Who to sue? Who to sue?
This guide will take you through the key steps to identify and find the right defendant to sue. It is part of our series about sorting out a dispute and going to a civil court.
'Defendant' is what the law calls the person, company or organisation that you take court action against. Sometimes there may be more than one defendant because, for example, you think that more than just the one person, company or organisation shares responsibility for what happened to you.
you are representing yourself (you are a litigant in person) and not eligible to have your case paid for by legal aid, a trade union, or insurance.
See 'Should I sue?' for useful background information on issuing a claim and 'Suing in the civil court – route map' to get an overview of what a typical case might look like.
a tribunal case (such as a discrimination, employment or immigration case).
This guide is also for people supporting litigants in person, for example Personal Support Unit volunteers, CAB volunteers, advice workers and court staff, as well as relatives and friends.
Legal language - We try to explain any legal language as we go along, but there is also a 'What does it mean?' section at the end.
Can you spare a few minutes?
We would be grateful if you could tell us what you think of this information by completing our Feedback survey. We will use your feedback to improve our guides, inform our future work and seek funding.
If you sue someone, you start a court process to bring a legal claim against them. This can also be known as taking legal action, bringing a claim, bringing a civil claim, going to court, starting legal proceedings or litigation.
The purpose of suing is to get the court to make a decision in your favour (called 'a judgment') and award a remedy, usually money compensation.
... When I complained to my boss about tripping over the cleaner's cable, he not only said it was all my own fault, but also that it was nothing to do with him. He said he rented the office space, and the cleaner was supplied by the landlord through an external cleaning company, and I should take it up with them. I started anyway by writing to my boss's company, and they referred it to their insurers, who also told me it was the cleaning company's problem. I thought about it carefully, and to be on the safe side I sued my employer and the cleaning company, and then their insurers sorted it out between them, paying me half each. I'm very glad I didn't leave it all till the last minute to find it wasn't as simple as I thought.
Once you have decided to sue (start a court process to bring a legal claim) you need to be able to identify who may be responsible for your problem. Sometimes this is obvious but in other cases it can be hard to identify who made the mistake, made the decision or gave you the service that caused your problem.
It is also possible for someone to be responsible for what happened to you even though they did not personally cause the problem. So, for example, employers are usually held responsible for the actions of their employees, and where this is the case it is generally much better to sue the employer rather than the individual employee, as the employer is more likely to have insurance and have enough money to pay your claim.
Starting proceedings against the wrong person, company or organisation is a waste of time and money. And the court can order you to pay the legal costs of any defendant you have wrongly involved in legal proceedings. So, it is important to know the identity and accurate name of the defendant or defendants.
If you are having trouble identifying the right defendant or defendants there are a number of things you can do to try to work it out. A practical and sensible approach is to write to everyone who might be legally responsible, saying what the problem is and why you think they are responsible, and that you will sue them as a defendant. No-one will think this a foolish step, as the modern court attitude is that all parties should co-operate on administrative matters, and on issues which help the smooth, efficient and economical running of a case. And this may also help you defend any claim for costs if they don't respond and you sue them and it turns out they weren't the correct defendant.
There are other steps you can and should think about, depending on what your dispute is about.
If you have been dealing with an insurer, the correct defendant is still the individual or organisation that caused your problem. Do not be misled into suing the insurer! But there are special rules about dealing direct with the insurer in some personal injury and road traffic cases.
If you want to sue your employer, you will need to find your letter of appointment or contract of employment, to make sure you have got the right organisation. Looking at your wage slip may not be enough, as some people are paid by an organisation which is not actually their employer. For example, if you work in a voluntary (religious) school, the local authority pays the wage bill, but the correct defendant will probably be the governing body of the school.
Some organisations outsource work, and their workers wear a uniform of that company, or drive a vehicle with the company logo, but are not treated as employees, and so the organisation may say they are not responsible for the problem and refer you to the outsourced contractor or subcontractor.
If you are a tenant, you might find you have lots of dealings with a managing agent rather than your landlord. It is natural to feel the managing agents should be the defendant, but the correct defendant is almost certainly the landlord – you will need to check your tenancy agreement.
If you are suing a company, you need to check if you are suing a sole trader or a partnership. This is where individuals, possibly trading under a trading name, carry full legal and financial responsibility for their actions. You need to make sure you get the names exactly right, including any trading names. You may be suing a limited company (their name ends with 'Ltd') or public liability company (their name ends with 'plc'), when what you can actually receive from your claim is generally limited by the company's assets or their insurance if they have it. Again, you need to check to get the name of the defendant exactly right.
Once you are sure you have identified the right defendant then you need to find them, and make sure you get the right address where you are confident that they will receive court papers. In the case of a limited company or plc, it will be the registered address.
Unless you will be out of time for issuing your claim (see Time limits for suing someone) you should not issue proceedings unless and until you have the defendant's correct address (called the 'address for service') as you have a very limited time – four months - to make sure they receive the issued court claim.
If you have been dealing with an insurer, you will still need to use the defendant's address, not the insurer's address as the address for service. Sometimes, however, insurers will allow you to use their address, or the address of a firm of solicitors to accept court papers. But you have to ask them and get a reply in writing, and let the court have a copy of that letter of permission. This can be well worth doing, as the insurers or their solicitors may be more efficient and reliable than your defendant, which is important when you only have four months after issue of proceedings to get the papers to the defendant.
If you are finding it difficult to trace your defendant you could try searching central or local records.
search for information about the registered keeper of a vehicle from DVLA.
find current and past residents at an address in the Electoral Register either at your local town hall or library or on the internet.
You will need to allow plenty of time for this, as data protection laws mean that many keepers of data require a reason (possibly in writing) to allow you access – you may need to say it is for the purpose of litigation.
Enquiry agents provide tracing services. You may want to consider this option but check the cost before you go ahead. Some enquiry agents will agree not to charge if they are unable to trace the defendant. This is sometimes referred to as 'no trace, no fee'. You can find an enquiry agent through the Association of British Investigators or the Institute of Professional Investigators.
If you are not sure who is legally responsible for what happened in your case, you may be able to get legal advice.
Address for service - the defendant's correct address for the purpose of court proceedings. If it is an individual, it is likely to be their home address. If it is a company it will be their registered address, which could be somewhere entirely different from where your problem occurred.
Assets - money and savings and other valuable items which can be used to pay debts, for example, a house, flat, jewellery or car.
Civil court – a court, usually a county court, where you can bring a claim for damages (financial compensation) against someone who has wrongly caused you loss, damage or injury.
Defendant - person or organisation the case is brought against.
Enquiry agent - a person or business who can be hired to find someone or to find things out about someone, for example, if they have assets.
Issue of proceedings – the formal start to the court proceedings.
Litigant in person – a person bringing or defending a claim without a solicitor or barrister.
Litigation – the process of bringing a claim or taking legal action.
Party – a person or group of people forming one side in a dispute.
Parties – both sides in the dispute.
Suing - If you sue someone you start a court process to bring a legal claim against them. This can also be known as taking legal action, bringing a claim, bringing a civil claim, going to court, starting legal proceedings or litigation. The purpose of suing is to get the court to make a decision in your favour (called 'a judgment') and award a remedy, usually money compensation.
The information in this guide applies to England and Wales only. The law may be different if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The law is complicated. We have simplified things in this guide. Please don't rely on this guide as a complete statement of the law. We recommend you try and get advice from the sources we have suggested.
The cases we refer to are not always real but show a typical situation. We have included them to help you think about how to deal with your own situation.
This guide was produced by Law for Life's Advicenow project.


text:
Council admits bays remain dangerous for some 'blue badge' holders
By : Sarah Booker-Lewis, local democracy reporter
The council was asked whether it was failing to meet its equalities duty because "unsafe" parking bays leave much of the seafront inaccessible to wheelchair users.
The problems arose when the new "temporary" seafront cycle lane was created last summer.
Disability campaigners from Brighton Access for Disabled Groups Everywhere (BADGE) were horrified to see disabled parking bays by the Peace Statue were off-set away from the pavement, with the cycle lane between cars and the kerb.
BADGE campaigner Pippa Hodge raised the problems with members of Brighton and Hove City Council's Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee at Hove Town Hall.
She highlighted video surveillance of the seven bays on the A259 showing a wheelchair user forced to travel into the cycle lane to reach their vehicle, swerving bikes.
She said that five safer bays were promised on the north side of the road in March but since then nothing had happened.
She said: "Under your Active Travel Scheme 'our' seafront remains inaccessible for a second summer.
"Do councillors find it acceptable that 10 months later officers still haven't addressed these grave concerns?"
She queried whether the council was in breach of its own "equalities impact assessment" to protect disabled access and safety.
Risks were identified 10 months ago, she told the committee, and councillors had not acted on BADGE's feedback.
Green councillor Amy Heley, who chairs the committee, said that there was no change to the number of disabled bays as a result of the new cycle lane.
She said that some of the disabled bays were off-set from the kerb with extra space on either side for safety reasons.
Some of those getting out of vehicles in the disabled parking bays have had close shaves with passing cyclists, causing danger to people with disabilities as well as to cyclists
Councillor Heley said: "We do recognise that while this does recognise the design standard, people do still need to take care when near vehicles or when passengers exit vehicles due to the location.
"We do recognise why it is still dangerous for some users. We are currently investigating additional parking bays along the seafront to further improve access."
The council acknowledged that the new temporary cycle lane and disabled parking bays remained dangerous
Residents and businesses in the area would need to be consulted before any extra bays were added, which Councillor Heley said would take time.
Nathan Adler 24 June 2021 at 7.45pm Reply
So the chair of ETS admits they are dangerous? Is this an admission of liability if an accident happens? The irony is there was not an issue with the old bays and if officers had bothered to consult with disability groups prior to the 'temporary' lane there would never have been an issue here – it a mess of their own making. I think it's shameful that the city can create a cycle lane in weeks but won't sort out disabled access in nearly a year.
Serena Evans 24 June 2021 at 8.00pm Reply
Yet installing MORE unwanted cycle lanes is BHCC's PRIORITY? This is utterly unacceptable.
How the hell did we get to have a 25 year old student who can't drive chairing the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee anyway? Those very 60 year old Councillors Councillor Amy Heley has been so disparaging about in her arrogant youth probably have a lot more idea than she does about the Disability Discrimination Act and how not to breach it. Time to sack and sue the little madam. Unfit for purpose.
PaulFWilliams 24 June 2021 at 8.13pm Reply
The Germans have a word for 'improvements' which make things worse. 'Verschlimmbesserung'. Brighton and Hove City Council need to adopt this word as they encapsulate this word perfectly in everything they do. Completely unfit for purpose and uninterested in their lawful statutory obligations to citizens. Only interested in their own woke agendas. They need to step down now.
jjgoldsmith 25 June 2021 at 9.28am Reply
I am all for cycle lanes but not at the expense of disabled people. I voted Green last time – I will not make that mistake again. I thought we were supposed to be the city of sanctuary
Angle Grinder 25 June 2021 at 11.40am Reply
The Greens talk the talk, but the plain truth is they're disablist. It's fine if you're young, fit and healthy, but not if you're old, disabled or just have the sort of mobility issues which mean you can't walk or cycle everywhere. And because hardly any of them have a job outside politics, academia or campaigning organisations like Sustrans, they have no idea about the practicalities of trying to get tools and parts from a van to a job if you're a plumber, builder or electrician.
Yesterday, I had to fit a new boiler and two radiators near the top of Elm Grove and take away the old ones. I'm fit and healthy, but it was hard enough loading and unloading them from my van. Much as I love cycling (I've done the London to Brighton Bike Ride four times), I couldn't have carried out that job using my bike.
My last job on a building site was near Eastbourne, quite a way from the nearest railway station or bus stop. I couldn't have got there from Fiveways by bike for 7.45am each day with all my tools. Just about everyone else on that site faced a comparable journey from all different directions.
I voted Green at the last election because I genuinely care about the environment. I won't vote Green again because I care about people too and, increasingly, I don't think they do. I fit the most efficient heating systems that I can so that people can have the hot water they need at the lowest environmental cost. I've been trying to learn how to install solar pv panels so that I can help other like-minded people. And I'm trying to save for an electric or hybrid van. I don't have a car, and locally I ride my bike most places.
I know not everyone is as fortunate as me, including two slightly older relatives, one with arthritic joints, and the other with a gammy ankle. They increasingly rely on taxis, or lifts from friends and family, for even basic living needs.
The Greens don't seem to understand the needs of anyone but themselves, or else they seem to take such an ideological view that they look to be intent on turning Brighton into a very unfriendly place for anyone other than their young Green master race. They've lost my vote.
Billy Short 25 June 2021 at 4.03pm Reply
My objection has never been that we have cycle lanes, but is about the way this bizarre change has been done.
It's dishonest in that the new lanes were never going to temporary, and their usage has been lied about, plus the real goal seems to be restrict traffic flow even though no alternative means of transport has been provided.
If you change road layout then this must be part of a logical city-wide transport strategy – whereas in this case it has just been a land grab on the part of the lycra lobbyists. The cycle lanes do not even achieve any of the green goals that were stated. On the seafront they have duplicated a perfectly good cycle lane, and that has created a permanent gridlock of traffic and spoils the area for all residents, commuters, delivery vehicles, buses, and visitors.
So here we have a further admission of failure, namely that the new parking bays are not safe for many disabled drivers. I would go further and say all the new parking bays that are now stuck in the middle of the road are not safe for anybody.
For the family trying to park a car next to the beach you either have to get out of your car into a continuous line of traffic or else into a cycle lane which is either empty or full of bike hirers who don't look where they are going. Once on the pavement with your kids and beach toys, you then have to negotiate the second and busier cycle lane.
If you are a resident or pedestrian just trying to cross the seafront road you now have to cross an endless line of traffic with no gaps, and then there's the mid road parking, and then a cycle lane, and then a second cycle lane. Which idiot did not think this through, or did they actually decide this was better than the layout we had before which was working just fine?
Hove Guy 25 June 2021 at 7.30pm Reply
Don't expect logic and common sense from this council. They are brilliant at creating chaos and mess at whatever totally unnecessary changes they go on making. Intelligence does not seem to be part of their job description, only a misguided Green/Labour agenda.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
<?php

namespace Hubzero\Notification\Storage;

use Hubzero\Notification\MessageStore;
use Hubzero\Utility\Cookie as Monster;

/**
 * Cookie storage handler.
 */
class Cookie implements MessageStore
{
	/**
	 * Lifetime of the cookie (in minutes)
	 *
	 * @var  integer
	 */
	private $lifetime;

	/**
	 * Constructor
	 *
	 * @param   integer  lifetime
	 * @return  void
	 */
	public function __construct($lifetime)
	{
		$this->lifetime = $lifetime;
	}

	/**
	 * Store a message
	 *
	 * @param   array   $data
	 * @param   string  $domain
	 * @return  void
	 */
	public function store($data, $domain)
	{
		$messages   = (array) $this->retrieve($domain);
		$messages[] = $data;

		Monster::bake($this->key($domain), $this->expires($this->lifetime), $messages);
	}

	/**
	 * Return a list of messages
	 *
	 * @param   array   $data
	 * @param   string  $domain
	 * @return  array
	 */
	public function retrieve($domain)
	{
		if (!($messages = Monster::eat($this->key($domain))))
		{
			$messages = array();
		}

		if (count($messages))
		{
			$this->clear($domain);
		}

		return $messages;
	}

	/**
	 * Clear all messages
	 *
	 * @param   string  $domain
	 * @return  void
	 */
	public function clear($domain)
	{
		Monster::bake($this->key($domain), $this->expires(0), array());
	}

	/**
	 * Return a count of messages
	 *
	 * @param   string  $domain
	 * @return  integer
	 */
	public function total($domain)
	{
		return count($this->retrieve($domain));
	}

	/**
	 * Get the storage key
	 *
	 * @param   string  $domain
	 * @return  string
	 */
	private function key($domain)
	{
		$domain = (!$domain ? '' : $domain . '.');

		return md5($domain . 'application.queue');
	}

	/**
	 * Get the expiration time a # of minutes from now
	 *
	 * @param   itneger  $minutes
	 * @return  integer
	 */
	private function expires($minutes)
	{
		return time() + 60 * $minutes;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Q: SharedPreferences not deleting values immediately I store the user id in the SharedPreferences when the user logged in
and I check when the user open the app if the id in the SharedPreferences is not null so the app will open its main screen without asking the user to log in again. Also, when the user logged out I delete his id from SharedPreferences.
However, when the user logged out and try to open the app from the recent apps the app open its main screen without asking the user to log in again.
but when the user presses back and reopens the app, the app will ask the user to log in again, so I am sure that the SharedPreferences is deleted successfully, but I don't know what is the problem with the recent apps list!
Here is my code:
Splash screen:
public class SplashActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        SharedPreferencesManager prefs = SharedPreferencesManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext());

        Intent intent;

        if (prefs.getUserId() != null) {

            intent = new Intent(SplashActivity.this, mainscreen.class);

        } else {

            intent = new Intent(SplashActivity.this, SignIn.class);
        }

        startActivity(intent);

        finish();

    }
}

SharedPreferencesManager:
public class SharedPreferencesManager {

    private static SharedPreferencesManager sharedPreferencesManager = new SharedPreferencesManager();
    private static SharedPreferences sharedPreferences;
    private static SharedPreferences.Editor editor;
    private static final String NAME = "General";

    public static SharedPreferencesManager getInstance(Context context) {
        if (sharedPreferences == null) {
            sharedPreferences = context.getSharedPreferences(NAME, Activity.MODE_PRIVATE);
            editor = sharedPreferences.edit();
        }
        return sharedPreferencesManager;
    }

    public void setUserId(String ID){
        editor.putString("UserID", ID).commit();
    }

    public String getUserId(){
        return sharedPreferences.getString("UserID", null);
    }

    public void removeUserId(){
         editor.remove("UserID").commit();
    }

}

logout:
public void logout(){

        SharedPreferencesManager prefs = SharedPreferencesManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext());

        prefs.removeUserId();
        Intent intent = new Intent(this, SignIn.class);
        intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
        startActivity(intent);
    }

Thank you!

A: you should override onResume method in your Main activity like this:
@Override
public void onResume(){
    super.onResume();

SharedPreferencesManager prefs = SharedPreferencesManager.getInstance(getApplicationContext());

        Intent intent;

        if (prefs.getUserId() == null) {

            intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, SignIn.class);
        }

        startActivity(intent);

}

A: Instead of removing value set the value to null.
     public void removeUserId(){
        editor.putString("UserID", null).commit();
    }

Hope this will work for you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
'Alien,' 'Lord of the Rings' Star Ian Holm Dies @ 88
Sir Ian Holm, the versatile actor known for everything from his "virtuosic" work on the stage to his unforgettable performances in such diverse films as Alien and two in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, died Friday, June 19, at 88.
His agent announced in a statement:
"It is with great sadness that the actor Sir Ian Holm CBE passed away this morning at the age of 88. He died peacefully in hospital, with his family and career ... Charming, kind and ferociously talented, we will miss him hugely."
His death was related to Parkinson's disease.
Holm was born on September 12, 1931, in England to Scottish parents. He was drawn to acting, and by chance met Henry Baynton (1892-1951), an accomplished Shakespearian actor, who mentored him. Holm studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1949, served in the military, then became established in the theater from 1956 on.
Among his accomplishments on the stage, Holm won the 1967 Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Harold Pinter's (1930-2008) The Homecoming. He recreated his performance as Lenny in a 1973 feature-film adaptation. He was said to be Pinter's favorite actor, and only returned to the stage after a 15-year gap in 1993 because Pinter had written a new work, Moonlight, and asked him to star.
On TV from 1957 and in films from 1968, he was memorable in the movies Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) and March or Die (1977), among others, but his breakthrough in the medium was as Ash the up-to-no-good android who loses his head in Alien (1979).
For Chariots of Fire (1981), which won the Oscar for Best Picture, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, winning the BAFTA.
Holm's profile in film soared in the '80s, including in Time Bandits (1981), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), Brazil (1985) and Dance with a Stranger (1985), and was acclaimed for his work in Big Night (1996) and the 1997 films Night Falls on Manhattan, The Fifth Element and The Sweet Hereafter.
Holm entered icon territory as Bilbo Baggins in several of the phenomenally successful and highly praised Lord of the Rings films (2001, 2003, 2012 & 2014). His final performance in any medium was as Bilbo in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).
Married four times, he is survived by his artist wife, Sophie de Stempel, who is said to have created pastel portraits of him of his final days, by his five children and by one grandson.
'40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, Late Greats


Maybe it's Lovecraft's fault… After all, he did it so well.
But lately I figure somewhere there must be an explanation as to why in contemporary American Horror, the weakest point of the story tends to be the monster. I've fallen for blurbs, for cover art, for Famous Horror Writer recommendations. Yet time and again the monster just isn't scary, or eerie, or haunting. If I come away with any manner of emotional displacement, the author (or the concept) tends to be from an earlier period of Horror history, or not to be American at all.
Could it be that we are so excited about what we hope to write that we forget WHAT we are writing? Are we that ignorant of our own genre history? Is it possible that we don't even know what genre writing is anymore?
The genre of Horror has actual history… it has a bloodline and a marked route of exploration and developmental growth. During its earlier years when the term "Gothic" or "ghost story" would no longer adequately encompass what was being written, writers and editors and publishers began calling what was being produced by new and confusing names – Supernatural Fiction, Spectral Fiction, Strange tales, Weird tales, Terror, and Horror.
With changing times, the former discourse between writers of subgenre fiction seems broken, its writers (new and seasoned) now scattered about in genre isolation with less publication venues to offer dedicated subgenre havens, fewer informed editors and actual examples of subgenre fiction. So the rest of us just tend to pronounce ourselves as writing this or that with no real forethought or thorough Literary understanding of the definitions we use.
But today we are blessed to have S.T. Joshi and China Mieville in our genre corner. And it is the coming of these two Literary Critics that has lifted our genre from the stage of Literary argument (is Horror Literature) to the stage of Literary analysis (which Horror is Literature and why). Of the two, I find the most useful published Criticism by S.T. Joshi (although I really would like to see something more and intense by Mieville). And it is Joshi who has started me thinking – well, Weird.
As part of his job as a Critic, and one of the first in our genre, Joshi has taken the necessary step of attempting to tackle the definitions of genre and subgenre work in Horror and to nail them down. In his book The Weird Tale, he takes the opportunity to present an argument to clarify his rationale for chosen categories in the genre, and to open the discussion on how the genre should be Literarily argued. What is exceptional here, is Mr. Joshi's attempt to include the modern Horror reader and writers in this discussion.
It is also why we have lost our Horror section.
Okay, so let's be clear: Lovecraft desired publication, he submitted stories, he was occasionally paid for them, he lived off an inheritance and a wife as long as he could, then was reduced to editing other authors for a living. Lovecraft was not saying he was against publication. He was saying one doesn't change the story to get it published. He was saying a writer needs to pursue the higher art offered by the story, no matter how many rejections that equates to; that a writer should be true to his or her vision. In this case, he is firmly in alignment with the Literary Critic.
Yet how many of us actually have cultivated a vision for our writing? How many of us think in terms of legacy instead of simple solvency?
The problem is, no one is out there teaching us about the history and mechanics of Horror. No one except our very own Critics right now. We need to read them. We have artistic decisions to make.
Golden Age writers knew what they were writing, where it could find an audience, what publications were their choices… Today, we just write, and submit to any publication that we can find. Most of us cannot categorize ourselves, let alone our fiction, because to categorize our work would be to narrow our choices, our sense of opportunity.
Example: I recently visited a website for a regional writer's group, looking for Horror writers. What I found was the comment "is willing to write Horror." WILLING to write Horror?! Where is the writer who unabashedly is PROUD to write Horror?
Sometimes I think we lost our own section in Horror because many of us have lost the understanding of what we are intending to write. And marketing departments are only too happy to pronounce the demise of genre writing.
So why does the very thought cause us an instinctive knee-jerk reaction? Is it because the meandering away from genre conventions is an accidental misstep and that we never meant to abandon genre? Yet is that also why our monsters have lost their teeth and grown human appendages where tentacles should be? Do we know how to get back into formula?
Maybe it's time we listened to our elders – the genre greats who started a conversation that just seemed to evaporate in the 1990's altogether, and which has been resuscitated in part by S.T. Joshi. Have we forgotten the rabid dedication many authors and editors once had to the argument over terms and subgenres?
Today if a writer doesn't research the genre personally or trip over key essays chances are he or she just hasn't a clue what has gone before and where we are now. For instance, since the genre began to grow in popularity in the 1930's and 1940's, there have been arguers and defenders of the usage of the terms Horror, Terror, Supernatural, Strange and Weird to define the many types of writing we may do.
Did you even know that there has been an internal unrest about what our genre should in fact be calling itself for quite some time?
While a large part of writing – most specifically drafting – is drenched in magic and mystery and wonder, in the end we need to know as authors of a story exactly what we are trying to say. Then we need to revise to be sure we are saying it. Only then can we be certain that the genre is worthy of its name – whichever one is ultimately chosen.
The name "Horror" has taken a beating for a while now. It and "Terror" in its turn has been commandeered by current events to the point that many are reluctant to use it. It has driven genre fans in droves back to more "antiquated" terms like "Weird" and "Strange" to defend and salvage the genre. But I think we shouldn't be letting "world events" distort our genre to that effect. I think the conversation of what we are writing is germane to what we choose to call it. And I don't think we can call it something if we don't know the definitions of those terms.
Horror itself has been keelhauled for being an emotion. Why, ask its detractors, do we want to name our genre with an emotion when almost all other genres are described by nouns or adjectives? I believe that the word – emotion or not – encompasses all that the genre tries to inflict upon the reader – an emotional response. In that capacity, it is like Thrillers, Suspense, and Romance. It is asking the brain to explore dark corners, to revisit the primal place of fear, terror, revulsion, disgust, dread – you know – horror.
But some genre experts (those who have duly earned their stripes as writers, editors, and Critics of the genre) sometimes feel otherwise, that Horror is more about gore and dismemberment – fear of our fellow man or human-ness than that which merely disturbs. They will argue for other terms – like Weird. I'm thinking we are arguing over semantics here, over connotation and denotation... But what is important is agreeing on what our genre is and should be called, what its conventions and formulas should include or exclude. There should not be any question in a writer's mind.
Enter S.T. Joshi, Literary Critic and the best friend Horror has in Literature right now. Joshi, perhaps the world's greatest contemporary expert on all things H.P. Lovecraft, has embraced the Weird. Like his object of research, he has come to believe that Horror is more a subgenre of Weird fiction than the other way around. And he uses Lovecraft to explain why. Whereas according to Lovecraft "The crux of a weird tale is something which could not possibly happen" (Joshi 6), Joshi states, "I begin my own study with a rather odd assertion: the weird tale, in the period … (generally 1880 -1940) did not (and perhaps does not now) exist as a genre but as the consequence of a world view…" [his emphasis] (xiii).
Most assuredly, that is the Literary Critic in Joshi talking… because it is the presence, the omniscience of a world view that elevates a work from genre to Literature. And if Weird fiction is more commonly Literature than average Horror fiction, then is it not the tree from which the apple falls?
You can see how quickly this conversation becomes interesting and relevant to all genre writers and fans. It is why Joshi has put his work out there. Discussion is the key to movement… to breathing life into the Critical process.
But it is also integral to creating new Lovecrafts. We all have to be on the same page. And at a time when we seem to have lost our national genre compass, shouldn't we get on board with this very basic Critical idea – the naming of parts, the re-establishment of genre, the enforcement of boundaries and celebrating rebellions against the very same? How else can we commit to writing a story we can encapsulate with a category name if we don't know the terms of surrender?
Believe it or not, many of us as Horror writers have never really considered this, and it may be the deserving reason we get rejected.
Here's a thought based on that statement: to elevate a story beyond the genre, to be genre-changing we must first be able to write genre.
Editors have pronounced themselves too busy. Universities are teaching and preaching against genre. Workshops are a gamble, writers groups may "accept" but don't generally specialize in genre writing, how-to's have Gone Hollywood. What's a genre purist to do?
If you want technical assistance, you need a Critic: read Joshi.
If you want written examples, read Golden Age genre writers – read Weird Tales from the day.
That's right. Under the scales and leathery wings of the greatest of all Literary Horror monsters (Horror being the overarching term I am predisposed to), beats a heart of pulp.
Get thee to a collection of early Weird Tales… I recently found a copy at a used book shop, one edited by famed genre editor Marvin Kaye, who back in the 1990's also edited several anthologies of the subgenres including Terror, the Supernatural, the Unknown, Ghosts, Witches, Devils and Demons… I remembered having read many of the stories when I was a kid, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I assumed I would read them, smile in remembrance, and move on.
I was awed. Stunned. My imagination was RE-filled with the passion that started my love affair with the Horror genre. How did we lose this? I wondered aloud. How did we lose this awesome ability to tell tales that in mere pages can keep us up and night and hungering for more?
Is it because authors in those days had a bevy of magazines whose "bar" was set a bit lower to acquiring and keeping a basic readership – not set to making an author's or an editor's Big Break, not set to doubling its subscription base annually or it is a "business failure," not reliant on burying writing among ads just to stay in print… not set to the equivalent of tossing a bottle out on the ocean so it could be "discovered in its excellence" by the masses who would theoretically spend lavishly to keep it on the internet ocean?
Is it because it was "just pulp" and not overreaching to call itself high Literature, its writers happy to just spill its monsters into cheap prose to see what else might hatch? Is it because no matter how poorly writers were paid, writers could by being prolific, actually make a poor living doing it?
It's not about starving. It's about producing ART, not mass producing drivel. Because if that is what we are teaching ourselves to write, then we roundly deserve the stinging criticisms of editors and Critics. We are rolling our monsters out on a rack time after time and expecting a different result.
We need to write for ourselves. For our genre. For our audience.
When you read fiction written for you, there is no doubt; you are sitting next to the campfire, the storyteller is looking at you right in the eye, and the monster is drooling just at the edge of the darkness. You can feel his breath on your neck, imagine his fangs tearing at your flesh…and anything is possible…even the impossible.
So are you writing Weird or Horror fiction? Or are you perhaps writing in the subgenre of Terror or Strange tales?
And if you don't know, shouldn't you be finding out? Because right now our monsters are suffering from a clear identity crisis. We don't seem able to write them without it looking like we are attempting a parody or poking fun. American monsters leap, crawl, and ooze onto our literary theater with the impact of a stage magician pulling a very tired old rabbit out of the hat. We have lost something besides the element of surprise.
Surprise! Storytelling is an art that has its own rules. I say again…look at pulp.
Stories fail for so many different reasons. They should not be failing because we glimpse the monster, or we rolled him out on a rack. That should be a moment of pure Terror. Horror. Weirdness. FEAR.
Joshi, S.T. The Weird Tale. Holicong, PA: Wildside Press, c 1990.
Weird Tales. Marvin Kaye, ed. New York: Barnes and Noble, c1988.
Chances are if you are a reader of Horror, you've noticed what a lot of Critics – even Horror Critics – have noticed: comparative to other eras in the genre, not much good Horror (meaning competently written and scary) is being written and even less canon-worthy great Horror. This is in turn makes exciting, quality new Horror even harder to find, and the impression is building that perhaps the genre has indeed bottomed out.
Has all of the Great Horror been written?
This is a question that haunts even Horror writers. Many of us start with what seem like really good ideas, and yet many of those ideas fail to translate properly to the page.
As a writer, I wanted to know. Turns out, we do have some pretty good excuses. And if we are going to put readers and Critical concerns to rest, we are all going to need dig our way out of the graveyard to do it.
For one thing, it turns out technology has ruined a lot of good Horror. When science rises to the average person's consciousness – along with all of the tools of science (like electric lights and a broader understanding of natural and therefore supernatural events) – we become skeptics and less easy to frighten.
Many writers of yore believed in the power of superstition to captivate and terrify an audience. In fact, most of the truly great Horror writers of the classics that scare us so much, did not themselves believe in the supernatural per se. Instead they capitalized on an undercurrent of superstition that was inherent to the times, combined with the all-too-human fear of change.
But today the atmosphere itself has changed a bit. As our knowledge and understanding of the natural world grew, our fears transferred from folk and fairy tales, ghosts and goblins to technology and the intentions of our fellow humanity. Thence came a proliferation of human monsters and psychological Horror, which leeched a lot of writers from our genre when it didn't subdivide it into even more confusing subgenres.
While many modern writers have tried to spin the situation, crippling technology to let in the darkness, or using technology as the vehicle by which all manner of monsters may enter our world, it hasn't had the same effect. Ask any ghost: it's harder to scare people these days – not because we are smarter, or braver, or endowed with sciencey tools that understand and banish the paranormal and supernormal, but because science has largely convinced us that even if we ourselves don't have the rational explanation, we are certain there is one. With a few hundred pages or ninety minutes of film, we can just turn the monster off.
Meanwhile (as any hiker can attest) complete isolation is harder than ever to come by. Many of us live farther from rural areas where that natural stuff tends to bend our perceptions into balloon animals of terror. But phones and the internet are everywhere. The bump in the night is easily ascribed to neighbors on three sides, on children just across the hall, on the many pets we allow in the house. We forget that in times past, most of our audience and many of our writers lived in or were exposed to the reality of distance for attaining help, the need to travel alone in the dark anywhere for a good chunk of the day (or dark and rainy night), being financially trapped in inherited and flawed older homes where relatives and spouses could be separated by floors or rooms we don't really have anymore and attended by servants potentially nurturing profound resentments or dogged loyalties.
We forget the attitude we had toward animals – they had jobs or they were gone, and few if any were trusted enough to be allowed in the house in order to contribute to the noises heard and the shadows glimpsed out of the corners of the eye. Animals were seldom friends, and were often too willing to become the predators we feared or carelessly created.
We forget the role of religion in our lives was not merely an obligation on Sundays, but a necessity for ensuring our daily protection against the unseen, against our fears and our guilt. We forget the guilt that we may actually deserve to experience.
We also forget the authority that religion represented in our lives, the flip side of which was protection against ghosts and spirits, devils and witches. If we could imagine it, religion had a process to banish it. For many of us today, religion has become another kind of superstition. Except in emergencies and foxholes and times of sudden personal crisis, we have banished a lot of our religion to the same junk-pile as Old World superstition. With it, a lot of traditional monsters were swept out of our immediate fears.
We can now compartmentalize most of our monsters and our fears, because the modern world facilitates that pattern.
Even so, all of these things when recalled to the mind in just the right circumstances still lay the groundwork for wild fancies of the imagination (if and when we can recapture the essence of those moments and their subsequent vulnerabilities). And while we have kept the monster in the closet and under the bed, we have lost the dark woods and empty fields and moonlit nights he oozed from. Monsters are disconnected; they tend to just appear without backstory.
For those few unsavory creatures that remain, we have our monsters trapped. And let's just face it: the knowledge is intoxicating…and Horror-killing.
According to Literary Critics, we have been writing realism in the genre since about the time of Lovecraft, who may have inadvertently started it. Lovecraft wove the emerging "world view" into what was then termed Weird Fiction, blurring the lines between what we know as Horror and the then-budding genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. By the time the boom of the 1970's rolled around, Horror writers were writing characters that were like the rest of us – just common folk – and situational plots like most of us experience – so we are easily (and all too often predictably) victimized by our own underestimation of the supernatural.
But something went terribly wrong. Suddenly the writing went trite and "banal"… We began to have best sellers and movie blockbusters, but we lost the Literary thread so carefully nurtured by early writers in the genre, and books and their subsequent movies became toothless assembly lines of mostly cartoon Horror. Our genre became a parody of itself.
For writers who care about regaining that winsome (and apparently temperamental) thread, the fix seemed to be easy. But it has proven frightfully elusive. We are having a hard time shaking technology. We are having a harder time shaking our science-addled audience.
We have tried isolating our characters, causing technology to fail and cell towers to go missing. But the only time our monsters have truly scared us was more like when they simply startled us by lurching out of the darkness…an effect that itself diminishes over time.
So the glove has been thrown down. And some of us just can't let go of the belief that the success of a monster is all about the immediacy of a jump scare. What Literary Critics are pointing out, is that this makes our work two-dimensional because real terror happens when that monster is also a representation – a stand-in, if you will – of an even greater fear.
Take the book and movie Alien. On the surface, it is simple and easily Hollywood…a crew isolated and trapped on a dark space ship with a deadly monster they cannot completely see. But when the monster is really science as a corporate entity that threatens to compromise us all, the monster on board becomes the weapon of that very real world of technology. This stokes the very fear many of us have of advanced technology we don't understand but which we must trust daily to rest in the hands of the few and powerful. We don't want to be the crewman just doing his job that gets a face-hugger for the effort.
Elements of Literature, then – or connecting the written story to a statement about the human condition – are the greatest source of terror.
Yet we seem to have lost the ability to fully shape that fear that should spawn our monsters. Instead, we fashion something with scary parts and expect it to do the work of Literature. It does not. No matter how many vampire versus werewolf wars you start. No matter how many tentacles drape from your monster and drag across the page.
As writers, we tend to listen to….everybody but the voice in our heads. This is not good. Maybe that's why I prefer to write in the quiet of the wee hours before the other voices take hold.
When we try to write to cover all of the bases those voices demand – to write a character that can be merchandized, or a monster that can be franchised, books that can spawn sequels and prequels and spin-offs – we are not writing the story as dictated. We are editing the Muse before the rightful editing stage. We ourselves are too afraid to look closely at what may be the truth: we don't really have a story yet. We are writing backwards. We are writing for money. Or fame.
But I do think that listening to people who want cheap thrills, or who want to hitch their professional wagons to a blazing flash-in-the-pan best seller is costing us as a whole. Nor do we need to adopt the tradition of "networking" that some college writing programs promote: we do not need yet another "good old boys"- type system to market fiction not yet properly matured, nor do we need academically-driven programs which force the magnificence of many Voices into tightly constricted molds of limited Literary styles.
As the pool of lesser, non-Literary works grows, these types of published stories become our working example of what we think Horror writing is. They do so, because we have no one to tell us otherwise. We just hear a lot of moaning and groaning from the Peanut Gallery requesting something new and original…all of it free-floating while even more of the same kind of works get published in direct contradiction of what was just said.
Yet we keep returning to the old stuff, to the classics and those authors for inspiration. We keep trying to figure out what they were doing that we are not…Instead of dissecting the mechanics of what those writers managed to achieve, we tell ourselves that today we are all of us too sophisticated…that such things wouldn't scare a modern audience.
Yet it is the modern audience who keeps buying those reprinted works. In droves.
So who do we listen to?
This is the real problem. So for the benefit of those who complain Literary Horror is endangered if not gone… listen up.
I've said it before and I will say it again. Only talent is inherited. After that, instruction is important.
Writing is the only field where we expect our Greats to emerge from the womb with a feather pen in hand and pure Literature dripping from its tip. All of the other Arts provide mentorship, apprenticeship, and training.
No longer are our national best centrally located in one or two Northeast cities, Literary giants bumping into one another on country walks, dining in clubs and exchanging ideas, reviews, and criticisms. We are far-flung, without patrons, and loaded down with economic baggage. Arts and artists are marginalized, sacrificed to the gods of sports and technology, budgets slashed, art history and art comprehension gone. We do not teach the Arts. We do not teach Literature. We brush past it hurriedly on our way to the next iPhone.
We in the Arts are directed to stand behind the cloak of Technology and it will provide us with the path to riches…And if someone actually taught us about our fields, maybe it would be a truth today instead of an exception.
We all know that the secret is somewhere in the works of the past. And now we need Literary Critics to show us some of those secrets, because we are not getting it in our education. For genre writers, this is especially true, because most teachers of Literature are not interested in pointing out the seeds of modern Horror in Gothic Romance and they don't want to read term papers about Horror fiction.
The answer is that we – all of us including educators and Critics – need to stop assuming that the only great genre-infused Literature happens by Divine Intervention. Who knows how many would-be Lovecrafts or Poes are out there, guessing about what revisions are being secretly coded in those rejection letters, and whether those writing those rejections want more banal, trite stuff to mass market, or whether they too are searching for Literary seedlings.
We're writers, not mind readers. We're starving, not greedy. Yet most of us would be thrilled to know that what we write is and should be a conscious choice.
Why isn't great Horror being written? Because most of us are playing Marco Polo in the dark. No wonder so many of us give up, or give up on trying to write Literarily.
Yes, there has been quite the desert of talent spooling out in the genre, burying everything not Stephen King in dunes of sand. But it's because something has indeed changed. We are no longer being taught. Not in school, not by attrition. Not even the basics. As students in the Arts our concern is coloring in bubbles on standardized tests…On getting to that piece of paper so we can compete for fewer and fewer good-paying jobs that allow us enough "spare time" in which to write. We have fewer and fewer publishing opportunities with smaller and smaller submission windows at fewer and fewer "established" magazines that Real Genre Editors respect.
It's not that we don't care as writers. But we need to be able to find and afford writing programs that mentor and mentor in speculative fiction. We need more works like those of S.T. Joshi that help explain why our fiction today is not firing on all cylinders. I admit I am a big fan of Joshi, because he is heavily and personally invested in our genre. He is largely right. We need craft. We need mechanics. We need to be able to critically think when we as writers READ our genre classics.
Want us to scare you? We GOT the monsters….we just don't know where to put them where technology can't vaporize them.
It's not about being superstitious. It's about making ourselves afraid that the very core of what we believe might be wrong.
Isn't that why Cthulhu really waits?
Joshi, S.T. The Modern Weird Tale. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, c2001.
Joshi, S.T. The Weird Tale. Holicong, PA: Wildside Press LLC, c1990.
Joshi, S.T. Unutterable Horror: a History of Supernatural Fiction vol. 1 From Gilgamesh to the End of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hippocampus Press, c2012.
Joshi, S.T. Unutterable Horror: a History of Supernatural Fiction vol. 2 The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. New York: Hippocampus Press, c2012, 2014.


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Luc Besson and the Disturbing True Story Behind 'Léon: The Professional'
The celebrated 'Lolita'-esque hitman saga was partially inspired by a relationship the French filmmaker—and accused rapist—was having at the time with a teenager.
Marlow Stern
Senior Entertainment Editor
Updated May. 23, 2018 6:30AM ET / Published May. 23, 2018 5:00AM ET
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
There have been three headline-grabbing episodes in the past week that should give supporters of the #MeToo movement in France—or #Balancetonporc ("Expose your pig")—serious pause.
On Saturday evening, after Asia Argento delivered a courageous speech at the Cannes Film Festival's award ceremony calling out Harvey Weinstein, who she says raped her during the fest in 1997, the actress and filmmaker was shunned by all those in attendance, save Spike Lee.
Earlier that very day, the news broke that a young actress had filed a complaint with police accusing French filmmaker Luc Besson of "a violent sexual assault." The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, had acted in two of Besson's films, and alleges the rape occurred following a May 10 meeting with the director at the Bristol Hotel in Paris. (Besson denied the accusations.)
And last Wednesday, France's National Assembly passed measures intended to curb sexual harassment and assault, imposing heavy on-the-spot fines for catcalling and allowing underage rape victims an additional decade to file a complaint (up to 30 years after their 18th birthday). It failed, however, to establish a firm age of consent—a contentious issue in the Gallic country, given that French prosecutors recently declined to bring charges against two adult men who had sex with 11-year-old girls. While the age of consent in France is technically 15, lawmakers have determined that sex between persons over 18 and persons under 15 can only be classified as rape if it can be proven that the victim "lacked the necessary discernment to consent."
The sexual-assault allegation against Besson—and his home country's continued reluctance to pass sufficient statutory-rape laws—brought to mind the movie that made him an international star: Léon: The Professional.
"When Luc Besson did Léon, the story of a 13-year-old girl in love with an older man, it was very inspired by us since it was written while our story started. But no media made the link…"
— Maïwenn
Today, the 59-year-old Besson is the Michael Bay of France—a directorial giant responsible for a slew of bloated, bullet-riddled blockbusters like The Fifth Element, Lucy, and last year's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a $180 million sci-fi extravaganza that ranks as the most expensive foreign film of all time. He also runs the film studio EuropaCorp, which, despite its estimated $285 million debt load, was recently in talks with Netflix about a possible acquisition. But in the early '90s, he was just a hotshot indie filmmaker with a few impressive movies under his belt, including the 1990 action flick La Femme Nikita.
That all changed with Léon.
Released in 1994, it tells the story of a muted Italian hitman (Jean Reno) in New York City's Little Italy who finds himself the caretaker of a 12-year-old girl, Mathilda (Natalie Portman), and wanted by a gang of corrupt DEA agents, led by a pill-popping, gleefully unhinged Gary Oldman.
There are echoes of Pygmalion and Lolita, as Mathilda is schooled in the ways of the "cleaner" while repeatedly confessing her love to her much-older protector. In one scene, she dresses like Marilyn Monroe and performs a seductive "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" routine; in another, that was apparently too racy for the U.S. release, she discusses wanting to lose her virginity to him. (Léon does not reciprocate.)
Some critics, including the late, great Roger Ebert, found the relationship disturbing. "But always at the back of my mind was the troubled thought that there was something wrong about placing a 12-year-old character in the middle of this action… in what is essentially an exercise—a slick urban thriller—it seems to exploit the youth of the girl without really dealing with it," he wrote.
Still, the film was a critical and commercial hit, grossing $46 million worldwide against a $16 million budget and elevating Besson to the A-list.
What many were—and still are—unaware of was that Léon was a creepy example of art imitating life.
According to The Washington Post, Besson met the child actress Maïwenn when she was 12, the same age as Mathilda in the film. He was 29. They claim to have started seeing each other romantically when she turned 15. Maïwenn gave birth to their daughter when she was 16 (and Besson was 33), and subsequently relocated to Los Angeles. She appears briefly during the opening sequences of Léon as "blonde babe"—her listed character name—lying naked in bed, her body wrapped in sheets, having just serviced a middle-age crime boss.
"When Luc Besson did Léon, the story of a 13-year-old girl in love with an older man, it was very inspired by us since it was written while our story started. But no media made the link," Maïwenn said.
In an interview with the French publication L'Express, Maïwenn claimed that Léon was "this love story between a 12-year-old girl and a 30-year-old man [that] was still very much inspired by ours," and explained how she attempted to write a book about her relationship with Besson and years rubbing shoulders with movie stars in Los Angeles. But when the publisher gave it the title Beverly Hills or Lolita Love, she banned its publication. (Maïwenn did not respond to requests for comment for this story, while a representative for Besson issued the following statement to The Daily Beast: "Luc Besson has never commented [on] his private life, his approach remains unchanged.")
During the filming of Besson's follow-up movie, The Fifth Element, wherein Maïwenn portrayed the memorable blue opera-singing alien Diva Plavalaguna, the director left her for the film's lead actress, Milla Jovovich. "I had my daughter very young, so I had fulfilled my dream, and then… he left me. Everything then collapsed for me," Maïwenn recalled. She moved back to France with their young daughter and gradually evolved into a gifted filmmaker.
Her most acclaimed film to date is the 2011 drama Polisse, about a photographer (Maïwenn) assigned to shadow a Child Protection Unit that tracks down pedophiles and rescues sexually exploited children.
@marlownycmarlow.stern@thedailybeast.com


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Local hair stylist takes out top award again!
Fremantle is home to one of the country's leading hairdressers. Pauline McCabe – renowned hair stylist and owner of Fremantle's Rock Paper Scissors Hair Studio, recently accepted the WA Hairdresser of the Year Award at the 2018 Hair Expo Awards.
Hair Expo Australia is one of Australia's most impressive hairdressing events. It brings together the hairdressing community and provides an unparalleled opportunity to experience the hottest brands and products, world class education, international talent and show-stopping live performances. The Hair Expo Awards recognise the height of excellence in the Australian hair industry, offering stylists the chance to showcase their skill and passion.
"It's a great honour to to receive this award and be recognised by our industry. Being able to dialogue with the incredible creatives around the world is my continuing inspiration," said Pauline.
Pauline's approachable nature and passion for her craft have gained her a loyal following and her well trained team is equally able to provide world-class hairdressing services. Rock Paper Scissors is dedicated to using products that are sulphur-free, paraben-free, cruelty-free and eco-friendly.


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Home / News / Wincanton optimizes schedules and saves on milk distribution
Wincanton optimizes schedules and saves on milk distribution
UK based logistics group Wincanton operates a fleet of around 50 vehicles and 120 trailers on contract to Dairy Crest, collecting milk from 600 farms throughout the southern half of England and delivering it to dairies or manufacturing plants over a wide area of the country.
Raw milk is collected from farms by a number of different-sized tankers carrying between 14,500 and 26,000 litres each, then much of it is consolidated into larger consignments at "reload points" (local depots or other strategic locations), where it is loaded into bigger articulated tanker semi-trailers carrying up to 29,000 litres. These are trunked direct to their final destination point, usually as full loads.
Truckstops Loads fully lived up to expectations and is now saving one or two runs a day.
Multiple route permutations
Steve Prestidge, Wincanton's national contracts manager, explains: "We had always planned these movements manually at local level, but we run 75 to 100 direct movements a day, so it was almost impossible for our planners to consider all the possible routing permutations, or to work out which vehicles could be used economically to pick up loads on their return journeys."
The company also wanted to move from local to central transport planning, and needed a system that would be able to plan movements at a group-wide level.
Specialized system for full-load movements
Wincanton was already using Truckstops VRS (vehicle routing and scheduling system) as a strategic planning tool, and was keen to use something similar in an operational role to achieve efficiencies in its full-load movements. But it was aware that scheduling this work would require a specialized system suited to full-load operations.
Wincanton explained its requirements to CACI, which as it turned out was already developing a system for full-load planning. Wincanton was therefore able to contribute its extensive experience to help shape the final product.
The outcome, Truckstops Loads, is designed specifically for scheduling full-load A to B movements of tankers, full pallet-loads or products such as aggregates, and is therefore ideal for use in trunking, tramping and other bulk movements such as Wincanton's.
Truckstops Loads is particularly clever at working out which vehicles can be used for back loads. It can take account of whether the vehicle would have to deviate too far from its route, whether it could respect the collection time window, and ultimately whether collecting the consignment in this way would be more or less expensive than treating it as a standard outgoing load.
Truckstops Loads can schedule centrally across multiple depots, taking account of the availability of individual vehicles for successive tasks. It will respect delivery time windows and other constraints. It has the inherent ability to schedule pickups and deliveries that are interspersed on the same route. It can schedule journeys that extend over more than one day.
It can be programmed to distinguish between short visits required for a straightforward trailer swap, and longer visits involving more lengthy queuing and unloading. It can even take account of loading bay restrictions at specific delivery locations.
Once Truckstops Loads was ready, Wincanton was able to conduct field trials and feed its experience back to CACI, who then fine-tuned the system accordingly.
Efficient automated A to B scheduling of full-load deliveries of bulk milk
Up to two runs per shift saved, reducing costs by thousands of pounds a year
A move from local to central transport planning of long-distance movements
Ability to schedule more movements as backloads, maximising use of resources
Opportunity to change planed journeys without rescheduling the whole fleet
It's very easy to get new data into the system if a dairy changes its requirements at the last minute. It allows us to change part of the plan when that happens, without throwing out the whole schedule.
"Truckstops Loads has fully lived up to expectations," Steve Prestidge says, "and is now saving one or two runs a day." On the company's intensive double-shifted 24-hour operation, this adds up to a saving of many thousands of pounds over a year.
Moreover, it has enabled the company to move from local to central planning, improving the efficiency of the whole process significantly.
"Truckstops Loads is particularly clever at working out which vehicles can be used for back loads," Steve says. "It can take account of whether the vehicle would have to deviate too far from its route, whether it could respect the collection time window, and ultimately whether collecting the consignment in this way would be more or less expensive than treating it as a standard outgoing load."
He adds. "It's very easy to get new data into the system if a dairy changes its requirements at the last minute. It allows us to change part of the plan when that happens, without throwing out the whole schedule."
Since implementing Truckstops Loads, Wincanton has continued to provide feedback to CACI, benefiting from further enhancements and upgrades.
Posted in Bulk movements, trunking & tramping, Case Studies, Truck routing, US News
Bulk movements, trunking & tramping (1)
Network Planning (1)
Routing and Scheduling (24)
Truck routing (15)
UK News (11)
US News (24)


You need to check out this post from Pintercrafts! I have never thought to reuse my nail polish like this. These spring flowers are so petite and lovely. You will love them, I know I do. At first this project didn't quite make sense and I wondered how the nail polish was actually applied but it'll all make sense once you see it in action.
You might think that nail polish only has one use – to color your nails. But you would be wrong, if you're any good at arts and crafts then there are actually loads of different uses for this amazing product. Read this guide on clever nail polish craft ideas to learn more.


A Govt. of India recognized "STAR EXPORT HOUSE"
KOLKATA's largest (Infrastructure & capacity) and most advanced seafood processing unit.
Located within 30 minutes driving distance from the Airport.
Environment friendly unit with larger mass (more than 50% land) maintained as green area.
State of the art water treatment facility.
Comfortable living environment for employees.
Building equipped with advanced safety measures and surveillance system.
Complete Air conditioned processing unit.
EU Approved Plant (Approval no. 1302).
HACCP Certified Quality Control System.
BRC & BAP Approved Processing Unit.
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India Certified.
SA Exports is the flagship company of BEEU Group. It is one of the major exporters of shrimp to USA, Europe, Japan, Vietnam, Canada, Middle East, South East Asia from Eastern India. The large share in the total export value of the Group is the high-value product "Back Tiger Shrimp". It has its own competitive edge over shrimps farmed in other geographical locations.


Dragon Dreaming (www.dragondreaming.org ) is a playful and powerful collaborative project design tool that synthesises living systems theory, ancient aboriginal wisdom and deep ecology. It promotes a win-win-win culture, where personal growth, community building and service to the earth, are the key drivers of our projects-our lives.
This is the first time this course arrives to Nepal. Celebration!!
Dragon Dreaming is a tool to get companies to build resilient and inspiring projects. Thus, Dragon Dreaming can be applied to various purposes, both for undertaking a project, the creation of new products or services and the implementation of structural changes and vision within an organization. Dragon Dreaming takes us out of our comfort zone to reach our maximum creativity, adopting at the same time a culture of win-win and authentic communication. Dragon Dreaming works with a four-stage process: dream, plan, do and celebrate; 12 different phases and more than 60 tools. Using these tools in your organization, the resilience and adaptability to changes will increase and a greater cohesion among its stakeholders will be achieved, because the process of creation and realization of projects will be done in an enjoyable and inclusive way.
• Provides solutions to current problems with a different system of thought.
• Helps create projects and companies for the XXI Century through dynamic, flexible, innovative and resilient organizational structures.
• Create sustainable projects: economically, socially, environmentally and culturally.
• It is critical when creating a vision and a strategy for working together.
• Integrates new social and economic paradigms improving resourcing.
• Serves as a perfect setting to capture the different methodologies and the currently existing lines of thought.
• Provides a novel and comprehensive vision of the organization and the market.
• Empowers team members, promoting their autonomy, leadership and creativity.
• Fosters positive leadership, open communication and trust in teams.
• It is vital to create teams and communities that are strong, active and enduring over time.
• Thanks to its integrating vision, it helps to resolve conflicts.
• In addition, clearly identifies communication and structural failures.
Book your seat TODAY !!
TANDAVA THEATRE NEPAL is a non-profit, not-political, non-religious and non-governmental theatre organization in Nepal. Tandava Theatre (www.tandavatheatre.org)visions to create social justice and transformation for social development of the community and its people through theatre performances, workshops and activities. It also aims to promote youth leadership and active participation for the development of nation and visions to create unity and solidarity in between various groups of people globally. Adding further to its mission/Vision, Tandava Theatre is introducing Dragon Dreaming for the first time in Nepal.


October 7, 2014 • President Obama promised a massive American response to the epidemic, including the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops. That surge of assistance began three weeks ago, and despite challenges, progress is being made.
October 7, 2014 • Last month, the U.S. promised to build treatment centers for health care workers and for the general public. Our photo gallery checks in on the progress thus far.
October 6, 2014 • There's a company town in Liberia with 80,000 residents. Ebola was first detected in March. Firestone's resourceful response has kept the virus from spreading.
October 1, 2014 • With money and manpower, the European Union hopes to help stop the Ebola outbreak. But the EU has a long-term goal as well: Improving health care in West Africa to prevent future medical crises.


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No Marriage Ties is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by J. Walter Ruben and written by Arthur Caesar, H.W. Hanemann, Sam Mintz. The film stars Richard Dix, Elizabeth Allan, Doris Kenyon, Alan Dinehart and David Landau. The film was released on August 8, 1933, by RKO Pictures.

Synopsis
A heavy-drinking journalist joins forces with a public relations man to form a successful advertising agency. Although the business becomes a success, it takes a toll on the ex-reporter's personal life.

Cast
Richard Dix as Bruce Foster
Elizabeth Allan as Peggy Wilson
Doris Kenyon as Adrienne Deane
Alan Dinehart as 'Perk' Perkins
David Landau as Mr. Zimmer, Editor of 'The Reflector'
Hobart Cavanaugh as Smith
Hilda Vaughn as Fanny Olmstead, Foster's Secretary
Charles C. Wilson as Red Moran, City Desk Editor

References

External links

1933 films
American black-and-white films
1930s English-language films
RKO Pictures films
Films directed by J. Walter Ruben
1933 drama films
American drama films
1930s American films

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Historically multicultural, Brussels has an ambitious strategy and is implementing some exciting changes. The spheres of urban transportation, telecommunication, education, culture, and administration are all constantly improving, in order to bring efficiency to their citizens. The city is opening their data and investing largely in entrepreneurship and technological innovation. New incubators, regular events and meetups, along with open exhibitions are a becoming a regular part of the urban scene. Together with numerous smaller organizations, the city is making sure to stand as an attractive and inclusive place, where creativity is driven by its diversity and complexity.


How do I schedule my payments?
Vestiaire Collective and its finance partner allow you to pay for your purchases in several monthly payments, depending on certain conditions.
● 3rd payment 30 days later (so 60 days after the order is placed): 1/4 of the shopping bag value.
→ You must reside in mainland France, Monaco, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland or the French overseas territories.
→ The credit card used to make the payment must have an expiry date after the date of the 3rd payment.
● Two or three monthly payments, debited 30 and 60 days later for 3 times and at 30, 60 and 90 days for 4 times.
→ The credit card used for payment must have an expiry date after the date of the 3rd payment.


The workshop has been held on the current status of PVT collectors and systems, taking place in Freiburg on May 16th prior to the first experts´ meeting of IEA SHC Task 60. The seminar aimed to give an update on recent developments in the field, exchange on relevant projects and R&D results, and discuss best practice examples of PVT systems, where PVT collectors are viably applied. The topics have beens presented by experts from different research institutes and PVT companies. More than 50 experts from science and industry attended.
In the afternoon, a technical tour was held with the possibility to visit the test laboratories of PVT collectors at Fraunhofer ISE and the PVT collector field at the New Technical Town Hall in Stühlinger (to be confirmed).
The international seminar washeld in English language.
The seminar is open to the public and both task members and other interested stakeholders from research and industry were welcome.
Registration was done via aregistration link. The ticket fee included participation at the workshop, wifi, refreshments, and lunch at 35 EUR/Person.
The workshop showed that PVT systems have become a market reality and that there are several start-ups and specialised manufacturers offering products covering a wide range of applications, including residential, commercial and industrial sectors. Most of the PVT collectors, though, are unglazed panels (with no transparent cover) and used in combination with heat pumps, but some are typical glased collectors and there are even some examples of concentrating solutions. The collectors can be classified into three main categories according to the temperature range foreseen for the produced heat: low (0 to 50 °C), medium (30 to 80 °C) and high (up to 180 °C).
Classification of PVT collectors (source: Fraunhofer ISE, Task 60) was done.
The number of manufacturers active in the PVT sector is continuously increasing. As reported by Corry de Keizer from the Dutch Solar Energy Application Centre (SEAC), 54 different PVT modules were currently on the market in Europe, and additionally 6 are under development. "Such an astonishing figure witnesses that innovation is on its way in the PVT growing community, but also that some volatility is likely to be observed since the PVT market maturity is still ahead," summarises Jean-Christophe Hadorn, Head of Task 60. The report PVT Benchmark published in March 2018 by SEAC lists the active suppliers with a product photo and their website, but additionally identified 32 companies that have stopped offering PVT solutions already.
De Keizer emphasised that several PVT research activities were carried out in the Netherlands starting from the 90's, but with very little commercial success. The renewed interest in PVT, then, was mainly linked to the high demand for new solutions for net-zero energy buildings and, at the same time, the bad reputation on gas caused by the earthquake in the north of the country connected to the natural gas extraction in August 2012.
The SAEC benchmark report identified an average price of 300 EUR/m2 for PVT technologies. This is about 10 % less than the price for purchasing separated solar thermal collector (220 EUR/m2) and PV panels (120 EUR/m2). The Dutch survey also highlighted the main technological barriers for a wider PVT diffusion: The complexity of system design and installation, the difficulties in optimization and the reliability in the long term. Furthermore, standards are still lacking to support the industries to convince customers and installers.
The presentation by Manuel Lämmle from Fraunhofer ISE highlighted main research activities for developing novel PVT concepts with increased performance.
The first area is aiming at enhancing the internal heat transfer of PVT absorbers for lowering the PV cell operation temperature, thus increasing its conversion efficiency, and of course for obtaining higher values for the thermal efficiency. Results show that, through direct lamination of PV cells on metal sheets without any additional layer of glue or insulating air layers the internal heat transfer coefficient can reach values between 80 and 126 W/m2 K, while glued absorbers report values between 20 and 30 W/m2 K (see chart above).
The second research activity has the objective of increasing the performance of glazed PVT collectors through low-emissivity coatings. The results show that a reduction of radiative heat losses by 80 % is possible, thus improving the thermal efficiency. Of course, such an improvement also has some side effects, such as a reduction of the electrical efficiency (around 3 %) and an aggravation of the overheating problems.