text:
HomeHandgunRIA: Saxon Double Barreled Wheel Lock
RIA: Saxon Double Barreled Wheel Lock
April 20, 2016 Ian McCollum Handgun, Video, Wheel lock 38
Wheel locks are one of the less common types of early firearm ignition systems, as the were much more expensive as the contemporary flintlocks. The wheel lock had a major advantage in reliability, though. Many surviving wheel locks are quite ornate guns, as they were valuable enough to be kept away from much field use and thus preserved. This example is a double-barreled and highly decorated piece with independent locks for each barrel.
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July 17, 2019 Ian McCollum Prototype, Semiauto pistol, Video 5
In the early 1930s, Walther began to experiment with changes to its Olympia target pistol in hopes of beating the Colt Woodsman out of its place as the most popular pistol of the type. The […]
Books, Magazines, and David Tubb
July 31, 2012 Ian McCollum Book review 1
If you were interested in Bin Shih's very nice book on Chinese firearms of the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) but didn't get one before they sold out, you're in luck! He's going to be running […]
Dual-Magazine MP40/I
March 8, 2013 Ian McCollum Submachine Guns 41
From the first introduction of detachable magazines on firearms, people have been looking for ways to increase magazine capacity. Whether it is drum mags, longer box mags, jungle clips to connect multiple mags together, or […]
Euroweasel says:
I have never read anywhere that wheellocks were more reliable than flintlocks. They were more reliable than matchlocks, especially in bad weather, but that is hardly surprising. Wheellocks were are mechanically complex and much more expensive than flintlocks or matchlocks. The mechanical complexity made them more prone to breaking and malfunctions than flintlocks. They did have one advantage over flintlocks, namely faster ignition of the powder after trigger pull, which made them popular for upper class hunting weapons even in 18th century, when they had been long superseded by flintlocks as military weapons.
TomTB says:
I'm not a smoker, but there is very little difference between the Wheel Lock system, and Zippo lighters that lit a zillion young ladies cigarettes.
Jonathan Steven Ferguson says:
Ian's right in terms of period perceptions though; and let's be honest, no-one today has the everyday experience with these weapons to challenge these perceptions). These people tell us that wheellocks were regarded as more reliable than snaphance and 'true' flintlocks. For example, from 'The Advise of That Worthy Commander, Sir Edward Harwood, Collennell' (1642):
'Now for other kinds of horse, I would that the Trained bands be reformed as Harqubusiers, but whether their Peeces to bee with Fire-locks or Snaphaunces, is questionable. The fire-lock is more certain for giving fire, the other more facile of use.'
In this context, we know from period usage that by 'fire-lock' he means 'wheellock' rather than what we now regard as a flintlock (French lock). 'Snaphance' simply meant a lock that operated by striking a piece of stone (rather than abrading it in situ as per wheellock).
Likewise Markham's 'The Soldier's Accidence' (1643) says 'firelocks (if it may be), but snaphaunces where they are wanting' doesn't spell out greater reliability, but is certainly a value judgement.
dennis heckathorne says:
I'm a flintlock shooter and have been for 50 years I'm also a gun maker I've made and fired both flintlock and wheelock and there are two reasons wheelocks are more reliable and faster firing than flintlocks. First there is more striking surface on a wheelock as 3/4 of the wheel is engaged as opposed to only an inch or so of the flintlock. Second there is no distance between the pyrite and the priming powder when the trigger is pulled,and the pyrite comes in immediate contact with the spinning wheel when fired With a wheel lock there is no inertia when the weapons is fired meaning no hammer fall jolt as in a percussion or flintlock.
While it was developed in France in the early 1600s, the "true" flintlock didn't become the standard ignition system for military arms until the last decade or so of the 17th Century.
The Thirty Years' War (1618-48), the English Civil War (1642-56), and most every other war of the period were fought mainly with matchlock arquebus, simply because they were already "in inventory", cheap and easy to make, rarely "broke", and when they needed repair it generally didn't take long or cost much.
Or require much skill; any blacksmith could repair a matchlock, and all armies had their own traveling smithies.
Even older weapons hung on for the same reason. volunteers ion both sides in the early stages of the English Civil War showed up for muster with longbows or crossbows. It must be remembered that the Trained Bands had only been ordered to turn in their bows for arquebus in 1599, and that there was exactly one armory in England that made firearms, in London. It was owned by the Crown. In short, there weren't enough actual guns to go around, even in a civil war in a relatively small country. Plus, there were a lot of men who had used the longbow or crossbow all their lives, and knew nothing of firearms. An analogous situation occurred in the first years of the American Civil War (1861-65), with flintlocks accounting for nearly half of the musketry on both sides up to the summer of 1862.
The New Model Army Parliament formed was armed mostly with matchlock arquebus, and happily took any firearms they could beg, borrow, steal, or capture. The Royalist forces were in a similar fix, especially after losing London (where the Royal armory was) to the Roundheads.
There really wasn't much influx of "imported" arms except for Scot and English mercenaries returning from the fighting on the Continent, until after the Peace of Westphalia in 1848. And even then, it was largely older, obsolescent arms, as the treaty just ended the Thirty Years' War officially; the fighting continued for another three decades under other pretenses, notably in the Germanies and Scandinavia.
As for the wheel-lock, the most common such military weapons were pistols for use by cavalry. This was because it was next to impossible to safely use a matchlock while mounted. Among other thing, horses can be trained to put up with the racket, concussion, and smell of a gun going off over their heads, but it's next to impossible to train a horse to put up with the constant smell of a burning match, due to its instinctive (and entirely reasonable) fear of fire.
As for this piece, double-barreled wheel-locks were moderately common as horsemen's weapons, simply because a pair carried in saddle holsters (as this one was clearly intended to be) gave you four shots without reloading. By that time in the charge, you should be in amongst the enemy or right through his formation. Meaning, time to either brake, or just go to work with your saber.
The oddly reptilian critters inlaid in the forend are traditional renditions of "sea serpents", as used on illuminated charts of the time. This might indicate the owner was a naval type.
Then again, he or the gunmaker may just have liked sea serpents.
"horses can be trained to put up with the racket, concussion, and smell of a gun going off over their heads, but it's next to impossible to train a horse to put up with the constant smell of a burning match, due to its instinctive (and entirely reasonable) fear of fire."
Perhaps the Marlboro Man was a complete fraud?
Yep. Died of emphysema, too.
BTW, I've yet to deal with a horse that liked the smell of burning tobacco. They tend to give smokers dirty looks when they light up.
The Tower did not actually manufacture firearms (though it would later 'set up' guns from parts), and in fact relied upon there being a number (37 by this time in fact) gunmakers operating in London (the Minories originally) by the time this gun was made. Which is not to say that firearms weren't relatively uncommon c1600, they obviously were. But the government did not have the monopoly over firearms; anyone with enough money could buy or commission a firearm from one of these makers, or purchase one abroad. With fear of Spanish invasion, there would have been plenty of privately-purchased firearms for town defence as well (you mention the Trained Bands).
Darren O'Connor says:
I've also read that wheel locks didn't use a flint — flint was too hard and would quickly wear the teeth of the wheel. They used iron pyrites instead to produce the spark.
Also, I'd question the assertion that the wheel lock was more reliable than the flintlock — not that ignition is more reliable because of the greater quantity of sparks generated by the action; that may well be true — but that reliability overall is better. The flintlock was a pretty simple mechanism; there wasn't much to go wrong with it, and if it did, any blacksmith could generally put it right again in short order. The wheel lock, on the other hand, had a much more complex, and in truth often rather delicate mechanism that was much more likely to get out of order, and when something went wrong, only a skilled gunsmith could usually fix it. This is probably why wheel locks almost completely disappeared after flintlocks came along. Even wealthy people who could afford them stopped buying wheel locks, and took to flintlock weapons instead.
Keith (In England) says:
Pyrite is actually marginally harder than flint, and will scratch it.
jantee says:
I always thought that Wheelocks used Iron Pyrites (Fools Gold) to provide the spark. I have never heard of any being used with flint, nor would it be capable of unless you had grooved wheels. I have fired replica guns in the past and while these are not up to the standard of the original, one issue with them is actually the lock time, and my experience differs from the comments made by Euroweasel. When you pull the trigger, they go CLICK – WHIRR – BANG. It feels like you have enough time to scratch your butt between pulling the trigger and the discharge.
Having said that flintlocks are CLICK – UH – Bang, so the difference may be more between the ears rather than in the ears.
Definitely a function of their being replicas I'm afraid (wheellocks are really a lost art). The real thing is quicker to fire than a flintlock (not that I've been lucky enough to fire an original, but I know a man who has).
Paul Hofmann says:
Some quibbles:
Wheellocks do not use a flint but pyrit in the jaws of the cock. As I understand, the serrated steel wheel strikes sparks from the pyrite. Unlike the flint-lock, where the hard flint strikes sparks, i.e. fine metal shavings, from the frizzen´s surface. This is why frizzens must be hardened and are horizontally serrated to give the flint many opportunities to remove material. Am I wrong?
The key feature of the wheellock which improves its reliability over the flintlock: The pyrite and wheel meet inside the pan. Thus the sparks are created directly among the priming powder, they don't have to fall there first. Lock time supposed to be shorter too.
The wheel is not powered by a wound-up clock type spring, such an arrangement did exist but it is a very rare sub-type of wheellock. The V-spring and drive-chain arrangement commonly used are actually clearly visible in the video!
At 3:19, look at the lower, forward wheel and below it. Its main V-spring is mounted on the outside the lock plate, it begins above the trigger and extends forward beyond, below the bottom of the stock right under its wheel. It is connected to the wheel by a set links exactly like bicycle chain links. These are connected to an eccentric "nut" on the axis of the wheel (this complicated piece is covered here on the forward lock, it is usually behind the plate). If the wheel was turned (counterclockwise here, I am guessing), the chain would wind up and pull the arm of the V-spring upwards and convert the linear tension of the spring into rotary motion on the axis of the wheel. The sear locks into an indentation on the inside surface of the wheel to hold it ready.
I speculate that the wheel actually does not rotate fully on firing, just ½, or ¾ of a revolution. If anybody knows for sure I´d be very happy to learn.
Another aspect of this lock is timing: The wheel is not in contact with the pyrite when it is ready to fire. It is pressed onto the pan cover which is pushed open (forward) automatically upon firing by the rotation of the eccentric "nut" via an extension of the pan cover, usually behind the lock plate. Only now does the cock lower itself into the pan. The goal is to give the wheel as much momentum as possible before it contacts the pyrite.
Earliest technical drawings are dated 1500-1509 from Nürnberg. Primary armament of the heavy, fully plate-armored (painted black!) cavalry in the Thirty Years War. A very good exhibition in Halle (Saale) currently documents the fate of front line soldiers killed in the battle of Lützen 1632, found in a mass grave dug right on the main line. Vast majority has one 15-17mm hole in the skull. These were effective combat weapons, it`s just that the impractical presentation pieces are all that remain.
Treaty of Westphalia was 1648. I`ll shut up now.
Thanks for catching that. How in the *%&^#$&%%! did I type "1848"? *headdesk*
Also note that more than a few of the wheel-lock pistols used by cavalrymen back then were rifled. They can be spotted because they have both front and rear sights, while smoothbores had either only a front sight or none at all.
A patched ball, spun by rifling and leaving the muzzle going "straight" instead of whim-whamming off at an angle after "bouncing" down a smooth bore, meant that such pistols were generally more accurate than an arquebus, and had equal or better effective range (50-75 yards).
Still, even with that, head shots indicate one of two things;
1. The horsemen were aiming at the infantrymen's heads because they were wearing cuirasses the pistol bullets might not get through; or
2. A lot of them were coup de grace' head shots to downed, but still breathing, foes.
After all, looting bodies is simplified by making sure they really are dead first.
Cherndog says:
Wheel lock pistols can also be used for assassinations, since they are less likely to misfire compared to flintlocks, snaphaunces, and miquelets. If I'm not mistaken, it is best to shoot when the target is in a noisy area or when the nearest huge clock tower strikes the changing of the hour (or if you are riding after the target on horseback in the woods and shoot him on passing, assuming he's also on horseback).
There was something about the emperor Maximilian, p[assing laws to forbid various sorts of fire arms, I can't remember whether that included match locks, or just the more concealable flint and wheel locks.
like modern day politicians, he knew that if the plebs ever found out what he was really up to – they'd re-balance him, using lead weights for the purpose.
The facility for them being used in that way was the reason a law was passed in Elizabeth I's time prohibiting the possession or manufacture of "firelocks" anywhere within three miles of Her Majesty, her residences, or areas she frequented. (This may be one reason why the London Guild gunmakers were still turning out mostly matchlocks twenty years later.)
Elsewhere, in France, there was enough worry about "daggs" (a common English term for a wheel-lock horse pistol), that a Royal decree in 1535 prohibited the making or possession of any gun less than three feet long in the kingdom.
In 1515 Maximilian I prohibited the manufacture or possession of any sort of "self-igniting" arm in the Habsburg Empire. Since he died in 1519, and his successor, Charles V, used wheel-locks for hunting, odds are the prohibition was never actually enforced.
"Gun control" is nothing new. And it really never works, because a genie cannot be stuffed back into a bottle, no matter how many times Barbara Eden did it on TV.
Wheel Lock actions were more reliable mostly because the Iron Pyrite would throw a sustained "shower" of sparks which were also hotter than a flint-produced spark. They would also produce sparks when damp (but not soaked) unlike most flint ignition systems. The majpor drawback was the availability of Iron Pyrite sort of like having a Zippo but no "flints" for it eventhough an out-of-fuel Zippo can be used to light a cigarette or start a fire. In one instance, a "novice" trader reportedly came to the new world to try a load of the plentiful gold but was scammed into buying a shipload of Iron Pyrite also known as Fools Gold. He then happily sailed back to the Old World. When the "scammers" returned with their cargo they found that he had actually come for the Pyrite which was, if it was in sizable "slabs," without fractures or impurities, worth twice an equal measure of smelted gold bullion. So he was not quite the dunce as first suspected. The top quality portion went for wheel lock ignition and the remainder for "fire starter kits" carried by most "gentlemen" back then. Most assuredly the wheel lock was more reliable than the match Lock ignition systems.
With regards to your story on "fools gold", I think you have a highly distorted version of one of Jacques Cartier's voyages.
Cartier was one of the great European explorers of the New World, and it was he who claimed what is now eastern Canada for France in 1534. He traveled as far up the St Lawrence as modern day Montreal, where his ships were blocked by the rapids from going further.
During one of his several voyages, his men collected what they thought were diamonds and gold, but turned out to be quartz crystals and iron pyrites. This led to the French expression "faux comme les diamants du Canada" (as false as Canadian diamonds).
Canada did in fact have gold and diamonds in plenty, but these were not discovered until several centuries later.
Cartier is considered to be one of the great historical figures in Canada, and the above story is taught to every schoolchild in Canada.
The occurrence I spoke of was a German merchant seeking pyrite partly for wheel lock weapons for the German market but more importantly for the Spring Driven Tinder Lighter. However, the history of the trade also included Wheel Lock weapons. References are as follows:
The voyages of Jacques Cartier:
http://www.biography.com/people/martin-frobisher-20978133#new-world-voyages
"She (Elizbeth I) sent Frobisher back for a third voyage, this time on a much larger expedition, with 15 vessels and the necessities for establishing a 100-man colony. Frobisher set sail on June 3, 1578, and landed at Frobisher Bay in early July. He and his men failed to establish a settlement as a result of dissension and discontent, so they all returned to England with 1,350 tons of ore. Upon their return, it was discovered that the ore was actually iron pyrite and therefore worthless, although it was eventually used for road metaling."
Other Pyrite episodes including John Smith and Christopher Newport of Jamestown Colony:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/famous-fools-for-fool-8217-s-gold/
An actual gold rush in North Carolina:
http://goldfever.unctv.org/history
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newnation/4374
http://ils.unc.edu/nclibs/davidson/Davidson%20County%20Mining.htm
There is also traces of "flour gold" found in Hemp's Creek in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana
As I said, one of the main uses of pyrites was for firestarter kits or mechanisms as is mentioned in the first paragraph at: http://www.thepirateking.com/historical/wheel_lock.htm. This was the main reason for commerce in this material in the 1500s and NOT as a weapon's ignition source. They are further referenced at:
1. https://books.google.com/books?id=c3nLBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=spring+driven+tinder+lighter&source=bl&ots=1E3d-YvTZw&sig=2SbKsjy_bQuT4A0KnE8akAh2Gt8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiX753MhqDMAhXLdz4KHdSSB8wQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=spring%20driven%20tinder%20lighter&f=false
2. https://www.google.com/search?q=spring+driven+tinder+lighter&biw=1032&bih=515&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiX753MhqDMAhXLdz4KHdSSB8wQsAQIKw
3. http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/2008/06/tinder-lighter.html
And flintlock iterations mentioned at:
Flintlock tinder lighter:
http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/9500-flintlock-tinder-lighter-netsuke-snaphance/
A search of "Flintlock Tinder Lighters will reveal many sites as well as a large page of photos and descriptions, but these are unrelated to the Wheel Lock. Since fore was of major survival importance, much research and development to the improvement over the Roman legionnaires crude "flint-and-steel means were developed and they usually followed the weapons/firearms technologies u until the percussion cap development and adoption. Once more, apologies for the length of the post. Bill
Tobias Kelle says:
Possibly a question for Ian- why are the wheel locks behind one another in this gun, rather than side-by-side?
Seems like a no brainer to us current day people to put them on either side of the gun, rather than to put two on one side and nothing on the other.
Then again that pistol grip doesn´t look very ergonomic either…
Putting the locks on opposite sides of the gun requires more frame parts. As it appears here, having both wheels on the right hand side decreases the complexity of removing the firing mechanism for maintenance… I could be wrong, though.
No, I think you're right. I suspect they were trying to cut down on bulk as well as weight. Later flintlocks were miniaturised sufficiently that one could be let in to either side of the stock, and this became the standard configuration. c1600 was still early days for figuring out how multiple shots might work practically speaking.
Ergonomics are a modern science, and this is an early firearm. Change takes time, and a substantial user base able to feed back to designers. You simply weren't firing a pistol often enough to drive the need for a more 'comfortable' stock design. Straight-line recoil into your cocked wrist was fine for most purposes. Sporting long guns of the period are much more comfortable, though they often feature a cheek stock instead of a shoulder stock, which seems strange to us today.
I'm not so sure about ergonomics being a recent science: check out some of Durs Egg's saw handled dueling pistols for advanced ergonomics. similarly, though at a much later date, some of the schutzen rifle stocks.
the ball end of the handle was possibly there to use as a club, after the two shots had been fired.
Jonathan Ferguson says:
Durs Egg was making much later than this pistol! Of course pistol stock designs had improved by then. My point was that this straight-line grip is an early form designed before makers were really trying to make a good pointing pistol.
As for Ergonomics, as a discipline it didn't exist until the 20th century.
I'm guessing that you are a right hander?
have you ever tried firing a flint or wheel lock that has a lock and pan on the same side of the gun as your face?
Yet flintlock double guns were common later. Also, this being a pistol, you're holding it at arm's length, so it wouldn't be an issue in this case. Ron's comment about holstering is probably the main consideration, but there were others.
Most obviously, this is a horse pistol intended to be carried in a saddle holster. The side next to the saddlebow would need to be as flat as possible to avoid getting caught on something in a draw.
Such pistols made in pairs, for right and left-hand saddle holsters, were often "handed", or mirror-imaged; one with the lock(s) on the right side, the other with the lock(s) on the left. So that the locks would always be on the outer side of each holster.
Elling P says:
The simple reason is that the looks need to be spaned or wound before firing. Thus you want to have the spanner nipples on the same side of the gun.
George E Bush says:
Ian, aren't you going to show us how to take it apart? George
The wheel itself doesn't turn as much as you'd think. It's only a quarter turn to span the lock. The mainsprings however, were (and are!) under immense tension, so not only more sparks generated, but under much greater constant pressure than a falling cock. Hence more reliable as the sources confirm. Modern replicas have much weaker springs, among other failings.
I hate to say it, but the proper forging and tensioning of V-type springs is almost a lost art today.
If you don't believe me, try getting a properly-made replacement V-spring for a LeFever or Greener double shotgun, sometime.
Good luck on that one.
Rook says:
Dear Ian,
I've just seen the Armoury in Turin, Italy and if you'd ever had the oppotrunity to go there, I most highly recomend. Far more fancy and insane flint locks, wheel locks, percusion and pinfire guns are there including (but not limited to) gun-swords. Also huge collection of melee weapons and armour. I have some photos, but most pieces are in glass cases so there are a lot of glares.
The wheelock was the first "firelock" or self igniting mechanism to be widely adopted. As such it had a huge impact, notatbly by making pistols a viable weapon. Within a few decades of their introduction in the 1530s, these had surplanted heavy lance cavalry in western europe.
It also made Firearms practical for hunting for the first time, and there are quite a lot of very ornate wheelock rifles dating to the mid-1500s.
The main weakness of the wheelock is cost and complexity. The mechanism is for all intents and purposes a piece of clockwork, and if a piece breaks it would have to be repaired by a Specialist, a service unavaliable outside major cities. Kind of having to return your gun to the factory every time a part needs to be changed.
Thus they where reserved for the most wealthy hunters and heavy cavalry.
When the snaplocks where introduced in the 1590, it meant another huge step; A snaplock can be made and maintained by a village blacksmith, and within a decade or two Firearms where pretty much universal for as hunting weapons. Some of these early Craft made rifles saw use for nearly 300 years, with a upgrade to the lock every century or so…
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text:
At Least 12 Dead After Colorado Gunman Opens Fire at 'Dark Knight Rises'
Police identify heavily armed suspect James Holmes, 24
By Alison Schwartz
and Stephen M. Silverman
Published on July 20, 2012 07:25 AM
Photo: EPA/Landov
At least 12 fans attending a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises Friday morning were killed when a gunman opened fire on the audience in Aurora, Colo., a suburb of Denver.
Another estimated 50 were wounded, including a 6-year-old girl, Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters, CNN reports.
Police apprehended 24-year-old suspect James Holmes – a local resident who was said to be heavily armed and wearing a bulletproof vest – in a rear parking lot of the Century 16 Theater in Aurora's Town Center Mall, police spokesman Frank Fania told CNN. "He did not resist. He did not put up a fight," Fania said.
Holmes remains in custody. His home is currently being searched for possible explosive materials or devices.
Dark Knight Shooting Victim Was 'Amazingly Enthusiastic' About Life
Holmes's mother, who lives in San Diego, confirmed to ABC News that her son was the shooter, saying, "You have the right person." According to ABC News, she was unaware of the shooting until she woke up and had not been contacted by authorities. She also expressed her concern, and told ABC, "I need to fly out to Colorado."
The attack in the theater began when the suspect tossed a canister of tear gas into the crowd through an emergency exit door, reports CNN affiliate KUSA. He then opened fire. Some moviegoers thought he was part of the show.
"We saw people running around and screaming," an unidentified man told KUSA. Another moviegoer said the gunman wore a gas mask and moved through the theater, firing randomly.
Of the wounded, at least 20 were being treated at the University of Colorado Hospital for minor to critical gunshot wounds, spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery told CNN.
Blog Describes Colorado Shooting Victim's Final Moments
At the moment, the Dark Knight Rises cast – including Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman and Marion Cotillard – is in Paris for a scheduled red carpet premiere on the Champs-Elysees Friday night. PEOPLE has been told that Warner Bros. has canceled all interviews related to the movie opening, as well as the premiere itself.
In a statement, the studio said: "Warner Bros. is deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time."
• Additional reporting by PETER MIKELBANK
At Least 15 Dead After Mass Shooting at a Bar in South Africa
New York Governor Kathy Hochul Rides the Subway to Reassure New Yorkers After Brooklyn Attack
James Holmes Called Himself 'The Joker' after Batman Movie Massacre
Jury Selection Begins in Trial of Aurora Theater Shooter James Holmes
'Dark Knight' Cast Heads Home to U.S. After Shooting, Canceled Premiere
'The Dark Knight Rises' : Will You See Still the Movie In Light of Tragic Shooting?
James Holmes, Aurora, Colorado, Shooting Suspect, Appears in Court
Remembering the 7 West Texas Mass Shooting Victims, 2 Years Later
Remembering the 14 Victims of the San Bernardino Mass Shooting 7 Years Later
'Dark Knight Rises' Shooting Victim Jessica Ghawi Remembered for Enthusiasm, Sense of Humor
Aurora Gunman Had Planned Elaborate and Deadly Booby Trap: Witness
Jessica Ghawi's Brother Blogs Her Chilling Final Moments
Survivors Testify in Aurora Theater Shooting Trial: 'I Told Him I Would Take Care of Our Baby If He Didn't Make It'
Tragedy in Aurora: Heartbreak & Heroism
PEOPLE Picks the Best New Books of the Week
Aurora Theater Shooting: Juror Dismissed in James Holmes Trial After Tearing Her Hair Out

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The Bank of America Plaza dominates Dallas's skyline and is visible for miles, especially at night. Known by many as the "Emerald City" because of its vibrant green accent lights, it is a landmark for the Central Business District. As the city's tallest building at 72 stories, the tower is an iconic structure and serves as a gateway to the various districts of downtown Dallas.
ESA was invited to participate in an eight-week competition to masterplan and reinvigorate the property and surrounding blocks. Components included a new tower lobby, plaza, observatory, lower level concourse, parking structures, and future hotel.


text:
Q: generate multi-dimentional JSON array from PHP/MySQL I want to create a JSON object that looks like the example below.

{
    "Products": [
        {
            "ProductNo": "11111",
            "Descr": "Myproduct-1",
            "Price": "225.36"
        },
        {
            "ProductNo": "11112",
            "Descr": "Myproduct-2",
            "Price": "235.46"
        },
        {
            "ProductNo": "11113",
            "Descr": "Myproduct-3",
            "Price": "245.56"
        },
        {
            "ProductNo": "11114",
            "Descr": "Myproduct-4",
            "Price": "255.56"
        }
    ],
    "DateUpdated" : "20091209",
    "UpdatUser" : "Bob"
}

The first part can be generated from a MySQL database using mysql_fetch_assoc and array_push:
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
  array_push($returnArray,  $row);
}

The second part is to be appended at the end of the program in program.
I am having trouble manipulating arrays in PHP to do what I want...

A: Try:
$array = array (
    'Products' => array (),
    'DateUpdated' => '20091209',
    'UpdateUser' => 'Bob',
);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
    $array['Products'][] = $row;

$json = json_encode($array);

A: This should do the trick
$productArray = array();
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
  array_push($productArray,  $row);
}

$returnArray['Products'] = $productArray;
$returnArray['DateUpdated'] = $dateUpdated; // 20091209 in your example
$returnArray['UpdatUser'] = $updatUser; // Bob in your example

$jsonEncoded = json_encode($returnArray);

More on json_encode and arrays

A: $returnArray['DateUpdated'] = '20091209';
$returnArray['UpdatUser'] = 'Bob';

And then json_encode the return array, and you should be set.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Dentures are also known as 'false teeth', and may be needed in a range of circumstances. Sometimes the original tooth or teeth have been damaged in an accident or as a result of injury (trauma), and in other cases the teeth may have been lost due to tooth decay or periodontal disease. Tooth defects can also be caused by other factors, such as severe malnutrition, or drug use and some genetic disorders.
Dentures are often fitted for cosmetic reasons, but they also play an important role in allowing food to be chewed and digested properly and in helping with speech. Leaving gaps in the gum when teeth fall out or are extracted can also cause longer term problems, as remaining teeth often shift into uneven and sometimes crooked positions.
A full denture set completely replaces all of your own teeth. It can be simply an upper set, or a lower set, or both. A full denture also helps to retain the shape of the face, giving fuller cheeks and lips and a resulting healthier appearance.
Where only one or a few teeth are missing, a partial denture can be attached to existing natural teeth with clasps. This not only improves appearance but helps with chewing and digesting food. Partial dentures can be made of different types of material - acrylic, chrome or metal or a flexible material called Valplast.
See our section on implants.
At Caboolture Dental Group we can help you with new dentures as well as repairs to existing dentures. We have a dental laboratory onsite and we have access to our part-time in-house and local dental technicians.


You know those demonstrators at grocery stores and beauty/fragrance sections in department stores who appear pained to be there? Completely disengaged from their duties?
If they aren't excited, how can potential customers expect to be? Simply put: they can't.
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We don't simply flood stores and markets with people peddling your products. Far from it. We match the right demonstration specialists in the right stores within the right markets for the right impact.
We pride ourselves on our adaptability and our keen obsession of constantly improving. We judge the success of each demonstration, store by store, to ensure KPIs are met. Our voluminous catalog of specialists means that we will have someone highly trained for your brand and product readily available for energized, engaged demonstrations with each and every interaction.
When the process is over, we report crucial sales numbers and other important take-aways so we can continually refine our approach for measurable, incremental success.
Whether it's part of an overarching campaign initiative or a matter of simple brand exposure, Premium will demonstrate unparalleled product demo results.


Our tutors push your children to succeed. Let's celebrate their achievements!
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James Foster
James Foster was born and raised on the west coast and, even though he's lived in the Midwest for over a decade now, still considers Oregon home. Nominated for three Voice Arts Awards in 2015 for best audiobook narration in the science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery categories, he has been praised for his conversational delivery and ability to sound exactly like the voice you were imagining in your head.
By Andrew Vachss
Read by James Foster
A Cross Novel
Cross and his urban mercenaries are receiving cryptic messages. Are they being warned-or hunted?
English, Unabridged
By Marcus Aurelius
This collection of writings by Marcus Aurelius focuses on his personal views of stoic philosophy.
For Your Consideration: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
By Tres Dean
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the awesomeness of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.


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Q: convergence of an integral with logarithm for which values of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ the integral
$\int_2^\infty \frac{dx}{x^\alpha ln^\beta x}$
 converge?
I'm try to do the following integral
$\int_2^n \frac{dx}{x^\alpha ln^\beta x}$
for then calculate the limite when n tends to infinity, but I'm stuck.

A: Hints: The only problem for the integral is at $\infty.$ Take $\beta = 0$ at first. You should get convergence iff $\alpha > 1.$ Now toss in $\beta$ and see if you can show that for $\alpha > 1,$ no power of $\ln x$ can hurt this convergence, and for  $\alpha < 1$ no power of $\ln x$ can change divergence. For $\alpha =1,$ interesting things happen, because $(\ln x)' = 1/x.$

A: By comparison we start with
$$\frac{1}{x^{\alpha}\ln^{\beta}(x)} \leq \frac{1}{x^{\alpha}}$$
Now you know that
$$\sum_{k = 0}^{+\infty} \frac{1}{x^k}$$
Does converge iff $k \geq 2$ hence by comparison your first condition is
$$\alpha \geq 2$$
For the remaining part, we can also compare your integral with the sum
$$\sum_{n = 2}^{+\infty} \frac{1}{n^{\alpha}\ln^{\beta}(n)}$$
Which is convergent for $\beta > 1$.
Indeed for $\beta > 1$ we have
$$\int_2^{+\infty} \frac{\text{d}x}{x\ln^{\beta}(x)} = \frac{1}{1 - \beta}\ln^{1-\beta}(x)\bigg|_2^{+\infty} < \infty$$
Whilst for $\beta \leq 1$ you can check it does diverge.
The same things holds for the general case $x^{\alpha}$ for $\alpha \geq 2$.

A: Case 1. For $\alpha > 1$ and all $\beta \in \mathbb R$, you have
$$\lim\limits_{x \to \infty} \frac{1}{x^{\frac{\alpha-1}{2}} \ln^\beta x} = 0$$ hence for $x > 2$ large enough
$$0 \le \frac{1}{x^{\frac{\alpha-1}{2}} \ln^\beta x} \le 1$$ hence
$$0 \le \frac{1}{x^\alpha \ln^\beta x} \le \frac{1}{x^{1+\frac{\alpha-1}{2}}}$$
As $1+\frac{\alpha-1}{2} > 1$, and $\displaystyle \int_2^\infty \frac{dx}{x^{1+\frac{\alpha-1}{2}}}$ converges, $\displaystyle \int_2^\infty \frac{dx}{x^\alpha \ln^\beta x}$ also converges for $\alpha > 1$.
Case 2. For $\alpha <1$, you have
$$\frac{1}{x^\alpha \ln^\beta x} \ge \frac{1}{x} \ge 0$$ for $x$ large enough. As $\displaystyle \int_2^\infty \frac{dx}{x}$ diverges, therefore $\displaystyle \int_2^\infty \frac{dx}{x^\alpha \ln^\beta x}$ also diverges in that case.
Case 3. $\alpha = 1$ has been already covered by Alan Turing, his doppleganger more precisely. The integral converges for $\beta >1$ and diverges otherwise.


Do you own farmland? Looking for farmland? Looking to better understand how to manage your land to improve it for future generations? We have resources for you.
Our farmland owner and owner-operator members are concerned with better understanding how to leave the land in better shape than they found it. They want to know how to manage their land to improve soil health, protect water quality, provide wildlife habitat and make sure a plan is in place for the next generation. As with all our programming, our farmland programming help our members share information to learn how to better manage farmland – the basic building block of resilient farms and communities.
Practical Farmers' habitat program brings our farmer-led approach to in-field and edge-of-field conservation practices.
Learn more about Practical Farmers' work to help farmers share resources and stories to help transition family farms to the next generation.


Lucy Ashford, an English Studies lecturer, has always loved literature and history, and from childhood one of her favourite occupations has been to immerse herself in historical romances. She studied English with history at Nottingham University, and the Regency is her favourite period. Lucy has written several historical novels, but this is her first Mills and Boon.
She lives with her husband in an old stone cottage in the Peak District, near to beautiful Chatsworth House and Haddon hall, all of which gave her a taste of the magic of life in a bygone age.
Her garden enjoys spectacular views over the Derbyshire hills, where she loves to roam and let her imagination go to work on her latest story.


The collection of about 900 rattles and the collection of related objects from all times and cultures has been registered and photographed to a large extent. The partly present data from the old inventory cards by Mr. Keijser are processed, updated and supplemented with new data.
The site was commissioned by the Keijser Foundation by Moving Target under the guidance of Bart Overes.
The technical realization is provided by Harco Faber.
The photographs were taken by photographer Peter Lange, who combines his work as collection manager and registrar in the Jewish Historical Museum with photography assignments for private collections.
The content of the site is provided by Mirjam Knotter, art historian and curator in the Amsterdam Jewish Cultural Quarter, and specialist in the field of Jewish ceremonial heritage. In addition, she conducts art historical research and documentation for private collections.
The inventory of the Keijser collection came about with the assistance of cultural scientist Demelza van der Maas. Since 2016 she has been working as collection manager of the Heineken collection.


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ATCO to build Alberta's first hydrogen-blending project
July 22, 2020 | By Mary Bailey
Canadian Utilities, an ATCO company, announced it has been awarded $2.8 million in funding from Emission Reductions Alberta's (ERA) Natural Gas Challenge to advance a first-of-its-kind hydrogen blending project in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. Once complete, the project will be Canada's largest hydrogen blending project, injecting up to five per cent hydrogen by volume into a section of Fort Saskatchewan's residential natural gas distribution network, lowering the carbon intensity of the natural gas stream for its customers.
"Affordably decarbonizing the production of heat is vital to achieve our long-term emissions and energy goals, particularly in our cold Canadian climate, and hydrogen can play a powerful role," said Siegfried Kiefer, President & Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Utilities. "This project is an important first step for Alberta, which has all the ingredients needed to be a leader in the hydrogen economy—including the ability to produce near zero-emissions hydrogen at a lower cost than virtually any other jurisdiction in the world."
Canadian Utilities' project will use hydrogen derived from domestically-produced natural gas, with the intent to eventually leverage Alberta's existing carbon capture and sequestration infrastructure to store emissions associated with the production process. Engaging with customers and the community of Fort Saskatchewan will be integral to the project. Canadian Utilities will work diligently to create awareness about the safety of hydrogen, environmental benefits and the considerable economic potential.
Globally, many organizations are developing sustainability and energy initiatives centered around hydrogen, including projects in Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Austria, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Germany, Chile, Spain, China and Japan.
"This project will not only create jobs, but a roadmap for hydrogen in Alberta, using low-cost, responsibly produced natural gas while leveraging the province's existing investment in carbon capture technology," said George Lidgett, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Utilities, Canadian Utilities. "Our vision is to enable Western Canada's world-class natural gas industry to grow in tandem with Alberta's hydrogen economy, including supplying eventual exports to global markets where demand is steadily growing."
The Fort Saskatchewan Blending Project is expected to get underway in September with commercial and community activities. Construction is planned to commence begin the first quarter of 2021.
"The City is pleased to be the site of this proposed hydrogen blending project," said Fort Saskatchewan Mayor Gale Katchur. "This project demonstrates Fort Saskatchewan's commitment to sustainability and reducing emissions, while supporting our local economy. We look forward to working with ATCO."
This isn't ATCO's first foray into the production, distribution and use of hydrogen. Last year, ATCO officially opened its world-class Clean Energy Innovation Hub in Western Australia. The industry-leading facility is a test bed for hybrid energy solutions and integrates natural gas, solar PV, battery storage and clean hydrogen production. In addition, ATCO is working with Fortescue Metals Group in Australia to explore hydrogen vehicle fuelling infrastructure in Western Australia and has recently been awarded funding by the government of Western Australia to conduct a feasibility study into the development of a commercial scale hydrogen production plant.


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RDBN launches study on outdoor recreation
Blair McBride
Nov. 6, 2019 1:30 a.m.
Outdoor recreation is one of the top highlights of the Burns Lake region for both residents and visitors.
The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN) has launched a study to assess how the public views opportunities for outdoor recreation and park services.
The RDBN itself doesn't manage any parks or outdoor recreation activities and existing services are provided by volunteer-societies, Recreation Sites & Trails BC and BC Parks.
The study is a response to the challenges faced by volunteer groups in relation to maintenance of existing parks, trails, campsites, boat ramps, and other outdoor amenities.
"The project represents a start of a conversation (feasibility stage) on the role the RDBN could play in efficient and effective parks and outdoor recreation service delivery," according to a news release on Oct. 28.
The initiative aims to answer three main questions:
What type of parks and outdoor recreation areas do RDBN residents value and want to see improved?
What is working well for existing volunteer recreation clubs and what are their challenges?
What could a parks and outdoor recreation service in the RDBN look like? What would it cost?
"The Regional District Board looks forward to understanding the demand for recreation services in the rural area, and how services can be better supported, improved and funded in the most efficient and effective manner possible," said RDBN chair Gerry Thiessen.
The main findings from the survey and interviews with volunteer recreation groups will be shared at public open house sessions in late January and early February 2020.
The feedback received will also be compiled into what will eventually be a proposed service delivery model that will be presented to the RDBN board of directors as a recommendation for adoption.
The survey will be open until Nov. 18 and can be accessed here.
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For questions, please contact Kevin Belt, Ph.D. Program Coordinator at gradinfo@psych.wisc.edu or (608)262-2079 Consideration for admission to our department is highly competitive. We receive approximately 425 applications each year and admit, on average, 25 to our program. Applicant and Admissions Statistics provides information about students admitted into our graduate program in four different years. Applicants are selected for admission into our program by an individual faculty member or by an area group (i.e. a group of faculty members associated with a major area of concentration) and not by the department as a whole, nor by an admissions committee. Because these programs tend to be small, they may not admit students in a particular year. Applicants interested in a particular program or working with a particular faculty member may check the Unavailable Faculty page or individual faculty to determine if admissions are likely for that year. Each faculty member and area group gives preference to applicants who have a high potential for success in graduate school and who also share research interests with the prospective faculty sponsor. You should consider carefully the description of our faculty research interests, read several of their publications and consult with faculty and advisors at your undergraduate institution before applying to our program. Whereas most of our applicants have majored in psychology, we give full consideration to applicants with undergraduate majors in other relevant areas. Given our commitment to students, we take seriously our responsibility when admitting an applicant. We consider every piece of information carefully. Students are selected on the basis of their record of academic achievement, GRE scores, letters of recommendation, evidence of motivation to do research, as well as fit between faculty and student research interests. Applicant and Admissions Statistics for Psychology Graduate Program, 2006-2016: http://www.grad.wisc.edu/education/academicprograms/profiles/832.pdf Graduate School Admission Requirements
A minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) on the equivalent of the last 60 semester hours (approximately two years of work). International applicants must have a strong academic performance comparable to a "B" or above average grades. We use your institution's grading scale; we do not convert your grades to a four point scale.
A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution, or a comparable degree from an international institution. For specific information on your country refer to the Graduate School Admission Requirements webpage.
Every applicant whose native language is not English, or whose undergraduate instruction was not in English, must provide an English proficiency test score. For more specific information about English proficiency, refer to the Graduate School Admission Requirements webpage.
International applicants are required to have adequate financial resources to cover their expenses for the duration of their studies at UW-Madison.
Although individual faculty members and area groups decide who will be admitted, the Psychology Department sets certain minimum standards that must be met by those admitted to our graduate program. It is extremely rare for the Department of Psychology to offer admission to those who do not meet our minimum standards for application. However, if you fall below the minimum standards set by the department you may still be admitted where there is clear justification, such as students who are below the minimum requirement in one respect but well above it in other respects. The Department of Psychology's minimum requirements are as follows
An undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher on a four point scale
A GRE (General Test of the Graduate Record Examination) score of 310 when verbal and quantitative scores are combined
A TOEFL score of 550 (paper-based) and 213 (computer-based) for students whose native language is not English
Unavailable Faculty Faculty that will not consider applications for fall of 2020:
Lyn Abramson
Joe Austerweil
Richie Davidson
Hill Goldsmith
Janet Hyde
Maryellen MacDonald
David Plante
Brad Postle


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Horror Movies That Ignored Their Previous Films
by Lallen | Sep 4, 2020
Even if you have a have a mega franchise in your hands, it does not guarantee you that every film is going to be a winner. In fact, some studios produce films of such awful quality that they have no choice but to retcon it later. The following films decided to wipe the slate clean by removing previous entries from it's history in the hope of saving it's own series. Here are Horror Movies That Ignored Their Previous Films.
Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)
It's astounding to realise that Alfred Hitchcock's most beloved film, the psychological thriller Psycho, has spawned such a large franchise, with sequels, reboots and even a TV show proving that this tale about a man with mummy issues still holds interest within the genre. Yep, Psycho has managed to be one of the oldest franchises, with 2017 seeing Bates Motel wrap it's 5 series run. But one of these films decide to ignore its own history.
In 1990 director Mick Garris made the very last live action film in the original series, with Anthony Perkins once again stepping into the shoes of psychotic Norman Bates, with a made-for-television film. The fourth offering continued Norman's story, however fans were left a little confused. The last we saw of Norman in 1986's Psycho III, he had reverted back to his killer ways, thanks to the corpse of his "real" mother, who showed up at the close of Psycho II. At the end of the third film, Norman was being dragged back to the mental institute, with little to no chance of getting out ever again.
Fast forward to Psycho IV, and Norman is free, living in a lovely home and with a wife. How did this happen? Screenwriter Joseph Stefano apparently hated the first two Psycho sequels, feeling that they were too commercial and more like slasher films than thrillers. So, he just cut them out, making Psycho IV a prequel and sequel to the 1960's original only. Stefano stated, "Gearing up for Psycho IV, I decided to ignore the two sequels – like the business in II about Norman's mother". And so it was that Psycho IV stuck two fingers up at the franchise and just did it's own thing.
A Nightmare On Elm St III: The Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare On Elm St III: The Dream Warriors is widely viewed as one of the best NEOS films ever made, but what you may not have noticed is how it completely ignores the film in-between. Following the success of the original Freddy film, New Line hurriedly made 1985's Freddy's Revenge, leaving creator Wes Craven out in the cold. Revenge was a very different kettle of fish, with the whole dream master story dropped for an exorcist styled possession film. It seemed that they had lost a little of the old dream magic.
So when a third film was planned, New Line Cinema seduced Craven back into the fold with a bit of cheese and a large fat check. His script was touched up by Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell, but the basic Craven flavour was there. It saw Heather Langenkamp return as Nancy whilst Freddy terrorizes the dreams of a bunch young inmates in a psychiatric hospital. But one thing that was never mentioned was the events of Freddy's Revenge. In fact, The Dream Warriors completely omits Freddy's Revenge from its history.
Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994)
Let's just hit the Elephant in the room. I watched Highlander on the Horror Channel once..so yes it's on our list! It's also one of the better examples of films that have ignored sequels, and it just had to be here.
The Highlander series follows Connor MacLeod, a man born in the highlands of Scotland, but is cursed with immortality. Over the many years, MacLeod encounters many other immortals and finds himself taking part in a tournament of sorts which is the focus of the 1986 movie. The film ends with MacLeod winning the tournament and claiming the prize, which turns out to be mortality.
Highlander II: The Quickening manged to be all that is wrong with sequels. The film features a prequel sequence that contradicts the first film and a future sequence where the worlds ozone has disappeared. The film generally ignores everything that was entertaining about the 1986 original. Instead of continuing the story in a logical and respectful manner, it resurrected dead characters, turned the supernatural immortals into aliens, and created some sort of weird sci-fi nonsense to explain why MacLeod is suddenly immortal again. It really was not the film fans wanted.
It seemed that everyone from the producers to star Christopher Lambert hated the second film, so much so that the third outing outright, Highlander III: The Sorcerer, ignores and even contradicts the events of Highlander II, effectively erasing it from canon. The ozone is intact, Brenda does not die of radiation poisoning (Nope, she dies of a car crash instead. Poor Brenda!) and Conner is not an alien! HAzzar!!
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
The Evil Dead has always had the strangest history when it comes to continuity. The 1981 original was itself a remake of a short film produced by Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell, called Within the Woods. This cheaply made horror acted like a proof of concept and helped to raise the funds for The Evil Dead. However, when it came to making a sequel to The Evil Dead, things were weren't as clear cut.
Evil Dead 2 was intended as a direct sequel, and there are beats that perfectly line up. However, there are some major differences that turn the sequel, into a mini reboot. Ash's friends from the first movie are absent, the movie instead recaps Ash and Linda arriving at the cabin alone, and the Necronomicon remains intact, despite Ash destroying it in a fire at the conclusion of The Evil Dead.
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn compressed the original film into the first 15 minutes of it's sequel, and by doing so turned it into a film with a very different story. Ash is no longer a survivor, he's a buffoon, but a loveable one in any timeline.
The Exorcist III (1990)
Following Young Regan MacNeil and her infamous possession, The Exorcist has been heralded as one of the most scariest films ever made. Sadly, The same can't be said for it's 1977 sequel. Where William Friedkin's horror classic was dripping with fear, John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic is completely devoid of this important ingredient. Whilst it might be fun to watch Linda Blair tap dancing, Richard Burton chewing on the scenery and James Earl Jones wearing a series of ever more elaborate hats, the film is as about as far removed from the original as you can get.
When the The Exorcist III was released in 1990, it already had a huge advantage over it's forbear, as it was directed by William Peter Blatty and based on his 1983 sequel novel called Legion. The third film was a fine return to form, with characters, themes and storylines. And it did this by ignoring all nonsense that cropped up in the second film. Regan MacNeil was only briefly referenced and the entire film focused it's attention elsewhere, rather than trying to go over already well-trod ground.
The Jaws franchise was milked dry with it's never ending sequels that spawned from Stephen Spielberg's 1975 original. But it seems that even killer sharks need to wipe the slate clean, when one of it's films decided to turn it's back on the previous films.
Released in 1983, the fad driven sequel Jaws 3-D saw its titular shark attack the Florida branch of SeaWorld, in a terrible effects laden film. The gimmicky stereoscopy did nothing to cover up some terrible special effects, including some very dubious miniature effects. But as terrible as it was, it pales in comparison to the next offering, Jaws: The Revenge, which returns to Amity Island for yet another deadly shark attack.
The laughable story for Revenge, sees a shark target the Brody family for revenge of the very first Jaws' death. The film, however, has quite a few differences that contradict Jaws 3-D. One of the biggest is protagonist Mike Brody (played by Dennis Quaid) who is leading a very different life from what we saw in the third film. This was not a mistake, Universal went out of their way to distance themselves from Jaws 3-D, even describing citing Jaws: The Revenge as the third film in a trilogy.
Yep, the studio Jaws 3-D so much, they just completely ignored it. They have warmed to it over the years, as DVD's and box sets saw the fourth film marketed by Universal as Jaws 4: The Revenge. But watch these back to back, and they wont really make much sense.
Halloween H20 (1998) & Halloween (2018)
When you have such a long running series of films, sometimes, the only way forward is to go back. Whilst A Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Child's Play have all tried to reignite the horror with a reboot of their own series, Halloween went a different route… twice!
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later was a 1998 sequel that decide to change the pace of the Halloween franchise. Rather than continuing on the story of Michael Myers and the man in black, the film decided to cut out all the nonsense, and declared itself a direct sequel to the original 1978 slasher.
Contradicting the story that rolled out from Halloween 2 onwards, all the character, situations and victims were wiped off the board. But sadly, the series fell of the rails after H20, with a sequel and a remake failing to make much of an impression on fans. With the series stalling… there was only one thing to do, try again!
In October 2018, a new Halloween film hit cinemas. Called simply Halloween, the series performed it's second surgery on the film series, cutting out everything apart from its original once again. However, unlike H20, Halloween hit all the right notes and has managed to conjure up two sequels with Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends planned for 2021 and 2022. Yes, it looks like Michael Myers is going to be around for a few more years, even if his timeline is beginning to look like an episode of sliders.
10 Best Lord of the Rings Parodies
by Lallen | Jan 6, 2021
Come with us, Precious, on a journey into Middle Earth and some of it's very best alternate content.
Authentic Bulgarian Miak and 10 other fictional foods from film and TV
by Lallen | Dec 18, 2020
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Ten tips on how to make your christmas table a little more THRILLING for xmas.
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"Hello Horror Fans – If I only they could do this trick with the two Matrix sequels, all would be right in the world. What did you think of our list. Did we miss something. Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page.
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New Music Friday with IceBeatChillz!!!
ON: January 13, 2023 BY: Ed Solorzano OBSESSIONS
It's New Music Friday and we are happy to bring all eyes and ears to IceBeatChillz! If you haven't heard him yet, IceBeatChillz is a rising Nigerian music artist and producer whose newest music video was released today for his most recent song "Superwoman"!
Superwoman is the is the lead single for his upcoming EP produced by Crystal Clear Studios and directed by TundeCutz (Motunde Yahya). The video fits the sound of the song perfectly! IceBeatChillz creates music of from many genres, however, focuses on Afro-Fusion and Afro-Pop and we predict it will be hearing a lot from him in 2023. In addition to his music production skills IceBeatChillz is also an instrumentalist, playing more than 6 instruments including the piano.
Who is IceBeatChillz?
Born Emana Saintly, IceBeatChillz grew up in the small state of Akwa Ibom, Nigeria. After a shoulder injury from his original passion of soccer, IceBeatChillz decided to fully focus on developing a career as a music producer. He decided to travel to the city of Lagos, where he by chance found himself in a meeting with the CEO of List Entertainment, a management agency in Africa. Following this encounter, IceBeatChillz was chosen to become one of the agency's producers, helping him connect and meet with people from across the world. He remained behind the scenes producing Afro-Beats for new acts, and continuing to work hard, which let to him being signed by Crystal Clear Records in 2021.
His debut single featuring Beenie Man titled "Area", which was released in September 2020 climbed both the UK Music Week's Black Music Charts and Pop Charts at #7 and #10 for 9 weeks. He then self-produced his sophomore single "Bad and Naughty" featuring Terri was picked up by various playlist editors including VEVO and TIDAL. IceBeatChillz continues to produce music in his own way, yet with a continued impact on the new era of global music.
Be on the lookout for more new music and videos from IceBeatChillz, especially with his newest EP "Love is King" on the way. You can stream IceBeatChillz on all streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.
By: Talia Shapero
PREV A Brighter Future! BMW Vision Dee
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Home Commercial Skillet Diner, Copperworks Distilling, and Amazon Among New Tenants in Seattle's Waterfront...
Skillet Diner, Copperworks Distilling, and Amazon Among New Tenants in Seattle's Waterfront Park District
Seattle, Wash. (May 31, 2022) – New leases surrounding Seattle's waterfront show signs of a resilient retail market downtown. Kidder Mathews Vice President Jason Miller represented Equity Residential, owner of the Harbor Steps, in half a dozen new leases at the property. The four-building lifestyle center is located at 1221 First Avenue and comprises 758 apartment units, 55,000 square feet of retail space, and 35,000 square feet of office space.
New retail leases at Harbor Steps include:
Skillet Diner, signed this month, opening later this year
Amazon Store, opening to be announced
Mason's Lobster Rolls (the first one in Washington State), opening soon
Cassina, opening soon
Linge Roset (relocated within the property), open now
Taqueria Cantina, opened in 2021
Miller also represented Copperworks Distilling in signing a lease earlier this month to open a new 6,000-square-foot tasting room and cocktail bar expansion across the street from Harbor Steps at 51 University Avenue. The building is owned by Unico Properties.
Another notable tenant at Harbor Steps is Starbucks, which remodeled its location last year to become one of the company's first "Pickup Stores" in the country. The property's close proximity to Pike Place Market, Seattle's Central Business District, and the West Edge neighborhood give it a great mix of tourist, residential, and office populations that drive retail and restaurant sales year-round.
"Places in and around Harbor Steps are outperforming the rest of the downtown market because of the diversity of the population," said Miller. "It doesn't strictly rely on workers coming to the office or locals frequenting their favorite shops and restaurants. It's a mix that's largely focused on heavy foot traffic driven by tourism."
Other new leases near the water include Pendleton Woolen, which is returning to downtown with a location at Pine Street and Second Avenue July 1 after closing its Fourth Avenue store during the pandemic. The former Macy's building is also expecting new tenants, with Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo filing plans to fill approximately 13,5000 square feet on the first floor.
The Harbor Steps sit at the "50-yard line" from Elliott Bay, where construction continues on Waterfront Seattle, a $756-million park promenade along the water. The inaugural piece of the project, Waterfront Park at Pier 62, opened in 2020. According to Waterfront Seattle's website, construction has been delayed from its original projection of 2024 to 2025 due to a lack of concrete delivery availability as a result of a concrete strike in King County.
"We have front row seats to witness the waterfront develop its visionary transformation into a world-class tourist destination," said Copperworks Co-founder and President Jason Parker. "We couldn't be more fortunate to partner with Unico to expand our distillery's customer experience in this historic landmark building in the center of it all."
"Skillet is thrilled to be joining the thriving scene at Harbor Steps," said Crellin Pauling, Skillet Group President. "There is much excitement around the downtown waterfront projects, and Harbor Steps being the primary connection between the pier and the iconic Pike Place Market feels like the natural center of the universe. Skillet will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner at this exceptional location to our beloved Seattleites and tourists of this beautiful city Skillet calls home."
About Kidder Mathews
Kidder Mathews is the largest independent commercial real estate firm on the West Coast, with 900 real estate professionals and staff in 21 offices in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona. Kidder Mathews offers a complete range of brokerage, appraisal, asset services, consulting, project and construction management, and debt & equity finance services for all property types. The firm performs $10.9 billion in transactions, manages 62 million square feet of space, and conducts over 2,600 appraisals annually.
1st Avenue
Equity Residential
Harbor Steps
Kidder Mathews
Unico Properties


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Home»E-Learning»Public financial management
Andrew Lawson
PFM: Why does it matter and how best to improve it?
What is Public Financial Management (PFM)?
PFM refers to the set of laws, rules, systems and processes used by sovereign nations (and sub-national governments), to mobilise revenue, allocate public funds, undertake public spending, account for funds and audit results. It encompasses a broader set of functions than financial management and is commonly conceived as a cycle of six phases, beginning with policy design and ending with external audit and evaluation (Figure 1). A large number of actors engage in this "PFM cycle" to ensure it operates effectively and transparently, whilst preserving accountability.
Figure 1: The PFM cycle and the key actors involved
Why is PFM important?
A strong PFM system is an essential aspect of the institutional framework for an effective state.
Effective delivery of public services is closely associated with poverty reduction and growth, and countries with strong, transparent, accountable PFM systems tend to deliver services more effectively and equitably and regulate markets more efficiently and fairly. In this sense, good PFM is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for most development outcomes.
A key element of statehood is the ability to tax fairly and efficiently and to spend responsibly. These are fundamental characteristics of 'inclusive' state institutions, which generate trust, promote innovative energies and allow societies to flourish. (See Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012, 'Why Nations Fail' and Dani Rodrik, 2003, 'In Search of Prosperity'.)
Improving the effectiveness of a PFM system may generate widespread and long-lasting benefits, and may in turn help to reinforce wider societal shifts towards inclusive institutions, and thus towards stronger states, reduced poverty, greater gender equality and balanced growth. Even where donor staff do not seek to strengthen PFM systems, they need to understand them because they will often work through them, by providing budget support or climate finance, or with them, by providing project-financed interventions, which are then staffed and maintained through the national budget. In short, PFM matters, and all donor staff need a basic knowledge of PFM.
What are the objectives of the PFM system?
To assess a PFM system, we first need to define its end objectives – the final outcomes, by which performance can be measured. It is generally accepted that a PFM system should achieve three objectives, to which we here add a fourth, namely the promotion of accountability and transparency, which is increasingly seen as an objective in itself, because of its close relationship to the notion of inclusive institutions:
The maintenance of aggregate fiscal discipline is the first objective of a PFM system: it should ensure that aggregate levels of tax collection and public spending are consistent with targets for the fiscal deficit, and do not generate unsustainable levels of public borrowing
Secondly, a PFM system should ensure that public resources are allocated to agreed strategic priorities, in other words that allocative efficiency is achieved
Thirdly, the PFM system should ensure that operational efficiency is achieved, in the sense of achieving maximum value for money in the delivery of services
Finally, the PFM system should follow due process and should be seen to do so, by being transparent, with information publicly accessible, and by applying democratic checks and balances to ensure accountability.
How do we know whether a PFM system is performing adequately or not?
Ideally, one would assess the PFM system simply by measuring performance against these four objectives. To a degree, this is possible. The achievement of fiscal discipline is straightforward to measure at an international level, and the Open Budget Index (OBI) provides a reasonable proxy for transparency. However, to measure allocative and operational efficiency requires special studies. Some OECD countries and more advanced middle income countries (such as South Africa) undertake these regularly through programme evaluations or value for money audits. Some Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) also address these issues but, in general, such studies are not common in developing countries and their structure rarely allows for easy international comparison.
In practice, the assessment of PFM systems focuses one level down from final outcomes – that is on the examination of the institutions, rules and procedures most likely to ensure the achievement of the key objectives of the PFM system. This approach was pioneered in the 1930s and revived by Allen Schick at the Maryland School of Public Policy (Reading 1). This approach provides the conceptual basis for the Public Expenditure & Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment framework, developed by the IMF and the World Bank in conjunction with the EU, DFID and other bilateral donors. It provides a set of 31 high-level indicators, by which to measure the performance of a PFM system. Since 2005, some 300 PEFA assessments have been undertaken of national and sub-national PFM systems in over 100 countries. Despite the inevitable shortcomings of a standardised system of measurement of this kind, the PEFA framework has justifiably gained wide acceptance and, when properly interpreted, provides a good guide to the status of PFM systems. An updated set ofPEFA indicators is to be issued in 2015.
What is known about how best to strengthen PFM systems?
Since the late 1990s, DFID and other donors have devoted an unprecedented level of attention to the reform of PFM systems in developing and transition countries. Yet, the results have been mixed. With some exceptions, reform progress has been slow and the benefits elusive. Nevertheless, some countries have been more successful in implementing PFM reforms than others. What explains this difference in performance? And what implications does it have for the design of reforms and for the provision of external support?
Recent research and evaluation suggests that three critical ingredients are needed for successful PFM reform:
Leadership – a strong political and technical commitment, clear communication and coordination of reform, and a widening group of reform leaders who manage fears, expectations and differences of opinion
Policy space for developing appropriate reforms – a thorough understanding of the context, a focus on the functionality of the system and not just the form, and teams and organisations that experiment and take risks, interrogating both the problem and the proposed solutions
Adaptive, iterative and inclusive processes – where monitoring, learning and adaptation are key.
While these lessons may seem obvious in retrospect, evidence suggests that many past donor interventions to support PFM reform have ignored them – attempting to drive reform from the outside, and imposing 'blueprint solutions' inappropriate to the context. Many governments, unwilling or unable to engage in genuine reform processes, have often bought into this charade, pretending to adopt reforms but in reality adopting form rather than function. Current research on PFM issues focuses on understanding better the approaches and techniques that can help to avoid this. The selected readings seek to provide an introduction to this literature. Several of the readings are also relevant to an understanding of how to successfully support civil service reform, a closely related issue because weak public administration systems usually engender weak PFM systems.
Key Readings
Reading 1: Schick, A. (1998). A Contemporary Approach to Public Expenditure Management, Chapter 1, pp. 1-27, World Bank Institute, Washington DC.
Schick outlines the three objectives of a PFM system and explains the characteristics of the institutional arrangements most likely to ensure achievement of these objectives. It is simply written and provides an excellent introduction to the institutional approach to PFM, which is implicit in so much of the subsequent literature. Readers are especially encouraged to analyse Tables 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4, which summarise the institutional arrangements for enforcing aggregate discipline, for improving allocative efficiency and for improving operational efficiency.
Reading 2: Ramkumar, V. and Shapiro, I. (2010). A Guide to Transparency in Budget Reports, International Budget Partnership (IBP), Washington DC.
This guide (produced by IBP, the sponsors of the Open Budget Index) is designed for civil society groups but could equally be used by donor staff to support CSO activities or to press directly for the achievement of internationally recognised standards of budget transparency. It also provides an excellent guide to the key products of the budget cycle. The Summary Table in the Annex (pp.44-47) outlines the role of key budget documents, and details their 'ideal' content and timeframe for publication.
Reading 3: Krause, P. (2013). PFM reforms, signals and adaptation, Conference Paper presented at the 9th CABRI Annual Conference for Senior Budget Officials, Nairobi, August, 2013 (see pp.7-8 of PDF).
Philipp Krause (ODI) provides a critique of the practice of transposing 'international best practice', without regard to the domestic context. He describes the widespread adoption of such models as a process of imitation rather than innovation, and, at its worst, a mere process of ventriloquism. This is when only the form rather than the function has been imitated, the purpose being to provide a reform 'signal', while actually serving to hide the absence of real reform. The article stresses the importance of doing away with the donor-driven incentives that generate such behaviour.
Reading 4: Lawson, A. (2013). Successful PFM reforms: what is the right context and what are the right mechanisms? Conference Paper presented at the 9th CABRI Annual Conference for Senior Budget Officials, Nairobi, August, 2013 (see pp.8-9 of PDF)
This conference paper presents a summary of a more substantial evaluation of ten years of PFM reforms in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Malawi between 2000-2010. Based on an analysis of nine case histories of PFM reform within these countries, it emphasises the importance of political leadership, strong coordinating mechanisms, policy space, innovation and learning. The case histories help to bring alive these cross-cutting lessons, providing useful details on the specifics of reform design and management.
Reading 5: Andrews, M., Pritchett, L. and Woolcock, M. (2012).Escaping Capability Traps through Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation, Centre for Global Development (CGD) Working Paper 299, Washington DC.
Matt Andrews and his colleagues show how the practice of 'mimicry' (also described in Krause) serves to perpetuate 'capability traps', in which state capability stagnates or even deteriorates, even though governments remain engaged in development rhetoric and continue to receive development resources. They recommend a different approach to supporting PFM and other reforms, described as Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA), which emphasises solving locally defined problems through experimental approaches that promote learning and adaptation.
Reading 6: Petersen, S.B. (2006). Automating Public Financial Management in Developing Countries, John F. Kennedy School of Government Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP 06-043, Harvard University.
Many PFM reforms involve the introduction of Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS), often at substantial cost in financial outlays and administrative efforts. Experience shows that these systems often fail or under-perform. This paper provides a framework and a case study from Ethiopia, illustrating an approach that has worked, and which effectively endorses the PDIA approach to reform – although it was written before the PDIA terminology was invented.
Reading 7: Simson, R., Sharma, N. and Aziz, I. (2011). A Guide to Public Financial Management Literature for practitioners in developing countries, Overseas Development Institute, London.
This literature review contains an exhaustive listing and introduction to key texts, covering the full PFM cycle and addressing technical issues, such as reform sequencing and design. It provides an excellent resource whenever guidance might be needed by donor staff and their counterparts on how to address specific issues of PFM, such as procurement, cash management, medium term expenditure frameworks, programme budgets, etc.
Questions to guide readings
PFM is frequently seen as a 'technical' issue, when it is much more fundamentally a political and institutional issue. What gives rise to this misconception? And what can be done to promote a better understanding of the institutional essence of PFM? (Readings 1 & 2.)
Andrews, Pritchett and Woolcock present 'isomorphic mimicry' – the copying of reform models from other countries – as a universally bad thing. Is this necessarily so? Do you believe, as does Krause, that mimicry might be used positively? If so, how? (Readings 3, 5 & 6.)
It is a commonplace statement that leadership is needed for PFM reform to succeed. The question is what type of leadership? Does there always need to be political leadership of reforms – as the experience of Burkina Faso, Ghana and Malawi suggest? Or can leadership take more varied forms, as some writers suggest? (Readings 4 & 5.)
PFM reforms should address the problems perceived on the ground by the actual users of the system. Ideally, political leaders would feel an urgency to resolve these problems; yet, what can or should be done if political leaders do not see a weak PFM system as a problem? Is there a way forward? (Readings 4, 5, & 6.)
PFM reforms should represent locally developed solutions to locally perceived problems; hence, they should be based on a diagnostic process. Yet, sometimes the solutions will not be clear and some experimentation may be called for; hence there is also a need for learning and adaptation. How can reformers avoid lengthy and expensive diagnostic processes, while also preventing too many failed experiments? What is the right balance between diagnosis and adaptation? Which criteria might be appropriate in defining this balance? (Readings 4, 5 and potentially 7.)
Send feedback on this reading pack
About the author: Andrew Lawson
Andrew Lawson is Co-Director of Fiscus Limited and was previously the Director of the Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure (CAPE) at the Overseas Development Institute, London. He is an economist, with an extensive experience of PFM issues, having worked in ministries of finances in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the South Pacific and having supported PFM reform processes in many countries in development and in transition. He runs capacity development initiatives on PFM for governments and development agencies, and he is a signatory of the Doing Development Differently manifesto, which advocates a more context-sensitive, locally owned and problem-driven approach to development.