her off the case, and then, out of the blue, Sam receives a letter from a man who's been dead for twenty-eight years - her father...Intricately woven and ingeniously plotted, Victoria Blake's debut novel marks her as an exciting new voice in British crime-writing.
A year on, MPs are still reading Da Vinci Code
In today's Guardian, it appears MPs are taking their time to read TDC (disclaimer - I haven't read it either) but I was surprised to see this other title - underlined below - on their reading list (I've corrected the title!):
"This year showed a trend among MPs and peers to read doom-laden non-fiction on current affairs, such as their fellow MP Michael Gove's Celsius 7/7, about the threat of Islam, or Michael Scheuer's Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. Two other titles appealed to the deeper fears of members with uncertain electoral futures: All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye, by Christopher Brookmyre, and This Book Will Save Your Life, by AM Holmes."
See full article in The Guardian.
New Reviews on Euro Crime
This week's new reviews are 'A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil' by Christopher Brookmyre and 'City of Shadows' by Ariana Franklin.
Labels: Ariana Franklin, Christopher Brookmyre, Reviews
How to Read a Novel
Full article in The Guardian but these paragraphs caught my eye. Copious recommendations from the Internet mean I have a long list of books I want so I rarely buy on spec anymore. But I'll have to try the following suggestions :-).
"The privilege of browsing is, however, still allowed, if less comfortably than it used to be. This relates to the unique feature of the bookshop: you can sample before you buy (or not). A large proportion of walk-in customers do not know what they want precisely, and will have bought nothing when they leave. They will, none the less, have fingered and sampled the produce, and taken their time doing it. A bite here, a bite there. Despite a growing pressure to make bookshops more like In-N-Out Burger, it is still possible to browse. Dust jackets, blurbs, shoutlines, critics' commendations ("quote whores", as they are called in the video/DVD business) all jostle for the browser's attention. But I recommend ignoring the hucksters' shouts and applying instead the McLuhan test.
Marshall McLuhan, the guru of The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), recommends that the browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book. It works. Rule One, then: browse powerfully and read page 69. If maps are useful, so are charts. Bestseller lists weed down the mass of available novels to the 20 or so that everybody is reading - but almost certainly will not be reading in a few months' time. The trick is not to get into the game late, but to pick the rising titles near the bottom, or to check out what is on the list of the other major English-speaking country before they arrive on your shores.
This is an edited extract from John Sutherland's How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide, published this week by Profile"
Michelle Spring
After a 5 year hiatus, Michelle Spring has a new book out in the Autumn. 'The Night Lawyer' is to be published in November by Ballantine. It doesn't feature Cambridge PI Laura Principal but is a 'suspense' stand alone.
Here's the blurb from M1's catalogue: "Set in contemporary London. The trials of a young woman who has just accepted a new job with a daily tabloid housed in a sleek dockside skyscraper. She arrives each evening to vet the morning edition while most employees disappear for the night. By day, the offices and docks along the Thames bustle with activity. But as Ellie soon learns, and her menacing stalker knows all too well, nighttime is a different matter."
Michelle is part of The Unusual Suspects group which provide a very entertaining show and Michelle reveals how a stalker inspired her first book, 'Every Breath You Take'.
100 Greatest Books?
To celebrate its 60th anniversary Penguin Classics has compiled a list of the 100 greatest books. And in the crime category:
The Best Crimes
Maigret and the Ghost - Georges Simenon
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan
Full list in The Times. Categories include, The Best Crazies and The Best Minxes!
You can also post your comment about the choices on The Times website.
The Dictator and the Hammock by Daniel Pennac
Continuing the French connection...'The Dictator and the Hammock' by Daniel Pennac was released today (according to amazon.co.uk). It's not obvious that this one's a crime novel, unlike the other books that have been translated, but it looks fun anyway.
"Manuel Pereira da Ponte Martins, beloved dictator of Teresina, in the Brazilian sertao, becomes agoraphobic the day a fortune-teller predicts he will die torn to pieces by an angry mob. From then on, his life turns out to be so unbearable that he decides to hire a double to replace him while he will be enjoying himself in Europe. A few years later, the barber turned dictator also grows tired of running the country and uses the same trick as his predecessor to leave for Hollywood. On the boat there, he introduces himself as Charlie Chaplin but everyone is convinced that he is none other than Rudolph Valentino disguised as Chaplin. When he arrives in New York, the two real actors are waiting for him...Back in Teresina, the doubles follow one another, easily fooling the people until Pereira comes back. He is astonished to discover that his stand-in doesn't look like him at all and reacts in a way that can only precipitate his meeting with Fate. Pennac's new novel is witty, wildly original and extremely funny." (from amazon.co.uk)
Spiral on BBC4
Don't miss this welcome rerun of the classy French crime drama Spiral. It's repeated at a rate of two episodes per night from Sunday (13th) for four nights at around 11pm. Be warned it is quite graphic, much more so than CSI. One crime runs through all the episodes plus there are smaller cases involving different team members.
The BBC4 website has a trailer and series information and if your French is ok, there is an official website. I believe a second series has been commissioned.
Labels: Spiral
Orion 'New Blood' Authors
Here's the full list of first time authors launched as part of the 'New Blood' campaign in 2004:
Victoria Blake - Bloodless Shadow
Alafair Burke - Judgement Calls
Richard Burke - Frozen *
Massimo Carlotto - The Colombian Mule**
Stuart Archer Cohen - The Stone Angels
John Connor - Phoenix **
David Corbett - The Devil's Redhead
Denise Hamilton - The Jasmine Trade
Steve Mosby - Third Person
*=read
**= read and reviewed on Euro Crime.
More to follow on these authors over the next few days.
So what's over on the Euro Crime website? As mentioned below, it covers crime in translation from Europe and work by British authors. A major portion is bibliographies and series orders ('Books'), plus a list of author homepages ('Authors'). 'News' covers recent reviews and interviews in the press. 'New Releases' for what's coming out in the months ahead. The 'Reviews' page is updated weekly. There are pages for awards, specialist shops, events, discussion books for various yahoo lists and links.
The site is to be restructed shortly, I'm still testing the revised version. The content will be similar but those darned frames will be removed so linking, searching, bookmarking will become easier. A further reshuffle is planned later in the year for the 'Books' pages.
Eagle eyed viewers may have noticed, I've slipped in an 'Other' in the subtitle of this blog. As Petrona's blog rightly pointed out Britain is part of Europe. When I first started the Euro Crime website, it began with translated crime from Europe and British authors. However when I referred to it as Euro Crime for the European Crime Scene - I wanted a snappy tagline (best I could come up with!) - the fact that it covered Britain too, became a bit lost. So I then said it was for the British and European Crime Scene - a belt and braces approach, if slightly teeth grinding for those of us who see Britain as part of Europe. I haven't come up with a more elegant snappy summary yet. British and other European Countries Crime Scene doesn't quite scan so maybe I need to come up with something completely different. Ideas welcomed...
Labels: Euro Crime
Alexander McCall Smith No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Series
According to amazon.co.uk the 8th book in the series will be out in April 2007 : 'The Good Husband of Zebra Drive'.
Remember Orion's 'New Blood' Campaign?
So last night I was travelling home on the train, full of pizza and pudding, musing about topics for this blog and one thing and another. Suddenly a thought popped into my head. Whatever happened to the Orion 'New Blood' authors launched in a fanfare in January 2004? But first off though...who were the authors? I racked my brain and managed seven author names plus the setting of the book by another author. His identity came to me this morning. So that made eight. Hmm, I though that's not very good marks out of ten but there were in fact nine authors so I was only missing one. So here's a small challenge. Without using the internet or looking at your book collection, how many can you name?
Answers and an update on the authors, to follow....
Nearly every Sunday, the reviews page is updated with at least two more reviews. Last night, the new reviews were, 'The Innocent' by Magdalen Nabb and 'Lang' by Kjell Westo.
Labels: Kjell Westo, Magdalen Nabb, Reviews
What's this blog for?
The Euro Crime blog will be for highlighting what's new on the Euro Crime website but also I want to include bits of news that don't fit on the website and pick out those books which are less mainstream (crime naturally) but have had a good review in the press. I'll be including what I'm reading at various times and hopefully accompanied by a choice quote. Cats in Crime may also figure....
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
The Guardian reviews Kate Atkinson's second novel to feature PI Jackson Brodie.
"Once best known for her Whitbread award-winning first novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson followed up three playful, picaresque family sagas with her hugely successful crime sortie, Case Histories. A masterly orchestration of random violence and domestic heartbreak, it featured the requisite grizzled private eye with a troubled private life and a taste for country singers; in a combination of critic and text intriguing enough to well deserve its place among the back-cover blurbs, Stephen King considered it "the best mystery of the decade"."
Read the rest of the review.
CWA to charge shortlisted publishers
So reports Book 2 Book:
"The Crime Writers' Association has announced that it is to start charging publishers for any of their books that are shortlisted for its annual Dagger Awards.
The charges for each shortlisted title will be £500 per title for the Duncan Lawrie Dagger, £200 for the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger and Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, and £100 for the New Blood and Non Fiction Daggers. As previously, there is no entry fee for books submitted for the Dagger Awards.
CWA Chair Robert Richardson said: "This is not a money-making move, but a way to reduce the considerable financial costs we face in organising and promoting the Dagger Awards. We are not a wealthy organisation and it is an increasing burden on our limited finances. Authors and publishers benefit from being shortlisted - and especially winning - while there is no gain to the CWA. The income these charges generate will not cover the full costs of the operation, but will leave us with a balance that we can afford. This is solely a CWA committee decision."
Higher profile prizes such as the Booker and Orange prizes charge as much as £2000 per shortlisted title.
Death in the Truffle Wood by Pierre Magnan
(Vintage paperback, 3 Aug 2006)
"Oh Paul! It can't be! Here! On a Sunday! A body! In the freezer!" she exclaimed, her voice rising steadily in C major.
She had just realised that the freezer would have to be replaced. (page 89)
Jane Jakeman reviews the newest book from Pierre Magnan 'The Messenger of Death' in the Independent.
Labels: Pierre Magnan
New episodes of Dalziel & Pascoe and Rebus next we...
News Update to Euro Crime Website & Christian Jung...
News page updated on Euro Crime website & Kit Whit...
Alexander McCall Smith No.1 Ladies Detective Agenc...


text:
Q: Is window.localAudio a thing? I found Mozilla's Getting browser microphone permission. It defines a function to request permission and listen to client's microphone as such:
function getLocalStream() {
    navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({video: false, audio: true}).then( stream => {
        window.localStream = stream; // A
        window.localAudio.srcObject = stream; // B
        window.localAudio.autoplay = true; // C
    }).catch( err => {
        console.log("u got an error:" + err)
    });
}

I checked in Chrome, Firefox and Safari - all of them throw an error about window.localAudio being undefined. Where did this tutorial get it from? Was window.localAudio ever a thing? What was it supposed to do?

A: I will try to give you something more useful than the question you have asked.
The function will create the element if it is not present and there are few options available. In the example I'm adding the newly created audio element to the body, but it will work even it is not added - it's a matter of choice.
<html>

<head>
    <script>
        var el;

        function attachStream(stream, el, options) {
            var item;
            var URL = window.URL;
            var element = el;
            var opts = {
                autoplay: true,
                mirror: false,
                muted: false,
                audio: false,
                disableContextMenu: false
            };

            if (options) {
                for (item in options) {
                    opts[item] = options[item];
                }
            }

            if (!element) {
                element = document.createElement(opts.audio ? 'audio' : 'video');
            } else if (element.tagName.toLowerCase() === 'audio') {
                opts.audio = true;
            }

            if (opts.autoplay) element.autoplay = 'autoplay';
            if (opts.muted) element.muted = true;
            if (!opts.audio && opts.mirror) {
                ['', 'moz', 'webkit', 'o', 'ms'].forEach(function(prefix) {
                    var styleName = prefix ? prefix + 'Transform' : 'transform';
                    element.style[styleName] = 'scaleX(-1)';
                });
            }

            element.srcObject = stream;
            return element;
        };

        function getLocalStream() {
            navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({
                video: false,
                audio: true
            }).then(
                stream => {
                    var doesnotexist = !el;
                    el = attachStream(stream, el, {
                        audio: true,
                        autoplay: true
                    });
                    if (doesnotexist) document.body.appendChild(el);
                }
            ).catch(err => {
                console.log("u got an error:" + err)
            });
        }

        window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => {
            getLocalStream();
        });
    </script>
</head>

<body>
</body>

</html>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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England went into this game clear leaders in this group with their opponents sitting in second place. A 3-1 win at Wembley extended the group lead to an almost unassailable 6 points, with England now 4-4 in qualification games. With that all said, England are still not operating at the top table of International Football, and and times were frustrated by a far weaker team.
Today was Rooney's day. He was playing in his 100th game and was presented with a golden cap from Sir Bobby Charlton. This may of been through gritted teeth as I have covered on my last England visit.
England set up with some new blood at full back with Nathaniel Clyne and Kieron Gibbs, coming in for the established, Leighton Bains and Glenn Johnson. This offered some pace on the edges of the field, which was going to be needed with the pedestrian midfield of Wilshere, Henderson and Lallana playing out of position. I am getting fed up with moaning about Wilshere and how he is not a holding midfielder, but there he was again. Henderson can play that position and does every week, but he is pushed up the pitch at England level, and plays alongside his team mate Lallana. I say team mate, the guy hardly ever plays for Liverpool, and also should not currently be an England player. If you want two holders and a traditional midfielder to play off Sterling, how about Henderson, Noble and Wilshere (further forward).
This poor line up (positionally) meant England had no shots on target in the first half. Every ball forward went to Rooney, who was doing his damnest to score, at the expense of Sterling and Wellbeck. Shocking first half. The playing style was typified by a Jordan Henderson OG admittedly against the run of play in the second half. This seemed to spark England, with the reply almost instant, as Rooney got in the box and won a penalty. Personally I don't think he was touched at all, and I had a great view. Rooney stepped up to get another goal for his tally, and England really pushed on from there. All of a sudden, the team realised Wellbeck was playing and in his usual lackadaisical style he added another 2 goals to his tally, with Sterling interchanging well with the Arsenal striker. If he keeps getting these goals, I think Rooney's stint at the top of the scoring charts may be shorter than Sir Bobby Charlton!
Yesterday, my companions for games were the Aldershot duo of Ian and Albert. This was young Albert's first visit to Wembley and being used to 1.5k at the Rec meant that nearly 90k in attendance was pretty awesome. I'm sure he had a great day out, and hopefully will see better performances in the future.
My MOTM was Wellbeck, and whoever voted for Wilshere, as was announced at Wembley, needs to take a long look at themselves.
One last thing, as regular readers will know. I am a recent convert to NFL, BUT the state of the pitch was shocking yesterday, covered in wrong coloured strips of grass, and the remnants of the gridiron pitch layouts and lettering. Just behind the goal was COWBOYS, and the yardage lines all up the left wing. This is our national stadium and our national game. This needs to be sorted. I'm sure it's not to hard to use overlays for the non playing surfaces. The stud marks all up the middle didn't look too great either, but didn't seem to effect the roll of the ball. Click on the photos to see what I mean.
Enjoy the pics (taken with a recently acquired low end Canon DSLR).
This is bigger than the Rec !
Not a lot to report here if I'm honest. England played the eternal minnows last night, and I was fortunate enough(!) to get a box invite, so I got myself along to Wembley to watch. First things first. England won 5-0, Joe Hart could of sat next to me, and the score would of been the same. I should know better as I went last time as well.
As I was finding my way around the corporate hospitality level of Wembley I bumped into Adrian Chiles. For those who don't know he hosts the England games on TV on ITV. Seemed like a nice fella, and gave me the tip of 2-1 England, last minute scrappy winner. So obviously, his ill fated sojourn to breakfast telly hasn't dulled his sense of humour. We also had a chat about West Ham, and he was enjoying it so much he missed his studio door, and wandered off with me, as he was being chased down the corridor by some TV types. If I tell you that this was the highlight of the evening, then you can guess why I'm not reporting too much on the game !
Anyway, what did we learn? Jack Wilshere. I will be honest and say , that I didn't realise he was actually playing until about 70 mins, he was that anonymous. Whether it's the system or him I don't know, but he needs to be moved out of the England set up until he can prove he can operate at this level. Anyone can have the odd flash of brilliance, but to be an international you should be at that level all the time. Chambers and Gibbs kept a clean sheet, but hopefully with England way ahead in the group now, they will get a chance against Estonia / Slovenia, to see if the can compete against better international sides.
My last point is Wayne Rooney. Another win for the captain, and another goal, and maybe if England hadn't fannied around with the ball so much, he could of got more, BUT. This puts him 7 short of all time record scorer Bobby Charlton. Maybe I'm just being just an old man, but it should be taken into consideration that Charlton was scoring in top level internationals, and not games against Italian postmen. Maybe we should initiate a FIFA style ranking system for the worth of a goal, and I'm sure Sir Robert C would be way out there with Jimmy Greaves, and everyone else way behind.
San Marino keeper with the ball. He actually made more passes than anyone else in his team !
I could do a report on the game and who did what, and when things happened. But, as the whole world knows, England lost and their WC dream was hanging by a thread. Since then Italy have been beaten by Costa Rica, rendering that dream smashed on the dressing room floor.
And so, the World Cup comes round, but this time with a difference. The usual jingoism and self believe that usually hits the UK media every 4 years has been very subdued this year. For good reason as well, as although England qualified for Brazil 2014 with only a small wobble near the end, they haven't exactly been tearing up trees with their performances since their exit to Italy in Euro 2012. I have witnessed first hand more than a few of those games and have reported on them here and via Twitter. Underwhelming just about sums it up.
So the nation expect little and we lose our first game out in the WC, 2-1 to Italy. About right i hear you say. STOP. Last night was about the best England performance I have seen since Rooney hit the big tournaments in 2004. The mix of youth and experience was right and England played some good attacking football but just lacked that killer instinct to make the last pass or take an extra touch.
I think England can come out of the group in second place (I have thought that since the draw), and then it's anyones game.
How can we make this team better ? First off, and this is a simple football tactic that most managers seem to struggle with. Play your best players in their best positions. Rooney on the left? really ? Yes he made a great cross for Sturridge, and he says he will play anywhere for England, but it is a waste. The manager obviously fancies Sturridge and was vindicated, but he now has to be brave. Either 2 up top or drop Rooney for a real winger. With two up top, there would be no room for Wellbeck, but Sterling can sit in a real no 10 position and Wilshere can come into midfield, and needs to push further up and let Gerrard sort out the defensive part. Wellbeck has proved he is an impact player for United so no worries on that score, and it allows us to mix it up , up top. Rooney is already looking uncomfortable and if he is to play, he needs to be doing his business right up top.
We also need to pass a little more.We have the players, we just need to be sure in the technique. And that involves Roy and his team employing a little discipline into these lads. Easily done. Watch the Germans, and repeat.
Lastly on the team front. Ross Barkley? I just don't get it. I'm sure he will get better, but he just seems to lose the ball all the time. Pointless to me why he is even there. James Milner would be better. There, I've said it ! Talking of Everton players, his teammate Mr Baines found out last night how Ashley Cole got 100 caps. He was not consistent, and got lost in allowing the cross in for the Azzurri's winner. You could argue that Gerrard had a penalty shout, but that was that and the Italians are half way booked into the next round.
That said, I believe this new look England will gel in time, just not this competition. Sterling was sublime, and Sturridge always look lively, and surprise of the night for me was Jordan Henderson starting to look like his price tag.
England MOTM: Raheem Sterling. All day long. The boy is scared of no one.
After an unbeaten qualifying campaign and littered with too many draws, Roy Hodgson's England need to win their remaining two games to secure qualification to next years World Cup. Both are at home, and the right results are possible, but first up were Montenegro, who England have had four previous tussles, all ending in a point a piece.
The weather was shocking and travel was not much better with an hour delay at Ebbsfleet. The tube trip went a little old skool when a north south divide looked to kick off on a packed train.
So a lot later than expected we took our seats and i was quite pleased to see Hodgson had picked a remarkably attacking formation with Rooney, Wellbeck and Sturridge all starting. Also starting was Tottenham's current flavour of the month, Andros Townsend in front of his team mate Kyle Walker. Joe hart was in goal following the worst run of his career, cementing the manager's faith in his no.1.
The initial play was pretty cagey with England getting the odd chance and as usual at Wembley this set the tone for the rest of the half. Just before half time, England had their best chance when Wellbeck tried his usual reverse back heel to no effect. He needs to cut that out of his game.
The second half started better with Rooney getting on the end of a Wellbeck shot that deflected into his path. England pushed on post this and got their second when a Wellbeck shot was deflected towards goal from its initial route by a defender to register an OG. OG is actually the 3rd highest scorer for England these days, just 2 goals behind Gary Lineker! England looked comfortable and the subs started with Lamps coming off for Carrick. Then the away team scored and you could feel the tension. We knew the Ukraine had already beaten Poland, and so another draw would not be enough. The clouds dispersed when debutant Townsend smashed in a cracking low 20 yarder to open his account. This ended the game as a contest and the icing on the cake was when Sturridge won and scored a penalty just after the 90.
The scoreline did not reflect the game, and England will need to step up in the middle of the park next year in Brazil if present. However the bold attacking formation was a massive positive as was the selection of Townsend (if only because Walcott and Lennon are injured). Let keep that up for Poland, and moving forwards as a more pressing team. This should not remove Ricky Lambert and Andy Carroll from the frame though, as sometime you really do need just to lump it.
MOTM : Townsend. Looked completely comfortable on this stage. Tore up the wing like he did last week against WHU (thought i wouldn't mention it? LOL).
Rooney flashes one past the post.
The season ended 2 weeks ago, since then we have had 3 Play Off finals and a Champions League final at Wembley. Last night hosted the last game of the season at FA HQ, a friendly for England against Ireland. Interestingly enough, i was present at the last time England played Ireland at Wembley 22 years ago ! Doubly interesting, apparently i pushed past Louis from One Direction as we made our way up to our concourse.
Roy picked a strong enough team, led out by our current petulant footballer of the month, Mr Ashley Cole, celebrating his first home game since he broke the 100 cap barrier. No Stevie in the middle, replaced by Carrick and Sturridge came in for the benched Wellbeck.
The atmosphere was several times better than usual, as the FA relaxed their ticketing policy and allowed 26,000 of Irelands finest in the see the game. This makes a game feel like a real game and should be applauded. Apparently the same will be done for the Scotland game later in the year. This is great news but should be tempered against the possibility of trouble, more of that later.
Ireland went for it from the beginning, and England tried to contain , with Rooney busting himself but getting little support. The Irish support smelt blood and willed their team on with louder and louder choruses of the Fields of Athenry. They were rewarded after 13 minutes when Shane Long beat both central defenders to the jump and dropped the header into the far corner beating Joe Hart all up. As part of the jubilation, this happened.
Flares are back in fashion.
I can imagine if it had come from the home stand, the press would have a different take on the "exuberance". Anyway, England woke up and started to support the front 2, and payed that off when 10 minutes later Sturridge made a great run and pass that ended with Lampard getting his 29th England goal. Can Frank get another 20, in the 3/4 years he has left. Why not ?
At half time as these things do, it all goes wrong. 3 subs for England (4 if you include Sturridge limping off after the equalizer). Fair play to Trappatoni, who made a sub every 10 minutes just to annoy everyone. Crap 2nd half. So 1-1, same as it ever is with ENG-ROI.
Nobody learned anything tonight, and neither will they in Brazil. Absolute waste of time.
Having met superstars on the way there, life was slightly different on the way back. First off, i met West Ham Glen on Wembley way. WHG is a mate of mine but more importantly Aussie John who I have covered around these parts previously. I asked him where John was (they are massive England buddies). He has no idea as AJ had left some time before.
Anyway, i get on the tube. As usual, its packed and we head off to Kings X. 10 minutes in I get a slap around the head. I spin around and am met with a giggling Aussie John. We also met someone I knew on the Fast Track back to Kent.
And that ladies and gents, was the better game tonight.
On a more serious note before i leave, myself and John were discussing how many away fans were in with the home crowd. Now this shouldn't be an issue, but sadly it is. I saw no problems, but John saw a few in his area. On his way out he bumped into a senior England FA security bod. When asked what they were doing about it, he said and i quote "nothing to do with me !" What sort of answer is that ? Its everything to do with you, and that sort of behaviour will come to bite them on the arse when Scotland roll into town. I hope I'm wrong but experience tells otherwise. But hey, why work when you can blame everyone else.
Growing up as a football mad kid in the 70's, the Brazil national team was a thing a fantasy. Pele, Rivelino, Carlos Alberto and Jairzinho were in the pantheon of world football in an age where global travel was sparse and the Internet was the property of the US military.
Yesterday, although an occasion, was England against 3 blokes from Chelsea, QPR's keeper and the fella who scored against England last in 2002, and had just been recalled.
So the key point was, are Ramirez, Ruiz and Cesar and co up to the mark on the international stage. Before anyone thinks I'm taking the piss, i do understand that between them, there were at least 5 champions league winners in the squad, and the fella on the way back has 2 Ballon D'Ors ! Also playing was the latest wonder kid off the samba production machine, Neymar.
The England team look refreshing with Walcott allegedly starting up top with Rooney and Wellbeck. Ashley Cole made his 100th appearance which meant that with Steven Gerrard, history was being made, as the first centurions to ever play together for England. Jack Wilshere started in the middle edging out Frank Lampard.
There was a minutes silence for both Munich and Bobby Moore prior to kick off which was observed by about all but 5 imbeciles out of 87000 + people.
Once kick off got under way it was apparent that Walcott and Wellbeck were pushed out onto the wings. Talking of Wellbeck, there was one other weird stat. He had scored for England with every shot on target !
Wilshere was looking industrious from the off, but so did Brazil. The way they naturally move the ball around was great to watch but not a lot of end result. England were more direct with Wilshere tearing forward when he had the chance. On 19 mins Ronaldinho tried to cross a ball after some more 1 -2's but the ball got as far as a jumping Wilshere, hit his arm, and a penalty was given. This was similar to the Ryan Giggs ball to hand incident here and not in my opinion a pen.
So up steps big Ron, up against someone a little more agile than Dave Seaman this time, and takes his best. Joe Hart gets down to his left and makes the save, but the ball bounces out in the path of the incoming Brazilian. Hart stops again, and then Cleverley clears the ball and was lucky not to give away another pen in the process. Great work Joe, as he adds another chapter to the CV.
Will he be this calm in a WC Final ?
This deflated the visitors a little, and England started to push on . They finally took the lead just after the half hour mark, when Wilshere (again) burst through, slid a great ball through to Walcott, whose blocked shot came all the way out to Rooney, who smashed it home. England went into the break still on top.
Half time brought the usual subs so the game should die off, but Brazil didn't read that script, and came out all guns blazing. Within 3 minutes, due to a rare Cahill error Fred pull off a screamer to equalise and nearly did the same thing about 3 minutes later, just clipping the bar.
England dipped hugely after this, but held on. Some further subs brought on Lampard. Who slotted in the Cleverley's position but seemed to be more natural at moving the ball about.
Walcott hit some fierce form in the middle of the half and seemed to be roasting the Brazilian left back at will. But instead of coming into the middle as he was he just hit the line and got the crosses in. Rooney went close with a header for his second, and you could sense the tide was turning. On the hour mark, following a pass back from Rooney, Lampard showed every bit of his experience to volley past Cesar, off the post, for the winner.
Rooney hits bar and his backside !
So to sum up, Wilshere is definitely one for the future, and just needs to learn to shoot, or at least take on the responsibility. Scott Parker has had this issue as well, and it should be easy to fix. That said he was still MOTM. Hart's penalty save was brilliant. Rooney was swashbuckling, Lampard seems to be beginning an Indian summer of his career. I will say the jury is out on Cleverley and Wellbeck. One last thing, Glen Johnson, good as you are, you are not Roberto Carlos, get back and defend, and stop leaving your position uncovered.
Half time random unannounced Samba dancers !


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End of Shutdown Still Leaves Contract Workers Hanging
The 800,000 federal workers who were affected will receive back pay, but contractors don't have the same guarantee
By Jay Reeves	• Published January 27, 2019 • Updated on January 27, 2019 at 7:17 pm
Federal employees are turning on office lights and computers and reopening national parks and museums for the first time in weeks, but others employed by government contractors face still more uncertainty over when they'll resume work or whether they'll ever be paid for time lost to the stalemate over President Donald Trump's border wall.
For the hundreds of thousands of people who work for private companies that support government, the future will be decided in part by how quickly federal agencies get running after the record 35-day shutdown, the fine print of contracts and the kindness of strangers.
Michelle Oler of St. Louis resorted to online fundraising to pay bills while sidelined from her contracting job processing rural development claims for the Agriculture Department, and she's still unsure when she'll resume work or receive money to compensate for missed paychecks.
Crime and Courts 9 hours ago
Doyle said he will return to work on Monday, but he starts a new job Friday with another company that he hopes will be more stable if talks fail over Trump's demand for money for a wall and another shutdown begins next month.
The partial government shutdown ended when Trump backed off his demand that Congress commit $5.7 billion for a U.S.-Mexico border wall before federal agencies could resume work. All or parts of multiple federal agencies were affected, with some employees furloughed and others forced to work without pay.
The 800,000 federal workers who were affected will receive back pay, but contractors don't have the same guarantee.
Jack Lyons, who was furloughed from his contract job providing technical support at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in north Alabama, didn't miss a paycheck during the shutdown. "I was one of the lucky ones," he said.
But Lyons still wonders what will happen when he returns to work Monday in a building near towering stands built to test rockets at the NASA center.
"I'll walk in, wipe the dust off the desk and see how management decides to catch up on what we missed," he said Sunday. "Passwords expire and that sort of stuff, so it will just be a matter of making sure you can get in at first."
NASA told workers in a message on its website to be patient with laptops, desktop computers and smartphones that haven't been maintained or updated since last month when the shutdown began.
In Missouri, Oler is thankful she moved in with two roommates in early December before the shutdown began. The change dropped her expenses drastically from the $800 a month she was paying for rent, utilities, internet, phone, car insurance and food for her and her cat.
"While I love being a contractor, I hate the uncertainty that's come with it. This happened to us last year on a smaller scale, but this year's shutdown has me concerned for my future and welfare," she said.
Donald TrumpCONGRESSMexicofoodNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


What is the mystery that surrounds the Amethyst Bio Mat as a healing treatment?
Following the Eastern philosophy of keeping the head cool, while the body warms up, the Bio Mat's Far Infrared rays penetrate the body and coupled with the negative ions given off by amethyst crystal boasts many benefits including detoxification, reduced stress and tension, relief of sore muscles and joints, and deep relaxation.
My experience plus that of clients is that besides these physical benefits there can be a noticeable shift balancing both mind and body.


Ryan Nugent of YouTube's Next Up Lab says, "50% of the work is making a great video and the other 50% is what you do when you upload it." After the jump, we lay out some helpful rules and guidelines for optimizing your content.
YouTube is working on a Partner Playbook, chock full of tips to help their partners build their audiences, optimize discovery and maximize views. At a YouTube Partner MeetUp in New York on June 16, 2011, Ryan Nugent from the YouTube Next Up Lab presented a draft of the Playbook. This is part one in a series presenting tips gleaned from Ryan's presentation of the YouTube Partner Playbook.
Creating great content is, without a doubt, the most important ingredient in the recipe to YouTube success. However, even if you have the best content on the planet, nobody will see it if you haven't optimized it for discovery. Ryan Nugent of YouTube's Next Up Lab says, "50% of the work is making a great video and the other 50% is what you do when you upload it." Here, we lay out some helpful rules and guidelines for optimizing your content, as outlined in Ryan's presentation of the YouTube Partner Playbook.
One of the first things you have to do when you upload a video to YouTube is to enter all your metadata, aka title, tags and description. YouTube is the world's second largest search engine and the way you write your title, tags and description can make or break you when it comes to your position in search results.
When coming up with a title, use keywords first and make your title compelling. A lot of people like to go with branding first—getting the name of a show, person, product or brand into the title. The problem with this? A lot of people will skip over your video if they've never heard of the show, person, product or brand. Therefore, you should always side with relevant keywords over branding. Also, don't forget to make your title catchy and interesting. Is your title something that will make somebody curious and interested in watching? If not, keep brainstorming!
When it comes to tags, it's important to use a mix of common and specific keywords. What does this mean? Say you've got a cooking show. You'll want to use common keywords like cooking, recipe and ingredients. Then narrow things down to keywords more specific to your video. If your video features you making Pad Thai, for instance, then you should add specific keywords like Thai food, Pad Thai, noodles and Asian.
Ryan points out that it is also important to use variations of keywords, such as common misspellings. He says that you should use up all the space you can when adding keywords, but make sure you are adding tags that are relevant to your video. If you use Lady Gaga as a tag just because she's a popular search term, the YouTube algorithm will be able to tell if your video has got nothing to do with the pop star and this will hurt you in the long run.
Ryan also says that, as far as optimization goes, it's a good idea to list your first tags in the same order they appear in the title. If your title is 'Batman and Joker Fight' then your keywords should be listed in that order—Batman, Joker, fight.
When writing your description, remember that only the first line or two show up in search results. Therefore, it's important to include the most compelling information first.
You should try to use as many of the keywords that you included in your tags within the body of your description. Additionally, include links that are relevant to your show.
Finally, Ryan suggests creating an "SEO Tagline"—two or three sentences that describe your show—that you can copy-paste into all of your video descriptions. This insures the inclusion of keywords that you would like to appear in every episode of your show.


Fellow Star Wars cast members, John Boyega and Mark Hamill, have had a history of fun Tweets between them.
Their Twitter jokes with each other have included talk of grapes on the set of The Force Awakens, the trolling that Luke is Finn's Father and more! This time, the Twitter battle has involved The Last Jedi's adorable Porg.
Responding to the apparent "lack of PorgAdoration" that Boyega has for the Porg, Mark Hamill defends the wide eyed aliens with a "scolding" Tweet. You can also see the trolling of Finn's heritage in this as well! A two for one Tweet! Can't we agree that Porgs are a positive inspiration? YES!
But Boyega has a more sinister use for the Porgs, and as only a "Son" can respond, Boyega makes the Porg Nation gasp! Or…would Porg Soup be delicious?
I love these interactions from Hamill and Boyega and this only shows how fun it must be on the Star Wars set!
And REMEMBER, "Finn"… Porgs love you!


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Brian Trent
The official website of science-fiction author Brian Trent
About Brian Trent
Brian's Blog
← Bygone days of the Astroliners
Crash Site, Jackbox, and the War Hero universe →
A Quiet Place of Terror and a City in the Sky
Posted on April 23, 2018 by BT
I saw A Quiet Place and found it to be one of the most intense films I've seen since 28 Weeks Later. Smart, tightly constructed and truly scary, with an admirable devotion to show-don't-tell storytelling and a thoroughly unique nature of threat. Emily Blunt gave a master class performance, and who knew that John Krasinski had such serious directing chops?
He seems to instinctively know how to extract the most tension from every frame of film, squeezing dread out of a squeaky door or the mere sight of a nail sticking out of the floor. This is the film that Signs wanted to be but failed miserably at achieving (between its water-vulnerable species waltzing around a water-rich Earth naked to M. Night's heavy-handed religious messaging to the utterly illogical behavior of the characters.
A Quiet Place was a high caliber investigation into fear and the will to survive, and one of the best horror films in many years.
My story "An Incident on Ishtar" is out this month in Analog. The venerable magazine also has a nifty new blog, which features a few words by yours truly on the story's composition. This is my favorite short story, and I do hope you enjoy it.
Most of my stories first occur to me as a setting. Every writer I know has his or her own unique entry point into composition, be it a character or action sequence or line of dialogue. For me, those initial coordinates are a location, which I like to vary from tale to tale. Mars (or Mars-like planets) are a genre favorite, but I wanted to try something a little different with "An Incident on Ishtar."
Named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty, and to still older cultures as the tempestuous goddess of love and war. In "An Incident on Ishtar," a human colony floats above the planet's toxic condition, an intriguing colonization option that has been suggested in scientific literature as an alternative to its Martian brother. I immediately liked the dynamic between such a deadly environment and the bubble of humanity dwelling within it: the microcosm of civilization, and sheer defiance of threat, that such a station would represent. It's not a place that easily invites "terraforming" on any comprehensible time-scale, and so the challenge becomes surviving it, on its own terms and our own ingenuity.
My characters typically grow out of the chosen setting, but this time things were different: the character of Dr. Melissa Lobo was right there at the very beginning. Bags packed, knuckles white around her luggage handle, the ticket in her trembling fingers. A woman who has never fit in anywhere, suddenly determined to start life anew on a planet of storms. Sailing brightquest from Earth to the aerostat colony of Ishtar with her few belongings and little understanding of what's in store for her.
I've spoken previously about my preference for sci-fi over fantasy, though recently I been dabbling in the latter category. Last month, I began a completely new literary series; unlike my "War Hero" stories, this one is firmly in the genre of alternate history. Can't say too much at the moment, but it's got all the colors I like to paint with: dark mystery, historical detail, and explorations into linguistics and culture and folklore.
I've also been hard at work on an exceptionally dark fantasy novel.
Overall the first quarter of 2018 was kind to me. I sold my humorous story "Love Song of the Wendigo" to a new and exciting addition to the literary marketplace: Spectacle magazine. "A Thousand Deaths Through Flesh and Stone" was picked up for The Year's Best Military and Adventure SF. Perhaps most excitingly is that I can now reveal the cover of my novel, and its publication date: on October 6, 2018, TEN THOUSAND THUNDERS will enter bookstores everywhere.
The weather this year has been particular bizarre here in Connecticut, with 60 degree days followed by 8 inches of snow followed by dazzlingly bright afternoons and driving rainstorms. Seems like every morning I open the door to my backporch, I'm peering into a randomized landscape like the portal in "City on the Edge of Forever." It's like living in the latter days of the Genesis Planet from Star Trek III. Last week, we had a 70 degree afternoon followed by a morning in which everything looked turned to glass by a singularly unique Medusa.
Activating ice shield!
Oh, and yes, I was invited to play-test a Jane Austen RPG. What else should one when crossing a drawing room?
This entry was posted in Blog and tagged a quiet place, an incident on ishtar, ANALOG, jane austen, spectacle magazine, ten thousand thunders. Bookmark the permalink.


Now that you know a few different ways to avoid the things that trigger your allergies, all that's left to do is to put the information to good use. It can be harder for people who are allergic to things like pollen or pet dander to manage their symptoms, but that doesn't mean they should give up. Keep the tips and tricks in the preceding paragraphs in mind so that you do not have to continue suffering from these symptoms.


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ACCEPTED

#### According to
The Catalogue of Life, 3rd January 2011

#### Published in
Mycol. Res. 109(5): 562 (2005)

#### Original name
Lulworthia uniseptata Nakagiri, 1984

### Remarks
null

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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PROJECT SQUARE-EYES
The plot-free, spoiler-free film reviewing site…
What is Project Square Eyes?…
Like Or Dislike Something You See?, Get In Touch…
February 26, 2018 by gandee2001
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (15)
Watching Three Billboards… is a strange experience.
This is not to say the film itself is strange. No, quite the opposite. It has a very linear narrative, with only a few brief flashbacks set before the events that shape the film itself. Aside from this, it is a quiet and surprisingly sombre drama that was more maudlin and morose than the laugh-heavy trailer would initially suggest.
The film very much wants to be a Coen Brothers film (nothing wrong with this: after all, who does small town, pitch-black crime-capers better?). You only have to type "Did The Coen Brothers direct Three Billboards…" into Google and a whole host of websites come up on this very subject. The ambient guitar score was performed by Coen regular Carter Burwell (who also did the score for Martin McDonagh's 'In Bruges' and 'Seven Psychopaths'), and the main character is played by Coen regular and (Joel) Coen's Wife, the Oscar-Winning Frances McDormand (Best Actress, Fargo, 1996).
Yes, the town is also rammed with small-town idiosyncrasies, eccentric characters and the plot is built around that classic Coen-esque story arc: the small time scheme which spins badly out of control ('Blood Simple', 'Raising Arizona' , 'The Man Who Wasn't There', 'No Country For old Men', 'Burn After Reading').
Loosely based on a real experience director McDonagh had twenty years ago while holidaying in Texas ( http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-mn-1130-martin-mcdonagh-20171129-story.html ), the uncomfortable marriage of awkward laughs and grisly violence are both Coen Brothers' tropes too.
As usual, you may roughly know plot, but nothing will be revealed here. The story does take some very surprising turns and the core cast float in and out of it at varying points, keeping the viewer in suspense and some element of bewilderment as to where the story is heading.
The script, – for anybody who has never seen a Martin McDonagh film, such as 'In Bruges' or 'Seven Psychopaths' , or even one by his Brother John Michael McDonagh: the magnificent 'Calvary' and 'The Guard' – is the usual mix of sly and cynical musings about random observations, knowing and acerbic wit and seething, repressed anger.
Whether it be racist insults, fury at the lack of progress on the case or simply disbelief at the stupidity of some of the locals, no social taboo stone is left unturned.
For my comedic tastes, the cast of characters seemed a bit too manufactured. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are definitely towns like this in the Deep South, I just wasn't sure how funny I found it all on the screen: Dwarf, black residents, bimbo newsreader, incompetent racist Red Neck cops, it all seemed a bit too fake for my tastes. The eccentric cast seems manufactured purely so they can all take relentless pot-shots at each other, and pot-shot they do, so subtlety is definitely not the name of the game here.
This is not to say I have a problem with unsubtlety in my humour (I LOVE Austin Powers, The Interview, Team America, Bad Santa, to name but a few), as long as it fits the story coherently, but to me it It all seemed like it was just trying too hard to be funny and just came off as contrived, meaning I never found the film as funny or as gripping as I was expecting to : it was cringey and chucklesome, rather than brutal and uproarious.
The cast – Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, Abbie Cornish, John Hawkes and Caleb Landry Jones – are, of course, uniformly excellent and all use their limited screen time to maximum effect. However, I couldn't help but think that some of them were criminally underused, particularly John Hawkes and Abbie Cornish, who are routinely excellent in everything they are in.
Much like the best works of Clint Eastwood, the direction is sparse, lean and unfussy, but having seen this film two and a half weeks ago now, I can safely say I found the whole film – possibly, like many a great film, crushed under the weight of its own hype – distinctly underwhelming and I genuinely can't decide whether I enjoyed it or not.
This film is definitely worth watching as a two hour piece of slightly sombre entertainment but it left me with a strong need to revisit some classic Coen Brothers films to see the pitch-black, small-town crime-comedy goods delivered properly.
All-in-all, a two-thirds satisfying crime comedy that was neither funny nor violent enough for my tastes and an ending that will leave swatches of viewers absolutely reeling.
Previous Phantom Thread (15)
Next A Quiet Place (15)
2 thoughts on "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (15)"
Good review. I agree that this film left me somewhat undecided about whether it was good or bad. On the whole I have to say it was good, largely because it didn't have the neat, nicely-tied-up-with-a-bow Hollywood ending. There were also a couple (I think; it's been a few weeks) of instances where my suspension of disbelief was tested, and one in particular where I completely failed to maintain it. In the spirit of your goal not to give away plots and spoilers, I won't describe it, but it involved a violently broken window on the second floor, and the lack of a follow-up to that. I'll say no more. But I'd say it's worth seeing.
gandee2001 says:
Hi Craig, thank you for your contribution, I agree it seemed to be trying to subvert expectations in a non-Hollywood way (to be applauded) but I felt the overall results were over-hyped and under-cooked, check out micro-budget botched revenge thriller Blue Ruin for a far more startlingly impressive film.


While I'm not a licensed psychologist, I'm not without some street cred.
• Big sister to three girls.
• Grandmother to one grand-girl.
• Aunt to fourteen females, and counting.
• And hubby and I will celebrate 47 years of marriage in August.
1. Am I in a give-and-take relationship, or am I doing all the giving, compromising, and apologizing?
A healthy relationship is reciprocal, not one-sided. A healthy relationship is rooted in respect, in valuing the other person. Again, a two-way street. Do you feel valued and respected, or used? If he's not someone you can respect, lace up your running shoes.
Here are some examples: kind, moody, respectful, mean, honest, a liar, positive, controlling, compassionate, apologetic (bad sign if he's always trying to make up for bad or addictive behavior). When you weigh the five adjectives, do they come out positive or negative?
3. Does the guy I'm dating encourage me to become my best self, the person God designed me to be?
In a healthy relationship, it isn't all about him. In a healthy relationship he cheers you on in your growth and personal pursuits. If he feels threatened by or jealous of your realistic interests, family, and friends–if you're feeling isolated–press the pedal to the medal, and don't look back!
4. In a picture of our relationship, how would I draw the two of us?
Are you standing behind him, following his lead and feeling like you don't have a say in the matter? Ever. Are you moving ahead of him, having to drag him along? In a healthy relationship, most often you are moving forward side-by-side, both giving and receiving respect and being heard.
5. Is he self-centered or God-centered?
Just because a man (or boy) calls himself a Christian or a man of faith … just because he can talk the talk, doesn't mean he is in a life-giving relationship with God. His relationship with God doesn't have to look like yours, but if it's important to him, you'll recognize some characteristics of a Jesus-follower.
6. Does the relationship empower me, or does he make me feel powerless?
To the general population, physical abuse may be the most obvious and reportable form of abuse. The evidence is usually visible and somewhat quantifiable, but physical abuse and sexual abuse have evil sisters. But emotional or verbal and spiritual abuse also ranks high in the tactics of an abuser. Narcissist. Control-freak! Making you feel less than, not enough.
But wait … I have more to say, abusers are shape-shifters–charming and generous one minute, mean and degrading the next. You know what to do with your running shoes. Get someone to help you run.
7. Based upon my answers to questions 1-6, would I call our relationship constructive or destructive?
How would you define your current dating relationship? If you can't honestly say it's healthy, let go. And if you've ever used the word toxic (or even thought it) to describe the relationship, it's a destructive relationship. Lose his number. Unfriend him. Be brave, end it.
I get that none of us are perfect. We are all in process. But you and I are talking about unhealthy patterns versus pliable hearts. The ability to differentiate between the two is a sign of wisdom.
Merriam Webster dictionary describes wisdom as the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships, insight; good sense.
Help me humble myself before You and seek Your wisdom. Help me make brave choices so I can live and breathe in Your blessings.
Would you do me a favor, and share this post?


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Bike/Walk Central Florida Newsletter #65 — May 4, 2012
Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
First Friday Ride Today!
Today, May 4th, is our monthly First Friday Ride for May. Every first Friday of each month, we meet at Loch Haven Park and ride 6pm-7:30pm. It's always a blast. See you there!
Michie O'Day has a very inspirational story that should negate any of your exuses for not cycling. She had a few intensive surgeries a couple years ago that resulted in deafness and restricted mobility, ruling out many forms of exercise. She bought a recumbant trike even after being told she wouldn't bike again. This hope was well placed, because when she took the Portland Cycling Savvy course, her life was revitalized. She had many new opportunities opened to her just because she knew how to drive her bike. Click here to learn more about Michie's story.
Couch Potato to Savvy Cyclist
Click here to read about Monique Donahue's journey from couch potato to savvy cyclist. She tells how she wouldn't exercise much. Then she bought a bike and used it once, letting sit in her garage the rest of the time. The Cycling Savvy course changed her life. She has made some serious cycling and fitness goals, which she is on her way to achieving! Good for you, Monique!
Save a life: Pedestrian Safety Initiative
Here's one solution to raise pedestrian visibility at night. Perhaps not the most practical, but you gotta admit, it's darn effective.
As we prepare to roll out our Best Foot Forward community coalition on pedestrian safety, we'd love to hear your ideas on ways we can get our message out into the community.
I think this one might actually work on I-Drive, or someplace where we're looking to get our message across in a positive, but effective way. If nothing else, I think I've found my Halloween costume for this year.
Florida law says drivers must yield to pedestrians crossing with a walk signal, or trying to cross at an unsignalized intersection. In Orange County, the fine for failure to yield is $164 and 3 points on your drivers license. And yet, our baseline data shows that, on average, only about five percent of drivers obey this law.
OPD and the Orange County Sheriff are going to be looking for violators, starting this summer. Statistics show that in the Orlando Kissimmee Metro, we kill one pedestrian each week and injure two a day. Bike/Walk Central Florida, and our community partners — MetroPlan Orlando, Winter Park Health Foundation, Orlando Health, Lynx, Orange Cycle, David's World Cycle, Track Shack, the mayors, police chiefs and engineering departments of the Cities of Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland, Eatonville, other cities, plus Orange County, are going to change that.
On May 30, we plan to launch a county-wide initiative in Orange County, aimed at increasing the percentage of drivers yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks and encouraging pedestrians to use those crosswalks. This so-called "Triple-E" approach combines low-cost engineering with education and high-visibility enforcement, to fundamentally change the crosswalk culture in support of ongoing efforts by cities, counties and the Florida Department of Transportation, to make our streets safer.
At our first law enforcement training operation, Orlando Police issued warning fliers to drivers failing to yield at problem crosswalks around the city. More than 400 drivers were stopped over the course of three hours. Research has shown that those drivers will tell at least six people each, for a total reach of 2,800 drivers. Orange County Sheriff training will begin in June.
The Orange County School Board plans to review our pedestrian education curriculum this summer for possible use, districtwide, in the fall. This is a significant development. Fingers crossed.
When was the last time you saved a life? Your contributions of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, or more, can make a big difference. Checks should be made out to the Florida Bicycle Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and mailed to: Betsy Holl at: P.O. Box 916715, Longwood, FL 32793-6715. Please specify that you are donating to Best Foot Forward.
May Cycling Savvy Class
Register for this month's (May) Cycling Savvy class now! It is the weekend of May 18 & 19. Attendees will learn how to drive their bikes safely in the streets and will learn the rules of the road as they apply to bikes. Hope to see you there!
Ride to Work With Mayor Buddy
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer's annual ride to work day has been scheduled for May 25th. Please note that this is a week later than the previously announced date.
Community Calendar Link
http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/community-calendar/
Recurring Rides
(The next First Friday ride is May 4th, Today!)
First Fridays: Take it to the streets bike ride to promote civility: 6 p.m. on the First Friday of each month. Check our Facebook Fan page for start locations.
UCF Bike Bus: Downtown Orlando to UCF, then UCF to Downtown Orlando. Follow bike bus in real time via GPS at http://commuteorlando.com/bikebus/
Ride With Steve: Beginner ride. Meet at Winter Garden Wheel Works in Downtown Winter Garden, 8 a.m., Saturdays. – Sponsored by Winter Garden Wheel Works .
See our Calendar for other family rides:
www.bikewalkcentralflorida.org
S-Cargo farmers market rides featuring utility bikes and trailers
Ice Cream Socials: night rides through Downtown Orlando
Unless specifically designated as a trail ride, our rides take place on public streets. Headlights and red rear flashers are required for night rides. Helmets are encouraged, and are required for children under 16.
We observe all traffic laws and traffic signals.
Our rides are typically 10 to 15 miles, roundtrip, and average 10 miles an hour, a comfortable pace for most adults and teens. May be too fast for younger children and adults with health issues.
These rides are social in nature.
For longer, more aggressive group rides, subscribe to Hal Downing's group ride newsletter by emailing [email protected] .
If you have a social ride you would like us to help promote, please email me at the address below.
Brad Kuhn
Bike/Walk Central Florida Would like to thank our sponsors: