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Global Lessons, Putting America to Work
Aired September 23, 2012 - 20:00 ET
FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST: Welcome to a GPS special, "Global Lessons, Putting America to Work." I'm Fareed Zakaria. This year's election will hinge on one question. Whom do you trust to be your job creator-in-chief? Unemployment stubbornly remains above 8 percent. If you add those who stopped looking for a job or can only find part-time work, we are near 15 percent. Bad news for President Obama. But here's a hard truth. Over the past two decades, U.S. recoveries have been increasingly jobless, no matter who's been in charge. The consultants at McKinsey point out that after every recession from World War II through the 1980s it took us around six months to recover lost jobs, but after the 1990 recession, it took us 15 months to recover those jobs. After the 2001 recession, it took 39 months. And after the 2008 downturn, McKinsey says, it will take 60 months, five whole years, to get back to where we were. Why has this problem grown over the last 20 years? The most plausible explanation is that the revolutions of information technology and globalization make it much easier for work to be done by machines or cheap labor overseas. That may be great for companies and for capital, but it places tough pressures on the American worker. So what can be done? In this hour, we are going to offer you a global perspective on jobs, taking you around the world to look for solutions to our unemployment crisis. We will visit Europe, Asia and the Middle East. We will also visit Chicago, where I spoke to President Obama's former chief of staff, now mayor, Rahm Emanuel. He is trying a bold, local experiment that Washington refuses to try. But first, let's look at how to solve one of the most crucial aspects of the jobs crisis, what to do about youth unemployment, which often turns into enduring adult unemployment. Over 16 percent of Americans under 25 are jobless. One country in Europe may have a solution. Let's get started. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA (voice-over): Meet Florian Vols (ph). He's 23, just a few years out of high school. In the U.S., he'd have a one in six chance of being unemployed as a young adult. But Vols lives in Germany, where the youth unemployment rate is less than half of ours. One of the reasons for that Germany's apprentice system. Vols has an apprenticeship Siemens, the high-tech manufacturing giant. The company gives him over three years of paid training, a guaranteed job offer, plus he attends a vocational school. FLORIAN VOLS, YOUNG WORKER: We know that we can work afterwards here and have a job and a fixed job. ZAKARIA: Siemens isn't the only German company offering this sweet deal. Businesses in almost every industry offer paid training, and in most cases, a full-time job, while the government provides a free vocational education. Almost two-thirds of Germany's young people take part in apprenticeships. PETER SOLMON, SIEMENS: It ranges from hair dresser training to, you know, running a nuclear power plant. ZAKARIA: Siemens' Peter Solmon says his company is training around 10,000 apprentices in Germany. There is a hefty price tag for each training, over $120,000. (on camera): That's major investment. SOLMON: It is. ZAKARIA: And you think you get a return on it? SOLMON: We know we do. ZAKARIA: And other companies in Germany do similar things? SOLMON: This is not forced upon us. We believe it's a good business model. And I think that Germany's success as an exporting company is based on this skill. ZAKARIA (voice-over): Germany's success has been nothing short of remarkable. Once known as the sick man of Europe, the country enacted reforms, cut costs and went through a painful period of restructuring. In 2005, unemployment peaked at over 11 percent, much higher than the Eurozone and the United States. But the changes had made Germany much more competitive. Manufacturing exports started soaring and during the global recession, unemployment actually went down in Germany while everyone else's went up. Germany's apprentice system, providing a wealth of high-skilled workers, had a lot to do with that success. Apprentices at Siemens get a crash course in cutting-edge manufacturing. And also work on their own projects. They can even get a bachelor's degree. SOLMON: I think there's a sense in the United States that this apprenticeship training is somehow a lid on a kid's career and it's quite the opposite. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I already got my prototype working. ZAKARIA: When apprentices complete their training, they get a certificate that's accepted throughout their industry so they can even work for another company if they want. But at Siemens, over 85 percent end up staying after all of that free training. SOLMON: That kind of investment, that kind of participation with the employee, ends up in creating loyalty. ZAKARIA: The linchpin of Germany's apprentice system is collaboration. The companies, the vocational schools, the government and the trade unions all work together to make sure that industry and its future workforce are compatible. (on camera): So it is almost like a triangle between government, private business and educational institutions? SOLMON: Exactly. And that's what makes it difficult to export to other countries. ZAKARIA (voice-over): In the U.S., our patchwork system of job training programs is one of the reasons why we have 3.5 million job openings left unfilled. But near Siemens' plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company has found a worthy partner. Central Piedmont Community College has been running a program where students earn a degree and get trained by local manufacturers, just like in Germany. PAM HOUSE, SIEMENS U.S.: It's not rocket science. The Germans have been doing this forever. ZAKARIA: Siemens' Pam House says their first apprentices will fill vacant positions at the plant as veteran workers retire. HOUSE: I can live with the 93rd. ZAKARIA: But House faces a big challenge, convincing students that a four-year college degree isn't the only route to success. HOPE JOHNSON, SIEMENS EMPLOYEE: It was never a plan for me to be working in any type of industrial factory. So we need to loosen these. ZAKARIA: Hope Johnson was an honor student in high school. JOHNSON: That's good. ZAKARIA: And says her parents really wanted her to attend a university. But as a math and science enthusiast, Hope loved Siemens' high-tech facility and her parents loved the free tuition. JOHNSON: You just focused on your grades and you focus on what you're learning in the factory because they are paying for everything. ZAKARIA: Now, Johnson is learning how to operate the machines that build Siemens' massive generators. JOHNSON: I talked to my friends, they're working at fast food restaurants. They're working at grocery stores, and then I work in a giant factory making stuff for power plant, and so you can't beat that. ZAKARIA: But the big question is whether or not apprenticeship programs like Siemens' can be scaled up and offered all over the country. More companies will need to invest in training and attitudes toward blue-collar work will need to change. SOLMON: In Germany, they're called the bluemener, the blue men, because they wear blue overalls. And they're very proud of being bluemenner. They're very proud. ZAKARIA (on camera): But how do we achieve that cultural shift? Because in America, that wouldn't quite be true. SOLMON: I think it was true. I think it was true. And I think, you know, these words apprentice, and journeyman and master were in the English language for a long time. Benjamin Franklin worked from Boston to Philadelphia to be an apprentice. This is something that we have in our history. We just have to bring it back. (END VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: If Germany reminds us to return to our roots to help the next generation find jobs, another country has a way to help the current workforce. Its unemployment rate is only 5 percent. How do they do it? Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAKARIA: So, Germany shows us how to get young people into an employment pipeline. But what about people who are already employed? How do we make sure they stay employed through the peaks and troughs of the national economy, through the highs and lows of their industry? For that we traveled to the Netherlands, which has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe. What's their secret? It's something called Flexicurity. Come with me and I will explain. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started as a mechanic. Then became testers and then trouble shooter. ZAKARIA (voice-over): Patricia Vander Vain works at Royal Philips Electronics. You probably it simply as Philips. They make everything from simple light bulbs to high-tech medical equipment. She never went to college but Philips has trained her to do three different jobs. Her stint as a mechanic was on the assembly line. She was a coil tester. And now she is a troubleshooter for the MRI machines that help scan patients' bodies in hospitals around the world. Why? In the Netherlands, it is all about making sure people can stay employed despite of any economic curve balls. TON WILTHAGEN, TILBURG UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: It's not about the same job the lifetime employment but it's about keeping people employable. ZAKARIA: Tilburg University professor Ton Wilthagen advised the European commission to help EU countries create more and better jobs. That earned him a unique nickname. WILTHAGEN: People started to call me Mr. Flexicurity. Whether this is a good name or a bad name depends because it's still a real debate, you know? ZAKARIA: Flexicurity is a fiercely debated concept that was first coined in Denmark. It combines ideas from both sides of the Atlantic. On the one hand, American American-style flexibility, the ability for employers to hire and fire with relative ease. On the other, a traditional Europe-style security net, making sure the employee is taken care of if they are fired or laid off. But in the wake of austerity with unemployment soaring, some argue that the Danish fairy tale lost its plot. So the Netherlands does flexibility a little differently. A centerpiece of the Dutch system is something call a mobility center, a partnership among companies that helps people find their next job instead of being let go. Frans van Houten is the CEO of Philips, one of the largest employers in the Netherlands. FRANS VAN HOUTEN, PHILIPS CEO: We also invest in their re- employability, so that the skills that maybe Philips may no longer need but could be very useful in other companies will be made available. (END VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: In America an employer facing a downturn would simply lay off employees. In the Netherlands, they are sent to the mobility center where a great effort is made to find them work with one of the other partner companies. It helps companies share risks in bad times while still actively maintaining a trained workforce that they can tap into in good times. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILTHAGEN: Everybody needs workers because it's an aging society so they need to -- the support of other companies. So it's like a joint interest. ZAKARIA (voice-over): It also helps the bottom line, adds Professor Ton Wilthagen. Companies have a huge incentive to place the worker elsewhere. If they don't, they have to pay the employee's unemployment benefits for up to 38 months. VON HOUTEN: By working together with other companies in the mobility center, it is something that we do not have to carry on our own, but rather, it becomes a job market and the attractiveness of a job market is that it facilitates people, make a demand and supply meet and that's what we all want. ZAKARIA: Philips CEO Frans van Houten is leading an industry that is undergoing a major revolution. VON HOUTEN: At this moment in lighting, we see a major shift from traditional lamps to LED lighting, but it has, as an unintended consequence, that some of the older technologies become obsolete. ZAKARIA: As technologies evolve, oftentimes jobs become redundant, too. And instead of laying off the incandescent worker, Philips might try to move them to other jobs within the company. Remember Patricia whom you met earlier who's trained at three different jobs? If one goes away, she has skills for another. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I'm in a better position in the job market now than a couple of years ago. ZAKARIA: And if that doesn't work, there's the mobility center. VON HOUTEN: If she want to lay off somebody it will actually cost money and that money usually goes to the employee. In the mobility center, we invest some of the money that may actually go for compensating the layoff in actually helping the employee find another position. ZAKARIA: It's a win-win for the company and for its employees. In some cases, companies like Philips even temporarily pay the difference in people's salaries if they have to take lower-paying jobs. It is work, transition and training programs like these that have helped the Netherlands' unemployment rate drop 60 percent since the 1980s. But the Dutch have also taken the flexibility part of Flexicurity to the next dimension. Half of the population, 77 percent of women and 25 percent of men, work part time. So there are simply more jobs to go around. And people largely like the balance, says Professor Wilthagen. WILTHAGEN: Those people, most of them do not want a full-time job, that is part of the Dutch model. ZAKARIA: Of course, these protections are so expensive that companies are also starting to rely more and more on temporary agency workers who enjoy most of the same rights as regular workers but can be dismissed more easily. And that, says Wilthagen, could lead to greater inequality. But overall, he adds, there's a reason the Netherlands has one of the best trained and most productive labor forces in the world. WILTHAGEN: It's not only corporate social responsibility but it's also self-interest. It is a small country. We want to be competitive, so let's not waste the human capital, the talent that's here. Let's try to keep it in our region. (END VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: The key lesson America can take from Holland and Germany is that companies are giving incentives to invest in their workers so that even when they do let them go, those workers retain skills and can be reemployed. Up next, should government be in the business of backing whole industries in order to create jobs? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAKARIA: We've seen how Germany gets young people into the workforce and how the Netherlands keeps people there. But what about government supporting specific industries in order to help create jobs? Yes, I'm talking about industrial policy, a taboo subject in America. But government support for industry is worth examining, because it has created a lot of jobs for some of the world's fastest-growing economies. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA (voice-over): It's a busy day Hyundai Heavy Industries ship building plant in Ulsan, South Korea. Over 10,000 workers at Hyundai Heavy churn out a massive new ship every three days. Forty years ago, this shipyard didn't even exist and South Korea's ship building industry was tiny. But today, this midsized nation of 50 million people is the number one ship builder in the world. With an industry that supports a huge number of jobs. MICHAEL LIND, CO-FOUNDER, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: Today almost half the world's commercial ships are made in South Korea. ZAKARIA: Michael Lind, co-founder of the New America Foundation, runs the think-tanks program on economic growth. He points out that South Korea's dictator in the 1960s and '70s, Pack Chung He, gave subsidies to develop heavy industries like steel, ship building and cars. The companies that were backed, Hyundai, LG and Samsung, are now household names. Other Asian countries, like China and Japan, funded industry too often within impressive results. LIND: Together, they had 8 percent of global ship building in 1975. This year, they have more than 90 percent. It is entirely a product of industrial policy and in particular subsidies by governments. ZAKARIA: U.S. ship building once thrived, says Lind, thanks in part to subsidies but in the 1980s, President Reagan eliminated many of those subsidies. How is the industry doing today? LIND: The United States has 0.5 percent of commercial sea going, ship building right now. ZAKARIA: Of course, industrial policy can be a losing strategy, too. (on camera): The government is spending all this money favoring one industry over the other. And it's going to make lots of mistakes. LIND: That's right in the sense that you get a -- sometimes a massive misallocation of resources. ZAKARIA (voice-over): Just look at the solar company Solyndra. It got a big loan from President Obama's Department of Energy and promptly went bankrupt, costing taxpayers half a billion dollars. The federal government might be wary after the Solyndra disaster but one state is getting into the game in a different way. An initiative in Albany has made New York a leader in a cutting-edge industry, nanotechnology. DR. ALAIN KALOYEROS, UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY-SUNY: It's innovation that's going to have significant implications for society. ZAKARIA: Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, physicist, inventor and fully licensed nano-geek, heads the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which is part of the State University of New York. (on camera): What is nanotechnology anyway? KALOYEROS: The core of it is the know-how of how to manage individual atoms and molecules. ZAKARIA (voice-over): Nanotechnology shows up everywhere in our lives from medicine to computer chips. Kaloyeros and state officials convinced over 300 nanotech companies to come to Albany, creating 15,000 jobs across New York. KALOYEROS: The average wage for one of those jobs is $92,000. We are talking about $1.3, $1.4 billion in wages alone going into the state's economy. ZAKARIA: How did they do it? Using an industrial policy of sorts. But with a caveat. KALOYEROS: Not a single dollar goes to the companies. ZAKARIA: In the mid-1990s then Governor Mario Cuomo approved a $1 million grant to the State University of New York to create a nanotech research hub that companies could use. Companies started giving money, too, because the cost of having their own research facilities was a huge expense. KALOYEROS: They can't afford doing it on their own. So they love to partner with us. ZAKARIA: Big names like IBM, Intel and Samsung all got into the mix, creating a massive center of innovation. New York State has given $1 billion to the college. But companies have given over $13 billion. KALOYEROS: We are not picking winners and losers. ZAKARIA (on camera): So you're not picking specific companies or specific adaptations of technology. You are creating a kind of open infrastructure which anybody can use? KALOYEROS: Absolutely. ZAKARIA (voice-over): The college has lifted Albany's economy, giving many workers a second chance. John Keefe was laid off from a paper manufacturer after working there for almost 23 years. He and some of his former co-workers were retrained by the college to work in the ultrasterile clean room where computer chips are made. Putting on the required bunny suit felt odd at first but Keefe has gotten used to t. JOHN KEEFE, WORKER: I'm very happy here, they take very good care of me, I'm hoping to retire from here. ZAKARIA: The next step is to apply the nanotech research hub model to other industries. The college received over $57 million from the Department of Energy to form a hub for America's solar companies. (on camera): You think this is a much better model than the Solyndra model of giving money to an individual company? KALOYEROS: Absolutely. The White House, the federal government, have to look at how New York does things. You don't pick winners and losers, you focus on what the scientists are telling you is the science of the 21st century. (END VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: When we come back, we will show you another lesson on job creation in a very unlikely place, a desert oasis in the Middle East. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAKARIA: Government funding for specific industries to help create jobs can be a hit-or- miss proposition. But there's one industry in America with tremendous potential for job growth and it needs fewer regulations, not government money. The tourism industry. And few places do tourism better than Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA (voice-over): The world's tallest building, over half a mile high, man-made islands shaped like a palm tree, sprouting with luxury hotels. There's even an indoor ski slope in this desert oasis, conveniently located in a shopping mall. Dubai stops at nothing to woo tourists and when tourists come and spend their money, they are like walking job stimulus program. FRITZ VAN PAASSCHEN, CEO OF STARWOOD HOTELS AND RESORTS: They will create about a million jobs by the end of this decade just from travel and tourism. ZAKARIA: Fritz van Paasschen is passion is the CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the company that owns the Sheraton, Westin and W Hotel brands. Starwood has 15 hotels in Dubai. More than any other city in the world except New York. That's remarkable, considering Dubai's small size, a little over two million people. VAN PAASSCHEN: Twenty or 30 years ago, people didn't think of going there. Now if you're in Europe, or especially if you're in Russia, it's a place where people go. ZAKARIA: By 2020, hotel guests are predicted to triple and Dubai aims to create 950,000 jobs, fuelled by tourism and related sectors. VAN PAASSCHEN: This idea that a small city-state could create a million jobs in a decade that's an enormous amount of growth. ZAKARIA: Dubai's success in tourism comes at the perfect time because the industry is booming across the world. Companies like China, Brazil and India have rapidly growing middle classes that are keen to see the world. Almost 18 million Chinese are expected to travel outside their country this year, according to the Chinese government. That number is expected to be over 100 million in 2015. VAN PAASSCHEN: The opportunity in travel and tourism today is bigger than it ever was. ZAKARIA: But the U.S. has been missing out on that opportunity in a big way. After 9/11, America tightened its visa policies to improve security. Partly as a result, the travel industry says we have lost around one-third of our share of the international travel market. The good news is we can turn things around. (on camera): How big could America's tourism industry be if we got all these things right? Because this is the country everyone wants to come to. VAN PAASSCHEN: If the U.S. could just get back to its own share of international travel that it's lost in the last decade, that would amount to about 1.3 million jobs, which is roughly 20 percent of the total number of jobs that were lost in the entire crisis. That's big number. ZAKARIA (voice-over): So what can learn from Dubai to boost tourism at home? Lesson number one, make those visas easier to come by. Dubai hands out visas to many foreign nationals right at the airport. We can't do that for every tourist but we could at least make it easier for people to apply for visas. ZAKARIA (voice-over): We have five places you can get a visa in China and that's in a country with 170 cities of over a million people. So, in fact, so many people have to take a trip before they even make the trip. ZAKARIA: The cost of more visa processing, says Van Paasschen, would easily be paid for by the increase in tourism business. Lesson number two, promote your tourist destination. Promote it like there's no tomorrow. Dubai has its own Department of Tourism and the United Arab Emirates' marketing efforts have been ranked first by the World Economic Forum. Washington has historically had little involvement in wooing tourists. Things are changing, slightly. The President and Congress created Brand USA, a public-private entity that will promote America abroad and the State Department has improved visa processing and says that wait times are dropping. But with greater ambition and the courage to do away with bureaucratic obstacles, this industry could grow mightily. VAN PAASSCHEN: The way I would describe it as a business person is it's a good start, it's not mission accomplished. ZAKARIA: And there's one area where we are still way behind. Lesson number three from Dubai. Infrastructure. Right now the airport for this tiny city-state is one of the world's busiest. But apparently that wasn't enough, because they are building a new airport that would be the busiest, by far, in the world, handling 120 million passengers a year. Not bad for a place that was only a small fishing village a few decades ago. VAN PAASSCHEN: This is a lesson that the U.S. has taught the rest of the world. There probably wasn't a very good reason to go to Los Vegas a couple of decades ago. You could make the same argument about Orlando. But U.S. business created those areas as a destination. Created jobs, created an industry that the rest of the world took notice of and has done a wonderful job of copying in some areas. (END VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: When we come back, we'll return to the United States and show you an experiment in infrastructure that's turning heads and will create jobs in the Windy City of Chicago. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon. Here are your headlines to hour. A wall of snow has killed at least 11 people on one of the world's highest mountains. More than a dozen climbers are still missing on Nepal's Mount Manaslu after an avalanche swept through their camp sites. These pictures show rescuers evacuating the injured. More than 200 people were attempting to climb the mountain, which is considered one of the world's most dangerous to navigate. A schizophrenic double-amputee in a wheelchair shot to death by a Houston police officer. Brian Claunch allegedly had threatened people at a home for the mentally ill and then tried to stab the police officer's partner with what turned out to be a pen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JODI SILVA, SPOKESWOMAN, HOUSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: The other officer, Officer Marin, in fear of the safety of his partner and the safety of himself, discharged his duty weapon, striking the suspect. (END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: The man initially got upset when he was denied a cigarette and a soda. The officer is on administrative leave. Tiger who? Rory who? Most of the attention was on the names like Woods, McIlroy heading into golf's PGA Tour championship in Atlanta but today, the spotlight is on the tournament and FedEx Cup champion, Brant Snedeker, who takes home more than $11 million. Not a bad day's pay for a round of golf. Those are your headlines this hour. I'm Don Lemon, keeping you informed. CNN, the most trusted name in news. ZAKARIA: In 2002, the World Economic Forum ranked U.S. infrastructure fifth in the world. In its latest report, we're 25th. Why? Well, these days, the rest of the developed world spends substantially more on infrastructure than we do. Many emerging markets do even more. China spends 9 percent of its GDP on infrastructure to our 2.4 percent. Our bridges are falling down, our power grid is antique, our water mains are bursting and where are the great projects of the future? With borrowing costs lower than ever before in history, why can't we invest more and start putting people to work doing it? One man is on a mission to do just that. At least in his Windy City. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL, CHICAGO: You can't have a 21st century economy sitting at 20th century foundation. ZAKARIA (voice-over): Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the notoriously sharp-witted. EMANUEL: How dare you? ZAKARIA: And sharp-tongued former chief of staff for President Obama, has a bold plan to rebuild his city. BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: When I secured these agreements to come to work for my presidential campaign, neither one of us had gray hair. (LAUGHTER) ZAKARIA: And he's getting help from an old friend. CLINTON: What you are doing here is the first, in effect, infrastructure bank using private capital that any city in the United States has established. This is a huge deal. ZAKARIA: The Chicago Infrastructure Trust is Mayor Emanuel's plan to tap private investors to pay for big infrastructure projects that the government can no longer afford. The private investors would expect returns from project revenues, savings or fees. It's a model that's been successful all over the world, from the expansion of Europe's largest port in Rotterdam to the creation of the world's largest eco- city in Tianjin, China. CLINTON: This is a classic example of what works in the modern world. ZAKARIA (on camera): Everywhere that is, except in America. Until now. (voice-over): The Chicago Nonprofit Trust intends to pour $7.2 billion into adding runway to O'Hare, rebuilding crumbling roads, fixing aging schools, repairing dilapidated rail lines, and much more. EMANUEL: In the next three years, we're going to create 30,000 jobs in the building trades area. Engineers, electrical workers, carpenters, all going to work. ZAKARIA: Five investment firms have expressed interests in being part of Chicago's public-private trust. Citigroup, a sponsor of this program, is among those who have expressed such interest. But no proposals have yet been put forth and no money has yet been invested. By any of the potential private partners. America used to have the world's best infrastructure. In the 1950s, American highways, parks, state universities and airports were the envy of the world. EMANUEL: When this country invested 4 percent of its economic GDP in infrastructure, our economy grew at 4 percent. Not exactly 88 (ph) but close. And when we scaled back our investments as a country to 2 percent, our economy grew at that level. ZAKARIA: And with the government investing less, Emanuel is taking matters into his own hands. His first project, an energy retrofit of several public buildings, including the Chicago Cultural Center, one of the city's largest energy consumers. EMANUEL: This is the one we call in the boiler world, AARP, it's the senior citizen? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exactly. Right. Right. EMANUEL: All right. ZAKARIA: The retrofit would shave the city's energy bill by 25 percent over the next three years. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These were put in 1974. ZAKARIA: The city plans to take those utility bills' savings -- an estimated $20 million a year -- and use that to pay back potential investors for the $225 million retrofit. In addition to increasing efficiency, Emanuel says, he has to make up for a century of neglect. EMANUEL: So this 1885? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. ZAKARIA: Just look at the water system. More than 3,800 water pipes broke in Chicago in the last year alone, costing the city tens of millions of dollars. So he is repairing or replacing 900 miles of water pipe over the next decade. The city council voted overwhelmingly to pass the trust and will get approval on all projects. But critics question whether it's a smart move. They point to the bungled 75-year lease of the city's parking meters by the previous mayor in return for quick cash to cover the city's budget shortfall in 2008. EMANUEL: There's a role for public/private partnerships, selling an asset is the private taking over a public entity. That's the wrong way to go, in my view. ZAKARIA: Whatever happens with Emanuel's experiment, this is not just a Chicago story, according to Brooking senior fellow, Robert Fuentes. ROBERT FUENTES, BROOKINGS INSTITUTIONS: There's a lot of questions. I think the folks are very eager to understand how this is going to work. Whatever happens, positive or negative, the Chicago lessons will absolutely have a ripple effect across the country. ZAKARIA: The Chicago Infrastructure Trust is perhaps a local version of the National Infrastructure Bank, an idea not even Rahm Emanuel could push through during his time at the White House. (on camera): Why did the National Infrastructure Bank idea not take off? EMANUEL: Because it's got caught up in the -- both the politics of not making sure that the President doesn't have a win and also in the politics of ideology. ZAKARIA: For his part, Emanuel says we need jobs now and need modern infrastructure for the long term and he is done waiting for the gridlock to clear in Washington or at the state capital. EMANUEL: The Infrastructure Trust allows us to actually start to unlock our future, take control of our destiny and not leave it beholden to either the problem, the challenges or the dysfunction of either Washington or Springfield. (END VIDEOTAPE) ZAKARIA: Infrastructure spending is the fastest way to create jobs, especially in the construction sector. The hardest hit by the recession. An investment here lays the foundation for our economy to remain competitive for decades to come. Up next, my thoughts on putting America to work. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAKARIA: We've watched how countries around the world have created jobs, with lessons for how we might do some of the same, but before we talk about the technicalities of training programs, boosting tourism and funding technology, there is a larger question that many Americans wonder about. Should the government do anything at all? Should it just get out of the way? This debate is on display in the American presidential campaign. On the one hand, President Obama has been making the case that the economy needs investments in infrastructure, education, training, science and technology. Those investments and the President's telling, are the key drivers of American growth, jobs and industries. As we saw that is certainly how the German and South Korean governments have approached growth. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's wonderful to be with you. Thank you. (END VIDEO CLIP) ZAKARIA: Governor Romney, on the other hand, argues that America needs tax and regulatory relief. The country is overburdened by mandates, taxes and rules that make it difficult for businesses to function, grow and prosper, he says. He wants to cut taxes, reduce regulations and streamline government. And looking at places from Switzerland to Singapore to Dubai, you can see that being friendly to business and to tourists can produce an economic bonanza. In some areas, like infrastructure, most agree that the government must act and the need is urgent. If you defer maintenance on your house, the house deteriorates and eventually, you actually have to pay more. That is what we are doing with our infrastructure. Rather than fix it now when borrowing costs are at historic lows, we are passing a much bigger bill to our children. As I mentioned earlier, the World Economic Forum ranks us 25th in the world in infrastructure, down from fifth only a decade ago. Education may be more complex. Just spending money isn't the answer, but the problem is clear. In the 1970s, America led the world in the number of college graduates. As of 2009, we are 14th among rich countries. And the jobs of the future will all require more education than in the past. Or take federal funding for research and development, which is at half the share of GDP than it was in 1960, according to the National Science Foundation. Industrial policy is more controversial, though historically there is simply no question that the U.S. government has provided massive support for industries like aircraft, semiconductors and the Internet. Fracking, by the way, was a technique pioneered with funding and help from the Department of Energy. Let's be clear, though, Governor Romney has a strong case to make as well. That same World Economic Forum study that gave us four marks for infrastructure gives us terrible marks on taxes and regulation. On the burden of government regulation category the United States ranks 76th, with a score of 3.3 on a total scale of from zero to seven. On the extent and effect of taxation the United States ranks 69th out of 144 countries. On total tax rate, percentage of profits, the United States came in 103rd out of 144. Now the truth is that overall the U.S. economy remains highly competitive. The World Economic Forums' report ranks the U.S. overall as the seventh most competitive in the world. That's why a few months ago, "The Economist" magazine predicted an American economic renaissance. Where we have slipped badly of late is in our investments, in people, science and infrastructure. So President Obama's message is urgent and relevant. But why do we have to choose between these two views? We need tax and regulatory reform to make ourselves competitive. America has to make itself attractive for investors, consumers and tourists alike, but we should also make the crucial investments we need for a 21st century economy. These two views look at the same challenge from different perspectives. Governor Romney is right to look at the world that companies operate in with its challenges and opportunities. Over the last 20 years shall, as communism collapsed and socialism has been discredited, countries around the world have become more business friendly, lowering taxes and streamlining regulations. The U.S. has to stay competitive or over the long run, investment, industry and jobs will move to other lands. President Obama's view looks at the world from the perspective of an American worker. As more countries have joined the open global economy, these workers face intense competition from much cheaper labor. McKinsey estimates that between 1980 and 2010, the pool of workers in the world expanded by 1.2 billion as Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and Africans moved from rural villages to cities and started to work in factories and offices. Add to that the powerful effects of technology, which make it easier to get work done with fewer workers. We live in exciting times of globalization and amazing technological revolutions. Some, those at the top, large companies, will be able to ride through an exciting and expanding new landscape. But many Americans will need help to better prepare themselves to compete in this brave new world. Don't forget, you can catch my regular show, GPS on Sundays at 10 a.m. Eastern and Pacific in North America. Thanks to all of you for tuning in. (END)


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Promotional videos can be really awesome or really cheesy. This new one for the Surface Pro falls in the middle. It doesn't offer any of the heavy bass drops from the dubstep intro for the first Surface, but it does highlight some of the compelling features of the Surface Pro. Check it out.
Not a flashy ad, but it does tick off some of the features that set the Surface Pro apart from other tablets. The emphasis was definitely on productivity over consumption. Clever of them to highlight the ability to charge a USB device from the power brick and the pen with Photoshop. Two little tricks that most tablets like the iPad or Nexus 7 can't really compete with. I think the goal was to show this is more than just a tablet, it's a full blown PC.
Videos like this aren't meant to be shown on traditional TV ads, it runs at an attention deficit busting 1 minute and 24 seconds. It's mostly meant for people doing researching Surface Pro online, it could also do well with those ads that you're shown before a movie starts at a theatre.
With the Surface Pro coming out in a little over two weeks, we'll probably see more advertising as that date approaches. Any of you thinking of picking one up?


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Water Companies Directory featuring Water Companies in Towns and Cities across United Kingdom with photos, phone numbers, maps, addresses, ratings and reviews.
There are many businesses that advertise for free in our Water Companies Directory. If you would like a life long free business listing please click the link below.


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If you have a network card that supports wake-on-lan, you can powerup your mythbox by sending it a 'magic packet' over the network. Here's what i did (i use an Epia M10k with Fedore Core 4):
Setting up
First, find out whether your network card supports wol:
# ethtool eth0 Settings for eth0: Supported ports: [ TP MII ] Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Supports auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Speed: 100Mb/s Duplex: Full Port: MII PHYAD: 1 Transceiver: internal Auto-negotiation: on Supports Wake-on: pumbg Wake-on: g Current message level: 0x00000001 (1) Link detected: yes
The 'g' in Supports Wake-on: pumbg indicates that wake-on-lan by using a 'magic packet' is indeed supported. Next, you need to make sure that wake-on-lan support is enabled in the BIOS (although, this does not seem to be necessary for my motherboard). In addition, you need to tell your network card to enable wake-on-lan:
# ethtool -s eth0 wol g
Since after rebooting Wake-on will be reset, you might what to add it to /etc/rc.local:
# echo 'ethtool -s eth0 wol g' >> /etc/rc.local
Now turn off you mythbox and send it a 'magic packet'.
Sending 'magic packet' to wake up your mythbox
You will need a wake-on-lan client to send 'magic packets' over your network. First, determine the MAC address of the machine you what to power on:
# ifconfig
Turn off you mythbox and from another computer execute the following command (replacing the MAC address with the one you just found). I used a wake-on-lan client from Sourceforge.
$ wol 00:4F:49:07:0B:5F
If all went well, your mythbox will boot up now! There are other clients for Windows and Mac OS X as well.
Useful links:
- http://ahh.sourceforge.net/wol/ (wake-on-lan client + additinal information)
- http://dag.wieers.com/packages/wol/ (wol packages for RedHat and Fedora)
- http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/ethtool.8.html (man page for ethtool)
- http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/gkernel/ (gkernel package that contains ethtool)


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The Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship, a $600 grant for a year-long Fellowship including a week-long Intensive Training for high school and college students from June 27 to July 3, 2018, will launch its 18th annual cycle in June 2018. For information about the Fellowship or to obtain an application, please click here.
Seeking to replace war, racism, and economic injustice with nonviolence, equality, peace and justice.
WWFOR seeks to replace violence, war, racism and economic injustice with nonviolence, equality, peace and justice.
WWFOR supports many local chapters with weekly events in your neighborhood.
WWFOR depends upon the generous contributions of those who share our ideals of peace, justice and nonviolence.
WWFOR has a long tradition of activism and works on a variety of issues at any given time.
Our Campaigns
Fall Retreat 2018
WWFOR's 2018 Fall Retreat will be held Saturday November 17, 2018 in Lacey, Washington. The theme is "Displacement, Resilience, and Healing: Bridging Our Diverse Communities with Respect, Understanding, & Solidarity" *more information* fall retreat flyer & email registration info
Seabeck Conference 2019
Fierce Vulnerability: A Radical Movement of Healing & TransformationJune 28 - July 1, 2019 61st Annual Northwest Regional Fellowship of Reconciliation Conference at Seabeck Speakers - Workshops - Youth Program - Children's Program - Music, Dance, Poetry - Boating/Swimming For more information, click here.
2019 Spring Assembly
"Embracing Conflict"To be held April 6, 2019, in the Fellowship Hall of Fauntleroy UCC's church building, 9140 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98136.
About Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation
Since 1915, the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) has carried on programs and educational projects concerning domestic and international peace and justice, nonviolent alternatives to conflict, and the rights of conscience.
We Don't Feel Better Off Because We Are Not
We Don't Feel Better Off Because We Are Not. Dear trade experts: Cheaper consumer goods don't make up for...
December 2018 Newsletter and Calendar now available!
NEWSLETTER AND CALENDAR. The December 2018 issue of Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation's newsletter, Pacific Call, is now available: pdf...


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Registry 1.3.1 Description:
Registry is a digital checkbook register. There are several special features that make Registry different than most other simple financial database programs, though. First, Registry has Direct Entry Editing, where many others use a separate window or section to actually edit the information. Next, Registry has Text File Importing so that you can import files from other sources, such as from other applications or downloaded from an online bank. Also, Registry has Text Auto-Completion for name and descriptions that are repeated often.


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Light weight composite touring pole with feminine styling. EVA grip and a soft, faux fur lined strap.
- Composite shaft with 16mm top diameter, 11mm near tip
- EVA performance grip
- Basic strap, easy to take off and put on, minimal. With fur lining
- Larger basket for more floatation in powder. Fits shafts with 11 mm diameter tip


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Computer Science
Minor in Computer Science
A minor in Computer Science provides the basics from the field of digital computing. Many major areas can be enhanced by studying the concepts and principles of computer science and developing skills from those studies. Students with majors in mathematics, engineering, management and other areas leading to careers in a technology-related environment would benefit from the foundation gained by taking computer science courses.
The Evangel University Department of Natural and Applied Sciences is dedicated to the spiritual, academic and social growth of every student. The department's purpose is to provide an excellent scientific education that is thoroughly integrated with the University's emphasis on the development of strong Christian character. Within this framework, students must contend with new scientific, social, ethical and technological challenges. Students learn to communicate technical concepts clearly and effectively and exhibit analytical thinking and problem solving skills. Computer science involves the logic, principles and properties that underlie the design and implementation of computers, the software that runs them and the hardware components. Computer science is very mathematical in nature. To develop logic skills, the CPSC minor includes programming with the development/implementation of algorithms. Students are introduced to basic computer architecture, programming in assembly language and computer hardware organization.
Each of Evangel's academic programs is made up of a set of core curriculum, program requirements and electives. The courses listed below are just a small sample of courses that might be taken as a part of this specific program.
|Introduction to Computer Science
|Introduction to the field of computer science, including computer architecture and ethics.
|Computer Hardware Organization
|Introduction to the organization and structure of the major hardware components in a computer system.
|Data Structures
|Continuation of CPSC 111 with additional and more complex data structures defined at the abstract, application, and implementation levels.
|Assembly Language Programming
|Introduction to the internal operation of a computer's machine language. Topics include computer architecture, data representation, storage definition, assembler concepts, and instruction formats in an assembler language.
|Introduction to File Processing
|Introduction to the concepts and techniques of structuring data on auxiliary storage devices. Common file organizations such as sequential, relative, and indexed.
Evangel University's world-class faculty is made up of caring, Christian professionals who are distinguished in their fields and dedicated to the development of tomorrow's Christian leaders.
NOTE: A minor is a secondary field of interest that is meant to complement your academic major. While your major is chosen for your intended career choice, your minor may be something you pursue for your personal interest or to augment your major.The Computer Science minor would benefit technology-related professions such as:
- Engineers
- Managers
- Mathematicians
- Information Technology (IT) positions
- Chemists
- Physicists
No special requirements for this program.
General Undergraduate Requirements
The following are general requirements for all students beginning an undergraduate program at Evangel. For more information visit Undergraduate Admissions Requirements.
|Graduation from high school, or having the equivalent of a high school diploma such as the General Education Development (GED) examination.
|Core Subjects
|A minimum of a 2.0 GPA in core college prep classes (English, math, social sciences and science with a lab) or high school final GPA if no college credits have been earned.
|Standardized Tests
|>Entering freshmen should take the ACT or SAT test. The codes for Evangel are as follows: SAT: 6198. ACT: 2296.
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MaxHandle needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 123 designs submitted by 39 freelance designers.
FixYourErrors.com will be a website dedicated to covering all kinds of computer errors. A one-stop complete resource for errors of all kinds with resources as well as forums and interactive features allowing everyone to get help for their computer problems.
The target market is anyone with a computer error, all kinds of errors. All ages, all demographics.
Logo should include the name of website FixYourErrors.com. The design could be able to stand alone or be integrated with the words FixYourErrors.com.
Perhaps some kind of element to the left of FixYourErrors.com. The logo should be more horizontal, not vertical. For example integrate maybe a computer or error warning symbol, exclamation point, etc. into the logo or the text.
There are no limitations on colors. Simple, crisp and polished would be best. A 2.0 look might be preferable. It should not be too bland or only black and white though. Perhaps some blues, silver, or metallic. The logo can include shadows or have a glossy look.
Logo should be on a transparent background. Logo will likely be on a white or very light gray background.
The attitude of the website is cutting-edge, resourceful, helpful, and very friendly.
Design should not be overly complicated, but could include a custom graphic of some kind, a computer, or just a custom design.
Please do not visit the website and base your design or colors off of what is on the website, all aspects of the website will be changing. Ignore the current website.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Charlie Jaeger
|Metuchen, N.J.
|High School:
|Saint Joseph
|Middle Distance
Yale PRs
400m 51.52
400mR 50.6
800m 1:56.37
800mR 1:53.6
2010-2011: Regular contributor to 4x800m relay, running leadoff at IC4As and Penn Relays and placing at Heps …Split a personal best of 1:53.6 at IC4As …Indoors, competed in 4x800m at Heps and IC4As … Set Indoor PR in 800m run at Giegengack Invitational.
2009-2010: Set PR in 800m at Springtime Invitational during outdoor.
2008-2009: Ran a personal best of 1:58.37 in the 800m at the Springtime Invitational meet despite sustaining a shin injury that sidelined him for much of the indoor and outdoor seasons.
High School: Prepped at Saint Joseph High in Metuchen, N.J.
Personal: Saybrook College … Economics major … Winner of the 2011 Yale Chess Tournament.


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Los Angeles - On Oscar® Sunday February 24th, the Beverly Hills Hotel's Crystal Ballroom will once again provide the venue for the arrival of approximately 150-200 film and TV stars who will attend the hottest celebrity Awards party in town with even bigger names than last year.
Announcing The 23rd Annual Night of 100 Stars Black Tie Dinner Viewing Gala
Promo Video Beverly Hills Courier Foxnews.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqIEkcqXGQE&feature=youtu.be
Norby Walters, veteran music agent, reprises his role as Producer and Dinner Chairman.
The formal sit-down dinner viewing party has always included past Oscar winners and nominees who will return to pay tribute to this year's favorite Award nominees. Stars and their guests will be dressed to the nines in Formal fashions represented by the nations finest design houses.
The media has always rated the Night of 100 Stars as one of the top Award parties. The Daily News rated this party as "...the number one Oscar party, just for the sheer number of celebrities attending...". ABC's Good Morning America covers this party from inside and said. " Voting Academy members flock to the Night of 100 Stars and we are here tonight with many former Oscar and Golden Globe winners. Is this an Oscar party or the Golden Globes"? The Jimmy Kimmel Show tapes segments here for the show and said, " ...a wild party with mostly celebrities and they are everywhere you look..and they have the most beautiful girls". The Hollywood Reporter says, " Numerous former Academy Award winners and nominees turned out Sunday during the Night of 100 Stars Oscar Gala..including (150 stars) Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Landau, Chevy Chase, Fred Willard, James Cromwell, Ron Perlman, Renee Taylor, Jason Ritter, and so many more."
Last year over 200 + media outlets from the U.S. and nearly 50 International news outlets covered the Night of 100 Stars.
The Night of 100 Stars Oscar Party is the first to ever stream a live show worldwide starting 8 years ago when announced by the Hollywood Reporter's Paul Bond in a special Oscar party edition. Last years live streaming show was produced by Beverly Hills Courier TV®, and worldwide broadcast streamed on FoxNews.com.
2013 Celebrity List - A Partial List of celebrities for this year
Tom Sizemore, Anne Heche, Ron Perlman, Vincent Pastore, Toni Braxton, Billy Burke(Twilight), Peter Facinelli(Twilight), Arielle Kebbel, LeeAnn Rimes, Kevin McKidd (Grey's Anatomy), Kenny (Babyface)Edmonds, Ed Lauter(The Artist), Maggie Lawson (Psych), James Tupper, Jennie Garth, Garry Marshall, Marisol Nichols, Richard Dreyfuss, James Pickens, Michael Nouri, Bruce Boxleitner, Armand Assante, Sean Patrick Flannery, Bo Derek, Estella Warren, Lena Headey, Kristanna Loken, John Corbett, Joe Pantoliano, Dolph Lundgren, Tia Carrere, Robert Carradine, Annie Wersching(star of "24"), Richard Grieco, Bryan Cranston, John Ratzenberger, Autumn Reeser, Missi Pyle (The Artist), James Pickens, Nicholle Tom, Patrick Warburton, Michelle Lee, Diane Baker, and Gloria Allred , Jackie Johnson ( CBS on air personality and top 10 US weather girl) also expected is Sean Astin, Krista Allen, Ed Asner, Jason Alexander, Powers Boothe, Daniel Baldwin, Maggie-Q (Nikita), Jermaine Jackson, CCH Pounder, Timothy Busfield, Renee Taylor, Joe Bologna, Susan Blakely, Keith Carradine, David Hasselhoff, James Cromwell (The Artist), Stephen Collins, Michael Chiklis, Joanna Cassidy, Kevin Dillon, Lolita Davidovich, Robert Davi, Bruce Davison, Lou & Carla Ferrigno, Frances Fisher, Lorraine Toussaint, Dave Foley, Jon Favreau, Joely Fisher, Robert Forster, Jeff Garlin, James Darren, Carla Gugino, Dominick Dunne(in memorium), Lou Gossett Jr., Dennis Haysbert, Dule Hill, Cheryl Hines, Monty Hall, Harry Hamlin, Marilu Henner, Ken Howard, Traci Lords, Richard Karn, Martin Landau, Ron Livingston, Hal Linden, Richard Lewis, Sharon Lawrence, Michael Lerner, Matthew Modine, Chris McDonald, Camryn Manheim, Dylan McDermott, Jesse Metcalfe, Ming-Na, Judd Nelson, Kevin Nealon, Danielle Panabaker, Kevin Pollak, Stefanie Powers, Michelle Phillips, Lou Diamond Phillips, Freddie Rodriguez, Jason Ritter, Genevieve Mariko Wilson(Turning Japanese),Brande Roderick, Adam Rodriguez, Pat Richardson, George Segal, Fred Savage, John Schneider, Bai Ling, Tony Shaloub(Monk), Kevin Sorbo, Rob Schneider, Amber Tamblyn, Jennifer Tilly, the GEICO Caveman, and over 100 more are expected.
Jimmy Kimmel said, " The Night of 100 Stars has the most beautiful girls."
Aflong with the other 130 stars attending aproximately 50 Academy Award Winners and Nominees attend every year including: Jamie Foxx, Peter Fonda, , Danny Aiello, Jennifer Tilly, Linda Blair, Michael Lerner, Sally Kirkland, Gary Busey, Bruce Davison, Richard Dreyfuss, Cathy Moriarty, Kathleen Quinlan, Eric Roberts, Robert Forster, Diane Ladd, Caroll Baker, Rip Torn, Dean Stockwell, , Theodore Bikel, Don Murray, William H. Macy, Samantha Eggar, Glynis Johns, Terry Moore, Burt Young, Karen Black, George Chakiris, James Cromwell, Shirley Jones, Elliott Gould, Martin Landau, David Paymer, Robert Loggia, Renee Taylor, Joe Bologna, Brenda Vaccaro, Shirley Knight, Stuart Whitman, Carrie Snodgrass, Seymour Cassel, Lesley Ann Warren, Russ Tamblyn, Maximilian Schell, Sally Kellerman and Mickey Rooney.
THE MENU: The Gourmet 5 Star Cuisine prepared for the stars at The Night of 100 Stars Oscar party is available on request including the famed Beverly Hills Hotel's mixologist pouring custom made cocktails named after the Oscar nominees.
Tickets are $1,000 per seat. Call for tickets only at 310-446-5416.
See the Night of 100 Stars Official Web Site for further information including sponsors, and images of past parties. www.nightof100stars.com


text:
NETSCALER MPX 15500 FIPS STDItem#:� YYI2-63136M �|�Model#:�EW3E0000787
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text:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cranberries
1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour or line 12 wells of a muffin tin. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil and cottage cheese. In a medium bowl, whisk together baking powder, salt, sugar and flour. Mix into the egg mixture alternately with the milk. Mix thoroughly. Fold in cranberries. Fill each well 3/4 of the way up. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the center muffin comes out clean. Remove to wire rack and cool.


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The two tails of Comet Garradd
César Cantú is an astrophotographer in Mexico. I follow him on Twitter, and hardly a week goes by without him posting a link to some amazing picture he's taken of a celestial object.
And this is no exception: here is his image of Comet Garradd, a chunk of ice and rock that's currently about 200 million kilomertes (120 million miles) from Earth:
[Click to encomanate.]
Isn't that lovely? The comet itself is a bit smeared out since it moved over the time as the picture was taken. But even so, wait a sec — you may have noticed something else odd about this picture. Comets have a tail, right? So why do you see two tails, a blue one pointing off to the left and the other reddish, pointing off to the right?
Aha! Oh, I love a chance to lecture a bit. Bear with me. This is cool.
As I said, comets have a lot of ice in them. As they near the Sun that ice warms, and turns directly into a gas (that process is called sublimation). This gas expands away from the solid nucleus, forming a fuzzy cloud called the coma (Latin for "hair").
Now this is where things get interesting. This coma has both gas in it as well as dust and grains of rock carried off as the ice goes away. The Sun blows out a wind of subatomic particles called the solar wind. This ionizes the gas — strips off one or more electrons — and that gas then gets dragged along with the solar wind. That wind is moving, traveling at several hundred kilometers per second, far faster than the comet moves. So that tail gets blown directly away from the Sun. It tends to be blue (or sometimes green), due to the ionized gas in it.
But the dust and rock isn't affected as much. As it moves off the comet, it tends to lag behind a bit, following the comet in its orbit. This material reflects sunlight and also reddens it a bit, so that makes the dust tail look yellow or red.
And that's why there are two differently colored tails pointing in different directions! You can read more about this here.
In fact, I can show you what's going on even better. The JPL website has an orbit simulator for comets and asteroids, and I created a diagram for Comet Garradd for when César took his picture:
The Sun is in the center, and the planets are labeled; I deleted the orbits for all the planets except Earth and Jupiter so you can get a sense of the plane of the solar system. The comet is in blue, and as you can see its orbit is not at all aligned with the planets; it punches upward through the plane on the right, and then plunges back down on the left. It may be hard to get a 3D image of this in your head, but I added in the two tails: the blue ion tail pointing away from the Sun, and the redder dust tail lagging behind the comet itself. From the viewpoint of the Earth, "underneath" the comet, the tails appear to be on opposite sides of the comet and pointing in opposite directions! It's just perspective making it look that way; at this point in the comet's orbit the tails are actually closer to 90° apart.
Strange, isn't it? I've found that three-dimensional thinking is one of the tougher barriers to people really understanding how objects move in space (that, and the vast physical scale of space that crushes our minds to dust). But perspective counts! In astronomy, as well as life itself. And when you get a little perspective, why, sometimes things are even cooler than you first thought.
Image credit: César Cantú.
Related posts:
– Ten Things You Don't Know About Comets
– One more Lovejoy time lapse… maybe the last
– The Sun fries a comet and we got to watch
– The WISE family comets
Comments (14)
Links to this Post
- Las colas opuestas del cometa Garradd | Imagen astronomÃa diaria - Observatorio | February 28, 2012
Oh, I love a chance to lecture a bit. Bear with me. This is cool.
Oh how I love to listen to (read) you lecture. I will always bear with you.
As a pilot, I have always come by 3D thinking naturally. All that aerobatic training maybe? I know Kirk would never have tricked me like he did Khan.
And yes, this is cool as usual!
I am currently taking Astronomy 201, and during one of my classes the professor mentioned something about comets and how they have two tails. But since that wasn't the subject of the lecture, he said he would explain why when we get to that chapter. I intended to look it up on my own, but had forgotten about it. Thank you for the information.
And like the previous poster, I too enjoy reading your lectures.
The image there looks almost stellar with the rays artefact. Remarkable.
Without the write-up, going by just the photo I'd have first guessed it was a binary star – one hot the other cooler – with either jets or surrounding nebulosity.
Just goes to show how first impressions can be misleading! 😉
In astronomy, as well as life itself. And when you get a little perspective, why, sometimes things are even cooler than you first thought.
So absolutely right.
Also shows knowing something about what your seeing can make a huge difference in understanding and appreciation and spark sheer wonder of it.
That's a comet not what I'd guessed?
That dot is a whole other world of methane ice & rock and nitrogen snow with a moon larger in its sky than ours and three other smaller moons and maybe faint rings too?
That misty spot is a whole other distant galaxy two million light years away and yet on course for a close encounter that will merge with our own in billions of years time?
That fuzzy spec that looks like a slightly blurred star is a cluster of hundreds of thousands of the most ancient metal-poor stars orbiting our galaxy and maybe with an intermediate black hole at its core?
Thatstar at the heart of all that nebulosity is a hypergiant five million time s as bright as our Sun which may explode one night soon, maybe tonight, maybe in thousand years time or more and shine even brighter than than it did when it breifly became the second brightest in our skies a few hundred years ago?
A little knowledge & the perspective it brings can create a lot of superluminous awe. 8)
Re http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/02/22/the-two-tails-of-comet-garradd/, in the second sentence, that should be "his posting."
Comet Garradd…at Tanagra.
I was under the impression that both tails (gas and dust) get swept away from the sun, but to differing degrees (the gas tail, mostly by the solar wind; and the dust tail, mostly by photon pressure). The fact that dust particles are a lot heavier than gas molecules, and photon pressure is pretty wimpy, is why the gas tail tends to be straight (the force pushing it away from the nucleus overwhelms the sun's gravity) and dust tails tend to be curved (the dust particles follow slightly altered solar orbits, with gravity still playing a large role in their trajectories).
A really cool example of : "It's a matter of perspective". It took me about 2 seconds from seeing the image till I had the "3D image".
Very good shot.
When you look at better images of comet Garradd, e.g. those by Ronaldo Ligustri to which I'm often linking in my blog, you see that the dust tail is actually a wide fan as many finer particles *are* blown away by solar radiation pressure – the graphic here is misleading. That – regular – dust tail can be seen, in the better images, lying underneath the plasma tail. So technically Garradd has three tails: a gas tail, a dust tail and what's called an anti-tail.
"Aha! Oh, I love a chance to lecture a bit. "
I know. That's why I visit this site every day.
For  Zerodash-
"Comet Garradd…at Tanagra, arms wide"
"He's intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
Sorry, couldn't resist…
Wow… you were referenced in Today's APOD. Great Job.
For 28 Feb 2012
Way to go Phil !!!
look under the intermediate viewing angle. link
Neat. I was hoping we'd see a perspective shot like this since the last time BA talked about comets having two tails. And it didn't take long.


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Boulder has installed three cameras on the municipal campus and has been continuously videotaping the area between the municipal building and the Main Public Library and the area to the east of the municipal building since the beginning of the year.
Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner agreed to discuss the cameras after the Camera filed a public records request in response to an accidental mention of them at a City Council meeting Tuesday.
Beckner said Thursday that the three cameras were installed the week of Jan. 6 in response to an increase in reports of criminal activity on the municipal campus, especially the lawn area between the municipal building and the library.
The cameras, which cost $8,000, including installation, cover the area between the library and the city building and the area east of the city building, including a small portion of Central Park.
Beckner said that frequently the police department would receive a call about a fight, drug-dealing or urinating in public, but when officers arrived at the area, nothing would be going on. Police can now review footage from the cameras for evidence.
Beckner said police have already arrested at least one person involved in a fight through the use of camera footage who otherwise would not have been caught.
Boulder officials informed the City Council of the plan to install cameras on the municipal campus, but they did not tell the general public. A City Council member referred to the cameras Tuesday during a discussion of steps the city is already taking to address "social misbehavior" and criminal activity on the municipal campus. At the time, City Attorney Tom Carr quickly stopped the discussion.
After the Camera filed a public records request seeking more information about the use of surveillance, Carr said city officials would discuss the program and referred questions to Beckner.
Beckner said Thursday that officials always intended to make the surveillance program public, but they wanted to first see what types of behavior they would see when people didn't know they were being recorded. However, the extreme cold earlier this year meant there was less activity than normal.
"We hope that it eventually acts as a prevention device but also as a tool to solve crime," he said. "We think that once people know about it, it could have a change in behavior."
Beckner said there was not a specific timeline for when the program was going to be made public. However, he said the city likely will put up signs about the cameras at some point in the future.
Beckner said police also believe that people who hang out on the municipal lawn are already aware of the cameras, as one of them was vandalized and temporarily disabled.
Judd Golden of the Boulder County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said there is no question the police have the right to do targeted surveillance of criminal suspects, especially with a warrant, but a broader surveillance program should have been subject to a public debate.
"What they're gathering and how they're using it should be public, and there should be a public process about it," Golden said. "It's nice to say that they're looking at their suspect group, but everybody is there and everybody is being captured. There are many stories of ways this information could be misused."
Beckner said the police department could monitor the video feed in real time but does not have the resources to do so. He said the information also is not being saved beyond the roughly 48 hours it takes for the cameras to run out of memory and start recording over the previous information.
When officers hear about a crime, Beckner said, they need to review footage of the area in a timely manner, and they save just that portion of the footage.
Beckner said the cameras could be moved to other locations in the future, but there is no plan for widespread surveillance of large sections of the city.
Golden said the secrecy around the process means the public has to just trust the police department.
"If they are installing cameras that are capturing the comings and goings of everyone, 99.99 percent of those people aren't doing anything wrong," he said. "They say they aren't retaining those images. I guess we're supposed to take them at their word."
Beckner said Boulder is behind many other cities in the use of cameras to monitor public spaces.
"This is not something completely out of the ordinary or new," Beckner said. "These are monitoring public spaces where the expectation of privacy is much less, even by a court standard.
"We're sensitive to the public concerns and share those," he added. "We wouldn't be in favor of videoing the entire city. Where you have a particular documented problem like we have downtown, they are great not only for solving crime but for preventing crime."
Contact Camera Staff Writer Erica Meltzer at 303-473-1355 or email@example.com


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Man if you guys find German Staff Cars and trucks for $5, drop me a note... I'd like 1 or 2 of each at that price. That's such a sweet set of vehicles I'd love to customize, but the tree cutter lame-o thing is all that's around here these days.
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The Middle East Studies Center and the Department of World Languages and Literatures announce Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship awards.
FLAS fellowships are available to students in any department who are pursuing a course of study which requires advanced foreign language and area studies training and who plan to use the training and language skills for graduate study or a career in an international field. Fellows must be enrolled full-time at Portland State University as degree-seeking undergraduate or graduate students. Priority is given to students who have strong academic records in their major and their language area of study. Fellowships provide support for tuition and a stipend for living expenses.
Congratulations to the following fellowship recipients!
Academic Year 2013-14
Cody French (Arabic), Karen Lickteig, (Arabic), Nathan Jons (Persian), Laila Taraghi (Arabic), Seth Thomas (Arabic), and Ahmed Zuhairy (Arabic)
Summer 2013
Cody French (Arabic), Touraj Houshmand-Shafii (Turkish), Karen Lickteig (Arabic), Jonathan Vance (Persian), and Ahmed Zuhairy (Arabic)
Cody French is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Arabic Studies at Portland State, with next year being his final year of undergrad (insha'allah!) In addition to Arabic, he has studied French and Spanish, and enjoys learning about the histories and "geographies" of languages. He is planning to travel abroad this summer to finally experience the region, hopefully visiting a few different countries. His linguistic pursuits often tussle for attention with making, playing, and recording music with his best friends.
Initially an EE major, Touraj Houshmand-Shafii found greater passion in pursuing an academic path that he feels is essential in today's larger global context. His fields of study at PSU include an International Studies – Middle East major, with minors in Persian, International Studies – Africa, and Black Studies. Receiving FLAS fellowships for summer intensive language study continues to bring him closer to achieving fluency in Persian through participation at the Arabic, Persian, Turkish Language Immersion Institute at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Touraj completed the intermediate program in 2011 and will be returning for the advanced program this summer. Other awards, including the Damis, Ducey, and Leiser Scholarships for Middle East Studies/Middle East Languages as well as the Persia House Scholarship for study of Persian, have been instrumental in furthering Touraj's passion for languages, which includes his past study of French and Spanish, as well as upcoming study of Turkish beginning in fall 2012. His future plans include studying abroad, additional language acquisition and graduate/doctoral programs in the areas of international relations/affairs, conflict and terrorism studies, and peace operations/studies. He believes this track will offer the greatest possibility of working in a field that enables him to interact with and help people in a more direct and profound way. His other interests on campus include involvement with the Arab Persian Student Organization, assisting others in their academic pursuits through employ with PSU's Disability Resource Center, and induction into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi this term. Outside of academics, Touraj enjoys spending time with friends and loved ones, music, soccer, and chess.
Over the past several years Nathan Jons has interacted with numerous refugees from Persian speaking countries and noticed the difficulties they face in adjusting to a new language, culture, and community. Seeing these needs, along with a deep appreciation for these individuals, has motivated him to seek a degree in Applied Linguistics and learn the Persian language. He desires to teach English as a Second Language and serve refugees in the midst of their cultural and life transitions. Nathan moved to Portland in 2011 with his wife and kids, and when not knee-deep in homework, loves spending time with them, reading, coloring, and going on adventures. He and his family are thankful for all their interaction with the local Persian community.
Karen Lickteig is currently pursuing a degree in International Studies with a focus on the Middle East, with minors in Arabic language and Business Administration. She is particularly interested in issues surrounding U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, urban development, sustainability, and cross-cultural communication. Karen grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and arrived in Portland in 2008 to attend Lewis & Clark College. She transferred to PSU in 2011 after studying abroad as a William Jefferson Clinton Scholar at the American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She also attended a PSU short-term faculty-led program to Doha, Qatar in Spring 2012. Last summer, she was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship for advanced Arabic study in Amman, Jordan. Karen has visited the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, and Oman. She has also interned for the US-Qatar Business Council and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center of the Middle East Institute, both in Washington, D.C. She currently serves as the Office Coordinator for PSU's Middle East Studies Center. Karen plans to study Arabic in Muscat, Oman this summer on a FLAS fellowship. She will also enroll in the Master of Urban Studies program in the fall as a FLAS fellow, focusing on Middle Eastern cities and urban development.
Laila Taraghi is a new PhD student in Public Affairs and Policy. In the spring of 2012, Laila completed her MA in Political Science from the University of Arkansas. Her master's thesis, 'Competing for Relevance: Iran's Internal Struggle to Define the Arab Spring, explores the framing contest embarked upon by the Iranian regime and its political opposition. The thesis assesses how each side sought to assign credit to their respective movements for inspiring the Arab uprisings, thereby endeavoring to resurrect the flagging legitimacy each camp faced as a byproduct of the country's own political fallout. Laila completed her undergraduate work through the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon where she received her BA in International Studies. As a facet of her undergraduate career she spent the major part of a year studying Persian at the Dehkhoda Language Institute at the University of Tehran during 2005-2006. In addition to her time spent in Iran, Laila enjoyed another three months abroad at the University of Jordan during the fall of 2007 where she participated in an intensive Arabic language program. During the summer of 2010 she was awarded a language study grant that took her to Beirut to study Lebanese colloquial dialect as a part of the S.C.A.L.E. program at the American University of Science and Technology in Beirut.
Seth Thomas is a senior at Portland State majoring in Arabic and International Studies: Middle East. As a child he lived in East Jerusalem from 1998 to 2002 and has been fascinated by the languages and cultures of the region since then. He began taking Arabic his sophomore year and has spent the past year studying Arabic in the Middle East at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo. He enjoys working with video and music, hiking, reading comics (as well as trying to translate Egyptian comics) and is looking forward to returning to the Pacific Northwest this summer.
Jonathan Vance started at Portland State University fall term. His interest in the Middle East, particularly Iran, is what brought him back to his hometown to study at Portland State. As an undergraduate, Jonathan is pursuing an International Studies degree, which allows him to study the Persian language. His intention is to elevate his Persian to the level of fluency and use this to pursue a graduate degree and a professional career in international relations. Jonathan is fascinated with the relationship that America has with Iran, and the lack of goodwill that exists between these two states. He believes that despite the grievances each country has towards each other, they can be overcome with diplomatic progress and the realization of common interests. This summer, Jonathan is enrolling in an immersion program at Wisconsin-Madison to improve his linguistic ability, and transition back into Portland State next fall to continue the pursuit of fluency. When he is not studying Jonathan is often still on the Portland State campus. He spends quite a bit of his time at the recreation center playing sports and lifting weights. Jonathan says his time at Portland State has been the most rewarding of his collegiate career, and he looks forward to completing another year of study.
Ahmed Zuhairy is a first generation Iraqi. He is in his fourth year at Portland State, double-majoring in Arabic and Political Science. Ahmed's interest in politics began during middle school after listening to politically charged punk music. His interest in Arabic began during his first year at Portland State when he became fascinated with his heritage. This led him to begin studying Arabic under Dr. Yasmeen Hanoosh, who greatly increased his desire to continue to learn his heritage language. In fall 2012, he spent the semester In Amman at the University of Jordan studying Arabic. After Jordan, Ahmed visited Iraq, his father's country of origin, for the first time. His academic interests include MSA Arabic and various dialects and international politics. He also has an interest in international peace, conflict prevention, and refugee aid/solutions. He has a very strong personal interest in bicycling and he races for the Portland State Cycling Team. He also works with an Iraqi refugee family in SE Portland.


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An 11 year old Russian boy living in northern Russia has come across the frozen remains of a woolly mammoth. The remains are said to be the best preserved of mammoth remains discovered in the last 100 years. Per the article:
"He sensed an unpleasant odor and saw something sticking out of the ground -- it was the mammoth's heels," said Alexei Tikhonov, director of the Saint Petersburg-based Zoological Museum, who rushed to the tundra after the boy's family had notified scientists of the historic find. Tikhonov said the mammoth had died aged 15-16 around 30,000 years ago, adding his tusk, skin, an eye and an ear were clearly visible.
Efforts by Russian and Japanese scientists are supposed to already be underway to clone a mammoth from the bone marrow and other tissue of previously discovered remains.
Views: 193
Can't wait to see this baby.
I too really like the cloning idea Lil and Mike. Also, as you say Mike, global warming must have revealed at least that particular mammoth because it was only just starting to decompose after 30,000 years of having been there. I wonder what else global warming might uncover.
Maybe the natives didn't find the recent discoveries because the recent ones were just made visible by global warming.
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text:
Well, it's not quite ALL he does. A man has needs besides food and shelter, after all. When the Wily Worm of Wantonness rears its cyclopean dome, he waddles to another part of the complex and, shirtless, enters a walk-in freezer. There he finds the frost-flecked body of a woman, upon whose nude, frozen flesh he satiates his wicked urges.
At some length. In the first 5 minutes of the movie.
So many questions.
|Cold hands, warm heart
Ladies and germs, welcome to The Afterman, Belgian director Rob Van Eyck's bleak vision of a speculative future, circa 1985. Executed entirely without dialogue, the flick is half art-house sci-fi, half grimy exploitation road movie, and 100% MAD. It's a movie that feels simultaneously thoughtful and incoherent, skillful and inept, intellectually serious but at times deliriously dumb. Take a bit of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, filter it through Quest for Fire, and dunk it in the boiling effluvia of the grindhouse melting pot, and maybe you're almost there. It's a movie that, quite frankly, I can scarcely believe exists.
Shortly after his necro-tryst with his Passed-On Popsicle of Passion--who may be his deceased wife, but is not certainly such--the Man (Jacques Verbist--NOT the guy on the VHS cover) is forced to evacuate his bunker due to a massive system failure, which leads to an off-screen explosion. We are left to infer that he's been waiting out the apocalypse, which has dismantled civilization--deserted, crumbling buildings dot the landscape, and abandoned heavy machinery returns to rust all around. Whatever brought about the fall of society was presumably not the atom bombs he was watching earlier, at least in my reading, since lush forests and fields stretch to the horizon and no one evinces the slightest radiation burns or tumors. Still, whatever happened isn't terribly important; the point is, the End has arrived, and the remaining humans must survive as best they can.
Immediately upon his emergence, the Man sees a group of other men watching him from a nearby ridge. With an inarticulate cry of glee, he rushes to them, while they calmly, ominously watch him come. He's clearly overjoyed to meet fellow survivors, and embraces their tough-guy leader. Unfortunately for him, his gesture is disastrously misread, as the wordless myrmidions lay the boots to him, after which the Leader sardonically rapes his ass while his henchmen circle-jerk around them! Welcome to our Brave New World, Bippy!
|"Wait a minute...YOU'RE NOT A PROCTOLOGIST!"
At this point, we're still less than 10 minutes in, by the way.
Left bloody and now understandably shy of strangers, the Man sets about surviving without his cans of Post-Apocalyptic Cheez Whiz to rely upon. Despite his doughy physique and post-traumatic stress, he proves to be quite the trapper, snaring a muskrat underwater with his bare hands! It's a hard-knock life out there, but as long as there are aquatic rodents to be had, our Man will never go hungry.
|I have seen the future, and it needs salt.
What happens next is hard to explain--the Man follows some strange sounds to a cave and sneaks inside, where he finds what appears to be a fully functioning day spa! There's tile, potted plants, patio lounge chairs, and a clearly man-made (and well-chlorinated) swimming pool, in which a beautiful woman is swimming nude! "Dude, where's the power for the filters and lights coming from if the world is over?" you might well ask--but don't expect an answer, since nobody talks.
As the Man watches from behind some palm leaves--which he sometimes rustles meaningfully--another naked woman joins the first for a dip, which quickly becomes an aquatic lesbonic sex-up. This goes on for quite some time--not that I'm complaining--but comes to a surprising end when the first water nymph goes down below the water line to pleasure her lover, who holds her there with her strong thighs until she drowns! (And from the sadistic look on the survivor's face, this was clearly the intended result.) Our Man zips up and freaks (the fuck) out, then runs weeping from the scene--as would we all.
Fifteen minutes now. Try to keep up.
|When she was bad, she was horrid.
And so the movie goes--we traverse the post-Apocalyptic landscape with our portly, hollow-eyed hero, and through him we discover just how far into savagery the human race descends without the burden of the Social Contract to keep us in line. At his next stop he spies on an agricultural couple who have vegetables, livestock, and a beautiful slave woman (Danielle Detremmerie) in a chicken-wire pen. The bald, shirtless Farmer leads Slave Woman around on a swing-set chain, and periodically takes advantage of her from behind as she bends at the waist to weed the cucumbers. The girl submits without a struggle, used to this treatment. The Farmer's wife continues feeding the chickens without batting an eye.
Later that night, while the Horny Horticulturist has more loud sex with his wife (this guy plows more than soil, if you get what I'm sayin'), the Man sneaks in to steal some food--but is quickly captured and enslaved himself! Over the following days he is whipped viciously, teamed with the girl to till the Farmer's fields--literally, not figuratively, this time--and never seems to understand that a cage made out of chicken wire and extremely thin sticks should not be an impediment to his freedom. Then again, he does get a little non-rodent grub and something to do all day, so maybe it's a measured decision. He's the Cube Monkey of the future!
|"Well, we might as well face it--we're here for good. So, wanna do it?"
Eventually he does break free, however--beating his Priapic Prison Papa with a post--and takes off cross country with a sack of ham and the beautiful slave woman on his heels. At first he doesn't want to share his booty with her--nor she hers with him--but that all changes when he wanders into a
They have sex a lot.
In fact, it becomes clear as Van Eyck draws us along that, at least according to him, when you remove all the social constructs and rules of behavior, only two things matter to the human creature: food, and fucking. And not necessarily in that order. Every vignette in the movie incorporates the two: something always gets eaten, and someone always gets fucked. (Though there's no actual food in the lesbian swimmers scene above, the previous statement still holds--IYKWIMAITYD.) This was clearly one of Eyck's main philosophical points of the movie, and his dedication to it is admirable. Sure, it's not exactly a ground-breaking anthropological theory, but it does lend the flick a certain pseudo-intellectual aspect that, if missing, would lessen its impact considerably in my humble.
The parallel lines of human desire intersect most pointedly when the Woman is captured by a hard-partying Cannibal Clan, who really enjoy playing with their food. (Ba-dump.) Later they are taken in by a group of monks who have a hot-tub in their monastery (wha?), worship a statue of a man's ass, and accept payment for their B&B services by forcing the Man to fellate them. They also sacrifice wayward travelers by cutting out their hearts and eating them, but luckily the Woman catches them at it before Manny's on the menu and they make good their escape.
|Freaky Friar Loves Huffing
As the film winds down, love continues to bloom between the Man and Woman. They steal clothes from a man bearing a strangely well-stocked suitcase. They forage. They have sex. He fights off some would-be rapists, impaling one on a bed of exposed rebar. Conflict arises when they are taken in by the Castle Woman, an aristocratic Zsa-Zsa Gabor type who totes an elephant gun and has an exotic, scantily clad pianist-cum-housemaid. The Man has sex with the Castle Woman, and his jealous Woman nearly freezes herself to death in the wild out of spite. They make up, have a kid, and finally arrive at the ocean. The End--or perhaps, just perhaps, the Beginning?
The Afterman is a film made of incongruities. Whiplash editing and the lack of exposition or context make for some confusing transitions and plot-points (for instance, the Man figures out what the cannibal clan are eating well before we do, making his retching reaction explicable only in retrospect). Other times, though, the flick feels extremely well-made; some of the shots of the post-Apocalyptic desolation are quite beautiful and haunting, as when the pair hole up in a disintegrating greenhouse, or walk through a crumbling factory that feels like a ruined cathedral. The lack of explanation regarding the nature of the social downfall is often frustrating, but also frees Van Eyck to create scenes of both medieval squalor and modern opulence, which may or may not be a stab at the persistence of class consciousness even after the supporting struts are kicked away. The loosely stitched vignettes never really pretend to a coherent plot, and yet still manage to draw the viewer along as well as any carefully woven narrative thread--partly because we want to see what madness the film will throw at us next.
|"Okay--whoever wants to be tonight's entree, hands up!"
As I mentioned above, the quest for sex is pervasive, and so is a strain of brutish violence, executed with special effects that gain rather than lose power by their gritty, low-rent appearance. I've no reason to think the muskrat Man-snack is not a real dead creature; similarly, when the freed cannibal captives attack their guard and graphically gouge out his eyes, I think we're looking at actual ocular orbs--though hopefully those of a sheep and not a human being. Other scenes, such as the rebar impalement, the Farmer's crushed head, and a monk who takes a pitchfork to the neck, are no less visceral. Through repetition and commitment, Van Eyck creates a believably dangerous world for his characters to navigate.
Lead actor Verbist does a fine job as the Man, who learns about this terrible new reality along with the audience. Hollow-eyed, terrified, and perpetually confused, he's pretty much the perfect stand-in for the viewer. Detremmerie is lovely and believably tough, pulling her Man out of the fire as often as he returns the favor. The rest of the cast does well too--everyone has a lean, hungry look appropriate to the material. It's a compliment to both cast and director that even without dialogue we sympathize with the characters and become invested in their plight.
|When she plays Peekaboo, she plays for keeps.
In closing, The Afterman is a movie that made me wonder aloud from whence (in ye fucke) it sprung. It fascinated me, held my interest, and stayed in my brain long after the end-credits rolled. Morality play? Speculative picaresque? Blood-and-boobs exploitational drive-in fodder? Maybe all, maybe some, maybe not. But it's certainly unique in my experience, and a film I enjoyed immensely. 2.75 thumbs. If you can find a copy, check it out.
Nota Bene: according to imdb, a 25th Anniversary Edition DVD was released in 2010 at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Also, in 2005 Van Eyck directed Afterman 2 which has no plot description on imdb but does show Jacques Verbist returning in the cast. That's a movie I'll definitely be seeking out by hook or crook to see how, if at all, the director updated his vision.
A few more images from The Afterman (1985):
A few more images from The Afterman (1985):
|Even after the Apocalypse, programmers are all the same.
|"You're SO lucky you're the last man on earth, buddy."
|The Duke of DVD initiates another manservant.
|The Louvre, circa 3535 AD.
|Now THAT'S a spicy meatball!
|No one steals Zsa Zsa's turnips.


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Rural Kentucky in the 1930s and 1940s
With Christmas just around the corner, my days at work have been very busy with one customer after another. I've been working full-time, and honestly, it's been exhausting.
All of this makes me remember my one-time job at the little country store with fondness. I did spend a lot of hours there, but it was a relatively stress-free job less than a mile from my house. I made sandwiches, cleaned the store, and ran the cash register. Another of my jobs was visiting with the customers while they sat down to enjoy a snack.
Here's something I wrote back in my country-store days, about some of the reminiscences I heard from the old fellows who gathered there every day.
I take a lot of trips down memory lane at the little country store when the old-timers sit around with their "co-colas" and reminisce. The other day they were remembering straw ticks in their beds. By the end of the winter, they had worn a little nest in the straw where they could snuggle down completely warm under a pile of quilts even though snow might blow through the cracks in the log walls.
Another thing they all remember fondly is home-canned meat, fixed in a gravy. I've heard them say many times that their (rural) families never were hungry even during the Depression. Everyone had a big garden, pigs, and milk cows. They butchered the pigs in the winter and either smoked or canned the meat. They raised what they ate and ate what they raised!
The creamery sent a truck out once a week and people put their cream cans out on the road to be emptied by the driver. He left the cream money from the week before tucked under the handle on the lid. The ice truck also came once a week.
They went to bed early because kerosene for the lamps and batteries for the radios were expensive. On Saturday night, the young folks gathered at the store to socialize. They came in a car or on a mule if they had one, and if they didn't, they walked.
Electricity and paved roads changed everything!


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Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is the next big entry in the acclaimed first-person-shooter (FPS) series from Gameloft, and it got shown off the other day at the Tokyo Game Show. Given how great Modern Combat 3 turned out, and Gameloft's habit of pushing the envelop, we're expecting a lot from Zero Hour -- including support for widescreen action on the [iPhone 5].
Like Simon Sage said over at Android Central, the story doesn't seem like anything we haven't seen before, but really, the only point of a plot in a game like this is to get the shooting moving from one set piece to another. Tell us to shoot a bad guy, and he'll get shot.
So how's MC4 looking to you? No joy, or everything light and bright?
Source: moderncombat4.weebly.com via Android Central