text:
Hey DD, how about that no-holds-barred interview with the cricketweb icon, the one and only AA? I am sure a lot of us are eagerly awaiting that.
Hey DD, how about that no-holds-barred interview with the cricketweb icon, the one and only AA? I am sure a lot of us are eagerly awaiting that.
16 February, England v Netherlands, East London
Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk (Netherlands)
James Anderson, taking to international cricket like a duck to water , discovers the secret which has sustained the truly great bowlers over the years - it doesn't have to be a good ball to take a wicket. Klaas-Jan Noortwijk attempts to turn a short one to fine leg but only succeeds in giving Alec Stewart a bit of catching practice down the leg side. Two balls faced.
DD rating - 2 lilypads
Andrew Flintoff (England)
Daan van Bunge had just removed Michael Vaughan for a swashbuckling 51. Enter the Errol Flynn-like Andrew Flintoff to administer the coup-de-grace to the Dutch hopes with a quickfire 30 off 9 balls. So much for theory, but we reckon without 'cheesy' van Bunge and his secret weapon - the disguised rank long-hop. Quick as a flash, England's master slugger is on to his second ball. There is a resounding 'thwack-ack' as Flintoff makes a right hash of a regulation long-handled heave across the line. With worse timing than the average UK passenger train, his double contact loops invitingly to the veteran Roland Lefebre at midwicket who makes no mistake.
DD rating - 5 lilypads
Breadcrumb moment
Sorry, I watched the whole game and could come up with nothing which warranted inclusion.
Last edited by luckyeddie; 16-02-2003 at 09:49 AM.
Nigel Clough's Black and White Army, beating Forest away with 10 men
16 February, Pakistan v Namibia, Kimberley
Riann Walters (Namibia)
Facing his third ball of the first over from an inspired Wasim Akram, Riann Walters can only get an inside edge to the fast inswinger. Keeper Rashid Lateef takes a smart catch and the chase to achieve the lowest World Cup score is on. Walters joins Nicky de Groot with an average of 0 from 2, but goes to the top of the averages having faced fewer balls. Not much of a duck, though.
DD rating - 3 lilypads
Daniel Keulder (Namibia)
There is no finer sight for a fast bowler than to see the middle stump cartwheeling across the pitch - unless your name is Harbhajan 'The Dentist' Singh, of course. Anyway, Shoaib Akhtar's second delivery to Daniel Kuelder was just too fast, too good, toodeloo.
DD rating - 2 lilypads
Louis Jacobus Burger (Namibia)
4-17 becomes 5-17 in the third over - that record score is still on the cards. The Namibians have no answer to the Pakistani openers. Louis Burger's bat gets nowhere near the ball, which thuds into his front pad. The ball would have missed off stump by a long way. The trouble is, it would have missed leg by the same distance. One ball, no worries.
DD rating - 6 lilypads
Gerrie Snyman (Namibia)
Another first-baller as Namibia slump to 7-32 in the eighth over. Pad only, no attempt to play the ball. No matter how much he flexes his right knee, he just cannot get outside the line. Gerrie is still trying five seconds after the umpire has raised the dreaded finger. Shoaib's fourth wicket in as many overs.
DD rating - 5.5 lilypads
Breadcrumb moment - Waqar Younis (Pakistan).
Having seen the openers whip out the first 9 'batsmen', Waqar is trying so hard to catch his captains eye. Suddenly, he realises that HE IS the captain and calls upon Saqlain to wrap the game up. Rudolph van Vuuren, having looked remarkably comfortable against Shoaib and Wasim, sees his chance. A lofted drive finds the Pakistani skipper in the outfield. Yes! He's finally got himself into the game. He leaves the field beaming (no change there then).
16 February, South Africa v New Zealand, Johannesburg
Breadcrumb moment - David Shepherd (England)
Despite the fact that 'Shep' does not feature anywhere in the match officials, his influence on world cricket is undeniable. At a similar stage in their respective innings, both sides reach 111-1. The crowd as one each raise one leg off the ground in recognition of the fact and in reverence to the rotund one (but Inzy isn't playing in this game). This one is going to run and run - well, hop and hop anyway.
Breadcrumb moment - Chris Scott (South Africa - groundsman, Wanderers Cricket Ground)
<quack> For the second interview in our series, we talk to Chris Scott, groundsman at the Wanderers Cricket Ground, Johannesburg.
<DD> Thank you, Mr Scott, for talking to us at such short notice - and so soon after such a splendid game. I'm sure that there are many people waiting to congratulate you on producing such a marvellous batting track.
<CS> Not at all, Devil Ducky. Just make sure you spell my name correctly.
<DD> Yes, I've heard about your run-ins with the media before. All a terrible misunderstanding, I hope?
<CS> So they tell me.
<DD> I'm sure that some of our overseas fans haven't the slightest idea what we are talking about. Could you explain, please?
<CS> It all goes back to November last year. A company calling themselves 'LG Electronics' were looking for someone to play a groundsman in an advertisement for their products.
<DD> And you were overlooked?
<CS> I was totally ignored. They gave the job to an ACTOR, for goodness sake. I mean, what the heck does he know about drop-in pitches? I bet he's never even SEEN Couch Grass...
<DD> Indeed...
<CS> ... let alone knowing about its hard-wearing properties, recovery time, growing speed....
<DD> Yes, well.....
<DD> I'm sorry?
<CS> They changed my name. In the advertisement, they didn't use my name - they called me/him CHRIS O'REILEY, for goodness sake!
<DD> Can we talk about todays game, Chris?
<DD> Todays game...
<CS> Yes, I'm sorry. I'm still a little rankled about the whole thing. Well, when we prepare a wicket at The Wanderers, we like to think that the surface is going to give both sides a chance - whoever wins the toss. I'm confident that the surface we produced today did just that.
<DD> It was only the second game without a duck
<CS> ... but you more than make up for that.
<DD> Thank you. At this moment, could I bring in Herschelle Gibbs and Stephen Fleming. Gentlemen, I'm sure you would like to say something to Chris Scott...
<SF> Mr Scott, I remember a couple of years ago we played a test match here. The weather won, but you and your team were voted 'Man of the Match'. I should like to shake your hand.
<HG> Cocked that one up good and proper, didn't you, O'Reiley?
<DD> Good night from The Wanderers.
Last edited by luckyeddie; 16-02-2003 at 09:53 AM.
18 February, West Indies v Bangladesh, Benoni
Chris Gayle (West Indies)
With Wavell Hinds and Extras going along quite nicely at a run a ball, the previously immobile Chris Gayle lurched into life, only to swat a regulation half-volley from Manjural Islam straight to Sanwar Hossain at cover. A creditable five balls. At least Chris's namesake had two hits in her career. It certainly made Carl 'butterfingers' Hooper's brown eyes blue, Crystal. I bet he'll be talking in his sleep tonight - 'zzzzzz fancy opening next game, Ricardo?'
DD rating - 3 lilypads
Vasbert Drakes (West Indies)
Some dismissals are comic, some are unfortunate, some are careless, some are tragic. This one falls into a new category altogether - 'Vasbert'. Three balls into his innings, the hero of Cape Town, surely one of the greatest players ever to don the maroon of the Calypso Kings, played an immaculate drive to mid-off. Seldom have I seen a ball struck more sweetly in my entire life. Mohammad Rafique sneakily pretended to lose the ball behind him and Drakes, with the sun having made a brief if unexpected appearance through the murk and shining straight into his eyes, called Ridley Jacobs through for what should have been, 99 times out of 100, a regulation single. Jacobs, impassive as ever, allowed the great all-rounder to get three quarters of the way down before sending him back, at which point, horror of horrors, all the studs from his right boot, which had been sneakily loosened in the changing room by a desperate Chris Gayle, fell out. Seeing the unfortunate Drakes unable to turn quickly on the rain-sodden surface, two fielders quite deliberately ran into his way to obstruct his path as the brilliant Barbadian valiantly tried to regain his ground. He made it, too, by a clear yard. Not only that, the wicket-keeper broke the wicket before he had control of the ball and the umpire had already called 'dead ball'. The third umpire, Billy Bowden, too busy practicing his ludicrous signals or basking in his new-found fame having been interviewed last week by Devil Ducky to pay attention to his monitor, gave him out in what amounted to a flagrant disregard of his supposed impartiality. To avoid controversy in a World Cup which has already been drawn far too deeply through the mud, Vasbert Drakes sacrificed himself for the good of the game.
DD rating - 6 lilypads
Breadcrumb moment - the slip cordon (West Indies)
Once again, we turn to modern technology in order to bring you the cricket from just about as close as it gets. Today, we use the DevilDucky stump-mic (pat pending) to give you a feel of what it is like to be part of the camaraderie of a 'team within a team' - the West Indian slip cordon.
Second over
<Carl Hooper> Looks like rain, lads. I reckon Duckworth-Lewis might come into the equation a little later in the day. Now keep on your toes and for goodness sake don't drop anything. I'm looking at you, Crystal.
<Chris Gayle> (for it is he) Oops, sorry skip. The sun was in my eyes a bit I think and the ball's a bit slippy.
<Carl> OK, Chris. Bad luck. These things happen. Now remember what I told you the other day - if you are fielding at second slip, watch the ball from the bowlers hand. Don't watch the edge of the bat - that's what great first-slippers (like me) do.
<Chris> Right, skip. Thanks for the advice. (shouts) Sorry, Vasbert.
<Vasbert Drakes> mutter, mutter, brown eyes'll be black and blue if you do it again mutter mutter.
Third over
<Carl> I've had second thoughts, Chris. You go to first slip and I'll stand at second. Now watch the edge of the bat - watch the edge of the bat all the time. Let your reactions do the rest - like the other day when Brian told you it was your round - and you'd just gone to the toilet.
<Chris> Righto - I've got it. Watch the edge of the bat, watch the edge of the bat, watch the edge of the bat, watch th....
<Carl> ...e edge of the bat what am I doing, what am I doing?
<Mervyn Dillon> Bad luck, skipper.
<Chris> (s******) Yes, bad luck, skip.
<Carl> Don't just stand there saying 'watch the edge of the bat, you pudding.'
<Chris> (barely containing himself) sorry.
<Merv> If you drop another one off me you'll end up with a bigger gap in your front teeth than... (fades into the distance)
Sixth over
<Carl> Feel any rain in the air?
<Chris> I think I felt a few spots. Nothing to worry about though. Just a drop....
<Carl> Oops.
<Chris> (crying with laughter) B-b-b-bad luck, skip. Would you be happier going back to first?
<Carl> I thought that you were going for that one
<Chris> It was yours
<Carl> I mean, I thought Ridley was going for it...
<Chris and Ridley Jacobs together> No, skip - it was yours.....
Carl plods forlornly after the ball.
<Vasbert> Bad luck skip (turns to walk back to his mark) **** ******* **** **** Hooper wouldn't have ******* happened if I'd been captain. Idiot'd be down at third man where he...
<Carl> What was that, Vas?
<Vasbert> Nothing, skipper.
<Carl> Let's swop again, Chris. I think you've learned your lesson now.
<Chris> (whispers) ****.
<Carl> What?
<Chris> OK, skip. No problem.
<Chris> HOWZZZZAAAAAATTTTTT?
That was absolutely brilliant
Possibly the duck's best work yet!
MSN Messenger: minardineil2000 at hotmail dot com | AAAS Chairman
CricketWeb Black | CricketWeb XI Captain
ClarkeWatch: We're Watching Rikki - Are You?
Up The Grecians - Exeter City FC
Completing the Square: My Cricket Web Blog
thats some great work DD
Here here!
"Age is just a stupid number"
20...that's a rather big number :(:(:(
Today Riaan Walters of Namibia got dropped having failed to score a run in two innings. Little bit harsh i thought.
And Nick de Groot collects his hat trick of ducks. Joining an elite club consiting only of Shahdab Kabir. Maybe a special DD mention in order?
my fantasy team continues to struggle. At least i cant go any lower than last!Originally posted by Langeveldt
Today Riaan Walters of Namibia got dropped having failed to score a run in two innings. Little bit harsh i thought.
19 February, England v Namibia, Port Elizabeth
Gerrie Snyman (Namibia)
A quick inswinger from Craig White was far too good for Gerrie. The off stump went walkabout, and so did the batsman. 1 ball faced. It's becoming a bit of a habit for Snyman.
DD rating - 5 lilypads
B Kotze (Namibia)
First ball from Ronnie Irani saw the unfortunate Bjorn Kotze thrust bat and pad towards a ball which seemed destined to miss leg stump. No doubt about it, really - look in the scorebook.
DD rating - 4 lilypads
Breadcrumb moment - Nasser Hussain (England) with assistance from Jan-Berry Burger and Rudy van Vuuren (Namibia)
Nasser woke up with a pain in the neck. Little did he know that he would end up meeting four more before the day was out - four men intent on scuppering his sides chances in the 2003 World Cup.
First of all, we had Rudy van Vuuren, appearing in his second World Cup, the first being the Rugby Union version. His finishing analysis of 5-43 was a creditable effort against his more illustrious opponents.
His second cause for concern was a young university student, Andries (Jan-Berry) Burger who smote Englands attack all around the park for a sparkling 85.
The third and fourth pains in Nassers neck? Messrs Duckworth and Lewis. From over 25 through to over 32, Namibia were ahead of the game. All it needed was the heavens to have opened and that would have been that.
19 February, Zimbabwe v India, Harare
M A Vermeulen (Zimbabwe)
Back of a length from Javagal Srinath, a flat-footed swish, a snick, an outside edge to keeper Dinesh Mongia, a five-ball duck - who said this game was easy?
DD rating - 3 lilypads
Breadcrumb moment - Sachin Tendulkar (India)
Every moment of his 81 was sheer class. Cuts, pulls, drives, it had the lot. For a man carrying the hopes of a country the size of India on his shoulders, he doesn't show the strain. The ball which dismissed him will keep Grant Flower in beer for the rest of his life.
19 February, Sri Lanka v Canada, Paarl
John Davison (Canada)
Second over of the game, Ratnayake Nissanka nips a beauty back between bat and pad. The inside edge gets in the way and Kumar Sangakkara snaffles a straightforward chance. 4 balls he lasted. In the context of the innings, a marathon from John.
DD rating - 5 lilypads
Abdul Sattaur (Canada)
Fifth over, six on the board, Abdul has played himself in for 10 balls and is just itching to cut loose. Chaminda Vaas, convinced that he has already dismissed the batsman twice, finally convinces the umpire that a straight one was straight.
DD rating - 7 lilypads
Nicholas de Groot (Canada)
Mister consistency does it again. Three innings, three ducks. He is fast becoming the player of the tournament. No arguments about this one, either. Ratnayake Nissanka wins the lottery this time - leg before in just 2 balls, although he did have a 10 minute rest at the non-strikers end.
DD rating - 8 lilypads
Ishwar Maraj (Canada)
Nissanka again, straight again, pad again, plumb again, out again, first ball this time.
DD rating - 4 lilypads
Austin Codrington (Canada)
Sorry, Austin, but your valiant rearguard action was not quite enough to avoid the world record lowest score. Having stood resolute for 13 minutes and 9 balls, Austins eyes light up as Murali puts one right where he wants it - almost! The heave across the line fails to despatch the ball into the stands, but helps to despatch Canada into the history books.
DD rating - 7.5 lilypads
Breadcrumb moment - Joseph Harris (Canada)
Nice one, Joe. Top scorer with 9 with 40% of his sides boundaries, the swift of foot skipper decides to trip the light fantastic all over his stumps whilst pulling a short ball from Nissanka.
Breadcrumb moment - that world record (Canada)
Canada innings
D Chumney c Sangakkara b Vaas 9
JM Davison c Sangakkara b Nissanka 0
AF Sattaur lbw b Vaas 0
IS Billcliff lbw b Vaas 1
NA de Groot lbw b Nissanka 0
*JV Harris hit wicket b Nissanka 9
I Maraj lbw b Nissanka 0
+A Bagai c Jayawardene b Fernando 6
S Thuraisingam lbw b Fernando 6
A Codrington b Muralitharan 0
BB Seebaran not out 0
Extras (lb 2, w 2, nb 1) 5
Total (all out, 18.4 overs, 87 mins) 36
Choora's particular prediction's of greatness for this bloke are legendary - a sample of his quotes:Originally posted by luckyeddie
Nicholas de Groot (Canada)
Mister consistency does it again. Three innings, three ducks. He is fast becoming the player of the tournament. No arguments about this one, either. Ratnayake Nissanka wins the lottery this time - leg before in just 2 balls, although he did have a 10 minute rest at the non-strikers end.
DD rating - 8 lilypads
"N Degroot is agressive in the shorter form of the game. He has been playing One-dayers and four dayers for years in the C/bean and has been a star to many, while Pollock and Murali might cause problems, warne will be food for him."
"Don't get me wrong I really like his style, but batsmen like Degroot - who love spin - are not to be taken lightly on the field."
On de Groot's first duck being pointed out : "Not surprising considing this is comming from someone who is used to judge a player by his performance in a single match."
and, "Show you from where?? How many matches have Canada played till now ?? Premature judgement is your trade mark! "
IN interests of fairness, Mr Mxyzptlk came up with "It's not that I think deGroot is a prodigy or anything. I just think that you're being unfair by dismissing him as crap."
Strangely Our Nick's greatest fan has gone quiet recently on the subject...
marc71178 - President and founding member of AAAS - we don't only appreciate when he does well, but also when he's not quite so good!
Anyone want to join the Society?
Beware the evils of Kit-Kats - they're immoral apparently.
20 February, Australia v Netherlands, Potchefstroom
Jeroen Smits (Netherlands)
Ian Harvey's gentle away swinger draws Jeroen Smits into the shot. Jimmy Maher waits. A little late, a little edge, a little innings which lasted just 2 balls.
DD rating 4 lilypads
Jacob-Jan Esmeijer (Netherlands)
Another lovely away swinger. Jacob Esmeijer eyes the vacant cover area, but alas the ball flies straight to Ricky Ponting at slip. Just the 4 balls faced.
DD rating 3 lilypads
Breadcrumb moment - the Australian balcony
With grovelling apologies to our antipodean brethren
Modern technology to the rescue again - this time we take you right into the Australian camp. To be precise, to the Australian balcony where Brett Lee is showing off his prowess on the acoustic guitar to the other non-playing members of the squad.
<Adam Gilchrist> G'day, guys. Anyone fancy a beer?
<Brad Hogg> Nah, mate. I'm cutting down - I'm only having a dozen now because I'm going out with Fruitfly and a few of his mates tonight.
<Adam> We'll see you next Thursday, then, mate.
<Brett> Yeah, cheers, Churchy. I could do with a bit of inspiration.
<Adam> Why's that, then, mate?
<Brad> (shouts) Bowled, Dizzy - great ball!
<Brett> I'm working on a few new numbers for the next 'Six & Out' gig.
<Adam> What yer come up with?
<Brett> (sings) "I know this guy, his name is Warney. Took Grandads pills - they made him horny"
<Brad> Like it. Very topical...
<Brett> Is it? Yeah, got a few other bits I'm stuck on too. What rhymes with Thunder?
<Adam> Down Under
<Brett> Cheers, sport.
<Brad> Chunder
<Brett> Yeah, that's the one. Hey, look at that. McGrath's just bowled a wide (shouts) Yer poufdah, Pigeon.. ah spit. I've just snapped my G string...
<Adam> Fielding's not up to much, is it?
<Brad> Nah. Just been talking to Benaud about it. He reckons we're in the best place today
<Brett> You're joking. It's at least 30 yards to the bar.
<Brad> This'll be a laugh. They're bringing Roy and Boof on.
(Andy Symonds plays his part by bowling a mixture of wides, full tosses and unplayable deliveries)
<Adam> Christ, look at that. Boof just got through an over in 87 seconds. Never seen him move so fast.
<Brad> (shouts) Bar's closing in a bit, Symmo - speed up.
<Adam> They obviously think you're serious. Lehmann's next over took 65 seconds
<Brad> I am serious.
<Adam> Gotta go, mate. Just realised I've forgot to, er, do the webbing on me gauntlets
<Brett> Yeah, me too sport. Just realised I've got to, er, um, practice me er, um musical things
<Adam> Chords?
<Brett> Nah, mate. Flannels, but they're really hard-wearing.
Last edited by luckyeddie; 20-02-2003 at 10:46 AM.
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text:
I just ran into a strange SQL error on the board software that Shini pointed me towards, and I'm not sure I'll be able to easily pin it down myself. If anyone else runs into an SQL error when editing a post, let me know, specifically one that says "Duplicate entry '[' for key 'post_text'" in the error description. What I do know: it seems to be related to editing a post that contains BBCode. Other than that, I don't really have any details. If anyone else sees anything like this, either post it in this thread with a link to the post that caused it, or IM it to me also with a link.
Edit: Never mind, taken care of now.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Posted by Mackenzie on Monday, June 30, 2008
I linked to KEP thru one of my favorite new reads, Fly. Love the beads! I feel like I need a crisp, belted shirt-dress and a pair of big shades to really rock these to the fullest. Perhaps maybe a sheath with a big pattern? Perhaps a shopping trip is in order?


text:
Voting: What You Need to Know
Delegates Begin Casting Ballots Today
Who can vote?
Only delegates who have registered for the RA can vote.
When do you vote?
With so many voters, the Elections Committee tries to avoid long lines by asking delegates to vote with their state delegations at the designated times.
Where do you vote?
Balloting will take place in South Hall A. Delegates should go to the voting station that is indicated on the front of their delegate ID.
How do you vote?
At the voting area, delegates should go to the voting station that is labeled with their voting station number, show two forms of ID, preferably one with a photo, and sign for their ballot. Each delegate will have access to a voting booth. NEA voting is by secret ballot. No campaign material of any kind is allowed in the voting area. Cell phones must be turned off. No cameras are allowed.
How are ballots counted?
The ballots are machine-counted using well-tested, reliable optical scanning equipment and state-of-the-art tabulation software.
When will results be announced?
The results will be announced after the lunch break on Monday, July 4
What if the first election does not fill every position?
To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of the votes cast. If there are positions for which not enough candidates win majorities, there will be a run-off. In a vote-for-one election, the top two candidates will be in the run-off. If more than one position needs to be filled, the number of candidates in the run-off will be one more than the number of positions to be filled. Run-off elections will be held Monday, July 4, along with balloting for bylaws and constitutional amendments. Delegates will also be voting on the recommendation to re-elect President Barak Obama.


text:
Jaime Boler: Thank you, Sherri, for letting me ask you these questions. Orleans blew me away!
Sherri L. Smith: Thanks, Jaime! Coming from an avid reader, that means a lot!
JB: You have worked in film, animation, comic books, and construction. What made you want to write novels?
SLS: Long before I did any of the above, I was a writer. I've been an avid reader my whole life and started writing poetry and short stories in elementary school. As a kid, I was always awed by novels—it was incredible to me that the author could hold an entire universe in his or her head. Ever since then, I wanted to learn how to do it, too.
JB: You previously wrote Flygirl; Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet; Sparrow; and Lucy the Giant. Orleans is so different from your other novels. What made you want to explore dystopian and speculative fiction?
SLS: Again, blame my childhood. I was a big fan of fantasy and science fiction growing up—give me Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, Terry Brooks, Michael Moorcock or Frank Herbert, etc. and I was happy. In fact, it was rather a shock to discover my first novel (Lucy the Giant) was contemporary. I had to give myself a good hard look in the mirror and ask what the heck I thought I was doing. But I loved the story and it worked. From then on I decided I would just write what I loved, regardless of genre, and that's what I've done.
JB: How did you come up with the idea behind Orleans?
SLS: I got the idea for Orleans from my family's experience with Katrina. At the time, the idea was born out of two things: an article I read about street gangs protecting their neighborhoods when the cops had all fled, and race issues that seemed to be part of the whole Katrina catastrophe. It made me wonder: what if race wasn't an issue? What differences would separate people then? What if it wasn't something you could see? I decided blood was an interesting answer. And then, one day on the drive home, Fen popped into my head and started talking to me. The street gangs became blood tribes, and it wasn't long before Orleans was born.
JB: What kind of research did you do for Orleans?
SLS: I bought maps of the city, talked to doctors and scientists, read a lot of environmental studies and articles about hurricanes. I researched blood types and the history of New Orleans, religious groups, and field medicine. I watched movies about post-disaster worlds, read books, and studied knife fights in movies and books. It really ran the gamut!
JB: One of the astounding things about Orleans is how you build a singular world, unlike anything anybody's written before, and you do it all in one novel where Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, and Ally Condie need three books to fully achieve that effect. How did you invent this wildly imaginative world?
SLS: That's a huge compliment, so thank you from the bottom of my writerly heart. I imagine that Collins, Roth and Condie knew the width and breadth of their worlds before they finished the first book, though. The great thing about world building is, once it's built, you can keep going back!
As for how I approached it, brick by brick is the short answer. The long answer is—have you ever read Dune by Frank Herbert? There are appendices at the end of the novel that detail the ecology of the planet. I remember reading that as a kid and thinking, "Wow, he really made the world!" It seemed insane, but it worked. I had a teacher once tell me you had to create the entire room, even if you only wrote about one corner of it. I think that's true for all writing, but especially for speculative fiction. With that in mind, when I started writing I actually made a notebook with tabs for religion, weather, food, tribes, disease, etc. It was my own Dune appendix. However, unlike Frank Herbert, I got bored with cataloging and decided to get on with the writing. So, I didn't refer to the notebook as much as I thought I would, but any time I lost track of things, it was my touchstone and a good place to daydream new ideas.
The ideas themselves came from—extrapolation. I thought of New Orleans as I knew it and imagined what would change. There are incredible time lapse maps of the flooding in the city during Katrina, and forecast maps for the Gulf shoreline in years to come. Those all went into the kitty. I sat down with a couple of doctors, and grilled my biology teacher friend and her scientist sister for details when creating Delta Fever and the DF Virus. I saw a hut on stilts outside of Seattle, and the Church of the Rising Son was born.
JB: In Orleans, "tribe is life." Classifying someone by race no longer exists in Orleans. It's now all about blood type, all because of a horrible disease. How did you come up with Delta Fever?
SLS: I knew I wanted a disease that would force separation by blood type. I called a doctor friend of mine and she introduced me to a pediatric oncologist, Dr. Noah Federman, who walked me through the possibilities. I basically told him what I needed the Fever to do, and he told me what diseases existed that were similar and how they would manifest. I then talked to a friend who teaches biology and her sister, who is a research scientist. They taught me how to destroy viruses and how I might try to create a cure. Any science that works is owed to the three of them. The rest is my crazy imagination.
JB: Do you have a favorite character in Orleans? If so, please share.
SLS: Fen. Hands down. I just think she's so cool.
JB: Perfect lead-in for this question: your main female character is named Fen de la Guerre. "Guerre" is similar to "guerilla" fighter. What made you choose this name? And what came first—the character or her name?
SLS: The character came first. Her voice popped into my head. The name followed shortly thereafter. I wanted something that conjured the swamps and bayous in the Delta. A fen is a type of wetland. It also reminded me of Fern, the little girl in Charlotte's Web, which was my favorite book growing up. "De la Guerre" is French for "of war." Orleans is constantly at war, so that made sense. Lastly, "Fen" also sounds like the French "fin" or "end." I liked the idea that she would be a game changer for Orleans.
JB: It was so refreshing how you do not have the two protagonists falling in love, like so many other YA novels do. What stopped you from doing that in Orleans?
SLS: To quote Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, "No time for love, Dr. Jones!" Orleans is an incredibly dangerous place and Fen is working on a timeline. The idea of stopping in the middle of it to make googly eyes at someone was out of the question, especially for someone as no nonsense as Fen. Thanks to Delta Fever, romance is also a liability in Orleans. There is no room for a Romeo and Juliet situation—you fall in love with the wrong tribe, one of you dies. You get pregnant, your blood volume goes up and your value as a blood slave does, too. Not to mention it slows you down in a fight. Fen actually loves quite fiercely in this novel. It's just not about romance.
JB: One scene in Orleans, for me, is one I'll always think of when I see the book or hear about it. It's the scene where Fen and Daniel are in what remains of the Garden District and see a curious ritual from a window of a house in which they are resting. It happens on November 1, All Saints' Day and also the traditional end of hurricane season. Can you tell us about this scene? And what inspired it?
SLS: Ah. This is the scene of the All Saint's Krewe. Mardi Gras, which takes place in the early part of the year, is famous for its parades led by organizations called "krewes." The first krewes were young men in 19th century New Orleans who rode around on horses while wearing masks and holding torches, or flambeaux, in the air. I know this sounds disturbingly like a lynch mob, but it was meant to be a celebration. Or, more likely, it was a group of wild partiers, the 19th century equivalent of a frat party, and they hid their faces so their families wouldn't know about their hooliganism. At any rate, the tradition stuck and transformed into the Mardi Gras mask and the krewe parade.
I liked the idea that this tradition would continue to evolve in Orleans, or rather devolve to its original state. The opening image of the novel is a man playing a saxophone on the levee as a storm threatens the city. That image came from news footage I saw at the time. I decided the krewes would carry on that laissez faire attitude that New Orleans is so famous for by celebrating the end of hurricane season. The parade is as an act of defiance against nature, where people of all tribes come together anonymously.
In the scene, Fen wakes Daniel to see the krewe ride in a hurricane-shaped spiral reciting the names of the storms that destroyed New Orleans, and then shouting—Nous sommes ici! We are here! We are still here!
More about that scene from my book review:
The participants "wheel around in a circle at the widest point of the road and thrust they torches toward the center of the ring, moving to a trot as the ring shift shape and turn into a spiral 'stead of a sphere." They "be like a hurricane, swirling and swirling, the smallest rider in the center at the eye." Then, the chanting begins, over and over, louder and louder: "Katrina, Isaiah, Lorenzo. Olga, Laura, Paloma…Jesus, Jesus, Hay-SEUS!"
As the riders go off in every direction, they move faster and faster. As they disperse, one rider plays an old tune, "When the Saints Go Marching In." The ceremony's observers continue to celebrate November 1, because they still live in Orleans, and the ritual is to honor and remember what Orleans used to be. This is just one of the many ways in which Smith makes Orleans intriguing and new. No matter how many young adult books you have read, Orleans is nothing like them.
In Orleans, Smith creates a world like no other—bold, harrowing, and impossible to forget. This young adult story is a nail-biter that will keep you up well past your bedtime, but the pay-off is well worth the loss of sleep.
JB: Did you ever think of turning Orleans into a trilogy?
SLS: Yes, certainly. Once you've built the world, why not go back? Although I think there's a lot more to see in this universe than just the city of Orleans…
JB: Interesting! Why do you think YA dystopian/apocalyptic fiction is so popular?
SLS: I think it has something to do with war. We've been at war for over a decade and that takes its toll on a society. From terrorist acts to man-made and natural disasters, it's got people wondering how they will survive. Speculative fiction has always been good at mulling over those questions and answers. It can be a comfort to read a book and say, "Ah, there is life after this disaster. This is how you do it."
JB: In your book, the United States as we know it today no longer exists. Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas have been quarantined and are no longer part of the Union. The great city of New Orleans is surrounded by a wall. Do you think a catastrophe of this magnitude could happen in our country?
SLS: In fact, the Wall runs from Florida to Texas, amputating a vital part of the country. It seems crazy but, truly, in the first week after Katrina, it didn't sound so farfetched. There was talk of abandoning the city, moving inland. In fact, I remember reading a report. I think it was in the New Orleans Times-Picayune back in the late 1980s or early 1990s that postulated the need to abandon the city in the face of a major hurricane. The report proposed building a wall around the French Quarter to protect it for posterity. Apparently, the rest of the city was considered a reasonable loss. I remember reading that in my grandparent's kitchen and thinking, "But… that's us!"
JB: I know that Hurricane Katrina affected your mother and you. How did that experience provide the impetus to write Orleans?
SLS: My mom grew up in New Orleans and weathered the storm there. It was a couple of days before we realized she was trapped down there and things were falling apart fast. I hadn't thought of it until recently, but, in a lot of ways, Fen's journey to get Baby Girl out of Orleans mirrors my attempts to get my mom out of New Orleans. It's important to me to keep New Orleans in people's thoughts through my writing. We tend to think "the storm is over, everything is fine." But, as anyone who has ever had to rebuild after a disaster knows, it's far from over and the effects last for years. Orleans is about that aftermath.
JB: With each hurricane or even strong tropical storm that hits the New Orleans area, flooding seems worse. With the marshes disappearing, how likely do you think it is that the city could be underwater in 40, 50, or 100 years?
SLS: I don't even want to speculate about that. Anything can happen, as Katrina proved. As much as the fading wetlands were an issue with storm surge, it was manmade channels and levees that led to the bulk of the damage in the city. Not to diminish the threat, but they've been talking about Venice, Italy, sinking for decades and it's still standing. A little low in the water, maybe, but it's there. Hopefully the storms we've had recently will be a wake-up call and steps will be taken to protect our land.
JB: As a writer, who has influenced you the most?
SLS: Too many people to mention. I'll say my mother because she always encouraged me to keep with it. She never doubted I could publish if I tried.
JB: What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite authors?
SLS: I think I already mentioned Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. I love Trumpet of the Swan and Stuart Little, too, a though that last one was a bit weird because his parents were human and it kind of threw me. I'm a fan of Susan Cooper. I love her Dark Is Rising series. I've already mentioned Dune. I've come to appreciate Ernest Hemingway. I admire Marion Zimmer Bradley's ability to make her stories sound like truth. David Eddings, Laurie R. King, Lloyd Alexander, Kage Baker, Olivia Butler—I'm looking at my bookcase, but it's only one of 11 in the house!
JB: You really are an avid reader! What do you like to do when you aren't writing?
SLS: I like to read. Is that obvious? I also like travel, bake, eat, sleep, watch movies. I like to dance and make stuff with my hands. I watch a lot of cooking shows and make up songs that I sing to my cat, because she's the only one who tolerates it on a regular basis.
JB: What do you hope readers take with them after reading Orleans?
SLS: That's a good question. I hope they recognize how precious the world we live in really is, and do what they can to protect it. Whether that means putting together a "go bag" disaster kit, volunteering in an area that needs help, or taking steps to protect the environment, I'm happy. Heck, if it means everyone goes to New Orleans and supports the city with their visit, that would be grand too. Even if they just think about it and talk about the book with other people, it would mean I reached them somehow. And that's all any writer can ever hope.
JB: What's next for you? Are you working on anything new?
SLS: I am currently working on my first fantasy! It's an historical fantasy based on the Nutcracker. I'm also genre-dabbling in mystery and noir. I want to try everything, so that's what I'm going to do!
JB: Thanks, Sherri, for a wonderful interview! Good luck with the book.
SLS: Thank you, Jaime. It was a lot of fun.
Sherri L. Smith's Author Website


text:
'The World's Most Extraordinary Hotel'
By Atish Patel
This post has been updated. See below for details.
A luxury fortress resort with cow dung and clay fireplaces in the middle of Rajasthan's Thar Desert has been named by Lonely Planet as the world's most extraordinary hotel beating resorts in New York, Laos, and Italy to make the top spot.
Mihir Garh, or the Fort of the Sun, whose turreted walls and honey-colored towers are described as "an enormous sandcastle," by the travel guide, was purpose-built in India's largest state by area in 2009.
Designed by husband and wife Sidharth and Rashmi Singh, it has eight suites each of 1,700 square foot and one slightly smaller, some with their own pools and private courtyards.
Room rates at the resort, which was built in just two years by over 100 local artisans and carpenters, range from 17,000 to 33,600 rupees ($273-540) a night. Robert Plant, founding member of Led Zeppelin, has stayed at the hotel, according to the owners.
James Kay, a writer at the Lonely Planet, which is owned by US-based NC2 Media, described Mihir Garh as "not just a unique place to stay; it's a shrine to the artistic and architectural traditions of Rajasthan."
Located 55 kilometers from the 'blue' city of Jodhpur, everything in the Mihir Garh is custom-made and reflects local traditions, right down to the flooring, which was created using a special plastering technique known only to one man in the region, according to the hotel's website.
"It's located in the middle of the Thar wilderness. The entire area is extremely tranquil and peaceful. That's the USP," said owner Mr Singh. "It's built on a small sand dune, we have the height and the elevation and commanding views," he added.
Rajasthan is one of India's most popular travel destinations. In 2012, over 30 million Indian and foreign tourists visited the state - more than at any other point in the past four decades, according to figures from the state's tourism department.
Other places in the Lonely Planet's top 10 list of the most extraordinary hotels include a lodge nestled in the Tasmanian bushland, a treehouse resort in Canada and a lighthouse converted into a bed and breakfast 100 miles from New York City.
More In Travel
- How Many Countries Can Indians Visit Without a Visa?
- Postcard from Pakistan: A Delhi-Based Expat Crosses the Border
- Why You Should Check Your Passport Now
- A Spiritual High: Climbing Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka
- Indian Visa-On-Arrival Expands to More Countries: What You Need to Know
- India Expands Visa-On-Arrival Program
The publisher this week also unveiled two other top 10s - the best value stays and outstanding eco-friendly hostels - neither of which features hotels in South Asia.
Last year, Sikkim, India's tiny Himalayan state, topped another Lonely Planet list of best regions to visit in 2014.
This isn't the first award for Mihir Garh. Last year, the resort was voted by the Boutique Hotel Awards, a London-based competition, as the world's best boutique hotel.
Corrections and amplifications: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Lonely Planet was owned by the BBC. In fact, the BBC sold the travel guide to U.S.-based NC2 Media in 2013.
Atish Patel is a multimedia journalist based in Delhi. You can follow him on Twitter @atishpatel.
Follow India Real Time on Twitter @WSJIndia.


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Colorful chicken with purple potatoes
This recipe is not for the faint-hearted — it requires some frying skills, but makes a really tasty, delicious meal with a massive wow-factor without any extra hassle :-) I actually got the idea for this, when my local grocery store offered special 1kg packages of Vitelotte, a.k.a. purple potatoes. I wanted to make something tasty, but also colourful and festive, thus this crazy, colourful and festive meal was born! ---|
On good thing about these potatoes is, they seem to lower blood pressure and have inflammatory components, which might be a good thing for a winter meal :-)
Tuna and egg bento
The bare tuna-paste bento was a great success, but with the arrival of my new bento container, I was left with some extra unused space. I decided to fill the space with easy to make and very tasty iri tamago, which is basically a Japanese kind of scrambled eggs! You can definitely use iri tamago in onigiri, or as a small side dish.


text: National Food Safety Education Month® Images Current NFSEM materials are available from the main NFSEM sites. Here are a few items from past years. NFSEM Logo NFSEM Logo (GIF) 2005: Keep Hands Clean! with Good Hygiene "Clean" Card (PDF, 1MB) 2001 Poster - Be Cool, Chill Out SIT (for professional printing only) (2.8MB) NFSEM Images


text:
Water & Wastewater: Water is our life
Increase your efficiency and ensure compliance with an experienced and trusted partner
Legal demands, shrinking budgets and increasing process complexity: the challenges faced by the water & wastewater industry have never been greater. To master these challenges you need a partner who combines extensive industry knowledge and experience with an entire portfolio of measuring instruments, solutions and services.
Clear and fresh ideas
Whether you need to update your instrumentation to comply with legal requirements,
improve efficiency or streamline your planning processes – rely on us and the experience
we have gained working with our customers from all over the world.
Based on those experiences, we have developed our entire instrumentation portfolio with the requirements of your industry in mind. This also applies to our solutions and service offering.


text: Distance prevents me from enjoying the ambiance of Montreal, the sea of creative madness that is currently churning in the historic architecture of original Canadiana. But alas, I am here, and you're there, dear Montreal. See, this isn't just a tragic love story of girl meets city that sparks a wild hunger to create helter-skelter and run away, throwing caution to the wind a-la Beat Poet promiscuity of the 1960's revolution! It is much more fanciful than that. I met a fellow, through this world wide web.Art, Art News, Artists, Interviews


text:
Roo, a chihuahua believed to have been born without front legs, has been adopted from a Los Angeles-area animal shelter. All together, now: Awwww.
After the shelter received the pup last week and a local news outlet shared his story, the facility housing Roo was inundated with requests to adopt him. Yvette Bocz included a "heartfelt, handwritten note" with her adoption inquiry that touched Roo's caregivers.
Upon meeting her new pooch, Bocz was able to bond with him.
Roo's tailed wagged as Bocz held him close, wrapping him up in her scarf to protect him from the cool air. Bocz says she doesn't know if she'll keep his name or give him a new name. "We'll see what his personality will be, we may change his name to Joey."
Watch the report on Roo here.
This story is so cute that it makes my face feel melty, but it's important to remember that there are dozens of shelter animals who don't have missing legs who need homes.
John Welsh, spokesman for Riverside County Animal Services says while Roo's story is a great one, he's "one of the lucky ones," as the shelter has dozens of other Chihuahuas— including Roo's three siblings— who are still available for adoption.
(And, if I may put on my advocacy pants for a moment, I'd like to recommend that everyone who is considering getting a dog look first to their local shelters, even if you're looking for a purebred. I volunteer with dogs at a no-kill shelter, and we've had everything from purebred bloodhounds to Great Danes to Malteses to Chow Chows to a gorgeous special needs pit bull who uses a cart to get around. And Chihuahuas, like Roo.)
"Roo Adopted" [LAT]


text:
BENEFITING: Valley Girls and Guys
ORGANIZER: Valley Girls and Guys
Valley Girls and Guys wrote -
Valley Girls & Guys! is a non-profit AND also a 3-
day team for Susan G Komen for the Cure that
walks 60 miles over the course of 3 days! This year with over 193+ walkers we will be walking in Seattle, San Diego, Twin Cities and Philly! Not only do
we fundraise for Susan G. Komen but we also raise money for our blankets of comfort and hope and The WHO House. To date we have sent over 670+ personalized blankets to cancer patients all over the world. Regardless of what type of cancer, age and/or if they are going through diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, or hospice we want them to know that we are here for them, walking and fundraising to find a CURE! The Who House harnesses the power of community to support cancer patients and their families and is designed for those going through this horrible to disease to have a place and outreach for support, services and more! The Who House also provides WHO DREAMS for those terminal with cancer and serves as a unique and great way to make that final dream/wish come true!


text:
While I dedicate my beloved Inspiron to The Greater Cause (in this case, The Greater Cause is as a Hardy tweak guinea pig), I've been spending most of my working time staring into The Eye — the 800×600 porthole of my Thinkpad.
I surprise myself saying it, but it's not as bad as I anticipated. I added a couple of new desktops (I found six to be a good compromise) and just bounce between them a lot more often, where on a larger screen I would overlap windows rather than add desktops.
Actually it's a strange thing to mention, but I find myself rather liking the font displays on the Thinkpad. They're nowhere near as crisp as 1600×1200, but it's somehow enjoyable to see the individual pixels, no matter how hard Arch tries to antialias them. Call me weird.
But most everything is acceptable, although Osmo doesn't like a shallow depth like that. The bottom third hangs down below the limit of the screen, and I have to ALT+drag to see the lowest items on my to-do list.
Everything else is just fine. I'm about half way through building the guide on the Thinkpad with Arch, mostly because it has the newest version of Zim. Zim is behaving a little strangely for me, but it's not anything I can put my finger on and so I won't go into details. I have a feeling it's because I migrated my "notebooks" from a much earlier version, and probably should have started from scratch.
Aside from that, and a few real life issues that will unfold over the next few days, I haven't much to tell about — it's busy, it's ordinary, it's slow going. 😕


text:
RSpec is a great tool in the behavior-driven development (BDD) process of writing human readable specifications that direct and validate the development of your application.
On the web there are many resources that give complete overview of _what_ you can do with RSpec. But there are fewer resources devoted to how to create a great RSpec test suite.
Better Specs tries to fill this gap by collecting most of the "best practices" that other developers learn through years of experience.
Thanks to Open Source
Betterspecs.org come to life from the experience I've made while working on Lelylan, an open source microservices architecture for the Internet of Things. If this project helped you in any way, think about giving us a Star on Github or helping on improving the project.In Lelylan you can also find many of the tests who gave inspiration to these guidelines. They need a full refactoring (to latest updates and Rails 5.0), but they could be of inspiration.
How to describe your methods
Be clear about what method you are describing. For instance, use the Ruby documentation convention of
. (or
::) when referring to a class method's name and
# when
referring to an instance method's name.
describe 'the authenticate method for User' do
describe 'if the user is an admin' do
describe '.authenticate' do
describe '#admin?' do
Use contexts
Contexts are a powerful method to make your tests clear and well organized. In the long term this practice will keep tests easy to read.
it 'has 200 status code if logged in' do
expect(response).to respond_with 200
it 'has 401 status code if not logged in' do
expect(response).to respond_with 401
context 'when logged in' do
it { is_expected.to respond_with 200 }
context 'when logged out' do
it { is_expected.to respond_with 401 }
When describing a context, start its description with "when", "with" or "without".Tweet
Keep your description short
A spec description should never be longer than 40 characters. If this happens you should split it using a context.
it 'has 422 status code if an unexpected params will be added' do
context 'when not valid' do
it { is_expected.to respond_with 422 }
In the example we removed the description related to the status code,
which has been replaced by the expectation
it { is_expected.to respond_with 422 }.
If you run this test typing
rspec filename you will obtain a readable output.
Formatted Output
when not valid
it should respond with 422
Single expectation test
The 'one expectation' tip is more broadly expressed as 'each test should make only one assertion'. This helps you on finding possible errors, going directly to the failing test, and to make your code readable.
In isolated unit specs, you want each example to specify one (and only one) behavior. Multiple expectations in the same example are a signal that you may be specifying multiple behaviors.
Anyway, in tests that are not isolated (e.g. ones that integrate with a DB, an external webservice, or end-to-end-tests), you take a massive performance hit to do the same setup over and over again, just to set a different expectation in each test. In these sorts of slower tests, I think it's fine to specify more than one isolated behavior.
good (isolated)
it { is_expected.to respond_with_content_type(:json) }
it { is_expected.to assign_to(:resource) }
Good (not isolated)
it 'creates a resource' do
expect(response).to respond_with_content_type(:json)
expect(response).to assign_to(:resource)
Test all possible cases
Testing is a good practice, but if you do not test the edge cases, it will not be useful. Test valid, edge and invalid case. For example, consider the following action.
Destroy action
before_filter :find_owned_resources
before_filter :find_resource
def destroy
render 'show'
The error I usually see lies in testing only whether the resource has been removed. But there are at least two edge cases: when the resource is not found and when it's not owned. As a rule of thumb think of all the possible inputs and test them.
it 'shows the resource'
describe '#destroy' do
context 'when resource is found' do
it 'responds with 200'
it 'shows the resource'
context 'when resource is not found' do
it 'responds with 404'
context 'when resource is not owned' do
it 'responds with 404'
Expect vs Should syntax
On new projects always use the
expect syntax.
it 'creates a resource' do
response.should respond_with_content_type(:json)
it 'creates a resource' do
expect(response).to respond_with_content_type(:json)
Configure the RSpec to only accept the new syntax on new projects, to avoid having the 2 syntax all over the place.
# spec_helper.rb
RSpec.configure do |config|
# ...
config.expect_with :rspec do |c|
c.syntax = :expect
On one line expectations or with implicit subject we should use
context 'when not valid' do
it { should respond_with 422 }
context 'when not valid' do
it { is_expected.to respond_with 422 }
On old projects you can use the transpec to convert them to the new syntax.
More about the new RSpec expectation syntax can be found here and here.Tweet
Use subject
If you have several tests related to the same subject use
subject{} to DRY them up.
it { expect(assigns('message')).to match /it was born in Belville/ }
subject { assigns('message') }
it { is_expected.to match /it was born in Billville/ }
RSpec has also the ability to use a named subject.
subject(:hero) { Hero.first }
it "carries a sword" do
expect(hero.equipment).to include "sword"
Learn more about rspec subject.Tweet
Use let and let!
When you have to assign a variable instead of using a
before block to create
an instance variable, use
let. Using
let the variable lazy loads
only when it is used the first time in the test and get cached until that specific test is
finished. A really good and deep description of what
let does can be found in this
stackoverflow answer.
describe '#type_id' do
before { @resource = FactoryGirl.create :device }
before { @type = Type.find @resource.type_id }
it 'sets the type_id field' do
expect(@resource.type_id).to equal(@type.id)
describe '#type_id' do
let(:resource) { FactoryGirl.create :device }
let(:type) { Type.find resource.type_id }
it 'sets the type_id field' do
expect(resource.type_id).to equal(type.id)
let to initialize actions that are lazy loaded to test your specs.
context 'when updates a not existing property value' do
let(:properties) { { id: Settings.resource_id, value: 'on'} }
def update
resource.properties = properties
it 'raises a not found error' do
expect { update }.to raise_error Mongoid::Errors::DocumentNotFound
let! if you want to define the variable when the block is defined.
This can be useful to populate your database to test queries or scopes.
Here an example of what let actually is.
# this:
let(:foo) { Foo.new }
# is very nearly equivalent to this:
def foo
@foo ||= Foo.new
Learn more about rspec let.Tweet
Mock or not to mock
There's a debate going on. Do not (over)use mocks and test real behavior when possible. Testing real cases are useful when updating your application flow.
# simulate a not found resource
context "when not found" do
before do
allow(Resource).to receive(:where).with(created_from: params[:id])
it { is_expected.to respond_with 404 }
Mocking makes your specs faster but they are difficult to use. You need to understand them well to use them well. Read more about.Tweet
Create only the data you need
If you have ever worked in a medium size project (but also in small ones), test suites can be heavy to run. To solve this problem, it's important not to load more data than needed. Also, if you think you need dozens of records, you are probably wrong.
describe "User" do
describe ".top" do
before { FactoryGirl.create_list(:user, 3) }
it { expect(User.top(2)).to have(2).item }
Use factories and not fixtures
This is an old topic, but it's still good to remember it. Do not use fixtures because they are difficult to control, use factories instead. Use them to reduce the verbosity on creating new data.
user = User.create(
name: 'Genoveffa',
surname: 'Piccolina',
city: 'Billyville',
birth: '17 Agoust 1982',
active: true
user = FactoryGirl.create :user
One important note. When talking about unit tests the best practice would be to use neither fixtures or factories. Put as much of your domain logic in libraries that can be tested without needing complex, time consuming setup with either factories or fixtures. Read more in this article
Learn more about Factory Girl.Tweet
Easy to read matcher
Use readable matchers and double check the available rspec matchers.
lambda { model.save! }.to raise_error Mongoid::Errors::DocumentNotFound
expect { model.save! }.to raise_error Mongoid::Errors::DocumentNotFound
Shared Examples
Making tests is great and you get more confident day after day. But in the end you will start to see code duplication coming up everywhere. Use shared examples to DRY your test suite up.
describe 'GET /devices' do
let!(:resource) { FactoryGirl.create :device, created_from: user.id }
let(:uri) { '/devices' }
context 'when shows all resources' do
let!(:not_owned) { FactoryGirl.create factory }
it 'shows all owned resources' do
page.driver.get uri
expect(page.status_code).to be(200)
contains_owned_resource resource
does_not_contain_resource not_owned
describe '?start=:uri' do
it 'shows the next page' do
page.driver.get uri, start: resource.uri
expect(page.status_code).to be(200)
contains_resource resources.first
expect(page).to_not have_content resource.id.to_s
describe 'GET /devices' do
let!(:resource) { FactoryGirl.create :device, created_from: user.id }
let(:uri) { '/devices' }
it_behaves_like 'a listable resource'
it_behaves_like 'a paginable resource'
it_behaves_like 'a searchable resource'
it_behaves_like 'a filterable list'
In our experience, shared examples are used mainly for controllers. Since models are pretty different from each other, they (usually) do not share much logic.
Learn more about rspec shared examples.Tweet
Test what you see
Deeply test your models and your application behaviour (integration tests). Do not add useless complexity testing controllers.
When I first started testing my apps I was testing controllers, now I don't. Now I only create integration tests using RSpec and Capybara. Why? Because I truly believe that you should test what you see and because testing controllers is an extra step you don't need. You'll find out that most of your tests go into the models and that integration tests can be easily grouped into shared examples, building a clear and readable test suite.
This is an open debate in the Ruby community and both sides have good arguments supporting their idea. People supporting the need of testing controllers will tell you that your integration tests don't cover all use cases and that they are slow.
Both are wrong. You can easily cover all use cases (why shouldn't you?) and you can run single file specs using automated tools like Guard. In this way you will run only the specs you need to test blazing fast without stopping your flow.Tweet
Don't use should
Do not use should when describing your tests. Use the third person in the present tense. Even better start using the new expectation syntax.
it 'should not change timings' do
consumption.occur_at.should == valid.occur_at
it 'does not change timings' do
expect(consumption.occur_at).to equal(valid.occur_at)
See the should_not gem for a way to enforce this in RSpec and the should_clean gem for a way to clean up existing RSpec examples that begin with "should."Tweet
Automatic tests with guard
Running all the test suite every time you change your app can be cumbersome. It takes a lot of time and it can break your flow. With Guard you can automate your test suite running only the tests related to the updated spec, model, controller or file you are working at.
bundle exec guard
guard 'rspec', cli: '--drb --format Fuubar --color', version: 2 do
# run every updated spec file
# run the lib specs when a file in lib/ changes
watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb$}) { |m| "spec/lib/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
# run the model specs related to the changed model
watch(%r{^app/(.+)\.rb$}) { |m| "spec/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
# run the view specs related to the changed view
watch(%r{^app/(.*)(\.erb|\.haml)$}) { |m| "spec/#{m[1]}#{m[2]}_spec.rb" }
# run the integration specs related to the changed controller
watch(%r{^app/controllers/(.+)\.rb}) { |m| "spec/requests/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
# run all integration tests when application controller change
watch('app/controllers/application_controller.rb') { "spec/requests" }
Guard is a fine tool but as usual it doesn't fit all of your needs. Sometimes your TDD workflow works best with a keybinding that makes it easy to run just the examples you want when you want to. Then, you can use a rake task to run the entire suite before pushing code. Find an example vim keybinding here.
Learn more about guard-rspec.Tweet
Faster tests (preloading Rails)
When running a test on Rails the whole Rails app is loaded. This can take time and it can break your development flow. To solve this problem use solutions like Zeus, Spin or Spork. Those solutions will preload all libraries you (usually) do not change and reload controllers, models, view, factories and all the files you change most often.
Here you can find a spec helper and a Guardfile configuration based on Spork. With this configuration you will reload the whole app if a preloaded file (like initializers) change and you will run the single tests really, really fast.
The drawback of using Spork is that it aggressively monkey-patches your code and you could lose some hours trying to understand why a file is not reloaded. If you have some code examples using Spin or any other solution let us know.
Here you can find a Guardfile configuration for using Zeus. The spec_helper does not need to be modified, however, you will have to run `zeus start` in a console to start the zeus server before running your tests.
Although Zeus takes a less aggressive approach than Spork, one major drawback is the fairly strict usage requirements; Ruby 1.9.3+ (recommended using backported GC from Ruby 2.0) as well as an operating system that supports FSEvents or inotify is required.
Many criticisms are moved to those solutions. Those libraries are a band aid on a problem that is better solved through better design, and being intentional about only loading the dependencies that you need. Learn more reading the related discussion.Tweet
Stubbing HTTP requests
Sometimes you need to access external services. In these cases you can't rely on the real service but you should stub it with solutions like webmock.
context "with unauthorized access" do
let(:uri) { 'http://api.lelylan.com/types' }
before { stub_request(:get, uri).to_return(status: 401, body: fixture('401.json')) }
it "gets a not authorized notification" do
page.driver.get uri
expect(page).to have_content 'Access denied'
Learn more about webmock and VCR. Here is a nice presentation explaining how to mix them together.Tweet
Useful formatter
Use a formatter that can give you useful information about the test suite. I personally find fuubar really nice. To make it work add the gem and set fuubar as default formatter in your Guardfile.
# Gemfile
group :development, :test do
gem 'fuubar'
# .rspec
--format Fuubar
Learn more about fuubar.Tweet
Resources on the web
Libraries (documentation)
We are seeking for the best guidelines to write "nice to read" specs. Right now a good starting point is for sure the Mongoid test suite. It uses a clean style and easy-to-read specs, following most of the guidelines described here.
Improving Better Specs
This is an open source project. If something is missing or incorrect just file an issue to discuss the topic. Also check the following issues:
- Multilanguage (file an issue if you want to translate this guide)
This project was created by and released as open-source thanks to Lelylan, a new platform to monitor and control your devices through a simple, open and robust REST API.
If you like what I'm doing offer me a coffe


text:
IZMIR, TURKEY (CNN) – Lightning hit the engine of a Turkish Airline flight, causing the engine to catch fire.
A passenger caught the frightening incident on camera. It was also captured on video from the ground.
The flight from Istanbul, carrying 114 people, was preparing to land in Izmir when the lighting hit.
The pilot turned on the motor's own fire extinguisher, declared an emergency and was able to land safely.
Moments of horror; on a lightening-struck plane.
Passengers of a Turkish Airlines (THY) flight experienced some of the most scary moments of their lives when their plane was struck by lightning while in the air.
A passenger managed to film the moments before the plane was safely landed.
THY's Istanbul-Izmir flight was about to descend for landing at Adnan Menderes Airport in Izmir after taking off from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport at about 11.15pm on Thursday night when a lightning struck the plane.
The lightening strike caused fire in the engine of the plane, but the pilot managed to land the aircraft safely at Adnan Menderes Airport at 12.05am on Friday.
A passenger, Mr. Bertan Atay, managed to catch the moments of horror on his camera before the plane was landed safely. The lights of the aircraft went out after the plane landed at the airport.


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(NAPSI)�From kids and pets, to your home or business, there is a lot you want to protect. There are many things you need to consider when wanting to keep your loved ones safe and your valuables secure. To help, here are some top tips:
First and foremost, security has come a long way from the days of alarm systems with monthly monitoring fees from a security company, or the dependency on your neighbors to respond when they hear the alarm. With today�s smart home and Internet of things technology, it is economical, easy and very effective to install an enterprise-level security system to keep a constant eye on what matters most to you.
If you are seeking an easy way to have a watchful eye on your home when you are away, you can install a smart home security camera system for a relatively small investment, compared to the security systems of old. A good example is the NETGEAR Arlo security camera systems, which can take a lot of the worrying out of your life. �Install� is a bit of a misleading term in that Arlo cameras are 100 percent wire-free; just snap the cameras onto the magnetic mount for easy placement. Without the need for power or a hardwire to your Internet connection, you can strategically place the cameras inside and outside, with no concern for how they would perform in adverse weather conditions because they are weatherproof rated. In minutes, you�ll be set up to monitor your valuables from the palm of your hand anywhere in the world. You can even share camera access or specific videos with friends and family.
These cameras also come with rechargeable batteries and have an optional solar panel accessory that is worry free. And, with the two-way audio, you can even greet FedEx and let the delivery person know where to place your latest Amazon purchases.
Simplicity is the name of the game here with these new technologies. The free app is designed so you can access video, receive alerts and get a live view of your video feed. It is available for iOS (Apple), Android, Apple TV and Web browser with no hidden charges and allows you to check in with a live video feed at any time. With the motion-activated alerts, you can respond to emergencies immediately�100-decibel siren included�and also have a record for any potential follow-up with your local police department.
The Arlo camera system can protect in three ways:
1. At Home: Whether you�re on the couch or at the office, it will alert you when someone�s coming. From housekeepers and babysitters to repairmen, mail delivery and gardeners, you can keep tabs on all the activity around your house.
2. Business Security: See what your workers are up to when you�re not there or check to ensure the cleaners locked up properly after closing.
3. Pet Monitoring: See what happens when you�re away and take whatever steps are needed to keep pets (and neighbors) smiling. Geofencing is available.
Additionally, NETGEAR has created an initiative called Arlo Cares, to partner with communities to provide options when it comes to their security. Arlo Cares works with public safety professionals as well as nonprofit organizations to demonstrate how easy it can be for community members, working together, to promote a safer and more secure environment for their friends, family and fellow neighbors.
There are also plenty more tips you can follow to ensure the security of your property.
Something that may not always be common sense in this day of connected networks is: Don�t post your travel plans on social media. We all love to share our travel experiences with friends and family and our social channels make it so easy to do so; however, be warned if your accounts are public. You could be broadcasting to the world that no one is home.
Also, the old standby still holds: If you�ll be away for any extended time, stop mail and newspaper deliveries, and ask a neighbor to remove any flyers that might be placed on your doorstep.
It is always a good idea to keep shrubs and bushes trimmed and to use outdoor lighting to eliminate places where a potential prowler could hide. There are even plenty of motion-activated lights that can put more light on a subject, so to speak. And remember those timers; these are still effective ways to turn lights and televisions on and off when you are not home. It gives the impression of activity to any passersby.
You should also be wary of anyone offering repairs or contract work door-to-door. Ask to see his or her operating license and call the company. They may just be snooping to see if someone is home during the day, or if they do get contracted, they may have an open invitation to evaluate the contents of your home and accessibility options.
Many of us have very busy lives and the sense of community is often a remote one, but it is still important to get to know your neighbors. You can also leave spare keys with someone you trust, and don�t place them under a doormat or planter or other obvious hiding place. Lock exterior doors at night and every time you leave the house, even if it�s just for a few minutes. Lock gates, garage doors and shed doors after every use. Keep outdoor lights on in the evening�whether or not someone is home. Secure sliding glass doors with a dowel or pin.
Learn More
For further facts, go to www.arlo.com.
On the Net:North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.(NAPSI)


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Detangle and remove loose hair
Many pets love being groomed, so it's a nice relaxing time for them, and it can also help you to relax and de-stress! If your pet isn't so keen on grooming, we've got some helpful tips on how to gently introduce a grooming routine.
Remove the undercoat
DeShedding can actually help reduce the amount of fur your pet sheds around your home, because you remove the fur from the undercoat before it has a chance to shed.
Shampoo and condition
All pets will need to have a bath at some point, though some are better natural groomers than others. It also depends upon how active your pet is and how much time they spend outdoors.
Dispose of collected hair
You won't have to buy another lint roller or remove pet hair with sticky tape again. Our innovative and reusable tools allow you to pick up pet hair quickly and easily by rolling over the area you want to clean.
Our most comfortable and effective deShedding tool, designed for large breeds weighing 51-90 lbs/ 23- 41kg with all hair types. The curved stainless steel edge conforms to your pet's natural contours, providing comfort while maximizing hair removal. Stainless steel deShedding edge reaches through top coat to safely and easily remove loose hair and undercoat without damaging the coat or cutting the skin.
Directions for use: Recommended for use on shedding breeds only. Avoid using on pets with particularly sensitive skin. Please consult a veterinarian if you are unsure if your pet has an undercoat.


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Living together and working together is easier if you know how to motivate and inspire others. Whether it's your children, partner, friends or colleagues, there are many advantages to approaching others in a positive way. They'll appreciate your company more, will often be more prepared to help you, and will value your opinion more.
The power of a compliment
An important and fun way to inspire someone is to give them a compliment. One of the most important needs people have is the need for recognition and appreciation. A compliment can meet those needs. By giving a compliment you give others a good feeling about what they're doing, as well as the feeling that what they're doing is appreciated. Still, people are very sparse when it comes to giving compliments. They think other people will lean back whenever they get a compliment. If you for example tell your daughter a C+ is good, she might think she doesn't need to study. That's the reason most people are rather harsh. They whine and threaten others in the hope the other person will do what they want them to do. Most of the time this doesn't work though. The other person feels they've failed and is discouraged. A compliment, on the other hand, does work. Praising your daughter (it's good you still got a C+ for that difficult topic) increases the chance she'll work hard at school. The compliment encourages her to work hard. Complimenting someone doesn't guarantee positive behaviour, but chances are better. Compliments also augment people's self-worth. Children especially need to hear something positive once in a while. They need even more affirmation than adults.
To the point and sincere
In order to have the desired effect, compliments should meet certain requirements.
Rule 1: be sincere
Only give compliments you really mean. People will know if you don't mean it. At times it's difficult to come up with something positive and if you really can't come up with something you could tell the other person how you'd like something to be done, and how you'd appreciate it. You could for example say (to stick with the daughter at school example): "It would mean a lot to me if you'd work harder at school".
Rule 2: say why
Most people only say what they appreciate, and forget about the why. If a friend just got a hair cut and you only say: "Your hair looks nice", it might seem you only want to be polite. You're also complimenting the hair dresser, instead of your friend. Say for example: "You chose a nice hair cut, it really fits your style".
Rule 3: start with their first name
By mentioning someone's first name, the compliment gets really personal. You show them the compliment is really meant for them. People also pay more attention to sentences in which their name is mentioned. To a colleague you could for instance say: "Paul, you did really well on that report".
Don't get all wound up
Influencing others in a positive way isn't only done by giving people compliments, but also by not reacting in a negative way to others, even if they're trying to provoke you. Whenever someone makes an unreasonable or critical remark, most people automatically get all defensive. Not because they're looking for a fight, but because they want to protect their sense of self-worth. Unfortunately there's a risk of escalation, because the reactions back and forth might get more damaging and hurtful. Try not to react immediately. Stay calm and friendly. Ask for clarification or say you didn't know there was a problem. If you stay calm, friendly and positive, there's a chance of "emotional contamination". Emotional contamination is the phenomenon that people, unintentionally, mimic other people's facial expressions, body language and emotions. Research shows emotional contamination works best with positive things. People are more likely to mimic a smile than a frown.
Cool down
It's not easy to remain friendly and positive when for example your partner is in an awful mood. It requires self control and empathy. Following tips can help you to remain calm and in a good mood.
Tip 1: take a time-out
If, during a conversation, you get very upset, angry or stressed, a time-out is a sensible thing to take. Go to the bathroom, or go for a walk. Tell your partner you're going to do something else for a bit, because you're too upset or angry or stressed. You can e.g. agree to continue the conversation in an hour, or the next day.
Tip 2: display opposite behaviour
If you're angry or stressed, it might help to show some opposite behaviour. Relax and try to look friendly. Tell the other person you care for them, or slowly drink a glass of water. Because your senses get a different kind of input, your brain thinks you're no longer angry.
Tip 3: reflect
Ask yourself why someone is reacting in an angry or unreasonable way. Try to see their side. Wonder whether they're tense or tired. Perhaps something happened at work or school.
Showing involvement
In order to stimulate people, it also helps if you show involvement in what they're doing. In order to stimulate your daughter to do her homework, you could show an interest in the topics she is studying at school. Remarks like "I will think of you when you're taking your exam" or "You can call me any time whenever you need help" are helpful too. Research shows people will perform better that way.
People might also feel stimulated if you involve them in what's important for you. Ask a colleague their opinion about a project you're leading, or ask your partner to help you sort the holiday pictures for example. Even though you can do those things yourself, perhaps even better, you give people the idea their contribution is appreciated.
Think about someone you'd like to compliment, for example your child, partner, neighbour or colleague. Resolve to compliment them next time you see them. Already write down what you could say.
Think about someone close who has to do something difficult soon, or who has an appointment they're not looking forward to, like an exam, a doctor's appointment or a boring meeting. Resolve to say something supportive. Already think about what you could say and write it down. Next time you'll see this person, follow through. Intent on saying something supportive at least once a day.


text:
On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, CCHAT students will hit the pavement on bikes, trikes and scooters to raise funds for the program that is teaching them to listen and talk. With your support, children with hearing loss, like Kelly have the opportunity to speak for themselves!
Every dollar will go a long way toward building a bright future for CCHAT children and their families. CCHAT is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation serving children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.


text:
The future is here: iPhone X
Packed with Innovative Features Including a Super Retina Display, TrueDepth Camera System, Face ID and A11 Bionic Chip with Neural Engine
Gorgeous All-Screen Design
Remarkable Super Retina Display
Face ID, a Powerful and Secure Authentication System
Reinvented Front and Back Cameras Featuring Portrait Lighting
Animoji Brings Emoji to Life
Introducing A11 Bionic
Designed for a Wireless Future
- iPhone X will be available in silver and space grey in 64GB and 256GB models from apple.com/ and and is also available through Apple Authorised Resellers and carriers (prices may vary).
- Customers will be able to order iPhone X beginning Friday, October 27, with availability beginning Friday, November 3, in Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, the US and US Virgin Islands.
- Apple-designed accessories including leather and silicone cases in a range of colours will be available while a new iPhone X Leather Folio and Lightning Docks in colour-matching metallic finishes will also be available.
- Every customer who buys iPhone X from Apple will be offered free Personal Setup online to help them customise their iPhone by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store and more.4
1 iPhone X is splash, water and dust resistant, and was tested under controlled laboratory conditions with a rating of IP67 under IEC standard 60529. Splash, water and dust resistance are not permanent conditions, and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Do not attempt to charge a wet iPhone; refer to the user guide for cleaning and drying instructions. Liquid damage not covered under warranty.
2 The iPhone X display has rounded corners that follow a beautiful curved design, and these corners are within a standard rectangle. When measured as a standard rectangular shape, the screen is 5.85 inches diagonally (actual viewable area is less).
3 Portrait Lighting launches in beta.
4 In most countries.
iPhone X has not been authorised as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorisation is obtained.
Press Contacts
Nikki Thompson
+44 (0)20 8278 1440
Apple Media Helpline


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Home > Medical Furniture > Bariatric Furniture > All Bariatric Furniture
Available, dispatched in 1-24 days
Brand: Sunflower MedicalColour: Black
In a medical environment ensuring that comfortable, reliable seating is used is important, especially when it comes to keeping patients relaxed and happy in the waiting room. The Sunflower Medical Atlas Black High-Back Intervene Bariatric Patient Armchair with Drop Arms and Wings provides a comfortable, durable and practical seating choice that is sure to keep patients content while they wait their turn. This beech framed chair not only provides long-lasting comfort for bariatric users, but also carries the benefit of adding a touch of elegance to your waiting room.
Since patients waiting for medical attention can often become restless or nervous while awaiting their medical professional, seating comfort in the waiting room should never be sacrificed. This chair features comfortable and luxurious extra-deep foam upholstery in the seat, backrest and wings, specially designed for the bariatric user.
The backrest is high enough to support the entire back, and is fitted with wings to support the head and shoulders, ensuring that patients will remain comfortable throughout their wait. This chair is also equipped with adjustable drop arms, making lateral patient transfer safe, efficient and simple. Finally, a solid beech frame complete with sturdy arms ensures that this chair will last a long time, and look great while doing it.
While comfort and ease of use are important features, when it comes to medical situations nothing is more important than hygiene. This chair is made with specially designed Intervene upholstery that is both anti-bacterial and anti-microbial, ensuring that it will stay clean and safe throughout its lifetime. Manufactured to be easy to maintain and simple to clean with hygienic rounded corners, this chair is perfectly suited to the challenges of a medical area.
This chair is available with a number of accessories, making it adaptable to a variety of different uses. Accessories marked with * must be factory fitted at the time of your chair's order and are unavailable for separate purchase.
This item is manufactured to order, and delivery normally takes place within 5 to 7 weeks by courier.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the delivery of this item.
Be the first to Write a Review for this item!
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text:
Ben Meadows:
- Quantity
- Price
- 1+
- $6.95
- 12+
- $6.50
- 24+
- $5.95
- Description
- Specifications
- Reviews
These lightweight polyester mesh vests feature 2"W silver reflective stripes (one horizontal and two vertical). Pockets include a 5.5" x 6.5" outside left chest patch pocket with a hook-and-loop tab and a 7.5" x 7.5" inside right patch pocket. Front zipper allows for easy on/off. ANSI/ISEA 107-2010 Class 2 Level 2 Compliant.
We encourage our customers to let us know what experiences they have had with our products, whether good or bad. By submitting a review, you can share your experiences with others and also provide valuable feedback to us as well. With just a few simple steps, you can add your review of this product.
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Jane Austen does not much speak of India, which she called the East Indies. In her books it is a faraway place where military men were stationed and desirable fabrics and shawls were obtained. Marianne Dashwood provides the only, rather glib description of the country:
" … the climate is hot, and the mosquitos are troublesome."
Jane Austen was rather scrupulous in not describing places of which she had no knowledge, yet she lived in a time when a massive cultural exchange was taking place, and it worked both ways. England may have imposed its culture upon India, but it also brought a lot of India back home. The fashions of the day, in which dresses made of saris (and later on shawls) were all the rage, reflected the beginnings of an interchange that is continuing to this day.
Jane Austen did not speak much of India, but India has had a lot to say about Jane Austen. She is much beloved in that country. I have several Indian friends who adore Austen, also a few who don't, but even the latter often demonstrate a far better knowledge of her work than the average American. We've discussed the universality of her appeal. As the main theme of Bollywood tends to be love and marriage, Austen is a natural topic for Indian cinema. It is really rather astounding that no more than three Indian film adaptations have been made of her works (the is a movie claiming to be the Indian version of Pride & Prejudice uploaded on YouTube, but I'm pretty sure this is either a mistake or a disturbing joke). Modern India is such a natural setting for Austen's plots, where marriage is still very much a topic of discussion in the public sphere. In so many ways we have privatized marriage in the West. It is not a decision we allow our families, let alone the community at large, partake in.
I would like to share with you a few brief thoughts on each of the three Bollywood adaptations of Austen novels, all of which I have previously reviewed in full on my blog. I will begin with the most recent film and work chronologically backwards, as this happens to correspond with the order in which I favor the films, from least to most.
2010's Aisha is a heavily Clueless influence version of Emma. While it is the only pure Bollywood production of the three, it is not characterized by the big musical numbers typical of Indian studios. Quite frankly, half the reason I watch Bollywood is for the musical numbers. The lavishness of these productions are on a scale of with the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals and quite unlike what we are likely to see out of Western cinema in the 21st century. Aisha is, in many ways, a consciously western production, both in style and morality. Sonam Kapoor's portrayal of Aisha is convincing, but the film is almost totally lacking the comic elements of the novel. I have a hard time abiding Austen without the wit, but it is a cute film and worth watching.
2004's Bride and Prejudice is more satisfying in both the comic regard and in elaborate dance numbers. It is a solid and fairy canon adaptation. The fact that it is in English makes it particularly accessible to western audiences, as do the many British actors in the cast. The magnificent Aishwarya Rai plays Lalita Bakshi, a feisty and indomitable homage to Austen's Lizzy Bennet. Less convincing (at least for me) is Martin Henderson as William Darcy, an American hotel tycoon persevering through his first trip to India. I love the self-consciousness of this film: an East meets West collaboration with post-colonial themes driving the plot. It would have been so easy to use India's cast system in place of Austen's social stratifications, but by focusing on cultural imperialism instead, the story because unmistakably and very effectively modern. It is a phenomenal adaptation of Austen's plot, but in terms of Bollywood, the film is only mediocre. I wish they didn't sing so many of the songs in English, revealing just how miserable the lyrics are. It is strange to say, but I would enjoy this film a little more if I could understand it just a bit less.
Read My Review of Bride & Prejudice
Now I get to gush over the little known but truly fabulous Kondukondain Kondukondain, or I Have Found It ("it" being love – aw!), a 2000 Tamil adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. Also staring Aishwarya Rai (she is a megastar, after all), this film complete submerges Austen's story into a modern political context, set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War. While not sticking as close to canon as the other two films, I think it a far better. Fully steeped in all the conventions of Bollywood, this movie is more of a challenge for the uninitiated, but if you can settle into this truly beautiful story, it will enrapt you. My biggest problem with this adaptation is that it places the Marianne character, Meenakshi, as the central heroine. Her story and hero are a bit more romantic, I concede, but I would have been more impressed had the film makers found a way to improve upon Edward (Manohar) instead of relegating both Eleanor (Sowmya) and him to the backseat. Oh – one last warning, should this movie prove your weekend entertainment: watch out for the Fanny Dashwood character. She's even more vile than the original.
Read My Review of Kondukondain Kondukondain
Have you seen any of these movies? Do you enjoy Bollywood? Did you make your Regency ball gown out of a sari? I want to hear about it (and see pictures)!
Happy weekend to you all,
Alexa Adams


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The method in the mirror: reflection in R
Reflection is a programming concept that sounds scarier than it is. There are three related concepts that fall under the umbrella of reflection, and I'll be surprised if you haven't come across most of these code ideas already, even if you didn't know it was called reflection.
The first concept is examination of your variables. In R, this mostly means calling
str and
summary. S4 classes also have the function
showMethods to, ahem, show their methods.
The second concept is accessing variables by name; in R this means calling
get or
getAnywhere, the latter being used for functions that aren't exported from a package namespace. (Start by using
get; if that doesn't work, try
#without reflection mean(1:5) #with reflection get("mean")(1:5) getAnywhere("mean")(1:5)
The main use of this is with functions that return names of functions, like
ls. For example, to retrieve every local variable in list form, use
lapply(ls(), get)
Again, it's a tiny bit more complicated for S4 classes, which have a variety of extra functions for inspecting them. There's
getSlots and a bunch of other functions. Try
apropos("^get") to find them.
The third concept is to evaluate code in string form. The mean example from above becomes
eval(parse(text = "mean(1:5)"))
A word of warning about this last concept. It is very powerful, but also one of the easiest ways to write completely incomprehensible buggy code. Don't use it, except in the last resort.
So there you have it, reflection in three easy steps.


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Printable Version FedEx International Priority
A highly reliable, express, time-definite, customs-cleared, door-to-door service for your worldwide packages up to 68kg per unit.
Faster access to more markets with our constantly expanding express service. We give you more time in your day with later pick-ups and next day deliveries into key business centres.
Ship with this service
220 countries/territories worldwide - North/South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia.
- Next business day delivery by noon to over 75,000 zipcodes across Europe
- Next business day by 10.30 a.m. delivery to 20,064 zipcodes across the USA and Canada
- Additionally, late pickup time with delivery next business day by 3 p.m. to 3,588 zipcodes along the
US East Coast
- 2 day delivery by 10.30 a.m. to rest of USA
- 2 day delivery to key Asian destinations
- 2-4 day delivery to all other FedEx destinations
Transit times and delivery commitments may vary depending on origin and destination. Find the delivery time for your shipment right here on fedex.com, or contact Customer Service for further details.
What can you send?
As much or as little as you like:
- Documents and boxes up to 68kg per package**
- Up to 9,999 separate packages (each up to 68kg) on the same Air Waybill, and up to 10 different commodities
What size?
Packages can be up to 274cm in width and 330 cm in length and girth combined (girth = 2 x height + 2 x width)
- Maximum declared value for carriage: $50,000**
- $100 max. declared value on FedEx Envelope/Pak
- Declared value for carriage must not exceed declared value for customs
Service features
- Full track and trace
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* Transit times and delivery commitments may vary depending on origin and destination. Find the delivery time for your shipment right here on fedex.com, or contact Customer Service for further details.
** Please contact Customer Service for details or restrictions per country/territory.
*** Please check the Conditions of Carriage for details or restrictions.
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