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By Anna Schecter NBC's Rock Center
Eighteen years after the Oklahoma City bombing, a fund set up to help the injured and the families of those killed still has $10 million dollars in the coffers. Meanwhile victims say they've been denied aid for years. Rock Center's Harry Smith reports. (View a video of this story here.)
A group of survivors and relatives of those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing are outraged that there is $10 million sitting in a disaster relief fund designed to help them. Meanwhile they say they've been denied help for years.
"They tell us that there are all these restrictions," said Deloris Watson, whose grandson, P.J. Allen, was severely injured in the April 1995 explosion.
Watson said she was led to believe the fund was depleted because it has been so difficult over the past 18 years to get financial aid.
A year after the bombing, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation was entrusted with $14.5 million in donated money from sympathetic individuals and religious groups around the world. The money was put into a newly established Oklahoma City Disaster Relief Fund. Then-Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating mandated that the fund be used to help with the long-term health care needs of survivors and scholarships for children who lost a parent in the blast.
Watson said the Oklahoma City Community Foundation was helpful at first, but as the years wore on, the caseworkers lost their empathy.
Click here to read a statement from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation
"It's been horrible. It has been absolutely horrible. I try not to reveal that to P.J., the struggle, the attitude, the lack of respect," Watson told NBC News' Harry Smith in an interview that aired on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.
In 2005, then-11-year-old Allen needed major surgery on his trachea. Watson, who became his sole guardian after the bombing, said the Oklahoma City Community Foundation refused to pay for the surgery directly, instead steering her toward Medicaid to cover the cost.
"Why would the state of Oklahoma have to take money from taxpayers when money's been donated to the bombing fund to meet the medical needs of the children?" asked Watson.
The Ronald McDonald House, the Red Cross and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation all pitched in to cover hospital and living expenses during Allen's recovery and rehabilitation after the surgery.
Watson and a handful of disgruntled survivors and relatives of those killed have formed a group called the Survivor Tree.
One member, Gloria Chipman, lost her husband in the bombing. She said that though her son was given tuition money for college, her daughter was told by the foundation that her grades were not good enough for financial aid.
"You get denied so many times, you finally — you give up," Chipman said.
Falesha Joyner lost an ear in the explosion. She said she just wants contact lenses because without an ear, her glasses will not stay on.
When Tim Hearn's mother was killed in the bombing, he left school to raise his siblings. Last year he was denied tuition money for trade school, he said, because the Oklahoma City Community Foundation told him he was too old.
"They can't put a time limit on when a person wants to go to school. They don't know my situation. You know, if they lost someone through a bombing or anything like that, they'd feel what I'm talking about," said Hearn.
Nancy Anthony, president of the foundation, told NBC News there is another side to the story.
She said the caseworkers who have been helping survivors and the families of victims are caring and do the best they can to help those in need.
"I think everybody has to be realistic about what can be done and how much money can really do," Anthony said, adding that she cannot comment on specific cases because of confidentiality agreements.
The disgruntled survivors all believe the foundation cares more about preserving the fund than providing assistance.
They said they are always pushed to state and federal programs first, resulting in a grind through government bureaucracies that has left them exhausted and angry.
"I think that they felt that we should just move on with our life. And all of us wanted to move on with our lives, but you can't move on with your life when you still have some major health issues hanging over you," said Watson.
Allen said it has been difficult to watch his grandmother struggle through red tape to help him.
Nancy Anthony, president of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, says the fund for the victims of the bombing has helped nearly 1000 people.
"I don't understand why they have made it so difficult for not only myself but other survivors and victims to get the medical stuff they need and surgeries. I just wish my grandma didn't have to go through all that," he said.
Adding insult to injury
Angry survivors were stunned when they recently learned there is still more than $10 million in the fund.
Adding insult to injury, in 2005 the Oklahoma City Community Foundation decided to reallocate nearly $4.5 million away from the survivors to a variety of causes including the Oklahoma City National Memorial, other communities hit by disasters and future research on disaster relief.
"They decided to give $4.4 million away, and we're on welfare…. I can't even imagine that," said Watson.
Anthony said she will revisit the decision to reallocate money to other causes.
"We were thoughtful about it at the point in time when we did it," she said. "We had perhaps a different perspective of it. So that can be revisited."
Anthony underscored that she is fulfilling the mandate the foundation was given when the bombing fund was formed, as well as following the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service.
The Disaster Relief Fund has provided $11.1 million in assistance through 16,256 transactions to 962 people, according to the foundation's website.
Anthony said that she and her colleagues have been good stewards of the money, and that is why, with interest earned on investments, there is $10 million currently in the fund. By preserving the fund, she said the foundation has ensured that there will be money to take care of survivors in need for many years to come.
"This isn't about distributing money. It's about helping people move forward. The money is just another tool. You have to try to say, 'What's your ultimate goal here?' If the goal is to give the money away, well, we could've done that a long time ago. But I don't know that would've been terribly effective," she added.
When asked if the role of the foundation was to be paternalistic, she replied, "I guess that might be what we have done, whether that's good or bad."
Attorney Ken Feinberg, who handled the distribution of billions of dollars for victims of 9/11, the BP oil spill, and the Virginia Tech and Aurora movie theater shootings, said taking a paternalistic approach is the worst thing you can do.
"I'll never forget in Virginia Tech, one family said, 'We're going to take our share of the proceeds, and we're going to celebrate the memory of our lost son by going to Disney World with the whole family.' My view of that is if that's what you want to do with compensation that is due you, do it," Feinberg told NBC News.
Having built his career on overseeing settlement payouts in the wake of massive disasters, he has been criticized by some lawyers and victims for pressuring claimants to give up their right to sue. Over the years he said he has learned a few lessons along the way.
"All the words in the world are no substitute for getting the money out the door…. Do not attempt to restrict how the funds will be used. Do not attempt to educate or explain. 'Here's the money — it's yours,'" he said.
When asked how he would handle the donated funds for the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, Feinberg said he would determine who is eligible to receive money and how much, and distribute it within 60 days without restriction and then close the program.
Anthony said her hands are tied. She said the foundation is bound by IRS restrictions and her duty to the donors.
"We have limitations. We can't always do what [the survivors] want us to do. And I think that there needs to be a little bit of respect for trying to understand what the donors wanted. And I don't think you can say that everyone donated money for a specific thing," she said.
Watson said she is worried about Allen's future health care needs. He will likely need a lung transplant, and she does not want him to have to fight as hard as she has to get the aid he will need.
"I don't want him to have to go through what I had to go through from him having his trach removed," she said.


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Left Behind
Political Bias in the Academy
In the past couple of years imbroglios erupted on college campuses across the U.S. over trigger warnings (for example, alerting students to scenes of abuse and violence in The Great Gatsby before assigning it), microaggressions (saying "I believe the most qualified person should get the job"), cultural appropriation (a white woman wearing her hair in cornrows), speaker disinvitations (Brandeis University canceling plans to award Ayaan Hirsi Ali an honorary degree because of her criticism of Islam's treatment of women), safe spaces (such as rooms where students can go after a talk that upset them), and social justice advocates competing to signal their moral outrage over such issues as Halloween costumes (for example, at Yale University). Why such unrest in the most liberal institutions in the country?
Although there are many proximate causes, there is but one ultimate cause—lack of political diversity to provide checks on protests going too far. A 2014 study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles, Higher Education Research Institute found that 59.8 percent of all undergraduate faculty nationwide identify as far left or liberal, compared with only 12.8 percent as far right or conservative. The asymmetry is much worse in the social sciences. A 2015 study by psychologist José Duarte, then at Arizona State University, and his colleagues in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, entitled "Political Diversity Will Improve Social Psychological Science," found that 58 to 66 percent of social scientists are liberal and only 5 to 8 percent conservative and that there are eight Democrats for every Republican. And the problem is most relavent to the study of areas "related to the political concerns of the Left— areas such as race, gender, stereotyping, environmentalism, power, and inequality." The very things these students are protesting.
How does this political asymmetry corrupt social science? It begins with what subjects are studied and the descriptive language employed. Consider a 2003 paper by social psychologist John Jost, now at New York University, and his colleagues, entitled "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition." Conservatives are described as having "uncertainty avoidance," "needs for order, structure, and closure," and "dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity," as if these constitute a mental disease that leads to "resistance to change" and "endorsement of inequality." Yet one could just as easily characterize liberals as suffering from a host of equally malfunctioning cognitive states: a lack of moral compass that leads to an inability to make clear ethical choices, a pathological fear of clarity that leads to indecisiveness, a naive belief that all people are equally talented, and a blind adherence in the teeth of contradictory evidence from behavior genetics that culture and environment exclusively determine one's lot in life.
Duarte et al. find similar distortive language across the social sciences, where, for instance, certain words are used to suggest pernicious motives when confronting contradictory evidence— "deny," "legitimize," "rationalize," "justify," "defend," "trivialize"— with conservatives as examples, as if liberals are always objective and rational. In one test item, for example, the "endorsement of the efficacy of hard work" was interpreted as an example of "rationalization of inequality." Imagine a study in which conservative values were assumed to be scientific facts and disagreement with them was treated as irrational, the authors conjecture counterfactually. "In this field, scholars might regularly publish studies on … 'the denial of the benefits of a strong military' or 'the denial of the benefits of church attendance.' " The authors present evidence that "embedding any type of ideological values into measures is dangerous to science" and is "much more likely to happen—and to go unchallenged by dissenters—in a politically homogeneous field."
Political bias also twists how data are interpreted. For instance, Duarte's study discusses a paper in which subjects scoring high in "right-wing authoritarianism" were found to be "more likely to go along with the unethical decisions of leaders." Example: "not formally taking a female colleague's side in her sexual harassment complaint against her subordinate (given little information about the case)." Maybe what this finding really means is that conservatives believe in examining evidence first, instead of prejudging by gender. Call it "left-wing authoritarianism."
The authors' solution to the political bias problem is right out of the liberal playbook: diversity. Not just ethnic, race and gender but viewpoint diversity. All of us are biased, and few of us can see it in ourselves, so we depend on others to challenge us. As John Stuart Mill noted in that greatest defense of free speech, On Liberty, "He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that."

subset: commoncrawl


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Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly repealed a controversial law that would have severely limited collective bargaining for public employees, a law Republican Gov. John Kasich made the centerpiece of his legislative agenda this spring.
Voters not only disliked Kasich's law — 61 percent voted to repeal it, 39 percent supported keeping it — they also have grown to dislike Kasich. The governor's approval rating was at 36 percent in an October Quinnipiac poll.
So did the governor go too far, damaging his political prospects in the process?
Our NPR StateImpact team created these interactive maps that allow you to compare the county-by-county results in Ohio's 2010 gubernatorial race to the results from Issue 2's vote on Tuesday.NPR's StateImpact Ohio notes:
The six counties that were Kasich's biggest fans in 2010 were the biggest fans of SB 5 in 2011.
But every other county that voted for Kasich in 2010 said "no" to SB 5.
The political stakes are interesting for the state legislature, as well. Republicans outnumber Democrats 82 to 50 in the state's general assembly. But that means a lot of Republican lawmakers represent union-heavy districts that usually elect Democrats. If the passage of SB 5 this year is seen as an overreach, those lawmakers seats may be at risk next year.
Elise Hu is the digital editor of NPR's StateImpact effort, which focuses on government reporting in the states. Read more about it.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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"Stereotactic" in Greek means "movement in space" and refers here to the way your radiation oncologist locates the tumor or target of a radiation dose by means of a 3-D coordinate system. A stereotactic method of surgery was first developed for brain surgery, but now advanced technology enables the use of similar techniques for lung, liver and spine tumors. SBRT differs from conventional radiotherapy because it kills the tumor in a few potent doses while delivering little radiation to the surrounding healthy tissue.
How SBRT Works
Before stereotactic body radiation therapy begins, high-resolution 3-D images of the treatment area are taken to locate the tumor, its exact size and shape. These images guide radiation oncologists to plan your treatment for the target area. During treatment, very precise fine arcs of radiation are administered from many different angles and planes, concentrating a large dose of radiation to the targeted area to destroy the tumor.
What to Expect
Stereotactic body radiation therapy generally takes a few sessions. Most patients feel no pain during the treatment and are able to go home immediately afterward.
Benefits of SBRT
Stereotactic body radiation therapy precisely targets the tumor to receive a maximum amount of radiation while sparing nearby normal tissue from radiation exposure. SBRT is a non-invasive treatment that does not require surgery and reduces the risks of complications sometimes associated with conventional surgery.


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Nick's New Animated Preschool Series "Peter Rabbit" Premieres February 19
via Nickelodeon press release:
Adventure Abounds In Peter Rabbit, Nickelodeon's New Animated Preschool Series Premiering Tuesday, Feb. 19, At 12 PM (ET/PT)
NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2013 — Nickelodeon brings treasured literary icon Peter Rabbit to life with the debut of the brand-new CG-animated preschool series, Peter Rabbit, on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 12 p.m. (ET/PT). The series is a fresh re-imagining of the popular Beatrix Potter children's books based on Peter Rabbit, which have sold over 250 million copies worldwide and been translated into 35 languages. Peter Rabbit features educational goals that encourage preschoolers to learn problem-solving and interpersonal skills, self-efficacy, resilience, positive re-framing and fostering an interest in and respect for nature. Peter Rabbit is produced in conjunction with Silvergate Media and animated by Brown Bag Films.
"This beloved bunny has touched families for many generations and Nickelodeon continues his legacy with brand-new Peter Rabbit stories for them to enjoy," said Teri Weiss , EVP, Production and Development, Nickelodeon Preschool. "This series captures the spirit of Potter's timeless books, while adding high stakes adventures to illustrate that with determination and friendship, you can overcome even the toughest of obstacles."
The series follows Peter, a mischievous, charming and brave rabbit who overcomes obstacles, outwits predators and avoids danger. Clever, resilient and funny, Peter Rabbit wants to grow up to be just like his late father and carries his journal (a guide to everything you to need to know to be a good rabbit) on his fun and exciting adventures with his best friends Benjamin Bunny and Lily Bobtail. Set in Potter's treasured Lake District, Peter lives in a world where behind every rock there is a surprise to discover and where dangers (be it a sly fox or bad-tempered badger) lurk around every corner.
The series premiere episode will feature the following stories:
- "The Tale of the Radish Robber" – Peter and his friends try to find the perfect place to eat the radishes they took from Mr. McGregor's garden, but little do they know they've got a radish robber on their tails!
- "The Tale of Two Enemies" – When Peter decides to set Mr. Tod and Tommy Brock against each other, he soon finds out that breaking the food chain is harder than it looks.
At NickJr.com, Nickelodeon's award-winning website, parents and kids can watch sneak-peek Peter Rabbit videos and print out Peter Rabbit games and activities, including a Peter Rabbit coloring pack and Peter Rabbit puppet theater. In March, preschoolers will be able to play the new online game, "Peter Rabbit's Downhill Dash."
In December, Nickelodeon premiered the Peter Rabbit "Peter Rabbit's Christmas Tale" primetime holiday special, which drew three million total viewers and ranked as the number-one program with K2-5 and K2-11 across all TV in its time period.
About Silvergate Media
Silvergate Media is a privately-held creative company, formed in October 2011 through the purchase of the rights to two preschool properties: Peter Rabbit and The Octonauts. Upon formation, Silvergate immediately resumed production of the Peter Rabbit animated series and greenlit Season 2 and Season 3 of The Octonauts. Silvergate Media exploits its properties across a range of formats, from new television productions to toys, apparel and licensed merchandise.
About Brown Bag Films
Brown Bag Films® is an award-winning animation studio, producing high quality animation for the international market. Established in 1994 by Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O'Connell, Brown Bag Films remains a creative-led company. Their numerous awards include Oscar nominations for Give Up Yer Aul Sins (2002) and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (2010), and Bafta and Emmy nominations for The Octonauts (2012). Employing more than 120 full time staff in their Dublin-based headquarters, with a second office in LA, Brown Bag Films are committed to producing the highest-quality, cross-platform animation with strong stories and engaging characters.
Recent productions include Chorion's Olivia for Nickelodeon U.S., Enid Blyton 's Noddy in Toyland for Chorion/FIVE UK, The Octonauts for Silvergate Media/BBC and Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins. Current productions include Henry Hugglemonster for Disney Junior, Peter Rabbit for Silvergate Media/Nickelodeon/CBeebies, and second seasons of The Octonauts and Doc McStuffins.
About Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon, now in its 33rd year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 18 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIA.B).
SOURCE Nickelodeon


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bool Event_Dispatcher::setNotificationClass (
string $class
Set the name of the class that will be used as a notification object when post() is called.
You may call this method on an object to change it for a single dispatcher or statically, to set the default for all dispatchers that will be created.
string $class
Name of the class that is used as a notification container when the post() method is called. Make sure the class is loaded before using it as notification class.
This method always returns true.
This function can be called statically.


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Eva Mendes's Design Job: Eva Mendes is entering the world of fashion design. The actress has created a line for mass-retailer New York & Co. The label, called Eva by Eva Mendes, will issue four collections a year. "When we asked our customers to name the celebrity they aspired to be [Eva's] name came up again and again Based on that we went out and per sued her," the brand's CEO told WWD. Mendes has reportedly sat in on multiple creative meetings and signs off on every design before they're produced. [WWD]
Minnie Mouse Teams with Lanvin: Minnie Mouse has landed a new fashion gig. After starring in Barneys New York's holiday campaign, the Disney mouse has scored a collaboration with Lanvin (who dressed her for the Barneys animation). Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz called Minnie "a real fashionista." Minnie will wear his design to Disneyland Paris's 20th anniversary next month, partaking in festivities that will even include a fashion parade. [WWD]
UK's Most Powerful Fashionistas: BBC has announced their 203 power list of the UK's most influential women, and it's filled with fashionable folks. Designers Stella McCartney and Victoria Beckham, Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, and Net-A-Porter's Natalie Massenet all made the cut. [Vogue UK]
Kate Upton's New Campaign: Fresh off of her Sports Illustrated cover score, Kate Upton has landed another gig. The 20-year-old model has signed on as the face of Accessorize, a jewelry and accessory chain. Past Accessorize models include Bar Rafaeli and Claudia Schiffer. [HuffPo]


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How do you distinguish a foreign policy "idealist" from a "realist," an optimist from a pessimist? Ask one question: Do you believe in the arrow of history? Or to put it another way, do you think history is cyclical or directional? Are we condemned to do the same damn thing over and over, generation after generation -- or is there hope for some enduring progress in the world order?
For realists, generally conservative, history is an endless cycle of clashing power politics. The same patterns repeat. Only the names and places change. The best we can do in our own time is to defend ourselves, managing instability and avoiding catastrophe. But expect nothing permanent, no essential alteration in the course of human affairs.
The idealists believe otherwise. They believe that the international system can eventually evolve out of its Hobbesian state of nature into something more humane and hopeful. What is usually overlooked is that this hopefulness for achieving a higher plane of global comity comes in two flavors -- one liberal, one conservative.
The liberal variety (as practiced, for example, by the Bill Clinton administration) believes that the creation of a dense web of treaties, agreements, transnational institutions and international organizations (like the U.N., NGOs, the World Trade Organization) can give substance to a cohesive community of nations that would, in time, ensure order and stability.
The conservative view (often called neoconservative and dominant in the George W. Bush years) is that the better way to ensure order and stability is not through international institutions, which are flimsy and generally powerless, but through the spread of democracy. Because, in the end, democracies are inherently more inclined to live in peace.
Liberal internationalists count on globalization, neoconservatives on democratization to get us to the sunny uplands of international harmony. But what unites them is the belief that such uplands exist and are achievable. Both believe in the perfectibility, if not of man, then of the international system. Both believe in the arrow of history.
For realists, this is a comforting delusion that gives high purpose to international exertions where none exists. Sovereign nations remain in incessant pursuit of power and self-interest. The pursuit can be carried out more or less wisely. But nothing fundamentally changes.
Barack Obama is a classic case study in foreign policy idealism. Indeed, one of his favorite quotations is about the arrow of history: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." He has spent nearly eight years trying to advance that arc of justice. Hence his initial "apology tour," that burst of confessional soul-searching abroad about America and its sins, from slavery to the loss of our moral compass after 9/11. Friday's trip to Hiroshima completes the arc.
Unfortunately, with "justice" did not come peace. The policies that followed -- appeasing Vladimir Putin, the Iranian mullahs, the butchers of Tiananmen Square and lately the Castros -- have advanced neither justice nor peace. On the contrary. The consequent withdrawal of American power, that agent of injustice or at least arrogant overreach, has yielded nothing but geopolitical chaos and immense human suffering. (See Syria.)
But now an interesting twist. Two terms as president may not have disabused Obama of his arc-of-justice idealism (see above: Hiroshima visit), but they have forced upon him at least one policy of hardheaded, indeed hardhearted, realism. On his Vietnam trip this week, Obama accepted the reality of an abusive dictatorship while announcing a warming of relations and the lifting of the U.S. arms embargo, thereby enlisting Vietnam as a full partner in the containment of China.
This follows the partial return of the U.S. military to the Philippines, another element of the containment strategy. Indeed, the Trans-Pacific Partnership itself is less about economics than geopolitics, creating a Pacific Rim cordon around China.
There's no idealism in containment. It is raw, soulless realpolitik. No moral arc. No uplifting historical arrow. In fact, it is the same damn thing all over again, a recapitulation of Truman's containment of Russia in the late 1940s. Obama is doing the same, now with China.
He thus leaves a double legacy. His arc-of-justice aspirations, whatever their intention, leave behind tragic geopolitical and human wreckage. Yet this belated acquiescence to realpolitik, laying the foundations for a new containment, will be an essential asset in addressing this century's coming central challenge, the rise of China.
I don't know -- no one knows -- if history has an arrow. Which is why a dose of coldhearted realism is always welcome. Especially from Obama.


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I am currently the CTO of Rapid Flow Technologies, a company we formed in 2015 to commercialize the Surtrac technology we have been developing at Carnegie Mellon University. Rapid Flow builds intelligent transportation technologies for smart cities.
I am still a part-time project scientist in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where I work with Stephen Smith in the Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory.
My current research is on real-time adaptive traffic signal control for urban road networks. We have developed a system called Surtrac (Scalable Urban Traffic Control), which we've been deploying in Pittsburgh since 2012. So far, we've deployed Surtrac at 50 intersections in the city.
I received my Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon in 2011. My dissertation focused on improving memory for optimization and learning algorithms on problems with dynamic environments. I developed two novel classes of explicit memory to exploit information from previous solutions as a problem changes.
My general research interests are in the application of optimization, learning, and search to real-world problems, particularly problems with dynamic or uncertain environments. One of my other research interests is evolutionary robotics, the design of robot controllers using evolutionary computation.
Recent publications


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For many, the phrase Paris By Night might bring images of moonlight walks along the Seine. But for Vietnamese around the world, Paris By Night is a wildly popular cabaret show. Live performances sell out and Paris By Night DVDs are part of Vietnamese households worldwide.
At the Pechanga Casino and Resort in southern California, a full band plays in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 1,000, while Duy Truong and Huong Thuy, just a few of the show's lead singers, sashay across the stage as they sing a Vietnamese love ballad.
Crystalyn Le traveled more than 80 miles with her husband and two young children for the show. "We like to keep their Vietnamese culture, that's why we bring them," Le said.
But she was clearly her family's most excited fan, rattling off the names of her favorite singers. "I love Toc Thien. Mai Thien Van. I love the voice!," Le said.
Like most fans, Le started out watching Paris By Night on videocassettes sold in virtually every Little Saigon around the world. Now, they are on DVD's. Throw one into a player, and you're transported to a Vegas-style variety show entirely in Vietnamese.
Paris By Night is one part comedy sketch, one part song-and-dance. Some numbers are traditional Vietnamese songs, while others are big and flashy. Even with the show's running time of four hours, audiences can't seem to get enough.
The first Paris By Night was actually produced 30 years ago in Paris by an immigrant named Tô Văn Lai. He wanted to fill the cultural void felt by Vietnamese expatriates who fled their country after the Vietnam War.
He soon moved the production company, Thuy Nga, to Orange County, California, with its large Vietnamese community. His daughter, Marie, is now the show's executive producer.
In the decades since, Paris By Night has become synonymous with tradition and family for Vietnamese outside their country, according to associate professor Lan Duong who specializes in media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside.
"Vietnamese Americans celebrate by getting together, maybe eating Vietnamese food, and popping in a Paris By Night DVD," Duong said. She was raised on Paris By Night herself, and her family still watches them. "We come together to laugh, to talk about the singing — how bad it is, how good it is, how beautiful some of the singers are," she said.
Paris By Night also allows older immigrants to share the country's history with younger generations. Shows are full of nostalgic songs about pre-war Vietnam. "There is such an attachment to the homeland, and not necessarily an attachment to the Communist politics or the government," Duong said.
Other productions have tried to copy the show's success, but there's nothing like the original. DVD's are not only sold in the US, but in Canada, Australia, and Europe.
And the show is just as big in Vietnam, said Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, a long-time Paris By Night emcee, as well as the daughter of Nguyen Cao Ky, the former leader of South Vietnam.
"We actually give the Vietnamese audience in Vietnam a very high level of entertainment unmatched by what they have now," said Ky Duyen, noting that Paris By Night hires experienced Hollywood directors and choreographers.
But the Vietnamese government bans the sale of Paris By Night DVDs, because of the political content. So how do the Vietnamese watch them? Through a vast underground market.
"All the copies in Vietnam are bootleg or through illegal downloads," said John Nguyen, production coordinator for Thuy Nga.
"It's been hurting us as a company," Nguyen said. "Even the American market is having problems with bootleg, and we're much smaller. It's been tough."
Nguyen said the company has tried to make up for lost revenue by adding more commercials to its DVDs, and tightening the budgets for the live shows.
They are also considering charging a fee for viewers to stream shows online, a la Netflix.
The Internet isn't the show's only challenge, though. As its older core audience ages, Paris By Night needs to attract new fans. Duong said that younger Vietnamese Americans, especially the ones born here, "tend to reject [the show] and see it as really kitschy and campy."
That's how pop singer Justin Nguyen felt. "When I was growing up I did watch Paris by Night. I literally thought, 'that's so corny, that's so stupid,'" Nguyen said.
Justin Nguyen, 30, said he could barely understand Vietnamese. He moved to California as a kid and grew up listening to punk — not traditional Vietnamese ballads.
But after dancing for several Vietnamese productions, Nguyen decided he wanted to be a singer and worked hard to improve his Vietnamese. Last year, he won an internationally-televised talent show called V-Star.
Paris By Night now features him to help draw in younger audiences. And because of the show's reach, Justin has become an international pop star.
"It's a dream come true," Nguyen said. " I still have to pinch myself, and say, 'Is this really happening?'"
As important as it is for Paris By Night is to get young fans, it's not ready to give up its roots. And that's where Thien Ton comes in.
At 29, Ton is one of the new kids on the block, but he likes to sing the old standards.
"I'm kind of like an old soul, for a young person. Not just Vietnamese music, but American music. I tend to like the older stuff, you know," said Ton.
Production manager John Nguyen has included Ton in the last five Paris By Night DVDs.
"He sings the music of the older generation and sings very well," Nguyen said. "We need people like that to continue the tradition."
During the show, Ton performs on stage wearing a traditional red tunic, as stage lights bathe him in a purple glow.
He sings the part of a man who's moved abroad and is missing home.
Long-time Paris By Night fans know the song well. Now, Ton's introducing it to a new generation.
Update: A previous version of this story noted Duy Truong and Huong Thuy as the lead singers of the Paris by Night show. They are both just one of several singers in the show.
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When making a reservation, you need to tell us about your intent to carry a firearm and/or ammunition on a given UIA flight.
In all Ukrainian airports, passengers' gun licenses are checked by designated AVSEC officers or by representatives of authorized departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In airports outside Ukraine the check is exercised by representatives of authorized law enforcement bodies, according to the local procedures and regulations.


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Installing CoreOS on Bare Metal
This guide provides instructions to install Fedora CoreOS to bare metal. Three options are available:
Installing from live ISO
Installing from PXE
Installing from the container
Before installing FCOS, you must have an Ignition configuration file and host it somewhere (e.g. using python3 -m http.server
). If you do not have one, see Producing an Ignition File.
If you have servers with different types and/or number of hard drives, you must create a separate customized Ignition config for each machine (or machine class). A good model is to have the common parts of the configuration factored out into a separate Ignition configuration which can be merged into (via HTTP or inline) the per-machine custom config. |
Installing from live ISO
To install FCOS onto bare metal using the live ISO interactively, follow these steps:
Download the latest ISO image from the download page or with podman (see documentation for options):
podman run --security-opt label=disable --pull=always --rm -v .:/data -w /data \ quay.io/coreos/coreos-installer:release download -s stable -p metal -f iso
Note this is just using coreos-installer
as a tool to download the ISO.
You can boot the live ISO in either legacy BIOS or UEFI mode, regardless of what mode the OS will use once installed. |
Burn the ISO to disk. On Linux and macOS, you can use
. On Windows, you can use Rufus in "DD Image" mode. -
Boot it on the target system. The ISO is capable of bringing up a fully functioning FCOS system purely from memory (i.e. without using any disk storage). Once booted, you will have access to a bash command prompt.
You can now run
sudo coreos-installer install /dev/sda \ --ignition-url https://example.com/example.ign
Once the installation is complete, you can simply sudo reboot
. After rebooting, the first boot process begins. It is at this time that Ignition ingests the configuration file and provisions the system as specified.
For more advanced ISO installs, including automation, see below. For more about the live ISO image, see the live image reference.
Check out coreos-installer install --help for more options on how to install Fedora CoreOS.
Installing from the network
Booting the live PXE image requires at least 2 GiB of RAM with the coreos.live.rootfs_url kernel argument, and 4 GiB otherwise. You can install in either legacy boot (BIOS) mode or in UEFI mode, regardless of what mode the OS will use once installed.
Installing from PXE
To install from PXE, follow these steps:
Download an FCOS PXE kernel, initramfs, and rootfs image:
podman run --security-opt label=disable --pull=always --rm -v .:/data -w /data \ quay.io/coreos/coreos-installer:release download -f pxe
Follow this example
for booting the installer images with PXELINUX:
DEFAULT pxeboot
LABEL pxeboot
KERNEL fedora-coreos-39.20240210.3.0-live-kernel-x86_64
APPEND initrd=fedora-coreos-39.20240210.3.0-live-initramfs.x86_64.img,fedora-coreos-39.20240210.3.0-live-rootfs.x86_64.img coreos.inst.install_dev=/dev/sda coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://192.168.1.101:8000/config.ign
For more details on how to use this information, see this blog post for testing a PXE installation via a local VM and libvirt
. For other supported kernel command-line options, see the coreos-installer docs, but note that coreos-installer pxe customize
(see below) is more flexible. For more about the live PXE image, see the live image reference.
Installing from iPXE
An iPXE-capable machine needs to be provided with a relevant Boot Script to fetch and load FCOS artifacts.
The example below shows how to load those directly from Fedora infrastructure. For performance and reliability reasons it is recommended to mirror them on the local infrastructure, and then tweak the BASEURL
as needed.
set STREAM stable
set VERSION 39.20240210.3.0
set INSTALLDEV /dev/sda
set CONFIGURL https://example.com/config.ign
set BASEURL https://builds.coreos.fedoraproject.org/prod/streams/${STREAM}/builds/${VERSION}/x86_64
kernel ${BASEURL}/fedora-coreos-${VERSION}-live-kernel-x86_64 initrd=main coreos.live.rootfs_url=${BASEURL}/fedora-coreos-${VERSION}-live-rootfs.x86_64.img coreos.inst.install_dev=${INSTALLDEV} coreos.inst.ignition_url=${CONFIGURL}
initrd --name main ${BASEURL}/fedora-coreos-${VERSION}-live-initramfs.x86_64.img
For other supported kernel command-line options, see the coreos-installer docs, but note that coreos-installer pxe customize
(see below) is more flexible. For more about the live PXE image, see the live image reference.
Installing from the container
You can use the coreos-installer
container from an existing system to install to an attached block device. For example (substitute docker
for podman
if needed):
sudo podman run --pull=always --privileged --rm \
-v /dev:/dev -v /run/udev:/run/udev -v .:/data -w /data \
quay.io/coreos/coreos-installer:release \
install /dev/vdb -i config.ign
In this example, coreos-installer
will download the latest stable FCOS metal image and install it onto /dev/vdb
. It will then inject the Ignition file config.ign
in the current directory into the image. Use --help
to see all the available options.
Downloading and mirroring the metal image
Sometimes, it's necessary to download the metal image ahead of time and then have it passed locally to coreos-installer
for installation. You can download the metal image directly from the FCOS download page, or you can use coreos-installer download
When installing via the live ISO or PXE, there is no need to download the metal image. It is already part of those environments. |
There are two metal images: one for 512b-sector disks (labeled "Raw" on the download page), and one for 4k-sector native disks (labeled "Raw (4K Native)"). Unless you know to be targeting a 4k native disk, use the 512b one, which is the most common. See this page for more information.
To download the 4kn native metal image with coreos-installer download
, use the --format 4k.raw.xz
The metal image uses a hybrid partition layout which supports both BIOS and UEFI booting. |
When you're finally ready to install FCOS, you can point it at your downloaded image using coreos-installer install --image-url <LOCAL_MIRROR>
or coreos-install --image-file <PATH>
Customizing installation
The coreos-installer iso customize
and coreos-installer pxe customize
commands can be used to create customized ISO and PXE images with site-specific configuration, including the ability to perform unattended installations of Fedora CoreOS.
When booting an image created with coreos-installer pxe customize , the PXE or iPXE kernel command line must include the arguments ignition.firstboot ignition.platform.id=metal . If running in a virtual machine, replace metal with the platform ID for your platform, such as qemu or vmware .
For example:
# Create customized.iso which:
# - Automatically installs to /dev/sda
# - Provisions the installed system with config.ign
# - Configures the installed GRUB and kernel to use a primary graphical
# and secondary serial console
# - Uses network configuration from static-ip.nmconnection
# - Trusts HTTPS certificates signed by ca.pem
# - Runs post.sh after installing
coreos-installer iso customize \
--dest-device /dev/sda \
--dest-ignition config.ign \
--dest-console ttyS0,115200n8 \
--dest-console tty0 \
--network-keyfile static-ip.nmconnection \
--ignition-ca ca.pem \
--post-install post.sh \
-o custom.iso fedora-coreos-39.20240210.3.0-live.x86_64.iso
# Same, but create a customized PXE initramfs image
coreos-installer pxe customize \
--dest-device /dev/sda \
--dest-ignition config.ign \
--dest-console ttyS0,115200n8 \
--dest-console tty0 \
--network-keyfile static-ip.nmconnection \
--ignition-ca ca.pem \
--post-install post.sh \
-o custom-initramfs.img fedora-coreos-39.20240210.3.0-live-initramfs.x86_64.img
For details on available customizations, see the coreos-installer documentation.
ISO installation on diverse hardware
Commonly bare metal systems will have a diversity of hardware - some systems may have NVMe drives /dev/nvme*
, whereas others have /dev/sd*
for example. You will almost certainly have to template the value of /dev/sda
A useful approach is to script generating a per-machine .iso
. If you have a hardware database (whether a text file in git or relational database) then it will work to generate a per-machine target-dell.ign
and target-hp.ign
for example, and specify that to --dest-ignition
alongside the appropriate --dest-device
to generate fedora-coreos-install-dell.iso
and fedora-coreos-install-hp.iso
Alternatively, instead of generating per-machine ISOs, you can have a --pre-install
script run a privileged container which inspects the target system and writes an appropriate installer config to /etc/coreos/installer.d
Reinstalling Fedora CoreOS
You can use any of the methods described above to reinstall Fedora CoreOS on the same machine via the live environment.
Data persistence
The installer does not completely scrub the target disk. Thanks to Ignition's filesystem-reuse semantics, if you apply a config with the exact same partition and filesystem settings as the first install, all previously stored data in additional partitions will still be available. This can be useful for persisting e.g. /var/lib/containers
or /var/home
between reinstalls. There are some restrictions, however. See the Using persistent state section for more information. You will also want to ensure the root filesystem is a fixed number at least 8 GiB as described in Configuring Storage so that data partitions are not accidentally overwritten.
Destination drive
Fedora CoreOS requires that only a single filesystem labeled boot
exists. If multiple such filesystems are found on the first boot, provisioning will error out as a fail-safe. If reinstalling Fedora CoreOS on a different disk than the previous installation, make sure to wipe the previous disk using e.g. wipefs
. For example, if reinstalling to /dev/sdb
, but /dev/sda
still contains the previous installation of FCOS, use wipefs -a /dev/sda
in the installation environment.
Want to help? Learn how to contribute to Fedora Docs ›


text:
More than 100 organisations, universities and companies, including Siemens, Philips, Samsung, and General Electric, wrote to the U.S. Congress last week urging it to keep the reservoir open or risk a disruption to the U.S. economy, putting millions of jobs at risk.
Helium, best known as a party gas for filling balloons and making the voice squeaky, is also needed for aerospace and defence industries as well as smart phones, flat-screen TVs, medical equipment and deep-sea diving tanks.
The gas, which is the second most abundant element in the universe, is difficult to capture and store, making the U.S. reservoir a vital source.
The U.S. Federal Helium Reserve has been providing around a third of global crude helium and 40 percent of U.S. supply. But this will be turned off after October 7 unless Congress acts to extend its life.
The reserve near Amarillo in Texas was opened in 1925 as a supply of helium for airships and it then provided helium in the Cold War and the Space Race.
By 1995 the reserve was $1.4 billion in debt as a result of earlier purchases of helium from private producers. The debt is due to finish being repaid to the U.S. Treasury by the end of this month and under current law, funding to the federal program will then stop, terminating operations.
Congress would have to amend the law or pass new legislation to keep the reserve going.
Helium refiners have already been raising prices in anticipation of its closure.
GE Healthcare, which uses helium to make MRI scanners, told Reuters the spot price of liquid helium has jumped to $25-30 per litre from $8 last year.
"There is no question the situation is challenging. We are having to look at different sources of helium, not just the U.S. supply, and have invested $17 million in a plant to capture waste helium," said Richard Hausmann, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare's global Magnetic Resonance business.
The firm uses around 5.5 million litres of helium a year in its production facility in South Carolina and another 6 million litres a year servicing MR systems at U.S. sites.
Using other gases instead can result in poorer quality goods or require costly and unproven re-fitting of processing or manufacturing machinery.
"If supplies were disrupted for a significant period it could even impact the overall economy," Rodney Morgan, vice president of procurement at computer memory manufacturer Micron Technology, told a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources earlier this year.
On a cliff edge
Helium remains liquid at extremely low temperatures, making it ideal for cooling superconducting magnets used in electronics manufacturing and in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines which help to diagnose diseases.
The cost of helium already makes up to 30-40 percent of research budgets so further price rises could be crippling.
Some university research projects in Britain were put on hold and brain-scanning equipment was shut down last year due to a helium shortage.
Helium is a by-product of natural gas production but once it is released into the atmosphere it cannot be captured. Demand for helium has risen, driven particularly by Asia's booming manufacturing industry.
Annual global production of helium was nearly 175 million cubic metres (mcm) in 2012, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but demand is forecast to rise to over 300 mcm by 2030.
"Even if the reserve didn't go offline, things aren't good at the moment. There is definitely around a 3 percent shortage. Everything produced is being snapped up," said Richard Clarke, resources consultant and former helium specialist at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxford.
The U.S. reserve is important because other countries' supplies, such as Qatar, Russia and Algeria, are still too erratic or not large enough to cover the U.S. shortfall.
Qatar could potentially supply around 20-25 percent of world helium when its two large liquefaction plants reach full capacity. Air Liquide started up a 38 million cubic metre per year plant last month but it is not yet operating at full potential.
Algeria already supplies 10 to 15 percent of global helium but could potentially provide more if it recovered helium from natural gas export pipelines to southern Europe.
Russia currently accounts for around 3.6 percent of global helium production, according to Ernst & Young, but it needs to build a lot of gas infrastructure in Siberia to enable its output to equal that of the United States by 2022-2025.
"October 7 is D-day for helium," said Clarke. "It may be that U.S. President Obama has to pass a continuing resolution to keep operations going."
© Thomson Reuters 2013
For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2024 hub.


text:
Eugene GOOSSENS (1893-1962)
Kaleidoscope, Op. 18 (1933) [9:49]
Tam o'Shanter, Op. 17a (1918-19) [3:38]
Three Greek Dances, Op.44 (1926, revised 1927) for small orchestra [10:06]
Concert Piece, Op.65 for oboe/cor anglais, two harps and orchestra (1957) [21:57]
Four Conceits, Op.20 (1918) Suite (orchestration by composer of original version for solo piano (1917)) [6:44]
Variations on 'Cadet Rousselle' (French Folk Song) (1930) (various composers orch. Goossens) [3:47]
Two Nature Poems, Op. 25 (1937-38) [11:19]
Intermezzo from Don Juan de Mañara, Op. 54 (1935) [6:22]
Jeff Crellin (oboe/cor anglais) Marshall Maguire (harp I) Alannah Guthrie (harp II)
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis
rec. Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 15-16 June 2010, 5 September 2011, 7 September 2012.
Many years ago the organist at St Andrew's Church, Stepps, near Glasgow was a gentleman by the name of Kenneth Dawkins. He hailed from Birmingham. He told me many tales, some of which may have been exaggerated. However, I do believe that it was true he had played a piano duet with Maurice Ravel. The relevant tale is this. One day, as a young man, he was in a shop in Birmingham and had bought a copy of Goossens' Kaleidoscope which had just been published. He ended up at a friend's house and went across to the piano and sight-read through the dozen miniature tone poems. His friend was entertaining a guest and … you've guessed it - it was Eugene Goossens. Fortunately Mr. Dawkins was complimentary. I recall him playing these pieces to me from his copy of the sheet music that had been autographed by the composer. I think they are quite simply magical.
Kaleidoscope began life as a suite of a dozen pieces published in 1918. In 1920 the composer orchestrated the Hurdy Gurdy Man for the well-known ballerina Tamara Karsavina who was the Prima Ballerina of the Ballets Russes. Some six years later the film director Ernest Irving had the entire suite arranged for chamber orchestra - this was featured in a ballet called The Tragedy of Fashion. The liner-notes suggest that this spurred Goossens on to make his own arrangement - he scored eight of them for full orchestra and subtitled it as a Suite for Children. It was first heard in this version during the 1933 Promenade Concerts.
The work may have been predicated on things that once appealed to children -such as The March of the Wooden Soldier and The Punch and Judy Show yet the musical style and sound-world is hardly designed to appeal to young people of any era. There is a huge emotional difference between the edgy Good Morning and the sad and reflective closing Good-night. The Promenade is wistful and does not really suggest high spirits or a child's romping around. The Hurdy Gurdy Man is a sad little character as is The Wooden Soldier who seems to have fought his final battle. How wretched is the Lament for a Departed Doll? It is heart-breaking, but stunningly beautiful music. I love the wit of the Old Musical Box - it plays such a lively little tune. The Punch and Judy Show reflects the dichotomy of this age-old entertainment - the humour and the cruelty.
Kaleidoscope is subtle and often introverted music that fuses impressionism with neo-classicism. It is up to the listener to decide if this music is parody or pastiche. R.H. Hull, writing in 1932 suggested that 'Goossens' [Suite] is effective ... even though the border-line between calculated amusement and unintentional triviality is not always clear.' I must add that I love every note of this work - either in its piano or orchestral versions. Out of interest the missing movements from the orchestration are The Rocking Horse, A Ghost Story, the Clockwork Dancer and A Merry Party.
Most listeners will be familiar with Malcolm Arnold's well-known Overture: Tam O' Shanter. Fewer will know the other musical interpretations of this poem by George W. Chadwick (1918-19), Learmont Drysdale (1890) and the 'Humoresque' Tam by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Another entry on this list is the short Scherzo for orchestra by Eugene Goossens. Enthusiasts will know the piece from the Vernon Handley recording made in 1996. This is a short number that does not try to make a detailed match of Robert Burns' text to the music. What Goossens has done is to pick a few elements from the tale and pack them into the three and half minute scherzo. The effect is impressive. It is easy to pick out the shambling horse in the opening bars, the build-up to the chase, the dance and the escape - all in a compressed form. There are only occasional 'scotticisms' in the music. It was first heard at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert at Queen's Hall, London on 29 April 1919 conducted by Geoffrey Toye.
The 'Three Greek Dances' were composed in 1926 (revised 1927) for the choreographer and dance educator Margaret Morris. The liner-notes point out that her approach was 'synonymous with a style of dancing that we associate with the 1920s; making shapes on stage with arms and flowing robes.' Morris's contribution was to create a dance and movement training methodology. This was called the 'Margaret Morris Movement' (MMM). It was an attempt at creating something that was more natural for dancers than so-called 'classical ballet' choreography. The three dances are quite simply delicious in mood. It is difficult to categorise - but it is fair to say that Goossens beats the impressionists at their own game. It is almost an English La Mer. I am not sure if the imagery is meant to imply ancient or modern Greece, but that does not seem to matter. As MMM implies, flowing robes will suggest 'ancient' but the musical picture could be of the Greek Islands at the present day. Goossens also wrote 'Three Pagan Hymns' for Margaret Morris.
A totally different sound-world is entered with the Concert Piece, Op.65 for oboe/cor anglais, two harps and orchestra which dates from 1957. It was premiered in 1958 by Eugene Goossens' brother Leon and his two sisters, the harpists Sidonie and Marie. It was written to showcase their skills. It has been said on more than one occasion that this work is valedictory. There are certainly notes of regret, sadness, longing and even despair. However, the work lightens towards the end with a pastiche circus polka. I had to listen to this piece a couple of times, and even then I am not sure that I like it. Yet something tells me it is a masterpiece. There is an impressionistic mood to some of this music although the harmonic language is at times more 'advanced'. The composer makes use of a number of instrumental effects on the harps including threading paper through the strings to give a percussive effect and 'thrummed' accompaniment. There is always a good balance between the reed tone of the oboe and the iridescent sounds of the harps. One unusual feature of these 'variations' is the quotations from 'famous' orchestral repertoire.
The Four Conceits, Op.20 are another example of a set of piano pieces that Goossens has chosen to orchestrate. They were originally composed during the Great War in 1917. In this case Goossens orchestrated the work immediately and it was heard in this version the following year. According to the liner-notes, Diaghilev used the work as a 'Symphonic Interlude' during the 1919 season of Ballets Russes at the Alhambra Theatre. These four pieces are tiny. The opening 'Conceit' is entitled Gargoyle - a bit spooky, but certainly not scary. The Dance Memories is a little waltz with scraps of themes tossed about. There is little romance here, more bitter-sweet. The Walking Tune has a theme that one seems to know but cannot quite place. Perhaps Percy Grainger is called to mind. The finale is related to Kaleidoscope: the Marionette Show reveals some lively and malevolent characters but who is evil - the puppets or the puppet master? It is the quality of the orchestration that makes these into a credible orchestral work, in spite of their short duration.
The short Variations on Cadet Rousselle were composed in 1918 at the behest of the music critic Edwin Evans. Four composers produced a small set of variations on the French folk song that satirized a French bailiff by the name of Guillaume (William) Rousselle. They were Arnold Bax, Frank Bridge, John Ireland and Eugene Goossens. These were originally devised for soprano and piano. Goossens made this attractive and humorous transcription for orchestra in 1930. It is hardly a masterwork, but certainly deserves its place on this CD.
The Two Nature Poems presented here began life as Three Nature Poems, Op.25 and were originally devised for piano solo. They were composed in 1919. The three movements were - Awakening, Pastoral and Bacchanal. In 1937 the composer chose to orchestrate only the second and third Poems. The liner-notes are correct in warning the listener not to expect an 'idyllic English scene' in the Pastoral. Having said that, I do feel this music is not quite as bleak as Lewis Foreman has suggested. It is more a Northern landscape (Mill-stone Grit, Pennine) than something with blue southern skies. The muted trumpets may well suggest a blasted heath? This is appropriate bearing in mind when the pieces were originally composed. The Bacchanal is a masterpiece: this is a riot of orchestral colour that amply suggests the wine, women and song that was the modus operandi of the god Bacchus and his merry crew.
The operaDon Juan de Mañara was composed in 1935 and duly received a single performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The libretto of the opera had been written by Arnold Bennett and was based on a story by the great French novelist Alexandre Dumas' father. The plot would appear to have lost its way, and would be regarded as being a bit 'melodramatic' by today's opera-goers. The Intermezzo was a prelude to Act IV which was set in the Church of the Sacred Rosary. This is attractive music and it makes one wonder what the rest of the opera must have sounded like. Interestingly, Gerald Finzi was not impressed, he felt that it 'had not the bones of life in it' and that it was 'second hand [Richard] Strauss'.
It is almost redundant to praise the excellent sound quality of this CD. The same applies to the enthusiastic, but always sensitive and sympathetic playing by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis. The liner-notes written by Lewis Foreman are informative and make essential reading.
This CD is a tremendously important addition to the catalogues. The main competitor is Vernon Handley's fine 3-CD retrospective of the composers music recorded on ABC Classics 476 7632. Chandos are picking up a number of loose ends. Volume 1 included the fundamental Symphony No.1 and the 'Phantasy' Concerto for piano and orchestra Op. 60. Looking at Goossens' catalogue there are certainly more works to be recorded. I am not aware if it is the intention to record the 'complete' orchestral works' or just a selection. Let us hope it is the former. There are a number of withdrawn works that may be ripe for rediscovery - such as the symphonic poems based on Ossian and Perseus. Then there is the 'Cowboy' Fantasy and the Variations on a Theme of Eugene Goossens. Some of his stage music may also be worth reviving, such as the ballet-score L'ecole en crinoline and the incidental music to East of Suez. Meanwhile enjoy these eight works and take them steadily: they all deserve the listener's undivided attention.
John France
A tremendously important addition to the catalogues.
Support us financially by purchasing this disc from


text:
Erech and the Paths of the Dead
Erech and the Paths of the Dead | |
Author | Ruth Sochard |
Publisher | Iron Crown Enterprises |
Released | 1985 |
Format | Softcover |
Pages | 39 |
ICE stock no. | 8060 |
Erech and the Paths of the Dead is a module (in the Adventure Module-series) for Middle-earth Role Playing, 1st Edition.
Cover/Jacket Text[edit | edit source]
This package details the south central vales of the White Mountains where the ghosts of the Oath-breakers haunt the land. Discover the secret of the mysterious Black Stone of Erech and explore the underground paths of the Dead.
A great grassy hill rises from the empty rolling fields three miles from Erech. Atop this Hill is the half-buried Stone of Erech. By this Stone, the Daen Coentis swore allegiance to Gondor, and it is here that the Army of the Dead shall gather when summoned to right their Oath-breaking. For now, however, Ghosts come to the hill every night, guarding its spiral path and the secret of the Erech Stone.
Below the towering heights of the Ered Nimrais, the White Mountains, lies the Morthond (Black-root) Vale, a rich land of rolling, fertile fields and rushing alpine streams. This was, long ago, the land of the Daen Coentis (Dn. "People of Skill"), the folk who later became known as the Dunlendings. Their tribes ranged these rich valley lands and farmed these fields, hunted the mountain forests, herded in the meadows, and mined the cliffs and gorges. The Daen Coentis were never very many, but they were skilled workers in stone and keen observers of the seasons and the night skies. They erected hundreds of massive stone observatories that served as both calendars and as temples to the Valar, whom they worshipped as gods.
Their peaceful existence came to an end in the middle of the Second Age, during the Dark Years of Sauron. The devout but primitive religion of the Daen Coentis made it relatively easy for the Dark Lord to subvert the worship of these people. With the passing of years the Evil One preyed upon their superstitions.


text:
i am really seeking help, i am really a very good student ( engineerin major ) but CS isn't my field at all and i can't understand it well and it's ma first time to take it really
i will be so thankful if anyone can provide me with some help please =(
i am really a very beginner and i have two assignements =( !!!
1- write a program to show detail steps multiplyin 2 integers which have up to 3 digits ( output must be lined up accordingly).
2- write a program to accept 2 factors and one operator.
calculate the result and print out the resulted reduced fraction.


text:
By Marie LeBaron
We have buckets and buckets of acorns that are falling from my parent's trees. So I've come up with a crafty way to use them up and make our Thanksgiving table pretty as well. These acorn napkin rings are the perfect way to spice up your table for fall.
Acorn tops, about 20 per napkin
Paper towel tube or wrapping paper tube
Hot glue gun & glue
Spray paint – any color
Step 1: Cut your paper tube with scissors to your desired width. If you plan to put only 1 row of acorns, cut a 1/2″ across off each tube. If you plan to have 2 rows of acorns, cut it close to 1″ thick. To cut the tube, you can bend it in half a little, enough to get your scissors around. It will make it bend slightly, but once it's completed with acorns, it will form a circle again.
Step 2: Place a generous layer of hot glue onto your paper tube. Apply about 1″ of glue across, enough to place four acorns.
Step 3: Add your acorns to the glue. I like to do four at a time. Press them in and make sure they stick. Continue around until the entire tube is filled with lined-up acorns. If you have some that don't fit, you can overlap them slightly, or try to size them with big or small acorns.
Step 4: In a well-ventilated area, lay down your newspaper and set your acorn rings on top. Spray each one with your paint. I chose a glitzy gold color, fun for fall.
Step 5: Once the paint has dried completely, let them sit overnight, then slide them onto your napkins. Now they're ready to fancy up your dinner table for fall.
About the Author:
Marie LeBaron is a crafter, foodie, and mother of three from Salt Lake City, Utah. You can see more of her crafts at her blog Make and Takes.
1 thought on "How-To: Acorn Napkin Rings"
[…] Tip #1– Ditch the disposables. Make your own fall decorations like acorn napkin ties, dried leaf place cards, corn or leaf print placemats, pinecone turkeys, painted gourds, and DIY […]
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