text:
Are you in there? Show CNN what's happening. Please do not put yourself in a dangerous situation.
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- "Indescribable" violence rippled through the Libyan city of Zawiya on Friday, according to a witness who said pro-government forces gunned down peaceful protesters there.
The witness said battalions of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi attacked protesters with mortars and machine guns as they were demonstrating in the city's Martyrs Square, and they assaulted an ambulance, killing its occupants.
"We buried nine people so far," the witness said. "The attack was indescribable. Direct gunfire was opened on people."
It was unclear who controlled the city.
People in Zawiya, west of Tripoli, and "their public leadership have secured and took control over the city from the armed terrorist elements," state TV reported. Libyan government spokesman Majid al- Dursi told CNN that "Zawiya has been captured, Zawiya has been liberated."
However, the witness said protesters retained some control inside the city, which security forces were surrounding.
"They (Gadhafi's forces) haven't been in control and they never were in control," said one rebel fighter, who said his forces lost seven men in fighting in Zawiya on Friday, versus what he said were some 20 casualties among government fighters. Referring to Gadhafi, he said, "All the man has left is his lies."
By late Friday, the situation was quiet, he said. "However, we're surrounded by three areas -- the east, the west and the south."
At least 15 people died and 200 others were wounded in the city, according to one doctor, who said there was "a river of blood" at the hospital where the wounded were being treated. "The situation is very bad," he said, adding that the facility was short of medical supplies.
It was not clear if the casualties at the hospital were wounded during the Martyrs Square confrontation. The doctor said the wounded started arriving at the hospital Friday morning, and most of the wounds were from gunshots.
In the capital city of Tripoli, security forces aboard flatbed trucks shot tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds of protesters who had formed after Friday prayers in the Tajura neighborhood, witnesses said.
Government officials would not allow CNN into Tajura, whose outskirts were patrolled by a heavy security presence. Security forces were searching cars along the Corniche, a main street in the city.
Protesters had said they were hoping to march from the Corniche to the center of the city but were unable to do so.
Witnesses said anti-government protesters hid journalists in abandoned buildings and helped move them from location to location so that they could report firsthand in safety.
Near Green Square, in the center of the city, anti-government protesters emerged from a mosque to find pro-government supporters outside. Police intervened and fired shots in the air to head off a confrontation, ushering the anti-government protesters back into the mosque for their safety.
In the eastern city of Ras Lanuf, meanwhile, forces loyal to Gadhafi fought with opposition members Friday, opposition fighters and commanders said.
Thuds could be heard in the distance, indicating heavy fighting around the city itself.
"It's a war," said CNN's Ben Wedeman, in Ras Lanuf. "The protests are now over."
He described seeing truckloads of people "organizing themselves in a rather haphazard way" and headed toward the front with no command-and-control structure. "It's complete chaos, really," Wedeman said.
Such clashes have spurred throngs of people to flee the country. The number of people trying to leave the country has declined in recent days, however, as heavily armed government forces have intensified their presence at the Tunisian border and on roads leading up to it, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.
"We are concerned that the presence of the forces and the large drop in evacuees could mean that people are being prevented from leaving," said Sybella Wilkes, a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Roughly 15,000 people had been crossing the border every day, but that number plunged to fewer than 2,000 per day on Thursday and Friday. In all, 200,000 people have fled Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration, which has been working with the U.N. refugee agency on mass evacuations.
Meanwhile, a doctor on the northwestern town of Misrata said it was attacked by forces loyal to Gadhafi. The assailants fired at doctors and ambulances, the doctor said.
"We are holding our city, we are trying to protect our city," the doctor told CNN Friday morning. "We are doing our job in the hospital and trying to treat everybody. This morning, they shot at our ambulances. One of them exploded ... they shot at our doctors."
At least 40 people were killed in the city and 300 wounded, the doctor said.
While CNN has staff in some cities, the network cannot independently confirm reports for many areas in Libya. CNN has gathered information through telephone interviews with witnesses.
Musa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Gadhafi's regime, has denied reports of attacks on peaceful protesters and military installations.
In an interview late Friday, Gadhafi's son Saif Gadhafi told CNN that reforms will not begin until "militias" in the east have been defeated.
He called international efforts to persuade his father to give up power "a big mistake," and said his father remains a popular figure in the country.
"Even if we were to hold tomorrow an election, my father would win with a big majority," he said.
Gadhafi's aerial attacks have prompted the West to step up discussions about imposing a no-fly zone over the country.
U.S. military and diplomatic officials have said enacting a no-fly zone would be complicated and risky, and international support is not strong.
"If it's ordered, we can do it," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this week, but imposing a no-fly zone "begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses."
The United States is exploring a "full range" of options, Obama said Thursday.
Analysts said the Iraq war has prompted nations to be more cautious.
"We went into Iraq with a very dubious understanding of the situation on the ground," Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told CNN. "So I think there is some concern about whether refugee reports are entirely accurate in a sort of macro sense."
He added, "I think what the president is trying to do is to try to build diplomatic support and see where we can go with this. And I think it would be highly problematic if he just jumped into something."
The Arab League has rejected international intervention, saying Libya is facing "an internal affair that is decided by the people and their governments."
But the league cannot ignore the suffering of civilians and would consider the imposition of a no-fly zone in coordination with the African Union if fighting were to continue, said Hisham Yousef, chief of staff of the Arab League.
The protests have left more than 1,000 people dead and many more injured, according to the United Nations. Libya's ambassador to the United States has estimated that the death toll was about 2,000.
The United Nations has proved to be a sore point for the Libyan government. On Friday,
the United Nations said it was studying Libya's request to install a more loyal diplomat as its ambassador.
A letter from Libya's government asked that former Foreign Minister Ali Abdussalam Treki be approved as its envoy. Treki would replace Mohamed Shalgham as ambassador in New York.
Shalgham and his deputy, Ibrahim Dabbashi, have denounced Gadhafi and requested that he stop leading Libya.
A separate letter from Libya to the United Nations demanded that Shalgham and Dabbashi be denied the right to speak for Libya. In emotional scenes last week, the New York-based ambassadors were hugged by fellow ambassadors after the Libyans criticized Gadhafi and pleaded in the Security Council chamber for international assistance to the country.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the situation "is complicated" and that the world body's legal office was looking into the dueling diplomats' situation.
The International Criminal Court said Thursday that Gadhafi and some of his sons and advisers are under investigation for alleged crimes against humanity.
Venezuela's president has said Gadhafi is receptive to the idea of an international commission coming to the country. The two heads of state spoke this week.
"I consulted with him. I asked him if he was willing to accept a commission of countries," Hugo Chavez said on state-run VTV Thursday night.
CNN's Nic Robertson, Ben Wedeman, Jill Dougherty, Catherine E. Shoichet and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report


text:
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her captor, James Lee DiMaggio, 40, were caught on camera days before being discovered in the Idaho back country.
"We had their image, Hannah and DiMaggio in his Versa, at a Border Patrol checkpoint 10 after midnight," sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said.
"They were going westbound on Old Highway 8, so we knew he had about a 20-hour head start on us at that point," Caldwell said.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
This meant the two were on the road hours before DiMaggio's Boulevard home went up in flames August 4. Search warrants revealed explosives were found inside the home.
"We knew he had planned this event. We knew he had put some of the material that caused the fire on a timer," she said.
Christina Anderson, 44, and 8-year-old Ethan Anderson were found dead in the fire. The Medical Examiner's report said Christina Anderson died of blunt force injury to the head and ruled her death a homicide. FBI agents rescued Hannah and killed DiMaggio in Idaho six days later.
Timeline: The Search for Hannah
Officials said they are only releasing information that explains why they did what they did to rescue Hannah. They said all other details, such as a motive and letters from Hannah, will remain under wraps.
"Hannah is a minor, and we have to bear in mind that anything we say, anything we do, anything we write is going to stay with her the rest of her life," Caldwell said. "I don't want to victimize her a second time."
Meanwhile, family spokesman Andrew Spanswick said DiMaggio left a $112,000 insurance policy to Bernice Anderson, Hannah's paternal grandmother. Spanswick said DiMaggio didn't want to leave it to Christina or Brett Anderson because the couple was "on again off again."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I couldn't realize how many cool people I would meet through this blog. And when I say "meet" I mean virtually 🙂 One of my fellow cake/cookiers, Carrie, mentioned about a month or so ago that she had been blogging for about a year and that her "blogaversary" was coming up. Having only been blogging since the beginning of the year I can attest this is a very special accomplishment!
I want to congratulate her in proper cake style 🙂 When I saw this cake from My Cake School, I knew instantly it was the one I wanted to make for her.
Happy Birthday/Anniversary Carrie's Creations!! I know it's not until April 9th, but I couldn't wait to say "WAY TO GO!!" I can't wait to see what creations you have for the 2nd year 🙂
If you haven't checked out her site before, please stop by…she's very creative and has some really cute cookies that she's shown off in various posts 🙂


text:
You teach your kids how to play ball, who is going to teach them about the Bible?
Sign up to be notified of new blog post.
If you are not getting notifications of the blog posts by e-mail and would like to, click here. Make sure that you give us at least your first name.
I promise we will never give or sell your info to others.
You might also want to visit Entrusting Truth to find out more about what we do. My book and workbook Your Walk, their walk are available there as well as at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
He is Risen
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Jungle and Jaguars - Latest from Peru Conservation
May has been a month of great excitement with the implementation of our first initiative at the Ese'eja community of Palma Real, a visit from an old friend of Taricaya, Mauricio Ugarte, the commencement of our first in depth botanical investigation and some breathtaking wildlife sightings around the reserve.
We have had some truly fantastic sightings around the reserve. On the mammal front we had sightings of two indicator species- a Brazilian tapir (Tapirus terrestris) and a jaguar (Pantera onca). The tapir was seen coming down the river bank before striking out across the river. It was just two hundred meters from the lodge and a great sign of how the confidence of the wildlife has returned as we strive to protect their habitats. The jaguar sighting was a little tenser as we all split into groups one evening for a frog hunt and in good spirits Richard led his group up Quebrada trail. After about 20 minutes there was a thud and a large set of green eyes appeared on the trail in front of them. The situation was handled excellently and the volunteers slowly retreated down the trail whilst Richard kept his light shining on the cat.
A wild jaguar will never attack people if not provoked and the calmness Richard showed was exactly the reaction necessary as I had explained to all staff should such situations arise. The cat waited a few seconds before getting bored and then wandered off back into the jungle. Obviously there were a few startled volunteers after the encounter but after the adrenalin wore off they realized just how lucky they had been to see such a majestic creature in its natural environment. There was never any danger to the group if they behaved accordingly and I am just jealous that I was not there to see it myself!! A great moment for Taricaya as we have not seen a wild jaguar for several years now (just racks previously) and the presence of this top predator reinforces that the ecosystem is healthy and thriving.
There was also some excitement after the sightings of two of the most poisonous snakes in the Amazon within a couple of days of each other. The first one was one afternoon as I was working in the creek near the dam. A volunteer shouted "Wow, look at that pretty snake!".... as soon as I heard this I thought it might well be one of the coral snake species found in the area and I dashed up the bank to where it had last been seen. Now whilst the coral snake has fatal venom it is not an aggressive species and so I started to search in the long reeds. I caught a glance of its tail and quickly grabbed it before it disappeared into the undergrowth.
Whilst these snakes are unlikely to attack I was keen to remove it from the camp area and release it back in the reserve. After what must have appeared a comical dance avoiding the snake's head I managed to immobilize it and capture it. This is something that requires experience and I would not have been so keen should the snake have been one of the more aggressive species but it was truly beautiful and large for this particular species and I was unwilling to kill it as a potential threat. After capture we were able to identify it as Micrurus spix and then it was released far away from the lodge. Volunteers are told never to get close to any of the snakes they might come across and so it was great for them to see such a magnificent species up close. The second sighting was on one of our daily observation walks and the lucky group came across a huge bushmaster (Corallus sp.) on one of the trials. Retreat was the order of the day and the snake then moved on as the group chose another route! Such encounters are rare and such snakes found around the lodge are quickly eliminated or captured as they tend to be more aggressive. Nonetheless the size of the individual suggest good feeding and yet another indicator of the wellbeing of the forest in the reserve.
As you can gather May has been full of excitement, hard work and a bit of relaxation as the volunteers took an overnight trip to Lake Sandoval where they saw giant otters, monkeys and large caiman in addition to the abundance of herons and other water-edge dwelling bird species. June promises more of the same including the building of the artificial beach for the turtle project. So until then....
To read more of Stuart's Conservation Project update from Peru click here


text:
Penalty phase of Ariz. inmate murder case begins
Jurors in Albuquerque heard opening statements as the penalty phase began Monday in the capital murder trial of John McCluskey.
The Arizona prison inmate faces a possible death sentence for the killings in New Mexico of a retired Oklahoma couple following a 2010 Arizona prison break.
The same federal court jurors who convicted McCluskey earlier this month after a four-month trial returned to decide whether he should be executed or sentenced life in prison.
A prosecutor told the jurors that McCluskey's violent history and his convictions in the current case make him eligible for the death penalty.
A defense lawyer they'll argue that McCluskey brain abnormalities, abuse by his father and his substance abuse led to an inability to control his impulses and reason like a normal person.


text:
Surprising Study Reveals Successful Women Fear Becoming Bag Ladies
Financial security is a goal a lot of women have accomplished, but many still think they're head for the poorhouse.
A new poll has found that 49% of women fear they'll become a bag lady. This news comes despite the fact 60% say they are the breadwinner in their home and 27% earn more than $200,000 annually.
About 2,200 women earning at least $30,000 a year between the ages of 25 and 75 took part in the study.
Here's a breakdown of who is afraid they'll wind up completely broke:
- 54% of divorcees
- 47% of widows
- 43% of married women
It seems to be a double edge sword, too, because while poverty is a real concern, so is prosperity. Forty-two percent of respondents think women who stand on their own financially intimidate men and end up alone, while 31% say women who are financially independent have trouble relating to other women and don't have a lot of friends.


text:
Lil Wayne said during an appearance at South By Southwest that he plans to make Tha Carter V his last solo album and that the first single from the still-in-progress LP will be out in the next week.
The New Orleans rapper made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with Elliott Wilson as part of the CRWN series on Friday during the annual music conference and festival.
"I'm approaching it like it is my last project, and I think that's why it's a lot different than everything else," Wayne said. "That's why I think the grind is different. I'm working harder. I'm approaching it a whole lot different. I'm approaching it as if you don't have tomorrow."
"Tha Carter V" is one of the most anticipated albums of the year. "Tha Carter IV" sold nearly 1 million albums the first week of release in 2011.
Wayne, 31, said he's been taking his time with the album, trying to diversify his subject matter after Wilson joked that most of his songs centre around one thing: Sex.
"What you want me to talk about, the world?" he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Wayne said he once wanted to be known as the greatest rapper in the world, but has softened his stance with age and perspective. Of Kendrick Lamar, he said, "Ain't nobody touch that dude."
And he praised the artists on his own Young Money label. He called Drake "a wonderful person" and said Nicki Minaj is not just the best female rapper out there, but the best rapper.
"I am not going to be jumping out here talking about, 'I'm the best,'" Wayne said. "I don't need anybody jumping at my neck."
Wayne also said his jail journal full of notes he took during his stay at Riker's Island in New York on gun charges is being turned into a book. He also joked about his friend Kanye West's use of masks on is recent tour, talked about the importance of his family in his life and his love of sport and skateboarding.
Asked about his legacy as he nears his self-imposed retirement age of 33, he said he used to want to be remembered in the same way The Notorious BIG, Tupac Shakur and Jay Z are thought of. Now, he'd prefer that people thought of him as a beloved figure.
"I would just say I'd like to be remembered as a good spirit, a good soul, like a Willie Nelson… like a Snoop Dogg," Wayne said.


text:
Feb 25, 2014 | ISBN 9780345535344
Praise for Mary Daheim and her Emma Lord mysteries
"Always entertaining."—The Seattle Times
"Mary Daheim writes with wit, wisdom, and a big heart. I love her books."—Carolyn Hart
"Daheim writes . . . with dry wit, a butter-smooth style, and obvious wicked enjoyment."—The Oregonian
"The characters are great, and the plots always attention-getting."—King Features Syndicate
"Even the most seasoned mystery fans are caught off-guard by [Daheim's] clever plot twists."—BookLoons Reviews
"Witty one-liners and amusing characterizations."—Publishers Weekly


text:
Skip to main
Select Site
Luxury Rentals
Related Beal
Related Midwest
Related California
Select Site
Luxury Rentals
Related Beal
Related Midwest
Related California
Luxury Condominiums
Luxury Rentals
Affordable Housing
City Centers
Our Company
Our Company
Our Company
About Us
Our Leadership
Our History
Regional Offices
In the News
Press Releases
Press Kit
Search Results
Refine Search
Date Range
All Time
Sort by
Date (Descending)
Date (Ascending)
Title (Ascending)
Title (Descending)
of 10
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and city officials celebrate topping out of new city building at 49 Van Ness
San Francisco, California
Jun 06, 2019
Our Company, News, Office
Mayor London N. Breed today joined City officials for the topping out ceremony of the new civic office building at 49 South Van Ness Avenue, marking the completion of the building's steel frame. The new building will have office space for approximately 1,800 City employees from several departments…
Read More
Chicago developer Related Midwest names Related Companies' Frank Monterisi as its chief operating officer
Chicago, Midwest
May 28, 2019
Our Company, News
Chicago-based Related Midwest has announced that Frank Monterisi will join its senior executive leadership team as chief operating officer (COO), a newly created role in the firm. Monterisi comes to Related Midwest after working for New York City-based Related Companies, the parent company of…
Read More
Uber Elevate announces partnership with Related Companies to develop skyports for Uber Air
New York, California, Santa Clara, New York City
Jun 11, 2019
News, City Centers
Today Uber Elevate announced that Related Companies will be its preferred development partner supporting its Uber Air network in the United States. As part of this partnership, Uber and Related have collaborated on a vision for a future skyport at Related's 240-acre Santa Clara development to…
Read More
Related Companies and Hudson Yards partner with NYC Pride and The NAMES Project Foundation for WorldPride
New York, New York City
Jun 21, 2019
News, City Centers, Retail
Today Related Companies and Hudson Yards unveiled their partnership with NYC Pride and The NAMES Project Foundation during WorldPride in honor of the history of the LGBTQIA+ community and to remember the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. From June 21st to July 1st, Hudson Yards will…
Read More
35 Hudson Yards unveils residential amenities designed by Tony Ingrao dedicated to wellness, leisure and entertainment
New York, New York City
Jul 15, 2019
News, City Centers, Residential
Hudson Yards unveils 22,000 square feet of private residential amenities at 35 Hudson Yards, along with new model residences on the 55th and 65th floors. The building features architecture by David Childs and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; interiors by designer Tony Ingrao; and an array of…
Read More
Hudson Yards designated Manhattan's first-ever LEED® Gold neighborhood development
New York, New York City
Sep 25, 2019
News, City Centers
Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group today announced that Hudson Yards' Eastern Yard, the first phase of the neighborhood that opened in March 2019, was awarded LEED Neighborhood Development Gold (LEED-ND) certification, making it the first neighborhood in Manhattan to receive the…
Read More
NY real estate firm works to expand Mt. Sinai's coronavirus-treatment capacity
New York, New York City
Read More
Introducing our most influential women of 2020
California, San Francisco
Read More
Current page
Next page
Last page
Last »


text:
This item is available in full to subscribers.
Subscribe today! Click here to see your options
Having trouble viewing this document? Click here to download the PDF.
20 S. Union Street
Middletown, PA 17057-1445
Office Hours: Mondays - Fridays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas
Click here for a list of locations where you can pick up a copy!


text:
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The Legend of Korra, Season 1
Avatar takes place in a pre-industrial world whose people are divided into four nations according to the four classical elements--earth, fire, air, and water. These elements inform the culture and national character of each of the four nations, and within each nation there are certain individuals, known as "benders," who can manipulate their element--causing fire to shoot from their hands, for example, or forcing the earth to form whatever shape or structure they desire. The spiritual leader of this world, who can control all four elements, is called the Avatar, and they reincarnate into the world again and again, cycling between the four nations. As the series opens, the earth and water nations have for a century been under attack by the fire nation, a war that began with the extermination of the air nation, and with it, it is generally believed, the Avatar. When two water nation children, Katara and Sokka, find the twelve-year-old Avatar, Aang, frozen in a block of ice, they set out together to help Aang master the remaining elements and defeat the fire nation. The Legend of Korra opens 80 years after Aang's victory, and its title character is the Avatar that follows him, a water nation teenager who has already mastered the water, earth, and fire elements, and who in the series premiere sets out to learn airbending from the one remaining master of the form, Aang's son Tenzin. To do this, Korra travels to Tenzin's home of Republic City, established after the war to foster better relations between the four nations.
The Legend of Korra thus, from its outset, sets itself apart from Avatar in several significant ways. Avatar ranged all over its world, and frequently visited urban settings--the fortress of the northern water tribe, the great earth nation cities of Omashu and Ba Sing Se, the fire nation capital. In each of these settings, the color scheme, design sensibility, and functionality were informed by the nation's dominant element. In Republic City, these national boundaries have been dissolved, and the advent of an industrial revolution in the decades separating the two shows means that the bending powers that had ensured the smooth running of cities in Avatar (the public transport system in Omashu is powered by earthbenders, who move stone carriages along tracks that they have carved in the ground) have either been superseded or augmented by technology (one of the characters in Korra, a firebender, gets a job shooting bolts of lightning into the city's power grid). This results in a setting that, though still fantastical in many ways, is mostly reminiscent of a 19th century city--with the same Asian inflections that dominate the design of both series. In Avatar's story, the spirit world played a significant role--through Aang's interactions with his previous incarnations, through his lapses into "the Avatar State," in which the force that runs through the Avatar line manifests through him and performs tremendous feats, and through his forays into the spirit realm, which give the show's animators the opportunity to venture into Miyazaki-esque surrealism. Korra's world and story, on the other hand, are almost purely materialistic. Though Korra is prodigy who has mastered three of the four elements--the ones that Aang struggles with throughout his story--with ease, her skill is purely martial. Throughout most of the first season she has no connection to the spirit realm, her previous incarnations, or the Avatar State.
In other words, with Korra, the two series' creators have switched subgenres, transitioning from epic fantasy to something like steampunk. Along the way, they've also created a story that is more mundane, and less purposeful, than Avatar's. Aang and his cohort were on a quest with a very clearly defined victory condition--defeat the fire nation, end the war, save the world--and intermediate goals--master the remaining three elements (the show's three seasons are titled Water, Earth, and Fire, corresponding to the element that Aang masters in each one). When Korra arrives in Republic City, the stakes of her story are significantly lower--she's eager to learn airbending and frustrated when it doesn't come easily, but it's her own self-image, not the fate of the world, that hangs in the balance. There's so little urgency to her quest, in fact, that she has the time and inclination to join a pro-bending team--Republic City's favorite sport, in which teams of benders use their powers to score points and knock each other off the court--alongside brothers Mako and Bolin. It's only very gradually that the challenges facing her begin to manifest themselves, and only near the end of the season that these challenges take the form of a traditional action-adventure plot.
It should be said that this willingness to change their world and the type of story they tell within it so completely is something that Korra's creators should be lauded for, not least because despite the enormous differences between it and Avatar, there's never any doubt that they take place in the same world, or that the one's setting could, over the course of less than a century, become the other's (this is all the more impressive because Korra avoids leaning on the crutch of the previous series's characters and settings--though one of Avatar's main characters appears as an old woman, and several others appear as forty-year-olds in a flashback, these elements are used minimally, and for the most part it's down to the new characters to establish the show's sense of place and history). In its early episodes, Korra raises several interesting questions about the effect of modernity on the Avatar's place in society: with national identity becoming less important, or even noticeable, in Republic City's melting pot, the Avatar's role as a bridge between the nations appears to have been superseded, and with technology on the ascendant, bending may be losing its importance as well. The season's villain, Amon, adds another wrinkle to this question. The leader of a group calling themselves the Equalists, Amon argues that benders have erected a tyranny over non-benders, and seeks to overturn it through acts of terrorism carried out by an army trained in "chi-blocking"--which temporarily disables bending powers--and through his own ability to permanently remove those powers.
It's in its handling of these questions, and of the stories that emerge from them, that The Legend of Korra falls flat. In its early episodes, the show struggles to integrate the slowly building Equalist menace with the more mundane concerns of Korra's life, and the result is a season that feels alternately fitful and stalled. Though the subplot about the pro-bending tournament ends up feeding into the Equalist story in an interesting way, with a thrilling Equalist attack on the tournament final, it's hard not to feel that earlier episodes focused on Korra's pro-bending training are wasting valuable time. And the equally time-consuming parallel love triangles--between Korra, Mako, and Bolin, and between Mako, Korra, and Mako's girlfriend, the industrialist's daughter Asami--have no such justification for their existence, especially so early in the series's run, when the characters' personalities and relationships are still too faintly drawn to support so much romantic melodrama. Even when the Equalist threat becomes more prominent, however, the story doesn't snap into focus, because Korra herself is so very reactive. Aang defied many of the conventions of child protagonists in fantasy stories--having been raised to the role of Avatar, he had a deep understanding of himself and his responsibilities, but never lost his childish glee and sense of play. Korra is a more familiar, Harry Potter-ish type--affable, thoughtlessly and reflexively heroic whenever she's brought face to face with injustice or suffering, but neither very bright nor terribly inclined to think about the world around her and how she can affect it. She spends too much of the season responding to Amon's obvious taunts and following the lead of the shady Republic City councilman Tarrlok, who uses the Equalist threat to cement his political power, and later as a justification for restricting the rights and movements of non-benders, and even when she takes charge of the fight against Amon, her tactics remain shortsighted and poorly thought out--in the season finale, she decides to seek Amon out despite the fact that he's defeated her in every one of their previous encounters and she has no idea how to turn the tables--and yet rewarded by the narrative--while trying to execute this foolhardy scheme, Korra learns something about Amon that allows her to defeat him.
Korra never manages to integrate its heroine's flaws and strengths into a fully developed character. Whenever it comes close to acknowledging her failings, it falls back on highlighting her heroism, so that Korra's moments of triumph--especially when she finally breaks her spiritual block--feel less like accomplishments and more like writerly fiat. In this, unfortunately, Korra is very much in line with the rest of the series's young cast. Mako is a handsome blank, Bolin never grows beyond the role of comic relief, and only Asami--who is dealt dual blows over the course of the season in the form of the realization that her boyfriend loves someone else and the revelation that her father is in league with Amon, but is able to put her hurt feelings aside in the face of the more urgent threat of the Equalists, becoming the group's best tactician and a formidable fighter despite having no bending powers--is a genuinely interesting character. The adult characters fare somewhat better--Tenzin is a square whose fuddy-duddiness conceals a strong anti-authoritarian streak, which feels entirely right both as a response to Aang's carefree personality and as a reflection of it, and Republic City's police chief, Lin Beifong (daughter of Avatar's Toph) is a tough as nails law and order type whom Korra rubs the wrong way, and whose relationships with Aang and Tenzin are only slowly revealed. This, however, only serves to reinforce the sense that Korra is falling into the same pitfalls as the Harry Potter books, overshadowing its young protagonists with adult supporting characters whose adventures and stories come to seem a great deal more interesting.
Even worse than its problems with pacing and characterization, however, is The Legend of Korra's handling of the Equalist storyline. Simply put, Amon claims that benders are oppressing non-benders, and the show never bothers to tell us whether this is true--doesn't, in fact, seem to think that the answer is very important. When she first arrives in Republic City, Korra encounters a protester decrying bender oppression. "What are you talking about?" she impulsively calls out. "Bending is the coolest thing in the world!" This is such a clueless, privileged bit of point-missing that one can only imagine that an important component of the season will involve showing Korra how the other half lives. For a while, it seems that Mako and Bolin's role will be to do just that--when the brothers, who have been on their own since they were children and even briefly involved with criminal gangs, find themselves short of cash, Korra explains, with mock humility, that she can't help them: "I got nothing. I've never really needed money. I've always had people taking care of me." "Then I wouldn't say you have nothing," is Mako's acidic reply. Very quickly, however, Mako and Bolin's humble origins are forgotten (as is Korra's cluelessness). They become part of Korra's inner circle--which also includes, as befits the Avatar, the movers and shakers of Republic City. Within Korra's limited perspective, non-benders are almost entirely absent, and the ones she encounters are either Amon's henchmen or those who are part of her group and firmly opposed to Amon, such as Asami or Tenzin's wife Pema. In both cases, when these characters address themselves to the issue of tensions between benders and non-benders, it's only to discuss whether they support Amon's tactics--the question of whether his aims or theories are correct is never even raised. Unaffiliated non-benders from outside of Korra's privileged circle are encountered only as undifferentiated masses--the crowds who flock to Amon's rallies, or the protesters rounded up under Tarrlok's reactionary policies.
Even absent the voice of ordinary non-benders, The Legend of Korra paints a disturbing picture of their status in Republic City--a picture that is never fully acknowledged by its characters. Benders seem to hold a disproportionate amount of power and influence in Republic City's government--all of the city's police force are earthbenders, for example, and though it's not clear whether the city's ruling council is also made up solely of benders, when Tarrlok suggests that non-benders be subject to a curfew, only Tenzin objects. In an early episode, Tarrlok sends Korra on a raid on what he terms an Equalist stronghold, but what she finds when she gets there is a dojo in which non-benders are practicing chi-blocking. Given that by this point we've learned that both Mako and Bolin's parents and Asami's mother were killed by firebender criminals, and that when Korra arrives in the city she sees bender gangsters extorting protection money from a shopkeeper, it doesn't seem unreasonable for non-benders to want to learn how to protect themselves, but the possibility that chi-blocking is not an indicator of evil is never entertained by the characters--or indeed the show, which quickly reveals that the people at the dojo are indeed followers of Amon. Most damning is the simple fact that Amon amasses huge numbers of followers--he has hundreds of henchmen to do his bidding, and great crowds cheer for him in the street--a man who has terrorized their city and promised to hunt down and mutilate their fellow citizens. When Korra attacks him, they turn on her, and only reject Amon once they learn that he's lied to them and is, in fact, a bender himself. Unless we assume that the people of Republic City are credulous dupes, we have to choose between two equally unpleasant interpretations: either the city's citizens are evil, eager to turn on those whose powers they resent like a crowd of non-mutants on X-Men, or they have a genuine grievance that only Amon is addressing, and which he has inflamed into hatred and violence. Either way, defeating Amon doesn't even come close to addressing the problem, something that is ignored by the season's triumphant ending.
There's a sense that Korra's writers are aware of the corner they've painted themselves into, because a lot of the season is dedicated to shifting the goalposts of their argument. At the end of the season, Korra is told that Amon "truly believes bending is the source of all evil in the world." This echoes with the fact that, though Amon and his followers frequently use the language of oppression and tyranny when discussing bending, the examples they cite of benders' perfidy are not of prejudice or systemic inequality, but of individual cases of violence. In their final confrontation, Asami's father tells her that she is "aiding the very people who took your mother away," to which she replies "You don't feel love for Mom anymore. You're too full of hatred." In other words, we're in X-Men territory--benders are hated and feared not because of what they've done, but because of what they could do, and resentment of them is a prejudice that blames an entire group for the actions of some of its members. But while the X-Men model works when the superpowered individuals are a beleaguered minority group that has only begun to emerge into the public consciousness, it's less persuasive when they're a well-known phenomenon that has been folded into every aspect of civic and economic life, and whose members hold key positions in society. There needs to be some work explaining how benders, through their own actions or as a result of unrelated social change, have lost the public trust, and this isn't something the show does--the suggestion that technology is edging out the need for bending, for example, is something that is only faintly present in the season's early episodes, and then abandoned entirely, and though instances of bending violence are mentioned repeatedly, at no point do either the show or the characters consider that bending and criminality might have become linked in the public consciousness. Similarly, around the middle of the season the writers try to make up for the absence of any indication that non-benders are oppressed by having Tarrlok initiate his restrictive policies. "You're doing exactly what Amon says is wrong with benders," Korra tells him, implying that until those policies had been enacted, Amon had been wrong. But just as Amon couldn't have done all the damage he did on his own, without supporters and people who believed in what he was preaching, Tarrlok can't criminalize non-benders without at least the acquiescence of the city's power structures and its bender citizens--an acquiescence that, in itself, indicates a problem that the show won't face up to.
It's a sad thing to say, but it feels as if, by aiming at a more mature tone and subject matter than Avatar's, The Legend of Korra throws its inherent immaturity into sharper relief. When it comes down to it, the show isn't willing to say that terrorists are just people like you and me, whose abhorrent actions might be rooted in legitimate grievances, or that large-scale, violent persecution of minority groups can only be achieved through at least the tacit approval of most of the people, not just the ones wearing scary uniforms. You could argue that that's too heavy a moral for a children's show, but another way of looking at it is that for a story aimed at young people to stop short of this moral--to create a world in which people cry persecution merely because they resent the dominant elite, and social unrest is the work of supervillains and their armies of masked henchmen--is to send a very irresponsible message. Supervillains like Amon and Tarrlok would have worked in Avatar (in fact, like Avatar, Korra ends by humanizing both characters and explaining, if not justifying, their choices), which for all its intelligence and complexity never sought to escape the conventions of epic fantasy. Korra's ambitions are higher, but it fails to achieve them and neglects its characters and story to boot. I still recommend Avatar to just about anyone who is looking for a fun, smart, compelling fantasy story they can be sucked into, but if you're looking to get into the Avatar universe, start with the original (and give the first season at least until its midpoint), and leave Korra until you know you've been won over.
24 comments:
- Chuk said...
So as someone who liked Korra but turned the first episode of Avatar off halfway through (boring), do you think I should give the first series another chance?
- June 28, 2012 9:25 PM
Good essay, and its points are generally in line with the dissatisfied reviews of Korra I've read since the finale.
The show also never makes a case for why the Equalists are a major threat. Even if they sank that second fleet, there's still the whole rest of the world. How can one city withstand that, especially when Amon himself declared that the world would rise up and destroy the Equalists if the Avatar was harmed? What's different in the finale verses the past? They've got a lot of cool tech, but, to quote Uncle Joe, quantity has a quality all its own.
I can't help but be disappointed with the show; not just in comparing it to the original, but in that it squandered the promise of its first three episodes. Plots and character arcs appear and disappear at random, we ended up knowing less about Republic City in twelve episodes then we learned about Ba Sing Se in six, and the last few minutes of the finale just blow me away with how much storytelling potential is wasted.
- June 28, 2012 11:26 PM
- Alison said...
It breaks my heart to say it, but Legend of Korra ended up being a perfect illustration of why creators shouldn't try to write entire seasons of television by themselves, particularly when writing isn't even their creative specialty. I try not to spend too much time wondering what this season would have been like if they had brought back Aaron Ehasz and his writing team to work with them. Such a shame.
- June 29, 2012 12:56 AM
- Anspen said...
Presumably the second season could still address the bender/non-bender problem from non-bender non-evil perspective. However since this season was originally slated to be the only one (or at least since they had no way of knowing there would be a second one) the choices made do not create much hope for this.
Similarly they knew how many episodes they had, so pacing problems cannot be blamed on such shenanigans. I find this especially worrisome with regard to the characterizations. The onion's Emily Guendelsberger (among other) interpreted the final scene before Korra breaks her spirit block as her contemplating suicide. Which would not only fit with an earlier episode where Korra fears she is nothing besides the avatar but would presumably also result in the birth of a new "complete" avatar. Her decision not to take that path and to see herself as more than just a bender would be the choice that breaks her spirit block. While this reading certainly enhances Korra's characterization and seems quite plausible as the intention of the show's creators, it also shows the problem the rest of the season has.
While the makers may have been limited in what they could do on what is still officially a cartoon for children, this does not explain the rushed nature of the last part of the season or indeed of lack of emphasis on that part of Korra identity earlier in the show. Not only would that have been far more useful than not one but two teenage romantic triangles, it would also have made quite a lot of sense for a girl who knew since early childhood she was the reincarnation of hundreds of the most powerful personalities in the world.
- June 29, 2012 1:30 AM
- Abigail Nussbaum said...
As I say, I think you need to give Avatar at least until the middle of its first season (if for no other reason than that, per Alison's comment, it takes a few episodes for the more important and influential staff writers - who weren't present for Korra - to join up). Still, it's worth remembering that these are two different stories and that what you liked about Korra may not be present in Avatar.
we ended up knowing less about Republic City in twelve episodes then we learned about Ba Sing Se in six
That's a very good way of putting it. Really, my complaints about the Equalist storyline boil down to our lack of knowledge about Republic City, how it works and what life is like there. Compare that to the Ba Sing Se episodes in Avatar, which not only emphasize the city's workings, but give us two views on them - Aang and the others get to see the corrupt and restrictive government from a gilded cage, while Zuko and Iroh get to live like the common people.
I've been telling myself all season that surely the writers would address the state of non-benders by the season finale, so hoping that they'll do it next season feels foolish. And, as you say, not only was this story originally envisioned as a miniseries, it is clearly self-contained. The writers might learn from their mistakes next season but that won't retroactively fix those mistakes.
I have heard the suicide theory, and I think the problem with it is not that a children's show can't be explicit about suicide, but that the show isn't sufficiently explicit about Korra deciding not to kill herself, or as you put it, recognizing that she is more than just the Avatar. Before Aang appears to Korra in the final scene there's no sense that she's made a breakthrough or chosen life - she seems just as despondent as when she went up to the cliff (and if we're meant to believe that Korra didn't change her mind, that makes Aang statement that she was open to him because she was at her lowest even more troubling - as if suicidal thoughts were a state of heightened being rather than a dark and limited place).
- June 29, 2012 11:04 AM
- Gordon B said...
I was filled with trepidation myself when I learned the show involved antagonists called the "Equalists" and concerned benders vs. nonbenders. This was probably because, in my mind, given a world like Avatar's, there are only a few ways of tackling this issue intelligently and responsibly, and many ways of tackling the issue superficially (and irresponsibly). I think this stems from the fact that a world with such heavy genetic determinism like Avatar's makes for a rather poor allegory for the real world, in which people pretty much have the same order of magnitude of innate ability at birth. Issues of inequality and class privilege in the real world are more subtle in comparison, and in modern society we have social mechanisms available to us to alleviate these issues without the need for any violent and traumatic modification of people (e.g. public education and welfare programs paid through taxes -- though I suppose some people find those "traumatic"). I'm a bit at a loss of how any semblance of equality of opportunity can be achieved in a world of benders vs. nonbenders without radical measures, given the tremendous advantages (and lack of disadvantages) benders have. There really isn't any other recourse but to transform one group into the other. I think this leaves three choices:
(1) Maintain the status quo (Equality of opportunity is overrated!)
(2) Make everyone a nonbender.
(3) Make everyone a bender. (Better yet, make everyone have access to all the elements!)
I was afraid, and the first season has thus far not allayed my concerns, that the writers are going to fall into a false choice between (1) and (2). And while one might be the lesser of two evils in the Avatar world, they both have quite terrible messages when applied to the real world.
Personally, I would only be satisfied with outcome (3). What if the Avatar could perform a reverse Amon? Instead of turning benders into non-benders, she could transform all willing non-benders (and who wouldn't be willing?) into benders. That seems like a "feel-good" positive sum outcome to me. Perhaps that's why it's not considered? It's just too "hokey"? It's too radical a change to the world? (And radical is bad!) Ironically though, in a parable about fantasy communists, it is this equalizing outcome that is probably the most liberal/libertarian of all.
- June 29, 2012 9:16 PM
I had great hopes that the show was going to subvert the love triangles entirely, and just have Korra (and Bolin) come to terms with the fact that crushes aren't always reciprocated. Letting Korra end the season without any love interest at all might have been too much to hope for, but she could have at least started showing interest in some other guy, like handsome young General Iroh, who she clearly had some mutual attraction with in the scene where she saves his life.
This, of course, leads to some awkward questions about the degree of nepotism in Republic City's leadership. If Iroh's young enough to date a teenage girl, he's far too young to command even one warship, let alone a whole fleet. So with Zuko's grandson commanding one fleet, Aang & Katara's older son commanding another fleet, Aang & Katara's younger son apparently a permanent member of the 5-person city council, and Toph's daughter leading the police force... one doesn't like to accuse Aang & co. of having turned the city into their own personal fiefdom, but it's hard to deny the conclusion.
- June 30, 2012 8:27 AM
- Abigail Nussbaum said...
Gordon B:
I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that the world of Avatar suffers from an inherent inequality of opportunity. After all, genetics determines our opportunities as well, even if it's not to the same degree of obviousness as in the show - not everyone is born with the potential to become a marathon runner, or an opera singer, or a physicist. And I think it's significant that in Avatar, at least, bending ability and social status were not obviously linked. The leaderships of the Earth nation and the Water tribes were made up of non-benders, and both nations' military forces seemed to have a greater non-bender presence. The Fire nation's leadership and military seem to be made up of benders exclusively, but this is held up as a reflection of the Fire nation's excessive militarism and its unhealthy attitude towards firebending.
What is true is that in all three existing nations benders and non-benders seemed to have clearly defined social roles, which offered equal opportunity for advancement and social status along entirely distinct paths. It's easy to imagine how, following the breakdown of national barriers and traditional ways of life in Republic City, those roles would also break down, and profound inequality would result. But again, that's something the show needed to address.
Bear in mind, we're only 80 years removed from a world in which the most common form of government is absolute monarchy, and there's no reason to believe that, even at the time of Korra's story, anything outside of Republic City has changed. The question this raises, of course, is just what that Republic is supposed to be, and not to keep repeating myself, but this is yet another potential source of social strife that should have been addressed by the show.
- July 01, 2012 11:43 AM
I have been discussing the same issues with my friends and I was really surprised by the massive "omg, the season was great" attitude of most of the reviews and comments about it.
On the topic of age, well, I do want to point out that obviously children are included into the adult life a lot younger than today. Example - Zuko has been 14 when he entered that war room. Aang was 12 when he was told he is the Avatar. Katara and Sokka were 16 when they sailed off to the sunset with Aang.
On the topic of equality... I really hope there will be some real progress presented in season 2. Something has obviously rapidly changed, because I can not explain in any other way the quick closure of the whole situation and the supposed death of the main antagonists.
Characters... it is very weird how under developed almost all the characters were, yes.
- July 03, 2012 3:43 PM
- nostalgebraist said...
This has nothing to do with the subject of this post, but have you seen Moonrise Kingdom yet? I remember you saying in a post a while back that you were a Wes Anderson fan, and I think Moonrise Kingdom is by far the most successful of the Anderson films I've seen (though I admit I haven't seen all of them).
- July 04, 2012 4:25 AM
- Isaac said...
As a long time reader, I am delighted to discover that you are also a fan of the original series.
I'm been trying to think about how to summarize my feelings about the show for days, but your essay pretty much mirrors my thoughts.
I've given myself time to digest Korra. I've tried not to let my own expectations of how I expected the show to go to colour my judgement. But the phrase "wasted potential" keeps coming up in my mind. Never have I seen a series so full of initial promise degenerate into such a mess, and from storytellers I thought the world of. These were people who proved in ATLA that they knew pacing, the same people who brought unexpected subtlety and nuance to a kid's show, the people who understood character motivation and development, who took their time to craft an engaging romance right. They copped out in every way possible in Korra. I am still shaking my head in disbelief.
- July 04, 2012 10:58 PM
- Req said...
You are spot on, Legend of Korra was a disappointment in so many ways. While its creators tried to sell it as a step forward (darker, more mature et al, but only superficially so), it was really two steps back (less wise, less detail oriented, less coherent and less culturally accomplished).
- July 05, 2012 8:38 PM
- Camille said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- July 07, 2012 10:14 PM
- Camille said...
Come to think of it, I don't think Aaron Ehasz (who was a producer and, I think, head writer for AtLA) was involved in Korra. This might be the missing link.
At any rate, I saw the first episode of Korra, was very underwhelmed, and haven't caught up with any further episodes -- unfortunately this review, and Strange Horizons, and a couple of others have pretty much confirmed what I feared: 1. Stakes not convincingly high for the protag, especially in comparison with the previous series, 2. A somewhat misguided sports subplot (which, to be fair, would not have been my "thing" even if it had been done quite well), and 3. the love triangles. I was hoping against hope, against all evidence, and against officially stated intent, that the love triangles would be left out. Ah well.
One of the original series' strengths was its level of nuance. For a show clearly labeled"for 7-year-olds," it was incredible about not spoonfeeding information to the audience, letting visuals or truncated (but realistic) dialogue convey things. I didn't sense a great deal of that from the sole episode I saw, but was that quality, at least, a factor in "Korra" at all? I'm trying to decide if I ought to watch it despite misgiving. (Leaning heavily toward "no.")
- July 07, 2012 10:16 PM
- Brianne K said...
Amazing review. I was hoping to see just a little more about the failings of the romantic plotline (which was one of the worst aspects of the show, in my opinion and others'), but you nailed everything else. I think I'll start reading some of your other posts.
- December 19, 2012 4:36 PM
- Xiao-Fury said...
Good review...GREAT review. You've tackled the political issues that most of the younger crowd refused to make mention of. Republic City was predominantly bender as you mentioned, and almost every career involved bending as a necessity. Pro-bending would be an example as well as the cops having metal bending abilities. I think the creators created a world with a problem that probably won't be settled fairly. I don't see it happening.
When I first watched LOK, I expected to see a hot-headed young woman who thought she was unstoppable because of her powers and title. I did; however, I was expecting to see Korra's attitude change, especially after her terrifying first encounter with Amon. However, she remained the same throughout the series with the exception of befriending Lin.
The romance was terrible advice for teenage girls and young women, especially since the avatar series has a huge female fan base. Korra knew that Mako was in a relationship, yet she (by Pema's bad advice) pursued after him. This is called infidelity, and it is definitely a practice of adultery.
I was hoping for Korra to dismiss her feelings for Mako on the grounds that he was in a relationship, but she threw herself on him without any regard to Asami. Asami didn't confront Korra about the issue, but in the real world---I'm sure an ugly cat fat would have erupted. Mako was no better. If he respected Asami, he would have stayed true to her and he would have rebuked Korra for trying to ruin his relationship. It didn't work that way though. The authors simply had to match Korra with Mako because 'Makorra' spells into each other perfectly, I guess.
I hear the excuse of 'they were just teenagers'. Nonsense. Aang (mentally) and Katara were much younger than Korra and Mako, yet they handled their romantic interests better than they did. Teenagers are very impressionable---this is exactly why this show should have taught why infidelity is unacceptable, even if it works.
I did enjoy LOK up until the end of the series though. However, these series have huge moral flaws that can get young hot headed teen girls into trouble---among other things. I hear that there will be a second season, but because of all of these moral issues (and the fact that the villains were all killed in the end, and Korra suddenly became a master avatar so suddenly), my interest for the second season has decreased dramatically. Here's hoping that Korra was mature.
- January 21, 2013 10:56 AM
- Xiao-Fury said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- January 21, 2013 11:02 AM
- Abigail Nussbaum said...
A late reply, Xiao-Fury: while I didn't find either Korra or Mako's behavior very appealing, I certainly wouldn't have liked the show to come down on either of them, and particularly Korra, as strongly as you suggest. There are worse things in life, I think, than teenagers being reckless with each other's hearts, and I'd hate for any TV show to give young girls the impression that the very worst thing you can do is commit (or enable) adultery (we'll leave aside for the moment the question of whether it's even adultery when the people involved are kids who have only been dating a few weeks). I think that Korra and Mako are called out on their bad behavior towards Asami to a degree that I'm comfortable with. What I'm more bothered by is that they both have failings - much more serious ones, to my mind, than cheating on a girlfriend - that the show doesn't acknowledge or address.
- January 27, 2013 10:27 AM
- Liana said...
Very well said. I had some problems with the humor in Korra, but I couldn't put my finger on it until what you said about maturity contrasting with immaturity.
- February 19, 2013 12:56 AM
- TBlakely said...
The bender vs non-bender should have never been touched on especially as a major plotline. It was wise for the creators to ignore that issue in the first series since it was indeed a kid's show.
Given how people mistreat each other just with wealth and societal preferences can you imagine what a horror a society with a select few having 'superpowers' would be? Basically, if the number of people with such powers were very, very small they would most likely be celebrated. As the percentage increases they would more and more be viewed as a threat and not without good reason. A goodly percentage of benders would deem themselves superior and should be the ones running the show (basic human nature in action).
Such a society would be very, very ugly with either extermination or slavery being the most likely outcomes (which side would win out would depend on the percentages and other intangibles). Both show's depiction of bender vs non-bender relations is extremely unrealistic due to human nature and should have been ignored at all cost.
- May 03, 2013 9:06 AM
- Unknown said...
I suppose I didn't share the problems you noted with the Equalist plot-line. The society we're introduced to within "Korra" is an experimental melting pot still coming right off the heels of a world where the very concept was an alien one. In the previous era, each nation's benders acted as lords who were tasked with protecting their subjects (non-benders). The natural inclination was to see Nation first, non-benders included. The threat was Nation based.
Now that those lines have blurred, at least within the former Fire nation colonies, friction is most likely to arise between the only difference that really matters any longer (in this universe), bender vs. non-bender. As there are enough historical examples of a particular group being made scapegoats by society, regardless of actual merit, it does not make Republic city's non-benders rubes to be taken in by a silk-tongued demagogue, they just have to be traditionally fallible in the most human of ways. Is it not in the nature of demagogues to be able to be able to make molehills appear like mountains in need of conquering.
While it's debatable whether or not shifting the focus of the narrative more towards either giving Amon more justification for his actions would have benefited the show, I found that what the writers focused on instead ended up providing good fruit in the relationship between Tarrlok and Amon in the final episodes. The narrative does an excellent job of mirroring their familial struggles in the strife the city is plagued with. On that level, I found much enjoyment to be derived, and in line with the complexity of the villains from the earlier series.
On yet another level, doing so provided a contrast/comparison moment between them, and Korra. Both were defined by a role imposed on them from birth. Korra too readily accepted her role as Avatar, and it's the root of her character flaw. Her bending defines her, the loss of it makes her 'nothing' in her own mind, even though this isn't true as evidenced by the non-benders she meets (represented most by Asami). Meanwhile Tarrlok and Amon thought their actions were distancing themselves from their father's assigned role for their lives (as his instruments of revenge), but ironically they ended up fulfilling them. In their failure to escape being defined by their roles, they self-destruct. In Korra's succeeding in superseding her role (to become Korra, not just the Avatar, when she decides her life is more important than her role, by not jumping off that cliff at the end) she proves she has become stronger in spirit, and thus is rewarded.
I also think that the writers avoided the trap of falling into political analogy, and possibly making it a 'message show', which is what I feared was going to happen when Korra confronted the Equalist protester in the park. It was actually a relief when they chose to focus on the villains as individual characters as opposed to figureheads for a political allegory.
The sum total of all this is, what Legend of Korra lacks in political intrigue, it gains in spades by being about something more timeless that speaks to a general human condition.
- July 17, 2013 7:00 AM
- Unknown said...
Reading through more comments...
You really didn't get the suicide cues? The only reason I doubted it in the initial viewing was because I thought that Nickelodeon would never even let them flirt with the concept, even through artistic devices.
But in repeat viewings, the signals are there and very much deliberate. Artistically, the first-person, lingering, 6-second shot of that teardrop falling over the edge of the cliff (meaning in order for it to do so, the person has to be leaning over the edge and looking down over it, as she was), combined with Aang's words about reaching your lowest point, and the fact that in spite of Mako's giving her acknowledgement of his feelings - something she earlier really wanted - being returned with not only words of rejection, but of a person trying to deliberately create that emotional distance that people who are about to make that final step often do between themselves and friends. She didn't just turn him away, her words were unnecessarily hostile, not just the reaction of someone who's 'sad'. She's cutting ties.
Compounded with her fear dream from earlier in the season (and the paralleling contrast drawn with the villains and their suicide as mentioned above) about her being 'nothing' without her bending, it seems clear that she intended to go to that cliff to re-start the Avatar cycle, so that the Avatar can be 'whole' again, according to her flawed understanding of what that meant.
Furthermore, in juxtaposing her moment of self-confrontation on the cliff right after the scene were we see the villains actually commit suicide for failing to overcome a very similar personal struggle, the odds of all these things being written and drawn the way they are, accidentally, become slimmer and slimmer. There is an intent in the design and architecture of the plot here that becomes impossible to ignore when seen in the totality of the piece.
Naturally, just accepting that her life held real importance over her being the Avatar doesn't mean she's suddenly going to be in a better mood. She's willing to face life with or without bending now. She doesn't envy the road ahead, but being willing is something she didn't have going for her up to that point. Sitting down and not jumping is the most she can do, but it is the most significant step forward a character with her flaw can take, and ultimately it's the move that separates her from Tarrlok and Amon.
It's not overtly written, and for a hero of a television show aimed at younger generations to even contemplate such a move, it's probably the only way the network would let it slip by, but it's most definitely there. The scene composition, writing and direction all point in that direction.
- July 17, 2013 7:44 AM
Is there any chance that you will review or comment on the three later seasons of Korra?
I know the creators attempted to make season 1 a self-contained story, but in retrospect it feels odd to consider it alone, given how much of the show is directly concerned with Korra's spiritual growth. Korra's materialism in season one is very clearly a starting point, and the long arc of the show is the way the challenges of various villains force her to change her relationship to being the Avatar. I'd be particularly interested in your thoughts on seasons 3 and 4.
- June 24, 2015 10:00 PM
- Abigail Nussbaum said...
I doubt that I'll end up writing anything about the rest of Korra - I watched it as it aired, so most of it isn't fresh in my mind, and I wasn't so impressed that I can imagine myself going back and rewatching. There were aspects of the last three seasons that I liked - season 3 is quite solid, and some of the newer secondary characters (Varrick and Joo-Lee, of course) are a lot of fun - but on the whole it still feels like an unworthy successor to ATLA.
While I agree that the first season's intent as a self-contained story has some effects on the rest of the show - in particular, it stuck the writers with a bunch of secondary characters who weren't very successful (from the first season, only Tenzin, Asami, and Lin are keepers). But it's the writers' choices of how to deal with that situation that make the show, ultimately, a lesser effort - who in their right mind, for example, would keep Bolin, and particularly Mako, around in increasingly pointless stories, but sideline Lin? And to be honest, I don't think the show's later seasons are as inconsistent with the first as popular opinion would have it. With the exception of S2 (and I really have no idea what anyone involved was going for there) there's a repeated theme of Korra bumping up against social unrest and upheaval, and acting as the agent of the existing power structure, rejecting the very possibility that change towards a less hierarchical, unrepresentative mode of government might be a good thing. S3 was the best on this front because Zaheer, while obviously making some valid political arguments, was also clearly dangerous, but that doesn't change the fact that Korra as a whole was a depressingly reactionary story.
It's perhaps for that reason that I'm finding it hard to see the emotional journey for Korra that a lot of reviewers have identified. Those elements are clearly in the show - particularly in the beginning of the fourth season - but from where I'm standing, Korra ends the story the same reactive, uninquisitive person she started it, who is still reflexively in favor of the status quo, and still thinks that most problems can be solved by hitting things hard enough (her confrontation with Kuvira, after she's supposedly reached a new level of self-knowledge and maturity, is particularly frustrating on this front). I have a pretty hard time accepting her as someone about whom there could ever be a legend.
(If you want some more discussion of the show, Alasdair Czyrnyz has a long piece about all four seasons that hits on most of my problems with them.)
- June 25, 2015 6:46 PM


text:
Factory Workers: We Were Locked In As Flames Spread
Body count in garment factory blaze may be much higher than 112, activists say.
Nov. 28, 2012 -- More survivors of the factory fire in Bangladesh that killed more than 100 garment workers this weekend have told human rights and international labor groups they were actually locked in by security gates as the flames spread.
"The police and the fire department are confirming that the collapsible gates were locked on each floor," said Charles Kernighan, executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. "The fire department said they had to come in with bolt cutters to cut the locks."
The toll of the garment factory blaze now stands at 112, but Kernighan and others interviewed by ABC News said they believe the number may actually be much higher. The destruction inside made it difficult to identify bodies, and Kernighan said factory officials have yet to make public a list of the 1,500 workers believed to be working in the nine-story building at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, when the fire broke out in a first floor warehouse.
Kalpona Akter, a labor activist based in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, spoke with a number of survivors, who described a scene of horror as workers started to smell smoke, and then the power went out and they were thrown into darkness.
"Then they ran to the stairs and found it was already fire caught in the stairs," she said. "They broke one window in the east side of the factory and … they started to jump."
Akter said many groups of relatives worked together in the factory, and when the lights went out, many began to scream in search of their mothers and sisters and daughters. She said she also heard accounts of managers shutting the gates as alarms sounded to prevent workers from walking off the job, apparently thinking it was a false alarm.
Authorities in Bangladesh announced three arrests, all supervisors from the factory, whom the police accused of negligence in their handling of the incident.
A journalist who attended the police press conference told ABC News the three men were arrested "because they did not perform their duty" and prevented workers from escaping from the factory, instead of helping them get out.
Also Wednesday, there were new reports that clothing found in the burned-out remains included large quantities of sweat shirts with labels for Disney, the parent company of ABC News. Like Wal-Mart and Sears, Disney said today the Tazreen Fashions Limited factory was not supposed to be making its clothes.
"None of our licensees have been permitted to manufacture Disney-branded products in this facility for at least the last 12 months," a Disney statement read.
As with Disney, other retailers continue to question how their products could be found in a factory they did not know they had hired. Li & Fung, a Hong Kong supplier that works with several large brands, confirmed it was producing clothes in the factory for a Sean Combs label, ENYCE. But in a statement to ABC News Wednesday, Li & Fung said it had not brought clothes to the factory for any other client, including Sears, Disney and Wal-Mart.
Asked why it hired a factory that had been cited by at least one auditor for having safety problems, Li & Fung said it was investigating that question.
"As this tragic event is still under official investigation by the authorities, and since Li & Fung will conduct our own investigation, it would be premature to comment on our prior assessment of the factory's compliance," the statement said.
Labor rights groups said the American clothing companies have an obligation to know where their clothing is being manufactured.
"They have the power to make demands on the factory owners, they don't do it though," Kernighan said. "Because they want to keep cutting the prices, and cutting the prices, and cutting the prices."


text:
close a position(redirected from Closes the Position)
Close a position
In the context of general equities, eliminate an investment from one's portfolio, by either selling a long position or covering a short position.
Close a Position
To end an investment; to change from a long position to a short position or vice versa. A long position is ownership of a security or option, while a short position is debt. Thus, to close a long position is to sell a security or option and to close a short position is to buy out the debt.
close a position
To eliminate an investment position. The most common way to close a position is to sell a security that is owned. An investor might also close a position by purchasing stock to replace shares borrowed for a short sale.


text:
10 Cup Embossed Non-Tip Stainless Steel Dog Bowl, Sapphire Blue
The beauty of each Platinum Pets Non-Tip Dog Bowl goes beneath its brilliant surface. Our proprietary powder coating process transforms the surgical grade stainless steel bowl into one that is beautiful as well as scratch, chip and fade resistant. Each bowl is finished with a long-lasting silicone ring at the base to prevent skidding and tipping. Our True Sizing will ensure your pet is getting the proper amount of food for optimum fitness and health.
Browse all deals at Home Depot
See more in Pet Supplies
* This offer may contain time-sensitive information and offers. Please check with Home Depot to confirm actual price & availability.
Please enter your name
- Be the first to comment!
1 location
1700 Anderson Rd
Home Depot
1700 Anderson Rd
Petoskey, MI 49770


text:
Travel from Kent...*New: Starting in 2013 Flights to Schiphol International Airport will help in supporting affordable international fares from the local terminal in Kent.
It is estimated 25'000 people per month will be inter-connected by flights services between Kent airports to Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam and France.
Top Flight Destinations:
Commercial Passenger Flights
Kent International Airport.
Flights are available from Kent Airport to Schiphol, Amsterdam and France. See live schedules, maps and automated support services from airports in Kent.
Scheduled Flights between Kent and Amsterdam....
Other Airports in Kent.
Kent International Airport, is located in Manston within Kent. Manston Airport has only one runway. The local village stands to the north east of the passenger terminal.
Kent Airport 2013
Access to over 500 international destinations from Kent.
Arrival and departure times for Eurostar , Kent International Airport (KIA), Manston(MSE), Lydd Airport (LYX), Rochester Airport and Biggin Hill Airport.
A guide to finding the airport via car, rail or bus and information on low cost parking fees
There are many benefits for those who chose to fly from Kent Airports
New service launched - KLM flights from Kent to AmsterdamStarting in April 2013. 'KLM' launch it's service from Manston, Kent via Amsterdam.
Inside the main part of the airport and the departure lounge is an airport café, that serves a range of hot and cold snacks, and beverages, it also holds a fully licensed bar.
We aim to give information on the most popular destinations, from the country names to popular cities, for example the most popular destinations at the moment are, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, London and Belfast. The most popular countries are, Spain, UK, France, Belgium and Germany.


text:
Mount Horeb man charged with homicide in bat attack
Suspect being held on $1 million bail
MADISON, Wis. — A man accused of beating a Fitchburg man with a baseball bat in Mount Horeb has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide after the victim died over the weekend.
Koalton Peterson, 18, of Mount Horeb, was charged Monday in Dane County Circuit Court.
The Dane County Sheriff's Office said 20-year-old Ryan M. Smith died Saturday morning at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.
The Dane County medical examiner said Smith ultimately died from blunt-force trauma to the head and skull. He had suffered severe brain injuries and trauma to his heart and lungs in the beating early last Tuesday.
Peterson's bond was set last week at $1 million. Prosecutors on Monday asked the judge to keep that bond with the new charge as they consider Peterson a flight risk.
"It's our understanding that Mr. Peterson has been moving among friend's residences for the past 10 months and also living at parks in Mount Horeb for a number of months as well," said Nick Gansner, assistant Dane County district attorney.
The judge agreed Monday to keep Peterson's bond at $1 million.
Dane County sheriff's detectives obtained information that shows that before the incident, the two men had been exchanging text messages over the sale of marijuana from Peterson to Ryan, according to a Dane County Sheriff's Office news release.
Those text messages became argumentative when Peterson told Ryan that he would not provide him with the drugs that night, sheriff's officials said.
Shortly after midnight on Nov. 27, Smith and a female friend arrived at 407 Oak Valley Road in Mount Horeb, where Peterson was staying with a friend, sheriff's officials said.
The criminal complaint said the two got into an altercation when Smith met Peterson to buy marijuana but Peterson wanted to wait a day.
Peterson told police that Smith pushed him in the chest, then punched him in the face, according to the complaint.
Peterson didn't deny hitting Smith with a baseball bat, but he said he blacked out and didn't know how many times he had hit Smith, according to the complaint.
He told police "he thought maybe that he had gone too far … maybe he had killed (Smith)," and fled to a friend's house, according to the complaint.
The Smith's female friend called 911, and Peterson fled through the back of the house, sheriff's officials said.
A Mount Horeb police officer responded to the scene at 12:21 a.m., and found Smith lying in the street unresponsive. The officer performed lifesaving efforts on Ryan until he was transported by Med Flight to UW Hospital.
Dane County sheriff's deputies also responded to the scene and at about 1:15 a.m., a deputy made contact and detained Peterson near the intersection of Park Street and Third Street in Mount Horeb. That same deputy recovered the baseball bat, which Peterson had discarded on the property behind 407 Oak Valley Road, according to sheriff's officials.
Peterson is due back in court for a preliminary hearing next week Tuesday.
Sheriff officials said the case remains an open investigation and detectives are continuing to compile evidence in the case. Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the Dane County tip line at 608-284-6900. Callers may remain anonymous.


text:
Blog Archives
Is the Shemitah upon us? (Divine judgment in the form of economic collapse)
Anthony G. Payne
Reports are beginning to surface indicating that retail sources for emergency preparedness or survival gear, dehydrated foods, seeds and such cannot keep up with demand. It isn't hard to figure out why with articles and tweets and such appearing almost every few minutes on what is happening or lies ahead in term of climate spawned global upheaval, tectonic activity that is triggering volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and other calamities, fracking induced quakes, super droughts and massive wildfires, epidemics, increasing social conflict & unrest and gun violence, economic instability in nations great and small, the unrestrained barbarity of ISIS, not to mention terrorist acts taking place worldwide by people of every extremist stripe, and a seemingly endless litany of calamities both human-made and natural that are sending millions of refugees streaming into Italy, Hungary, and elsewhere. And this hardly begins to scratch the surface of how many ways life is now making various doomsday movies, books and such that appeared in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond almost prophetic.


text:
Youth Dress Boots
Youth Dress Boots
Stout Brown, #062
Where form meets function. With a lean profile and square toe, these boots are built for those who walk from the woods to dinner.
Product Features
- Brown elastic side
- Stout brown premium leather
- Durable, slip resistant TPU outsole
- Cushioned midsole for comfort
- SPS Max Comfort system for outstanding shock absorption
- Removable comfort footbed
- Lightweight and comfortable
Select Color:
Stout Brown
Size Options:Size Guide


text:
Students use games to increase problem solving skills in children
August 21, 2013
During the summer, Lewis & Clark students continue to work hard in their fields of study. By collaborating with faculty on research projects, students are able to engage their curiosity, expand their learning, and prepare for life after college, all while making meaningful contributions to scholarship.
Desiree Etzel '14, Marjorie Pichon '14, and Steven Lucas '13 are working with Associate Professor of Psychology Erik Nilson to research games that foster problem solving skills in young children. In the following Q&A, the team members reflect on their experience.
What are you researching? What question or problem are you trying to answer/solve with your research?
In our study we use the toy Ball of Whacks, which consists of pyramid shaped magnetic blocks. We believe that playing with this toy will help build creativity and problem solving skills in young children. We're observing convergent play, which requires one correct solution, and divergent play, in which there are many possible solutions. The two main questions we are investigating are: Will the order of playing convergent and divergent games affect the child's performance? And, will naming his or her creations impact the number or accuracy of creations he or she makes? We believe that the act of play, and especially open ended play construction, will transfer to real world problem solving situations and creativity.
Does your research have any potential applications in the real world, or will it influence other work in your field?
The structures of society in our modern world, especially in educational environments, often create a number of barriers to developing and holding on to the creativity that it is innate in human beings. Part of our research is to explore ways to overcome these barriers and to find methods to nurture and develop a child's natural creative instincts.
Is any of your research taking place off campus? If so, what's that experience like?
We spend three hours, twice a week, conducting research with 3- to 6-year-olds at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry's living laboratory. It has been a very fun, rewarding experience. We love interacting with the public and bringing scientific research to them in a format that is easy to understand.
What first sparked your interest in this research area?
After taking courses in cognitive psychology and child development, we became interested in how the two fields of study could interact and the implications this might have on educational strategies and reform.
How has working closely with faculty influenced your education?
This opportunity has given us a first hand look at the research process. Additionally, it has been interesting learning about our own professors' research outside of a classroom setting, which becomes much more intimate and tactile. This has played a vital role in shaping our plans for the future and prompting us to start thinking about grad school.
How do you hope your experiences this summer will impact your future studies or professional pursuits?
Having this experience will help us decide which direction we want to take after graduation, such as continue what we're researching in higher education or go into a different subfield of psychology. It has also helped us determine whether we want to continue being involved in research or if we want to take a more clinical approach to psychology.
Anything else you'd care to add?
Aside from the creativity project in kids, we're also working to develop a study based on motivating healthy behaviors through technology, such as pedometers or video games. At this point we're just gathering background information and will hopefully have a clear direction for the study by the end of the summer.
About the program
The John S. Rogers Science Research Program allows students to participate in graduate-level research with an emphasis on strengthening their communication skills by requiring them to present their findings. This summer, 40 students are pursuing topics that range from artificial intelligence and motivating behavior to holographic tweezers and zebra fish. Working closely with peers and faculty members, students undertake research questions and present their work in two public venues.
"We're not asking you, 'What's the answer?' We're saying, 'What's the question?'" said Michael Broide, director of the Rogers program and chair of the physics department. "I think what sets our program apart is that regardless of what project you are on, we're all going to come together as a group to present what we're doing in as accessible a way as possible. In science, it's such an important skill to be able to explain cogently what you're doing."
Students make their final research presentation at the Rogers summer science poster session, held in conjunction with the Science Without Limits Symposium. Scheduled for September 18, the poster session is free and open to the public.
Department of Psychology Rogers Summer Research Projects
Zibby Pillote '14 contributed to this story.