text:
Exeter University Game of Thrones Society
This will be the EUGOTSOC Committee review of Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 8: 'No One' written by myself – Alexander Petkov: Publicity Officer.
When an episode is titled 'No One' I can't help but wonder what does that imply for the storylines that take place in it and what themes would they explore. Of course, there's the literal tie in with Arya's storyline as on numerous occasions it's been said that in order for her to become a faceless man – she has to become 'no one'. However, an episode title is not simply a reference to one of the storylines in it and has to have some overall relevance. When you tell a story as huge as Game of Thrones as a TV series you need to have an idea that you want to put across with each episode. That idea is then somehow encapsulated in your episode title.
A big theme this season is 'identity' and the obvious candidate for the significance of 'No One' is 'loss of identity'. However, this is not at all explored in any of the storylines this week. It could be a reference to a theme of 'deceit', but while I can see that as a potential interpretation for a small part of the storylines – it's definitely not explicit and more likely due to me reading too much into things. And here lies part of the problem – I don't really understand the Faceless Men and their concept of 'No One'. That in turn prevents me from objectively following the theme of the episode, but I'll touch on this more when I get to Arya's storyline this week. After careful thought the one common theme I could extrapolate from all the arcs this episode was 'cutting ties' or more specifically – 'cutting ties with your own kind'. This can be tied back to the idea of 'No One' if we assume that the message is that going against those close to you makes you 'no one'. However, this ties back to the theme of identity loss, which is absent from the episode, and so the only possible theme for the episode that I could find is lacking a moral compass and has zero implications. This somewhat outlines some of my problems with S6E8 'No One'.
Last week's episode featured the Hound heavily. This week the accent in this storyline is shifted to the Brotherhood without Banners. We start off with a cringey conversation between some characters we don't know. I can't help but feel that the showrunners are confusing toilet/dick humour with clever writing. I remember the GRRM-written episode 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair' in Season 3 which certainly had a fair amount of dick humour, but seeing how here it has no context (and provided we will see more of that later in the same episode), I really have to wonder what's going on in the writers' minds. This scene is quickly ended by the Hound's arrival as he storms in and chops the men up with an axe without asking questions. In light of my previous comments I do have to say that this manner of appearance for Sandor Clegane comes most welcome.
Next we get to see Thoros of Myr and Beric Dondarrion back on the show – about to hang the rogue members of The Brotherhood we met last week. Here we get our 'ties severed' moment for this storyline. I must say – as much as I like seeing all these characters' return, I am also really puzzled by their sudden appearance in the second half of the season, no less. There are already quite a few storylines that are fading out of focus (Sam, Jorah, Euron – to name a few), that it's very likely that the Brotherhood will get tangled up in another major arc before the end of the season. For now, it seems the Hound will stick with Thoros and Beric so maybe that will lead to some sort of redemptive arc for the character. We know that the Brotherhood wants to head north, so the only crossovers with other stories it could have are with the Battle of Winterfell (which I seriously doubt) or with Brienne on her way back. Either way, I have no idea where this is leading – but I'm curious to find out.
In King's Landing we start off with Cersei refusing to leave the Red Keep at the order of the High Sparrow and finally uttering her already famous line 'I choose violence' before letting Ser Robert Strong brutally murder a random member of the faith militant to get the point across. As much as I completely enjoyed this scene, I was a bit disappointed that it didn't escalate further. It seems underwhelming, to say the least, that the most badass line from the season trailers led to nothing more than a single death of an unnamed character. Don't get me wrong – the show is violent enough, but again – this is a consistent issue I have with this episode in particular: the pay-off does not correspond to the build-up – it ends up feeling dwarfed.
The King's Landing scenes continue with Tommen's announcement in the Throne room about Trials by Combat being hence forth prohibited. This is a huge deal as Cersei's only plan for survival has been suspended, and by her own son – of all people. This runs with the theme of breaking ties as Tommen's new decree is specifically to the detriment of his own mother. The power of the faith, complete with Margaery's manipulations seem to have completely overpowered the young king. Then we get Qyburn whispering to Cersei about a rumour he has verified. This most likely has to do with the cellars of wildfire underneath King's Landing. We've been teased with wildfire with Bran's visions and it would be really poor if the show didn't pay off this perfect foreshadowing. Also, Cersei is pretty much out of options and wildfire would certainly help her in her predicament. One problem is that we still don't know what is Margaery's endgame – and we might never know if Cersei just burns down Baelor's Sept with Loras and the High Sparrow both inside. The show has been building up Margaery's plotting even more than Cersei's trial this season so it's definitely something to keep in mind.
It's impossible to talk about a Mad Cersei burning King's Landing with wildfire without also considering Jamie. Seeing how his Kingslayer title has been referenced a truly disproportionate amount of times this season, it has to have some significance to his current character arc. Should the wildfire incident happen and should the Kingslayer return to the capital for the finale, Jamie's love for Cersei as well as his reluctance to act against his family (as he expressed in front of Brienne) will set the stage for a perfect mirror of his confrontation with the Mad King. Anyways, speculations aside – the Riverrun plot (whose star is undoubtedly Jamie) this week is not lacking in discussion worthy bits.
We start off with Jamie and Brienne finally meeting again. While they're discussing honour and how to deal with the Blackfish so that they avert conflict between each other, we get our second unnecessary and cringey scene filled with dick humour for the episode. This time it's coming from Bronn as he reunites with Podrick. I understand that Bronn is supposed to be a wisecracker, but this is silly! He's not twelve! I'm almost sure that the actor playing Podrick didn't have to try and act uncomfortable during Bronn's 'Do you think Jamie and Brienne are fucking' speech. If the point of this scene was to remind the viewer that Jamie-Brienne was a ship on the show back in Season 3, then it's bad because 'show, don't tell'. Also the chemistry between Jamie and Brienne speaks for itself, curtesy of the two amazing actors. And if the point of the scene is to just have Bronn say stuff – then we have the scene with the unnamed Brotherhood members all over again.
The Riverrun story does, however, have one very strong redeeming point – and that is Jamie's handling of Edmure Tully. In a very well-acted scene the Kingslayer brilliantly threatens his prisoner, convincing him to force the Tully banner-men to surrender the castle instantly. While there's a lot of truth behind Jamie's words (like his admiration for Catelyn and his love for Cersei) – revealing a more ruthless and cruel Jamie, his entire scheme serves to quickly resolve the conflict without bloodshed. And in his seeming cruelty he demonstrates his honour and nobility as a parting gift to Brienne. I personally think this is very fitting for his character and quite liked how subtle the show was about it. In the end the only life lost is allegedly the Blackfish's. That means that Brynden Tully's disappointment in Jamie will continue to sting and will remain unresolved until (hopefully) the finale.
The 'cutting ties' in this storyline falls in the hands of Edmure, who betrays his banner-men's trust in order to save their lives and his family's. Of course, another candidate for representing this theme is the Blackfish himself. He refuses to give aid to his only family left – Sansa (and Edmure as well, for that matter) and even decides not to leave the castle with Brienne and not to reunite with his grand-niece. In that way Edmure and Brynden become completely mirror characters. One disappointing thing about this part of the episode is that the Blackfish's death remained off-screen. And while the underwhelming reveal of his demise served to provide emotional weight for Jamie's character, it was a large disservice to the audience and probably could have been handled better.
In Meereen we see religious fanatics everywhere in the city, which Varys realises quite well that is a terrible thing. Tyrion, however shares his sister's early excitement at the prospect of working with religious zealots. We see Varys leaving Meereen on a mission to gain allies in Westeros. Of course, Varys leaving a city is never a good sign as he was pretty much all that kept King's Landing stable. It is quite interesting as he left the Crownlands just before religious extremists took over the capital and now he's leaving Meereen after the arrival of the aforementioned fanatics. It's also unbelievably suspicious that the Spider would leave just before the Masters of Astapor and Yunkai attack the city. As Varys does not make mistakes, it certainly makes me wonder if he has some hidden agenda (I mean even more hidden) and is actually not really supporting Daenerys. All this remains to be seen, but I can't help but hope that there's more to Varys than meets the eye.
We then get treated to a very unnecessary scene of Tyrion drinking and forcing Grey Worm and Missandei to tell him jokes. I never thought this day would come, but Tyrion scenes this season have become my least favourite part of the show. Tyrion's charm and wit have been replaced completely by him just constantly drinking. He's lost all of his character motivation and now stands as a token comic relief. This is unacceptable. The scene is hard to watch as it feels like forced humour (and we've already had two other instances of that in this episode alone). It finally finishes after each has told a joke and Missandei laughs way too much at Grey Worm's joke (probably to remind the audience that they have a sort of romance). Then the Masters suddenly attack the city by water and just in the nick of time Daenerys returns.
I have to say, her arrival is great. Emilia Clarke's face is brilliant as she glares at her advisors disappointedly. Tyrion's expression at the realisation that he's in deep trouble is also priceless. Of course, the reveal that the Masters would attack the city came as no surprise – especially after the showrunners made that American Civil War analogy with Tyrion back in episode 4. One question that I feel needs to be asked is 'Where are the dragons'. Tyrion unchained Viserion and Rhaegal in the beginning of the season and they've yet to make an appearance since. They haven't so much as having been mentioned thus far, and one would think that they'd be quite effective at breaking the siege of Meereen.
Anyway, we now come to the big storyline this week – Arya's. It was a few weeks ago when people started to catch on to the fact that she is not only not becoming 'no one' but is also pretty much wasting the Faceless Men's time. She has learned to fight, yes, but is that really the only use that a guild of faceless assassins will have in the story? This seems off. I do have an interesting theory about what's really going on, but I'll get to that in a bit.
We start off with Lady Crane delivering an altered final monologue as 'Cersei', based on the suggestions by Arya/Mercy. It was a really nice scene, but I was personally taken out of it because it quite obviously outlined the structure of the Arya storyline for the episode. After last week there were tons of theories that explained Arya's carelessness and how she survived infecting her already severe wounds with the sewage water in the canals. One of them correctly predicted everything that happened in the episode – based around Lady Crane's involvement. And it that vein of thought – it is a bit disappointing to have realised that Arya was indeed just being careless and almost dead as a result. The scenes between Lady Crane and Arya were really nice, warm and well-acted, though one bit stands out to me. When asked where she would go, Arya talks about crossing the Sunset Sea. This dialogue surely can't be there for no reason. The easiest thing to answer was 'home' or something along those lines. So for now I am quite curious to find out what significance to the story this exchange will have.
Finally, we get the chase scene between Arya and the Waif that we've been waiting for. Lady Crane gets killed and Arya escapes through the window. It's important to note that even a non-severely-injured person could not attempt the stunts Arya did (or the Waif for that matter) without breaking a bunch of bones in their body. Once you look past that, the chase scene is very well-edited, is brilliantly-shot and accompanied by a great soundtrack. Most of the time during that scene I do get the feeling that the Waif simply enjoys playing with her food – hence why she engages in such a non-stealthy endeavour. It ends with Arya baiting her nemesis into a dark room, where she defends herself with Needle after she swings and cuts a candle in half (which is a very cool looking scene).
Apparently after all the running, falling, etc. Arya's open wounds decided to close for good as she managed to sneak into the House of Black and White, leaving dripping blood at her wake and put the Waif's face on the wall, without Jaqen noticing. After Arya confronts him, he tells her she is now 'No One', she replies she's Arya of Winterfell and says she's going home. Jaqen grins and does nothing to stop her. OK, let's talk about this. This does not seem right. Two faceless men had to die, so that Arya can finish her training. The guild went through so much trouble to recruit her that they can't just let her go. Unless they didn't. Here's my theory. As we don't know how the Faceless Men really work, it can't be known for sure, but what if the only way to become a Faceless Man is to kill one sent to assassinate you. This explains why there are so little Faceless Men in total and explains how they keep their eliteness (by having this harsh entry requirement). It also explains the Waif's dislike for Arya from the start as she doesn't want to be replaced. Thus Arya believes that she's broken her ties with the guild but I think she is now one of them whether she wants it or not. I reckon this is not the last time we see the Faceless Men and I'm quite curious to see if they'll try and push Arya onto certain paths once she's back in Westeros.
If I am correct, then the theme of 'No One' gets shifted to 'assuming someone's place', which is quite present in the episode. We see The High Sparrow acting through Tommen and completely overpowering him, Edmure taking charge of Riverrun instead of the Blackfish, The Hound executing Lem Lemoncloack instead of the Brotherhood doing it. In any case, this episode does not really explore its chosen theme in depth (or maybe I just don't see it). Much like the Faceless Men who remain a complete mystery, the notion of 'No One' is lost on the story and its characters.
In the end, I should say that this is not a bad episode on its own. Its greatest problems come from wasting time on unnecessary and weak dialogue and following up on strong build-up with underwhelming resolutions. If you look past that – the episode is quite decent, even though I'd probably still say it's my least favourite of the season. The first 5 episodes this year were really intense and eventful, and thus far the second half of the season has been falling behind on that front. Last week's episode gave the impression that this trend would not continue onto S6E8, but alas 'No One' felt more like a step back. The last two episodes, however do promise to be incredible. Even Sophie Turner, who managed to get to see 'Battle of the Bastards' early stated that it was unbelievable. I guess we've nothing to do but to stay excited!
Thank you for reading my review of 'No One'. We've only two episodes left – and they're bound to be amazing!
Alexander Petkov
Posted on June 15, 2016 by EUGoTSoc	This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.
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a ska loving geek: change is coming..
for my dollies that is! Frankie, my BWT, is off to sunny Brazil. In her place im getting this lady, an Amaryllis.
at the moment i have two possible names : Pandora or Ramona.. i'll see what she thinks of them.


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Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
Donald Trump accused Meghan Markle of using Prince Harry and said he wasn't a fan of hers 'from day one'
Maria Noyen
Donald Trump said he hasn't been "a fan" of Markle since day one.Chris Jackson/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump accused Meghan Markle of using Prince Harry.
In a GB News interview on Tuesday, Trump said he wasn't a fan of Markle "from day one."
"I think Harry has been used horribly and I think someday he will regret it," Trump said.
Former US President Donald Trump accused Meghan Markle of using Prince Harry and said he hasn't been a fan of hers since "day one" in a GB News interview with Nigel Farage on Tuesday.
Trump, Markle, and Harry have a long-standing rift. While starring on "Suits" in 2016, Markle made an appearance on the "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" where she called the then-republican presidential candidate "divisive" and "misogynistic," before sharing her support for Hilary Clinton.
Her comments were brought to Trump's attention during his presidential tenure in 2019 in an interview with UK newspaper The Sun. He told the interviewer he "didn't know she was nasty."
Trump later told Piers Morgan in June 2019 that he "wasn't referring to her as 'she's nasty,' I said she was nasty about me. And essentially, I didn't know she was nasty about me."
Trump accused Markle of "using" Prince Harry.Chris Jackson - Pool/Getty Images
Trump made his feelings about the Duchess of Sussex clear in his interview on Tuesday by telling right-wing British politician Farage that the Duke of Sussex has been "used horribly" by Markle.
"I'm not a fan of hers. I wasn't from day one. I think Harry has been used horribly and I think someday he will regret it," Trump said. "I think it's ruined his relationship with his family, and it hurts the Queen."
Trump went on to say he thought the Duchess of Sussex lobbying members of congress using Duchess of Sussex headed paper was "very inappropriate."
Former President Donald Trump.Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Markle wrote an open letter to Congress on October 20 advocating for paid family and medical leave.
"I'm not an elected official, and I'm not a politician," Markle wrote. "I am, like many, an engaged citizen and a parent. And because you and your congressional colleagues have a role in shaping family outcomes for generations to come, that's why I'm writing to you at this deeply important time — as a mom — to advocate for paid leave."
While she faced criticism for breaking the royal family protocol of remaining politically neutral, Markle said she didn't consider paid leave a political issue at The New York Times' DealBook summit on November 9.
"There's certainly a precedent in my husband's family and the royal family of not having any involvement in politics," the duchess said. "But I think paid leave, from my viewpoint, is just a humanitarian issue."
Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Donald Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Read the original article on Insider
Drake women's basketball player Courtney Becker on the front lines of COVID-19 testing
The Des Moines Register
Watch Knox.biz honor the 40 Under 40 class of 2021 at Thursday's virtual ceremony
Transfer portal has helped Lincoln Riley reshape USC's wide receiver group
Libya parliament speaker demands new election date be set
The Gaggle: What the 2022 legislative session holds for Arizona
Los maestros del distrito escolar Jim Hogg están aprendiendo a manejar autobuses
KZTV
Unilever won't top $68B bid for GSK consumer healthcare unit
Four-day work week: Who has trialled it and was it successful?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
using LeanCloud.Internal;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Xml;
using Android.App;

namespace LeanCloud {
  public partial class AVInstallation : AVObject {
    /// <summary>
    /// The device token of the installation. Typically generated by APNS or GCM.
    /// </summary>
    [AVFieldName("deviceToken")]
    public string DeviceToken {
      get { return GetProperty<string>(); }
      internal set { SetProperty<string>(value); }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns push type.
    /// </summary>
    [AVFieldName("pushType")]
    internal string PushType {
      get { return GetProperty<string>(); }
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Honoring Pathways to Success
By Andra D'Amico
As NCDA career development professionals, including counselors, coaches, educators, researchers, facilitators or administrators, we aspire to help our students and/or clients attain fulfilling careers and life goals, as emphasized in our NCDA mission. Tangible, authentic learning opportunities come in many forms. For example, internships, higher education and service come to mind when assisting others with counseling and career guidance. However, recognizing success in our peers who continue to promote support and advocacy, and go above and beyond in their field, is another example of crucial work we do as career development professionals. This recognition can begin with YOU - by nominating yourself, your organization or another NCDA member whose success you would like to celebrate! Now is the time to learn more about how to submit a nomination for 2023.
The NCDA Awards Committee is excited to be a leader in this endeavor. There is no better way to create momentum for success in our field then by recognizing the great work being done by our NCDA members. This year, the NCDA Awards Committee conducted an in-depth interview with Ahmed Mostafa, a recent NCDA Merit Award recipient. The following conversation with Ahmed Mostafa was captured to highlight his career beliefs and the global impacts he has made in our field as well as the exploration of what's next. Here, we share an excerpt of this interview:
Andra D'Amico (member of the NCDA Awards Committee):
You already have made significant contributions to the field of career development by educating and mentoring career counseling students, developing leadership in exemplary career programs, conducting significant research in the field, and/or advocating to inform and persuade policy makers about career development. Tell us more.
Ahmed Mostafa:
Since the moment I heard about career development, I felt that it should be a lifestyle, not just a job. It is not putting people in the right job or right direction; it is about letting people own their life and take control of it. This is how I see career development, and this is the message that I want people to understand.
As an ongoing Co-Chair of NCDA's Global Connections Committee (GCC), I have been coordinating with our GCC Leadership Team, 75 committee members and the Board Liaison to find out more about, as well as respond to the needs of, NCDA International members. According to the NCDA Membership Report shared during the June 2022 NCDA Global Career Development Conference in Anaheim, international members total more than 700 members.
Last May, members of the GCC Leadership Team met with one of our larger international populations from the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. The meeting involved a sharing of interests and needs. We found that professional development closer to home was a major interest, so some of the GCC Leadership Team helped develop a Arab Career Development Conference (ACDC) scheduled for February 27 - March 1, 2023 conference. We recently heard from NCDA President Lakeisha Mathews that she will be able to travel to Egypt to attend and speak. The entire NCDA membership was invited to submit presentation proposals and we were excited to receive several. If you are interested in attending, please visit https://acdc.growat.co.
Andra: Wow, Ahmed, it sounds like you are still continuing to demonstrate all the NCDA Merit Award accomplishments, including making significant contributions to the career development field, educating and mentoring, developing leadership and advocating to inform and persuade others about career development. Thank you for taking the time to share with us your ongoing pursuits.
Call to Action: Nominate Yourself or Someone Else for NCDA's 2023 Awards
Did Ahmed's story inspire you? Who will be NCDA's 2023 award winners, sharing more inspiring stories in Career Convergence or Career Developments? You can be a part of answering that question!
NCDA and the Awards Committee invite you to submit an award nominee for 2023. Nominations are due January 31, 2023 at midnight EST. Questions may be addressed to the Award Committee Chairs, Gaeun Seo, gseo@princeton.edu, and Jessica Ayub, jessica.ayub@normandale.edu. Please start the process early as the nomination form, references and supporting documents are all due at the same time in one submission. Although self-nomination is encouraged, please keep in mind that every nomination packet requires a nominator and two references. If you self-nominate, you have one less person speaking on your behalf. To ease the nomination process, we invite you to review our Sample Packets for Individual and Group Nominations.
Please note that all nominators and nominees for the following awards are required to be NCDA members except for the Legislative Award (local, state, and national legislators are eligible nominees for this award):
Eminent Career (this requires a separate nomination process)
Exemplary Career Center (2 Awards): (1) Education, Government & Business; (2) Non-Profit,Organizations
International Practitioner of the Year
NCDA Fellow
Outstanding Career Practitioner
Service to International Students
Access to the 2023 Awards Nomination forms is open on the NCDA Awards webpage. One winner will be selected per category unless otherwise stated in the award's description. Winners will be featured in the NCDA Career Developments publication in the fall of 2023. On behalf of NCDA, the Awards Committee and all NCDA's constituencies, we look forward to your nomination submissions.
This is the perfect time of year to remember that recognizing success in our peers who continue to promote support and go above and beyond in their field is crucial work we do as career development professionals. Award winners will be announced at the 2023 Global Career Development Conference in Chicago, IL, June 29- July 1, 2023.
Andra D'Amico, GCDF, is a Career Educator Technician for Shasta Union High School District. Andra holds degrees in Business, Sociology, Social Science as well as a California teaching credential for Social Science. Andra has been a licensed Realtor and business owner for over three decades in areas of low income housing, industrial sewing, manufacturing, trucking and land development. NCDA Awards Committee & Co-Lead for both the NCDA Kenneth B. Hoyt Career Education Practitioner & NCDA Outstanding Career Practitioner Awards. In 2017 Andra was the National Career Education Award Recipient for the NCDA Kenneth B. Hoyt Career Education Practitioner. She can be reached at adamico@suhsd.net


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Home World Mena region GCC Saudi Arabia Kingdom readies for new cement capacity
Kingdom readies for new cement capacity
05 August 2005 4:30 PM By Meed
Turnkey contracts worth more than $400 million have been awarded for the construction of two new cement plants with total capacity of 10,000 tonnes a day (t/d). Tender documents have also been issued for another grassroots plant, while an award is awaited for the expansion of the existing Saudi Cement Companyplant at Hofuf (MEED 24:6:05).
The larger of the two contracts, worth $247 million, has been awarded to the local Nesma Alfadl Contractingto build a 5,000-t/d cement plant at Najran in the southeast of the kingdom. The technology and equipment supply will be carried out by a group of Chinese companies. The 24-month contract, which covers the construction of a single clinker line, was placed by the local Najran Cement Company.
China's Sinoma International has also been awarded a $167 million contract to build a 5,000-t/d plant at a site 140 kilometres southwest of Riyadh. The order was placed by the local City Cement Company, which plans to award separate contracts for the power plant and crusher unit. The facilities are due to start production in early 2007. The contract is Sinoma's second major award in the kingdom: in March it won the contract to build the grassroots plant being promoted by Riyadh Cement Company (MEED 1:4:05).
Saudi Cement is in the final stages of evaluating bids submitted by three companies for the 30-month turnkey contract to install a new clinker line at its existing plant at Hofuf. The bidders are Denmark's FL Smidth, Germany's Polysiusand Sinoma. The 30-month project will involve the installation of a 10,000-t/d clinker line and a 500-t/d upgrade in the capacity of the fifth clinker to more than 4,000 t/d. A contract award is due by late August.
Bids are also due to be submitted by late August to the local Al-Rajhi Groupfor its planned 3,000-t/d plant in the Al-Wasta area. The contract is worth $140 million.
India's Holtec Consultingis the consultant on all projects.
EXCLUSIVE: Aramco maritime academy to induct first batch of trainees in December
05 November 2019 3:36 PM By Wil Crisp
Move is part of Saudi Arabia's strategy to develop the kingdom as a global shipping hub
Sagia signs $15bn of agreements at Future Investment Initiative
29 October 2019 5:46 PM By Indrajit Sen
There were 23 agreements, totaling $15bn, signed on the first day of the conference in Riyadh
Saudi Aramco and Adnoc open UK non-metallic research facility
15 September 2019 12:43 PM By Indrajit Sen
The research centre will focus on advancing the use of non-metallic industrial applications
Saudi Arabia separates energy and mineral resources into different ministries
The decision was made as part of a series of royal decrees issued by King Salman over 30 and 31 August


I finally succumbed to the call of sous vide cooking and bought a sous vide cooker from Aldi, given the great price and warranty it offered. I've been fascinated by this cooking method for a long time, but the price of the sous vide cookers has held me at bay. However, like everything in this world, sooner or later products that at one time are very expensive and mainly used by specialists (in this case professional chefs), they eventually come down in price and effectively become commodity items. So it is with sous vide cookers and there are now a vast array of sous vide cookers available, starting from around the $120 mark, as for the Aldi cooker, and rising to prices in the thousands of dollars for commercial units, with the most highly regarded consumer ones around the $400-500 mark. But for a culinary hack like me, $119 is sufficient to try things out and learn about sous vide cooking.
Why sous vide? Well, it was partly to see exactly what this sous vide is about, as well as hopefully being able to cook certain meats so that they don't end up tough. Ostensibly you can cook just about anything in a sous vide cooker, right down to cakes etc. I was especially interested in cooking chicken breast and pork, as these two meats are perennially the most difficult for me to get right, regardless of the recipe. Lately I've been using chicken breasts for curries and stir fries, as they are so much easier to manage than cleaning fat and gristle from chicken thighs (though chicken thighs are still great for slow cooked curries) and I've found pork steaks always difficult to get just right, invariably over-cooking them and making them tough. Steaks can also be a problem if quite thin (why is it so difficult to get thick steaks lately?), or when you have to cook steaks to different tastes.
With a sous vide, you can cook the meat to a near perfect state and, depending on final end use, it can be used as is (such as tossing into a curry or stir fry), or seared for final presentation and/or cooked further on a BBQ or pan for those that want things well done. In both cases, the meat will be tender and juicy, and cooked so that all potential bacteria is killed. The latter is often a problem when cooking uneven slabs of meat, where the thinner parts can cook well before the thicker parts cook fully. And that's one of the major benefits of sous vide in that you can cook meat of any size and shape (as long as it fits in the cooker) and be certain that it's cooked thoroughly right through. Another benefit is that you can prepare things well in advance (which is what happens in restaurants), so that when guests invariably want their meat cooked from 'wipe its bum' to 'turn it into leather', you can do this far more easily.
In addition to the cooker, it's very handy to have a vacuum sealer, because everything that you cook needs to be sealed from the surrounding water bath in which the food cooks. You don't necessarily need a vacuum sealer, as you can use zip lock bags as an alternative, but I think a vacuum sealer is more versatile and, if you do a lot of sous vide cooking, I also think the cost of bags (rolls) will be less and offer far more versatility regarding sizing. The other advantage of vacuum sealing is that you can prepare food well in advance, vacuum seal them and they'll stay safe even in the fridge for at least a week. We often do this when going camping and it makes things a lot easier with packing and cooking. Marinades also really sink into the meat when vacuum sealed and some meats can be beautifully aged when vacuum sealed.
The cooking process is actually very easy and common to all sous vide cookers. All that needs to be done is fill the cooker with an appropriate amount of water and allow the sous vide to reach the set cooking temperature. I've found that it's way quicker to get going if you put water at around the preferred temperature into the cooker, rather than just waiting for the cooker to heat the water from a low temperature. The volume of water only needs to be sufficient to cover the food being cooked, with a bit of leeway. I've been putting the food into the sous vide when the heating cycle begins, that way the water temperature doesn't experience a sudden drop when the cold food is inserted. The temperatures and cooking times vary depending on the meat used and there are numerous instructions/guides explaining the effects of cooking temperature and time. The manual that came with the cooker had much higher temperatures than those recommended in any of the online references, so I've followed the online temperature guides and they've worked well. Cooking time is also important and generally the minimum is an hour and a half to kill all bacteria, but you can cook for much longer before the texture and quality of the meat is affected.
Obviously the big difference with inexpensive vs expensive sous vide cookers is consistency and accuracy in temperature control. The very expensive units will maintain the cooking temperature to within 1/10th of a degree of the set temperature, while the inexpensive ones can have errors of up to two degrees. The Aldi cooker, when set to 60C, will actually settle to about 62C and when set to 59C, will settle to about 60C. The differences aren't linear, which means that it's a good idea to check the temperature separately. As there are variations to be expected with the cheaper units, it's more a matter of being aware of these differences and making adjustments to your cooking procedures and a separate cooking thermometer will assist. As long as the errors are consistent, then the error doesn't really matter. The other thing that the more expensive sous vide cookers often provide are circulation pumps to ensure that the water temperature remains even throughout, which may also contribute to more accurate water temperature. I wonder if a fish tank circulator would assist the cheap units to do the same?
There is another difference with the type of sous vide cooker that I bought and some of the others available and that is that this one can also be used as a slow cooker, so in effect, you get two cookers for the price of one. That latter is probably why there is no circulation pump, as that wouldn't play well in a slow cooker environment. There is also a major difference between the 'pot' style sous vide cookers and the stick variety that are becoming very popular, as the stick variety can be used in almost any type of container and are quite portable if you want to take them away for any reason. But what I do like about the dedicated sous vide cooker is that it's effectively a fully sealed unit and, once the lid is on, the water volume tends to remain the same. With the stick variety, the water is constantly evaporating from the open pot as there's no ideal way to seal it in, so you often have to keep adding water.
The final thing to point out with sous vide cooking is that the food has to stay submerged in order to cook properly and safely. And it appears that this is a regular issue discussed in cooking forums and the like. Even if the food is fully vacuum sealed, unless very weighty, it still tends to rise and that's not a good thing. And for packages that haven't been vacuum sealed, even a small amount of air will have the package bobbing to the surface. In my first attempts at solving this issue, I placed a heavy(ish) ceramic dish on the package, but I didn't think this was a great option because the dish was sitting against one side of the meat. People have tried to come up with all manner of solutions, from magnets to bulldog clips, or placing weights inside the bags, with varying degrees of success. It took me a couple of attempts, but I finally found a reasonably workable solution. It just amazes me that manufacturers haven't come up with a simple solution to such a common problem.
Once the sous vide has done its job, there follows one of two options to finalise the cooking. For things like beef and pork steaks, chicken fillets, hamburgers, squid (yes squid) and similar, it's simply a matter of searing the meat to give it the pan fried/BBQ outer crust. While the meat straight out of the sous vide is fully edible as it is, it often doesn't look overly palatable, so searing is usually the final step. For curries and stir fries, it doesn't really matter if the meat is seared, as usually when it's cut up and put in the curry or stir fry as the final step, you won't notice any difference. In fact, in most of my stir fries, the chicken usually never gets seared else there's the eternal danger of making it tough. No such fear with sous vide chicken, unless you leave it in the stir fry or curry too long. The best thing to do is slice the meat, place it on top of rice or noodles and pour the curry sauce/stir fry sauce over the meat. For meats like the marinated chicken thighs, roasts or marinated sirloin roast, it's just a matter of slicing the meat as the marinade hides the pallor of un-marinated meat.
One final thought that people might have is how much power does a sous vide use, considering that it has to be on for several hours (including the pre-heating) and for some recipes 24 hours or more. Compared to an oven, BBQ and the like that's often on for much less time and where you may need to have the oven on anyway if roasting vegetables and the like, is it economical? So I decided to test this with a power meter that I have, to see how many kWh the sous vide draws to cook a small rolled-roast chicken that I cooked for four hours at 65C and which included over an hour for the pre-heating (the semi-frozen roast was put in at the beginning of pre-heating). As you can see, in four hours, the sous vide used a fraction over 1kWh of power (the unit shows whole kW and then the fraction), costing less than 40c, and using less than what an hour of running a fan-forced electric oven would have used. So sous vide is actually quite a cost effective way of cooking.
While sous vide may appear to be a time consuming task, it's anything but, as you simply prepare the food in much the way that you would anyway and just leave things to cook. While some meat may require a searing, that's really a small price to pay for getting tender, perfectly cooked, meat. I think the interesting thing is that Australians are clearly willing to try different cooking methods than just the iconic burnt chops and snags on the BBQ, and are prepared to experiment with new methods, else these products wouldn't be on the market. Perhaps those cooking shows are having an effect on our culture afterall.
This entry was posted in Odds'N'Sods and tagged Bush Cooking, Slow Cooking, Sous Vide, Vacuum Bags on 22/07/2016 by Ray.


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WOMEN IN FOOTBALL: THE GLASS CEILING
Women have a voice in this sport and now is the time to know their experiences.
Women's Football News
Women's Football Leagues, Cups & UCL
Women's World Cup News
Interview Articles
Project Big Picture: A Good Or Bad Idea For Women's Football?
BREAKING: Radical proposals to inject £51M into women's football have emerged in the latest version of 'Project Big Picture' (A … More
England, FA Women's Super League, investment, Liverpool, Manchester United, Premier League, Project Big Picture, UK, women in football, women's football, WSL
Women's Super League: From "Badly Hit By The Pandemic" To "The World's Best"
For many years, the Premier League has sought to attract the finest male footballers in the world. But despite the … More
Alex Morgan, FA Women's Super League, football, Lucy Bronze, Manchester City, Manchester United, News, Pernille Harder, Premier League, Rose Lavelle, Tobin Heath, Tottenham Hotspur, UK, USA, women's football, WSL
GREAT NEWS: Return of Women's Football League Draws More Than 2M TV Viewers
On Sunday, more than two million people tuned in to watch the BBC's Women's Football Show, in a sign of … More
BBC, England, FA, FA Women's Super League, FA Women's Cup, football, News, Premier League, TV, UK, women's football, Women's world cup, WSL
BREAKING: Leicester City Acquires Leicester City Women!
Premier League's Leicester City have launched their own professional women's team from next season. The club has undertaken a sustained … More
FA, FA Women's Super League, FA Women's Cup, FAWC, football, LCFC, Leicester City, News, Premier League, UK, women's football, WSL
Jawahir Roble: The First Muslim Female Referee In The UK
BREAKING! Jawahir Roble has become the UK's first female Muslim referee in this sports' history. And with only being 26 years-old, … More
BBC, FA, Fifa, football, Jawahir Roble, muslim, News, Premier League, refe, Referee, UEFA, UK, women's football
Arsenal Player Complains At FA After Feeling Women's Football "Didn't Exist for Four Months" In The UK
Arsenal's Leah Williamson says she hasn't felt that "women's football has existed for the past four months". The 23-year-old, who … More
Arsenal, Arsenal Women, Chelsea FC, coronavirus, epl, FA, football, leah williamson, News, Premier League, women's football, WSL


While there are a variety of methods for preparing a chocolate fondue recipe, we decided the best approach was similar to the way we make chocolate ganache: melting finely chopped chocolate in hot cream, then stirring the two together. The balance of chocolate to cream was crucial: With too much chocolate, the fondue's texture was too thick and we couldn't effectively dip items into it. With too much cream, the fondue's flavor became muted and it wouldn't cling well. In the end, we decided a little more chocolate than cream delivered the best results in our chocolate fondue recipe.


These cute carrot treat bags would be an easy project to mass produce for Easter gifts, teacher gifts and more. They came together really quickly-once I gathered all of the supplies! Surprisingly, the hardest part for me was finding orange colored candies in bulk. I used Reese's Pieces. I had to pick out all of the orange ones, and then my family helped me eat up the other colors. They are helpful like that!
This is the first time I have used the Martha Stewart Crafts Fringe Scissors. Let me tell you…they are awesome! I often make my own paper shred for small gifts, and these scissors are going to save me tons of time! They cut through heavy cardstock like butter, and they are fabulous on tissue paper as well.
Using the fringe scissors, cut the paper strips, leaving about 1/2″ uncut at the bottom.
At this point, you can run the cut strips through a paper crimper.
Fill the plastic bags with candy.
When the bags are filled as full as you would like, tie them off with a small section of string. Cut the string short, so it will not show later.
Apply adhesive to the inside, bottom, of one of the three shorter sections of green cardstock.
Wrap one of the cardstock strips around the top of each treat bag, overlapping the strip until it is completely adhered.
Trim excess plastic bag from the top.
Tie with green ribbon! Repeat with each treat bag.
Next, take the larger strip of cardstock, liberally apply adhesive to the outside bottom strip, and adhere the strip to the inside rim of the basket.
I could not be happier about this basket fringe idea! One of the things I can't stand about Easter is the plastic basket grass! It seems like I am vacuuming up that grass for an entire month. Not this year!
After you get the grass glued in well, go ahead a crumple or curl the "grass" as desired.
I am going to quickly show you how I created the tag for the basket.
Oh, and google eyes. I love google eyes!
Using pink ink, or chalk, edge the all of the punched pieces and also the inside of the bunny ears.
Assemble the bunny as shown. I used pop-dots to raise the cheeks a little.
Add the google eyes, and attach it to your yellow tag.
Computer generate your sentiment tag.
Trim it down to a "tag" size. Leave extra room on the front and back of your tag.
I wanted to share with you a technique that I often use to "fancy up" my tags.
Take your cut tag, and line it up inside a border edge punch. Make sure it will punch evenly on both sides of the tag.
Look at your fancy custom tag! You can add an eyelet, or punch the backside, and make a fancy label!
Now all you need to do is choose a lucky person to give your treats to!
Love the idea but you didn't say how to make the bags.
This is cute, cute, cute!
Shaunte, this whole project is cool, but I LOVE the idea of using the fringe scissors and green Core'dinations paper to make Easter basket grass! So cute, and so much neater than the regular stuff. I'm definitely using that idea at home!
These are the cutest thing for Easter treats. I plan to make some as soon as I get the supplies together.
I just love it! Where did you get the basket at?


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Classic Horror: The Monkey's Paw
August 6, 2021 April 5, 2022 Katie Marie
Today I am writing to talk to you about the short story The Monkeys Paw.
I cannot imagine that you will not have seen, or heard of, one of the parodies of this story. Someone finds a severed monkey hand that grants wishes that all turn out to produce hopelessly ironic consequences. The adaptations and parodies cross almost all mediums from television to plays, films, comics and even cartoons. The Simpsons did a Halloween episode of the story, the turkey's a little dry!
That aside, the original short story was penned by W.W Jacobs in 1902 and was published in the collection titled The Lady of the Barge.
Photo by Ishara Kasthuriarachchi on Pexels.com
The short story centres around the White family, two parents and their adult son, Herbert. They have an army friend over for dinner and shows them a mummified monkey's paw and a story to go with it, the story being that the paw is cursed and will grant the bearer three wishes. The friend also explains that by making the wishes you are tampering with fate and this results in terrible punishments. The friend then proceeds to hurl the paw into the fireplace, due to its malicious nature. However, Mr White retrieves it.
Initially Mr White believes himself content, that he has everything he could desire and does not know what to wish for. At Herbert's urging, he wishes for £200 to clear his mortgage. When the wish is made the paw moves frightening Mr White.
The following day Herbert heads off to work at the local factory and dies in a terrible workplace accident. The company gives Mr White £200 in compensation for his son's life.
Mrs White who is mad with grief begs her husband to use the paw to wish Herbert back to life, which he begrudgingly does. He has fears that his son will come back as a zombie. The cemetery is a few miles away, and approximately an hour later (the length of time it would take to walk to the cemetery) there is a knock at the door. Mr White has not gotten himself so worked up at the idea that his sons reanimated zombie body will be on the other side of the door that he makes his third wish and when his wife opens the door no one is there.
Photo by Lisa on Pexels.com
First off, I like this story, the whole concept and the way Jacobs builds tension around Herbert's long walk home is fantastic.
I think one of the reasons that this story has prevailed for as long as it has, and I suspect will continue to do so, is because of its simplistic moral message. Don't wish for what you do not have. It has an almost religious feel to it, thou shall not covet etc.
The story reads like an extended and better-developed morality tale and the stories which last the longest and resonate the hardest with audiences are often deceptively simple.
The horror element of this story comes from desire, man's desire to have more and to obtain it with no effort. There is also the fact that the story spells out that the dire consequences come from tampering with fate, a concept not unique to this story or the horror genre. The idea that things are predestined, that you cannot change your fate and any attempt to do so will result in a worse fate.
Jacobs strongly pays into the idea that tampering with fate is wrong, his main characters are content, and it is not until they wish for more simply because the opportunity presents itself, that they start to suffer. I've seen other stories take a different approach, where characters who rally against an unjust fate are heralded as heroes, but that is not the path Jacobs walks in this story.
The atmosphere of the story is expertly crafted, again in part due to its simple nature. White's tumultuous wait for his son's return is an amazing bit of tension development and atmosphere development.
Overall this story is short, hard-hitting and well worth your time.
Tagged Classic Horror, gothic horror, monkeys paw, morality tale, short form horror, short horror, short story
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Home > Daily WebLogs > 2019 > 05-2019 > The Book of Ruth, part 8, Orpah returns
The Book of Ruth, part 8, Orpah returns
In Ruth 1:11-13 Naomi gave her daughters-in-law the opportunity to return instead of crossing the Jordan into a foreign land. We cannot say for sure what Noami's motives were, but from a higher perspective, we can see that this opportunity tested their hearts to see if they really wanted to enter the Promised Land. Perhaps the girls had shed some tears along the road, and Naomi did not want them to be unhappy for the rest of their lives.
It would take genuine faith to understand that the Promised Land would demand a change of culture, laws, and worship—even putting a distance between themselves and their families. Neither did they know if they would find anyone in Israel who would marry them and give them children, as they so desired.
No doubt many Israelites were suspicious of Moabite women, who were accustomed to ungodly religious practices and were also allies (in times past) of the Midianites, who had seduced the Israelites under the counsel of Balaam (Numbers 25:1, 2). Scripture tells us that the Moabites had invited the Israelites to their idolatrous love festival, but the account puts the major blame on the Midianites (Numbers 31:2, 7).
An unknown number of Moabite women in that war had been taken as slave-wives for the Israelites (Numbers 31:18, 19), and by the time of Ruth, these had been fully integrated into Israelite society. So the problem was not their ethnicity but their religious background. Hence, it was a big step for Ruth and Orpah to immigrate to the land of Judah with Naomi, for they had no guarantee of finding husbands there who would treat them as free women, rather than as conquered slaves.
Orpah Turns Back
Ruth 1:14 says,
14 And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
In other words, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law to say goodbye, and she returned to the house of her parents, but Ruth would not leave. Both of them loved Naomi, but only one of them actually had the faith to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. In this we see the two girls playing their roles as Israelites in the wilderness under Moses. Orpah represented the majority of the Israelites who "were not able to enter because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:19; Numbers 14:4).
I understand (by personal revelation) that Orpah was very much torn by this separation and that she hoped that Ruth would return with her. She felt abandoned, even though from a biblical perspective, she was the one abandoning Ruth and Naomi. But such things are a matter of perspective, for when people leave God, they blind themselves and lose sight of His presence. Hence, they think that God has abandoned them.
This warped and blind viewpoint is seen also among the Israelites who had refused to enter the Promised Land. Numbers 14:1 says,
1 Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
Orpah, too, shed many tears, but hers were tears of sadness, for she had purposed in her heart that she could not enter the Promised Land. Verse 4 says, that they decided to "return to Egypt."
The Israelites soon resented God's judgment upon them, and many followed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16:1, 2) in rebelling against Moses, whom God had raised up to lead Israel. Even though they had recognized their sin earlier (Numbers 14:40), their hearts remained in a state of rebellion, lawlessness, and lack of faith.
So there is no doubt that Orpah, too, reflected that same spirit, returning to her people while thinking that Ruth had left her. We read no more of Orpah, and no doubt she died in the wilderness (Moab), even as the Israelites themselves had died without receiving the promises. Fortunately for all of them, God took an oath to restore them as well (Deuteronomy 29:14, 15).
Ruth and Naomi
Ruth represented those who actually entered the Promised Land. It is not fully clear how we should view Naomi's prophetic role in this story, for she stands above both Ruth and Orpah. Her main role seems to be that of Moses and Joshua in leading Israel into the Promised Land. In that she gave both girls the opportunity to enter the Promised Land, with one obeying and the other returning, she was playing the role of Moses in Numbers 13 and 14. But her dominant role was that of Joshua who actually led Israel into the land. This is consistent with the meaning of her name, Naomi, or "grace," when we view her in light of John 1:17,
17 For the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
Jesus' Hebrew name was Yeshua, or Joshua, and "grace" (Naomi) was "realized" through Joshua.
Naomi's husband, Elimelech, means "My God" (Eli) "is king" (melech). Her marriage pictured the union of Grace and Sovereignty, both characteristics of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, therefore, she is a type of Christ, as were both Moses and Joshua.
Ruth herself is a type of believer who embraces Jesus Christ through the New Covenant. By clinging to Naomi, she also clings to Elimelech, recognizing the sovereignty of God. This is seen more clearly in Ruth 1:16, 17,
16 But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me."
This well-known confession of faith has been used by some to promote the idea that Christians ought to become Jews. It does indeed show that a Moabite could become an Israelite—in this case, a Judahite—because these are national and religious terms, not racial or genealogical. In the New Covenant, it is the same.
To turn to Christ is to become a "Jew" (Ioudeos), as Paul tells us in Romans 2:28, 29. Paul also tells us specifically that most of those who call themselves "Jews" are not really Jews at all by God's definition. Only those whose hearts have been circumcised by a New Covenant relationship with Jesus Christ are actually recognized by God as "Jews."
But because the world did not understand this and had their own fleshly criteria as to who is and who is not a Jew, the true identity of a "Jew" has been in dispute since the time of Christ.
But Ruth essentially became a Jew, not because she married Boaz of Bethlehem, but because of her faith in the God of Israel. In fact, in the eyes of God only a portion of the people of Judah were actually Jews. So also in later years God recognized only 7,000 men in the entire nation of Israel who were of the remnant of grace (1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:4, 6, 7).
See my book, Who is an Israelite?
In the New Testament, we see a similar situation with Jesus' disciples. In John 6:56, 57, Jesus said,
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.
This teaching caused many to reject Jesus (John 6:60, 64), for their carnal perspective of the law caused them to think He was promoting cannibalism. So we read in John 6:66-69,
66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. 67 Jesus said therefore to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" 68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."
It appears that Jesus deliberately spoke difficult truths that would test the hearts of the people and separate the true believers from those who only appeared to believe. This was their Ruth and Orpah moment. Eleven of Jesus' disciples truly had faith in Him, while one did not. John 6:70, 71 says,
70 Jesus answered them, "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?" 71 Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.
It is interesting that Judas was "the son of Simon Iscariot," because Simon means "hearing," but Judas did not have ears to hear. Iscariot is the Grecianized form of the Hebrew Ish Kerioth, a "man from Kerioth-arba," or Hebron, the inheritance of Caleb in the territory of Judah. There was nothing wrong with the heritage of Judas, and yet he betrayed Jesus, who was his friend.
In essence, Judas turned back at the last minute, just as Orpah turned back. Hence, neither were qualified to receive the promised inheritance. I believe that we all come to our own crisis point at the brink of Jordan, where we either follow the example of Ruth or turn back with Orpah.


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Cornwall's natural beauties are a major attraction to visitors, but running a close second is its incredible food and drink.
Whether you are looking for a perfect cream tea, a gourmet coffee or a light bite between shopping trips – Cornwall has it all, and thankfully has come up with their new Truly Cornish Café Trail.
This contemporary barn style cafe, with stunning sea and countryside views, champions home cooked, local produce in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Mouth-watering dishes with a Cornish and British influence, enjoyed in the sea view restaurant, on the sun terrace or in the garden.
Fabulous food and fantastic local ingredients served with passion in beautiful surroundings, with views to St. Michael's Mount and the bay.
Stunning views, friendly service and home grown fruit and vegetables at this award-winning venue.
A welcoming oasis near Land's End. Open all year round for homemade breakfast, lunch, cakes and cream teas. Vegan and gluten free available. Cosy wood burner to boot.
A small friendly cafe, open every day, with outside seating and full wheelchair access. Serving great breakfasts, light lunches and delicious homemade cakes.
Offers a range of quality coffees, homemade cakes, scones, soup and a selection of sandwiches and savoury light bites.
An independent coffee shop and deli in the heart of bustling Falmouth serving fine Cornish produce to eat-in or take-away.
A welcoming unique café in the centre of St Austell, with a relaxing environment and great, locally sourced food and drink.
A beautiful woodsman's cottage in the heart of Cardinham Woods, serving delicious homemade lunches, cakes and cream teas.
16th Century watermill with café, arts and crafts, rustic shelters, pond walk, historical artefacts and good homemade food.
A speciality coffee shop brewing and showcasing espresso and filter coffee.
A creative hub and roadside cafe serving speciality coffee and freshly cooked food with influence taken from around the globe.
Above Uneeka Life in the heart of Truro, offering comfortable, relaxed surroundings away from the bustle of city life.
A favourite with shoppers, this central café has a restaurant upstairs and espresso bar in the courtyard, serving morning coffee, lunches and afternoon tea.
Located in the magical Lost Gardens of Heligan, this tearoom offers delicious, seasonal home-cooked meals served with rustic charm all year round.
Overlooking Restormel Castle, this award winning, contemporary café offers the very best local produce in a delightful setting.
Uniquely set within a preserved Victorian china clay works at Wheal Martyn Museum and Country Park. The café is free to enter.
Award-winning atmospheric cafe situated at Heartlands. Delivering great Cornish produce creatively and with excellent service.
Set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty between moors and sea, this unique café and craft centre serves handmade, rustic fare from local producers.
A casual beach-side eatery with amazing vistas across St Ives Bay. Serving simple, contemporary food at an affordable price.
Enjoy bread and pasties fresh from the bakery ovens and daily lunch specials, cakes, pastries and coffees.
Set in a secluded courtyard and famous for its coffee, Relish is a café and delicatessen regularly listed amongst the best in the UK.
A vibrant and friendly café serving a varied menu including vegetarian, vegan and special diets. Specials menu updated daily.


Hong Kong/ 8 August 2018 – Satcom Direct, the business aviation connectivity, software and hardware provider, has confirmed its first Jet ConneX installation for Deer Jet subsidiary, Hongkong Jet. The ultra-high-speed Ka-band service, powered by Inmarsat's Global Xpress satellite constellation, is being supplied to a privately-owned Gulfstream G650ER, managed and maintained by Hongkong Jet.
Photo Caption: Denzil White, CEO Hong Kong Jet, Nathan Andrews regional director SD APAC, Mike Walsh CCO Hongkong Jet.
About Satcom Direct: Satcom Direct (SD) and its companies provide global connectivity solutions for business and general aviation, military, government, and head of state aircraft. The company also provides land mobile services to areas with connectivity limitations. Since 1997, SD has worked to advance the technology of global connectivity, being first to market with new capabilities in communications technology. SD's industry leading hardware solutions, like the SDR, are complemented by their divisional capabilities including SD Avionics cabin and flight deck systems and SD software solutions. A premier Inmarsat distribution partner (including Jet ConneX), Iridium service partner, and ViaSat Ku preferred reseller, SD is also a value-added reseller for Panasonic systems and the exclusive service provider for SmartSky Networks.


The juniors showed their speed today in the WOA Sprint at Massey University. A relatively simple course with 50-50 route-choice meant those with speedy legs could push confidently the whole way. With minimum hesitations there were no breaks for the runners and the pain was showing on the runners' faces as they were racing around the course.
The men's grade was taken out by Tim Robertson with a time of 16:10 for the 4.4 km course. The Moose followed close behind on 16:20 with Brodie Nankervis, our Australian pal, filling the podium with 16:30. The easy navigation meant the time-loss for the top runners was minimal, but there were still a few decisive legs on the course.
A wider route-choice of 100 m further by Tim to the 5th control caused no significant time loss. Shorter stairs may have made the running easier but Tim was probably just stronger on the hill.
Brodie's error in his choice of paths to the 10th control cost him 12 seconds to Tim. Speaking to Brodie after his race, "I didn't have a plan and I didn't know where I was".
Tim lost half a minute to the 13th control from miss-reading the gap between the buildings. The olive green without borders was very difficult for the runners to see and many of the impassable gaps appeared runnable. This pushed Tim an extra 130 m around the building until he found a legal passage.
A lack of concentration by The Moose meant his exit direction from 18 was 90° off. "I made an amateur mistake because I am a complete rookie" The Moose described his route-choice after he finished, which may have cost him the win.
Map of the Mens Elite course with the route-choices of the top 3 runners can be found in the "Maps" section of the blog.


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Q: How to get last modified date of file I'm trying to get the last modified date of a file and this turns out to be more complicated than I thought. My first attempt was this:
hFile = CreateFile(filename, GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL);
GetFileTime(hFile, &creationTime, &lastAccessTime, &lastWriteTime);
FileTimeToSystemTime(&lastWriteTime, &t);

printf("TEST: %d %d %d\n", t.wHour, t.wMinute, t.wSecond);

I've tested this with a file on my HD whose last modified date is reported by Explorer as Friday 21st March, 1997, 14:34:58. Now with the code above I got the same date except that the time is reported as 13:34:58, i.e. one hour off. So I thought this is probably related to missing timezone/DST adjustments so I added a call to FileTimeToLocalTime(), i.e. like this:
hFile = CreateFile(filename, GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ|FILE_SHARE_WRITE, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL);
GetFileTime(hFile, &creationTime, &lastAccessTime, &lastWriteTime);
FileTimeToLocalFileTime(&lastWriteTime, &ft);
FileTimeToSystemTime(&ft, &t);

But now the time is reported as 15:34:58, i.e. still one hour off but now in the opposite direction. So I still don't get the 14:34:58 as reported by Explorer.
That's why I'd like to ask how I can get the last modified date as reported by Explorer. Anyone?

A: The blog "Why do Explorer and the command prompt interpret file times differently?" address the reason for why you get different last modified time of a file from Windows API and from Explorer: "Daylight Saving Time".
To account for daylight saving time when converting a file time to a local time, use the following sequence of functions in place of using FileTimeToLocalFileTime:

*

*FileTimeToSystemTime

*SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime

*SystemTimeToFileTime.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home News Briefs Excellere provides financing to Concord
Excellere provides financing to Concord
Excellere Partners has made an investment in Seattle-based Concord Technologies, a provider of secure, cloud-based interoperability and automation technology for healthcare and other document-intensive industries. No financial terms were disclosed. Cascadia Capital provided financial advice to Concord on the transaction.
DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Excellere Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm focused on partnering with entrepreneurs and management teams, announced today that it has made a strategic investment in Concord Technologies ("Concord"), a leading provider of secure, cloud-based interoperability and automation technology for healthcare and other document-intensive industries. Based in Seattle, Washington, Concord's solutions promote interoperability through the efficient and secure exchange of large quantities of critical data. Concord's AI technology underpins the company's content extraction, recognition, search, and automation platform, enabling customers to efficiently manage critical document processes. Additionally, the company's most recent workflow platform, NEXTSTEP, unlocks the power of unstructured data, enabling customers to create and integrate vital datasets from a variety of unstructured data sources.
"We are extremely excited to partner with Chris Moore and the entire Concord team, as we look to support their vision for becoming the leader in healthcare process automation and integration," said Ryan Glaws, Partner with Excellere. "Concord's unique service offering addresses critical needs within the broader healthcare ecosystem, including information security and system interoperability. With its AI-powered workflow, Concord's solutions provide significant and tangible value to customers, enabling them to send, receive, ingest, and direct large amounts of inbound and outbound unstructured data, which enables greater efficiency and ultimately enhances the timely and accurate delivery of patient care."
"Concord has been built on a commitment to provide solutions that help our customers use their data securely and efficiently," said Chris Moore, founder and CEO of Concord. "We continue to experience tremendous growth and have sought a partner with a proven track record of helping high-growth companies scale into industry leaders. We are thrilled to partner with the Excellere team and believe their unique combination of healthcare expertise and their value creation process will help to position Concord properly for the massive growth that lies ahead."
Cascadia Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor to Concord.
About Concord Technologies
Concord Technologies is a Seattle, Washington-based provider of interoperability and automation solutions focused on healthcare and other document-intensive industries. Serving over 1,500 customers, Concord's solutions help transfer, process, and integrate unstructured data within customers' existing systems and operational processes. For more information, please visit: http://www.concord.net.
About Excellere Partners
Excellere Partners is a Denver-based private equity firm with $1.36 billion of committed capital across Fund I, Fund II and Fund III, specializing in partnering with entrepreneurs and management teams. The firm employs a proven research-driven, top-down investment strategy, and supports its entrepreneurs and management teams with a proprietary value creation process designed to enhance corporate and operational infrastructure for scalability and growth. Excellere's investments are focused on differentiated and growth-oriented companies positioned to benefit from industry consolidation and favorable macro-economic and demographic trends. Excellere's targeted industry sectors include: healthcare; energy, power and infrastructure services and products; industrial technology, specialty chemicals; and business services. For more information about Excellere, please visit http://www.excellerepartners.com.


According to Facebook, everyone started school this past week. Except us, here in Florida. We still have another whole week to go. And I'm glad we had/have these two weeks, and not just because next week we will be in New York (having tea with Eloise at The Plaza! I feel like I should buy a hat).
This week was a really good week too. We had play dates four out of the five days. And three of the days were at our place. With multiple kids coming and going at different times. Which means I spent a lot of time in our elevator, bringing kids to and from the lobby.
This gave me plenty of time to read the minutes from the buildings most recent monthly board meeting, as they post them in the elevator. And I had to keep reading them because I couldn't believe some of them. Especially the one that states that they want to add to section 11, page 7 of the Rules and Regulations that it is three plants allowed per unit NOT per balcony. Because apparently while three plants are okay, any more than that would be…tacky? To much weight for the balconies? Provide more oxygen then we need? It obviously can't be that a plethora of plants would be to ostentatious or showy, cause in Miami we strive for that.
Then it got crazier. The follow up to the meeting minutes was the arrival of our monthly building newsletter. This also contained a recap of the minutes, some ads, and on the back page, a little blurb about our buildings "library". The library is essentially a bookshelf placed next to the mailboxes, where you can borrow books to read. Averi LOVES the library. Every time we pass it she wants to see if kids books have been added. Sadly, there almost never are. So I encourage her to place books on there that she has outgrown, to maybe encourage other people to put kids books there. So she will occasionally place a book or two on the shelves.
Last month we redid her art area and I drastically thinned down her coloring books as she never uses them. Most were practically new, so I encouraged her to bring them to the "library". She agreed and added a few books as well. It was by far the biggest stack we have brought down. Within two days they were all gone. Averi was ecstatic, thinking some kids had gotten them and that maybe it meant other books would be added. She keeps checking.
We are also having movie night tonight. Which requires popcorn. Which made me think of my friend Ceci and the awesome popcorn she gave as goodie bags at her sons birthday party a few years ago. Perfect treat for neighbor and for movie night! I texted Ceci for the recipe, and as a bonus, ended up having a lovely convo with her. I miss you Ceci!
Her recipe is pretty simple – popcorn, melted white chocolate chips and sprinkles. I had it all. Or so I thought until I couldn't find my sprinkles. So I started looking for what I could replace it with. Michael suggested peanuts, but you know how I feel about nuts in my desserts. He tried to sell it to me by mentioning moose munch. And he succeeded. And I got excited and dded not only the peanuts, but also semi sweet chocolate chips and caramel sauce. I kept searching my pantry, hoping I had marshmallows. I didn't, but I did manage to find the sprinkles tucked behind my fig jam.
Pop popcorn. Remove unpopped kernels. Pour remainder into a bowl.
Melt both sets of chocolate chips. Pour over popcorn, coating all. Once coated, add caramel, peanuts and sprinkles.
Once popcorn and chocolate has cooled down some, add marshmallows. It is very important to not add them while mixture is still hot, as you do not want marshmallows to melt. If you are not sure, just add one or two to check consistency. Once all marshmallows are added, combine.
Pour popcorn mixture onto wax paper, spreading out. Let chocolate set. Then enjoy!


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Naruto Shippuden Is Getting Adorable New Pop Vinyl Figures
Featuring Naruto, Sakura and more!
By Alex Osborn
Updated: Dec 14, 2016 7:28 pm
Posted: Dec 14, 2016 7:20 pm
Funko has revealed a new line of Pop Vinyl figures, all based on the popular anime series Naruto Shippuden.
This new figure collection features several beloved characters from the series, including Naruto, Tobi, Kakashi and Sakura. See them all in the gallery below:
naruto-pop
The "Sage Mode" exclusive variant of Naruto will be available exclusively through GameStop, while the "Six Path" version of the character will be available as a Hot Topic exclusive.
No specific release date for the figures was provided, with Funko simply saying that fans will be able to "collect them all this winter."
This isn't the first time Funko has released Naruto Shippuden figures, as earlier this year the company celebrated Anime Day with the launch of a limited "Kurama Mode" Pop Vinyl figure.
Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Disney XD
The 25 Best Nintendo Switch Games
5d ago - The best of the best (of the best).


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Tag Archives: HGO
Luke Cecil Barkhuis 23:43 on January 4, 2020
Tags: Aidan Mikdad, HGO
0737-New Year's Concert HGO
Aidan Mikdad (Amsterdam, 19 November 2001, son of a Syrian father and a Dutch mother) is a Dutch classical pianist. At the age of 11 , he won the first prize of the Koninklijk Concertgebouw Competition. At the age of 13, he won the Klavier-Festival Ruhr Scholarship that was awarded to him by pianist Hélène Grimaud. In 2014, he won the first prize of the International Piano Competition of Lagny-sur-Marne. He currently studies with Naum Grubert at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Previously, Aidan was a student of Mila Baslawskaja, which whom he studied at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where he enrolled in the bachelor programme at the age of 14. At the age of 15 he won the prestigious Royal Concertgebouw Young Talent Award. Recently he won the Pnina Salzman Memorial Prize at the Tel Hai International Piano Masterclasses in Israël. In 2016, he won the first prize of the Premio Internazionale Pianistico "A. Scriabin" for pianists up to 35 years of age, he also received the Tabor Foundation Piano Award from the Verbier Festival as a recognition of his potential and as an investment in his promise.
Over the years, he has taken piano lessons with Vovka Ashkenazy, Sergei Babayan, Paul Badura-Skoda, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jonathan Biss, Victor Derevianko, Nelson Goerner, Richard Goode, Naum Grubert, Klaus Hellwig, Alexander Mndoyants, Pascal Némirovski, Enrico Pace, Jorge Luis Prats, Ferenc Rados, András Schiff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Natalia Troull, Jenny Zaharieva, Asaf Zohar, and with Joanna MacGregor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His repertoire includes works of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Haydn, Liszt, Mozart, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Scriabin, and Stravinsky. He has given recitals in Belgium, France, Germany, Israël, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, and he performed live in television and radio programs in the Netherlands and France.
2015: included a series of concerts in the Netherlands & Belgium in which he played the First Piano Concerto by Franz Liszt with the Euregio Youth Orchestra and conductor Hans Casteleyn. In November 2014 he performed Franz Liszt' Mephisto Waltz No. 1 live in a radio program of France Musique Radio.
2016, he gave solo recitals in the Hermitage in Amsterdam and in Ponzano di Fermo (Italy), where he played Beethoven Sonata No. 28, Op. 101, Scriabin Sonata No. 5, Rachmaninoff Sonata No. 2, and Stravinsky's Trois mouvements de Pétrouchka. 2016 included also an invitation to participate in the Verbier Festival Academy, a debut recital in June at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, a live performance in July of Mendelssohn's concerto No. 1 on Dutch National Radio with conductor Johannes Leertouwer and the Wonderfeel Orchestra at the Wonderfeel Summer Festival, a debut in the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), where he played Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 with Sinfonia Rotterdam and conductor Conrad van Alphen, that he also performed in de Nieuwe Kerk (The Hague) and De Doelen (Rotterdam).
2016/17 included amongst others solo recitals in France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Also, he also played a quatre-mains with Jean-Yves Thibaudet live on France Musique Radio, and a piano duet with German cellist Raphaela Gromes in the wonderful Künstlerhaus am Lehnbach Platz in München. On March 5th 2017, he made his debuts in the Jubilee Concert of the Series Meesterpianisten in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In addition, he performed Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Orchestra Sinfonica "Città di Grosseto" in several Italian cities: Empoli, Grosseto, and Brescia.
2017/18, he has given a series of concerts (recitals & with orchestra) in the Netherlands & Switzerland. He performed the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor with Het Gelders Orkest (in Utrecht, Nijmegen, Arnhem & Apeldoorn), and the First Piano Concerto by Franz Liszt with Het Orkest van het Oosten (in Enschede), and the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (in Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern). Furthermore, he performed Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos with The Conservatory of Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, and Utrecht. In addition he performed Bach Piano Concerto No. 1 and Shostakovich Piano Quintet Op. 57 with the Alma Quartet.
In Verbier, where he was invited as student-in-residence, he followed masterclasses in chamber music with Pamela Frank and Gábor Takács-Nagy, and piano masterclasses with Sergei Babayan. In addition, he gave a solo recital and performed Brahms Quartet in G minor together with Daniela Akta (Cello), Johan Dalene (Violin) , Vicki Powell (Viola). Aidan has a Fazioli grand piano (1991) on loan generously provided from the collection of the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation. He also studies on a piano, generously provided by the Young Pianist Foundation.
Luke Cecil Barkhuis 20:17 on April 13, 2018
Tags: Arnheim ( 6 ), Arno Stoffelsma, Clarinet, HGO, Lawyer
0408-Arnheim
Arno Stoffelsma about orchestras and judgments
He has a special hobby. Or combines two surprising careers. This inhabitant of Arnheim has a (more or less) hidden talent. In the first edition Arno Stoffelsma (b. 1982), first clarinet player at Het Gelders Orkest and legal assistant at Dirkzwager. A super musical jurist. Or a legally trained musician. It depends on how you look at it. Arno Stoffelsma at least mixes two special careers. All credits for his employer Dirkzwager. Because that's how he succeeds in successfully combining both professions. When you look at his agenda, you become almost tired. Because Arno Stoffelsma almost literally flies back and forth between the concert hall of Musis (concert hall in Arnheim) and Dirkzwager Lawyers & Notaries. One time with his clarinet under his arm, the other time with a briefcase full of files and legal texts. "I'm never mistaken. I do not accidentally pick up my clarinet in the office and do not make any contracts during the rehearsal pause of Het Gelders Orkest. For that it is much too different worlds. But I am very happy that they have come together in Arnheim for three and a half years. "
Clarinet lesson at home
Arno has been playing the clarinet since he was seven years old. That may not be surprising with a clarinet player as a mother and a father who is a hobby horn player. "At home only classical music was recorded; we were really brought up with that. My brother and I were both encouraged to also play an instrument. I received clarinet lessons from my mother for four and a half years. Then I really went the 'level music school' and went looking for another music teacher. That was Herman Braune, clarinet teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory. "
Arno had talent, that much was certain. At the age of twelve he was selected for the Young Talent class at that same Conservatory. "The clarinet is also physically good with me. With other people, playing after 5 minutes is already tickling, but I can keep up with that from an early age. And it makes a big difference that my mother immediately corrected me at home if I did something wrong. The flaming of wrong habits takes a lot more time and energy than the learning of new ones. I studied at least two hours of clarinet every day. The better you become, the more fun it is to play. That works extra stimulating. "
When he was sixteen, Arno was selected for the Netherlands Youth Orchestra, with whom he soon toured Japan. Later the European Youth Orchestra followed, under the direction of famous conductors such as Bernhard Haitink and Herbert Blomstedt. Arno: "Maybe I have jumped too young. At the age of 21, before I had a bachelor's degree from the Conservatory, I got my first job at the Concertgebouw Orchestra. A dream job, of course, especially for someone without a notable professional experience. After that I worked as a freelancer for several years at various orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad, until I ended up at Het Gelders Orkest (HGO) in 2007. They call it 'a warm bath', and that's what it is. I'm really enjoying it. Especially now that we are allowed to play in these beautiful new rooms of Musis. De Muzenzaal has been restored very cleverly to its former glory. The renovation has succeeded very nicely anyway, especially the Park Hall with all that glass and green. It is very special to be able to play in daylight and not in a closed box, which is the most concert halls. "
Role of law
Five years ago, that passion for classical music was the prelude to a new profession: a law school. "I find it interesting to think about legal issues and about the role of law in our society. And it has practical advantages: you can study law very well in your own time." Arno graduated from the VU in Amsterdam where he still lives. He recently completed his Masters in Law at the Open University. For three and a half years Arno has been part-time legal assistant at Dirkzwager at Velperweg (Arnheim), where he has the freedom to work between the tight rehearsal schedule and the performances of HGO. As is known, the Arnheim law firm is very fond of the fine arts.
Flying hours
Arno, philosophizing: "Law and musicians may have similarities. You try to take someone else with you, to convince them. Sometimes quite literally, in a plea for the good cause or a client, the other time on the concert stage. Furthermore, of course, everything applies: if you stick to it, it will bear fruit. Making flying hours and going for it." "Learning wrong habits takes much more time than learning new ones"
Tip from Arno:
Mozart's Concert for clarinet and orchestra is a great opportunity for Het Gelders Orkest to show Zutphen, Nimwegen, Arnheim and Doetinchem the velvety tone of the clarinet.
From the explanation in the concert program:
We do not know how long Mozart worked at his clarinet concert, but everything indicates that the score was quickly on paper. A first version of the first part had been in a drawer for a while (written for bassethorn), so that a revision would suffice here. The concert is a wonder of a simplicity, grace and allure. It proves that Mozart's music was by no means the vehicle of his emotional life: no trace of oppressive living conditions or psychological unrest. His Concert for clarinet and orchestra arises in these last months of his life. Mozart writes it for his friend Anton Stadler, who according to him can imitate the human voice with his instrument. Solo clarinettist Arno Stoffelsma performs with his velvety tone in Stadler's footsteps.
Tags: HGO, Nimwegen ( 73 ), Vereeniging ( 3 )
Luke Cecil Barkhuis 18:37 on May 13, 2017
Tags: Dinnerparty, HGO, Vereeniging ( 3 )
HGO Amaro-dinner
Luke Cecil Barkhuis 12:20 on March 2, 2017
Tags: Happy Birthday ( 3 ), HGO
0155-HGO
2017/03/02 – And… a very nice wish from the Gelderland Orchestra
After World War II founded in 1949 the Gelderland Philharmonic Orchestra, which not only Arnhem, but did serve the entire province of Gelderland. The orchestra was successively headed by directors Jan Out, Carl von Garaguly, Leo Driehuis, Yoav Talmi, Roberto Benzi (1989-1998) and Lawrence Renes (1998-2002). A special project was in the nineties, the recording of the complete orchestral works of Igor Markevitch with conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee on seven CDs. From 2003 to 2009, the orchestra has developed further under the leadership of artistic director and chief conductor Martin Sieghart. He made the orchestra include recordings of works by Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms. Also it came to performances in the Wiener Musikverein. The permanent guest conductor Nikolai Alexeev, the Russian since 2002. Under his leadership played a lot of music by Russian composers. Alexeev in 2004 was musical director of the Stravinsky Festival in Arnhem. Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi is as permanent conductor of the Gelderland Philharmonic Orchestra. Under his leadership, the orchestra made very successful tours in 2007 and 2009 by his native Japan. Sieghart has the title of honorary guest conductor. From August 1, 2011 is the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra under the artistic direction of Italian chief conductor Antonello Manacorda. The orchestra has also had other famous conductors, among others were Bernard Klee, Jaap van Zweden and Roy Goodman as a conductor for the orchestra. The permanent concert hall of the orchestra is Musis Sacrum in Arnhem. In addition, frequently occurred in other Gelderland concert halls, such as the Vereeniging in Nijmegen and Orpheus in Apeldoorn.


Rated R for some sexual material and drug content.
Drake Doremus continues his dispiriting descent into dumb drama with his third deeply defeatist look at the deepening difficulties of finding love in the technological era in a row. It started with the bland "Equals," got worse with the banal "Newness," and now brings us to the baffling "Zoe," a film premiering on Amazon Prime today. One only hopes the director of "Like Crazy" moves on to new subject matter now that his trilogy is mercifully over. Netflix has long been accused of burying their Original Programming with too little promotion and menus that make it hard to find the new stuff. Amazon may want to take a page from their competitor's handbook and make "Zoe" a little hard to find.
"Zoe" opens with the title character, played by Léa Seydoux, being asked questions designed to find her the perfect partner. She says that she wouldn't want a potential beau to know that she used to be heavy and pauses when asked if she would help a loved one take their own life if that's what they wanted. Clearly, this is going to be one of those deep dives into how people have been trained by dating services and app culture to believe that there's such a thing as a perfect match. It's a film both cynical about the systems we use to find love and the human need to find companionship at all costs.
Leading people to their mathematically determined soulmate is only one of the goals of tech genius Cole (Ewan McGregor), who works with Zoe on a line of high-tech synthetic replicants. Cole should be a fascinating tech genius, but he's a typically mopey Doremus creation, having split with his wife (a wasted Rashida Jones) after a program he helped develop told the couple they wouldn't last. "Zoe" imagines a world in which an app score can end a loving relationship, which may be the most cynical thing I've seen in a film this year.
Most of the synthetics designed by Zoe and Cole are built in a way that makes them look incredibly fake, built more for the efficiency of household chores or menial jobs. Of course, those aren't the only synthetics out there and Cole has developed a line of androids who are extremely advanced and look just like you or me or Theo James, who plays Ash, Cole's latest creation (I'd like to believe the name is an "Alien" reference given Ian Holm played an android with that name in the Ridley Scott classic, but probably not). As if the service that can say without fail whether or not a relationship will last and the synthetics trying to be human aren't enough for one movie, this vision of the near-future also includes a drug that allows people to recreate the endorphin rush of falling in love for the first time. It's a little bit of "Her," a little bit of "Westworld," a little bit of "Love Potion No. 9," and a whole lot of annoying dialogue about what love means.
The main "twist" of "Zoe" occurs deep enough into the film that I won't spoil it here but suffice to say that Cole and Zoe's relationship is "complicated." The two people working to "improve" the dance of love for others have trouble finding the right steps with each other. Despite the best efforts of McGregor to imbue his lovelorn protagonist with relatable emotional depth, there's never an emotional hook to make you honestly care about these people. And so the non-stop, navel-gazing, faux philosophical dialogue about love starts to feel like some strange experiment itself. It reaches points of near-parody, not unike overhearing drunk college kids talk about dating apps and the meaning of love at 3 AM at a party you really want to leave. These are people who think lines like "It's better to feel pain than to feel nothing" are deep. It almost makes one wonder if it wasn't created by a computer program itself, one designed to write a "movie about love in the future." Although most modern screenwriting programs could have probably come up with something better than this.