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Model X Range
Model X Range
Tesla was explicit that they plan to use the same battery packs as for Model S (except for the 40kWh variant), see the bottom of this page:
The specified range for the Model S for these packs is 230 miles and 300 miles, respectively. The specification is based on a constant speed of 55 mph, thus it is (and must be) somewhat artificial. Based on experience with the Roadster, Tesla's specified ranges should be meaningful and actually achievable in practice, but YMMV.
For the Model X it was stated that ranges will go down approx. 12% by comparison with the Model S, due to greater weight and frontal area (greater aerodynamic drag). That would be 200 miles and 260 miles respectively. It seems to be implied that the difference in range between RWD and AWD is negligible, but I have not yet seen any explicit statements.
Has the MS range or performance been reduced by the frigid temps in the North-Mid-Atlantic states?
Yes, just like ICE cars, range, performance and efficiency is reduced in very cold temperatures.
@ goneskiian | February 19, 2014
<< Yes, just like ICE cars, range, performance and efficiency is reduced in very cold temperatures. >>
On another thread, you indicated the Tesla battery temperature was regulated, implying that there was no direct effect of the environmental temperatures on the battery itself.
Is that implication correct? Does it not mean the effect of cold temperatures is just the effect on the workload and, perhaps, on the efficiency of the motors?
@Remnant - You're reading more into the answers I gave to the questions you asked. In the other thread, you stated that Tesla should have a battery warmer, it does (and a cooler as well). Above you asked if range or performance was reduced in the cold temperatures, they are.
What you didn't ask was if the cold had a direct effect on reducing battery performance. ;-)
I believe it's a combination of both the increased workload (colder, denser air, more rolling resistance on snow, etc.) as well as the fact that all heating to keep the batteries regulated must come from either the electricity coming from the connection to the grid if parked (and I'm assuming plugged in) or from the batteries themselves or motor while moving. This will undoubtedly have an effect on range just like in an ICE car of about 20%.
Here is some more great reading for this...
I understand the MX will have different range than MS. so with the stated loss of range in the 10-20%, one would expect the updated EPA numbers of the MS of 265 miles the MX range would fall 26-40 mile range from the 265 EPA numbers.
Please correct me.
No one knows for sure. Much speculation. No question some aspects that affect range will change. The cross sectional area of the car will go up. That will take range down (All this assumes the same amount of energy, 85Kwh) Weight will most likely go up. If it does that will also take range down. What we don't know is what the coeffient of drag will be. If less than .24, that of the Model S, then range will go up. If new battery chemistry is employed than you might see weight go down and/or energy go up, both of which will increase range.
Probably a 10% hit to range. I think 230 will be on the low side. Hopeful that little if any hit to range.
Other threads on the subject. Do a search via www.volkerize.com.
My prediction is the base X will be 85 kWh and a 100 kWh pack will be optional. Hang with me, here's why:
The X will cost more $$ than the S, and I think Tesla won't release a more expensive ride with lower range. Elon said a larger pack is coming within a year, which corresponds to the X release date.
The Gen 3 base will use a 60 kWh pack to hit 225+ range. The 85 kWh pack will be optional.
Base Model S will eventually move from 60 to 85 kWh, with the 100 kWh available as an upgrade. AWD S option coming in a year, and the larger pack options allow for same or better range than today, despite AWD efficiency losses.
I made all of that up, so who knows how it will unfold. Bet I'm mostly correct...
Elon has always insisted on products that delight, over the top. Not sure of his words here. You can correct me.
What would make the MX do that for me, and I suspect most other potential buyers, would be to trade 0-60 time for range. Give me an MX with 400 mile range. Give me only 7 seconds to 60. After all, if you want to play supercar, buy a MS85P+. When you have 7 people in an SUV, going skiing, or to the mountains, you really do not need all that acceleration. Re-optimize the inverter for range. Get rid of the side mirrors. Use active boundary control to minimize drag. Two motors for better efficiency. Reduce the drag coef. Offer the 100 kwh battery.
These might offset the added weight, height, and awd which traditionally decrease range. Elon, Delight me!
Sin Gas
I have a P85 and without Superchargers, barely makes to some places. Its range I keeping with highway traffic is around 180-200 miles with HVAC use. MX85 with increased drag ,weight will make 150-175 miles.
Need 125 KWhr
It has been stated multiple times that Tesla's AWD implementation does not have a negative impact of range.
Those Tesla engineers are really clever. We think they have optimized the front motor efficiency for higher speeds than the rear motor. They shift power from the rear to the front as speed increases. On average the Model X should with AWD should have the same range as a Model X without it (if such a vehicle existed). If this efficiency
Of course both motors can be used at any speed when there is any loss of traction.
Also, Elon stated that the AWD helps reduce the turning radius of the Model X to be as good as, maybe even better than, the Mini.
"If this efficiency" increase of the AWD at highway speeds is significant, might it be enough actually improve range for road trips where 90% of driving is at highway speeds?
I'm sure it will have a range of at least five miles.
True, the AWD will zap barely more electrons than RWD, but the X has multiple factors conspiring against range. Higher ride height, weight, and co-efficient of drag.
That's why 85 kWh will be base and 100 kWh upgrade. Elon stated the X will be 12-15% less efficient, run the numbers...
@Iowa92x - How are you sure that the X will have a higher co-efficient of drag?
Larger frontal cross-sectional area (i.e. taller and maybe wider), and most likely weight due to larger size (although that is not an absolute), but I see no de facto reason the co-efficient of drag must be higher.
Mass and frontal area on X greater than S, rides higher, all kinds of things conspiring to reduce range on X. Just look at the windshield on the X compared to the S.
The force to push a car down the road varies with the speed the car is traveling. It follows an equation of the following form:
road load force = a + bv + cv2
road load force = a + bv + cv2
The letter v represents the velocity of the car, and the letters a, b and c represent three different constants:
The a component does not depend on speed. This comes mostly from the rolling resistance of the tires, and friction in the car's components, like drag from the brake pads, or friction in the wheel bearings.
The b component also comes from friction in components, and from the rolling resistance in the tires.
The c component comes mostly from things that affect aerodynamic drag like the frontal area, drag coefficient and density of the air.
I do not dispute any of the info. you posted. However, with respect, I don't believe it answers the specific question of; "How are you sure that the X will have a higher co-efficient of drag?"
The info. you sited describes drag, not the co-efficient of drag. A larger cross-sectional frontal area and greater mass will affect drag, but they are not directly related to the co-efficient of drag. Please let me know if I have missed something.
jjs, possibly the co-efficient of drag will be similar between X and S, but regardless, several factors conspire to reduce X range. Hopefully, the efficiency gain on X with duel motors (smaller motor driving front wheels) helps narrow the gap.
Iowa92x - Agree that several factors work against the X's range. It will be interesting to see just what the co-efficient of drag ends up being and what the duel motor efficiencies can do to offset the additional cross sectional frontal area and most likely increase in mass. I have not given up on the co-efficient being reduced from the S.
The Tesla engineers have had a couple of years to work on this and their track record has been impressive to date. Hopefully they have a rabbit or two left to pull out of their hat.
To my knowledge, coefficient of drag has to do with a specific shape, regardless of size. That is why there are scale models of vehicles at various sizes. They are typically something like 1:32, 1:16, 1:4, 1:2, or 1:1 scale when the design is being fine-tuned. Models are made of wood, clay, or metal. Then a prototype is built at full size, to see how it compares to the results that were generated from earlier testing.
Yep. Frontal cross-sectional area will increase drag as it increases. However it has nothing to do with the coefficient of drag. It is essentially how efficiently a object can pass through a medium. In the case of cars the medium is air. In the case of fish the medium is water.
Tesla engineers are somewhat limited to what they can do with frontal cross-sectional area. It is in large part driven by the average size of a human, the size of roads, the number of passenger (3 across) etc.
Where they can make gains is in the coefficient of friction/drag. The S is currently at .24. If they could get the X below that, which is possible (keep in mind the co-efficient of drag is NOT tied to it's size) then we might be pleasantly surprised by the X's range. It is this co-efficient of drag that had Tesla petitioning a rule change to allow cameras to be used instead of side mirrors. The savings, according to Tesla, would be a savings of 5% of the co-efficient of drag. This is a big deal as the savings to range is not linear but the square of the savings. Put another way an object with a co-efficient of drag of .20 uses 4 times less energy to travel a mile than an object with a co-efficient of drag of .40. The object is only twice as "slippery" but 4 times as efficient.
Nature points gives us some insight to just how "slippery" or low a co-efficient of drag can be. A dolphin has a drag coefficient of 0.0036. No that is not a misprint. It's almost zero.
The history of car design gives us some metric of what we can do with cars. The Hummer H2 has a drag coefficient of .57. A drag coefficient of .30-.32 is fairly common for most production cars. Almost all cars below .24 are concept cars.
The reported best drag coefficient every produced was the Nuna with a drag coefficient of .07.
Co-efficient of drag doesn't account for things like driveline losses and mass, so it's only part of the efficiency picture. A lower co-efficient of drag on the X compared to S is not an automatic indicator of improved range.
The X will have lower range than the S by 12% to 15%, hence an 85 kWh base pack.
Absolutely true. It is only one of multiple factors. I am simply pointing out it is one that could be in favor of increased range. Frontal cross-sectional area WILL be a factor which, all other factors being equal will decrease range. In my opinion it is the only one for sure that will decrease range. Coefficient of drag has a chance to be in favor of more range. Mass most likely will be a drag on range. (Pun intended.) but is not know for sure As for drive-train loss (i.e. two motors) Elon has alluded to some clever engineering to mitigate this.
Mass, coefficient of drag, drive train efficiency, mass, energy density of the battery cells and frontal cross-sectional area will all be interesting stats.


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subset: commoncrawl


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AllYourBase necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 47 diseños de 21 diseñadores freelance.
Pearl Sushi, Restaurant and Champagne Lounge in Del Mar California is looking for a new web design that matches the upscale, professional image of the restaurant itself.
http://www.pearldelmar.com. See site for logo.
Tagline is included in the existing logo.
Desired Color Scheme:
See creative brief.
Desired Style:
See creative brief.
Accepted File Formats:
Standard Web Formats (.jpg, .gif or .png); Layered Formats (.psd or .tiff)
This site is for a high-end, luxurous and chic sushi restaraunt and champagne lounge in Del Mar California. The site needs to reflect this in the design.
Design should be professional, chic, sexy, and upscale. Think "Ocean's 11" sense of cool, but with Asian-fusion themes.
---TEMPORARY SITE: There is currently a temporary site live, which can be seen at http://www.pearldelmar.com
---LOGO: The logo already exists, and can be seen at http://www.pearldelmar.com. This logo was designed by a SitePoint contest winner!
---COLOR SCHEME: A color scheme exists in the logo. However, while we are not 100% committed to it, it is recommended.
Visit http://www.pearldelmar.com/temp/pearlad.jpg to see an example of the advertising we have been doing.
---NAVIGATION / STRUCTURE: Off the bat, navigation should consist of:
- home page- menus- chef makoto- news & reviews- location/hours- reservations- vip club (not in top navigation)- sitemap (in footer only)
It should be easy enough to add new navigation later on, if necessary.
---NECESSARY FEATURES: Photos are paramount. The photos should be the main draw on each page, somewhat like they are in the example sites below.
We do not have photos for you to use right now. We will be getting our own soon. Use 'temporary' photos for now.
Phone number and online reservation link must be highly visible at the TOP of every page.
Every page needs to feature the "Pearl VIP list" sign up form, as functioning on the existing site. Use existing text for wording. Layout is flexible, of course.
Site WILL NOT be in ALL Flash, but Flash elements can be used (particularly on the photo gallery functionality). text content, should be text content.
A text footer (containing restaurant name, address, phone, and maps - as seen on the bottom of http://www.pearldelmar.com) must be on each page.
---SITES THAT ARE LIKED / WHAT IS LIKED ABOUT THEM:www.koirestaurant.com - The simplicity, the big pictures, and the animated Flash cel.
http://www.uchiaustin.com - The flash-based gallery that is a part of every page.
---ABOUT TEMPLATES: We DISCOURAGE design entries that are essentially fill-in-the-blank, publicly-available templates. They look awful, and we won't choose them as the winner. If you have your own internal templates, that's acceptable, but remember, we are going for a high-end, cool appearance, not a cheesy site with stock-photo models.


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- Tech Trader Daily
Microsoft: Morgan Stanley Cuts to Hold on Weak PC Market, Slow Win 8 Adoption
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Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) are down 29 cents, or 1%, at $26.41, after Morgan Stanley's Adam Holt today cut his rating on the shares to Equal Weight from Overweight, arguing the"base case" for the stock is $29 as corporate software of 10% per annum is offset by a lack of recovery in the PC market.
Holt actually starts out by making what sounds like a very strong case for the stock, with cash flow and the non-PC parts of the business supporting the current price:
MSFT is the cheapest stock in our coverage universe with a FCF yield of 17%, and Morgan Stanley's "what's in the price" tool suggests MSFT is pricing in negative EPS growth in three years, which we think is unlikely. If we strip out the Windows business altogether, the FCF yield is still double digits and the remaining company would be a double digit grower with a double digit FCF yield. So, clearly MSFT is already pricing in very low expectations for Windows and the PC market in general. The stock is too cheap relative to what is likely high single digit EPS growth longer term, particularly given the 3.5% dividend yield. Further, we think there is a powerful upgrade story around the Microsoft Business Division where we are as optimistic about the product set as we have ever been, while the execution in Server & Tools has been outstanding. Longer term, we are optimistic that MSFT can leverage its synergy across tablets, phones and the corporate desktops to provide a unified platform for application and content access, bolstered by its cloud services.
Nevertheless, he thinks Microsoft faces "a period over the next few quarters" where Windows 8 fails to "catalyze" sales of PCs, and where corporate PC growth, which has generally been stronger than consumers, tapers off, compounding the problem. He also thinks the boost from the debut of new versions of non-PC products, such as SQL Server, had now pretty much been appreciated by investors and won't add much in coming quarters.
According to Holt, Microsoft's remarks on Tuesday that it has sold 60 million licenses of Windows 8 since the software went on sale October 26th doesn't ultimately mean much for the company because the PC market look is still poor:
According to NPD, the release of Win 8 has not reinvigorated PC demand and sales of Windows machines were down 11% YoY over the holiday period. NPD is just one snap shot of the market, though, and both European and Emerging market demand is better than US retail, and we believe sell-in is much better than sell-through. On that front, MSFT may do as many as 65-70M paid Windows units in the Dec. quarter, which is well ahead of consensus expectations in the 60-62M unit range, although ultimately, the 65-70M reflects sell in, pent up demand and preorders and the market will trend towards sell through over time. Given the continued sluggishness in the market in aggregate, we expect total PC units to be flat to down low single digits in CY13 and CY14. While MSFT's revenue has disaggregated from the PC market, the stock still tends to track it to a degree.
Corporate PC growth, moreover, is slowing, Holt thinks, based on Microsoft's recent remarks tag "over 60% of enterprise desktops worldwide were now running Windows 7 as the impending end of life for Windows XP support in April 2014 and Win 7 corporate upgrade cycle have provided a meaningful tailwind to the corporate PC cycle."
He adds, "Supply chain data points have also indicated softening of corporate PC demand due to macro uncertainty, tablet cannibalization and some inventory destocking." Holt expects some corporate buying of Microsoft's Surface tablet computer, but not enough to keep him from cutting his corporate PC growth estimate to .25% from 5%.
Holt outlines a number of things that could in future improve the Windows outlook, including more notebook computers with touch capabilities, more apps available for version of Windows that runs on ARM Holdings (ARMH)-compatible chips, and better pricing and battery life for the "Surface Pro" version of Surface that runs on Intel (INTC) processors.
Holt cut his revenue estimate this year to $79.9 billion and EPS of $2.83 from a prior $83.52 billion and $3.01 per share.
He thinks two things could possibly help the stock in the immediate future. One is porting Microsoft Office to Apple'a (AAPL) iPad, which might bring in $1.3 billion in new revenue. Another is if congress were to enact legislation to let the company bring back some of its $50 billion in overseas cash. But he's not holding his breath on that score.


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As far back as I can remember, my family has always had a wedge of that familiar yellow-wax-rinded cheese in the cheese drawer. So when I saw that Jarlsberg USA was looking for bloggers to share their favorite memories about Jarlsberg in order to enter to win a scholarship to Eat, Write, Retreat, an AMAZING food blogger conference taking place in DC in May, it felt like they had designed the contest specifically with me in mind. The hardest part for me is narrowing it down to just one memory! Jarlsberg has been such a fixture in my life, it's contributed a nutty sweetness to fettuccine alfredo, it has filled numerous quesadillas, it has been cubed into salads and been melted into cheesy scrambled eggs.
Anyone who knows me is aware that I can be very particular about what I eat. I have very strong opinions on what is and is not tasty food. What people don't know is that I have actually mellowed a lot over the years. And I do mean A LOT. My parents could tell you stories...but let's not go there. I will tell you one of my own, as a small child I had a number of different food phases, like the time when I only wanted fish sticks or the time when I ate nothing but toasted fluffier-nutter sandwiches for weeks. There was one constant though, one thing my mother knew she could fix and set in front of me and I would eat it. Every time. A big plate of buttered noodles topped with a cloud of finely grated Jarlsberg. Actually, I should probably have my mother writing this post, as she is probably the happiest person thinking back on all of the tantrums averted due to Jarlsberg =). As an adult, with my own refrigerator, Jarlsberg is still a fixture in my cheese drawer and on my table.
It would really mean a lot to me to be the recipient of the scholarship to Eat, Write, Retreat. I am taking baby steps to improve my blogging. I recently bought a new camera to help me improve my picture quality and am slowly but surely figuring out how to use it. I've actually been to a couple of blogging conferences before, but when you only have a point and shoot, it's hard to get a lot out of the photography sessions, so I welcome the opportunity to learn, new camera in hand, from some of the best.
In homage to my 5 year old self, may I present Cheesy Noodles:
1 c cooked spaghetti noodles
1 tsp room temperature butter
1/4 c finely grated Jarlsberg
Toss noodles with butter, top with Jarlsberg, grind oodles of black pepper over it (Yes, I was a strange little kid) and enjoy!


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More power to Apple iPad, says MSI
Releases USB utility for faster charging
Manufacturer MSI has released a utility for its Windows-based computers that will allow them to charge Apple iPads more quickly.
The tool, i-Charger, is an application that ups a USB port's power output from 0.5A to 1.2A. While the iPad will charge over a regular, half-an-amp power feed, it prefers the higher rating.
i-Charger detects the presence of an iPad, and ups the Amp value accordingly, MSI said.
It's surely a testament to just how popular MSI expects the iPad to be that it has taken the time to offer the tweak, which it presumably sees as an important differentiator to separate out its products from rival offerings.
Owners of MSI kit can download i-Charger here. ®
Sponsored: Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business


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The people working here seriously love music so much! We're junkies. After gushing about our favorite new album releases to each other at the office, we realized we should really share our thoughts with y'all. :)
Here's a list of our favorite new albums, which all came out recently.
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad
(Kayla's Pick)
Steady has an incredibly fun, jammy, Grateful-Dead-y feel to it, while still holding true to elements of roots reggae. I love Giant Panda's bouncy bass and conscious lyrics. My favorite song on here is definitely "Move," a song that I've been waiting to hear a recorded version of for a long time. A pleasant surprise on this album is the very Americana-sounding song "Home." People really dig Giant Panda for their live shows, so besides "Move," the band was finally able to match "Solution," ".45," and other live favorites to equally awesome studio counterparts. I strongly recommend picking up this album if you like reggae or jam music, or any good, positive music in general!
El Pintor
(Jeff's Pick)
I've been listening to the new Interpol album a lot because it is cool and they are old, and I am old and wish to be cool. "My Blue Supreme" is my favorite track to listen to before going out for the night. It's about a car, which is great, and I imagine it came about from Interpol listening to The Beach Boys and saying "Hey, we could totally write songs about cars too, right?"
1000 Forms of Fear
(Steve's Pick)
The first time I heard the song "Chandelier" I hated it. The second time I loved it. Originally, I was fascinated with the promotion around the album. Sia performs with her back to the audience! I picked up the album and have since played it many times over. Sometimes I listen to "Free the Animal" at my desk and imagine myself as a 100ft tall neon green tiger smashing the bugs that inhabit the metropolis of the Murfie codebase.
Dude Incredible
(Marc's Pick)
It's much like every other Shellac album: seething, wiry, lean, full of menace, as tight as miser's grip on a Spanish doubloon, and totally amazing. Shellac makes clear their attitude towards systems of order and surveillance with their tautly unpredictable rhythmic assault, while Albini gives his best crow impression. Everyone I've met who knows Shellac either loves them or loathes them. Nothing here will change minds of the latter set, but there never can be. Shellac isn't out to make friends. Meanwhile, I'll continue to lurch along on my walks home with Shellac bruising my eardrums, content in my good taste. CAWCAW!
More new releases are on the way! Go to murfie.com/preorder to see what's coming, and pre-order your favorites.
Which albums are you excited to see? Tell us in the comments!


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Did you know that talk show host and former "All My Children" star Kelly Ripa is a horse show mom?
Well she is.
And a proud one at that!
I know this because I met the co-host of Live with Regis and Kelly Sunday at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Wellington and Kelly couldn't have been nicer.
Kelly Ripa at the Winter Equestrian Festival on Sunday.
photo credit: Mason Phelps/Phelps Media Group
Kelly was there watching her seven-year-old daughter, Lola Consuelos, compete in the walk/trot/canter and crossrails classes.
But when I ran into Kelly, she was having lunch in the VIP tent and only a few feet away from where I happened to be watching the grand prix class filled with Olympic riders from all over the world.
I politely asked Kelly if I could do a short interview and she graciously took some time to talk to me.
And I can't emphasize enough how nice she was.
Kelly talked about Lola and her horse show experience. Lola is one of three children Kelly has with husband, Mark Consuelos, whom she met when they both starred on All My Children.
And, by the way, Kelly said she and Lola would be back at WEF through the season.
"She's just starting out," Kelly said of Lola. "It's her first time here."
Lola, who trains with Kristina Muse at Beach Acre Farm in Bridgehampton, rode Clever Endeavor to the ribbons.
"She did really well, today," Kelly said of Lola. "She won two firsts and two seconds. For her it's not so much about the ribbons, but for her it was about the toy. She got to pick out a prize and she was very excited about that.
"We're going to come as many weekends as we can here because Lola loves horses," Kelly said. "She loves all things horses."
As Kelly explains it, Lola watched the grand prix class at the Hampton Classic Horse Show two years ago and told Kelly that she wanted to take riding lessons.
"And I thought, 'oh my gosh, I'm never going to be able to retire," she laughed.
I mentioned to her that I also write Soapbox, which runs on the Palm Beach Daily News website as well as 14 other Cox Newspaper websites.
Kelly confessed that growing up she was a One Life To Live fan (remember the Eterna storyline? That was her favorite) and she never watched All My Children until she began playing Hayley, daughter of powerful and devious Adam Chandler.
Kelly praised the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, home of the Winter Equestrian Festival.
"[Lola] loves it here; she's found a community here and I can't think of a more beautiful setting," she said. "This is the most extraordinary, friendly, warm, gorgeous environment. If you're a horse person or even if you're not a horse person, because I've never been on a horse in my life, to me this is the most extraordinary place on earth."
As far as future horse showing for Lola?
"She's going to be in the grand prix next week," Kelly joked.


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While many of us earnestly research and write of ancestors long buried, the family history writer can leave a legacy of stories to future generations through memoirs and oral history woven among the dry facts of name, place and time. Years ago, I began my work as a genealogist. However, it was soon apparent that I desired more depth of my family's history from my efforts. So my research evolved into the work of a family historian.
My experience at ancestral family research has been a challenge. My remote ancestors left few records detailing their lives. Only those born in the 20th century obtained literacy. One of my ancestral lines eschewed the broader community of city or town. They preferred, it seems to remain isolated along the Blue Ridge Mountains of the western Carolinas, where the outside world rarely ventured. I can use generalities from circumstantial evidence and social histories of the region in order to imagine the content of the daily lives of these ancestors, but I cannot know it. Thus, their stories are imbued with uncertainty and disclaimers.
However, from my long interest in oral history and its methodologies, I recognize that I can leave to my descendants a first person account of their ancestors as told in the ancestor's own voice or the voice of an eyewitness. So over the past several years, I have collected narratives from my living generations. Slowly, I hope to compile these accounts into a family's journey through generations. I do this because I discovered during the process of family oral history research what it means for me to be the person that I am. I would like to teach my children how to understand themselves through their origins.
Not all such accounts, whether biographies or memoirs, are easy for me to write. Facts are easy enough to collect, but the interpretation that weaves these facts coherently into an understanding of events are difficult and sometimes painful. The story about my maternal grandmother is one example. So much of her life was so closely connected with the latter part of my mother's life. It was difficult to write about my mom as a major character in Mammaw's story. Each time I would write "Mother" or "Mom" in the draft, I could feel grief surface and my objectivity as an historian dissolve into tears. When I began using my mom's given name, however, the one that my grandmother gave her, I was able to distance myself enough to allow Mammaw's voice to more clearly come through. It helped enormously to examine that period from someone else's perspective. It added dimension to my knowledge and understanding of two women who were so prominent in my life.
An earlier version of Mammaw's story was originally published in The Dallas Journal (2007).


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Justice for Animals
— Our thanks to the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) for permission to republish this post, which originally appeared on the ALDF Blog on December 31, 2013.
So many cases of animal abuse come across our desks every day at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, we'd like to take some time to celebrate some of the work of animal rescuers across the nation—and reiterate just how important it is to battle cases of dogfighting, animal hoarding, companion animal abuse, factory farming cruelties, and even shelter neglect. Without further ado, here are five stories from 2013 in which shockingly large numbers of animals were rescued from abuse!
1. 168 dogs rescued from a puppy mill
Cass County, North Dakota – Cass County officials seized 168 dogs, some pregnant and living in filthy, cramped conditions at an apparent puppy mill where dogs were stacked in kennels three high. Some kennels had five inches of feces piled inside them. The animals were underweight, unvaccinated, suffering from ear infections and dental problems, and some of the dogs' fur had become so matted that the animals' movement was restricted by their own hair. Darcy Darrell Smith pleaded guilty to misdemeanor animal abuse.
2. 41 emaciated cows seized
Wallowa County, Oregon – Following an investigation into the death of a calf, the sheriff's office seized 41 cows and calves. A calf had been too weak from malnourishment to get up, and was trampled by the other cows. The examining veterinarian said some of the cows could barely walk and were noticeably emaciated. One cow died when deputies were seizing the animals, because she was so weak that she fell to the ground and was never able to get up again. Edward Charles Scott was convicted of two counts of Animal Neglect in the First Degree and 12 counts of Animal Neglect in the Second Degree.
3. 225 cats removed from a disease-ridden cattery
Santa Rosa County, Florida – After receiving several complaints about Kirkham Kattery Rescue, deputies executed a search warrant and seized 225 cats who had been roaming freely in the residence. 86 of the cats were so ill they were euthanized. Allan and Ella Kirkham were each charged with: 20 counts of felony cruelty to animals; 10 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals; and 1 count of selling an animal with a contagious or infectious disease.
4. Menagerie of 150 animals rescued from a hazardous home
Suffolk County, New York – Neighbors complaining of a foul odor induced authorities to search the house of an elderly woman who was apparently an overwhelmed rescuer/hoarder. She forfeited 150 animals, including 60 dogs, 25 cats, rabbits, birds, lizards, tortoises/turtles, chinchillas, ferrets, and hamsters. One report described feces scattered throughout the home and two cats consuming the remains of a dead cat. Crews in biohazard suits hauled the survivors away in pet carriers. One witness said the home was occupied by two women, one of whom is a practicing veterinarian. Officials said they are considering animal cruelty charges, and that the residents violated a town code prohibiting more than 10 animals. The house, which was under renovation and covered in Tyvek at the time, was condemned.
5. 375 rabbits seized from filthy conditions at a breeder's home
Indianapolis, Indiana – Animal Care and Control officers seized more than 375 rabbits, including many babies. Investigators had visited the same home about a month prior to the raid, after receiving a complaint about the smell. At that time, they discovered there was no water in many of the rabbits' bowls. They said they found rabbits in their own feces and urine, with urine burns, and some who hadn't moved in so long the fur had rubbed off their pads. "The living conditions they're in are deplorable," said Marcus Brown, Deputy Chief of Enforcement for IACC. Officials had given the owner, Rick Cartheuser, a month to clean it up, but they found nothing had changed. He faces municipal violations regarding care and treatment of animals.


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Today has been all about Hurricane Sandy for pretty much the entire East Coast.
I've gotten out a few times to survey the scene, and just got back from the waterfront somewhat near my house. Conditions outside have deteriorated, and only seem to be getting worse.
The wind has picked up and rain is more intense. The Hudson's water level has receded slightly, but the wind and waves have picked up. High tide is coming in tonight, so it should get considerably worse on the waterfront. A curfew has been imposed for people nearby from 6PM until 1PM tomorrow.
I have a tree down on my block, roads are deserted, and I found one open bar, and then the cops drove by and told us to go home. How does the storm look for you? Share your pics in Kinja below... and be sure to stay safe.


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Duration: 40 minutes
Format: PAL
First Pasture Price: £14.27
Status: In Stock
The harvest has always been the climax of the farming year. When this programme was first made in the 1970s, men in their eighties and nineties were able to recall harvests from before the First World War.
They demonstrated the use of the scythe and the flail and showed how horses powered the machinery including an early reaper and sail-cutter. They talked about the role of the Harvest Lord, the horkey, with it's boiled beans and pork supper and how everyone in the community lent a hand. Then there was the steam threshing, providing winter work.
This is a portrait of an almost forgotten age, brought to life by archive film and accurate re-stagings.
For quick reference of all farming dvds available within the shop, visit the Farming DVDs A-Z page.


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Sam Patton wants to
We are committed to helping make the "No Guns Allowed" message a movement and we're starting by asking our friends,
A child or teen is shot with a firearm every 30 minutes in America. From the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut to the senseless killings in Chicago, our culture of violence is destroying young lives nationwide. In 2013, Congress has the opportunity to close loopholes and enact universal criminal and mental health background checks on all new gun purchases, which nearly 91% of Americans support. …
On the League's #NoGunsAllowed Tumblr (http://bit.ly/nogunsallowed), you'll find stories that NEED to be told. Because every day, another…Read More
The League of Young Voters Education Fund (http://youngvoter.org) has launched a grassroots non-violence campaign inspired by entertainment icon, Snoop Lion aka Snoop Dogg's song "No Guns Allowed" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqo9gPxT6A8) ft. Drake and his daughter Cori B. As the country faces…Read More


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Chomping on a stick of gum could cheaply diagnose malaria and other diseases in developing countries.
Don't miss these Health stories
More women opting for preventive mastectomy - but should they be?
Rates of women who are opting for preventive mastectomies, such as Angeline Jolie, have increased by an estimated 50 percent in recent years, experts say. But many doctors are puzzled because the operation doesn't carry a 100 percent guarantee, it's major surgery -- and women have other options, from a once-a-day pill to careful monitoring.
- Larry Page's damaged vocal cords: Treatment comes with trade-offs
- Report questioning salt guidelines riles heart experts
- CDC: 2012 was deadliest year for West Nile in US
- What stresses moms most? Themselves, survey says
- More women opting for preventive mastectomy - but should they be?
Using a recent grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Andrew Fung and his colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles are developing Maliva, a malaria-detecting gum that could offer cheap, new way to diagnose or monitor diseases.
"Wherever you sell candy, you could sell this gum," said Fung.
A person is infected with malaria when a female Anophelesmosquito, searching for blood to feed her young, bites a person. Six to 14 days after exposure, the infected individual will exhibit various symptoms, such as fever, chills, vomiting, a lack of energy (caused by the malaria parasites bursting out of red blood cells), and even convulsions.
To diagnose malaria, scientists draw a small blood sample and examine it under a microscope, searching for darker than normal red blood cells, which are infected by malaria parasites.
For regions without microscopes or experienced staff where malaria is prevalent, doctors currently use an antigen test. Using a single drop of blood, the tests detect the presence of several molecules made by the malaria parasites and released into human blood.
Areas that can't even afford the antigen tests, or where even a drop of blood is taboo, could use a new method to detect malaria.
Maliva could be that test, since three of the proteins that the blood antigen tests detect can also be found in saliva, according to a study released last year.
The initial idea to provide the gum with its malaria-detecting properties is to incorporate magnetic nanoparticles into the gum.
When a person chews the gum, saliva, containing molecules produced by the malaria parasites, pour into the mouth. The magnetic nanoparticles are tipped with antibodies that latch onto these very molecules.
After a few minutes chewing, the gum would be removed and placed on a paper strip. The nanoparticles, bound to the malaria proteins, would show up as a thin line. No line, no malaria.
Fung and his colleagues hope to have a working prototype of Maliva by next year. They plan to begin field tests with the gum shortly thereafter.
The project is in its beginning stages, but it's an exciting idea — one that more researchers are pursuing, according to David Wong.
Wong, a doctor at UCLA not involved with Fung's research, lead a recent National Institutes of Health consortium mapping the various proteins found in human saliva.
Using saliva, instead of painful needle sticks, will become more common in the next few years, and for diseases other than malaria.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Wong. "There is no reason why this method can't be used to detect other conditions as well."
© 2012 Discovery Channel


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You can expect quality products from Spreadshirt, as unique as you yourself. After your order has been submitted and the payment has been processed, we produce your products and pack them for delivery within 24-48 business hours.
Should you run into any unexpected difficulties, our helpful Service Team is there to help out!


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How your employer can support you
There are different ways you can get support at work during treatment or when you return to work.
Find information, articles and activities relevant to you.
If you're struggling to find what you need, call our Support line on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm)More ways to contact us
If you or someone close to you has cancer, it can be difficult to talk to your employer about it. It's important to remember that there are laws protecting people with cancer in the workplace.
Hear people talking about how they told colleagues about their cancer diagnosis. It also contains advice from HR professionals.
Hear people talking about how they told colleagues about their cancer diagnosis. It also contains advice from HR professionals.
There are different ways you can get support at work during treatment or when you return to work.
Legislation protects you from being treated unfairly at work because of cancer.
Deciding to give up work completely can be a difficult choice.
Talking to your employer is an important step in returning to work.
You may feel upset or worried if a colleague has been diagnosed with cancer.
Talking about your cancer can be difficult, but speaking to your colleagues can make it easier for them to understand and support you.
Potential new employers may ask you questions about your health.
If you have or have had cancer you are protected by law from unfair treatment at work. Where reasonable, your employer should make changes to help you do your job during and after your treatment.
Whether you're an employee, self-employed or working while caring for someone with cancer, we have free resources to help you.
Read how Julia received support from her workplace when she found out she had cancer.
What's happening near you? Find out about support groups, where to get information and how to get involved with Macmillan where you are.
Read Aoife's post about the rights of people affected by cancer in the work place. She explains how the law can help job applicants, employees and the self-employed.
Share experiences and advice on practical issues when living with cancer, such as money, work, benefits, transport, food and drink, organising support at home, or getting specialist equipment.
We rely on a number of sources to gather evidence for our information. If you'd like further information on the sources we use, please feel free to contact us on: email@example.com
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Opinion analysis: No profit for Bells from providing access to competitors
The Court handed the FCC and smaller telecommunications companies a victory last week in Talk America, Inc. v. Michigan Bell Telephone Company, upholding the FCC"™s interpretation"™s of its prior orders as limiting the amount that incumbent Bell carriers can charge for access to facilities used to connect competitors to their network.
To increase competition in the telecommunications industry, the Federal Communications Act of 1996 required AT&T and its successor Bell companies to provide competitors access to their networks. The statute further provided that AT&T could charge only cost-based rates for this interconnection (i.e., low rates with no profit component). Another provision required AT&T to lease network elements to its competitors for example, actual telephone wires running from switches to the competitors customers but also allowed it to charge market rates for those leases unless the FCC determines that doing so would impair the competitor's ability to offer its services to its customers.
This case involves prices for what are calledentrance facilities in simplified form, the wire that connects a competitor's physical network to AT&T's. AT&T argued that because the entrance facility is a network element, it is not required to lease the wire to its competitors at cost-based rates (because the FCC has not determined that selling access at market rates would impair competition). The FCC, siding with AT&T's competitors, argued to the Court that its regulations treat entrance facilities as part of AT&T's interconnection obligation, and therefore they must be provided at cost-based rates.
The Court held that the FCC's interpretation of its own orders was entitled to deference. In an opinion by Justice Thomas, the Court explained that the statute itself did not clearly indicate whether entrance facilities were network elements or part of the interconnection obligation. Accordingly, it was a question open to the expert resolution of the Commission. The Court further explained that it would accept the FCC's explanation of its own orders, set forth in its brief to the Court, unless the interpretation is plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation[s]or there is some other reason to suspect that the interpretation does not reflect the agency's fair and considered judgment on the matter in question. In this case, the Court concluded that the agency's interpretation of its prior order met that standard.
The Court was careful to leave undecided whether AT&T had any obligation to build new entrance facilities, or what rates it could charge for them if it did. But it held that when a competitor requests access to an existing facility, AT&T may not charge market rates for that access.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the decision was Justice Scalia's separate concurrence. He noted that the Court has long applied the rule that an agency's interpretation of its own regulation is entitled to deference, but he explained that he had "become increasingly doubtful of its validity.'Allowing an agency to issue an ambiguous rule, then definitively determine its meaning later in the course of litigation, Justice Scalia wrote, raises constitutional concerns. It seems contrary to fundamental principles of separation of powers to permit the person who promulgates a law to interpret it as well. Moreover,deferring to an agency's interpretation of its own rule encourages the agency to enact vague rules which give it the power, in future adjudications, to do what it pleases. This frustrates the notice and predictability purposes of rulemaking, and promotes arbitrary government. Because none of the parties challenged the continuing validity of the rule in this case, Justice Scalia was content to note that he would have accepted the FCC's decision even without deferring to its amicus brief. But he made clear that he is open to considering such an argument in a future case. Notably, however, no other Justice joined his opinion.
Recommended Citation: Kevin Russell, Opinion analysis: No profit for Bells from providing access to competitors, SCOTUSblog (Jun. 14, 2011, 3:21 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2011/06/opinion-analysis-no-profit-for-bells-from-providing-access-to-competitors/


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Target-date funds have gained in popularity over the past couple of years as plan sponsors attempt to get employees to save more for retirement.
A white paper by Putnam Investments examined the target-date trend, pinpointing what plan sponsors need to understand about target-date funds before they jump into them with both feet. The research showed that target-date funds are expected to play an increasingly important role in workplace retirement plans. The survey also uncovered evidence that in evaluating target-date funds, plan sponsors tend to focus on performance and expense metrics rather than how the glide paths work.
Plan sponsors want to reduce risk to participants' retirement income, but they have not adopted a disciplined approach for adopting relevant safeguards, the study found. Plan sponsors who work with a paid financial professional tend to evolve their plans more flexibly, allowing for the incorporation of alternative investments, such as absolute return strategies, within the structure of their target-date funds or as stand-alone options in their plans. Here are six facts about target funds you need to know.
1. Target-date funds are poised for continued growth.
Fifty-four percent of plan sponsors surveyed believed assets would continue to grow in target-date funds. TDFs were very high on the list of available assets and the largest share of plan assets tended to be allocated to these funds.
2. Plan sponsor expectations sometimes vary by plan size.
Smaller plan sponsors, those with plans ranging from $25 million in assets to less than $50 million in assets are likelier to see the proportion of dollars increasing in 9 of 12 investment types tested, particularly TDFs, Putnam found. For larger plan sponsors, those with $1 billion or more in plan assets, have different expectations. They show little anticipation of increases to nine asset classes, including TDFs. The exception is exchange-traded funds, where they expect a substantial increase.
3. Performance and expenses are essentials.
One-third of plan sponsors surveyed described a three-year track record and relatively low total expense ratio as "absolutely essential" in their selection of a target-date fund. Other concerns include participant education support, brand, the slope of the glide path and the mix of proprietary and outside funds in the offering.
4. Plan sponsors are confused about risks to retirement income.
The survey found that plan sponsors didn't realize that there was a difference between different TDF glide paths. In a "to" glide path, investments are adjusted to more conservative levels as the person approaches his target date of retirement. This is typically a less risky glide path than the "through" path, which allocates a higher amount to equities around the point when someone decides to retire because the expectation is that the individual will need income for 20 or more years in retirement. The goal is to get someone through retirement with enough retirement income to live comfortably.
5. Risk management discipline has been lax.
Plan sponsors say they want to reduce risks to participants' retirement income but need help to do that. More than eight plan sponsors in ten say they place a great deal or some emphasis on helping participants minimize risk, but only half of survey respondents report having taken a more disciplined approach to understanding risk in their investment offerings, 54 percent, instituted routine review of the risk profiles for their funds, 50 percent, or swapped out funds that posed unusual or unnecessary risks to participants, 49 percent.
6. Plan sponsors are willing to broaden their menu to alternatives.
To help mitigate risk in their target-date funds, about one-quarter of plan sponsors have begun adding alternative investments to their portfolios. Twenty-seven percent of plan sponsors say they place "a great deal" of emphasis on helping participants minimize the risk to their income in retirement. Among this group, the availability of alternatives is much higher, Putnam found, and alternatives use is generally, but not universally, higher among advised plan sponsors. Most survey respondents felt that alternatives are poised for growth within workplace savings plans.
Check out these related stories on ThinkAdvisor:


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Australia House
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Visa information for Maldives nationals travelling to Australia on business
Please complete the fields below to email a 'DJB Application Pack' with all forms and templates attached.
The following documents are required for a business visa for Maldives nationals travelling to Australia.
All applications must be accompanied by an RLP Order Form.
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The usual processing time for visas of this type is 30 working days.
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|Silent Vigil for Justice at Florida International University on July 13, 2012
Today students and activists gathered at the main fountain at Florida International University for 18 minutes of silence. One minute for each year that has passed in which the victims and their families have not had justice and their killers walk freely without having had to answer for their crimes in a court of law. This tradition has been carried out since 1995 and we will make every effort to see that it continues to be observed in the future until justice is achieved.
|These are the victims of the tugboat! Victims of a cruel tyrant that claims to be a defender of the women and children of Cuba.
Hellen Martínez Enríquez (5 months old)
Xicdy Rodríguez Fernández (2 years old)
Angel René Abreu Ruiz ( 3 years old)
José Carlos Nicle Anaya (3 years old)
Giselle Borges Alvarez (4 years old)
Caridad Leyva Tacoronte ( 5 years old)
Juan Mario Gutiérrez García (10 years old)
Yasser Perodín Almanza (11 years old)
Yousell Eugenio Pérez Tacoronte ( 11 years old)
Eliecer Suárez Plasencia (12 years old)
Mayulis Menéndez Tacoronte (17 years old)
Miladys Sanabria Cabrera ( 19 years old)
Joel García Suárez ( 20 years old)
Odalys Muñoz García (21 years old)
Yaltamira Anaya Carrasco ( 22 years old)
Yuliana Enríquez Carrazana ( 22 years old)
Lissett María Alvarez Guerra ( 24 years old)
Jorge Gregorio Balmaseda Castillo ( 24 years old)
Ernesto Alfonso Loureiro ( 25 years old)
María Miralis Fernández Rodríguez ( 27 years old)
Jorge Arquímedes Levrígido Flores ( 28 years old)
Leonardo Notario Góngora ( 28 years old)
Pilar Almanza Romero ( 31 years old)
Rigoberto Feu González ( 31 years old)
Omar Rodríguez Suárez ( 33 years old)
Lázaro Enrique Borges Briel ( 34 years old)
Martha Caridad Tacoronte Vega ( 35 years old)
Julia Caridad Ruiz Blanco ( 35 years old)
Eduardo Suárez Esquivel ( 38 years old)
Martha M.Carrasco Sanabria ( 45 years old)
Augusto Guillermo Guerra Martínez ( 45 years old)
Rosa María Alcal de Puig ( 47 years old)
Estrella Suárez Esquivel ( 48 years old)
Reynaldo Joaquín Marrero Alamo ( 48 years old)
Amado González Raíces ( 50 years old)
Manuel Cayol ( 50 years old)
Fidencio Ramel Prieto Hernández ( 51 years old)
Useful links:
CUBA: The Sinking of the "13 de Marzo" Tugboat on 13 July 1994 / Amnesty Internationalhttps://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/013/1997/en/0f6d3a5e-ea51-11dd-965c-b55c1122d73f/amr250131997en.html
REPORT Nº 47/96: CASE 11.436 VICTIMS OF THE TUGBOAT "13 DE MARZO" vs.CUBA October 16, 1996 / IACHR
Cuba: Cuban authorities should lift threats against peaceful protesters / Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/032/1996/en/fc0ad8fb-eaf1-11dd-aad1-ed57e7e5470b/amr250321996en.html


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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Guido Buzzelli's Zil Zelub
OK, so, Matthias Wivel's comments on my Oesterheld vs. Pratt post prompted me to write about Guido Buzzelli. The reason is the above drawing. Guido Buzzelli is one of my all time favorites (I suspect that you guessed it by reading my profile on the upper right corner), but, even so, this drawing made a strong impression on me. Hugo Pratt's doll is a romantic dream: the detached adventurer we all would like to be at a certain age. (And I remember what Dwight MacDonald said about Hemingway: "A feeling that loyalty and bravery are the cardinal virtues and that physical action is the basis of the good life - even when reinforced with the kind of nihilism most of us get over by the age of twenty - these don't add up to a philosophy." - Against the American Grain, Random House, 1962: 171 -; more than the philosophy part, what interests me in this quote is the juvenile nihilism that can also be detected in Hugo Pratt's beloved character.) Like Tintin, a reporter who never wrote a line, Corto Maltese is a sailor who didn't navigate much. We really don't know what he did for a living. We never saw him eating or worrying about where his next meal will come from...
In a word, so to speak: he doesn't have much of a normal daily life.
Guido Buzzelli's interpretation is an anti-escapist Corto Maltese instead of an homage. This is a true rugged sailor, with his skin burned by a hard life at sea. Its also rather uncommercial...
The Terzo Salone dei Comics (third comics convention) occurred from June 30 to July 2, 1967, and took place in Lucca, Italy. The event's catalogue Comics Almanacco published the first graphic novel in the restrict field: La rivolta dei racchi (the revolt of the ugly) by Guido Buzzelli.
Many discussions are happening these days because of the expression's semantics. Not being an essentialist I basically agree with Eddie Campbell (for reasons pertaining to publishing politics): "When he [Will Eisner] called that suite of short stories [A Contract With God] a 'graphic novel' he meant to draw attention to this thematic ambition. Neither the form nor the format was the relevant issue." The commercial series was the norm in comics. Here's how I described a series (owing a lot to Umberto Eco: Apocalittici e integrati, Comunicazioni di massa e teorie della cultura di massa, Bompiani, 1964) in the Comics Journal messboard (posted 04-23-99 10:36 AM):
"in order to exist the series must:
1 - Have an hero. The hero (be it Tintin or Corto Maltese or John Difool) is not a fully developed character, it's more of a void designed to be filled by the reader with positive things.
2 - A cast of stereotyped characters: the faithful reader knows that this one does this, that one does that. The reader who likes mainstream stuff usually doesn't want to be surprised (Obelix *always* says that he wants to drink the magic potion; Captain Haddock *always* wants to drink scotch; etc...).
3- A set of stereotyped situations. The plot obeys to a few fixed rules. In adventure comics the thing goes more or less like this: the bad guys attack, the bad guys defeat the good guys, the good guys make a come back and win. The End. In comical comics the hero (or antihero) always commits the same errors, etc...
4 - Adventure follows adventure and the hero and his friends never age. It's as if nothing happened from story to story (the few exceptions to this rule are far from being perfect).
5 - Psychological depth, what's that?!"
The graphic novel is a strategy to fight the blunt commercialism of the series, it's the anti-series. Calling a collection of children's stories (about superheroes, for instance) a "graphic novel" is a co-optation by the sharks, smelling fresh money. On the other hand it's true that the public acceptance of the "graphic novel" label happened after a commercial campaign led by alternative publishers (Drawn & Quarterly's Chris Oliveros at the front: http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/newsList.php?item=a3e5d4055e94e2)
Guido Buzzelli started doing comics to earn a living, for him and his family, in post-WWII's difficult times in Rome, Italy. Being a virtuoso draughtsman commercial comics were easy for him to do. He viewed himself as a painter though. It was at one of his exhibitions that an idea hit him: "My link to comics changed when I made an exhibition in Rome. I thought about the canvases' positions, about the images, about the sensations that I wanted to convey. It seemed to me that the whole thing would be more powerful if I had done a story. Each painting was the figurative embryo that needed development. And that's how I faced art comics." (Interview on French TV, Antenne 2, 1980.)
Buzzelli continued to do alimentary work (like the western comics: Nevada Hill - script by J. P. Gourmelen -, 1973; Tex il grande, Tex the great, 1988), but he also did graphic novels for himself: I Labirinti (the labyrinths - Aunoa in France; 1970), Zil Zelub (an obvious anagram; 1972), HP (horse power; 1974), L'Agnone (a mix between "agnelo," "lamb," and "leone," "lion,": an anti-manichaean allegory; 1977). A few short stories also exploit his favorite themes: Mammaaaa! (All'ultimo piano) (moooom!, at the higher storey; 1973); Il mestiere di Mario (Mario's job; 1973); L'Intervista (the interview; 1975). The topic that intersected both worlds seem to have been eroticism.
Guido Buzzelli committed the ultimate sin of being a political skeptic during highly utopian times: the sixties and seventies. All his revolutions were flawed because the opressed rapidly became opressors after gaining power. His angels (a recurring symbol of goodness in Buzzelli's oeuvre) being self-righteous and castrating are worst than demons. In Zil Zelub, the main character, a Buzzelli alter ego (Guido Buzzelli was also one of the first, if not the first, serious autobio comics author), feels this dilemma as an internal problem that's literally tearing him up to pieces (his id rebels against his superego). In the end he loses his fight: a crooked politician patches him up. We, the comics readers who are constantly doing what Scott McCloud called "closure," are not only witnesses, we are also accomplices. Everything goes back to normal: business goes on, as usual...
Corto Maltese by Guido Buzzelli as it was published in I giorni e le opere (works and days), Comic Art Editrice, May 1999.
PS Many thanks to the nice people who publicized The Crib. Matthias Wivel (he has a great essay and a great list of comics here: http://www.metabunker.dk/?p=1464); Sara Figueiredo Costa, Kerry Dennehy.
15 comments:
- Kerry Dennehy said...
Hey, thanks for the mention! That was a big surprise.
I'm really enjoying your blog. I'm learning a lot!
- October 24, 2008 at 5:24 AM
- Matthias said...
OK, so I'm obviously going to take issue with a couple of things here. Buzzelli's portrait of Corto Maltese is great, but entirely misses the point. Which is that Corto *is* a romantic figure, not a rugged sailor with issues of bipolarity and alcohol abuse.
Corto is *not* meant to be a realistic character -- he's an engine for our imagination. Pratt's genius in those stories, and I mean right up to the very end -- or at least until the penultimate Corto book, "Elvetiche" (the last, "MU", is coasting a bit) -- is to engage our taste for adventure in unexpected, almost dreamlike ways.
By taking such a consistently original approach to the adventure genre, luring us with his charm and wit, then circumventing our expectations -- both through plot and in his poetic sequences of picture narration -- he achieves a kind of ambiguity of feeling, a slightly melancholy suggestion of those far reaches of our imagination that we can only access in flashes of inspiration, and only rarely if ever on a voluntary basis. With Pratt, adventure and romance are issues of our subconscious, essential embodiments of our aspirations.
Thing is, you make it sound like a bad thing to anchor a work of art in almost anything but naturalism. Your appreciation of the female characters in Corto is an appreciation on this level. To me, that's all well and good, but they are only component qualities of something much more complex.
Going by your logic, if I may put it somewhat bluntly, every fictional character who is not a fully realised psychological study is a stereotype, and thus not worth dealing with. Out goes all the ancient myths, all of Greek theatre, the Illiad and the Odyssey, large parts of medieval literature, all fables, and -- yes -- most of the finest achievements in the art form we call comics.
To dismiss all comics that trade in archetypes and work within certain genre conventions is taking a critical hatchet to an art from that *does* consist mostly of pulp, but is also hugely fascinating for its exceptional, almost demonstrative retainment through modernity of non-naturalist narrative, and therefore calls for a scalpel in the dissection of its cultural and artistic value.
Another aspect of comics that your critique seems to inadvertently ignore is the art. Pratt's art is great because it appeals to our imaginations in a way that other superb, but superficial draughtsmen, such as Alex Toth or Noel Sickles do not. It's an integral part in what makes the best Corto stories masterpieces. Another example is the deeply original, rich take on the world offered by Hergé -- another of your favourite straw men, if I remember correctly :)
By your logic, great works of comics such as Töpffer's comics, Krazy Kat, Tintin, Peanuts, Kirby's best work, large parts of Tezuka's work, large parts of Barks' work, Astérix, Gaston Lagaffe, and many others, would probably disqualify as great art because their surface qualities don't meet a certain set of standards that would have made them lesser works had they aspired to them in the first place.
For reasons of brevity, I won't go into details on why I think these individual works are superior *as art* to almost any 'literary' or 'graphic novel-type', naturalist comic out there (many of which I obviously also love), but for further arguments along these lines see the following:
On high and low in comics:
On Tintin:
PS -- I've always wanted to read some Buzzelli, but have found it rather hard to locate the books. Maybe I've just looked in the wrong places? What to do?
- October 24, 2008 at 4:39 PM
- Isabelinho said...
Hey Kerry! It's always great to hear that people are enjoying what one does. Thanks!...
- October 24, 2008 at 4:52 PM
- Isabelinho said...
Wow Matthias, what a great piece of metacriticism! I agree with almost all the things that you say. I'm biased, we all are, but I don't see that as a problem. Critics stand on some kind of ground and mine is the one that you describe. It will appeal to some people (just a few because of comics' strange history: its links mostly to children, etc...) and it will repel lots (ditto).
It's true, all those sacred cows don't do much for me, but Naturalism is not exactly the reason (John Porcellino or Chago Armada can't be labeled as such). I just dislike what I would call "escapism" or, in a good mood: "hollow fantasies." I did see and hear Hugo Pratt in his later years saying that he couldn't distinguish fantasy from reality anymore. I won't even comment that one...
I don't think that there are archetypes. To me there are stereotypes and that's it. I even included Jossot's stereotypes in my list. If stereotypes are good or bad (from my critical stand point, of course) that's a matter of what the artist wants to do with them. A brief poem doesn't do the same thing as a novel. Stereotypes in the latter are a lot more difficult for me to swallow (but not impossible), I don't even expect "fully developed characters" in the former, that would be ridiculous...
It's not about the drawing, but have you read Faustino Arbesú's criticism of Hugo Pratt's storytelling "technique"? Supposing that you read Spanish I'll send said essay to you.
As for Buzzelli:
you may search for his books, here:
or, here:
I'm going to enjoy your essays, now :)
- October 24, 2008 at 5:32 PM
- Isabelinho said...
I'm back:
I especially liked the Tintin conversation. The Hitchcock reference made me think. I like his films a lot, but if you go to my profile there's no Hitch film in sight in my favorite films list. On the contrary, I'm absolutely incapable of reading a Tintin book (I'm bored to death after 3 pages or so, but that's completely beside the point). I could never put a Tintin book in any best comics list of all time. Godard said that Hitchcock was the greatest creator of forms of the 20 th. century. Hergé was a great formalist too. They both pale in my consideration when I compare them with Mizoguchi or Guido Buzzelli.
- October 24, 2008 at 6:35 PM
- Matthias said...
Thanks, glad you liked it! I don't think Hergé's work is just great formalism, and neither are Hitchcock's best movies. If that were the case, they wouldn't be as revered as they are, or provoke as much inquiry. It is true, however, that through his style, and by way of his formal mastery, Hergé was able to express a vision of singular clarity and originality.
There's an idealism in the very fabric of his art that to me speaks volumes about the modern view of the world. An almost Platonic dream of enlightenment in a world of symbols never quite grasped. Ahem* Anyway. I'm not a huge Hitchcock fan, actually and also much prefer Mizoguchi, so at least were in accord there...
Back to the core of the matter: I'm all for questioning the "sacred cows," and I think it's great that you have and do, but my point in this connection is that your very categorically formulated dismissal throws out the wheat with the chaff.
I disagree that humor or "escapism" are problematic in themselves. The genres connected with them can be just as moving or intelligent as any other genre, although I agree that they very often resort to formula. When an "escapist" genre is treated with as much insight and sensitivity as it is by Pratt, it's as great a work of art as a more naturalist or psychologically realistic piece would have had the potential to be. Fantasy and imagination are as much part of what it is to be human, as bringing home the baking.
When it comes down to it, what I'm saying is that some of these "sacred cows" are, in fact, far from hollow, manichean or formulaic. They make use of certain formulae, yes, but as you say it's all about *how* you make use of said formula or convention.
By dismissing these works across the board, I think you're missing out on a lot of the best the art form has to offer. I know you disagree :)
And no, I haven't read Arbesu's essay -- i'd be very interested. Thanks for mentioning it!
- October 25, 2008 at 9:24 AM
- Isabelinho said...
There's certainly the danger of throwing out the wheat with the chaff (or the baby - since we're talking about children's comics - with the bath water).
I started writing on the Comics Journal messboard around 98, or so. When 2000 approached a cascade of best of the 20 th. century lists began to appear. They were very strange to me, to say the least (and, I must admit it, they got on my nerves: what art form's canon is composed, in a huge ratio, of children's art?). What's wrong with children's art? Nothing, in principle, but a lot in the end (I don't need to explain myself again on this point). Being comics fans what they are (i. e. fanatics) positions got a little extreme when I criticized the restrict field's (let's call it that instead of "the ghetto's") canon.
Now that the years passed and we all have calmed down, it's obvious that we're dealing here with complex concepts. Saying that things are either black or white is as unsophisticated as manichaean comics. The sacred cows that you implicitly and explicitly mentioned (Töpffer included, in my opinion) are all great draughtsmen, for starters. Some of them are masters of the art form, no doubt (what Kim Thompson calls, a propos Franquin: comics qua comics). My problem is that I find equally good artists in comics who are all that and more. Plus: they're completely ignored because they didn't do children's comics for one of the three industries.
I suppose that we have to disagree on everything else; Töpffer is a good example of Baudelairian satanism :); some of Krazy Kat's pages and comic strips (about loneliness, mostly) are great, so, I'll give you this one; I can't find a good thing to say about Tintin's content; I find the same problem with Charles Schulz that I find with Hugo Pratt: the best of Peanuts is Skippy, by Percy Crosby; Kirby's best work does exist?, where? (please don't answer this question, I'm joking: he had a knack for machines, no doubt about it); as for Tezuka, I'll admit that I haven't read much by him (I tried Phoenix and didn't like it at all; I prefer to say that I have no opinion though); Barks is great sometimes (but I already said that I like him a lot); Astérix: see Töpffer above; Gaston Lagaffe: it's funny, so what?
PS I don't think that you can deny that _North by Northwest_ and _The Blue Lotus_, to name just two, are manichaean.
- October 25, 2008 at 11:55 AM
- Rod McKie said...
"...Guido Buzzelli's interpretation is an anti-escapist Corto Maltese instead of an homage. This is a true rugged sailor, with his skin burned by a hard life at sea. Its also rather uncommercial..."
I can't agree; Guido Buzzelli's "interpretation" is just that, an interpretation, and it always will be; whereas Hugo Pratt's drawings "are" Corto Maltese. On on iconic level, just as surely as Schulz's drawings of Charlie Brown "are" Charlie Brown and not representations or interpretations of Charlie Brown, and Herge's drawings of Tintin reveal Tintin - Pratt reveals Corto Maltese to us.
Nice blog, though. There's a lot a do agree with.
I did a piece on Pratt recently:
- October 25, 2008 at 12:50 PM
- Isabelinho said...
Hi Rod:
Thanks for your kind words!
I suppose that there's a misunderstanding here because of my use of the word "true." I wrote "true rugged sailor", not "true Corto Maltese." That one, for better or for worse, is Pratt's, of course.
I didn't agree with everything you said (obviously :), but I liked your article. A correction though: Alberto Ongaro is a writer, not a cartoonist.
- October 25, 2008 at 1:45 PM
- Matthias said...
I'm totally with you that some of these artists who didn't do children's comics deserve more recognition, although some of them *have* this recognition, just not amongst comics fans, because their work was done in a different cultural context and has thus never been regarded as comics, even though for all intents and purposes it is. Masereel is just one example.
But yes, we will have to disagree on almost everything else. To dismiss laughter as inconsequential is completely absurd to me. Making people laugh, in my view, is one of the noblest of all arts. Yes, some laughter is pretty shallow -- not all comedy is equally great, even if it's funny -- but fundamentally, comedy is hugely important to any culture.
Laughter keeps us sane. Laughter makes us feel less lonely. It affirms community. This is what's so great about Krazy Kat -- it tempers feelings of loneliness and despair with joy and beauty. Peanuts is similar, if utterly different in its way of going about it and ultimately bleaker.
That Baudelaire calls laughter "satanic" isn't so far off the mark, really -- it *is*, in what I guess you could describe as a Miltonian sense, in so far as it is an impulse over which we have no control. There is something anarchic, something liberating about it. Plus, it often also makes us think, reflect and invest emotionally in life around us.
Franquin's comics are not "just" funny -- they express an anarchic worldview, they're a promise of freedom in an ordered society. Töpffer is similar, if more conservative in his values. And Astérix is great social and cultural satire.
As for Kirby, not only is his vision utterly original, his stories are fundamentally about how our ideals are attempts at making sense of a cosmos in which we as individuals are insignificant. In which God has his back turned. And about how despair and rage keeps us from imposing this same order. It's deeply moving, and at the same time intoxicating for its imaginary reach.
Regarding Tezuka's work, I suspect you might actually like it a lot more if you got into it. Here we can really talk about somebody working with pop art formulae, without *ever* becoming manichean. The way he makes us understand, even sympathise, with each and every one of his characters is astonishing, and deeply human. And again, he explores the notion of individuality in a Buddhist cosmos that ultimately transcends it.
This is what I mean: All of these artists make use of certain genre tropes and formulae, but they harness them to create works that make us feel and reflect on some of the fundamental impulses and issues of human life.
Isn't that as good a definition of great art as any?
PS -- Yes, both North by Northwest and The Blue Lotus are pretty manichean when it comes to who's the good guy and who's the bad guy, but those aspects are really incidental to what makes both works great. North by Northwest is a hilariously subversive and surreal journey through a set of genre tropes, while The Blue Lotus is an unforgettably visualised, ideal portrayal of friendship and universality that eventually stretches across most of Hergé's oeuvre, informing it at its core.
- October 25, 2008 at 4:12 PM
- Isabelinho said...
This is a great discussion, but this space is becoming short to continue it. Plus, it would need an engagement with the stuff we're discussion on a one by one basis (the problem is that I simply don't want to invest my time in things that I read ages ago and don't want to reread). Let's just say that you have a great way to dismiss obvious flaws (the silliest stories ever created in Kirby's oeuvre, for instance) to underline generalities that are suposedly great. It's as if these are palaces made of straw.
You are commiting a mistake re. laughter though. Neither Baudelaire nor I dismiss it. Baudelaire sees perfectly well that satire exists when we simplify other people's character or other people's doings in order to ridicule them. That's what he means by "satanic." He defends what he calls the grotesque laughter though. As for me, here's what I wrote on this blog:
"Either we laugh for frivolous reasons or we laugh at someone's expenses. I would place satire above the innocent joke (if such a thing exists) no doubt, but a satirical caricature is always a simplification. [...] I must add that, as I put it ages ago in Nemo, a humorist who laughs at his or her (our) own foibles and miseries is not satanic at all. I didn't know it at the time, but that's, more or less, what Giacomo Leopardi also said."
- October 25, 2008 at 5:05 PM
- Matthias said...
All right, a fair if somewhat pessimistic point re: satire, but I still don't get what's inherently wrong with 'frivolous.'
And sure, this is probably not the kind of place to have a discussion involving so many moving parts. Just thought I'd point out some qualities in works you have been dismissive of. And then I got carried away. As usual.
But yeah, thanks for your thoughts, and for the platform.
Silly is another man's tonic!
- October 25, 2008 at 6:16 PM
- Isabelinho said...
That's a no-no! I'm the one who says a big thank you!
There's nothing wrong with 'frivolous'. That's where I come back, here: "I'm biased, we all are, but I don't see that as a problem. Critics stand on some kind of ground and mine is the one that you describe."
I tend to put the very serious and very deep Sistine Chapel frescoes (another great comic) above Johnny Ryan antics, but that's just me. By the way: you're right re. Masereel, but, since this is Guido Buzzelli's post: how about him? He was always misunderstood. It's more than time to put him where he belongs.
Finally: you won George Herriman, it's not bad... And I think that you defended the cow herd beautifully!
- October 25, 2008 at 7:03 PM
- Santiago Fernandez said...
Interesting set of ideas. Personally I dont find Corto Maltese as an escapism route at all; I think Hugo Pratt is one of the few artists who crafted his stories with full poetical understanding (not "license", mind you) even thrusthing them into full hermetical symbolism at times. You need a little more than a particular set of stereotypes and narrative formulas to get something like the first Corto full story, "Una balata del mare salato", where he basicaly achieves literacy with drawings. And, considering Corto himself is often more of a witness than a hero in the action sense, Pratt´s stories are not machinean at all (most of them, anyway: there are a few which may feel forced, like the one with the Red Baron); I find them in the realm of full seduction.
For some time now I seem to relate Hugo Pratt´s work to that of Josef Conrad´s. Maybe it is because in both of their narrations I find that, contrary to your believe, there is a great diference between a stereotype and an archetype. Both Marlowe and Corto delve into adventures that resonate at much deeper psycological levels than those of the formulatic nature; in a non explicit maner (sometimes sybolical but mostly trougth allegory) they reveal sheer human nature in confrontative ways.
It´s trough both Conrad and Pratt that I understand adventure, true adventure, not as escapism, but as a deadly confrontation, usually with yourself. And nobody comes easy or unchanged by confrontation.
Of course, there is pragmatical taste to my argument, since I understand adventure as an open invitation to confrontation wich either you get or you don´t notice.
Beatifull Buzzelli drawing, by the way.
- October 28, 2008 at 4:46 PM
- Isabelinho said...
Hi Santiago:
Thanks for your comments.
Matthias gave to Cesar what belonged to Cesar... You, I'm not so sure. Una Balatta is precisely too much of an Oesterheldian story. You don't even mention him. And that was my whole point: most people never do.
As a curio, here's what Faustno Arbesú said about Pratt's influences (besides also saying, showing examples, that he was one of the worst storytellers in comics history): "[Pratt's work is similar], as some essays claim, to that of the writers: Thomas Malory, Shakespeare, Lawrence, Guimarães Rosa, Borges, O'Flaerthy, Sean O'Casey, Hemingway, [...] Conrad, Stevenson, London, Melville, Cervantes, Kipling, Rimbaud; or filmmakers: Von Sternberg, Pontecorbo, John Guillermin, Orson Welles, David Lean, John Ford, Bertolucci, Glauber Rocha, [...] and Damiano Damiani [...]... Too many references for just one author! The question is: When is Hugo Pratt Hugo Pratt?"
- October 28, 2008 at 5:32 PM


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|Mobile Site
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|Series :
|The Original Series
|Rating :
|Disc No :
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|24 Nov 1966
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|Surely they could have come up with a more sophisticated method of communication for Pike in the 23th century than just flashing a light.
Also, the transporter seems to be making phaser noises, and then Spock has an emotional outburst when only the women are transported.
|Great Moment :
|Spock's complete out manoeuvring of Kirk and the others at the court marshal, and dare one say Vina as the green Orion slave girl?
|Body Count :
|Factoid :
|When doing makeup tests for Vina as an orion slave girl, the film kept coming back without the green being visible. The makeup people painted the poor woman ever-brighter shades of green in the hope that it would become visible on film - only to discover that the film processing lab was recolourising her because they didn't know she was meant to be green! This two part episode was made by cutting new footage together with footage from the original pilot episode, which made it look like they had spent all kinds of money on new sets when in fact it was quite cheap to make.
Eventually the trial breaks again so that Pike can rest. Spock confirms that the Talosians want Pike back, though he will not say why this is so. After a rest break the trial resumes; the Talosians continue to use their power of illusion to create scenarios for Pike to experience, each time placing Vina into the situation. Pike resists the various temptations on offer, trying to use anger to block his thoughts. Vina, somewhat sympathetic, tells him that such tactics can work, but only for a time - the Talosians are relentless, and in the end no amount of resistance is enough.
The Talosians, thinking that perhaps Pike needs a wider choice of women to tempt him, abduct Number One and Yeoman Colt from the Enterprise. They offer Pike his choice of any of the women; with the female of his choice he will begin a breeding project intended to produce a race of Talosian humans. However, Pike and the others are able to escape to the surface of the planet.
The images stop again, much to Spock's surprise. He asks for a delay in the verdict as there is more to see, but all three officers of the court agree that there is sufficient evidence for a conviction and Spock is found guilty. The ship arrives at Talos IV, and all is revealed; the Talosian mental powers are not just a boon but a curse. After acquiring them, they became so addicted to their love of shared illusions that their ability to provide for themselves was lost. Their entire culture is crumbling away, and they expect to become extinct in the near future. Their breeding program for Pike was intended to create a slave race who would support the Talosians indefinitely. The Humans are repelled by the idea, to the extent that Number One sets her laser pistol to overload in an explosion that will kill every person present, denying the Talosians any further breeding stock. Pike concurrs with the action, informing his stunned Talosian prisoner that he is free to return to safety - Pike sees no benefit in killing him, and will not do so merely for revenge.
Realising that Humans have a uniquely developed hatred of slavery, the Talosians agree to release them rather than see them sacrifice themselves. However, Vina chooses to remain behind. The reality is that the original accident which stranded her on the planet badly injured her, and although the Talosians were able to reverse the damage they had no guide for how a Human being should look. Vina is therefore not the beautiful young woman Pike has seen all this time but rather horribly disfigured.
Pike agrees that she should remain behind, living out her fantasy life, and departs.
Spock reveals that this has been the reason behind the whole situation - now that Pike is similarly disfigured and crippled, the Talosians are offering to provide him with a lifetime living out the illusion that he is healthy and well. As Kirk turns to Mendez, the Commodore vanishes. His presence all along has merely been another Talosian illusion, intended to keep Kirk occupied during the trip.
Starfleet agrees to allow Pike to remain on Talos and drop the charges against Spock, and the ship departs. Kirk is shown one last image as they prepare to leave - Pike and Vina, both fit and healthy and enjoying one another's company again.
|Copyright Graham Kennedy
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ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank is prepared to take additional measures to protect the Swiss economy should a further slowdown make it necessary, a policymaker was quoted as saying on Sunday.
SNB board member Fritz Zurbruegg, however, did not specify what action the bank might take.
After investors flooded into the Swiss franc to seek refuge from the euro zone debt crisis, the SNB set a cap of 1.20 francs to the euro in September 2011 to safeguard the Swiss economy against deflation and recession.
Zurbruegg, who joined the SNB at the start of August, said there had been a general weakening of the global economy this year which had dragged on Switzerland's growth.
"Based on the IMF projections it can be supposed that the weakening of the Swiss economy has increased some more," Zurbruegg told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, adding that the risks to the Swiss economy were to the downside.
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Switzerland's economy shrank unexpectedly in the second quarter as the crisis in the euro zone dampened demand for Swiss goods and services.
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Zurbruegg said the franc remained overvalued at 1.20 per euro and the SNB would continue to invest its currency reserves in ways that do not disrupt the market.
The SNB's reserves have ballooned to around 70 percent of the country's annual output, as it has sometimes had to inject large sums to make the cap on the franc stick.
But an easing of market tension in the euro zone in September has allowed the franc to weaken towards 1.21 per euro, stemming the need for the SNB to intervene and allowing it to diversify out of euros in the third quarter.
"As long as we maintain the minimum exchange rate of 1.20 to the euro, it will have the consequences that we will build up currency reserves, that will have to be invested," he said.
"We are acting with consideration to the market because we are not interested in irritating other central banks or distorting the market."
Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Susan Fenton