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Simon McDonald
Reader, Writer, Bookseller
The Top 10 Crime Novels of 2020
December 11, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ Leave a comment
Say what you will about 2020, but it's been packed with some phenomenal crime fiction and thrillers, and it was so difficult culling my list of favourites to a measly ten. In any other year, Peter Swanson's "Rules For Perfect Murder" would feature; so too the new Rankin ("A Song for the Dark Times"), at least one of Connelly's ("The Law of Innocence" and "Fair Warning"), and Silva's "The Order." But when I sat back and reflected on my year of reading, these were the ones that resonated.
The Searcher by Tana French
November 29, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ Leave a comment
If you stripped its parts bare, the components that comprise Tana French's "The Searcher" are emblematic of a plethora of conventional crime novels: a retired cop named Cal Hooper, an outsider from Chicago recently relocated to a small town in Ireland, takes one last case.
But French makes this well-trodden territory distinctly her own, obliterating the artificial distinction between genre and literary fiction by creating a gracefully paced character study punctuated with flashes of intense violence and explosive revelations. Most crime writers, I think, would start their version of this tale at the point when a kid named Trey comes to Cal for help. You've read that opening a million times before: the client knocking on the investigator's door because someone is missing who needs to be found. In this instance, it's Trey's brother, Brendan.
But this moment, the ostensible "inciting incident," occurs 70 pages into proceedings. French is happy to lay the groundwork gradually, develop her characters and the township, the relationship between Cal and Trey, explore moral ambiguities, and delve deep into Cal's backstory, in order to make its dramatic moments truly reverberate.
This slow-burn psychological mystery seamlessly transitions into a white-knuckled thriller in its final third, before a perfect endcap confirms French as a maestro of the form.
Audience: General
Publisher: Penguin UK
October 18, 2020 October 19, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ 3 Comments
In "The Law of Innocence," as reports of a deadly virus in China with possible global implications begin to gather steam, Los Angeles defence attorney Mickey Haller takes on the most important case of his career: his own.
After an open-bar celebration of a not-guilty verdict at the Redwood on Second Street, Haller — a teetotaller, definitely not over the limit, and most assuredly not driving erratically — is pulled over by an LAPD cruiser. During a terse exchange with officer Milton, the cop notices a blotch of blood-like liquid beneath the bumper of Mickey's car. The Lincoln Lawyer is handcuffed and made to watch from the backseat of the police cruiser as Milton pops the trunk. Inside is the corpse of a former client.
Charged with murder and unable to make the $5 million bail, Haller opts to defend himself. He assembles a defence team from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Centre in downtown LA, which includes his half-brother, former LAPD detective Harry Bosch. But this frame-up is far more extensive, and watertight, than Haller could've ever imagined.
Bosch's investigation leads him to the port of Los Angeles, and a biofuel company run by a serial scam-artist with connections to the mob. He believes they're running an elaborate scheme involving illicit supplementary government subsidies payouts. Which means the feds are involved. And unwilling to get involved in Mickey's trial.
The tension rises steadily as Haller prepares his defence, and the courtroom drama is as nail-biting and riveting as anything else you'll read this year, grounded in authenticity rather than pyrotechnics. We know Haller is innocent. The question is, can he prove it? Michael Connelly, the unequivocal master of the police procedural, again proves himself the master of the legal thriller, too. Grisham and Turow might do it more often — but nobody does it better.
Series: Mickey Haller
Available: 10th November 2020
Publisher: A&U
Review: Casino by Peter Corris
September 13, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ 1 Comment
After turning down the job as head of security at the new Sydney casino, private investigator Cliff Hardy recommends Scot Galvani for the role, and moves on with his life, flattered by the offer, but a stickler for his unshackled lifestyle, which doesn't allow for the structure of 9-5 office hours, or the wearing of a suit. When Galvani is murdered weeks later, his wife Gina hires Hardy to investigate.
Published in 1994, "Casino" is the eighteenth instalment in the Cliff Hardy series, and one of my favourites; its elements a perfect cocktail for my particular crime fiction proclivities. The plot is straightforward, as they all are, but peppered with a cast of nefarious villains and love interests, and bolstered by Hardy's snide insights into Sydney in the early nineties. Hardy loves his city, that's obvious, but can see beyond its sheen, and has trudged through its mud.
Cliff Hardy exists on the softer side of the hardboiled spectrum. Oh, he can rough 'em up like the best of 'em, and isn't afraid to crack a few heads, but it's always a last resort, when his actions have been reduced to a singular course. He identifies and marinates on his own personality flaws. Jealousy, and a sexual attraction to Vita Drewe, threaten to destroy his (relatively) long-term relationship with Glen Withers; and Hardy knows he drinks too much (by the cask, in fact) but doesn't view it as a fatal flaw; not yet, at least. He is perfectly imperfect: the kind of hero readers follow to hell and back.
Every undiscovered Corris novel I dig up at second hand bookshops is a treat. I've maybe half a dozen to go, and (so far) I have resisted the urge to "cheat" and acquire them online.
Publisher : Allen & Unwin (19 November 2014)
Review: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
August 28, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ 1 Comment
"Blacktop Wasteland" is a Greek tragedy, its characters performing actions long-inscribed in the books of their lives. It's pitch perfect noir, as S.A. Cosby viciously and violently unspools the implacable fate of Beauregard Montage, getaway driver turned mechanic, who is unable to escape the world of criminality.
Beauregard needs cash: a lot more than he can make in illegal drag races in his classic duster. His repair shop in Red Hill County, Virginia is haemorrhaging; his cancer-stricken mother is about to be kicked out of palliative care; his daughter needs tuition; and his son needs braces. A big heist —last one, he swears, to himself and his wife — could make all his worries go away.
Or, as eventuates, lead to devastating consequences.
The Montagues have a family tradition of violence and bloodshed. Beauregard's father was a wheelman too, until he disappeared, leaving a shattered family, and a young black kid scrounging for ways to fill the gaping hole left by an absent father. Beauregard wants that tradition to end: but the only way he can withdraw his family from that life is to throw himself into it. The shattered man holding his life together with trembling fingers (despite Beauregard's outward swagger) is great noir fuel. You want Beauregard to claw his way out of trouble, but you despair at the choices he makes. "Blacktop Wasteland" has a simple narrative, textured with piercing insights into racial tensions, fatherhood, and the yearning for a better a life. It's gritty, violent and action-packed; think "Fast and Furious" thrills meshed with the depth of Dennis Lehane's great crime novels.
Imprint: Headline Book Publishing
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
Publish Date: 2-Jul-2020
Review: In the Heat of the Night by John Ball
August 18, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ Leave a comment
When I was a kid, borrowing tapes from the local Video Ezy every weekend, I knew when I slid a movie into the VCR I had a few minutes before the film started. What played in the interim was the requisite legal copyright verbiage, and a two minute featurette that was basically clips of various movies, the audio of which I unconsciously memorised, one line in particular, said by Sidney Poitier: "They call me Mr. Tibbs."
Without context, those words lack the gravitas they merit in both Norman Jewinson's 1967 film, and the John Ball novel it was adapted from, and published two years earlier: "In the Heat of the Night." Despite their different intonations — Poitier's voice is wearied and hardened, whereas it reads a little softer (though no less weary) — the Virgil Tibbs in both mediums are absolutely exhausted by the racial animus saturating the American South, and his simple response to the Chief of Police mocking inquiry about what he's called back home in Pasadena is searing because of its coolness: in California, Tibbs is a person.
Ball's novel is a conventional mystery involving the murder of music conductor Enrico Mantoli, whose body is found in the middle of the highway. Chief of Police Bill Gillespie orders Wood to round up any suspicious characters, and Virgil Tibbs fits the bill, waiting for his train back home at the local station. One telephone call to Pasadena later, Tibbs is cleared, and is roped into aiding the Wells police investigation; a scapegoat for the blame to be pinned on, should the case go unsolved.
Noxious racism coruscates through the town of Wells, and Tibbs is a character created by Ball to shatter the townspeople's preconceptions. He's almost too good to be true: a brilliant investigator, unruffled in the face of bigotry, impossibly intelligent. These facets are important to the story, but read contrived. Tibbs isn't human: he's an archetype. But we accept it, because that's exactly what the narrative calls for. This is a snapshot of race relations in mid-sixties America during the civil rights movement with a side of murder and mystery. I'm keen to read more in the series, just to see whether Tibbs develops more as a character, and whether the plots become more intricate.
Imprint: Peng. Mod. Classics
Review: The Force by Don Winslow
August 13, 2020 August 13, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ Leave a comment
The Manhattan North Special Task Force operates by one primary principle: if you don't intimidate the street, the street will kill you. Which means you've got to work outside the law to maintain it. And to keep the peace, you broker deals. You can't exterminate crime, so you work with the gangs. You maintain a status quo. You get dirty, but you don't get bent. You walk right up to the line, but you don't cross it. Until the day you do.
"The Force" is Don Winslow's epic novel about an elite NYPD task force. It's savagely violent and unambiguous in its portrayal of corrupt cops, so overwhelmed by their toxic egos and merrily lining their pockets, they've forgotten why they became police in the first place. If they're not entirely morally bankrupt, they're down to their last cents. Their decision to skim $4 million and 20 kilos of heroin from the scene of a major bust is the most extravagant of their wrongdoings; the coup de grâce before their fiefdom crumbles. And as it falls apart, readers learn just how far the corruption extends.
Winslow does a good job of establishing his characters in their own lives. Events are narrated through Detective Sergeant Denny Malone: Irish American, son of a cop, who grew up in Staten Island, whose brother was a firefighter who died on 9/11. Malone's also in the middle of a protracted divorce, and in a new relationship with a black, drug-addicted nurse. But the nature of the tale is that its characters' ambiguities are lost as it gathers momentum. When the FBI starts squeezing Malone for information, turning him into a rat — the thing he most despises — I was eager to see how he could possibly extricate himself from his predicament. But I wasn't emotionally invested in his survival, because to be frank, Malone is a bad guy, and deserves to go down for his crimes. It makes for a peculiar reading experience, rooting against the central character of a book. But it's not a feeling I marinated on, such is its velocity.
"The Force" is punctuated with blockbuster action scenes. Punchy sentences and short paragraphs make these sequences kinetic and frenetic. They read like a crude, bloody ballet. Impressively Don Winslow takes a derivative concept, shakes it, and gives it new energy. "The Force" is terrific entertainment. A cop novel only he could write.
Published: 19th June 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
Review: Maigret and the Ghost by Georges Simenon
August 5, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ Leave a comment
There's very little mystery and even less suspense in "Maigret and the Ghost," my first dalliance with Georges Simenon and his famous protagonist. And yet I was absolutely charmed by the French detective's 62nd case, and Simenon's depiction of the plodding reality of police work: endless phone calls, witness statements and interviews — with plenty of time for beer and sandwiches, and visits to bistros, naturally.
Let me refine that opening statement for the sake of clarity: this book is a mystery, but not a whodunit, even though the perpetrator of the crime isn't revealed until its latter stages. Its length — "Maigret and the Ghost" clocks in at less than 200 pages — means that readers have a fair understanding of the culprit by the halfway mark; there are simply not enough pages for explosive red herrings. What we don't know — what Maigret unravels — are the machinations behind the attempted murder: why was Inspector "Hopeless" Lognon of the 18th arrondissement gunned down in a Paris street, outside the home of a mysterious woman who has subsequently disappeared?
Maigret's investigation leads to conversations with a charismatic cast of onlookers, and to a Dutch art critic named Norris Jonker, and his wife Mirella, whose home, it appears, is frequently visited by prostitutes. The novel boils down to a series of conversations, of which Maigret's interrogation of the Jonkers is the most absorbing, as he picks away at the loose threads of their story. They're hiding something — but is it connected to Longon?
Sometimes when I'm reading a mystery or thriller I'll chart the dramatic trajectory of their plots as a writing exercise. That proved fruitless with "Maigret and the Ghost." The novel really only has one pace. It's not languid, nor is it in a rush. We're reading to Simenon's distinct schedule. And it's a treat. My first Maigret — with more to follow.
Published: 3rd December 2018
Country of Publication: GB
Review: A Song For the Dark Times by Ian Rankin
July 27, 2020 July 28, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ 2 Comments
Unlike some writers who want their heroes to remain supermen forever, Ian Rankin has paid attention to John Rebus's years, and found stories to exploit them. Not that Rebus's mortality is the focal point of "A Song For the Dark Times;" but it's always there on the periphery. In his twilight years, with his physicality and raw machismo dwindling, every flash of violence has greater consequence. We're not just worried about Rebus taking a punch; we're worried about what happens when he throws one, too.
There is something sadly discomforting in witnessing the irascible former maverick inspector in decline, forced into a downstairs apartment because Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease has made the climb up to his series-enduring tenement in Marchmont untenable. Not that he intends to putter away his golden years: Rebus has commandeered a selection of unsolved case files. Fodder for another time, however. Any plans Rebus has to reopen old murder files is interrupted by a call from his daughter Samantha. Her partner Keith — father to their daughter Carrie — is missing.
While Rebus journeys to the very far north of Scotland — inserting himself into the investigation of which Samantha is the primary suspect — detectives Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox work a murder case involving a very wealthy, and very well connected, international student in Edinburgh. Rankin builds intrigue like a symphony conductor. The cases overlap through several key witnesses and suspects, but their connection, although obviously manufactured for the sake of the narrative, doesn't feel contrived.
As ever, Rankin's themes are timely and prescient. Here he tackles the subject of Scottish land ownership, the festering desire for retribution, and the toxicity of secrets, while peeling back layers of the country's past. Much of the novel revolves around Camp 1033, a WWII internment camp that housed 'aliens' and captured soldiers. Ignorance on my part, but I had no idea such camps existed in Scotland; once again Rankin provides a history lesson alongside a cracking yarn.
Tautly constructed, compulsively paced, and consistently arresting. Routine brilliance from Ian Rankin. He delivers, every time.
Available: 29th September 2020
Review: Trust by Chris Hammer
June 23, 2020 June 23, 2020 / Simon McDonald	/ 2 Comments
In "Trust" Chris Hammer creates a microcosm of secrets, scandal, and skulduggery enmeshed in the threat of constant violence. In his hands, Sydney becomes a city of shadows; a place where menace lies around every corner, and dark intentions brew within every building. A malevolent cabal has spread long tendrils of corruption through every facet of the New South Wales government — and veteran newspaperman Martin Scarsden is determined to expose it.
"Trust" is so tightly wound up, it's like a rubber band ready to snap; already stretched to breaking point after its opening dozen pages, by which time Tarquin Molloy has stolen confidential data from the trading floor of a bank, and Mandalay Blonde — Scarsden's partner, but deserving of equal billing here, such is her importance and prevalence — abducted from her home in Port Silver. These events are tied to a subversive criminal enterprise that exists at the highest echelons of New South Wales politics.
This is Hammer writing pedal-to-the-metal, with a hook as enticing as "Scrublands," enhanced by superior writing and plotting. Rather than rest on his laurels, Hammer has pushed himself beyond his previous mysteries, which were already A-Grade. In "Trust" he has crafted a byzantine plot with so many threads that never tangle. There's a pulse-pounding shootout, a horrific torture scene (that stops short of being grossly visceral), and countless revelations and twists. Hammer orchestrates it all with virtuosic aplomb.
Available: 13th October 2020
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Home Issues February 5, 2016 "Picture Bride" — A Family Saga
February 5, 2016 Columnists
"Picture Bride" — A Family Saga
Michael G. Malaghan
Special to The Hawai'i Herald
Editor's note: We continue Michael G. Malaghan's serialized historical novel, "Picture Bride — A Family Saga," based on the Japanese immigrant experience. Malaghan's trilogy takes readers from turn-of-the-20th-century-Japan to Hawai'i in the picture bride era; the Islands during World War II, highlighted by the exploits of the Nisei soldiers; and beyond.
The novel begins with 12-year-old Haru-chan, fleeing her home in Amakusa, Kyüshü, for Hiroshima, where she becomes the picture bride of a Buddhist priest in Hawai'i.
Author Michael Malaghan is a retired businessman who divides his time between Hawai'i, Florida and Japan.
A spongy, red, kidney-shaped blotch, streaked with seams of purple, rose behind Ume's ear and extended into the hairline on the backside of her neck.
Haru froze, speechless. She knew.
Hansen's Disease was first detected in Hawai'i in 1848. Moloka'i's leper colony held 900 patients at its peak in 1903. Now, Ume would be among the roughly 600 who had contracted the disease.
"I noticed this a month ago, hoping it was some insect bite." She rolled up her sleeve. Past her elbow was a red rash forming a 2-inch snake. "I visited the doctor last week. He discovered spots between two of my toes and on my lower back, as well."
Haru understood, but could not utter the word "leprosy." "Oh, Ume," said Haru, tears forming in her eyes. She thought of Irie — Ume's husband's — jaunty lamp-swinging welcome just last night. "You haven't told anyone."
Ume shook her head slowly. "Dr. Uchida has been very kind. Once he reports my condition, I have one week to leave for Moloka'i. I asked him to wait until you arrived."
Haru looked at her friend. So lovely. Then the pictures of leprosy patients with their half-eaten faces flashed before her eyes. She wrapped her arms tightly around Ume, as if hoping to squeeze the death sentence from her body. She raised her head, tears trickling down her face, and gazed into Ume's eyes. Haru silently resolved to visit her friend every year. The visits, not the promise, would be what mattered.
"Kenji said compared to the early days, Moloka'i's living conditions have improved."
"Yes, I can be thankful this is not the 1860s. In those days, lepers were left on the beach with a week's ration of food." Ume rubbed the offending lump on her neck. "No doctors or nurses lived on the island back then. The 'inhabitants
. . .'" Ume smiled at this euphemism. ". . . had no shelter other than what they could build themselves. Government provided little — a shirt, a pair of pants, a sweater. And, a coffin. Drinking water had to be carried from 3 miles away when the stream went dry. The colony descended into chaos and barbarism."
"Then Father Damien arrived," said Haru. "He shamed the government and begged business people like the Baldwins to improve conditions." Remembering Kenji's updates, she added, "Today, there's a harbor, clean housing and three meals a day at the village cafeteria."
"And, a hospital with doctors and nurses," said Ume. "Father Damien is long gone, of course, but Mother Marianne and her Sisters of St. Francis have taken on his work." She shook her head slowly. "Why those haole nuns keep going to the island, knowing the risks, I have no idea."
"Hasn't Irie noticed . . . anything different about you? That you're so . . . unhappy?"
"He assumes I'm angry about his plan to borrow money to buy more land. We argued about this before I knew I had this disease. 'You never know what might happen,' I told him."
"Let me stay a few days, Ume," said Haru. "I can . . ."
"Haru-chan, what must be done . . ." She stopped and fought to keep her composure. "What must be done must be done by me. Irie could not bear to have someone watch his distress when I tell him." Ume patted Haru's arm. "Even as close a friend as you."
"There's more . . . the real reason I needed to see you. I'm pregnant . . ."
Haru's hand flew to her face. She stepped backwards in disbelief. "Oh, Ume . . ."
"The baby will be born on Moloka'i. I want you to come and take it back to Irie." Ume showed no tears. Her voice became businesslike — like the tone she used when giving the day's work assignments to her fellow housewives tending to the coffee plants. "I need your help with Irie."
"Anything, Ume-chan. Anything."
Ume grabbed Haru's arm and peered deep into her eyes. "I don't want Irie or the children to visit me. Not ever. Not even once. They will see the others and know what will happen to me. Someday, they will visit and won't recognize me. I want Irie and my children to remember me as I am."
Haru's soft voice argued, "But Irie has a mind of his own. He will say taking care of you is more important than life itself."
Ume squeezed Haru's arm tighter. "If Irie visits, I will commit jisatsu."
Haru felt the words were rehearsed, as if the purpose of her visit was to hear those words, to understand the conviction behind them. "Wakarimashita . . . I understand."
Ume released Haru's hand, rose and strolled over to a row of coffee trees. "The spread of leprosy is uncertain. People sent to Moloka'i 30 years ago still live; some die within a couple years. I can still do good, Haru. I'll be a kökua."
"A helper?" Haru knew enough Hawaiian to understand the word, yet the way Ume said it made it sound like a vocation.
"I know Irie will give me money to build a small house. The newcomers take care of those who can't take of themselves and hope that when it's our turn, someone will see us through the last days."
Haru nodded. "I will pray for you."
"The gods have abandoned me, Haru. I'm not sure if they even exist. More important than praying for me is helping Irie find a new wife. My children need a mother. The farm needs a gentle, but sturdy woman who labors and sings alongside our workers. Irie is a good husband to me. He will be a good husband to another woman."
Since Buddhism did not require a belief in the afterlife, the doubting words hardly registered. What struck Haru was the Buddhist charge from her father Kiyoshi. "Child, the day will come when you can pay me back by helping others."
Buddhism was not about afterlife certainty, but about living an honorable life and showing compassion for others in the present — not because of some promise of reward or threat of punishment after death, but because it is right to do and you want to do it. Her Amakusan birth parents, wretchedly poor as they were, had sacrificed their lives to give her a chance for a good life. They did it for her — not for Buddha, but perhaps because of his teaching.
"I will find Irie a good woman to look after your children and farm."
Ume bowed from the waist. "Arigato, Sensei
. . ." Rising, she added, ". . . and friend." Her eyes were moist. "The day is pleasant. Let's have our lunches outside before you return to Waimea."
After lunch, Haru drove off under clear, cerulean skies and traveled along the Hualälai road, lined with lush, colorful vegetation interrupted by sprays of wooden buildings bearing signs written in kanji characters. Each village boasted at least one Japanese cinema. Lost in thought, however, Haru saw none of this passing scenery.
The destruction of Ume's life consumed her thoughts. Neighbors would shun them. School children would be told to avoid contact. The children of many victims stopped going to school. All three surviving families in their Waimea mission had fled to O'ahu, where no one knew them. Rumors sprouted that the wives of afflicted husbands were forced to become prostitutes in order to support their families.
The One Mile marker caught Haru's eyes. One more mile and she would be home. Gentle trade winds aimed cotton candy clouds toward home.
At the edge of town, Haru's mood improved upon catching the burgeoning sounds of trombones, tubas, flugelhorns and snare drums pounding out the popular war song, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." She felt pride for her adopted country's soldiers, who had fought the war to end wars. She knew the horrific numbers: America had lost 100,000 soldiers in the one year they fought. Over the four-year slaughter, Great Britain had lost 800,000 and France 1,300,000, and on it went until the totals reached 16 million, including civilians.
Entering the town center, Haru saw that the celebration filled the central park and spilled over into the street leading to her home. Rather than beeping the horn to clear a path, she parked at the corner. As she climbed out of the car, she saw a mostly haole crowd mingling on the road leading to the town center. To her right on this street, she spied a flurry of kimono, jinbei and yukata. She spotted Kenji laughing with one of the plantation owners whose labor force was Filipino. Next to him, a Hawaiian paniolo was gesturing with his hands, like an Italian, explaining something to a Chinese medicine seller. Haru paused under a jacaranda tree, enjoying this moment of harmony. Wellington Carter, his golden locks spilling out of his cowboy hat, was chewing on a yakitori chicken skewer as he chatted with the only Japanese lawyer in town. And, Mrs. Oda from the trading post nodded her head while conversing with the haole doctor.
One day, my children will be in the middle of the road.
Goose bumps spread over her arms at the sight of two Issei soldiers wearing their American Army khakis, clinking sake cups to a beer mug held by a haole officer.
Strolling home, Haru waved to the mothers of the children attending her day care. They were dispensing bowls of rice, stirring tubs of udon soup and cutting fresh slabs of tofu. The paniolo had brought steaks and were digging pits alongside the temple to make grills. Sachi was helping two cowboys lay hot charcoal bricks on the bottom of a large pit next to a freshly butchered pig. She recognized the clerks from Oda's Trading Post filling little cups from two sake barrels.
She heard Kame cry out, "Haru . . . look! Sam is back!"
Haru turned to her front porch. The man standing next to Kame was not at all the Sam she remembered. When the gaunt man struggled down the steps, she sucked in her breath. "Welcome home, soldier."
Behind her, she heard a familiar soft baritone voice. "Sam, it's good to have you back." Wellington Carter moved to Haru's side, thrust out both hands, and shook Sam's right arm, holding it warmly. "You still have your house at the ranch and, when you feel up to it, a job."
"I don't want to be a charity case, Mr. Carter."
Carter nodded, as though he had anticipated the response, and a small, knowing smile curved his lips. "Then you'd better start work soon and earn your keep."
Minutes later, Haru's enthusiasm deflated when she spotted Joshua Bilkerton and Andy Pafko together under a jacaranda tree. Haru had not forgotten their meeting the day she landed in Hawai'i. She thought of Pafko's recent tirade enflaming haole opposition to the Japanese language schools. Bilkerton was disgusting. His cane worker mothers had told Haru how he preyed on his plantation's young teenagers. Seeing them in deep conversation, she suspected the worst.
Both men took a swig out of their flasks, unaware of Haru's worried interest. Pafko's love of Jim Beam and mashed potatoes had added to his girth. However, next to Bilkerton's walrus-sized gut, he was a beanpole.
Pafko shook the mouth of his flask at Bilkerton. "This next legislative session is your golden opportunity," said Pafko.
"I'm tired of hearing those kids sing the Japanese anthem every day after the little buggers leave their real school, the American one," slurred Bilkerton, who had won last week's election for the territorial Legislature.
This guy always misses the main point unless you hit him on the head, thought Pafko. "Now you can stop them." While looking at Bilkerton's floating eyes, Pafko resisted hitting him with a rapid list of points. He waited.
"Stop it. Me?"
Yes, stupid. "That's right. The same way we shut down the German newspapers when we declared war on the Kaiser."
"They squealed about the first amendment, but we did it anyway," said Bilkerton, proudly.
Good, the big oaf is following me. "Last year, 9,000 kids were born in Hawai'i — half of them Japs. That might be manageable if they were being raised American." Pafko accepted Bilkerton's nod — maybe he understood the stakes. "The solution is simple."
"Close them all down?" Bilkerton asked in alarm. "I don't want any labor problems."
"Right. So, controlling the schools . . . setting standards . . . that's the solution," responded Pafko.
"How can we do that?"
Listen idiot, that's why we have something called a Legislature, of which you are a member, Pafko wanted to say. "With legislation," said Pafko. He tilted his head forward. "We need a champion, Joshua. A man to introduce a bill that requires all teachers to be certified in English."
"None of Takayama's teachers would pass that test."
Congratulations, Mr. Dunce Cap. "That's right. And the man who introduces that legislation will be recognized as a political leader to be reckoned with. Why should all the governors come from Honolulu?" Pafko stared deep into Bilkerton's eyes to gauge whether his pandering had gone too far.
"You're right. But I will need some help on the wording."
No kidding. "I'm the writer. You're the action man, the hero who will Americanize those little Jap buggers."
Days earlier, John Waterhouse, the leader of the Big Five sugar barons, had invited the eager Pafko to dinner at the Pacific Club in Honolulu. "You can do yourself a big favor by going to Waimea and encouraging our new legislator to become a hero," Waterhouse said. His tone suggested that he wanted nothing to do with Bilkerton directly.
"It doesn't matter if the legislation is passed, and if passed, how crippling it turns out to be. What's important is to keep those people under siege. We can't allow this Bolshevik cancer to infect our islands like it has the West Coast."
To be continued . . .
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Historical Fiction – "A Question of Loyalty"
My Hawaii – Celebrating the Holidays in Okinawa
Issues Colin Sewake - January 19, 2020
Bamboo Ridge – "Let Me Fight Chicken"
Bamboo Ridge Hawaii Herald - January 19, 2020

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Q: Does Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleDataReader (ODP.Net) implements IDataReader interface? I'm new in ODP.Net and trying to implement it to our existing system. Currently, we are using OLEDB and using IDataReader interface to read a record from DataReader. However, when we  use ODP.Net using the same code logic, no records selected. So, my question is, does Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleDataReader (ODP.Net) implements IDataReader interface? If i try read the record using OracleDataReader without using IDataReader the record selected.
I'm using ODP.Net 10.1.0.4,
Oracle Client 10g,
ASP.Net
Edit:
string lstSelect = fstSelect + pstWhereClause;

IDbConnection lidcConn = fobCreateCon.CreateConnection();
lidcConn.ConnectionString = fstConStr;

IDbCommand lidcComm = fobCreateCon.CreateCommand();
lidcComm.Connection = lidcConn;
lidcComm.CommandText = lstSelect;

if (palParams != null)
{
 for (int i = 0; i < palParams.Length; i++)
 {
  IDbDataParameter lidpParam = fobCreateCon.CreateParameter(
   fstParameterPrefix + "PARA" + i.ToString(), palParams[i]);
  lidcComm.Parameters.Add(lidpParam);
 }
}

IDataReader lidrReader = null;
try
{
 lidcConn.Open();
 lidrReader = lidcComm.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection);
 bool lboReturn = lidrReader.Read();
 if (lboReturn)
 {
  fobEmployee.AR_Grace = lidrReader.IsDBNull(0) ? 0 : lidrReader.GetDecimal(0);
  fobEmployee.Card_Issued = lidrReader.IsDBNull(1) ? string.Empty : lidrReader.GetString(1);
 }
 lidrReader.Close();
 return lboReturn;
}
finally
{
 if (lidrReader != null)
 {
  if (!lidrReader.IsClosed)
   lidrReader.Close();
  lidrReader.Dispose();
 }

 if (lidcConn.State != ConnectionState.Closed)
  lidcConn.Close();
 lidcConn.Dispose();
 lidcComm.Dispose();
}

Above is the code we using right now. It works perfectly with OLEDB, SQLClient. Somehow no record return when using this code with ODP.Net.
We manage to select the record when change to this
OracleDataReader lidrReader = null;
try
{
 lidcConn.Open();
 lidrReader = (OracleDataReader)lidcComm.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection);
 if (lidrReader.HasRow)
 {
  lidrReader.Read();
  fobEmployee.AR_Grace = lidrReader.IsDBNull(0) ? 0 : lidrReader.GetDecimal(0);
  fobEmployee.Card_Issued = lidrReader.IsDBNull(1) ? string.Empty : lidrReader.GetString(1);
 }
 lidrReader.Close();
}

We impossible to change it to the above code cause it will involve more than 300 data file classes and we want this code working for other databases. Any help?

A: If we're talking about System.Data.IDataReader, the answer is yes. In fact, OracleDataReader inherits from the abstract class System.Data.Common.DbDataReader which in turn inherits from the System.Data.IDataReader.
In other words, Oracle plays nice with the ADO.NET and should work more or less exactly like the other ADO.NET providers.
I have not tried with the versions prior to 10.2.x though, but I doubt things have changed significantly. I have had no problems with the OracleDataReader.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Interview: Howard Jones
June 1, 2018 thewire Interviews 0
(June 2018) British singer songwriter and 80's synth pop pioneer Howard Jones is making his way from across the pond to Peterborough this summer. His first single, "New Song", was released in September 1983 and reached the Top 30 in the US and the Top 5 in the UK. It was followed up by a list of world wide hits, and his album, Human's Lib, being certified gold and platinum in several countries. Later singles "Life In One Day", "Things Can Only Get Better", and "Look Mama" were only precursors to "No One Is to Blame" his biggest hit yet. After major deals and tours ran their decade long course, he took to producing his own recordings, practising Nichiren Buddhism, adhering to a vegetarian lifestyle and maintaining a most positive attitude about himself and the world around him. I caught up with him as he got ready to play a gig somewhere in Chelsea….
Mb: Hello Howard.
Howard: Hi Michael, how are you?
Mb: I'm well. Yourself?
Howard: Yes, I'm very good, thanks.
Mb: So you're coming to Peterborough this summer…
Howard: Yes, fantastic!
Mb: Are you out touring right now?
Howard: I'm at Chelsea football grounds at the moment. I'm going to do a gig this evening at a venue here.
Mb: Full band?
Howard: Yes it is, a full band and I've got a brass section for this particular gig as well, ya. So it's a very big band. We're playing a venue at Chelsea, we aren't playing the stadium.
Mb: So let's go back to 1985 and talk about playing Live Aid. As a Buddhist that show must have played right into your sensibility?
Howard: I wasn't actually practicing Buddhism when I played Live Aid, but yes, it was amazing to be part of that event because it was the first global event, of any kind, where technology had linked up the whole world, and it was for such a great cause. It really was the best thing that happened in the 80's, in terms of a philanthropic event that really worked, you know? People's lives were saved. It was really important for me to be involved in that, and to play a part in a small way. I played one song that day, a song called Hide and Seek. It was an amazing memory that I will always keep with me.
Mb: An event like that must have helped you re-enforce your positive thinking, though I read somewhere the media suggested your songs were "too sweet…" while everyone was writing about sex and drugs.
Howard: It's very important to have a hopeful view for the future. I don't think it helps anyone to be dragged into a negative view of life. So for me, I thought that was my role in music, was to present a positive view. Everyone has down times or bad times, or is struggling with something or other. Nobody escapes that. Music and art can have that function of giving you a bit of a boost at the time you need it. I was always very aware of that, as a person listening to music and benefitting from it, so I set it out as my mission and to put positive messages in everything I did.
Mb: That giant hit of yours Things Can Only Get Better speaks to that.
Howard: I wrote that song in 1985 when I was on the road. I'd recorded Human's Lib, that album was out, and I was constantly touring, on stage every night , so I had a little studio setup backstage at every gig, and that was one of the songs I wrote. It was great because when you're out on tour with a great band, which I had at the time, spirits are high and everyone's in an energetic mood, so it was a good time to write that song. I was imagining singing it to the audiences I was playing to on that tour. It was very exciting. It's written from the perspective of, when things go horribly wrong, which they do for everyone, and you never know what's coming around the corner, and as bad as it gets we can always turn it around. We can always turn it into something positive. We can always learn from it and we can go forward. But if we give up on ourselves, and other people, then it can only spiral down. It's a cheerleader song really! (laughs)
Mb: Must feel great having seen the song come back 30 years later as a re-mix with Cedric, especially in the times we're living now.
Howard: I'm more aware now than I've ever been of the need for people to have a bit of encouragement. I think people's heads are dropping a bit, looking around at the world and what's going on, but there's plenty of good things going on as well. And plenty of great things to be hopeful about and we've just got to keep that in mind. It is a time for people to stand up for what they value and we have the opportunity to do that and so, that's what we've all got to do. We can't be passive. We've got to be actively standing up for what we think is right. I've always wanted to put that across in my work.
Mb: That also plays out in the way you've engaged your audience. In the early days crowd-sourcing to record, taking a DYI approach, as an Indie pioneer…
Howard: I was fortunate to have a 5 album deal with Warner Brothers which eventually came to an end after 10 years. And then I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to become an independent artist and record my own albums and fund my own work, be in charge of my own agenda and calendar and take the risk. What comes with that is, you have to be engaged with the fans. You have to make sure they're on board with you and feel valued. I think that's something independent artists have really taken on board. You have to be directly responsible to them, you know? (laughs) I think it's a good thing, people being able to raise money to make albums. I think it's a wonderful thing. If people are prepared to work hard enough they can make a career for themselves in music, but it's got to involve looking after the fan. I've always put that at the beginning, at the centre of what I've done.
Mb: And now with technology being what it is, and you embraced it early, now you've developed a phone app… utilizing technology to reach your audience.
Howard: Ya, I thought it would be good to develop an app because everybody brings their phone and they're often spending a lot of time filming the show. (laughs) And in a sense, not being part of it! Being an observer instead of a participant. So I thought it might be good to have an app where you could engage with the show with your phone. It was about bringing the focus back to that. I don't have a problem keeping people's attention at shows, I mean there are a few people who have the app and they hold up messages to me and it's very cool. I'm sure as time goes by we'll develop it more and make it more interesting for people.
Mb: It's a great response to what's happening in the culture.
Howard: Ya, I always thought it was very important that if you are going to be an artist living in this time that you should use technology of the day. With my live shows we use technology. I can do gigs any way, but I think it's fun to do it with the instruments that are all around at the time you're living. I feel very strongly about that. If I had been born into the 70's I'd have been playing a grand piano, and probably have more conventional instruments on stage with me, but I wasn't. I was born into this time and I love to embrace what's around me.
Howard Jones performs Saturday July 14, Peterborough Musicfest, Crary Park.
Mb Speaks: June 2018


Joy explained that this was the second season Field of Greens has been open. Joy worked for the City of Bellingham for 23 years, but was laid off in 2009 as part of budget cutbacks. Though it was a shock at the time, she said she gradually began to see it as an opportunity, and started planning her farm stand business.
Joy's rustic stand, located at the corner of Kale and Everson Roads, offers produce from three certified organic Everson farms–Broadleaf, Terra Verde, and Rabbit Fields Farms. Among them they have 15 greenhouses, which extends their growing season and allows Joy to open earlier in the spring than many other produce stands. She is open from May 1st through October 31st each year. Her goal is to carry fresh organic produce priced lower than the Community Food Co-op or the Farmer's Markets.
Field of Greens has been successful since its launch in 2010. Regular customers include residents of Bellingham and Whatcom County, as well as Canadians who drive down to shop. Some customers even bike 22 miles from Blaine. "People love the ambience," Joy says, and the unusual varieties of fruits and vegetables that she is able to offer. For example, on the day I visited, Joy had Dragon's Tongue beans (see recipe below), Loma lettuce, and romanesco–all tasty and beautiful varieties which are hard to find.
Rural ambience at Field of Greens is pleasant and relaxing. The wooden structure itself was hand-built by Joy and her family. A grove of walnut and hazelnut trees along a grassy meadow make a nice place for kids to play while parents shop.
If you are doing canning or freezing and need large quantities of certain products, call ahead. Sometimes Joy's farmers offer special bulk prices when you buy 20 lbs or more. Joy can be reached through her website where you'll also find a "What's Fresh" page where she lists produce available each week.
Field of Greens also sells vegetable notecards made by Rio Thomas. "We save all the weird things for Rio!" Joy laughs. Rio takes unusually shaped vegetables and fruits, arranges them into colorful designs, and photographs them for her notecards. They are fascinating and beautiful, and this description doesn't do them justice. You have to see them to fully appreciate.
Joy's stand is open Wednesday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Enjoy the short drive through beautiful farmland, and tell Joy I said hello! I promise you won't be disappointed.


Cyrus Villanueva sings his cover of 'Rumour Has It' on The X Factor Australia Top 7 Trailblazer Live Shows, Monday, October 26, 2015.
"That was massive comeback," Guy Sebastian told Cyrus. Watch his performance on the video below.
To vote Cyrus, call 1902 555 709 or SMS CYRUS to 191777.
What can you say about Cyrus Villanueva's performance? Write your thoughts and opinion on the comments section below.


text:
title: A new city
layout: post
comments:	True
---

So this semester I'm going to be studying abroad at K.U.Leuven's Faculty of Engineering Sciences (I'm originally from Lisbon University's Instituto Superior Técnico).

My first impression upon arrival was that it was a very small city. Which, for a Portuguese is a
rare thing to say. Lisbon, where I come from, is not a particularly large city. At 1.6 - 2 million
people, we can never be called small, but also not that big comparing to other cities. Leuven
on the other hand is a 100 thousand people city. Its a circular shaped city with a radius of 2
kilometers, and from what I've seen generally very small buildings (two to three stories max).
Though the city itself is gorgeous. It's very picturesque and cosy, though could be more if the buildings were bigger.

Combined with the general lack of hills it gives the city the feel of being very small. You look any direction and you only see the small building you're looking at and then the sky. Something I'm not at all used to. In lisbon you see either tall buildings or small buildings and the hills around it with more houses! This new way still feels somewhat weird! :P. Also, most buildings are brownstone, which is gives the city a nice look, and there are a lot of buildings you can see are centuries old:

![KUL Registration](/assets/2014-09-12 17.23.26.jpg)

The other very noteworthy thing, though expected, is the shear amount of bikes. Its a small and generally flat city, so bikes are very convenient. And the city has great infrastructure to accommodate them, like this underground bike park:

![Bike Park](/assets/2014-09-12 15.44.38.jpg)

It's a great method of transportation that i hope to adopt!

Update(16/9)! Here's my bike!

![Bike Pic](/assets/2014-09-16%2016.40.17.jpg)

As for the people, they seem generally nice and I haven't met anyone who doesn't know english to an extent that we cannot communicate, so that's great. The bad part is that i still haven't met anyone… It's to be expected though, I arrived yesterday and my housemates (there are 6 of us in this house) haven't arrived yet. I only came this soon because of Erasmus Orientation Days in this next week (classes only start on the 22nd).

The only bad thing up to now is that i tried registering at the university yesterday (friday), but there was some sort of informatic error and I (and as i was told, several other exchange students) couldn't register. As a consequence, this will be a internet-less weekend, as i need my university credentials to login… This is also the reason why this post is only up today (and why I couldn't go to some ESN meetups: No access to facebook!), but was written on the 13th. Well, it'll be sorted out next week!

All in all, i think I'll like it here, and i can't wait to meet new people, but i need my internet fix!

-Rui

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text:
First Look at '22 Jump Street' as Shooting Begins in New Orleans
First Look at 22 Jump Street as Shooting Begins in New Orleans
Principal photography began September 28th, 2013 on Columbia Pictures' and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures' 22 Jump Street, the sequel to the 2012 action-comedy blockbuster 21 Jump Street, which took in more than $200 million at the worldwide box office.
And so it begins... http://t.co/spsOe8Qyck#22JumpStreet#Day1
— Channing Tatum (@channingtatum) September 28, 2013
Day 1 on 22 Jump Street. Let the insanity begin.
— Jonah Hill (@JonahHill) September 28, 2013
Related: Jump Street Female Spinoff Planned with Broad City Writers
22 Jump Street reunites Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as they return to their roles as undercover cops Schmidt and Jenko; they are also re-teaming with 21 Jump Street producer Neal H. Moritz (The Fast and the Furious franchise) and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs). Alonside Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, Ice Cube reprises his role as Captain Dickson.
The production films in New Orleans and Puerto Rico.
In the action-comedy 22 Jump Street, after making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college.
Says producer Neal H. Moritz,
"We were all so thrilled by the irreverent humor and the chemistry between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as we sent them back to high school in the first film. So, of course, we just had to send them to college. It's also great to have Phil Lord and Chris Miller back at the helm. From the get go they have had the perfect pulse on the material, and have created an unforgettable cop buddy team in Schmidt and Jenko."
Continue directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller,
"Buddies who work together is a topic that is close to home for us. We're looking forward to working Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, Neal and our friends at Sony again to take these guys' relationship to the next level."
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum add,
"We are grateful to our friends at Sony and MGM for letting us do another one. We're proud to be working alongside Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Neal, Ice Cube, Korean Jesus and the rest of our amazing crew and cast. As we all know, sequels are ALWAYS better than the original. Every single time. This will be no exception. How are we still saying the exact same words at the same time? This is crazy! Jump Street!"


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Complaints regarding the conduct of a Registered Dietitian or Registered Nutritionist received by the College of Dietitians of Alberta (CDA) are processed by the framework outlined in Part IV of the Health Professions Act.
Upon receipt of the complaint, the Complaints Director will review the complaint to establish whether CDA has jurisdiction.
The person making the complaint (Complainant) and the regulated member (Investigated Person) will, within 30 days of the College receiving the complaint, receive an initial letter from the Complaints Director confirming receipt and advising of the action taken with respect to it.
The following provides a brief overview of what actions may be taken, depending upon the decision of the Complaints Director. Each process ensures fairness to both the complainant and the regulated member named in the complaint.
Facilitated Resolution
Certain types of concerns are dealt with more effectively through discussion and resolution between the concerned parties. When appropriate, the Complaints Director will encourage the concerned parties to communicate with each other and resolve the issues surrounding the complaint. With the consent of both parties, the Complaints Director may also work with the parties in an attempt to resolve the complaint.
The Complaints Director may also suggest to the parties that they pursue an alternative complaint resolution process to resolve the matter. This process includes involvement of an impartial third-party who acts as a mediator to assist the parties to achieve a resolution and come to some form of agreement between themselves.
If none of these efforts to resolve a complaint are successful, the Complaints Director will determine further action.
Note: Facilitated Resolution will not apply to allegations that may cause further harm to a complainant including, but not limited to, allegations of sexual abuse or sexual misconduct.
During the process of dealing with a complaint, the Complaints Director may determine that an investigation is required for the purpose of obtaining further information regarding the matter. Specifically, the Complaints Director may:
Request an expert to review and assess the issues surrounding a complaint and provide a written report on the matter;
Investigate the matter; and/or
Appoint an investigator.
When the complaints director appoints an investigator to conduct an investigation, the investigator may ask any person to answer any questions and to produce any documents relevant to the case and may copy and keep copies of any documents provided. It is the responsibility of the investigator to gather factual evidence with regard to the complaint.
The HPA states the process for an investigation, specifying the following:
The investigated person and the complainant are notified that the matter has been referred to an investigation and provided with the name of the investigator.
The investigator will meet with the complainant and others who have direct knowledge of the matter for the purpose of gathering information and documents that relate to the complaint.
The investigator will meet with the investigated person, who may be accompanied by a representative, for the purpose of gathering information and documents that relate to the complaint.
During the course of the investigation, the investigator may require any person to answer any relevant questions (under oath, if deemed necessary), and to provide any documents or items relevant to the investigation.
The investigator may at any reasonable time enter and inspect any premises (except a private home) where the investigated person provides services.
The investigator has the authority to investigate other matters unrelated to the original complaint that are related to the conduct of the investigated person.
During the investigation process, the investigated person may be subject to conditions on their practice permit or suspension of their practice permit, pending the outcome of a hearing.
Information that is gathered by the College during an investigation is shared for the purposes of conducting the investigation, discipline processes or when authorized by law.
The length of an investigation will vary based on availability of people and information, complexity of the complaint, and legal or employment matters that may be involved.
Upon completion of the investigation, a report must be prepared and submitted to the Complaints Director. Based on the information provided in the report, the Complaints Director will determine next actions to be taken.
Dismissal of the Complaint
When a complaint is received, before or after it is investigated, the Complaints Director may make a decision to dismiss the complaint on the basis that it is frivolous or vexatious, or that there is insufficient or no evidence of unprofessional conduct. When a complaint is dismissed, the Complaints Director must give reasons. The complainant may apply, in writing with reasons, to the Hearings Director for a review of the dismissal of a complaint within 30 days of being notified of the dismissal. A complaint review committee reviews the decision and investigator's report (if there is one), and may refer the matter to the Hearings Director for a hearing, direct the Complaints Director to appoint an investigator or conduct further investigation, or confirm that the complaint is dismissed.
Referral to a Hearing
If there is evidence to support the complaint, the matter is referred to the College's Hearings Director for a hearing. Hearing tribunals include a minimum of two Registered Dietitians and two public members.
A hearing is a formal process set out in the legislation. Witnesses may be called by the College or the investigated person, documents are placed in evidence, the proceedings are recorded, and a decision is issued upon completion. Hearings are open to the public. The decisions of the Hearing Tribunal are subject to an appeal process whereby the investigated person or the Complaints Director, on behalf of the College, may appeal the hearing tribunal's decision to Council within 30 days. The investigated person can subsequently appeal to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.


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Andre Villas Boas
Will Wolves be a bad moment for Chelsea?
CHELSEA'S New Years Eve defeat to Aston Villa will put them in the right frame of mind to take on Wolves this afternoon.
andre villas-boas Image 5
That's according to Blues boss Andre Villas-Boas , who finds himself treading in the very footsteps that saw predecessor Carlo Ancelotti march towards unemployment last season.
The Blues' recent results look remarkably similar to those which undermined Ancelotti's position at the club 12 months back. Both managers have suffered a crushing defeat to Arsenal; a 1-1 draw at Tottenham; and the haphazard defending which resulted in shipping three goals at home to Aston Villa. Though Ancelotti's side emerged from that New Year game against Villa with a draw, as opposed to Villas-Boas' defeat.
Now, as last year, a Chelsea boss under immense pressure and scrutiny makes an early-January trip to Molineux for a game that really could be make or break.
Villas-Boas is certain he can lift his team.
"That's the easy part," he said. "It's a game within 48 hours (of the last one) and we don't have to wait for another opportunity to prove that we can put things back on the right track. Psychologically it's a plus."
Last season at Wolves, Ancelotti's Chelsea lost 1-0 thanks to a Jose Bosingwa own goal – the very nadir of the Italian coach's so-called 'bad moment'. From then onwards, he was seen by many as a dead man walking – despite winning the FA Cup and Premier League double the previous season.
Meanwhile Villas-Boas, yet to prove himself at Chelsea, is already in the position of having to write-off trophies.
He said: "The December fixtures were always going to be difficult for everybody. They are proving difficult for all the top clubs and we haven't made the most of the opportunities.
"If we had continued to be competent from what we did against Man City we would maybe be challenging for the League. You can say we might have lost it in December."
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest Chelsea news.
Roberto Di Matteo
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BBCSuper Sunday is back next month
From £18 burger and chips to £2.50 pies - the wild differences between London's football food prices
Grassroots FootballThe jury is out for which club provides the best food on matchday and the price they charge for this


Home >> Arab Spring >> Libya: who's fighting who?
By now, we expect that you're familiar with the 'official' narrative describing events taking place in Libya. A spontaneous uprising against the repressive regime of Muammar Gaddafi sparks brutal retaliatory attacks from the dictator; Britain, France, and the US step in to offer military support to the rebels, backed by UN resolution 1973 authorising action to protect civilians from Gaddafi's vicious assaults. That pretty much brings us up to the present day, with NATO striking repeatedly at Gaddafi strongholds and the apparent prospect of a free Libya justifying increasing military intensity (and casualties). This comprehensive article written by Abdel Bari Atwan and published by the Stop The War Coalition paints a very different picture.
Atwan contends that the de facto leadership of the rebels consists of former Gaddafi loyalists, who have simply defected and are piggybacking on the support of NATO in an effort to assume Gaddafi's mantle — or at least to shift the burden of guilt for previous atrocities from their own shoulders. Abdul Jalil Mustafa, for example, is Gaddafi's former minister of justice, a post in which he repeatedly sentenced those who dissented against the regime to torture and death. Major-General Abdel Fattah Younis' history of service to Gaddafi goes back more than forty years, and he was Libya's minister of the interior as recently as February.
These are the people who are heading up the rebellion and who are commanding the backing of NATO. If Atwan is to be believed, the chances of them initiating a free Libya once Gaddafi is removed are about as great as the chances of Muammar himself taking up needlework.
This is not to denigrate the initial uprising, nor even the intention to protect civilians. It does appear that the Libyan people, worn to the bone by despotism and the gradual erosion of the benefits they received from Libya's oil wealth, rose up in genuine protest. That civilians were and are endangered by Gaddafi's callousness is beyond doubt. Increasingly, however, it appears that the heartfelt longing of the Libyan people has been co-opted by opportunistic ex-members of the Gaddafi regime, and by the governments of nations who benefit from the export of Libya's oil wealth.
In these circumstances, it's impossible to trust military intervention in Libya — especially now that the stated intention has shifted from protecting civilians to forcing regime change. For the people of Libya, the situation is a heartbreaking one: having protested against one form of autocratic rule, they risk entering into a bloody struggle, and perhaps losing their lives, in support of the establishment of another.


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Euthalia phernes är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Hans Fruhstorfer 1913. Euthalia phernes ingår i släktet Euthalia och familjen praktfjärilar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Praktfjärilar
phernes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The 15th annual Jay Dix Challenge to Cure 10K Run & 5K Walk/Run is a family event that supports a terrific local cause. The event offers three distances to choose from: a 5K walk, and 5K and 10K runs. Each is chip-timed and starts simultaneously from Flat Branch Park. The challenge is run in memory of the late Jay Dix – physician, former Boone County medical examiner and Columbia multisport member – to raise funds for Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.


So so so good!!! The soup is creamy and flavorful! The uni flavor is not overpowering for those who may be a bit turned off by the ocean taste. It's just so yummy!!
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The Committee on the Place of Women in the Church was organized at the 1953 General Assembly with the purpose of investigating the possibility of ordaining women as elders and ministers. This group was responsible for all of the reports and studies that were sent down to the presbyteries and ultimately they made the recommendation that women should be ordained as elders and ministers. Louis H. Fowler was the original Convener of the Committee, and was later replaced by Eoin S. MacKay in 1960. The Committee was disbanded after the 1966 General Assembly.


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Daitoku-ji sub-temple, Koto-in, was established in 1601 by Tadaoki Hosokawa as a memorial to his father, Yúsai Hosokawa. The temple was built for Yúsai 's brother the monk, Gyokuho Joso1 . Tadaoki was a famous warrior under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, studied Zen under the Daitoku-ji abbot, Seigan, and was a distinguished disciple of tea master, Sen no Rikyu.
Koto-in is home to two famous tea houses, Shoko-ken (built by Hosokawa in 1628) and Horai. There is a famous wash basin made from a stone brought from the Imperial Palace in Korea. The main courtyard of the walled compound is an amazing place of peace and tranquility - feeling like a place detached from the world. It is interesting to watch the faces of visitors as they come to this view! The garden is also famous for its beautiful maples in fall color.
The shrine of Lord Hosokawa and his Christian wife, Lady Gracia is located here. There is a stone lantern marking the grave that was a favorite of Hosokawa in life, as it was a treasured gift from his teacher and tea master, Sen No Rikyu.
Shrine of Lord Hosakawa and his Christian wife, Gratia.
There are two famous tea houses, Shoko-ken and Horai.


The public cloud has enabled customers to move fast and adapt to changing needs by allowing them to quickly spin up infrastructure programmatically or with just a few clicks. This has allowed companies to grow quickly, and for technological advancements to be implemented rapidly. However, as simple as it is to stand up infrastructure it's just as simple to misconfigure it. Even the most trivial misconfigurations can lead to very costly breaches because they can leave holes in an organization's environment. Access via these holes can be disastrous in the hands of an attacker.
According to Gartner, "Through 2022, at least 95% of cloud security failures will be the fault of the customer." In order to ensure your cloud infrastructure is secure, it is important to make sure that the configurations of your cloud resources are compliant.
Principle of Least Privilege:Ensure that users and resources are only provided the access they require. It is very easy to give everyone and everything full access so that things just "work", however if this access is compromised, a bad actor has the ability to do whatever they please within your account, including deleting every single resource!
Old Accounts: Ensure that you are deleting IAM accounts that are not used after a certain period of time, or if an employee leaves your company. Accounts that are hanging around can be assumed by bad actors or by former employees to exfiltrate data amongst other things.
MFA: If credentials are compromised Multi Factor Authentication makes it much more difficult for bad actors to log into your cloud account, as they will need access to your virtual MFA device or hardware device. This is an added layer of security that should be enabled for all users.
Networking in the cloud is simple due to Software Defined Networking technology. However, it is important to ensure that only the network access that is required by resources is in place.
Public/Private Subnets – If your instances do not need to be public facing, it is best practice to keep them in private subnets.
Routes – Ensure that routes between your resources in your cloud environment are restricted to only the access that is needed.
In the cloud many of these resources have configuration policies attached that can be misconfigured to allow anyone in the world to access them. One of the most common reasons for breaches is the misconfiguration of policies attached to managed data stores in the cloud. Cloud service providers abstract much of the underlying infrastructure for these services for you, so that you can focus on utilizing these capabilities without the operations and maintenance overhead. However, it is extremely important to secure these data sources.
Public Access: Unless your data source is required to be available to the public for a website or certain content, it is not ever recommended to keep it publically available as anyone with internet access is able to access your data.
Encryption: Encrypt your data whenever possible, so that if a datastore is accessed by a bad actor they will need to decrypt the data within it with the appropriate key.


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Driver-fatigue test could stop drowsy people from getting behind the wheel
April 19, 2018 Drink Driving, Drug driving, Mobile phone driving, Road rules, Uncategorized, Weird Traffic laws NSW
By Matthew Clayfield
HOTO: A roadside test is being developed to identify tired drivers and keep them off the road. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)
A roadside test is being developed by Victorian researchers to identify tired drivers and keep them off the road.
One-fifth of Australian adults have fallen asleep while driving
Nearly a third drive while drowsy at least once a month
Shift workers, parents of young children, and anyone who doesn't get enough quality sleep is at risk
They hope so-called smart glasses, which track eye movements and measure the length of our blinks, might help police identify drowsy drivers and prevent fatigue-related accidents.
Professor Mark Howard, director of the Victorian Respiratory Support Service at Austin Hospital, said researchers were using devices that look at eyelid movements to detect and assess the severity of drowsiness being experienced by someone.
He said the ability to enforce alert driving had been hampered by not being able to measure drowsiness.
"Because we can't measure it very well, we've only scratched the surface in terms of educating people about that risk," Professor Howard said.
Drivers are ignoring signs of fatigue
According to the Sleep Health Foundation, a fifth of Australian adults have fallen asleep while driving and nearly a third drive while drowsy at least once a month.
Professor Howard said many drivers were not aware just how tired they may be when they get behind the wheel.
"When people are starting to notice difficulty in keeping their eyes open, they may wind the window down or turn the radio up," he said.
"They're actually signs that you're starting to become drowsy and impaired, but people tend to ignore those and don't relate them to having a higher risk of having a crash."
Samantha Cockfield, senior manager for road safety at the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, said drivers in Victoria were well aware of fatigue as a road safety issue, but some still continued to drive while tired.
She said a test reinforcing the importance of unimpaired driving would greatly enhance road safety.
"We still haven't totally cracked the fatigue nut," she said.
"It's not just those long distance trips on long weekends that are a problem — this can be a problem on any day of the week when we don't get enough sleep."
Fatigue not just a problem on long weekends
Ms Cockfield said while fatigue had long been associated with long trips, groups such as shift workers and parents were at risk even on shorter journeys.
"Anybody who has shift work as a major proportion of their job, young mums with families who are waking up in the middle of the night — just really anybody who's not getting quality sleep is at risk of driving tired," she said.
Professor Howard said the key was to change drivers' behaviour in the same way that technology has been used to change behaviour with alcohol and drugs.
"We've never had any tools that can detect even severe levels of drowsiness," he said. "We can change people's behaviour by detecting that more severe level of impairment."
Victoria Police said they would be following the research with interest.
drowsy driving section 10 sydney crime lawyers sydney criminal defence lawyers sydney traffic lawyers


text:
Presents Maximum Priest E.P. (Nothing/Interscope)
by Randall Roberts
Richard Sweeney Squarepusher
If '70s fusion jazz and '90s electronica share one trait, it's the ease with which both quickly and painfully can devolve into ridiculous, self-indulgent wanking. A fine line separates the brilliance of Miles Davis' live documents from the early '70s, especially the transcendent Black Beauty, from Stanley Clarke's masturbatory shallowness. Similarly, jungle papa Goldie's recent work takes itself so seriously that any innovation is overshadowed by his intolerably furrowed "I am an artist" brow. At the other end of the spectrum, however, is Tom Jenkinson, a.k.a. Squarepusher, whose gloriously unpretentious output is some of the deepest and most inspired music, electronic or otherwise, being made today.
And, actually, the "electronica" tag — though on the surface and in the stores it hits the mark — is a misnomer when it comes to Squarepusher. Yes, he did get his start working with the Aphex Twin's Rephlex records, and he does spring from the general vicinity of the drum & bass world, but from the start Jenkinson has eschewed linear stutter-thump rhythms in favor of a wandering breadth. Whereas on something like a Luke Vibert record you can assume a solid rhythm is gonna rear its ugly head soon enough, that's never the case with Squarepusher. You're just as likely to be treated to a simple but entirely engaging organ melody for six or seven minutes, with short beat bursts sneaking in — as on the opening cut of his amazing EP Song: Our Underwater Torch — as you are to hear a breakbeat breakdown.
Maximum Priest is a half-hour dirge, with four new songs and three remixes (among them a minimal Autechre survey of "Two Bass Hit" from last year's Budakhan Mindphone EP and a mantraesque Wagonchrist — Luke Vibert — examination of "Shin Triad" from Squarepusher's most recent full-length, Music Is Rotted One Note), and there's not a bum note on it. It's no accident that Miles Davis' '70s lagoon music is often mentioned in the same breath as Squarepusher's recent work; they have a spiritual, and stylistic, kinship. Both isolate sounds and rhythms inside a kind of stew, and both employ melody as a device rather than rely blindly on it.
If there's any fault at all to Squarepusher's ap-proach, it's the occasional deliberateness with which he borrows from the Davis aesthetic. At times he seems to simply replicate and update the sound of free fusion, tossing in some staccato beats where Billy Cobham or Jack DeJohnette would be on a Davis recording. But that's nit-picky, because mainly what Jenkinson steals is nothing more than the Davis ideal, which is that by ignoring time and rhythm restraints, outside structural assumptions and artistic expectations, a new world of musical possibility reveals itself, and that pure freedom lies in the knowledge that there are no boundaries but those that are self-imposed.
This knowledge has served countless artists well in unchaining themselves, and in the ultrarestrictive, beat-based world of electronic music, what we need are more people like Jenkinson (and Aphex and Autechre) to discover that the hard rules of the hard drive can be tossed in the trash as easily as a Word document can. You just drag and drop.
Music Stories Squarepusher Tom Jenkinson Miles Davis Luke Vibert


I recently upgraded from Ubuntu Jaunty to Lucid and one thing that is missing is the fast user switch applet. This is confirmed by this bug, for example.
The fast user switch applet was good, because it listed the users in a menu accessible with one click. Now I have to click "switch user", wait for GDM to appear and then choose the user.
Is there an alternative to the fast user switch applet, that works in Lucid?
I found it myself now. It was there all along in the "Indicator Applet Session" applet. I didn't realize it, because this applet is divided into one part displaying my user name and one part displaying a power button that looks exactly like the "Shut Down" applet. I assumed that the user list should be in the user name part, but it was in the power button part (which I didn't try before since I assumed it would be the same as the shutdown applet).
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged ubuntu user-accounts users ubuntu-10.04 or ask your own question.
Ubuntu like user switching in Windows7?


I hope you enjoy the first edition of a monthly roundup of happenings at the Tahoe Conservancy and Lake Tahoe. It's been a busy summer and we want to share several exciting updates with you including: the deployment of an innovative new weapon in the fight against aquatic invasive species, the introduction of a new Board member, and an overview of a very busy 4th of July weekend at Lake Tahoe. Hope to see you at the lake soon!


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Boulder Beer Company
By Angela Rose | Nov 01, 2015
According to President Jeff Brown, the craft beer industry may have changed, but the philosophy of Colorado's first craft brewery remains the same.
[Editor's note: Boulder Beer Company ceased operations in 2020.]
The former general manager and current president of Boulder Beer Company has seen a lot change during his more than two decades in the craft beer industry.
He watched the Great American Beer Festival grow from a small gathering at Boulder's Harvest House in 1982 into the premier beer event in the U.S., with more than 750 breweries participating and 3,800 beers poured in 2015. He's seen the number of breweries in Colorado expand significantly, increasing from 11 in 1990 to 234 by the end of 2014. And along the way, he has witnessed an impressive surge in craft beer interest among American consumers, restaurateurs, retailers and distributors.
He even remembers a time when big breweries -- including Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, though they weren't yet giant conglomerates -- were more than willing to lend their smaller craft beer neighbors a hand. "Coors gave us our first bottling line," Brown recalls. "It came from their old pilot facility in Golden. In fact, Coors was very instrumental in helping us get up and running. They would come in and do some consulting with us. Our first distributor in 1984 was actually a Coors distributor."
While it appears that sort of nurturing relationships is a thing of the past, the comradery prevalent between craft brewers has more than made up for its loss. According to Brown, "If you're running short on grain or hops or you need a piece of equipment because something has failed and there's not one readily available for the next week or two to purchase, brewers are more than willing to help each other out. They regularly loan equipment and inventory. It's really great to see."
So is the improvement in overall craft beer quality. "There was a time in the early to mid-'90s when the quality of the beer being produced by our competitors was questionable," he says. "The recipes might have been good, but the beer did not stand up over time. Those breweries don't exist anymore. Today's beers, on the other hand, hold up very well. While there are some styles that aren't a go-to for me, most are very well made. It's a really positive change."
But some things remain the same. Though they opened with the nation's 43rd brewing license back in 1979, Boulder Beer Company has always focused on producing products that are a "little bit out of the box" as far as style. "We started producing ales that we enjoyed -- not your typical style-driven beers," says Brown. "That has been our brewing philosophy since the get-go and we really haven't changed from that."
It's worked out well for Colorado's first craft brewery. Brown and his team -- including head brewer David Zuckerman -- produced 29,000 barrels in their 50-barrel brewhouse in 2014. They're on track to brew 31,000 barrels this year. Year-round offerings include Shake, a chocolate porter that won gold at the World Beer Cup and the brewery's top seller, as well as Hazed, a hoppy session ale originally developed in 1996, and Mojo, a popular IPA. The brewery currently distributes to 34 states and is considering establishing distributor relationships in additional markets.
Favorite beers: "That fresh American craft beer, it just doesn't get any better than that," Brown says. Among Boulder Beer Company's products, he looks forward to whatever seasonal is next to come on tap. "Right now, it's Slope Style, our winter IPA," he explains. "Outside of our beers, Ska Brewing's Modus Hoperandi is a favorite. When I'm traveling and I can have beers from Cigar City Brewing, I love them all. Their Maduro is a brown ale, and their Jai Alai is a nice pale ale."
Challenges: "A big challenge is shelf space and draft handles," says Brown. "They aren't increasing at the same rate as the number of new breweries entering into the market. We are constantly evaluating the availability of space and how that affects our ability to get new products out there. The consumer is always looking for new product and we're always continuing to innovate with new products. Our pilot brew program yields a lot of beers that we really want to get to consumers outside of just our pub. But it's challenging to find ways to place them."
Opportunities: Boulder Beer Company may be the state's oldest craft brewery, but Brown wants consumers to know that doesn't mean they aren't innovative as well. "Our biggest opportunity is continuing to tell our story and get the word out about our brewery to new and upcoming craft beer drinkers," he says. "We've been around for 36 years, but the brewers love developing new recipes. And it's fantastic to see the huge interest from everybody about what great new beer we'll come out with next."
Needs: There are large expenditures in Brown's future. "We are looking at the equipment we have and starting to project when we need to retire, update or upgrade it," he explains. "That's always going to be a capital-intensive project for every brewer and an ongoing discussion that we have internally."
Fortunately, financing big improvements is easier than it was even 10 years ago. "In the '90s, there was this belief that craft brewing was just a fad. It wasn't a matter of if it was going to end but when. It's good that all those naysayers were wrong," he chuckles.
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