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As part of Q-STAGE 2017, Nadia Honary is creating a new performance piece combining video and movement – These Floating Bones – that will perform May 5 and 6 at 7:30pm, and May 7 at 2pm. For more information about this and other Q-STAGE shows, click here!
As one of our 2017 Q-STAGE Artists, can you tell us about where the idea(s) for your show came from?
The inspiration for this piece has been in development for over a year. I'm very fascinated with the body's relationship to the mind, and its relationship to the natural moving world. It's very easy to become distracted and disconnected from the world around us as we advance in technology and strive for comfort and convenience. This disconnection prevents us from listening to our bodies, and ultimately lose a certain sense of the self. It is this reason that I chose to explore some of these themes using butoh-inspired movements and combining that with video of natural occurrences, such as water in a lake or leaves blowing in the wind. This piece is very personal for me because I am exploring my tendencies to become disassociated to my own identity. So for me, this piece is more like a journey into becoming reacquainted with this "self" through elemental inspired images and movement. My gender is fluid, my identity is liquid. I feel a connection to the idea of Noguchi Taiso which is the notion of the human body as a form of liquid, a water bag in which our bones are floating.
Have you been collaborating with any other artists to create this show? Who are they are how are they contributing?
My director/collaborator, Shalee Coleman, has been an absolute dream to work with in creating this piece. She is one of the few humans who will completely understand what I'm saying and be able to take any of my ideas, no matter how large or seemingly impossible, and mold and shape it in a way that works beautifully in the piece. I feel very lucky to get to work with her. I have also had the privilege to meet with interdisciplinary artist and dancer Michael Sakamoto. His work is very deeply influenced with butoh and having the chance to talk with him and also to watch him perform has greatly inspired me to keep pushing forward with my own work.
Why do you feel it is important to share this story of your performance with the community?
Vulnerability is incredibly important in the work I create because that is what people connect to. Although it is very scary to create this kind of work, it is also a very healing process for me. I hope this piece creates a sense of healing within the community, inspiring people who witness this work to embrace the natural evolution the body experiences, and to feel the physical changes internally and externally.
What aspects of your queer identity do you hope to express through your Q-STAGE piece?
I am taking an experimental approach to topics that are very personal to me as an always evolving queer-identified artist. I am creating a performance that indirectly addresses the evolution of the physical body and its connection to nature, very conscious of the fact that my own identity is in a constant state of transition. My journey coming to terms with my own sexual identity is an ongoing process and I am fascinated with the way society tries to box people into neat packages for the sake of convenience when gender and human identity is entirely complex and changing.
Talk about your background as an artist. What sort of artistic experience are you bringing to this production? Have you been involved with 20% Theatre in the past and, if so, in what ways?
I'm a multimedia artist with over 10 years of experience in the visual arts. I'm very passionate about photography and videography. That's why video is a huge part of this particular piece; I'm very visual and find great inspiration in movements inspired by nature. I also have several years of experience doing experimental theatre work. I love to move and as a performer, am very physically expressive. This will be my first time involved with 20% Theatre, but hopefully will not be the last.
What social issues are important to you and how do they inform the art you create?
The concept of gender identity and how cultural identity influences gender and sexuality very much informs the art I create. I'm half-Iranian, with half of my family still living in Iran. This means I'm still closeted to most of my extended family as Iran. I think about freedom of expression, of perception and censorship. These themes come up often in the art I create. I'm also very impacted by immigration policies and the act of inspiring fear in order to discriminate against an entire group of people, how certain words are used in conjunction with an entire region or religion in order to manipulate the way others view anyone coming from that area. I consider these specific social issues often when I create my work.
What other artists or performances have inspired you over the years?
There are so many! I am influenced by artists that physically and intellectually challenge perspectives. M.C. Escher has aesthetically inspired my approach to installation through use of reflections and mirrors. Conceptually, I am inspired by surrealism, which is why I draw inspiration from the works of Georgia O'Keefe, Frida Kahlo, and Salvador Dali. Iranian artist Shirin Neshat's use of video projection to transform spaces, as well as the usage of text within her work has also shaped my work. I also love the work by installation/video artist Pipilotti Rist. Local artists whom I know or have met that have shaped and inspired my work include ceramist and interdisciplinary artist, Katayoun Amjadi, photographer Wing Young Huie, and as I mentioned earlier, mover/interdisciplinary artist Michael Sakamoto.
Are you working on any other projects or are there others you hope to work on?
I would like to eventually finish a documentary that I started on my half-Iranian identity which also focuses on my dad's story and how he got here. I think stories on immigration and identity are important to share, especially in times like today.
What is your favorite pre or post-rehearsal snack or meal?
My favorite post-rehearsal meal is tacos! Always tacos.
What is your favorite hangout spot and why?
I love going to Caffetto cafe. The space is cozy and they have pinball machines in the basement. I also love being outside whenever the weather permits. I will walk anywhere and everywhere and hang out in the park. Specifically Powderhorn Park is very close to my heart.
When you're not deep in Q-STAGE rehearsal and development, how do you spend your time? What are some of your hobbies or passions in life?
I love spontaneous dance parties in the living room, riding bikes with my partner, and cooking with simple ingredients. I also love challenging myself by trying new things. I'm excited to mountain bike more often as the weather warms up; I just started last fall and I'm hooked!


text: Organic was first used to describe a farming philosophy by Lord Walter Northbourne in his book Look to the Land, published in 1940. Nearly 40 years ago, in response to a growing demand for food produced outside of the dominant industrial/chemical-agriculture system, organic standards and certification programs took off in the U.S., facilitated by private organizations such as California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). Washington was the first U.S. state to regulate organic standards, beginning in 1988. In 1990, the U.S. Organic Foods Production Act was passed, and in 1992 the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) was established, but it would take another decade (and hundreds of thousands of consumer comments about issues like genetically modified crops, sewage sludge, and irradiation) before the National Organic Program (NOP) standards were put into effect in 2002. The NOP standards are set and continually reviewed by the NOSB, comprised of 15 appointed members, including four farmers/growers, two handlers/processors, one retailer, one scientist, three consumer/public interest advocates, three environmentalists, and one USDA-accredited certifying agent. Today, there are more than 27,000 USDA Organic certified operations.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pakistan on Friday invited India's incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit, just hours after India's opposition candidate secured a crushing victory in the world's largest election.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came to power last year promising to improve relations with nuclear arch-rival India, but a series of clashes on the disputed Kashmir border has cast doubt over the peace process.
"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke to Narendra Modi on the phone this afternoon and congratulated him on this remarkable election victory and invited him to visit Pakistan," Sartaj Aziz, Sharif's adviser on national security and foreign affairs, told Reuters.
"Of course the process (for the visit) will take some time, initial contacts still have to be made. But the invitation is there."
The fact that outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not visit Islamabad, despite being invited, has caused tension with Pakistan in recent years. A visit by an Indian leader would be seen as a major turning point in the relationship between the two countries.
Indian officials were not immediately available for comment.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they became independent countries in 1947, two of them over the mountainous region of Kashmir. Both control a part of the Muslim-majority region but claim it in full.
Modi's Hindu-centric politics have rung alarm bells in Islamabad, but late on Friday Pakistan's foreign ministry said it welcomed Modi's victory and looked forward to working with him.
A truce along the Kashmir border has held for nearly a decade, even though it has been broken every now and then by tit-for-tat artillery fire and an occasional cross-border ambush.


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Ho ho ho….
Russian Pacific Fleet Warships Enter Mediterranean For First Time In Decades, To Park In Cyprus
Zero Hedge, 16 May 2013
Earlier we reported that the US has now officially landed a Marine force in Israel as well as an assault ship, in a visit that the US Navy promptly assured "is not associated with, nor a reaction to, any world events." It seems we were not the only ones who read this justification somewhat skeptically: so did Russia.
And in a historic event, the Russian Pacific fleet, for the first time in decades, crossed the Suez Canal and entered the Mediterranean, direction Cyprus' port of Limasol (hi Cyprus – Russia will be arriving shortly) in what is now the loudest implied warning to the US and Israel amassing military units across Syria's border that Russia will not stand idly by as Syria is used by the Israeli "Defense" Forces for target practice.
"The task force has successfully passed through the Suez Channel and entered the Mediterranean. It is the first time in decades that Pacific Fleet warships enter this region," Capt. First Rank Roman Martov said. This is what is also known as dropping hints, loud and clear.
The group, including the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, the amphibious warfare ships Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoi, the tanker Pechenga and the salvage/rescue tug Fotiy Krylov left the port of Vladivostok on March 19 to join Russia's Mediterranean task force.
The task force currently includes the large anti-submarine ship Severomorsk, the frigate Yaroslav Mudry, the salvage/rescue tugs Altai and SB-921 and the tanker Lena from the Northern and Baltic Fleets, as well as the Ropucha-II Class landing ship Azov from the Black Sea Fleet. The task force may be enlarged to include nuclear submarines, Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov said last Sunday.
Shore leave for a whole lot of submarines just a few hundred kilometers from Syria? Surely. From Rian.
The Defense Ministry said in April Russia has begun setting up a naval task force in the Mediterranean, sending several warships from the Pacific Fleet to the region. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in March a permanent naval task force in the Mediterranean was needed to defend Russia's interests in the region.
A senior Defense Ministry official said the Mediterranean task force's command and control agencies will be based either in Novorossiysk, Russia, or in Sevastopol, Ukraine.
Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, head of the parliamentary defense committee, previously told RIA Novosti that the Mediterranean task force should be comprised of 10 warships and support vessels as part of several tactical groups tasked with attack, antisubmarine warfare and minesweeping.
The Soviet Union maintained its 5th Mediterranean Squadron from 1967 until 1992. It was formed to counter the US Navy's 6th Fleet during the Cold War, and consisted of 30-50 warships and auxiliary vessels
It appears that the squadron is being reincarnated and quite rapidly at that.
It also appears that the two key naval forces in the Mediterranean are finally starting to position themselves for what may soon be a face off.
Hopefully Europe's "anti-manipulation" task force can spook enough majors to push the price of Brent much lower before the moment such an escalation becomes reality.


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Pole dancing
Pole dancing is the subtle and dangerous art of dancing atop a very high pole, though the danger in recent years has decreased due to rising regulation with the transition from art form to spectator sport.
Traditionally a Polish ethnic dance said to have originated in 1945 in the German seaport of Danzig, pole dancing has been passed on from generation to generation across Russia and now across much of the western world. The specific techniques of pole dancing have remained largely secret, obscured through the mysteries of reverse polish notation, though outsiders have nonetheless made up their own versions, obvious by the tendency to dance around the pole instead of atop.
Competitive dance[edit]
Legally, a dance-pole may be no more than 4 inches in diameter at the top, though most professional pole dancers prefer a thinner pole in order to demonstrate their skills. World record holder Sergei Pizza is famed for dancing on a pole over 30 metres (456 yards) high, sharpened to a needle-like point. On this occasion Mr. Pizza wore special shoes of a fine Kevlar weave.
Some people claim that in August 1991, the tallest pole on earth, in Konstantynow, Poland, was brought to collapse because he tried to dance on it, but a lack of witnesses or conclusive testimony make this speculation at best.
During the 1998 finals of the "Top Pole" contest, contestant Dr. Jean Abulard slipped and fell onto a particular well polished pole. The pole entered the doctor's rectum, worked its way upward through the body and emerged from the mouth. Dr. Abulard tried to hold position by use of tongue pressure, but began to slip down the pole, eventually coming to rest 250 feet below, with the pole rising majestically from the doctor's mouth. Hilarity ensued.
To qualify as a pole dancer, newcomers are expected to have mastered modern dance, jazz dance, the four-four-two step with sweeper system, and contemporary combat gymnastics.
Entertainment Dancing[edit]
In recent years, pole dancing has become a popular spectator sport (some say due to the Abulard incident). It is not uncommon to see one or more poles permanently set up in an open space for exhibitions, though they will usually be capped to discourage unlicensed dancers from injuring themselves (the Pole-Dancer's Union is particularly vicious, rumoured to be behind many greased-pole accidents).
Unlike competitive pole dancing, where only one person performs at a time, it is not uncommon for many people to work at the same time, competing for the audience's attention. This is very dangerous, as the dancers are likely to attempt dangerous stunts. During the late '70s and early '80s, there was a short fad of having more than one person on a pole. However after a particularly gruesome incident in Washington, this practice was banned by the Pole-Dancer's union as unsafe.


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The Perfect Pedal Stroke
How to get the most energy from each crank revolution.
By Loren Mooney
©TopDog Illustration
How to get the most energy from each crank revolution.
By Loren Mooney
©TopDog Illustration
Pedaling in a simple circle is a complex thing, but mastering it can save energy, says Todd Carver, biomechanist at Colorado's Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. He says that with proper ankling (shown here; not the injury-causing technique of the past), riders can churn out the same amount of power at a heart rate as many as five beats per minute lower. This stroke is for flat terrain at threshold, or time trial, intensity.Hip-Knee-Ankle Alignment Viewed from the front, your hip, knee and ankle should line up throughout the pedal stroke. "You don't want knee wobble," says Carver. "Just think pistons, straight up and down." If you can't correct this, or if you experience knee pain when you try to restrict lateral movement, you may need orthotics or another type of biomechanical adjustment.
Zone 1 Known as the power phase, the portion of the pedal stroke from 12 o'clock to about 5 o'clock is the period of greatest muscle activity. "A lot of people think hamstrings are used only on the upstroke," says Carver, "but a good cyclist uses a lot of hamstring in the downstroke, because it extends the hip." The key to accessing the large muscles in the back of your leg is dropping your heel as you come over the top of the stroke, says Carver. "At 12 o'clock, your toes should be pointed down about 20 degrees, but as you come over the top, start dropping that heel so that it's parallel to the ground or even 10 degrees past parallel by the time you get to 3 o'clock." The biggest mistake Carver sees in novice riders: not dropping the heel enough in Zone 1.
Zone 2 Using the same muscles as in the power phase, but to a lesser degree, this phase acts as a transition to the backstroke. "As you enter Zone 2, think about firing the calf muscles to point your toe," Carver says. As you come through the bottom of the stroke, the toe should be pointed down 20 degrees. "This ankling technique transfers some of the energy developed in Zone 1 by the bigger muscles to the crank," Carver says. He uses the advice popularized by Greg LeMond: "Act like you're scraping mud off the bottom of your shoe."
Zone 3 Even though you feel like you're pulling your foot through the back of the stroke, you're not. "When you look at even the best cyclists, they're losing power on the upstroke," says Carver. "The pedal is actually pushing your leg up, so the goal is to lose as little power as possible and get that foot out of the way." One fun way to improve the efficiency of your upstroke: mountain biking. "The terrain keeps you honest," Carver says. "If you're focusing only on the downstroke, you'll lose traction and fall off your bike in steep sections." As for other exercises, Carver advises against single-leg pedal drills--"for recreation-level riders, they injure more people than they help"--but recommends hamstring and glute-strengthening lifts, as well as squats, "done correctly, in a squat rack with someone showing you how."Saddle Position Proper bike fit, especially saddle height and fore-aft adjustment, is a prerequisite for a smooth pedal stroke. Without it, says Carver, you won't be even remotely as efficient as you could be. "If your saddle is too high, you're not going to be able to drive your heel effectively," he says. "If it's too low, you'll have knee pain." In the right position (knee over the ball of your foot with the pedal at 3 o'clock; knee slightly bent with the pedal at 6 o'clock), you'll maximize your energy output and also be able to adapt your ankling technique to different terrain, cadence and effort levels.
Zone 4 As you enter the second half of the upstroke phase, think about initiating your downstroke. "Many riders don't initiate early enough," says Carver, who often sees riders wait until 3 o'clock--but they should be starting before 12 o'clock. A tip: As you begin to come across the top of the stroke, think about pushing your knee forward, toward the bar. But only your knee, says Carver: "Your pelvis should remain a stable platform, not sinking down and not moving forward." As the knee comes forward, you should feel your hamstrings and glutes engage, and your hip extend.


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The year is 16127. Four decades have passed since the colonists of Nerva Beacon returned to repopulate the once-devastated planet Earth – and the chosen few are finding the business of survival tough.
Far beyond the sterile safety of sanitised Nerva City, transmat scientist Roger Buchman has brought his family to an island surrounded by what they once called Loch Lomond, hoping to re-establish the colony he was forced to abandon many years before.
But something else resides in the Loch. A pestilent alien infestation that the Doctor, beaming in from Nerva City, remembers only too well from his time aboard the Beacon…
The Wirrn are back. And they're hungry.


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ABS time use survey shows how we spend our day In 1997, Australians spent an average of 46% of their time on sleeping, personal hygiene and eating and drinking; 22% of time on social interaction, recreation and leisure; 16% on unpaid work and 15% on employment and education, according to ABS survey results released today. Australians spent 101 million hours per day on total work. More than half (55%) were spent doing unpaid work. Unpaid work included caring for children, preparing food, washing clothes, cleaning and doing voluntary work in the community. In 1997, both men and women spent a total of around seven hours per day, or 49 hours per week, on paid and unpaid work activities, which was similar to the amount of time they spent in 1992. On average, men spent about 40% and women 70% of this time in unpaid work. In 1997, 82% of Australian adults spent some of their free time watching television or listening to the radio. Australians who watched TV during free time did so, on average, for almost 2 hours each day. Men watched TV for two and a half hours per day and women for two hours per day. Between 1992 and 1997, the following changes in the way Australians use their time on an average day were observed:
December 16, 1998 TIME USE SURVEY: ADDITIONAL POINTS OF INTEREST Child care The average amount of time spent and the proportion of Australians caring for children remained fairly constant over the five years from 1992 to 1997. However, the type of care has changed. Direct care - feeding, washing, dressing and cuddling - decreased by 16 minutes per day for those who spent time on these activities. Other types of care - playing, reading, talking and teaching - increased by 11 minutes per day.
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All ghost towns have a fascinating history, and Schoper, Illinois is no different.
Located about eight miles from Carlinville, the town of Schoper (also known as Standard City) was originally Thomas Schoper's 500-acre family farm. In 1918, Standard Oil of Indiana bought the farm (literally) from Schoper, and sunk a 300-feet deep coal mine.
After a coal shortage in 1917, Standard Oil wanted a reliable supply of coal to call their own. The coal was used to fire the stills that refined crude oil and turned it into gasoline.
After the completion of several gelogocial surveys (commissioned by Standard Oil), it was discovered that there was a seven-foot tall seam of coal in the ground at Schoper. As an added bonus, Schoper was near The Chicago and Alton rail line, which was centrally located between the refineries in Wood River (near St. Louis) and Whiting, Indiana (near Chicago).
In 1918, Standard Oil placed a $1 million order (for 192 houses) with Sears Roebuck and Company for 192 Honor-Bilt homes. The houses were purchased for employees in Carlinville, Wood River and Schoper, Illinois. One hundred and fifty six of the houses were built in Carlinville, 12 were built in Schoper and 24 went to Wood River.
The 12 houses were built for the supervisors at the "Schoper Mine." There were also boarding houses and dorms built at Schoper, for the miners.
By the mid-1920s, the boom at Schoper had gone bust. The price of coal dropped after The Great War (1918), and Standard Oil could now buy their coal cheaper from mines in Kentucky (which did not have unions) than they could mine it in Macoupin County.
In July 1925, a small column on the bottom page of the Macoupin County Enquirer sadly announced that the mine was closed for good.
Nine of the 12 little Sears Houses were painstakingly disassembled and left Schoper the same way they came in: In pieces and loaded on a boxcar, headed off to destinations unknown.
Two of the Sears Homes were moved intact, to sites just outside of Standard City. The last Sears House at Schoper (The Sears Gladstone) was home to John McMillan and his wife, a supervisor with the mine. After the mine closed, he became a caretaker charged with myriad tasks, such as making sure the powerful fans down in the mine kept the methane down to acceptable levels.
McMillan's little Gladstone eventually became rental property and burned down sometime in the mid-1990s. The last remnant at the site was the Schoper Powerhouse and Mine Offices, a massive concrete Federalist structure which was torn down in Summer 2003.
And that was the whole story – until last month – when a reader sent me an email with new information. I'm not sure how he did it, but he found 1930s aerial maps of Schoper, which showed the footprints (and precise location) of the 12 little Sears Homes.
Scroll on down to enjoy the many photos, including the vintage aerial photo from 1937!
To see the original vintage map, click here.
To read more about Carlinville's kit homes, click here.
The above was excerpted from The Houses That Sears Built. To buy the book, click here.
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One day last fall, Matt Lauer walked out of his 30 Rock office and took the elevator to the 51st floor to see Steve Burke, the chief executive of NBC Universal.
Lauer was feeling down. Week after week, he was getting pummeled by the press for the sinking fortunes of the Today show. The veteran host was being blamed for the messy departure of Ann Curry and the downward ratings spiral of what had been the iconic program in morning television.
"If you think the show's better off without me, let me know, and I'll get out of the way," Burke recalls Lauer saying.
Burke wouldn't hear of it. "You're the best person who's ever done this," he said. "We'll get through this."
The conversation reflected the depth of the damage sustained by one of television's most lucrative franchises, which is still struggling to recover as Lauer tries to recast it as warmer, more positive, and less sensational.
"It was a hard time for everybody," Lauer tells me over a sandwich at his desk, breaking a self-imposed silence about the show's implosion. "We were getting kicked around a lot. Some of it was self-inflicted and perhaps deserved."
Self-inflicted? Lauer invokes the way that Curry was abruptly booted from the program last June and replaced by Savannah Guthrie.
"I don't think the show and the network handled the transition well. You don't have to be Einstein to know that," says Lauer.
"It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn't handle a family matter well."
That is an understatement. Sources familiar with the process say that Lauer repeatedly tried to convince his bosses to slow things down and give Curry more time before she was pushed into a reduced role.
"When Matt was informed that we had made this decision, his good counsel was to go slow, to take care of Ann, and to do the right things," says Steve Capus, who stepped down last month as NBC News president. "He was quietly and publicly a supporter of Ann's throughout the entire process. It is unfair that Matt has shouldered an undue amount of blame for a decision he disagreed with."
At the outset, though, Lauer would have preferred to anchor with someone else. Before Curry was formally promoted to co-host in 2011, Lauer quietly reached out to an old friend. He asked Katie Couric if she would be willing to return to Today, where they had ruled the time period for nearly a decade.
Couric was receptive to the idea. She was shopping a syndicated show, and she and Lauer were talking about doing the show together. Their plan was to sell the daytime program to NBC and feature Couric on Today during the year and a half until the show could get on the air and Lauer would be contractually free to join her. Couric could be a Today co-host, perhaps as part of a troika with Curry, who had already been offered the job. NBC executives debated the plan, but Burke rejected it after concluding that the syndicated show would be too expensive to produce. Couric teamed up with ABC instead.
With all that in the rearview mirror, Lauer is now pouring his energy into creating a new kind of Today show. Whatever scars the 55-year-old journalist has accumulated, he projects a natural resilience: "I'm not going to whine or get depressed. Who's going to feel sorry for me? Nobody."
Besides, he says, "I am the luckiest guy I know."
He looks trim in a crisp white shirt and tightly knotted tie after one of his regular afternoon workouts. His spacious corner office is filled with the framed photos of media success: Lauer with Hillary Clinton. Lauer with George W. Bush. Lauer with the Rolling Stones. He is the unquestioned star, the box-office draw, the guy who lands the biggest interviews.
But Lauer is also learning the downside of fame. For 16 years, Today was the undisputed champion of morning television, racking up a remarkable streak that may never be equaled. Now, with ABC's Good Morning America having taken over the top spot, knife-wielding critics are asking how Lauer's show could have fallen so far so fast.
"In some ways being No. 2 in the ratings is a real shot in the arm, a kick in the pants," Lauer says. "It makes you hungrier ... I don't think it's a bad thing to have a fire lit under your ass."
If that's the case, Lauer is feeling the heat, so much so that he has stopped reading much of what is written about him.
When New York's Daily News recently ran an unfounded gossip item quoting an unnamed former NBC executive as saying that "replacing Matt Lauer is now seriously on the table," Burke called Lauer and told him the story was "ridiculous."
Such sources "clearly don't know what's inside my head," Burke tells me. "It's all speculation and gossip. It's hurtful at some level but it is what it is. The show went through a rough patch after the Ann Curry/Savannah Guthrie change. Our job is to make sure the show is as good as it can possibly be."
Burke's larger job is to kick-start a network that dropped to fifth place in prime time, behind Univision, in the February sweeps. Today had always been a ratings anchor when NBC's entertainment lineup hit rocky waters.
Lauer's position is secure, but Good Morning America, with Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, has the hot hand. For the week of February 25, soon after Roberts's return from a bone-marrow transplant, GMA drew 5.8 million viewers, compared with 4.8 million for Today and 2.9 million for CBS This Morning with Charlie Rose, Norah O'Donnell, and Gayle King, which has won praise from critics.
Today trailed GMA by more than 200,000 in the 25–54 demo, but has often been virtually tied or slightly ahead among that coveted group over the last two months.
In its drive to close the gap, Today is working to forge a new identity under a hands-on executive producer, Don Nash. Lauer makes clear that he was not happy with the content of the program as recently as six months ago.
"The show got a little dour and depressing and dark," he says.
What he means is that Today, like GMA, regularly covered lurid crimes and celebrity scandals, especially at 7:30, after the first half hour of news.
Lauer recalls picking up his kids from school one Friday afternoon and having a mother ask him how an interview went that morning. She wanted to watch, but when a story about a brutal murder came on, the woman said, "I had to turn it off because I didn't want my kids to see it."
Lauer argued against those stories, feeling that they left him with little to say afterward beyond an expression of sympathy for the victims. "I'll be perfectly blunt: I was losing a lot of those battles," he tells me. "We were driving a certain kind of viewer away."
The debates over the degree of tabloid fare took place day after day. Some executives "felt those things rated well," Lauer says. "Even if they popped in the ratings in the short term, they did some damage in terms of trust with our viewers. We got drunk on it."
For Lauer, a crystallizing moment occurred as Today enjoyed its usual ratings bump during the London Olympics. He wrote Nash a note saying that viewers were less interested in the individual sports than in wanting to root for someone and feel patriotic.
Now, Lauer tells me, "we want people to feel good about a portion of their morning, and we got away from that."
"It's a much more positive show, a more uplifting show. Much of the darkness is gone, by design." While Today will always cover hard-news developments, however tragic, says Lauer, "we're choosing more inspiring stories."
These days, the second half hour includes everything from a probe of defective used cars to surfers riding ever-bigger waves, from a Lauer chat with Martha Stewart about her legal dispute with retailers to pumping up the Bible series on the NBC-owned History Channel. The only piece about an attempted murder last week was on the fuss over a viral video that staged such an incident.
But viewers watch morning television for more than story selection. They come to feel attached to the ensemble that is joining them at the breakfast hour. And every time the familiar Today theme song plays, they see that the woman who was part of the program for 15 years—as a globe-trotting correspondent, as news anchor, and eventually as co-host—is no longer sitting to Lauer's right.
Lauer learned early last year that Curry was hanging by a thread, because her status loomed as a factor in his own decision on whether to stay with the program.
He was well treated, the money was great, but the early-morning grind was wearing on him. Perhaps it was time to move on. Lauer got permission during a contractual window to talk to ABC, CBS, and HBO.
Senior NBC executives were operating under the assumption that Lauer would probably quit. This was not long after Meredith Vieira had left the co-host's job six months early, and Curry—who had been contractually guaranteed Vieira's job—was about to be eased out. They were, to say the least, rather nervous.
In his discussions with the NBC brass, Lauer was informed that management had all but finalized a decision to replace Curry, regardless of whether he stayed on. He told Capus that it was a terrible idea to risk losing both hosts and destabilize the show.
Lauer's message was that NBC was stuck with management's decision to promote Curry, and that they could produce their way around her strengths and weaknesses. But he was told the decision was above his pay grade.
In the end, Lauer could not leave the program that had boosted him to media stardom. In April, he signed a multiyear deal that guaranteed him around $20 million a year. "You're going to be sticking around with us," Curry told him on the air. The question was how much longer she would be.
Lauer had privately acknowledged the obvious, that there were problems with his on-air partner. They simply lacked the chemistry that he had enjoyed with Couric and Vieira. He tried hard to make the morning banter work with Curry, to the point that some colleagues told him to stop faking it.
As the network edged closer to moving against Curry, Lauer grew concerned about the potential fallout. He delivered a blunt message at a meeting with Capus, Jim Bell, then Today's executive producer, and Burke, the Comcast executive who had taken over NBC when his company bought the network. This, he said, was "a disaster waiting to happen."
Capus and Lauer maintained that they needed to take their time and make sure Curry was comfortable with the change. Others in the room were unmoved. This will be a one-week story, they said, and quickly blow over.
Lauer insisted that the story would go on and on. An ugly divorce would rupture the camaraderie they had presented to the country each morning.
But the network bosses had a plan. We'll present it as Ann's idea, they said. She wants to return to her first love, which is reporting. The meeting broke up without a final decision.
The executives felt they had little choice. They were sitting on research showing that viewers had not warmed to Curry and felt she had no rapport with Lauer. They feared a downward slide if they kept her in the chair.
Lauer and Curry had a candid talk over lunch at the Four Seasons. He acknowledged she hadn't been his first choice for co-host, but said that was in the past. Curry said that both Lauer and the show would take a hit if she was thrown overboard, and he agreed. Lauer suggested that she try to get a meeting with Burke and resolve the situation. He also advised Curry, who didn't employ an agent, to hire one quickly.
At a second meeting with the NBC executives, Lauer conveyed that Curry was unhappy with the situation. He and Capus argued again for slowing down the process, rather than rushing to dump Curry before NBC's coverage of the London Olympics got under way. But Bell, who was running both Today and the Olympics coverage—and is now in charge of future Olympics—pushed to wrap things up before the summer games began. Bell's argument was that Curry was a known quantity and the situation wasn't going to get better, no matter how long they waited.
Bell is a tall and imposing former college football player, but as the show's producer he didn't have the clout to override the star anchor and news-division chief. Steve Burke did, and he concluded that the time had come.
By now Curry had retained Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, who began negotiating a new deal for her. Capus devised a plan for Curry to be slowly phased out and Guthrie slowly phased in, with both women appearing at the Olympics. But top management rejected the proposal. GMA had snapped the Today ratings streak a couple of times in April, and the NBC bosses were under tremendous pressure to right the ship.
In June, with Curry feeling hurt by leaked reports that she might be replaced, things came to a head. It was a painful moment for her; co-hosting Today had always been Curry's dream job.
Capus and Bell had been talking to her about a new role—anchor-at-large and roving correspondent—that would still pay her millions of dollars. The pitch was that she was happiest when visiting, say, a Syrian refugee camp and looked miserable baking a cake with Martha Stewart. Curry finally agreed to the change.
On the morning of June 28, everything was carefully choreographed for Curry's announcement. She showed her script to Capus 45 minutes before the segment. What she would say, and what Lauer and Al Roker and Natalie Morales would say in response, had been planned in advance.
But when the moment came for Curry to tell viewers she was leaving after just one year in the chair, her voice was strained and breaking. She started wiping away tears.
"Matt and I and everyone who sits on this couch, we often call ourselves a family," Curry began. Her demeanor made clear how unhappy she was. "For all of you who saw me as a groundbreaker, I'm sorry I couldn't carry the ball over the finish line, but man, I did try."
Lauer offered some words of praise, but when he leaned over to kiss her, Curry did not turn and he wound up awkwardly bussing the side of her hair. The segment had a funereal air.
No one remembered Curry's words, which were overwhelmed by her crying. Some senior NBC executives were furious, feeling that Curry had exacerbated an admittedly bad situation.
Curry made no secret of her distress. She told USA Today that she was "deeply sad" at the turn of events and that she should have been given more time to prove herself.
People sympathetic to Curry say she simply lost control of her emotions. But there is lingering resentment in the executive suites at 30 Rock, although that view is not unanimous. "The notion that Ann somehow exacerbated the situation last summer truly isn't accurate and isn't the belief of the people at NBC News," a top official says.
Curry had been right about one thing: many viewers blamed Lauer for the breakup. As Capus later told him, "You're taking the hit over something that you opposed."
People would stop Lauer on the street and complain about Curry's banishment. While Lauer was riding in a London elevator at the Olympics, an American woman got on, saw him and said: "I hate what you've done. I will never watch you again." Such incidents left him shaken.
All but lost in the acrimony was NBC's low-key announcement of Curry's replacement. Guthrie is a talented lawyer who had co-hosted an MSNBC talk show with Chuck Todd. But NBC never gave Guthrie a proper launch, mindful of the 1990 debacle when viewers blamed Deborah Norville for pushing out the older but beloved Jane Pauley.
Lauer says Guthrie's introduction had to be "subtle" because "we were in an awkward time. It was unfortunate for Savannah because she got the job of a lifetime under unusual circumstances through no fault of her own."
These days he is trying to keep things in perspective, even taking a vacation with his wife and three kids in the middle of the February sweeps. Lauer recalls how he grew up watching Today and how his grandmother brought him to the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center, where he could not imagine working.
When Lauer was in his 20s, he was canceled or fired from talk shows four times in a row, in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Boston. He thought about getting out of the business, but decided to stick it out.
In reflecting on the Today stories he most enjoys, Lauer delights in the tale of Adam Greenberg, a baseball player who was hit in the head on the first pitch of his first appearance in 2005 and never returned. After an online petition last year, the Florida Marlins gave him one at-bat, and while Greenberg struck out on three pitches, he was happy when Lauer interviewed him the next day.
"It was about getting back up when you're knocked down," says Lauer, who is clearly ready for more at-bats.


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Human factors workshops
Understanding the human factors that influence decision making and performance in emergency services contexts - joint Bushfire CRC and AFAC workshops are an opportunity to build capacity within agencies.
In seeking to improve operational decision making and performance there is a growing awareness in the emergency services sector of the need to take 'human factors' into account. Human Factors is a body of knowledge about human abilities, human limitations, and other human characteristics that are relevant to work and its design.
Research in this area is aimed at applying human factors knowledge to the design of tasks, jobs, tools, technologies and systems, to help achieve to achieve safe, effective and efficient operations.
The Bushfire CRC has had a dedicated group of researchers who have undertaken human factors research in fire management and their research has delivered important outcomes for the industry. Many agencies have been exploring the application of 'human factors' in their business for some years. It is also expected that the next edition of the Australasian Inter‐service Incident Management System (AIIMS) manual and training resources will have additional emphasis on human factors.
Workshops ‐ Introduction to Human Factors
Two half‐day introductory workshops are offered at no charge to all jurisdictions within Australasia. A minimum of 15 participants (and a maximum of 30) is required. Interested agencies can contact the Research Utilisation Manager, Dr Noreen Krusel on email@example.com to arrange. These workshops are substantially subsidised for Bushfire CRC member agencies.
For more information see the attached flyer.
News from the Event
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Research in the News: International team reconstructs the ancestor of placental mammals
The common ancestor of more than 5,000 contemporary placental mammals such as rats, whales, and humans was a small, insect-eating animal that appeared after the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, an international team of researchers report in the Feb. 8 issue of the journal Science.
Our evolutionary ancestor appeared about 36 million years more recently than molecular data had predicted, according to the analysis of more than 4,500 anatomical features analyzed by the team of scientists under the National Science Foundation's Assembling the Tree of Life program.
"It would not have been possible to reconstruct the ancestral placental mammal or assess the relationships of extinct mammals without the large anatomical database we compiled in MorphoBank," said Eric Sargis, professor of anthropology at Yale University, curator of mammalogy and vertebrate paleontology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and one of more than 20 scientists to collaborate on the project.
To learn more, read the paper and watch video produced by the American Museum of Natural History.
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Gifts of the Spirit
Among the sure signs of the true church of Christ are the accompanying spiritual gifts. This has always been from the beginning. When the authority of the priesthood has been found on the earth, it is accompanied by the manifestations of spiritual gifts.
During the earthly ministry of the Savior, it is recorded that he "went about all Galilee, … healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." (Matt. 4:23.) "And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all." (Matt. 12:15.) Before the Savior departed from his apostles after his resurrection, "he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:15–18.)
"And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. …
"Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, …
"… and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one." (Acts 5:12, 15–16.)
The apostle Paul said to the Corinthian saints:
"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. …
"Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
"And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
"And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit." (1 Cor. 12:1, 3–8.) And he stated the many gifts of the Spirit.
And unto his church in this dispensation the Savior promised these same gifts. He said:
"Therefore, as I said unto mine apostles I say unto you again, that every soul who believeth on your words; and is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost.
"And these signs shall follow them that believe—
"In my name they shall do many wonderful works;
"In my name they shall cast out devils;
"In my name they shall heal the sick;
"In my name they shall open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf;
"And the tongue of the dumb shall speak." And so on. (D&C 84:64–70.)
I bear my solemn witness that these gifts are with the Church today. The sick are healed, the eyes of the blind are opened, the ears of the deaf are unstopped, the lame are made to walk. The gift of tongues blesses our missionaries and others the world over. The gifts of wisdom and knowledge are evidenced by the leadership of our people everywhere. Devils are cast out, spirits are discerned, the gift of faith is demonstrated on every side. Many mighty miracles give evidence that this is indeed his church, the church of Jesus Christ. All the gifts and powers and blessings that have always identified Christ's church are with the Church today.
As members of the Church, is our faith sufficiently strong? Are we in tune with the Spirit that we might be blessed by these great gifts? Do we believe a miracle can be performed or a blessing given? Do we call upon the priesthood as often as we should to administer to the sick? Do we believe we can be healed? Do we have faith to heal? Is the priesthood always prepared to give a blessing? How strong is your faith?
President George Q. Cannon said:
"I have felt deeply impressed … that the members of our Church do not value as they should the means which God has placed within their reach for the relief and healing of the sick.
"There is too great a disposition, when sickness enters a household, to send for a doctor. …
"Instances are very common among the faithful Saints of the gift of healing being manifested in a very wonderful manner. …
"God has not forgotten His promises, and He has not withdrawn Himself from His people. But the Latter-day Saints should make use of these means more frequently than they do, and put more trust in God and less in man's skill." (Gospel Truths, comp. Jerrald L. Newquist, Deseret Book, 1974, 2:186–87.)
We have been instructed as to the administration of the sick:
"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." (James 5:14–16.)
"And the elders of the church, two or more, shall be called, and shall pray for and lay their hands upon them in my name; and if they die they shall die unto me, and if they live they shall live unto me." (D&C 42:44.)
The accounts of miraculous healings in the Church are numerous. They warm one's soul and give great strength of testimony as to the divinity of this great work. But the Lord has instructed us that we are not to boast of these great blessings. He said, "But a commandment I give unto them, that they shall not boast themselves of these things, neither speak them before the world; for these things are given unto you for your profit and for salvation." (D&C 84:73.)
It was not intended that we make merchandise out of the gifts of God and shout to the world the result of these most wonderful gifts. They are given to us for our salvation, to strengthen our testimony and the testimonies of others as we bear humble witness of them in our meetings, quietly, by the Spirit but not before the world.
"Behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.
"Yea, signs come by faith, not by the will of men, nor as they please, but by the will of God." (D&C 63:9–10.)
Faith to heal the sick is one of the most desirable gifts of the gospel and should be sought after by all Melchizedek Priesthood holders. They should always be ready to exercise this power in behalf of those who need a blessing. They should seek to have and develop the gift of faith, faith to heal and faith to be healed. "And whoso shall ask it in my name in faith," the Lord has said, "they shall cast out devils; they shall heal the sick; they shall cause the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk." (D&C 35:9.)
Administration to the sick should be done at the request of the sick persons or someone close to them who is concerned about them, that it might be done through their faith. The Lord said, "And these things ye shall not do, except it be required of you by them who desire it, that the scriptures might be fulfilled; for ye shall do according to that which is written." (D&C 24:14.)
Both the one receiving the blessing and the one giving it should be in tune with the Spirit through their worthy lives, and then the Lord has promised, "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you." (Moro. 7:26.)
After one has demonstrated his worthiness through good works and manifested his faith through prayer or proper administration to the sick, it must be left in the hands of the Lord those who will be healed and those who will not. We may not always understand why someone is healed and why another for whom we have also exercised great faith is not.
The Lord said that when the elders administer to the sick, if they die, they die unto him, and if they live, they live unto him. He said:
"Thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.
"And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them. …
"And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed." (D&C 42:45–46, 48.)
President Kimball has said:
"If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.
"Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood.
"Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery." (Faith Precedes the Miracle, Deseret Book Co., 1973, pp. 97–98.)
Even though the Lord has prescribed proper procedures in administration to the sick, this does not mean that humble prayers by faithful individuals would not be answered. James has said, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:16.)
The Savior said during his administration on earth that in the last days, men not authorized of God would, in Christ's name, perform wondrous works. This is evidenced by his words:
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
"And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt. 7:22–23.)
He gave the same warning to the Prophet Joseph Smith:
"[Walk] uprightly before me, … that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; … and that ye may not be deceived seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given;
"… they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do." (D&C 46:7–9.)
May we so live that we may always have the companionship of the Holy Spirit and be blessed by these beautiful spiritual gifts that are a part of the gospel, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.


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Show All Answers
The State of Georgia no longer issues burn permits for the outdoor burning of hand piled natural vegetation/yard debris. Residents wishing to burn hand piled natural vegetation may do so without a burn permit from October 1st - April 30th during daylight hours. A summer outdoor burn ban from May 1st - September 30th restricts outdoor burning. It is unlawful to burn man-made material such as household garbage, lumber or plastic. For those residents wishing to burn woods, lands, marshes, cultivated or uncultivated areas you must obtain a permit from the Georgia Forestry Commission per Georgia Code Section 12-6-90. For more information on outdoor burning please visit the Georgia Forestry Commission Website.


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Sunday, February 03, 2008
How to Tackle Acting
It's Super Bowl Sunday. What the hell are you doing here on this blog? The Giants of New York are taking on the presently perfect Patriots of New England! Shouldn't you be in front of your TV, the one with the remote control pliers and the satellite dish antenna that looks suspiciously like a wire hanger, instead of out here with me? Hell, I'm not even here! I'm in front of a T.V. somewhere in the Fortress of OdieTude. I'm probably drunk too.
But since you showed up, I suppose I should keep my end of the bargain.
Joe Namath isn't the only football player to exchange NFL tackles for Hollywood film takes. Here are some people who, before populating the movies you love, pulled tours of duty in the NFL. I might have to temper my usual irreverence because
a) These people are still alive
b) These people are a helluva lot bigger than me.
By the distributive property, a + b = c, where c = Odienator twisted into the shape of a pretzel. I can't be salted, with my blood pressure and all, so expect all sunshine and flowers below.
Jim Brown: All American
Richard Pryor once called Jim Brown the baddest man alive. "Fire got on Jim Brown one time," told Richard, "and he said hey! Don't do that." At Browns Stadium in Cleveland during his nine year tenure, Brown lived up to Pryor's rhetoric. The former fullback once held the record for the fastest player to reach 100 touchdowns, a record he held until 2006. Brown also holds the record for most rushing touchdowns, most career rushing yards, and is the only rusher to have a 100 yard average per game. He is a member not only of the NFL Hall of Fame but of the Lacrosse Hall of fame as well. I didn't even know bruvas played lacrosse!
Brown's post-football record in Hollywood is a little more spotty. He appeared in The Dirty Dozen, where he was a little less unstoppable. He boned Myra Breckinridge in 100 Rifles, played a killer game show worker in The Running Man, saved the world from little green men in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, and scared the shit out of Harvey Keitel in James Toback's Fingers. Speaking of scaring the shit out of White guys, Brown also posed full frontal nude for Playgirl in 1974. If you were expecting a link to those pictures, remember what the guys at the end of the Hey Love commercial advised you to do.
Perhaps Brown's most famous roles came in movies he made with the following two men.
Fred "The Hammer" Williamson
Had the Super Bowl been invented during Brown's tenure, I'm sure he would have played in one. Fred Williamson played in the first Super Bowl as a Kansas City Chiefs defense player. Prior to that, he was an Oakland Raider and a Pittsburgh Steeler. In Hollywood, he would also play raiders, stealers and chiefs. He would also direct several films, including a weird one called Adios Amigo starring Richard Pryor.
Williamson didn't get his ring, but he did get to co-star with Jim Brown on several occasions, most notably in the 1974 classic Three the Hard Way. In that film, it's up to Brown, Williamson and kung-fu master Jim Kelly to stop The Man from poisoning the city water with a toxin that only kills Black people. Three The Hard Way is most notable for two things:
1. Kelly dispensing an ass kicking to a corrupt cop. "You set me up!"
2. How chopped up it was when you saw it a bazillion times on the same TV you should be watching the Super Bowl on.
Apparently, the VHS version is similarly bowdlerized, so if you had the privilege, as I once had, to see it in the theater, you're a very lucky person.
Bernie Casey
Casey played for my beloved San Francisco 49ers from 1961 to 1966, and with the Los Angeles Rams from 1967-1968. His football career wasn't as storybook as the others, but his movie career is as memorable. With Laurence Fishburne, he appeared in Cornbread, Earl and Me. For his effort, his cop character got the business end of a bottle someplace REEEEAL personal. Casey also appeared in one of the greatest tv movies ever, Brian's Song, where he played a Chicago Bear alongside Billy Dee and James Caan. With Jim Brown, he parodied himself in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, a movie you just know is going to show up here at some point during Black History Mumf.
O.J. Simpson
I ain't even going here, but I still have to mention that he did it too.
Your Homework Assignment:
Get out of here and watch the damn game.
After it's over, go look up the distributive property and see why my usage above is wrong. (I have a computer science degree, folks, so I know math. I'm just checking to see if you're paying attention.)
4 comments:
- Boone said...
Odie, I came to blaxploitation way late, on VHS in the '80s. The very first blaxploitflick I watched in full was one of the weirdest,
The Black Six, starring six NFL pros as a hippie biker gang. As far as acting goes, they weren't tackling shit. Not even Mean Joe Green.
An Odienator scene-by-scene review of that one might put me in the hospital. - 2/3/08, 6:18 PM
- brandon said...
I'm really enjoying this "takeover"!
Have you seen 'Brotherhood of Death'? It starred a few Baltimore Colts and Washington Redskins as Vietnam vets who come back and basically kick a bunch of KKK guys' asses that terrorize their town. It's worth checking out. - 2/4/08, 7:19 PM
- odienator said...
Thanks, Brandon!
I've seen that movie, believe it or not. I am pretty sure it was on cable.
Boone, I ain't nevuh HEARRRRRD of no The Black Six!
I should have mentioned Mean Joe Greene's famous Coke commercial, where he throws his sweaty jersey at the kid who hands him the Coke. They even made a damn tv movie out of it. - 2/4/08, 9:27 PM
- brandon said...
Cool! It's half-good and half not good...dunno how well you recall it, but there's some good naturalistic acting, and there's a really genius cut to them in Vietnam. They like, discuss it as a possibility and then there's this jarring cut right to 'Nam stock footage.
'The Black Six' is on a discount DVD with 'Black Gestapo' that can sometimes be found for like, 5.99 in some places- be on the look-out for it. - 2/5/08, 12:31 AM


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This article is more than 1 year old
Ubuntu man responds to GNOME 'coattail' claims
Shuttleworth defines Canonical's mission
Ubuntu creator Mark Shuttleworth has defended Canonical's lack of participation in GNOME against accusations of riding on the coattails of the project's number-one maintainer, Red Hat.
After giving it some thought, Shuttleworth concluded that open-source is bigger than any single project and that Canonical's mission is adding new tools and components to the ecosystem at large, rather than focusing on aspects that already work.
"I see that as an invigorating contribution to the broader open source ecosystem, and I hear from many people that they perceive it the same way," Shuttleworth wrote of Canonical's approach.
"Those who say 'but Canonical doesn't do X' may be right, but that misses all the things we do, which weren't on the map beforehand."
Shuttleworth gave his thoughts in response to criticism of Canonical following Neary Consulting's GNOME Census in July that showed Canonical ranks sixteenth in a list of GNOME committers with 1.03 per cent of commits. GNOME is Ubuntu's default desktop.
Red Hat is the single biggest corporate contributor with 16.30 per cent, according to Neary, with Novell second on 10.44 per cent.
The census incensed fans of Red Hat and Canonical.
Former Red Hat senior architect and Fedora Project chair Greg DeKoenigsberg responded to the findings by accusing Ubuntu of riding on Red Hat's coattails form the kernel to the interface. Others defended Canonical pointing to its smaller size and the fact the company's pretty much bankrolled by Shuttleworth.
Finally speaking out, Shuttleworth said he'd been thinking about the nature of Canonical and Ubuntu's contributions. It comes down to helping refine Linux to make it easier for end-users and giving them an alternative to Windows, while also creating commercial opportunities for partners.
The goal for both Canonical and Ubuntu was not simply to write more code, to achieve this. Most of the desktop pieces were in place. They just weren't delivered in a way that would take it beyond the server, or to the general public.
The decision to focus on what's new with Ubuntu and not necessarily throw more into GNOME comes down to timing: the fact GNOME along with may other Linux staples such as KDE, the kernel, X, libc and gcc were already fully formed when Ubuntu arrived.
Where they had bugs and shortcomings, the projects already had roadmaps in place to address them, Shuttleworth wrote.
"There was something missing: sometimes it got articulated as 'marketing', sometimes as 'end-user focus', I remember thinking 'that's what I could bring," he continued.
"So Ubuntu, and Canonical, have quite explicitly NOT put effort into things which are obviously working quite well, instead, we've tried to focus on new ideas and new tools and new components.
This is the second time in a year Shuttleworth's moved to sooth a community dispute involving Canonical and Ubuntu. In August last year, Shuttleworth promised more Canonical developers on Debian after members of the Debian community objected to a proposed freeze of the project to help synchronize code and features with new versions of Ubuntu. ®


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Andrew Marchand, ESPN New York:
The Yankees' season is over. It ends in utter embarrassment. Forget about winning a game in this series, they never held a lead in the ALCS.George A. King III, Post:
Ninety-five wins, an AL East title and an ALDS victory never looked this empty.
Not when all of that is followed by getting swept by the Tigers in four games of the ALCS.
Despite talk of how they would bravely fight their way out of a very deep ditch Thursday, the Yankees went quietly into the off-season with an 8-1 beating ...
The last time the Yankees were swept in a four-game series was by the Reds in the 1976 World Series. ...
Sabathia, who the Yankees firmly believed would get them to a Game 5 today, gave up six runs (five earned) and 11 hits (two homers) in 3.2 innings. ... The 3.2 innings were his shortest stint of the season. ...
[Alex] Rodriguez went 0-for-2 and finished the post-season 3-for-25 (.120).
Robinson Cano went 0-for-4 and ended on a dreadful 1-for-34 slide. For the postseason Cano batted a hard-to-believe .075 (3-for-40). ...
Eric Chavez ... finished the post-season hitless in 16 at-bats and struck out in half of them. ...
Nick Swisher went 1-for-4 and completed a fourth straight awful postseason hitting .167 (5-for-30).
And the Yankees scored six runs in four games. ...
Runs Scored:
000 000 004 000
000 000 000
000 000 001
000 001 000
John Harper, Daily News:
[One Yankee] player privately made a far more indicting observation: that the ballclub was affected by the hostility from the fans at Yankee Stadium last weekend.
"I really think the booing spooked a lot of guys," the player said. "A lot of guys hadn't been booed before, and they couldn't believe how nasty it got in the stands."
Obviously Nick Swisher admitted to being sensitive to such treatment after Game 2, but the player said Swisher was far from alone in his reaction.
"A lot of guys were talking about it in the clubhouse," he said. "I was surprised by how much it bothered them. I really don't think they ever recovered."
If that's true, well, so much for the big, bad Yankees.
Joel Sherman, Post:
There is only wreckage now, the detritus of having every weakness exposed, of falling apart so completely as to make it difficult to see the outline of a major league team, much less the New York Yankees.Mark Feinsand, Daily News:
Over the coming days and weeks, Yankees management must assess the meaning of that wreckage, of a humiliating ALCS sweep by the Tigers. ...
The season ends, the huge questions are just beginning.
Different October, same result.Bryan Hoch, MLB.com:
The Yankees were ousted from the postseason by the Tigers for the second straight fall and the third time since 2006, falling 8-1 in Game 4 Thursday to complete an embarrassing four-game American League Championship Series sweep.
CC Sabathia was torched for six runs in 3.2 innings, recording the same number of outs - 11 - as hits allowed. His counterpart, Max Scherzer, no-hit the Yankees through five innings, then handed it off to Detroit's bullpen with two out in the sixth as the Tigers wrapped up their 11th AL pennant.
The offense completed one of the most anemic postseasons in history ...
The Yankees finished the series hitting .157, a new franchise record for futility that had stood since 1963, when the Bombers hit .171 in their World Series loss to the Dodgers. The Yankees hit .187 for the entire postseason, wasting a bevy of solid pitching performances.
The Yankees never held a lead during the four-game sweep, scoring five runs overall. They only scored in three of 39 innings during the ALCS ...
Curtis Granderson went 3-for-30 (.100) with 16 strikeouts ...
The Yankees' ice cold autumn will now give way to an uncertain winter, as their season concluded on Thursday with an 8-1 loss to the Tigers in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series at Comerica Park. ...
The positions of manager Joe Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman appear to be secure, but hitting coach Kevin Long will be asked to answer for an anemic offense that hung zeros on the scoreboard in 36 of 39 innings during the ALCS.
New York never held a lead in the series and pushed runs across in just two ALCS frames -- the ninth innings of Games 1 and 3 -- before Nick Swisher doubled home Eduardo Nunez in the sixth inning on Thursday, breaking up Scherzer's shutout bid.
Daily News: "Yankees deny talking to Marlins about A-Rod"
Post: "Signs point to a costly divorce between A-Rod and Yankees"
Daily News: "Lupica: A-Rod continues to be damned Yankee"
Daily News: "The Donald takes more rips at A-Rod"


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Over the past decade, Christine Mahoney and a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland have been working to stop the threat of terrorist-based attacks in the form of explosives or explosive-based devices, by providing a sound measurement and standard infrastructure.
"Our program encompasses many different aspects of explosives research, from development of measurement standards for trace explosives detection at airports, to the development and application of new metrology for the direct characterization and identification of these explosives," says Mahoney, who presented her work Thursday (Oct. 21) in a talk, "Characterization of Composition C4 Explosives using Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Sepctrometry (ToF-SIMS) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)," at the AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition in Albuquerque, NM.
One measurement technique, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is proving to be critical for identifying and differentiating the various components of explosives. ToF-SIMS is a mass spectrometric-based imaging technique that is able to detect components such as plasticizers, binders, oils, and the explosives themselves. It can potentially be used to differentiate between explosive manufacturers and to reveal an explosive material's country of origin.
Unlike traditional analytical techniques such as gas and liquid chromatography, which can provide a partial analysis of extracted samples, ToF-SIMS and other mass spectrometric imaging techniques allow for the simultaneous and direct characterization of all the components in explosives like C4, including the explosive active components, additives, binders, and contaminants. ToF-SIMS provides rapid identification of both organic and inorganic constituents and their characteristic isotopic abundances with excellent sensitivity. Most importantly, it is well-suited for direct analysis of small explosive particulates collected directly in the field and sent back to the lab.
According to Mahoney, the laboratory technique is sensitive enough to detect bits of explosive material scattered in a fingerprint, making it a potentially powerful forensic tool. "It's a more thorough way of looking at the material," says Mahoney. "We look at everything all at once."
Using ToF-SIMS in combination with other techniques that visualize the crystal structure of the samples, Mahoney identified and differentiated between commercial C4, military C4 from the United States, and C4 from the U.K.
The ultimate goal of the project, though, is not to develop ToF-SIMS as a portable technology to use in the field. Rather, Mahoney is creating a library of precise, standardized reference samples that could be used to test, calibrate, and optimize new technologies for detecting explosives in the field.
"We can really nail down the differences in the chemistries between different kinds of explosives," Mahoney says.
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No, I have not forgotten that I am a blogger. No, I have not been ill nor have I fallen off the earth. I have been helping to organize two seminars (one in July, one in August) and have been overwhelmed with the necessary obligations. I have also had to make some other writing deadlines for commitments to paying publications (in the vernacular of the folk musicians: "Never give up a paying gig!"). But I have a little time between now and when I head to Illinois for the FGS conference in Springfield (see my post on their blog). I am excited to again represent the Genealogical Speakers Guild at that venue. So, you can see, my life is not static; nor am I bored (what would that be like, I wonder?).
In answer to the oft-asked question: no, I have not yet recorded my census song. Perhaps when I return from Springfield I will have a chance to do that. It is not from lack of want, but lack of time.
I have been collecting some interesting stories to put into posts that will hopefully be put up here in the near future (waiting for a photo from one). And I have some NARA film stories to post as well. So do stay tuned and know that more is forthcoming . . . possibly later today! Gotta get the ducks in a row and quacking in 4-part harmony.
Stay in tune (or stay tuned . . .)
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Combining functional safety and cyber security
Both have to work for a plant to be truly safe. How can we learn and use the best from each?
As business needs have evolved, demand for merging real-time data from the process control systems with business data, such as production planning, yields, quality, energy consumption, and emissions, has grown. This has created the need to integrate both corporate network domains and process control domains, resulting in more dynamic business operations and enabling asset owners to adjust output both to meet demand and to capitalize on market change.
If your process control network is still separate from your corporate network and you expect it to stay that way, then risk of cross-contamination is relatively low. (If you believe your networks are still separated, you might want to check that. There are likely many more places where they're connected than you realize.) But if you, like many of your colleagues, are modernizing your plant to achieve greater connectivity between the corporate and process control domains, then this call for greater collaboration between the systems that protect the process control and engineering domains and those that protect the business domains and IT infrastructure should be of great interest to you.
Converging protection models
For years, the IT industry has been meticulous in carrying out risk and threat assessments from inception to design to deployment and finally to implementation of IT networks. These assessments have been carried out in accordance with a plethora of standards, including BS7799, BS17799, ISO27001-27005, and ISA99, just to name a few.
In parallel, manufacturers such as oil, gas, and petrochemical producers have been carrying out similar activities to identify and evaluate potential risks to personnel, equipment, and the environment. These include structured and systematic safety, risk, and threat assessments; hazard and operability (HAZOP) analysis; layer of protection analysis (LOPA); safety integrity level (SIL) determination and validation; and others. These functional safety activities are conducted in accordance with their pertinent industry standards such as IEC61511, ANSI/ISA S84.00.001, and so on.
Combining forces
As today's cyber threats become increasingly malicious with sights set on automation systems, the continued evolution of the threats suggests that we battle them with the combined force of both the IT cyber security approach and engineering functional safety approach.
It is no longer adequate to consider that each possible hazard could come just from equipment failures, fires, floods, or other events within a plant facility. It is now possible that hazards can be initiated from outside of the plant, some of which would never be considered if viewed from just an engineering perspective. Even if they have been considered, the analysis might already be out of date because the threat to any system is not a constant. It is a continuous evolution.
The functional safety assessments typically focus on the failure of a piece of equipment, addressing the probability of failure, the potential consequences, and its impact on safety, the environment, and the business. The IT assessments are very similar, but the consequences of a system being compromised would more likely be the massive economical impact of a production interruption, rather than loss of life.
Following corporate IT practices, tools have been created for use on process control engineering networks that scan the system for details such as asset identification, protocols in use, operating system status, version levels, patch levels, and service pack installation. If not applied with cyber security concerns in mind, however, these same tools, by the nature of the network design, might provide potential hackers with intelligence that was not previously accessible to them. For this reason a combination of skill-sets or departments should be employed in all aspects of safety from the field device to the corporate firewall that connects to the Internet.
Assessing vulnerability
Assessments should be carried out on the use of protocols down to the field device level. Which are vulnerable to attacks over an IP (Internet protocol) network? Assessment should continue to the level at which field device output is converted for compatibility with the DCS. A multi-skilled assessment team must determine, for example, whether a compromised field device can effectively control or interrupt operations. Making such determinations requires an understanding of many different technologies, including the protocols, the network on which they reside, the switches, the cable traces, and the power supply.
If a network switch connecting field infrastructure to the process control domain were to lose power or be otherwise compromised, for example, what might the consequence be? Redundancy is not always the answer, since the design could make redundant switches available to a virus attacking one switch. What if a hacker ports forward or otherwise redirects process control commands from one network port/route to another? This is a common attack that is used to exploit data from switches, but what if this attacker could re-route command and control data from one port or network to another?
After assessing field protocols, network components, and ports, the next in line would be the process control domain (PCD) or DCS. The days of DCS network infrastructures being managed solely by the instrumentation and controls engineers are waning fast. These networks are now subject to malware, viruses, and common trends through threat analysis. Therefore, the IT department usually has the necessary skill-set and knowledge to ascertain the damage that can be done to the network should miscreant programs enter. Of course, the engineering department still has to assess the damage caused to the production process, should an IT-based attack take down a particular device!
Further, the change in the process control domain is traditionally slow compared with that of a traditional IT system. IT systems have been responding to outside interference since the 1970s and have evolved with a tactical mentality in their approach to security, whereas process control has taken a more strategic approach. Only now are they becoming more tactical, making it essential that both IT and engineering skills and practices be combined in the assessment of today's plant risk.
The human factor
If we look at the rise in recent attacks, the Stuxnet virus is probably the most well known due to the surrounding publicity, in-depth reporting, and the fact that it specifically targeted process automation systems. This threat was created outside the plant and designed to cause disruption to the routine running of a process or processes. The virus was designed with the specific knowledge of the protocols used on the process control network, enabling it to wreak havoc. It would be interesting to know if any pre-HAZOP or risk and threat assessment considered this type of attack when the systems were designed and implemented.
But Stuxnet wasn't just about technology. It also involved human weakness and error. The introduction of the virus was apparently via a USB device that was left where employees would find it. Did the persons finding such a device consider the risk, impact, and consequence of using the device in the process control domain? Probably they did not.
So which department's safety, security, risk, and threat assessment should be responsible for addressing this type of threat? The answer should be both!
In retrospect it is easy to see that from an IT perspective, better management of the USB ports would have helped. If employees followed policies and procedures, assuming they were in place and being enforced, they would not have introduced the virus into the process control domain. Many IT departments now provide employees with authorized USB devices to prevent such incidents from arising and to keep employees from using their own devices.
Another recent attack, this one by Shamoon malware, consisted of three elements: reporting; overwriting drivers, programs, or libraries; and, the most damaging, the function that overwrote the master boot record and then instructed the machine to reboot, rendering it useless.
Had cyber security been considered during the functional safety assessment, then the consequences and impact might have been assessed and understood, driving the relevant risk reduction measures to be implemented. These could have included disabling USB ports, ensuring that policies and procedures are implemented, training personnel on the risks of using rogue USB devices, and so on.
Integrating practices and procedures
Just having IT and engineering groups in communication is not enough. Effective collaboration requires a close analysis of the practices and procedures for both departments to see if there are any contradictions. Synergy is good, but any contradictions could be a potential weakness in your system.
The time has come for us to combine the best of the IT world and the functional safety world. The next time that a HAZOP is performed, consider not just the process hazards, but also the IT hazards, consequences, and impact. The sooner we can eradicate the traditional divide between the safety and cyber security protection functions, the better we will all be, both from a welfare and financial perspective. And the best way to do that is to understand the best practices of both worlds, learn from them, and apply the knowledge together.
Gary Williams, MSc, ITSEC, is a control and safety product manager for Invensys Operations Management. Steve J. Elliott is the Triconex product director for Invensys Operations Management.
Key concepts:
- While the safety systems of a plant may be designed to protect against human or technical failures, they may not consider the effects of a deliberate cyber attack from the outside.
- Your process safety group can and probably should work with your IT security group as the two systems need to work hand-in-hand to protect from traditional safety threats and cyber threats.
For more information, visit: https://iom.invensys.com
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text: iMac Retina 4K display 21.5-inch (diagonal) Retina 4K display with IPS technology; 4096-by-2304 resolution with support for millions of colors Every millimeter of the Retina display was designed, engineered, and built to the most exacting standards. Something that 14.7 million pixels makes exceedingly clear. As does a 1.4 mm thin display panel designed around the human eye — so every interaction feels as natural as can be. It's that attention to detail that inspired the all-new 21.5‑inch iMac with Retina 4K display. And just like the Retina 5K display, it delivers a larger color palette with more accuracy. With three-stream 802.11ac technology, iMac takes desktop Wi-Fi to unprecedented speeds. Simply connect to an 802.11ac base station — such as AirPort Extreme or AirPort Time Capsule — and reach data rates of up to 1.3 Gbps.3 That's triple the previous 802.11n standard. You also get double the channel bandwidth, with 80MHz-wide channels providing more room for more data to flow faster than ever. Making powerful things simple requires some seriously advanced technologies. OS X is loaded with them. It's built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability and industry-leading support for Internet standards. OS X takes full advantage of the multicore Intel processors and fast flash storage in your Mac to make quick work of any task. And the incredible graphics capabilities in OS X supply applications like Final Cut Pro with impressive power. Every Mac comes with a collection of great apps for things you do every day, like Safari for surfing the web, Photos for managing your photos and videos, Pages for creating documents, Numbers for making spreadsheets, and Keynote for preparing presentations. There are apps for sending email and text messages, taking notes, and staying up to date with your contacts and calendar. It even comes with the Mac App Store for finding new apps. Your Mac is more than fully featured, it's fully loaded. Magic Keyboard The redesigned Magic Keyboard comes standard with your iMac. It's wireless and rechargeable (so you won't be replacing batteries), with an ultracompact, edge-to-edge design that wastes no surface space. It has an improved scissor mechanism, optimized key travel, and a lower profile that increase control and comfort. And it pairs immediately with your iMac right out of the box. Magic Mouse 2 The new design of Magic Mouse 2 lets it glide more smoothly across your desk. And since it supports Multi-Touch, you can use simple gestures on its surface to do things such as swipe between web pages and scroll through documents. So if you prefer to use a wireless mouse but want some of the benefits of Multi-Touch, Magic Mouse 2 is a great choice. Magic Trackpad 2 If you prefer using a trackpad, Magic Trackpad 2 gives you the full range of Multi-Touch gestures and introduces Force Touch to the desktop. Sensors underneath the trackpad surface detect subtle differences in the amount of pressure you apply, bringing more functionality to your fingertips and enabling a deeper connection to your content. This new design, along with a lower profile, makes it even more comfortable to use. Height: 17.7 inches (45.0 cm) Width: 20.8 inches (52.8 cm) Stand depth: 6.9 inches (17.5 cm) Weight: 12.5 pounds (5.68 kg)


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Clean Pro Columbus
Best Gutter Cleaning Service in Columbus OH !
Clean Pro Columbus is the leading provider of professional and affordable gutter cleaning in the Columbus OH area. Years of experience, timely service, attention to detail, respect for your property, and concern for safety are the qualities that separate us from the competition. We provide affordable gutter cleaning results near you.
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and the third-most populous state capital. Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County; it also extends into Delaware and Fairfield counties. It is the core city of the Columbus metropolitan area, which encompasses 10 counties in central Ohio. The metropolitan area had a population of 2,138,926 in 2020, making it the largest entirely in Ohio and 32nd-largest in the U.S. Columbus originated as numerous Native American settlements on the banks of the Scioto River.
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Brexit deal 'will cost UK £100 billion per year' by 2030, study suggests
A study carried out by economic think tank the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has suggested that the government's Brexit deal will cost the UK £100 billion per year by 2030.
The study also indicated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be 3.9% lower by 2030.
The NIESR predicts that, by the end of 2030, total trade between the UK and the EU will fall by 46%; the decline in GDP will cost each UK citizen £1,090; foreign direct investment will fall by 21%; and tax revenue will fall by between 1.5% and 2%.
Commenting on the study, Garry Young, Director of Macromodelling and Forecasting at the NIESR, said: 'Leaving the EU will make it more costly for the UK to trade with a large market on our doorstep, and inevitably will have economic costs.'
Meanwhile, a separate study carried out by the London School of Economics, King's College London and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has suggested that the deal could leave the UK economy 'as much as 5.5% smaller' in a decade's time.
Responding to the studies, a government spokesperson stated: 'This deal will protect jobs and our economy, while respecting the result of the referendum.
'It delivers an economic partnership with the EU closer than any other country enjoys, is good for business and is in our national interest.'


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30 August 2008 - The second edition of the annual Retreat convened by the United Nations Secretary-General took place in Torino, Italy, on 29 and 30 August 2008. The Retreat provides an opportunity for top UN officials to exchange ideas and reflect on how best the Organization can tackle current challenges and discharge its high profile responsibilities more effectively. The annual event has been organized as a joint effort between UNITAR, the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC), and the Department of Management in the UN Secretariat.
The Secretary-General, Mr. BAN Ki-moon, placed the 2008 Retreat under the operational motto "Building a stronger UN for a better world" and called for a more modern and flexible UN. The Retreat gathered about sixty Under-Secretary-Generals and Assistant Secretary-Generals; they addressed ways to improve the effectiveness of the Organization to protect global goods and to strengthen its accountability. Both achievements and bottlenecks were analyzed with the aim to better equip the Organization to face the challenges ahead, in particular in the areas of climate change, human rights, peace and security, the global food crisis and staff security.
For the first time, the Retreat featured a swearing-in ceremony for newly appointed senior officials, including the new High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navanethem Pillay.