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In my previous blog post on ASP.NET MVC, I walked through an example based on the MVC Preview 2 bits which showed how to make your own custom view engines and ActionFilters. I also proved (or at least hope I proved) just how powerful these parts of the framework can be, especially when used in conjunction with each other. The truth is that - while I thought they made great examples on how to extend the base parts of the framework - the whole thing seemed kind of kludgie to me. What I mean is that it felt kind of awkward having to use the ActionFilter to change which ViewEngine is being used on the fly. I don't know, maybe I just feel like view engines should be more closely tied to the controller and shouldn't just be chosen willy-nilly like that!
This was all before the introduction of the ActionResult in MVC Preview 3. Oh man, was this a great addition! Expanding the notion of being "loosely coupled", the controller action's job is no longer to execute logic and chose which view to display-- ok, well, it is... only now its main responsibility is returning an ActionResult, which is basically a command object that tells the framework what to do instead the controller taking that action itself. This not only helps us to decouple the controller (allowing for easier testing, etc.), it also lets us know what the controller wants the framework to do before it happens. When you think of it, this is pretty powerful stuff, and gives us access to a whole new part of the process in which can inject additional logic. And inject it we shall...
The SerializableViewDataAttribute Revisited
In my previous post, the attribute that I adorned my Actions with was pretty stupid. It just said, "Is this an AJAX request? If so, set our custom view engine." Pretty much all of the meaningful (and interesting) logic happened in our custom view engine. Now, with the introduction of the ActionResult we no longer have to wait until the view engine phase to get access to (and override) the way our data is returned to the client - we can hijack it in the attribute, and manipulate the Action's result! Before I confuse you any more, here's the code:
As you can see, it is a lot like the logic that was used to create my custom view engine in the last post. In fact, I essentially copied and pasted it (and added support for partial rendering)! Also, now that all of this logic lives in the ActionFilter we have no more need for that pesky custom view engine. So long, cruft!
For the benefit of those who may not have read the explanation of this logic in my previous blog post, I'll go ahead and repeat (as well as expand on) it here. This version should actually be a lot easier to understand since the logic is now contained in one place instead of spread out between the ActionFilter and the ViewEngine. Here's a basic run-down of what's going on:
- The first thing to note is that we're overriding the OnActionExecuted method of the ActionFilter. What this implies is that the controller action to which this attribute is applied has already completed, so we now have access to everything it's done: ViewData, TempData, ViewName, etc. We could also have overridden the OnResultExecuting method as well; this would be somewhat similar to the difference between the PreRender and Render events when using Web Forms.
- Once the "event" has been triggered, the first thing we want to do is figure out what, exactly, is expected of us - AKA, which serialization mode (if any) we should be using. In this implementation, I have decided to glean this information from the querystring, but you can just as easily use any other environment variable you'd like (such as the Route Data, cookies... whatever!).
- Next, I get the ViewData from the context, if any, using the filterContext.GetViewData() extension method. Though this method is defined elsewhere and you can't see it in this snippet, it's not really all that interesting - it's just a convenience method that drills down into filterContext.Controller.ViewData (or ViewData.Model, if available) and returns it.
- Check the render method that we got in Step #2 and if that or the ViewData is invalid, there's nothing for us to do, so we're done and we just return.
- Assuming we didn't bail out in Step #4, we then go on to overwrite the existing ActionResult (or its properties), depending on what the user has asked for. This particular version supports:
- JSON: Along with the introduction of the ActionResult came the JsonResult, which is a super-cool implementation of ActionResult that serializes whatever data you give to it into JSON to be rendered down to the browser. As you can see in this example, this makes handling requests for JSON data really simple and easy.
- XML: Though there is no "XmlResult" as there is for JSON, the MVC framework still provides a ContentResult which is a lot like the JsonResult in spirit. Both of them allow us to send data in some form back to the browser without requiring a View to render it with. Going back to our example - you can see that it takes a bit of work, but the end result is a raw batch of just XML sent back to the client for processing.
- Partial Rendering: I included this render mode as a bit of a teaser - I should have a follow-up post going in-depth about using partial rendering in ASP.NET MVC. For now, I'll just say that you can think of it a lot like the ASP.NET AJAX UpdatePanel server control...
- That's it! If we've gotten to this step and not hit any of the three types above, this particular filter will just let the request continue on and have no effects what-so-ever. That probably means it'll just end up rendering out a fully-rendered page like any other normal (non-AJAX) request. The important part to note here is that this filter only injects behavior when it is appropriate. Otherwise, things proceed as normal and noone even needs to know that these actions are AJAX-ified unless you want them to.
I don't know about you, but the power that this kind of stuff gives us just makes my head spin! Hopefully you find the above useful; if you do, please feel free to contact me and let me know, especially if you end up using it in one of your apps!
As always, you can check out all of the source code in my repository: http://code.jesschadwick.com/
This particular piece of code can most easily be found at this direct link.


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|This is the article on the chapter. For the episode, head to Sasuke's Answer.
"Sasuke's Answer" (サスケの答え, Sasuke no Kotae) is chapter 627 of the original Naruto manga.
With Hashirama finishing his story, Sasuke iterated how ironic it was that his brother Itachi, who was from the Uchiha clan, and had never heard Hashirama's story directly from the source, was the one who had inherited his will so strongly. However Tobirama notes that there had been several Uchiha throughout history which had transcended the limitations of their clan and put the village first. One such person who stood out in his mind was Kagami Uchiha. Noting that he did not hate the Uchiha, but in his capacity as Second Hokage, had to find a way to mediate between clans and the village's well-being — the former being something he noted his brother foolishly thought would dissipate with the creation of the village system. In turn, both the Third and Fourth, noted that they had fallen short of their predecessor, and the expectations people had of them respectively. Having heard all he needed from the Hokage, Sasuke comes to the conclusion that the village and people that Itachi sacrificed his life to protect should not be wasted, and decides to enter the battlefield in order to follow his brother's will, with Orochimaru following out of interest. Motioning to Tobirama to prepare to transport them, Tobirama informs his brother that they could not do so because they were bound. As they left the Naka Shrine, Suigetsu who decided that fighting alongside who he deemed the four strongest reincarnated shinobi and three monsters was not a viable option tried to slip away, only to be met by a kick from Karin. She yells that she will never forgive him for what he did and Sasuke immediately apologises. Karin, who visibly cannot contain herself, runs up to Orochimaru and tells him that he stabbed her. He recommends that she should cooperate Sasuke for the time being so she reluctantly rubs against Sasuke, saying she has no other choice. As the Hokage prepare to make their way to the main battlefield, Hashirama — who can barely contain his excitement at this point upon seeing the village again — directs his fellow Hokage to their respective faces on the Hokage Rock before declaring that he wanted to know what his old friend had been up to, Tobirama declares that this time he would stop Madara for good, Hiruzen notes that he had not been to war in so long but vows to give his all this time, and Minato, delighted that he will finally meet his son, promises to make up for not being there with a huge surprise.
- In the original publication, Sasuke ponders his answer in a two-page spread of various moments of his interactions with Itachi through the series, thinking about Itachi's words, and giving his answer in the next page. In the tankōbon release, two extra pages are added before Sasuke makes his decision, with Sasuke being zoomed out of against a black background, Itachi's words being scattered through these two pages instead of the spread of their interactions.

subset: commoncrawl


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I have been prevented from blogging by the Washington DC power outage. But I know that John is dying for update on Euro 2012. So here goes.
There have been two matches since my last report. In the first, Italy upset Germany 2 to 1. It looked like a case of the Italians simply wanting it more. Germany attached with menace early, but the match turned when Cassano outfought two defenders in the corner and crossed for Balotelli to head home. When a center back goes to the corner on double team, the ball must be won or the attacker must be fouled. Germany accomplished neither and paid the price.
After that, Italy was the better team. They scored a second on another breakdown in the German defense. Germany gradually ran out of attacking ideas and was lucky to score on a soft penalty in the closing few minutes of the match.
I had been looking forward to a Spain vs. Germany final since the early days of the tournament, but it was not to be. Perhaps there is justice in the fact that Germany failed to reach the final in Kiev, scene of the worst sporting atrocity I know of, in which the Nazis killed several Ukrainian soccer players for not throwing a match against a German team.
In any case, I was now convinced that Italy was capable of giving Spain a good match. And they probably would have but for the fact that Spain finally delivered the brilliant performance we have been waiting for, a significantly better display than any they produced in this tournament or in the last World Cup. A performance worthy of Europe's first back to back to back champions.
More on that performance later, assuming I can stay connected to the internet.


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Miele, Vizier of Lightning (#P20-Y8):
* When you put this creature into the battle zone, you may choose 1 of your opponent's creatures in the battle zone and tap it.
"Vizier of Lightning, arise. Your eyes are a bow of judgment." —Hanusa, Radiance Elemental
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Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser are working together to develop a revival of their hit 1990s sitcom "Mad About You."
Reports suggested producers at Sony Television were in informal talks with the stars to launch a reboot of the show last year, almost two decades after it went off air. Sources told TV Line the comedy series would be brought back for a limited run, with Reiser and Hunt's married New Yorker characters, Jamie and Paul Buchman, dealing with their daughter heading off to college.
On Thursday, Hunt confirmed she and Reiser are working to get the potential revival right, but it isn't in development yet.
"It's not for sure yet," she told "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." "I will say that Paul Reiser is in my kitchen a good amount because we're talking about how to make it and not wreck it, because we're proud of what we did."
"I hope (we can do it)," she added. "It would be fun."
"Mad About You" ran for seven seasons until 1999, with the series' finale featuring a flash forward 22 years into the future to show fans how life turned out for the Buchmans.
"Our thinking at the time was, 'Let's make sure we never get tempted to come back -- let's tell them what happens,'" Reiser previously told People magazine of their reasons for the ending.
However, he admitted he would be interested in reprising his role if there was public interest.
"If we can find the story to tell, and anybody's interested, I'd be open to it," he continued. "To me, it's interesting when I see my kids are growing and leaving the house ... It's like that moment when you get married. It's like we're in a new world that we don't know the rules of."


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Protect Your Site with a Blackhole for Bad Bots
One of my favorite security measures here at Perishable Press is the site's virtual Blackhole trap for bad bots. The concept is simple: include a hidden link to a
robots.txt-forbidden directory somewhere on your pages. Bots that ignore or disobey your robots rules will crawl the link and fall into the honeypot trap, which then performs a WHOIS Lookup and records the event in the blackhole data file. Once added to the blacklist data file, bad bots immediately are denied access to your site.
I call it the "one-strike" rule: bots have one chance to follow the robots.txt protocol, check the site's robots.txt file, and obey its directives. Failure to comply results in immediate banishment. The best part is that the Blackhole only affects bad bots: normal users never see the hidden link, and good bots obey the robots rules in the first place. So the percentage of false positives is extremely low to non-existent. It's an ideal way to protect your site against bad bots silently, efficiently, and effectively.
With a few easy steps, you can set up your own Blackhole to trap bad bots and protect your site from evil scripts, bandwidth thieves, content scrapers, spammers, and other malicious behavior.
The Blackhole is built with PHP, and uses a bit of
htaccess to protect the blackhole directory. Refined over the years and completely revamped for this tutorial, the Blackhole consists of a plug-&-play
/blackhole/ directory that contains the following three files:
.htaccess– protects the log file
blackhole.dat– log file
index.php– blackhole script
These three files work together to create the Blackhole for Bad Bots. If you are running WordPress, the Blackhole plugin is recommended instead of this standalone PHP version.
Installation Overview
The Blackhole is developed to make implementation as easy as possible. Here is an overview of the steps:
- Upload the
/blackhole/directory to your site
- Edit the three variables in the "EDIT HERE" section in
- Ensure writable server permissions for the
- Add a single line to the top of your pages to include the
- Add a hidden link to the
/blackhole/directory in the footer
- Forbid crawling of
/blackhole/by adding a line to your robots.txt
It's that easy to install on your own site, but there are many ways to customize functionality. For complete instructions, jump ahead to Implementation and Configuration. For now, I think a good way to understand how it works is to check out a demo..
One-time Live Demo
I have set up a working demo of the Blackhole for this tutorial. It works exactly like the download version, but it's configured to block you only from the demo, not from the entire site. Here's how it works:
- First visit to the Blackhole demo loads the trap page, runs the whois lookup, and adds your IP address to the blacklist data file
- Once you're added to the blacklist, all subsequent requests for the Blackhole demo will be denied access
So you get one chance to see how it works. Once you visit, your IP will be blocked from the demo only – you will still have full access to this tutorial (and everything else). That said, here is the demo link: Blackhole Demo. Visit once to see the Blackhole trap, and then again to observe that you've been blocked. Again, even if you are blocked from the demo page, you will continue to have access to everything else on this domain.
Implementation and Configuration
Here are complete instructions for implementing the PHP/standalone of Blackhole for Bad Bots. Note that these steps are written for Apache servers running PHP. The steps are the same for other PHP-enabled servers (e.g., Nginx, IIS), but you will need to replace the .htaccess file and rules with whatever works for particular server environment. Note: for a concise summary of these steps, check out this tutorial.
Step 1: Download the Blackhole zip file, unzip and upload to your site's root directory. This location is not required, but it enables everything to work out of the box. To use a different location, edit the
include path in Step 4.
Step 2: Edit the three variables in the "EDIT HERE" section in
Step 3: Change file permissions for
blackhole.dat to make it writable by the server. The permission settings may vary depending on server configuration. If you are unsure about this, ask your host. Note that the blackhole script needs to be able to read, write, and execute the
blackhole.dat file.
Step 4: Include the Blackhole script by adding the following line to the top of your pages (e.g.,
<?php include(realpath(getenv('DOCUMENT_ROOT')) . '/blackhole/index.php'); ?>
The Blackhole script checks the bot's IP address against the blacklist data file. If a match is found, the request is blocked with a customizable message. View the source code for more information.
Step 5: Add a hidden link to the
/blackhole/ directory in the footer of your site's web pages:
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!
This is the hidden link that bad bots will follow. It's currently hidden with CSS, so 99.999% of visitors won't ever see it. Alternately, to hide the link from users without relying on CSS, replace the anchor text with a transparent 1-pixel GIF image. For example:

Remember to edit the link
href value and the image
src to match the correct locations on your server.
Step 6: Finally, add a
Disallow directive to your site's
robots.txt file:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /blackhole/
This step is pretty important. Without the proper robots directives, all bots would fall into the Blackhole because they wouldn't know any better. If a bot wants to crawl your site, it must obey the rules! The robots rule that we are using basically says, "All bots DO NOT visit the
/blackhole/ directory or anything inside of it." So it is important to get your robots rules correct. Please use a robots validator to verify proper syntax.
Step 7: Done! Remember to test thoroughly before going live. Also check out Further Customization for more ideas.
You can verify that the script is working by visiting the hidden Blackhole link (added in step 5). That should take you to the Blackhole warning page, and block you from further access. To verify that you've been blocked, try visiting another page on your site. To restore site access, you can clear the contents of the
blackhole.dat log file.
Important: Make sure that your robots rules are correct and have proper syntax. For example, you can use the robots checker in Google Webmaster Tools.
Further Customization
The previous steps will get the Blackhole working, but there are some details that you may want to customize:
index.php(lines 54–56): Edit the three variables
index.php(line 172): Check/replace path to your contact form
index.php(lines 159–182): Customize markup of the warning page
index.php(line 196): Customize the list of whitelisted bots
These are the recommended changes, but the PHP is clean and generates valid HTML, so feel free to modify the markup as needed.
File Path
If you get an error letting you know that a file cannot be found, it could be an issue with how the script specifies the absolute path, using
getenv('DOCUMENT_ROOT'). That function works on a majority of servers, but if it fails on your server for whatever reason, you can simply replace it with the actual path. From Step 4, the include script looks like this:
<?php include(realpath(getenv('DOCUMENT_ROOT')) . '/blackhole/index.php'); ?>
So if you are getting not-found errors, try this instead:
So that would be the actual absolute path to the blackhole
index.php file on your server. As long as you get the path correct, it's gonna fix any "file can't be found" type errors you may be experiencing.
If in doubt about the actual full absolute path, consult your web host or use a PHP function or constant such as
__DIR__ to obtain the correct infos. And check out my tutorial over at WP-Mix for more information about including files with PHP and WordPress.
Caveat Emptor
Blocking bots is serious business. Good bots obey
robots.txt rules, but there may be potentially useful bots that do not. Yahoo is the perfect example: it's a valid search engine that sends some traffic, but sadly the Yahoo Slurp bot is too stupid to follow the rules. Since setting up the Blackhole several years ago, I've seen Slurp disobey robots rules hundreds of times.
By default, the Blackhole DOES NOT BLOCK any of the big search engines. So Google, Bing, and company always will be allowed access to your site, even if they disobey your
robots.txt rules. See the next section for more information.
Whitelisting Search Bots
Blackhole whitelists all bots related to any of the following search engines:
- AOL.com
- Baidu
- Bing/MSN
- DuckDuckGo
- Teoma
- Yahoo!
- Yandex
More specifically, here is the list of regex strings that are checked for each request:
aolbuild, baidu, bingbot, bingpreview, msnbot, duckduckgo, adsbot-google, googlebot, mediapartners-google, teoma, slurp, yandex
So any bot that reports a user agent that contains any of these strings will NOT be blocked and will have full access to your site under all conditions. To customize the list of whitelisted bots, open
index.php and edit line 196.
Whitelisting these user agents ensures that anything claiming to be a major search engine is allowed open access. The downside is that user-agent strings are easily spoofed, so a bad bot could crawl along and say, "Hey look, I'm teh Googlebot!" and the whitelist would grant access.
It is possible to verify the true identity of each bot, but doing so consumes significant resources and could overload the server. Avoiding that scenario, the Blackhole errs on the side of caution: it's better to allow a few spoofs than to block any of the major search engines.
License and Disclaimer
Blackhole for Bad Bots is released under GNU General Public License. By downloading the Blackhole, you agree to accept full responsibility for its use. In no way shall the author be held accountable for anything that happens after the file has been downloaded.
Questions & Feedback
Questions? Comments? Send 'em via my contact form. Thanks!
Blackhole Download
Here you can download the latest version of Blackhole for Bad Bots.


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Audio Visual and Technology Services (AVTS) provides specialized audiovisual equipment and technical staffing for student-sponsored events hosted on the Barnard College campus. Audiovisual services are provided without charge for student events that fall within the parameters and guidelines listed below:
- Audiovisual equipment requests must be entered by the student event organizer, approved by the advisor, and confirmed by Events Management 28 days prior to the event.
- Student events scheduled Monday through Thursday 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM and Friday, Saturday and Sunday 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM (these reflect event times and do not include set-up or break down times) **
- Each space has standard audiovisual equipment. Events requiring additional equipment must be pre-approved. Additional equipment is not guaranteed.
- One Audiovisual Technician is assigned per event. Events requiring more than one technician must be pre-approved. Additional support is not guaranteed.
- Event organizers wishing to supply their own equipment must consult with AVTS for approval.
** Please note that limited staffing may still prevent AVTS from supporting the event, even if it falls within the parameters.


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MATLAB Online
Access MATLAB from your web browser without downloading or installing software.
Add MATLAB and Simulink to the classroom, as 5000 universities already have, and you inspire critical thinking and innovation. You also prepare students for prominent careers in industry, where the tools are the de facto standard for R&D. Get started and get inspired.


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Outdoor Smoker Product Information (Video)
We gotta look at this. We got a Gravity Smoker. This is award-winning, champion-style barbecue for the backyard. Here with our Gravity fed we have a 30 and a 36 inch unit. This unit's won Memphis in May ribs, Memphis in May pulled pork. This thing is championship-quality equipment in your backyard.
Check this out. All stainless steel, commercial stainless steel, commercial three grades. Look at that. Your putting in your pork back, pork butts, your baby backs, your Texas brisket. Gravity fed. Easy, simple to use. Long cooking. We're talking eighteen hours of end-maintenance cooking if you're using the right hardwood charcoal. Use your hickory. Use your mesquite. Use your pecan depending on where you're from.
Commercial gasket. Double-walled stainless steel construction. Commercial latching gets your that air-tight, man, and you know you need that in a barbecue. Air-tight, sealed system. Gravity fed charcoal and check this out. What you do is you fill this up with your beautiful lump charcoal. Your hickory. Out in California we love to use orange hardwood. Fill that up nice and tight again air... Look at that quality. Quality gasket. Nice, air-tight goes down... That feeds the chamber down here. This is full of charcoal. You put your paraffin wax starter right there, get it nice and lit. Put your hardwood, your hickory, your mesquite, your pecan, or almond. Get that in there. Nice and set that up. Click... look at that commercial latching system. Closes there and this is how you control the air. More air in, more air out. Controls the heat. Low and slow. This thing will rock at 225. It'll rock, oh, close to eighteen hours. That's beautiful for your Texas brisket and with no work and no fuss.
Viking also has the longest, strongest warranty in the industry, a no quibble policy, which states in the first 90 days that you purchase a Viking product in the unlikely event a manufacturer defect happens, we will repair it or replace it.
If you are having trouble viewing the embedded video, please click here.
Recent Posts


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Because of each country's product availability, the selection on this site may not be the same as the one you were previously on.Cancel
Simply classic, this 14k white gold wedding band features a low profile silhouette, modern brushed finish and a lighter overall weight for comfortable everyday wear.
Men's rings typically range from size 8 to 14. The most commonly purchased are between 8 and 10.5 and size 9 is the most popular.
We are happy to exchange your ring for another size within 30 days of purchase.
Blue Nile realizes that you may not know the ring size for a given finger, and we want to help. We provide a printable ring sizer that can help determine your ring size. Prior to printing, ensure that page scaling is set to "none" on your print dialog box.


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Event: Heath Ceramics Studio & Store Grand Opening
- Location: multiple locations and online
- Website: heathceramics.com
We were excited months ago when we discovered that Heath Ceramics would be opening a showroom in LA. The iconic ceramic company has been creating design staples for 60 years out of their Sausalito factory and is now expanding to Los Angeles thanks to a partnership with Atwater Pottery. The grand opening of their 5,000 square foot showroom is this weekend, but we were lucky enough to catch a sneak preview yesterday:
The store is a wonderland. Even unfinished it's beautiful. Designed by Commune, the space serves not only as a showroom for Heath's products but as a gallery and studio that will focus on ceramic research and small run, custom work. Committed to all things local, the showroom promises community events and backyard bbq's in the small courtyard (planted by Judy Kameon, the designer behind the gardens at the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs).
Alongside the full line of Heath Ceramics will be Adam Silverman's own pottery designs plus products from like-minded companies like Weck Canning and Danish glass manufacturer Holmegaard. There was already a nice selection of books spotlighting local design, the slow food movement and mid century inspiration. We're also looking forward to an expansion of the brand to include planters, light fixtures and large scale vases.
Join them this weekend, Saturday and Sunday 11am-7pm, for all their grand opening festivities.


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Friday, November 20, 2009
Patterns of Motion
I've always been fascinated by Disney's Woodland Cafe (1937) and this scene in particular. Like Mother Goose Goes Hollywood a year later, this cartoon looks both forward and backward in its animation style. There are some scenes that could have been done as early as 1933 or '34 and others, like the above, that point towards the 1940s. The cartoon concludes with an upbeat jazz number, "Everybody's Truckin,'" played by a band of grasshoppers who are drawn to resemble the black jazz bands of the time. The shot above is from the song.
This shot has always been the highlight of the film for me. While the surrounding animation is full of energy, this shot just explodes off the screen. This shot is animated by Ward Kimball and I thank David Nethery (see comment below) for confirming that.
I wanted to know why this shot stands out for me, so I took a closer look. You can click the images below to enlarge them.
The shot is 56 frames long, entirely on ones. That's three and a half feet of 35mm film, or two and a third seconds. Given how short the shot is, the animator could have gotten away with a cycle, but there are no repeat drawings in this shot.
After the first slap, which we pick up in progress, everything is animated on a 7 beat, meaning that every 7 frames, the bass gets slapped. The spacing between the sixth and seventh drawings in the pattern (for instance frames 5 and 6 or 12 and 13) is wide, resulting in an accent where the bass gets slapped hard. The right hand and arm are foreshortened and exaggerated in their slapping motion.
There are major and minor slaps alternating, mirroring the ONE two THREE four of the musical rhythm. The right arm, the tapping right foot and the bouncing body are all in synch, which is no surprise. What is a surprise is that the character's head and the bass, while still on a 7 beat, are actually delayed 2 frames. So the hand slaps the base on frame 20 but the head and the bass don't hit their extreme drawings until frame 22.
This is something that probably shouldn't work. It's out of synch! And yet, besides the fact that it does work, it actually adds energy and interest to the shot by breaking up the rhythm so that not everything is hitting the beat at the same time. How did the animator figure this out? Had the character been broken into levels (or if it was done today with cgi), it would be easy to experiment by shifting some elements forward or backward in time, but the character is done as a single drawing, so this delay had to be thought out in advance. This knowledge may have been commonplace at Disney at the time, as they had animated so much to music, but it's hardly common knowledge today.
There's still more movement, as the character tilts towards screen right until frame 27 and then starts tilting back towards screen left. It's this tilt that prevents the possibility of using any cycles in this shot, as the character is never in the same position twice. Nothing on the character ever stops moving and the background adds more optical excitement by changing colours.
In many ways, this shot is optical overload, but it is justified by the tempo of the music and the shot's placement at the climax of the cartoon. It points to possibilities that were later explored by animators like Rod Scribner.
11 comments:
- David Nethery said...
It's Kimball's animation according to John Canemaker's book "Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation" page 99.
Here's a scan of some of the drawings:
Ward Kimball Woodland Cafe drawings
- November 20, 2009 3:33 PM
- Mark Mayerson said...
Thanks David. I've made the correction above. I have Canemaker's book, but didn't remember that material being in it.
- November 20, 2009 3:44 PM
- Molasses said...
Great post!
Is this an extension or excerpt from your lectures on musical timing? Wish I could of attended them.
For those looking for the shot in context it's at about the 7:10 mark of the short.
Hope you will do more of these Mark.
- November 20, 2009 3:57 PM
- David Nethery said...
Yeah, and by the way I forgot to mention the first time: great post ! A short scene, but well worth the frame-by-frame analysis.
This ability to animate to music in this way seems to be a lost art. I'm sure it helped that Kimball was a talented musician himself and appreciated the rhythms of jazz/swing , but I think you are correct : this sort of animation to music was much more commonplace knowledge at that time and we've lost it.
- November 20, 2009 6:21 PM
- jriggity said...
- November 24, 2009 7:03 PM
- Michael Sporn said...
Your analysis, as usual, is a gem. Thanks for all the effort; it was a treat going through it. It's amazing how important that slower rocking from side-to-side is. It made for more drawings, but it solidified the scene so that there was something to hold focus. I assume today there'd be little body movement and reused arms motion.
- November 26, 2009 9:30 AM
- Weirdo said...
Fantastic post. I love "Woodland Cafe". I thought it was one of the stronger Silly Symphonies. Excellent example of musical timing. That aspect of animation should not be underestimated.
- November 30, 2009 2:49 PM
- Nora Lumiere said...
Stunning animation. Just breathtaking.
Thank you for the post. There will be some musical animation in PRINCESS AND THE FROG, let's hope it compares.
- December 02, 2009 12:21 PM
- Peter said...
David's scans cast some more light on the beat issue.
The drawings shown, Kimball's 1,2,3,4,5 & 9, correspond to frames 0,1,2,3,4 & 8 of the final shot, the first frame having been cut in the edit.
Kimball's drawings 2, 5 and 9 have breakdown keys, indicating they are extremes - of the bass squash & stretch and the head roll. Since 2 and 9 are also the point at which the slappng hand is about to pull the strings it may be that these were the 'beat' points that Kimball was working to, and the flex of the body followed by the slap of the hand were merely pre-beat 'driving' actions to get the hand to hit on the 'beat' point.
I think it was common practice, at least in the 30s, for Disney animators to play with the sync of their tests themselves, moving the picture back and forth against the track to fix the point where it actually "looked" in sync.
- December 03, 2009 8:21 AM
- Peter said...
Looking back at the screen grabs and your analysis I realise my last post is well off the mark.
The breakdown key on drawing 2 is actually labelled "double bass" and only applies to the bass action - presumably passed to an assistant. From the frames it is of course obvious that the 'hand hit' is the beat, as it is also, as you point out, the extreme drawing where the body drops and flexes.
It is, however, interesting that bass strings lag behind the hand action. Had the bass been keyed originally with the hand slap and the the string i/b'd to fit the brushing hand action, but then deliberately shifted a drawing later to increase the sense of overlap? Or was it accidental, the animation roughs of the character being traced (in red) on the wrong drawings? Presumably the former. The bass certainly seems to have been completed first, as the strings have been rubbed out where the hand overlaps. The exuberant head flip is just follow-through from the body action, which makes sense, but the bass action, while, as you say, breaking up what might otherwise have been too mechanical a relationship between player and instrument, doesn't actually seem to me to be very meaningful in the scene.
- December 10, 2009 10:10 AM
Good observation and post.
Ward Kimball was one of the greatest at Disney.
This shot couldn't have been done as a cycle because the character is swaying from one side to the other. Even if Ward was to cycle this, he wouldn't have because it is such a short scene.
Besides, cycling things make things look repetative. Good for Ward to animate this thru-out.
- March 05, 2010 5:14 PM


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- Year
- 1981
Obsessed Jodie Foster fan John Hinckley Jr. shoots President Reagan
On this day in 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempts to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in a crowd of onlookers and security personnel–including police and Secret Service officers–outside a Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C. When asked about his motive for shooting the president, Hinckley revealed that he was seeking to gain the attention of the actress Jodie Foster.
After growing up in an affluent family in Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado, Hinckley moved to Hollywood in 1976. That same year saw the release of Martin Scorsese's dark drama Taxi Driver. Hinckley watched the film some 15 times and apparently strongly identified with the title character, Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro). A violent loner, Bickle seeks the attention of a socialite by trying to assassinate a political candidate and later becomes obsessed with protecting a child prostitute by shooting her pimp. The screenwriter, Paul Schrader, based the character on Arthur Bremer, who shot the Alabama governor and U.S. presidential candidate George Wallace in 1972. In his diaries, Bremer expressed that political assassination was a way to escape anonymity and powerlessness.
As was recounted in testimony given at his 1982 trial, Hinckley began–either consciously (according to the prosecution) or unconsciously (according to the defense)–mirroring Bickle. He wore similar clothes, drank the same peach brandy and amassed a collection of firearms. He also became fixated on Jodie Foster, who played the young prostitute in the film. During the 1980 presidential campaign, Hinckley stalked President Jimmy Carter, getting himself arrested in the process when he was caught at the Nashville airport in possession of firearms. After sending him to a psychiatrist, Hinckley's family cut him off financially. When he read that Foster was attending Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Hinckley traveled there repeatedly, all the while seeking some grand gesture he could make that would earn her attention.
On March 30, 1981, Hinckley made his grand gesture, managing to fire six bullets in three seconds at Reagan in the middle of the crowd outside the Washington Hilton. One of the bullets struck Reagan underneath the left arm; it failed to explode on impact, leaving the president seriously injured but alive. Hinckley also shot a police officer and a Secret Service agent and seriously wounded Reagan's press secretary, James Brady. Upon his arrest, Hinckley reportedly asked the officers if the news would disrupt the Academy Awards ceremony, scheduled for that night. The ceremony was indeed postponed until the following night, only the third time in history that the Oscars had failed to go ahead as scheduled.
At the conclusion of his trial–during which the defense showed Taxi Driver to bolster its case–Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was confined to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., and has remained there ever since. The case led to legislation limiting the insanity plea in several states and, 12 years later, to the signing of the Brady Bill, which required a waiting period and background check on people wishing to purchase a handgun.


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If you thought the idea of robots taking over the world and ultimately wiping us out was merely the preserve of far-fetched sci-fi movies, think again.
A team of researchers at Cambridge University is making plans to open the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, where it will assess the threat to human civilization posed by the likes of artificial intelligence, climate change, nuclear war and rogue biotechnology.
According to a BBC report, the team behind the Project for Existential Risk – comprising Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price, cosmology and astrophysics professor Martin Rees and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn – claim it would be "dangerous" to scoff at talk of a potential robot uprising.
Speaking to the BBC about the project, Tallinn explained that the purpose of the center is to put more thinking into what it calls existential risks. "Existential risks are potential dangers that we might face as a species, things that might kill us as a species, or at least permanently curtail our potential," he said.
So it's not just robots that might finish us off.
'Extinction-level risks'
"Many scientists are concerned that developments in human technology may soon pose new, extinction-level risks to our species as a whole," the team explains on its website. "Such dangers have been suggested from progress in AI, from developments in biotechnology and artificial life, from nanotechnology, and from possible extreme effects of anthropogenic climate change. The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern, given how much is at stake."
Getting back to AI, Tallinn talked about the Frankenstein scenario of a planet overrun by technology with a mind of its own. "If you're creating something that is potentially smarter than you, you might have the problem of control – like how do you control something that is smarter than you and potentially, for example, able to design its own technology," he said.
He went on to say he believes the chance of the human race being wiped out by something we're responsible for is higher than people generally acknowledge, although it's hard to properly assess because "the bar of uncertainty is very high," adding, "We really should be careful about these things and be prepared."
The center, which plans to open in 2013, will draw on the intellectual resources of the prestigious university to study the potential threats, and in doing so help "make it a little more certain that we humans will be around to celebrate the University's own millennium" in 2209, the teams says on its website.
[Image: Kjpargeter / Shutterstock]
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- Researchers teach self-driving cars to predict pedestrians' next moves


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10 years of injustice at Guantanamo Bay
NPR describes the scene well: "The 20 detainees who stumbled down the gangway had been put on a nonstop flight from Kandahar, Afghanistan, to Cuba. The men came from all over the Middle East and Africa: Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, Afghanistan. They all wore the same blackened goggles, earmuffs and orange socks as U.S. soldiers guided them from the plane by their elbows."
These were the first prisoners to enter Guantanamo Bay prison 10 years ago today.
Almost three years ago to the day, President Obama, making good on one of his big campaign promises, signed an executive order to close the prison. But today, 171 detainees remain. About 80 have been identified for release and 36 for a military commissions trial, leaving 48 with an uncertain future, detained indefinitely, according to NPR.
For seven years, Lakhdar Boumediene was held in Guantanamo under suspicion of plotting to blow up the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. Not only was he not given a trial until 2009, after being taken away from his family and his work in 2002, he was never even presented with the evidence the U.S. government claimed to have on him. When the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that ruled unconstitutional the provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which "stripped the federal courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus petitions from the detainees seeking to challenge their designation as enemy combatants," Boumediene's path to freedom was more or less cleared.
In that decision, Boumediene writes in his Times op ed this week, "The Supreme Court recognized a basic truth: the government makes mistakes. And the court said that because 'the consequence of error may be detention of persons for the duration of hostilities that may last a generation or more, this is a risk too significant to ignore.'"
More than hostilities toward our country is a graver consequence that should concern anyone, especially those with faith in a God of justice: Acts of injustice denies the humanity of those who suffer it, as well as those who inflict it. Everyone should have a right to a fair trial, no matter how serious the accusations are, because, as shown in Boumediene's case, mistakes are made. These laws exist to protect everyone.
Brig. Gen. Mark Martin, the chief prosecutor for military commissions at Gauntanamo, told NPR that despite criticisms regarding the practice of justice at the prison, "The reformed military commissions aren't that different from Article 3 courts." (Article 3 courts are the part of the federal criminal court system.) Additionally, he said, "I would not be part of this system if I didn't think that a full and fair trial will be held, and that justice will be served."
But as Fordham Law School's Center on National Security Director, Karen Greenberg, also told NPR, "Unless they try everybody, they haven't tackled the hardest problem about Guantanamo and its legality," she said.
Guantanamo has become a symbol of something larger, beyond the injustice surrounding the inability of all detainees to get a trial. Adding the well-documented instances of torture at the facility, it has become a stain on fabric of the U.S. military and justice systems. It would say much more to the world if, rather than institute legal reforms, if Guantanamo's doors were shuttered for good. Even better: give it back to Cuba.


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"Black Velvet – The Godfather of Soul" at Christopher Henry Gallery
Photos by G. Various artists.
File this one under "funky and totally random." Not only is the Christopher Henry Gallery in New York showing an exhibit of photographs of a James Brown impersonator, but the photos were shot by the real life Tony Bennett's granddaughter, Kelsey Bennett. "Black Velvet – The Godfather of Soul," follows the on and off stage antics of James Brown impersonator Black Velvet (aka Charles Bradley). I cannot guarantee that the photos will make you feel good (bad pun), but if you attended the opening night reception like I did, you'll know that the soul food buffet made everyone feel nice – like sugar and spice!
If James Brown impersonators are not your thing, don't worry – the second floor of the gallery features Matt and Mark Engler's "Streets of Glory," a mixed media exhibit that has painting, sculpture and a fluorescent green bear!
The Christopher Henry Gallery is located at 127 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan. Both exhibits are showing until August 14, 2011.


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It's been too long since we heard from Major E., our man at Camp Victory in Baghdad. Major E. writes:
I have been home for a couple of weeks as my wife and I await the 'any day' arrival of our first child. Since returning, I have had the honor of being asked to address several civic and political groups and share a slideshow and narrative from experiences in Iraq.
What has struck me the most is how starved people are to know what is really going on over there. So many are quite grateful to hear a different perspective than the one that bombards them daily. Having watched the biased reporting since the beginning of the conflict, I was not surprised to discover that people want a more balanced perspective, even if the intensity is stronger than I expected. What has been surprising, though, and a bit disappointing, is that there has been a distinct split between the interest level of partisan political groups. I contacted county leadership for both Democrats and Republicans, along with non-partisan church and civic groups, and have received numerous requests from churches, non-partisan groups, and Republican organizations — but zero from Democrats, despite following up with them several times.
I hope it is an anomaly, but I wonder if the fact that Democratic leaders in my county would rather accuse the troops at Gitmo of running a "gulag" than hear about the experiences of a service member who just returned from Iraq might be driving some folks away from their tent of "tolerance," not just here in Northern California but around the country.
After a talk to a Republican group the other night, one couple came up to me and explained that they grew up in strongly Democratic families, joling that they knew about both God and FDR, but were unsure about who came first. But today's Democratic party, they said, had strayed so far from their beliefs that they can no longer vote Democratic.
I told them about my late grandfather, Henry, with whom I had grown up identifying the Democratic party. He was a career steelworker and patriotic union member who not only helped build the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge and restore the Golden Gate, but also took me to my first Oakland A's game. Having known his values and belief in the greatness of America, however, I believe that if he were alive today, Grandpa Hank would sadly agree with the couple about the state of his Democratic party.
That is unfortunate because our nation needs two parties that believe in America as a great country, even if each has a different strategy for making it better. Two parties are needed [to preserve] a healthy balance [that is placed] at risk in any society if there is only one perspective. Yet, until the rank-and-file Democrats start choosing leaders who represent America's values and genuinely support American troops, I fear they may continue to be a party that even die-hard Democrats from the Greatest Generation will find themselves unable to support.
As far as the situation in Iraq is concerned, suffice to say that things are going much better over there than is being reported, and I am confident that the voter participation in the upcoming constitutional referendum and in December's elections will confirm that.
The anti-Iraqi forces seem to win the battle for daily headlines, but we win on the big events–because, as on January 30th, the victory was so big as to be undeniable. More important than scoring PR points, though, is the fact that life of the average Iraqi is improving and the legitimacy of the new government is growing.
Thank you to the Power Line readers for supporting the troops and seeking out a broader perspective on what is really going on over there.
Major E.
(back from Baghdad–for a while)


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One girl's twistedly fantastic interpretation of what the hell is really going on in those tribes.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Julie: Guard Your Puppies
Julie is a 50 year old firefighter from Ocean Side, California. She's an outdoorsy kind of gal who likes to paddle and enter canoe contests. She strives to be a role model to her daughters and despises laziness and bullies. On paper she sounds tough and a little Shambo-y, but let's watch her video and see what the real deal is.
Oh really? Yuck. Sorry hon, but the last thing I want to hear about is your financial woes and how badly you need the money. You don't go on Survivor to pay off your house. You go on Survivor for the experience of a lifetime and to challenge yourself. If I want to watch someone bitch about cash I'll watch an Atlanta housewife.
Is something about her "off"? I'm getting an unstable laugh-one-minute-skewer-a-puppy-the-next kind of a vibe from her. She's teetering on the edge of "Come here give me a hug" and "I'll stab you when you sleep!". I don't know. I don't trust her. Is it just me or is she half way to Crazy Town?
8 comments:
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2011 at 11:40 AM
Wha?? You have 100% custody--and you're paying child support?? ....and alimony too?? (I want her ex's lawyer for my next divorce!!!!!!)ReplyDelete
Is family law really *that* screwy in Cali?
"Is it just me or is she half way to Crazy Town?"ReplyDelete
Its not just you, she said herself she's got 2 personalities. She's just not aware one is psychotic.
- AnonymousFebruary 9, 2011 at 12:58 PM
I watched this one twice to be sure but I think she's insane. Even the picture of her standing in her bikini looks crazy.ReplyDelete
~ Jen
What!? I like her. She's tough and I bet she is going to be fun to watch. Hilarious in fact.ReplyDelete
I caught that "alimony & child support" thing too, how does that happen if you have "100% custody?" Did she marry a 14 year old?ReplyDelete
Camp life is like being a firefighter? WTF? Do firefighters camp out, sleep on bamboo "beds", and not wash their hair or shower for 39 days? Note to self: Never collapse and require the help of the fire department.
- DiabolicalFebruary 12, 2011 at 11:02 PM
I don't know what American firefighters do but Aussie ones just sit on their arses or work out at the gym for most of the shift waiting for the call to come in. By the looks of her she spends WAY too much time in the gym. No idea how she's going to go but I'm with you LaLa, I fucking HATE when people pull out the "pity me" card. I didn't like Jane in the last season for the very same reason. She almost expected to be given the money...which I guess the viewers did in the end.ReplyDelete
Sssoooooo...what's your gossip on her anyway?
- AnonymousApril 21, 2011 at 11:08 PM
...it's just you.ReplyDelete
I watched this one twice to be sure but I think she's insane. Even the picture of her standing in her bikini looks crazy.ReplyDelete


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Either the Best or Worst Idea in the History of the World? Four words: Citizen Ruth, the Musical.
"He's fucked me good right up the rear!" warbles Ruth in the musical-comedy version of the cult 1996 tale of glue-huffing and abortion wars. Whether the show will have a life beyond the New York Fringe Festival is an open question, but right now you can check out the script ("[RUTH passes out, dropping the bag to reveal a face smeared with silvery paint)"] and listen to some of the score. Without having seen the show, it's hard to know how much is Po-Mo irony ("The Patio Sealant Chorale") and how much earnest theater ("you want me to kill my baby? kill it! kill it! ...what about what I want?") Regardless, it's a little dissonant to hear Laura Dern's profanity-laden dialogue being belted, and enunciated, by a trained Broadway soprano.
In combination with the news of the I Can Haz Cheezburger musical (and let's not forget Silence of the Lambs set to song lyrics) this project marks a new phase of American Theater. It may also end it. According to one theatergoer quoted in the Times, "I think we're due for something like that. . . .It's actually the right time to see something like this right now, with what's going on with health care." Yeah, we're guessing it'll really attract the Town Hall crowd.
Citizen Ruth Musical
At the Fringe: Street Reviews Of 'Citizen Ruth' [NY Times]
Citizen Ruth Offered A Check [YouTube]
Lolcats Take To The Stage With A Musical [CSMonitor]
Earlier: "Put The F**king Lotion In The Basket" Singlehandedly Revives American Musical Theater


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The 1830s were the heyday of the formation of anti-slavery societies. Associations were established at the town, county and state levels. Northfield, Massachusetts held a meeting from March 28 to April 7, 1836 to form an anti-slavery society. This article reports on the resolutions and constitution for the society which were adopted at that meeting. The three officers of the society were prominent members of the town of Northfield. The Greenfield Gazette and Franklin Herald was the newspaper in Greenfield, Massachusetts, from June 26, 1827 to June 27, 1837. It changed its name to the Gazette & Mercury.
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"The American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1838"
"County Anti-Slavery Meeting" article from Gazette and Mercury newspaper
"Old Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society" article from Greenfield Gazette & Franklin Herald newspaper
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Politics & LibrariesPosted by Steve Jamieson in Library, Politics, tags: communism, Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart
I enjoyed this little exchange that was highlighted in the April 2010 issue of American Libraries magazine.
"I educated myself. I went to the library—the books are free." FoxNews host Glenn Beck, addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 19.
"Glenn, Glenn, Glenn. The library isn't free! It's paid for with tax money! Free public libraries are the result of the progressive movement to communally share books. The first public library was the Boston Public Library in 1854. Its statement of purpose: Every citizen has the right to access community-owned resources. Community-owned? That sounds just like communists. You're a communist!" Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, February 22.
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July 17, 2012
Forgotten Cemetery Found, and I've Been Vindicated!
Hubs didn't believe me. He insisted there was no cemetery in the location I described to him, and that I must be thinking of the small cemetery further south on the highway.
There was no confusion; I knew exactly where the cemetery was and I'd seen it many times when I first settled in this area in the early 1970s. So I took hubs there. But it was gone. No tombstones were visible from the road. Since the spot I insisted held the stones was near a house, we didn't want to walk up and start looking around. And besides hubs was convinced I was wrong.
We argued over this cemetery for a couple of years, with me growing increasingly frustrated that hubs thought I didn't know the difference between a much larger cemetery further south on a busy highway and the tiny 6 stone one on the hill in the country.
Last week I was vindicated! The little cemetery has been found and it even has a name - the William Wilson Pioneer Cemetery. Apparently there are only a handful of us who remember it when there were any tombstones standing, and the memories are consistent - that 40 or more years ago there were about 6 tombstones which gradually disappeared over the years.
Only one tombstone remains and it has fallen and is in pieces on the ground. What happened to the others that I remember - did they fall and are they overgrown with brush? Or were they taken in some youthful pranks? The Cemetery is in an isolated spot on the road to the local drive-in and it's possible that youngsters dared each other to run up and grab a stone.
The burial records seem to be missing and all that is known is that there were once about 23 burials, many of them members of the Wilson family but others soldiers who died on the march up the Penetanguishene Road from York (present day Toronto) to the Naval Establishment at Penetanguishene.
I'm kicking myself that I never copied the names on the stones when I first saw them, or took pictures, but then I remind myself that those were in the days before digital cameras or iPhones. Also I was a very young newly married woman making a new home and not as obsessed with genealogical preservation as I am now.
You can read more about the cemetery and some of the known burials at Forgotten Cemetery Found
6 comments:
- Jana Last said...
Congrats on your vindication! So sad the cemetery headstones are no longer there though.
- Midge Frazel said...
Have you considered that they may have been swallowed by the ground? I have a friend who un- earthed over 50 gravestones that sunk into the ground.
- Lorine McGinnis Schulze said...
Yes they may have simply sunk into the ground but the town used special radar to try to find them.
- bgwiehle said...
Out of curiousity, I checked the historical maps of both Tiny and Tay townships of Simcoe County at The Canadian County Altlas Digital Project (http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/search.htm) but no cemeteries are marked. Interestingly, few landowners are named and many placenames are different from modern maps.
- Devon Lee said...
So glad that the cemetery was found and the article says it will be cared for. It's the case with far too many places. But this story sounds like it will have a happy ending.
- Wendy said...
It's always a worry with little family cemeteries. If no descendents are keeping watch, it's easy for them to just get lost until somebody decides to build a house or gas station and discovers a skeleton. I'm glad you won the argument.


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By Chuck Ring (GadaboutBlogalot ©2009 -2011
Quote Freely From The Article – Leave The Pseudonym Alone
NOT two peas in a pod. Fatah and Hamas, each a Palestinian political party, are poles apart in their attitudes toward the death of Osama bin Laden. Hamas, ever the terrorist group, naturally bemoans the death, while Fatah touts the death as a gift to world peace. This demonstration of disunity, after an agreement of unity was signed by both parties on April 27th, is quite telling, and Reuters.com provides a report on the differences in a story by NiIdal al-Mughrabi:
"Getting rid of bin Laden is good for the cause of peace worldwide but what counts is to overcome the discourse and the methods — the violent methods — that were created and encouraged by bin Laden and others in the world," PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib said.
In the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Haniyeh accused the United States of pursuing a policy based on "oppression and the shedding of Arab and Muslim blood."
"We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior," he said.
Hamas condemned as a terrorist groups by major powers in the world, have their detractors within other terrorist groups that believe Hamas is too moderate:
Political analysts in the Gaza Strip said Haniyeh was attempting through his remarks to cool tensions in the territory with al Qaeda-inspired Salafi groups. They consider Hamas too moderate and waged gun battles recently with its forces.
"Haniyeh took in his consideration the situation in Gaza and the strong presence of Salafi groups. It was an attempt to reconcile with them after the fighting," said analyst Hani Habib.
Israel is unhappy with the accord, believing the result will be more attacks against Israel. The US has looked at the new accord with less than enthusiasm. It seems the Palestinians are in constant turmoil against their own and against their perceived Israeli boogeymen.
You can read the entire story by going to this link and look for related stories at the links below.
Related Articles
- Differences emerge before Palestinian unity deal (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Hamas pledges to honor truce with Israel in new government (AP) – Ha'aretz (news.google.com)
- Palestinian unity presents Israel with choice: Go for broke or shun at all costs (jta.org)
- Hamas To Honor Israeli Truce In New Government (huffingtonpost.com)
- Fatah and Hamas terrorists meet at PIJ terrorist HQ (elderofziyon.blogspot.com)
- Judith Levy: Two Potential Short-Term Outcomes to the Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation (benzinga.com)
- Palestinian factions divided on response to bin Laden (salon.com)
- Hamas leader condemns US killing of bin Laden (foxnews.com)


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MERCED, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Small business owners in economically challenged Merced County, CA, can now take advantage of a free, social media-based marketing program called Elements Merced to help them reach out to new customers.
Elements Merced is aimed at small businesses in the county with less than $1 million in annual revenue. Owners will have the ability to link up with area college students trained in the business uses of social media to create marketing strategies. Elements Merced will be operated by the United Way of Merced County. It is supported by a $215,000 contribution from Citi Community Development.
"Citi's support for Elements Merced allows Merced County small businesses to harness technology to create economic opportunity," says Mary Hogarty of Citi Community Development. "This program builds on the groundwork laid by thoughtful research and recommendations from local leaders."
Many of the more than 5,000 small businesses in the county have less than $1 million in revenue and are often operated by first-time entrepreneurs. Approximately 82 percent of business owners surveyed by the United Way would welcome this kind of help.
Merced County has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation, and ranks among the lowest counties in education and economic development. Approximately 21 percent of the county's residents live below the federal poverty line. Its almost 260,000 residents are disproportionately young, with young adults ages 18-30 representing approximately 30 percent of the population. Unemployment among this group is 48.7 percent, according to state economic development statistics.
"Through our partnership with Citi, we will have the opportunity to transform challenges into solutions," says United Way of Merced County Executive Director Flip Hassett. "At the same time, we will enhance and revitalize our small business sector and enrich local college students' educational experience and provide them skills to succeed in the workplace and as entrepreneurs."
A recent Citi-commissioned study by the New York City-based Center for an Urban Future entitled Smarter Small Businesses, found that nearly half of low- to moderate-income business owners are not using social media to promote their businesses. The study noted that technology is no longer an option, but an essential tool for businesses to remain competitive.
City of Merced Council Member and small business attorney Mike Murphy agrees. "As businesses find new ways to use social media to attract customers, I believe this program will empower our small business community and drive local economic growth."
Local businesses and college students can learn more and apply to the program now at www.facebook.com/elementsmerced.
About United Way of Merced County
The United Way of Merced County (UWMC) has been operating since 1954 and functions as a leader in collaborative relationships and community building in Merced County. Working with business, government and individuals, as well as the nonprofit community, the UWMC seeks to relieve the burdens of its most vulnerable and dependent citizens, and to help them become healthier, more financially stable and actively engaged in a stronger community. For more information, visit www.unitedwaymerced.org.
About Citi Community Development
Citi Community Development leads Citi's commitment to achieve economic empowerment and growth for underserved individuals, families and communities by expanding access to financial products and services, and building sustainable business solutions and innovative partnerships. Our focus areas include: commercial and philanthropic funding; innovative financial products and services; and collaborations with institutions that expand access to financial products and services for low-income and underserved communities. For more information, visit www.citicommunitydevelopment.com.


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When Barack Obama informed congressional Republicans last month that he would support a controversial parliamentary move to protect health-care reform from a filibuster in the Senate, they were furious. That meant the bill could pass with a simple majority of 51 votes, eliminating the need for any GOP support. Where, they demanded, was the bipartisanship the President had promised? So, right there in the Cabinet Room, the President put a proposal on the table, according to two people who were present. Obama said he was willing to curb malpractice awards, a move long sought by Republicans that is certain to bring strong opposition from the trial lawyers who fund the Democratic Party.(Emphasis added)
What, he wanted to know, did the Republicans have to offer in return?
Nothing, it turned out. Republicans were unprepared to make any concessions
What an interesting anecdote. First, again, there is the promising tease that Obama is using liability reform, long-needed but consistently blocked by Dems, as a sweetener to try to win some GOP support for reform.
Second, how remarkable is it that the Republican caucus seems to have nothing whatsoever to bring to the table here? In 1993, Bob Dole made the decision to block health care reform at all costs, and he had the power to do so, with 43 votes (abetted by many recalcitrant Dems). But this year, gambling on obstruction looks like much less of a sure bet, given both the electoral reality and the greatly heightened consensus that real reform is needed.
So what's their game? I really don't get it. If they don't sit down with a real interest in compromise, then the Dems will steamroll them with somewhere between 51 and 63 votes, depending on a lot of things, and the GOP will wind up actually voiceless in the whole process. You can make an argument that they are effectively voiceless as it is, and there's an element of truth to that, but that's what happens when you are in a greatly diminished minority. The difference between having a small input into the final product and having no input seems to have enough value that you would expect them to swallow their pride and get to work salvaging as much as they can out of a bad position.
I dunno. Maybe they are just holding the line, reprising Dole's role as "Senator Gridlock" and hoping against hope that they can regain some relevance through obstruction. Maybe their diminished caucus is so amazingly ideological now that all the moderates have been purged that there is no capability for compromise any more. Maybe McConnell really is just not up to the task of leadership. From a purely partisan view, this is not altogether bad, since it means that there is less incentive for the progressives in our party to collaborate with conservatives and weaken the final product.
It would be nice, though, if the GOP could at least hold out for that malpractice reform clause...
[Addendum: though the Senate GOP Leadership is not participating, it should be noted that per report, Chuck Grassley, the Senate Finance Ranking Member, is doing good work at the committee level. Whether he signs on to the final product is an open question, and he probably will not. But there is (at least) one Republican interested in the grown-up mechanics of governing.]


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Dave Grohl on Performing Nirvana Material Live: 'It Just Hasn't Felt Right'
When Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl began to put together Foo Fighters in 1994, it would have been incredibly easy to draw fans in by covering the Nirvana monster tracks which made the drummer a grunge icon. However, Grohl never took that path, choosing to focus on original music while taking the Foos down a different path than the one Nirvana had helped carve.
In a new interview, Grohl addresses why has chosen to leave Nirvana's tracks alone and why he has continued to do so for nearly 20 years.
Shortly after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's death in 1994, drummer Dave Grohl began to focus on his new project, Foo Fighters, who have gone on to become a multiplatinum band themselves. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic went on to form the band Sweet 75 and later Eyes Adrift, and although Novoselic hasn't experienced the same commercial success as Grohl, both musicians share the same ideals on how to keep a safe distance from Nirvana's catalogue.
"There's a reason why you don't see Nirvana's songs in chewing-gum commercials," Grohl tells TChadQuarterly.com. "Krist and I do our best to try to keep that sort of thing from happening. The band stood for something; we took pride in our integrity and in our band. We understood the world that we were living in, having gone from the van to becoming what people understand as Nirvana now. But we really tried our best to keep our cool. So Kirst and I still do."
Grohl continues, "There's a reason why the Foo Fighters don't blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them. You know, that's hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn't really come up, or it just hasn't felt right."
Dave Grohl has been keeping busy with his 'Sound City: Real to Reel' documentary and creating the film's soundtrack which features musicians such as Paul McCartney, Josh Homme, Corey Taylor, Krist Novoselic + many more. Now that the film project has been completed, Grohl is back at work on new Foo Fighters music, which means the band's hiatus didn't last very long.


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It is Saturday morning in a downtown restaurant, and Shahla Khan Salter sits with three other local Muslims. They've been brought together by a 24-year-old Indo-Canadian who has been trapped in Saudi Arabia since 2007 due to a practice that requires women to have a male guardian's permission to travel. Ms. Khan Salter has assembled the group to brainstorm ways to help the young woman, Nazia Quazi, return to Canada.
While Ms. Quazi's case is unusual, what it may reflect about changes within Western Muslim communities is equally noteworthy. Historically, Western Muslims have been apathetic when it comes to civic engagement, but increasingly Islamic communities in the West, like those helping Quazi, are beginning to buck this trend.
"I definitely think that there is increased civic engagement," says Nadia Roumani, director of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, which helps Muslim leaders and non-profit organizations develop the skills to get involved in anything from politics and education to interfaith work. "It's not pervasive, but there is a critical mass."
A history of silence
For years, the Muslim community has remained silent about many political issues. In 2003, for example, when Maher Arar, a Muslim-Canadian, revealed his story of rendition and torture in Syria, Canadians were outraged. They watched his press conference by the millions, the media wrote about his case almost daily, and the government eventually awarded him $10 million in compensation for his suffering. But the Muslim community's response throughout his ordeal was mostly muted.
The explanations for this lack of civic involvement are varied. In 2001, 72 percent of Canada's 580,000 Muslims were immigrants, many coming from repressive countries where speaking out can be a ticket to jail or even a death sentence.
Regardless of the country of origin, newcomers are often most concerned with the challenges of immigrating to a new country, fitting in, and giving their children a better life. Muslim organizations that might get involved in these types of issues are still young and sometimes lack institutional capacity.
"I have found that it is the fear of exposing 'dirty laundry' in a context of a potentially Islamophobic and certainly Orientalist-inflected media environment that inhibits Muslims from speaking out publicly for social justice issues. They talk about it privately," adds Kathy Bullock, a political science lecturer at the University of Toronto and a convert to Islam.
On sensitive topics like family matters and Saudi Arabia's austere Wahhabi version of Islam, the stakes are even higher – especially in a Muslim community where, as Ms. Roumani puts it, "there's very little space for intellectual discourse."
Quazi case draws out Muslim voices
Yet Quazi's case reflects what seems to be an increased willingness to speak out.
She is stuck in Saudi Arabia under a local system that requires every woman, no matter how old, to have a male guardian – a brother, father, husband, or son – who decides whether she can travel, marry, go to school, work, or access certain medical services. The male guardianship system has been condemned by the United Nations as a violation of women's rights.
Quazi is a Canadian citizen, but her father has worked in Saudi Arabia for years. The two butted heads over her boyfriend. She went to Saudi Arabia in 2007 on what was to be a short religious pilgrimage, but she says her father changed her status in the country without her knowledge, making himself her sponsor and male guardian. Now she is unable to leave without his permission and she accuses him of physically abusing her and threatening to kill her.
When Khan Salter – a trained lawyer – heard Quazi's story, she felt compelled do something about it.
"The male guardianship system is completely un-Islamic," says Khan Salter, chair of the Ottawa chapter of Muslims for Progressive Values, an organization based in Los Angeles that advocates for social justice, human rights, the separation of church and state, and tolerant, inclusive understandings of Islam. "It should be an embarrassment to the Saudis that they're allowing this to continue," she argues.
New public discourse
Such strong public statements are not always heard from a North American Muslim community that has often fallen silent in the face of civil, political, or human rights abuses.
"People don't want to pop their heads up too high," says Roumani. "They ask the question: 'Do I really want to take that on?'"
Azhar Ali Khan has spent years trying to ensure that Western Muslims look beyond brick-and-mortar projects like building mosques, urging them instead to focus on engaging with the societies in which they live.
So far, he says, it has been a struggle. "I don't see that the community is very engaged," says Mr. Ali Khan, head of the Muslim Coordinating Council, an umbrella group that represents most Muslims organizations in the Ottawa region.
Time for introspection
But as the coffee flows in this Ottawa restaurant, so do hopes that Quazi's case will give Canadian Muslims a chance to scrutinize themselves.
"This is an opportunity for the Muslim community to examine some of those values, to look at what it means to be a Canadian citizen and to think about: is this an opportunity for civic engagement?" says Fauzya Talib, one of the women at the meeting.
And more than that – many of them see this as an opportunity to push for reform within Saudi Arabia, and more widely, to change the kinds of mentalities that can lead to situations like Quazi's.
"Part of the problem is that we have a silent moderate majority of Muslims – in North America, in Western Europe – who are not necessarily speaking out, [but] who don't agree that women should be treated in this way," Khan Salter insists.
New generation of activists
Population projections put the number of Muslims in Canada at more than 2.5 million by 2031, and the percentage of Canadian-born Muslims is expected to rise. Settlement experts says second and third generations are always more likely to get involved than their immigrant parents or grandparents.
Still, Khan Salter's ambitions – the safe return of Nazia Quazi and the abolition of the Saudi male guardianship system altogether – are very high. Trying to convince Saudi Arabia that its ways are not only a violation of human rights, but also a violation of the spirit of Islam, is like venturing into a "minefield," Ali Khan says.


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Italy faces political deadlock after the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo become the strongest party in the country, leaving no group with a clear majority in parliament.
The centre-left coalition led by Pier Luigi Bersani won the lower house by around 125,000 votes and claimed the most seats in the Senate.
He was short of the majority in the upper house that it would need to govern.
Mr Bersani claimed victory but said it was obvious that Italy was in "a very delicate situation".
Party officials said the centre-left would try to form a government but it was unclear what its options would be.
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has indicated that he is open to an alliance between his centre-right coalition and the centre-left group.
In a television interview, Mr Berlusconi said: "Italy cannot be left ungoverned, we have to reflect."
He said all parties need to sacrifice something for the common good.
On the other hand, he explicitly ruled out a coalition with outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, and said his austerity policies had dragged Italy into recession.
Mr Berlusconi added that he was not worried about a negative market reaction to the vote or a possible increase in Italy's borrowing costs.
Mr Grillo, a comedian-turned-politician who previously ruled out any alliance with another party, has not showed any immediate willingness to negotiate.
Financial markets reacted nervously to the prospect of a government stalemate.
Italy's borrowing costs have come down in recent months, helped by the promise of European Central Bank support.
But the election result confirmed fears that it would not produce a government strong enough to implement effective reforms.
Mr Grillo's surge in the final weeks of the campaign threw the race open.
Hundreds of thousands turned up at his rallies to hear him lay into targets ranging from corrupt politicians and bankers to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In just three years, his 5-Star Movement has grown from a marginal group to one of the most talked about political forces in Europe.
The party is heavily backed by a frustrated generation of young Italians increasingly shut out from permanent full-time jobs.
Its result of 25.5% in the lower house was just ahead of the 25.4% for Mr Bersani's Democratic Party.
Mr Bersani's party ran in a coalition with the leftist SEL party and it won almost 8.7m votes overall, more than any other single party.


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I've been using the NewsGator Outlook add-in since sometime last year. I don't know why it happens, but subscription information is volatile. Without intentionally editing it, it can change by itself.
For example, after connecting to the Internet through a hotel Internet access system this past week, the majority of my subscription URLs became the URL of that system.
Because of that, I missed almost a week of my subscribed blog feeds. I exported my feeds to an OPML file earlier this year, but it's missing everything I've subscribed to since then.
I guess it's time to start looking into alternatives…suggestions welcome. I tried SharpReader and RSS Bandit before NewsGator, I'll give them another look.


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Congrats to our 2 lucky winners!!!!
Cuppy Cakes
(Check out some more super sweet braddies by Doodlebug HERE.)
Here's what she had to say:
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Congrats Ladies, please email me at firstname.lastname@example.com with your addy's, and I'll send your super sweet Cuppy Cakes hopefully in time for the big day(s)!! :-)
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