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Mike Oldfield looks more like a civil servant than a rebel. His music isn't very fashionable and it hasn't been for thirty years. To many he resides in the 'where are they now?' category; a relic of a bygone age when Rick Wakeman wasn't a Grumpy Old Man, Pink Floyd got more column inches than their children, and Phil Collins had yet to emerge from behind his drum kit.
You can't, however, argue with the genius of Tubular Bells. It will probably be written on his tombstone, which may even be the shape of a tubular bell, but there is more to Oldfield's career than just one album and it is worth further investigation.
There is a reputation for grouchiness that permeates previous interviews with Oldfield - for example, he doesn't answer questions that start with 'Why' – but throughout the forty-odd minutes I talked with him, there was no hint of the awkwardness that had been anticipated and he was refreshingly honest about any subject broached.
Here, he talks about the Incantations Reissue and Deluxe Edition. An album in which he not only brainwashed the Royal Family, but also accidentally kick started punk as a global force. There are also old squabbles with his original manager Richard Branson, his thoughts on the current state of the music industry, and the reasoning behind why he thinks he is the "Real Rebel".
Hello Mike. How is it out in the Bahamas?
Yes, it's great.
There were rumours you were to perform at Glastonbury this year. Are you not tempted to play any of the big festivals?
No. That was an April fool.
Did you start it?
No. Someone else did.
Is there not part of you that hankers to be playing to such large scale audiences again?
I do think about it from time to time, but I've got plenty of other projects to keep me busy. Maybe if it was something very special. I think the last big thing was the Berlin concert for the Millennium. That was quite an event. If something like that turned up again, that might be something I'd be interested in. - [I don't think he meant waiting for another Millennium, but I wouldn't rule it out]
So far you have reissued your first three LPs Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn. And now we've got number four Incantations; Will the series continue through the rest of the albums over your whole career?
We've just done Incantations from what was available, because at least half the tapes went missing. In the early days there was no contractual requirement to even keep the master tapes. I just happened to keep the masters for some of the albums. With Incantations some of it was there, while other bits were scattered on different reels of tapes. I've been working on a mix of 'North Star', a track from Platinum that is sounding good. Haven't got QE2, haven't got any of the later albums yet. My big project will be the complete 5.1 of Amarok, providing we've got the Multi-Track tapes, because that's one of my favourites.
Yes you've mentioned that before. It wasn't one of your commercial hits though?
It would have been. If I'd agreed to Virgin's, well, Richard Branson's wish to call it Tubular Bells II.
Was there anything to do with Tubular Bells that he could relate to Amarok? Or was his decision based on making money?
It was a thing he wanted to call it. And if I'd agreed to that he would have put all the promotion behind it, and I'm pretty sure it would have been a smash hit. So it is nothing to do with the music. At the time I threw every idea out the window and just did spontaneously what came in my head.
...Starting from scratch in the studio?
Yes, a different approach. It's tragic really that it's not that well known. Like I said, it would have been a big hit had the record company promoted it, but they didn't do anything. So I had to promote it myself. I hired a publicity company, and went round radio stations, I had listenings at my studio in London to get some of the biggest DJ's at the time to come and listen to it. [Most impressively to boost publicity Mike had a competition for the public to find a hidden message within the record. First Prize: £1,000. The Hidden Message being a Morse code signal - "FUCK OFF RB" ]
You said while early in your career, when Richard Branson was still your manager, you used to do that yourself, speaking to the radio pluggers, promoting the albums. It gave you a grounding into how the business works.
Well in those days you had to get on the Radio One playlist if you wanted a hit. I had one big hit with 'Moonlight Shadow', and at the time to have one big radio hit was the thing that you had to have to sell lots of copies. From the record company's point of view that was their number one priority. So I was under pressure to produce more 'Moonlight Shadow' type tracks.
Aside from 'Moonlight Shadow' and a couple of other singles, your career is predominantly known for expansive albums. Nowadays, a lot of the new generation download single tracks. They don't really do albums at all. How do you feel about that?
Well, it's progress. I'm glad you said that actually, the whole idea of an album…[pause]
It's disappearing almost?
It is disappearing. Some things are disappearing, the way everyone downloads everything straight to their little player. It's a good thing in a way. I've been reading up a little bit about the music business. How many are struggling to survive - everyone has seen the album sales plummet - and musicians are having to go out on the road to earn money. Which in a way is a good thing, on the other hand there are things that you can only do in the studio. So what a lot of the artists end up doing is taking a backing track on the road and kind of playing bits and pieces over it. That's a little bit sad. But yeah, a completely live performance is a thing of the past.
You used to bring a full band of musicians on tour to play everything, every sound on the recordings. No cheating.
Yes. Well on some of the later concerts we had a basic backing track. In some ways it made it easier. Like for example with Tubular Bells II we had 4 or 5 keyboard players, and every few seconds they needed a different sound on their keyboard. If you've got a synchronisation computer running then you can get the computer to change programmes on the keyboard so they just have to concentrate on playing the notes rather than worry, "What sound am I supposed to be playing for these 5 bars?", so that was good. You can also synch things like the out front mixing desk, the lighting rig, so you have everything synchronised. There are also many artists who don't even play or sing. You're watching a mime artist. That's one of the things I had to do on some TV shows, European ones, I had to mime, which I absolutely hated. But they don't give you the opportunity to play live. So I'd rather leave miming to an expert like Marcel Marceau. It's all become a bit of a joke really, the whole music business, some parts of it.
Are there any artists you follow nowadays?
No, not really. I'm semi-retired now. Not really interested in the music business. I still love the technology. I've been waiting years and years for technology to get to a certain level where it really does replace the old reel to reel tape and mixing desks. We're just on the edge of it now. One of the wonderful things is that we collaborate with other musicians over the internet. That is fantastic.
You touched on advances in technology. Has there always been an irritation that your earlier releases didn't sound as good as you wanted them to sound?
I always managed to get a great sound. One of the biggest problems was the quality of the sound deteriorating over time because the tape would fall apart. One album I had to completely re-record because the tape after 100 plays starts to lose hi-frequencies, things like that. The ability to edit, to do 10 takes of a guitar solo, then quickly stick it together with modern software, that's fantastic. But the old albums, they still sound good. Obviously everything was all analogue equipment…now it's quite difficult. I've tried just about every plug-in you can imagine and none of them are any good really.
Compared to the original sound?
Yeah. I'm a fan of the old equipment. It's lovely to listen to some of the old albums to see how good they sound.
How about listening to music. Do you prefer Vinyl, CD, mp3, does that matter to you much as well?
Oh no, I'm glad to see the back of vinyl. That needle in the groove, the scratchy needle. I'm glad to see that gone.
You've said that recording Tubular Bells was just one take for everything, you kept the mistakes in the final mix?
First take. I didn't know I could do it again. [Laughs] It's funny that. There was not one track where I had another go. It was all first take. I only had a week to get it all done.
It's obviously going to follow you around forever, but you must get a bit fed up talking about Tubular Bells. You're still proud of it?
How can I not be proud of it? It just goes on and on, it has never stopped since 1973. It's a one off. You know it's not exactly an accident, but it hit the jackpot. Hit the right button. It's not like I'm talking about some stupid track I can't get rid of.
I was meaning more that, because it was so successful, do you feel pressure to.….
No, no, I'm very proud of it. I owe a lot to that [record]. The thing that always sticks in my mind is that all the record companies rejected it. And I'm sure if I came up with it now, or another 19 year old came up with it now, they would be rejected. It broke all the rules.
For Incantations. When you listen back, is there a clear difference in the recordings? Will the man on the street notice a difference between the original and reissue?
Not really no. [pause] 5.1 is a system that'll do that. But very few people have it. I suppose the interesting thing is that there are a few out takes that I've managed to include. Although some of the Multi-Tracks have been lost over the years I found a couple that I'd never used. There were a couple of good ideas in there. It's really for someone who liked the album at that time. It's nice to have a better sounding version. It's not that different. It's still the original mixes, because they couldn't remix it without all the original Multi-Tracks. It's brighter and clearer. Plus you get a few extra tracks, then there's all that video material from the live performances as well [DVD of Wembley Conference Centre 1979 gig in Deluxe Edition].
What's the record about anyway? Was there a theme, or was it just a case that inspiration struck you?
I had this idea - it may be a crazy idea - of a piece of music with real incantations to exert a benign magical influence on anybody who heard it. I suppose that was my goal when I started. I got the Head Druid from Great Britain to come over. He tried to give me some ideas, then this thing cropped up about Dianna the Huntress for some reason, and that sort of stuck as part of the theme of the whole thing. I thought it was quite a coincidence that a couple of years later there was this Princess Dianna, who became such a famous person - tragically of course. Maybe somehow I'd conjured her up.
That's quite an ambitious goal for a project
I wanted to try to do that. But the album took three years, it was a double album. And sort of in the middle my life changed tremendously. [Mike undertook the assertiveness training course Exegesis whilst recording _Incantations to help overcome some fears he possessed]_ I went from having tremendous fears about being alive, being a human. By the end of it I was gearing up to go on tour, which was the one thing I was afraid of, to be honest. So I sort of rushed the end of it. Otherwise it would've gone on for another three years. And the track 'Guilty' was a complete offshoot in the other direction. Incantations was made mostly on my own, in my studio in Gloucestershire. 'Guilty' was made in New York, which I'd never travelled to before.
You'd never been to New York?
No, I was quite a hermit like existence.
Do you think you work better when by yourself, or collaborating? Which do you prefer?
Once I sort of came out, being what the music business wanted me to be, some kind of a rock star, my work suffered.
Typical rock star excesses, drink, drugs, that kind of thing?
No, no, no. Going out, doing interviews, posing for photographs, signing autographs, getting a stylist to choose your clothes.
Do you still get many people pestering you for autographs?
On tour I do, but not here. Not in the Bahamas. Nobody knows me here. It is great.
I've read a little online about your MusicVR project started early in the 90's. I suppose in that situation you were ahead of technology? [MusicVR was a project set up by Mike to create computer games that were a real-time virtual reality experience using imagery and music.]
Yeah, I can't believe it! When I made it I had this huge, at the time, supercomputer called an Onyx that was the size of a fridge. Now my little kids little laptop can do it no problem. Fantastic really.
Is that project on ice then?
Yes. I'd love to get back involved in it but computer games are just so boring, mostly driving cars fast and shooting people, which I didn't want to do. I had my version of shooting - which probably sounds ridiculous now – where you'd throw seeds to grow things. It wasn't very popular. Not enough adrenalin in it.
It's tricky. I suppose, like the music business, it is all about sales.
I don't know what's gone wrong. At the time I was making Incantations music came to a crossroads. I was just out of teenage-hood. Very confused, very screwed up. And I had the world on my back, trying to make me speak to them, to do interviews, to do the rock star thing. I just wanted to shut the door and make my music in my own way. Now this upset the media. It also upset my record company because I wasn't playing the game. The other thing was that the music was complicated. It required a lot of work and a lot of ability, the guitar playing was at a very, very high standard. Then the music came to the crossroads. There became this new fashion called Punk Rock where anybody could pick up any guitar, plug it into a fuzz box, and kind of let their feelings out - mostly negative and aggressive. That was much easier than spending years and years practicing. And my record company, I remember them all turning up to my studio to listen to Incantations. They all had identical Volvos - they must've had some deal - so all up my drive there was something like eight Volvos. Same colour, same make. And they came in my studio, and I'm pretty sure it was about the time they were just about to sign the Sex Pistols. They listened to Incantations, and there was a kind of gloom on everybody's faces as they filed out – like, "this isn't going to be another Tubular Bells", or something, - then a few months later the whole punk movement took off. My record company was the leader of that. So if you like you can say Incantations started the punk rock revolution, which meant that young people weren't encouraged to work, and improve, to make interesting complex music. You'd just plug your guitar in and away you go. I don't know what could've been different about it. Maybe I just wasn't ready to come out into the world and be the leader, the spokesman for what was then termed Progressive Music.
Did you anticipate Punk, or did it just come out of nowhere?
Nah, I didn't have any contact. I lived in the wilds of Gloucestershire. My only contact with civilisation was the local pub and the occasional Indian restaurant in Gloucester. I didn't read the newspapers.
I think it's quite interesting that one of your early champions was John Peel, who also championed punk.
Yeah, that was afterwards. He was a great champion of Tubular Bells. He played the entire album, both sides over his whole show when it came out. But then of course I was the 19 year old teenager, the newcomer, the underdog, soon as it became successful, it seems to be human nature to attack what you loved a couple of years before.
Now you're classed as a guilty pleasure. Do you think that's fair?
Me? [Laughs]
Yes. You, Pink Floyd, Progressive Music acts, pretty much all became guilty pleasures after Punk.
I remember talking with a journalist from the Sunday Times. He told me he loved my music in the early days, but then when the media completely attacked me, he was embarrassed to listen to my music and didn't listen to it for over 15 years. And then he started to listen to it [again] he regretted very much all the music that he'd missed. But it's human nature to want to be in with the crowd. Follow the herd, and all that kind of stuff. All I can say is that I've never followed the herd. If people go one way I instinctively go the other. But that's just my nature, to be the rebel, the real rebel. To try to innovate, try to find something new that has not been done before. But I can't complain. I have a wonderful life. I live in the Bahamas. I still love my music, I've got no regrets.
So your priorities have shifted?
Yes. I dedicated most of my life to try and make the most beautiful, innovative, powerful music that I can, and hadn't had much of a life to experience all the other things in life. That's what I'm doing as I get older.
Incantations, the reissue and Deluxe Edition are out now.


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Chris and I will be making our way to New York Toy Fair in the next couple weeks and we can't wait. Amongst all of the vendors that we are going to see, we're especially excited to catch up with our old friends over at Diamond Select Toys. They have unveiled a whopping 18 new items in the February issue of Diamond Comics' Previews catalog. Of the 18 new items, five are from brand-new licenses – Comic Book Men, Predator, The Nightmare Before Christmas, SpongeBob Squarepants and Valiant Comics! Stay Tooned to Don't Forget a Towel as we reveal more this Month and in the coming Months!
Aliens Alien Queen Metal Bottle Opener
A Diamond Select Toys release! All hail the Queen! Hang the skull of the Queen Alien in a place of honor on your refrigerator, and pay tribute to her reign by occasionally taking her down and opening a few bottles for yourself and your friends in the Colonial Marines. This 4-inch metal rendering of the ruling xenomorph from Aliens is the perfect shape for removing bottle caps, and you can drink in peace knowing that the rest of her is somewhere far, far away. Packaged in a full-color slipcase. (Item #JUL148436, SRP: $18.00)
Batman Classic TV Series Mr. Freeze Resin Bust
A Diamond Select Toys release! Everybody freeze! The most cold-hearted of Batman's foes from the Batman Classic TV Series joins DST's line of resin busts! Measuring approximately 6 inches tall, this detailed rendering of famous director Otto Preminger in his turn as the villainous Mr. Freeze sits atop a pedestal base inspired by the show's animated opening sequence. Sculpted by Jean St. Jean, he is in scale to DST's busts of Batman, Robin, The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and most comic-book characters! Comes packaged in a full color box with a certificate of authenticity. Limited to 3000 pieces! (Item #FEB152152, SRP: $59.99)
Comic Book Men TV Minimates Box Set
A Diamond Select Toys release! The gang's all here! The five stars of AMC's hit reality TV series Comic Book Men combine to form the most powerful Minimates box set in the galaxy! Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen and Mike Zapcic each get their own 2-inch Minimates mini-figure in the first five-pack dedicated to the Comic Book Men. Each figure stands 2 inches tall with 14 points of articulation, and features interchangeable parts and accessories. Packaged on a full-color blister card. Designed by Art Asylum! (Item #FEB152151, SRP: $24.99)
Jay and Silent Bob Bluntman Baseball Cap
A Diamond Select Toys release! You can't fight crime without the proper headgear! Cover your dome with this official baseball cap, based on director Kevin Smith's crime-fighting duo Bluntman and Chronic! This black, faux-leather baseball cap features Bluntman's trademark ears and has an adjustable strap, so one size fits all. It may not offer much in the way of protection while battling evil, but dang if it doesn't make you look good while doing it! Packaged in a clear polybag. (Item #FEB152154, SRP: $24.99)
Kill Bill Minimates Deadly Vipers Box Set
A Diamond Select Toys release! Black Mamba. Copperhead. Sidewinder. California Mountain Snake. Along with Cottonmouth, these four killers made up the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, commanded by the Snake Charmer, Bill. When Beatrix Kiddo was left for dead, she came back to kill every one of her old comrades, and now Beatrix, Vernita Green, Bud and Elle Driver make up the fourth Kill Bill Minimates box set! Each 2-inch Minimates mini-figure stands 2 inches tall with 14 points of articulation, and features interchangeable parts and accessories. Packaged on a full-color blister card. Designed by Art Asylum! (Item #FEB152159, SRP: $19.99)
Lost in Space Jupiter 2 Spaceship Metal Bottle Opener
A Diamond Select Toys release! Travel to the farthest reaches of your refrigerator with this 3-inch metal bottle opener of the famous Jupiter 2 spaceship from Lost in Space! You won't need a helper robot to open your bottles anymore, and magnets on the underside will allow it to hover in place on your refrigerator door, or on the dashboard of your lunar rover. Packaged in a full-color slipcase. (Item #FEB152164, SRP: $18.00)
Marvel Deadpool Plastic Gelatin Mold
A Diamond Select Toys release! Nothing burps better than Deadpool! Put the Merc with a Mouth inside your stomach using this plastic gelatin mold of Deadpool's head! Cast up an approximately 8-inch by 6-inch chilled gelatin dessert in the likeness of X-Force member and hired killer Wade Wilson, complete with squinty eyes and partially exposed brain. But you might want to eat it fast – the self-regenerating mutant could be back on his feet in no time! Packaged in a full-color window box. (Item #FEB152163, SRP: $14.99)
Marvel Select Avengers Age of Ultron Black Widow Action Figure
A Diamond Select Toys release! Finally, the figure fans have been waiting for has arrived! After three blockbuster film appearances, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow joins the Marvel Select Avengers line-up, just in time for Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron! This 7-inch scale figure features her look from the new movie, has 16 points of articulation, and includes a diorama base that connects to Age of Ultron Thor's to create a scene from the film. She comes packaged in the now-famous Marvel Select display packaging, with spine artwork for shelf reference. Sculpted by Gentle Giant! (Item #FEB152166, SRP: $24.99)
Marvel Select Ant-Man Movie Action Figure
A Diamond Select Toys release! The smallest Marvel movie hero is now the next big Marvel Select action figure! From the upcoming Marvel Studios film, "Ant-Man," this 7-inch scale figure captures Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, with detailed paint applications and 16 points of articulation. The figure comes packaged in the now-famous Marvel Select display packaging, with spine artwork for shelf reference, and includes interchangeable hands and a shrunken Ant-Man micro-figure! Figure is in scale to other Marvel Select movie action figures. Sculpted by Gentle Giant! (Item #FEB152167, SRP: $24.99)
Marvel Minimates Series 62: Axis Asst.
A Diamond Select Toys release! The Inversion is upon us, and some of Marvel's biggest heroes and villains have changed their looks, as well as their minds! This all-new assortment of comic-based two-packs includes Sam Wilson as Captain America vs. Red Onslaught, Superior Iron Man vs. Apocalypse, Carnage vs. Hobgoblin, and Sabretooth vs. Kluh, the evil Hulk! Each two-inch Minimates mini-figure features 12-14 points of articulation, as well as interchangeable parts and acccessories. Each 2-pack comes packaged in a full-color window box. Designed by Art Asylum! (Item #FEB152165, SRP: $9.99/ea.)
Nightmare Before Christmas Jack and Sally 12″ Coffin Doll Set
A Diamond Select Toys release! What's this? What's this? After a long absence, the stars of the stop-motion animation holiday classic Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas are back, just how you remember them! Re-creating the classic collectable figures of yesteryear, these 12-inch poseable figures of Jack Skellingon and his true love Sally feature real cloth costumes over articulated bodies, and come packaged in a coffin-shaped window box. Limited to 1,000 numbered pieces. Originally designed and created in Japan. (Item #FEB152151, SRP: $99.99)
Predator Unmasked Metal Bottle Opener
A Diamond Select Toys release! Predators love the heat, and nothing beats the heat like a cool, refreshing drink. Whether you're slogging through an impenetrable jungle or hiding out in a Los Angeles barrio, use the mandibles on this metal Predator bottle opener to pop the cap off of your favorite bottled beverage. Plus, magnets on the back will hold it fast to your refrigerator or trophy case, so you'll never have to "hunt" for an opener again! Packaged in a full-color slipcase. (Item #FEB152158, SRP: $18.00)
SpongeBob Squarepants Minimates Series 1 Asst.
A Diamond Select Toys release! Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? It's SpongeBob Squarepants, the star of a new Minimates mini-figure line! Based on the long-running hit animated series, the first assortment of two-packs includes SpongeBob with Sandy, Patrick with Squidward, Mr. Krabs with Perch Perkins and a rare, one-per-case box set of Grandpappy Redbeard with an orange Perch Perkins! Yarrr! Each Minimate stands approximately 2 inches tall with multiple points of articulation, and each figure features interchangeable parts and accessories. Packaged on a full-color blister card. Designed by Art Asylum! (Item #FEB152155, SRP: $9.99/ea.)
Star Wars Classic X-Wing Fighter Metal Bottle Opener
A Diamond Select Toys release! Stay on target! A bottlecap is a pretty small bulls-eye, but you won't need a targeting computer to open one with this solid metal bottle opener of an X-Wing fighter from the original Star Wars trilogy! Raise a toast to the Rebellion, and then hang the opener on your refrigerator using the magnetic docking clamps on the underside. Packaged in a full-color slipcase. (Item #FEB152161, SRP: $18.00)
Star Wars Stormtrooper Vinyl Bust Bank
A Diamond Select Toys release! The legendary Imperial Stormtrooper has joined DST's line of vinyl Star Wars bust banks! Measuring 8 inches tall, this vinyl, waist-up bank depicts of one of the iconic soldiers of the original Star Wars trilogy, blaster at the ready. Not only does it feature the detailed painting and sculpting of a collectible bust, it also has a coin slot and an access door in the base, making it a fully functioning coin bank. He'll keep your money safer than Cell Block 1138! Packaged in a clear polybag. (Item #FEB152160, SRP: $22.99)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates Series 2 Foil Bag Counter Display
A Diamond Select Toys Release! Ninja Turtles Minimates are back, with new Turtles, new friends and new enemies! Each countertop display contains 18 blind-bagged pouches, and each pouch contains one 2-inch Minimates mini-figure, featuring interchangeable parts and accessories. The assortment includes nine different Minimates, including new versions of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, plus new characters Splinter, Casey Jones, Karai, Chris Bradford and a Norman! There's a full set in every case! Designed by Art Asylum! (Item #FEB152156, SRP: $5.99/ea.)
Valiant Minimates Battle Damaged X-O Manowar and Bloodshot 2-Pack
A Diamond Select Toys Release! Prepare to enter the world of Valiant Entertainment! The Valiant Universe has been reborn, and heroes X-O Manowar and Bloodshot are back in new monthly comic-book adventures! Kick off your collection of Valiant heroes with this two-pack of X-O Manowar and Bloodshot fresh from a skirmish, maybe even against each other! Each two-inch Minimates mini-figure features 14 points of articulation as well as interchangeable parts and acccessories. Packaged in a full-color blister card. Designed by Art Asylum! (Item #FEB152162, SRP: $9.99)
Make sure you pick up these great collectibles on the Diamond Select Toys website or at your local comic book store!

subset: commoncrawl


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Based on a famous quote from Tim O'Reilly. Because Mimi & Eunice are Free and Copyleft and ShareAlike and want to be copied, "piracy" poses no threat to them at all. But very few people know they exist. Please copy, embed, etc. – the more they're copied, the less obscure they'll become.
Also, you can buy the book.


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Robert Aguilar
Santo Domingo
Robert Aguilar was born into Santo Domingo Pueblo at the end of May, 1968. His parents are Joe & Helen Aguilar, his maternal grandmother, Lorencita Pacheco. Among his siblings are Shirley, Vidal and Darrin Aguilar. Rafaelita Aguilar was their aunt and influenced all of them as they were learning how to make pottery.
Robert was interested in working with clay early, making polychrome dough bowls, jars and vases as a teenager. Like many in the Aguilar family, he usually makes large pieces, and usually decorates them with designs incorporating deer, antelope, bighorn sheep, flowers, clouds and birds. He also sometimes decorates in the Aguilar style (negative designs with a solid black background), passed down to him by his aunt, Rafaelita. The Aguilar style was innovated by their ancestors, Felipita Aguilar Garcia and Asuncion Aguilar Cate of Santo Domingo, back in the 1890s.
100 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 986-1234 - www.andreafisherpottery.com - All Rights Reserved
Santo Domingo Pueblo
Santo Domingo Pueblo Mission Church
Santo Domingo Pueblo is located on the east bank of the Rio Grande about half-way between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Historically, the people of Santo Domingo were among the most active of Pueblo traders. The pueblo also has a reputation of being ultra traditional, probably due, at least in part, to the longevity of the pueblo's pottery styles. Some of today's popular designs have changed very little since the 1700s.
In pre-Columbian times, traders from Santo Domingo were trading turquoise (from mines in the Cerrillos Hills) and hand-made heishe beads as far away as central Mexico. Many artisans in the pueblo still work in the old ways and produce wonderful silver and turquoise jewelry and heishe decorations.
Like the people of nearby San Felipe and Cochiti, the people of Santo Domingo speak Keres and trace their ancestry back to villages established in the Pajarito Plateau area in the 1400's. Like the other Rio Grande pueblos, Santo Domingo rose up against the Spanish oppressors in 1680, following Alonzo Catiti as he led the Keres-speaking pueblos and worked with Popé (of San Juan Pueblo) to stop the Spanish atrocities. However, when Spanish Governor Antonio Otermin returned to the area in 1681, he found Santo Domingo deserted and ordered it burned. The pueblo residents had fled to a nearby mountain stronghold and when Don Diego de Vargas returned to Nuevo Mexico in 1692, he attacked that mountain fortress and burned it, too. Catiti died in that battle and Keres opposition to the Spanish crumbled with his death. The survivors of that battle fled, some to Acoma, some to fledgling Laguna, some to the Hopi mesas. Over time most of them returned to Santo Domingo.
In the 1790s Santo Domingo accepted an influx of refugees from the Galisteo Basin area as they fled the near-constant attacks of Apache, Comanche, Ute and Navajo raiders in that area. Today's main Santo Domingo village was founded about 1886.
In 1598 Santo Domingo was the site of the first gathering of 38 pueblo governors by Don Juan de Oñaté to try to force them to swear allegiance to the crown of Spain. Today, the All Indian Pueblo Council (consisting of the nineteen remaining pueblo's governors and an executive staff) gathers at Santo Domingo for their first meeting every year, to continue what is now the oldest annual political gathering in America. During the time of the Spanish occupation Santo Domingo served as the headquarters of the Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico and religious trials were held there during the Spanish Inquisition.
Today, the people of Santo Domingo number around 4,500, with about two-thirds of them living on the reservation. The pottery traditions of the pueblo almost died out after the railroads arrived and many Santo Domingos went to work laying tracks. Even today many Santo Domingo men work as firefighters for the US Forest Service in fire season and ply their artistic talents during the rest of the year.
Potter Robert Tenorio began working to revive the Santo Domingo pottery tradition in the early 1970s. His influence can be found among many of today's Santo Domingo potters, even if they say he stimulated them to learn on their own.
While today's Santo Domingo pottery is known for designs described as simple geometrics, another outstanding feature is boldness: the lines are thick and well-defined.
As religious leaders forbid the representation of human figures as well as other sacred designs on pottery made for commercial purposes, birds, fish and flowers are common design motifs. Depictions of mammals are rarely seen. Another typical Santo Domingo style is to paint in the negative, meaning cover the pot in panels of big swatches of black and red so that only a few lines of the cream slip show through.
100 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 986-1234 - www.andreafisherpottery.com - All Rights Reserved


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Here's Why Garth Brooks Won CMA Entertainer of the Year
Garth Brooks has nothing to apologize for. The Country Music Hall of Famer just won his seventh CMA Entertainer of the Year award, and he deserves it.
That's not to say he was the most deserving nominee (nor is it to say he isn't), but that's a conversation best left for ideologues and social media. Eric Church and Carrie Underwood have better data. In 2019 they played more concerts, notched more hits on country radio and (in the case of Underwood) were more visible on and off stage.
Miranda Lambert summed up Underwood's credentials during a passionate stump speech on Taste of Country Nights, and she's right:
But data doesn't vote. Stats don't vote. Social agendas do not vote. People vote, and with loosely-defined guidelines, they vote with their hearts — a fact hammered home by the last few presidential elections. Few believe the best candidate won in 2008, 2012 and 2016, but while numbers may not lie, they don't tell the emotional truth, either. More people (i.e. voters) like what the "Dive Bar" singer has done for country music than what Underwood has done.
Let's be clear: Brooks and the other four nominees (including Keith Urban and Chris Stapleton) are deserving of being dubbed Entertainer of the Year. They were nominated over other deserving stars (Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Lambert), and they earned the right to be here. Brooks' stadium tour is a wonder, and his ability to frenzy an audience is something special — a fact songwriter Adam Hambrick spoke to eloquently on Twitter:
The 2019 CMA Awards celebrated women in country music, and the show's momentum seemed to be building toward the first female CMA Entertainer of the Year winner since 21-year-old Taylor Swift won in 2011. It's what so many people wanted, just not the largest slice of voters. Brooks may be getting skewered on social media for not mentioning Underwood or his fellow nominees (or for not handing the award to her), but the truth is he handled the situation about as professionally as he possible could.
It means something to him. Brooks wanted to win, not just for himself, but for his entire crew. Last month Taste of Country talked to the 57-year-old and wife Trisha Yearwood about the potential of winning another CMA Entertainer of the Year award, and they shared a story that explains why he needs another trophy for his barn.
"There is nothing like pulling up at the next gig and taking that Entertainer of the Year award out of the truck and just handing it to everybody there," Brooks said, referring to his band and crew. "It's like a Stanley Cup … because it's theirs."
Yearwood then urged him to share a story of his 2017 CMA Awards win, when Brooks tried to take the trophy they presented him with back home with him. "They were like, 'It doesn't have your name on it. We're gonna have your put name on it and be sent,'" she shares, laughing. "He's like 'I'm gonna take this one.'"
And he did.
"You don't do this for the awards, but every time you can give an award for that band and crew who's giving you everything, you got to see it through."
All five nominees are just as deserving of that, as well, and one hopes each will get a chance. For now, Brooks has a few special intangibles that continue to put him out front with CMA voters (and he has a long, long legacy). Those who think legacy shouldn't matter and that it should be all about what was accomplished during the CMA voting year need to ask themselves this question:
If Underwood or Church or Stapleton or your favorite artist took a year off, but won the 2020 CMA Entertainer of the Year trophy, would you demand they give it back?
See the Top 5 Moments from the 2019 CMA Awards:
See the Best + Worst from the CMA Red Carpet:


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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Medical school tuition. Follow the money?
8 comments:
I am starting medical school at UCSD this fall and boy did this get me upset! I was accepted to Cornell and one of the reasons I turned them down was negative opinions about their clerkships! This just makes it worse. I would be very upset if as a M3 at Cornell I was losing clinical exposure to an IMG.
- April 10, 2012 at 12:22 PM
- Skeptical Scalpel said...
I didn't mean to upset you, but this is a reality.
Cornell is one of the schools that shares at least one affiliated hospital site with St. George's. - April 10, 2012 at 12:28 PM
- //.amanda.eleven. said...
Faculty, staff, administration, administrative assistants, support staff, technology, physical building... etc. It's really expensive to run a medical school in the U.S...
- April 10, 2012 at 2:30 PM
- Skeptical Scalpel said...
Yes. I understand that, but the schools are receiving free teaching and support services from the affiliated hospitals, which do not see any of that money.
Most of the third- and fourth-year students are not on the med school campus or in its hospital.
It seems unfair to me. - April 10, 2012 at 2:43 PM
- //.amanda.eleven. said...
My understanding is that medical schools cannot operate solely on medical student tuition -- even if we did the math of a total of 600 students at a time paying 50k/year that is 30 million per year from tuition. Considering that there are likely at least 50 faculty members at say 100k/year, that's already 5 million. Add some higher ups making more than let's say 200k/year, administrative assistants (there are *soooo* many of them now), building costs and I'd guess you're closing in on 10 million per year. Now, consider the fact that just about every major medical school has at least 1 shiny new building to boast "state-of-the-art" facilities + the newest technology and we're looking at 100s of millions... and that's where the rest of our money and generous donations can go.
This is all hypothetical, but that's my best guess. - April 10, 2012 at 4:40 PM
- Skeptical Scalpel said...
Med schools have many sources of income of which tuition is a small part. To name a few: faculty practice, donations, endowments, revenue from clinics & hospitals, investments.
- April 11, 2012 at 7:45 AM
Medical school tuition pays for medical student education (a small fraction of the tuition payment for this) and the rest goes to the medical school itself. A medical student spends perhaps 20 hours a week in class during the first two years (at many schools this has been reduced to one year). For this the class pays $2.5 million, per year. I don't know what kind of professor get that kind of money for 20 hours per week, but no one at my medical school does. Where I teach, professors teach students less than five hours a year each. Most of our time is spent doing research which has no benefits to the student. Yet somehow, our entire salary is attributed to the cost of the students' education. This is a total rip off for the students. Worse, during the clinical years, the studnets are lucky to get 5 hours a week for their formal education. The rest of the time is informal education, for which the student will often have to work extremely hard for the hospital. In short, a medical class pays $10 million dollars for 1200 hour of preclinical education and 400 hours of clinical education. This amounts to $8,333 per hour of education. Doesn't seem right, does it?
- February 25, 2014 at 5:07 PM
- Skeptical Scalpel said...
I agree. It doesn't seem right, but I expect that tuition will continue to rise at a rate far above inflation.
- February 25, 2014 at 9:26 PM


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Createx Wicked Colors Airbrush Paint Pthalo Green
Wicked Colors are an ultra-high performance, multi-surface airbrush paint suitable for t-shirts, automotive graphics, illustration and most any application. Paints contain mild amounts of solvent inter-mixed with a durable, exterior-grade resin and automotive pigments for an extremely durable paint that withstands direct, prolonged exposure to outdoors elements without washing or fading. Feature exceptional flow right out of the bottle with most airbrush tips, including 0.2mm detail tips. For automotive refinishing, a durable, catalyzed urethane clear is recommended. Colors cure to a strong film with air drying alone. Heat may be used to further assist curing and is recommended for t-shirts and fabrics that will be washed multiple times. Heat is not required for automotive, illustration and most other applications. 2 oz. bottle. Pthalo green. Caution: May irritate eyes.
Safety Data Sheet: Click here to view or download a pdf copy
Safety Data Sheet: Click here to view or download a pdf copy


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pond must-have
waterfall spillway
The Aquascape Waterfall Spillway is a cost-effective way to create the starting point of a beautiful waterfall or stream, providing smooth, consistent, leak-free water flow.
Having a backyard pond can add beauty and tranquility to your outdoor space. Whether you choose something small with a few water plants or want to include fish, waterfalls and more, you will find everything you need at Ritchie's.


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The earliest history of grape growing in Suisun Valley can be traced back to Mae Fisher Purcell. Mae wrote for the Eighteenth Anniversary Edition And All County Chamber of Commerce Atlas of Solano County, Information-Section 4-1935, in a story entitled, "Claus Mangels Renowned Solano Winery and Notable Estate is Beauty Spot of Suisun Valley:
When Omar Khayyam, poet-tentmaker, wrote in his immortal Rubalyat the lines… "I oft times wonder what the vintners buy one half so precious as the stuff they sell," the Persian bard must have had a prophetic vision that some day in a distant land a man named Mangels would produced a vintage fit for the gods.
[Image courtesy of Gary Mangels]
It's fitting to mention the very first grape growing to begin in Solano County, in order to have an overall perspective for its relationship to Suisun Valley, as it began in neighboring Green Valley:
[Image courtesy of Gary Mangels of Arnold Penoui, March 5, 1937]
- 1858 ~ An Austrian native John Votypke started to grow grapes in Green Valley. His vineyard property was located at the foot of the valley peaks, know as Twin Sisters. By 1863, he began to also make wine.
- 1860 ~ Brothers Henry and Claus Schultz planted a vineyard in the same rich valley, and also started a winery, C. Schultz & Co., operating it for about 20 years.
[Image courtesy: Gary Mangels of the Mangels home in 1937]
- 1866 ~ Louis Mangels arrived in New York City from Germany, immigrating with his parents.
- Immediately left for the West Coast by way of Panama, arriving on June 22, 1866.
- During the next ten years, he studied and saved enough money to buy 240 acres of land.
- At that time, the view from the ranch allowed Louis and his family to look straight to San Pablo Bay, on a clear day.
- 1877 ~ Claus Mangels was born to Mr. & Mrs. Louis Mangels.
- 1880 ~ Louis Mangels, who already had 240 acres of vines in Suisun Valley, bought the Schultz brothers' business, stock, cooperage, and equipment.
- 1893 ~ Louis Mangels built his first wine cellar, which was to become Solano Winery (Bonded Winery #42).
- Louis planted more vineyards.
- Also had a lease for 153 acres with a Bonzi vineyard at Monticello, in Napa County.
- 1905 ~ Claus Mangels married Cecelia Rohwer.
- 1906 ~ Mangels winery had grown to produce 500,000 gallons of wine a year.
- 1910 ~ Mangels brought his two oldest sons into a business partnership with him, naming the company Mangels & Sons.
- 1920 ~ Prohibition hit the US. It is a very little known fact that Mangles & Sons was one of the very few wineries to be allowed to produce wine for the government. A lot of the tonnage was shipped to the East Coast to large eastern markets.
The list gathered to date, with much research going into it over the years.
- Beringer Brothers, Napa Valley (1876 to present)
- Christian Brothers, Napa Valley (1882 to 1989)
- Concannon Vineyards, Livermore Valley (1883 to present)
- Sacred Heart Novitiate Winery, Los Gatos, CA (1888 to 1986)
- Solano Winery, Green Valley, Solano County (1893 to early 1950s)
- St. Stanislaus Novitiate, St. Louis, Missouri (1898)
- Beaulieu Vineyards, Napa Valley (1900 to present)
- San Antonio Winery, Los Angeles, CA (1917 to present)
Back to the Suisun Valley Historical Time Line
- 1921 ~ Claus Mangels became sole proprietor. When it became unprofitable to ship grapes to the East Coast, a partnership with the Colonial Grape Products Company was formed. This entity became known as the Solano Grape Products Company.
- 1932 ~ The Solano Grape Products Company was incorporated under the name of Solano Winery.
[Image courtesy of Gary Mangels of Packy Glassoff, March 5, 1937]
- 1933 ~ With the repeal of Prohibition, the Solano wine cellar was well stocked with many products, including both aged (fortified) sweet and dry wines.
- The building and cooperage were rented from Claus Mangels.
- Wine sales were brisk, most especially the Solano Winery "house" brand. This led to the selection of its own name, which became "Chief Solano." (See previous blog entry for Chief Solano, or click here.) Other successful brands were:
- Cordelia
- Solano
- C. R. Mangels
- 1935 ~ By now the market for the Mangels wines had spread over the nation and foreign lands.
- 1936 ~ Claus Mangels purchased the stock formerly held by the Colonial Grape Products Company, which gave him 97 percent of the stock held in the company.
- 1937 ~ Solano Winery now produces 350,000 gallons of wine a year, crushing nearly all of the grapes in Suisun Valley.
- Grapes grown:
- Burgundy
- Mataro
- Pinot
- Cabernet
- Dry wines made:
- Sauternes
- Chablis
- Riesling
- Barbera
- Claret
- Zinfandel
- Burgundy
- Mataro
- Pinot
- Cabernet
- Fine sweet wines:
- Sherry (150,000 gallons a year)
- Port
- Muscatel
- Angelica
- Tokay
- 1943 ~ Claus Mangels sells the recently renovated Solano Winery property, and about eight acres of land, to a partner Horace O. Lanza.
- Claus maintained his home, vineyards, and other property. Current production was between 450,000 and 500,000 gallons of wine a year.
- Horace O. Lanza was an official of the California Grape Products Company of San Francisco, and was a business partner for six years during prohibition.
- By 1950 ~ According to Gary Mangles, the winery was no longer in operation.
This blog posting has been made possible through the generous sharing of Gary Mangels, Mangels Vineyards. The information to follow has been taken from the following sources:
- Solano Republican, Eighteenth Anniversary Edition And All County Chamber of Commerce Atlas of Solano County, Information-Section 4-1935
- Wines & Vines, July 1937
- The Solano Republican, Thursday, February 4, 1943


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A Portrait of Jianghu Spirit Master Episode 16
A Portrait of Jianghu Spirit Master Episode 16
A Portrait of Jianghu Spirit Master Episode 16 Eng Sub Indo. Other name Hua Jianghu Zhi Ling Zhu 画江湖之灵主.
Human beings can be divided into two types. Ordinary people who work for the living. And the undead who work for the dead. For the undead, their lives are dedicated to fulfilling the last wishes of the ghosts who die with regret. But for Baili Dengfeng, he has only one destiny in this world, to find his lost wife, Ruyan.
After a series of events, he also learns of the existence of Spirit Masters and Spirit Slaves, and gets in touch with a mystical organization named "Spirits Expelling Order". With more and more mysteries being unveiled, the truth is drawing closer and closer to Dengfeng, who perhaps would rather not face the whole of it.


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Will NATO's Plan for Defending the Baltic States Against Russia Work?
A wargame from RAND suggests that NATO would be unable to prevent Russia from occupying the Baltics based on the current forces available.
Here's What You Need to Remember: Despite the report, Russia would suffer high costs for seizing the Baltics that make any aggression unlikely. A recent RAND wargame on a potential Russian offensive into the Baltics brought talk of a "new Cold War" into sharp focus. The game made clear that NATO would struggle to prevent Russian forces from occupying the Baltics if it relied on the conventional forces now available. These wargames have great value in demonstrating tactical and operational reality, which then informs broader strategic thinking. In this case, however, the headlines generated by the game have obscured more about the NATO-Russian relationship than they have revealed. In short, the NATO deterrent promise has never revolved around a commitment to defeat Soviet/Russian forces on NATO's borders. Instead, NATO has backed its political commitment with the threat to broaden any conflict beyond the war that the Soviets wanted to fight. Today, as in 1949, NATO offers deterrence through the promise of escalation. The Early Years Let's be utterly clear on this point; from the creation of NATO until the 1970s, Western military planners expected the Warsaw Pact to easily win a conventional war in Europe. Conventional warfighting plans by the major NATO powers often amounted, almost literally, to efforts to reach the English Channel just ahead of the tanks of the Red Army. NATO expected to liberally use tactical nuclear weapons to slow the Soviet advance, an action which would inevitably invite Soviet response (the Soviets also prepared for this dynamic). The belief that NATO would lose a conventional conflict did nothing to contradict the notion that NATO could play a valuable role in deterring war. For one, NATO could certainly make things more difficult for the Soviet Union; overwhelming combined British-German-American forces would prove far more costly than defeating a West Germany that stood alone. Moreover, by triggering an expansion of the war NATO could create costs for the Soviets in other parts of the world. Overwhelming NATO superiority at sea and in long-range airpower would prove devastating for Soviet interests outside of Eurasia, even if the Soviets prevailed on the Central Front. Most importantly, the threat that France, Britain and the United States would launch strategic nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union in response to a successful conventional assault was supposed to give Moscow pause. Even if an American President refused to exchange Berlin for New York, the Soviets would have to worry about the rest of NATO's nuclear deterrent. Active Defense/AirLand Battle The expectation that NATO could defeat the Warsaw Pact in battle only emerged after the Yom Kippur War. In that conflict, precision-guided conventional munitions exacted such a toll on advancing forces (both in the Golan and in Sinai) that American military planners began to believe that they could stop a Soviet attack. Drawn up in defensive positions that would channel oncoming Red Army armor into large kill zones, NATO forces could sufficiently blunt and disrupt a Soviet advance, and prevent the collapse of positions within Germany. The defense would buy time for NATO to transit additional forces and equipment from the United States to Europe, to carry out in-depth attacks against Warsaw Pact logistical and communications centers in Eastern Europe, and to attack Soviet interests in the rest of the world. After 1982, AirLand Battle would return maneuver to the battlefield, as American commanders grew more confident of their ability to defeat the Red Army in a fluid engagement. Cooperation between the Army and the Air Force would allow attacks all along the depth of the Soviet position, turning the formidable Red Army (and its Eastern European allies) into a chaotic mess. At the same time, the U.S. Navy prepared to attack directly into the Soviet periphery with airstrikes and amphibious assaults, as well as into the cherished "bastions" of the Soviet boomer fleet. None of this depended on the protection of any given piece of NATO territory; planners accepted that the Soviets could make at least some gains at the beginning of any plausible war scenario. In this context, news that Russia could win a localized conventional conflict against small NATO nations on its border becomes rather less alarming than it sounds at first blush. Apart from (perhaps) a brief window of vulnerability in the 1990s, Russia has always had the capacity to threaten NATO with conventional force. Indeed, NATO did not even begin to plan for the conventional defense of the Baltics until well after their accession, on the belief that the faith and credit of the alliance, and in particular its ability to retaliate against Soviet interests in the rest of Europe, would prove a sufficient deterrent. The RAND wargame suggests that Russia could take the Baltics, and perhaps hold them, for a while. Moscow would begin to pay costs very early in any conflict, however, as NATO forces moved against Kaliningrad, Transnistria and other Russian holdings. The Russian Navy would likely come under severe attack from NATO submarines and aircraft. Long range strikes would debilitate much of the rest of Russia's air force and air defense network. In short, Russia could grab the Baltics, but only at a cost vastly in excess of the value of holding onto them. This is how NATO conducted deterrence in 1949, and it's how NATO does deterrence today. Robert Farley, a frequent contributor to the National Interest, is author of The Battleship Book. He serves as a Senior Lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. This article first appeared in 2017 and is being reposted due to reader interest. Image: Reuters.


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I've been to Martha's Vineyard in February and I love it. I love it any time but February is as different from summer on the Vineyard as you can possibly get.
There's a cold crispness in the air, the colors are more vivid, the Island is quiet and yet speaks volumes to those who take the time to look, listen and drink in the beauty and wonder that is the soul of Martha's Vineyard.
February 1989… a light dusting of snow made everything look like powdered sugar had fallen all over the Island.
February 1995… no snow that trip but bitter cold. Did not stop me from visiting the Gay Head cliffs in Aquinnah on the western most tip of the Vineyard… or hiking through the woods of Christiantown to visit the tiny chapel there. (Christiantown link)
I also experimented a bit with black and white film. From top left… Edgartown harbor, Christiantown stone wall..Sengekontacket Pond and South Beach.
February 2007… bitter cold, dusting of over night snow, icy ponds and harbors… and brilliant sunsets.
My birthday is in February and sadly the only one I've ever spent on the Vineyard was in 1950 when my beloved godmother, Gertrude Norris passed away. But I'm not anywhere near done having birthdays so who knows what the future will bring


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Carbon dioxide has no taste, no odor, and no color — but it's a vital ingredient in the beer business, from putting frothy bubbles in brews to blocking oxidization that makes beer taste stale.
But brewers are now worried that a carbon dioxide shortage could force production cuts and price hikes. It's the latest threat to an industry that's been whipsawed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We've talked to our supplier, and our supplier basically told us they were not taking on any new clients to make sure that their long-term clients have a steady supply of CO2," Bryan Van Den Oever of Red Bear Brewing in Washington, D.C., told NPR's Morning Edition.
Beer makers have dealt with carbon dioxide shortages and price hikes for much of the pandemic, similar to higher costs for aluminum cans and cardboard. But as of August, brewers' carbon dioxide costs had spiked more sharply than any other "input" cost in recent months, according to a graph shared by Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association.
And experts believe carbon dioxide will become more scarce as fall begins.
Some updated PPI numbers for brewery input costs. Not a pretty picture. pic.twitter.com/Pfl2kF0gHm
— Bart Watson (@BrewersStats) September 14, 2022
3 factors are driving the shortage, an industry expert says
Three main factors are behind what Paul Pflieger, communications director of the Compressed Gas Association trade group, calls "CO2 tightness." Two of them have to do with how carbon dioxide is produced: It's a byproduct of other processes, such as ammonia and ethanol production.
But this fall, ammonia plants are undergoing scheduled maintenance shutdowns that will keep them from producing carbon dioxide, Pflieger said. Similarly, many ethanol plants that went offline during the pandemic haven't resumed operations. And then there's the weather: The beverage industry accounts for 14% of U.S. carbon dioxide, but demand soars across the board when it's hot.
"Every summer, demand for CO2 skyrockets because people want more beverages," and dry ice (the solid form of carbon dioxide) is used more, Pflieger told NPR. "The record heat that we're seeing in this country and around the world is making this worse."
Pflieger says his association's members are working hard to fulfill customers' orders. But he also warns that the situation will persist for weeks to come.
"We anticipate things to start reaching some normalcy in the next 30 to 60 days," he said.
Brewers face tough choices to balance costs
The shortage is more dire in some regions than others, and some of the worst pain is being felt by small craft brewers. In Massachusetts, Night Shift Brewing said this summer that it would halt most production at its base in Everett, where it's been making beer for the past decade.
"Last week, we learned that our CO2 supply has been cut for the foreseeable future, possibly more than a year until we get more," the company said.
Night Shift will rely on contract brewers — facilities that make beer on a larger scale — to keep the majority of its beers flowing, as member station WBUR reported.
The shortage is hitting craft beer brewers after the pandemic forced many of them to survive by boosting canning operations and taproom sales. But adding taps and cans also makes brewers more reliant on a steady supply of carbon dioxide tanks. And as the Good Beer Hunting site notes, craft brewers were already facing momentum to raise prices this fall, due to rampant inflation.
The carbon dioxide shortage hits at a particularly bad time
Even before the pandemic, carbon dioxide was prone to supply snags. When disruptions ripple through those industries, they can have a direct effect on carbon dioxide, sending tremors through the beer sector.
Carbon dioxide is also collected at sites like Jackson Dome, part of an extinct volcano that lies nearly 3,000 feet beneath Mississippi's capital city. But a contamination problem emerged there this year, putting another kink in the supply chain.
Carbon dioxide is a natural byproduct of brewing, from heating mash and boiling wort to the fermentation process. Some brewers use specialty equipment to capture the gas and reuse it, but small brewers might lack the resources and scale to make that feasible. And most of those efforts have focused on cutting emissions and reducing costs, rather than serving as a sole source of carbon dioxide.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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As many of you already know, PLMCE is an annual MySQL
community conference and Expo organized by Percona in the month of April
(usually). It is a great conference, not only to meet new and eminent people in
MySQL and related database fields, but also to attend interesting talks, and
also to give some.
This year I spoke about synchronous replication at a higher level. The talk was
titled "ACIDic Clusters: Review of current relational databases with synchronous replication". Having previously given talks with boring titles (but interesting content), this time I decided to go with an interesting title, and it seemed to fit well with topic being discussed.
Continue reading "Slides from PLMCE 2014 breakout session"


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Analyzing soil quality is important for maximizing crop yield in agricultural application and for assessment of inferences in natural terrestrial ecosystems. SEAL understands growing plants, and therefore soil testing, is seasonal. Sample thoughput during some seasons can be very high and can create a burden on lab staff when manual processes are in place. SEAL offers reliable solutions to automate highly manual processes and to help increase productivity and flexibility for all steps in the soil and fertilizer analysis process including: sample receiving; sample digestion and extraction; sample testing; data handling and LIMS communication.
AA500 AutoAnalyzer- Fully Automated Soil Analysis
MiniLab- Automated Soil Testing Robot
AQ400 Discrete Analyzer
Ideal for laboratories requiring high throughput, high reproducibility and low detection limits, SEAL's segmented flow analyzers (SFA) are state of the art nutrient analyzers. Systems are customizable to fit all workloads and method needs.Perfectly suited for standard chemistries as well as inline sample preparation including dialysis and UV digestion. Alternative detectors such as Flame Photometers are also available.
SEAL Discrete nutrient analyzers are ideal for highly automated soils testing with true walk away operation, automatic standard preparation and automatic pre and post dilution capabilities. Ideal for laboratories requiring high levels of automation and a wide range of chemistries.
SEAL has many options for automating your soils testing lab. The multi- parameter MiniLab robotic system can be configured to prepare and automate a range of analytical parameters – all in one system.
Ideal for water and soil applications, systems range from a simple single parameter unit, such as pH, to a multi probe unit designed to measure many parameters. These can include sample preparation features such as sample splitting and filtration. The MiniLab is compatible with many current meters, probe types and titration systems.
The MiniLab robot is ideal for automating: alkalinity, pH, conductivity, turbidity, color, hardness
Digestion of soil samples for testing of Phosphorous and Nitrogen are common. Depending on automation and temperature needed SEAL has multiple systems to fit your lab's needs. Options include: simple, economical digestion for TN/TP; TKN digestion with automated heating steps; fully automated digestion of TN/TP including chemical addition.


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Wikivoyage:Don't tout
This page in a nutshell: Do not use Wikivoyage as a tool for advertising or promotion. If you are a business owner please ensure that any contribution you make to Wikivoyage is information that a neutral editor would agree is not promotional and improves the guides for travellers. If you are a marketer or employed by a business chain you should not add listings for properties operated by that chain to Wikivoyage. |
This page documents a Wikivoyage guideline. |
In many countries business owners hire touts to solicit customers. Touts go to train stations, airports, or open plazas and urge travelers to visit their employers' business.
Wikivoyage specifically strives to avoid being an "advertising brochure" for any business, city, or service. Business employees, like everyone, are welcome to add information to Wikivoyage, but we're making a travel guide, not a business brochure, so Wikivoyage should not be used as a tool for advertising. Marketers and chain employees should not add listings directly – they are welcome to correct phone numbers and similar, but should suggest other changes on the talk page of the relevant article.
Identifying touting
Edits might be reverted as touting if any of the following guidelines aren't followed:
- Don't list the same place many times. Yes, a guesthouse may have a restaurant, a bar, an Internet café and a dance show, but you need to pick one of "See", "Eat", "Drink", "Sleep" or "Connect" to slot it under. That said, exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis if, for example, a hotel has a famous, separately named bar or restaurant that also draws significant numbers of non-resident customers (use the article's talk page to discuss these rare instances). Also note that businesses should be listed in only one article for the town or district in which the business operates; if an article about the town has not yet been created, create it.
- Avoid first person pronouns. Never say our restaurant, or we provide.
- Don't add listings for booking services or general travel planning. Wikivoyage has fairly strict criteria on what tour company listings are allowed in articles, and these criteria disallow listings for most travel agencies or tour resellers.
- Don't add more than one URL for a place, neither on one page nor on different pages. There is never a reason to do so, and will mark your contributions as advertising spam in the eyes of other editors.
- Describe, don't urge. Use the indicative mood to describe ("The food at Restaurant X is freshly prepared when ordered."), rather than the imperative mood for commanding ("Come to Restaurant X and sample its delicious fare straight from the oven!").
- Don't write in all-caps. On the internet writing in all capital letters is considered shouting and is highly discouraged.
- Avoid using flowery, vague terms in descriptions, instead describe why it is so great. "This stunningly wonderful hotel is fabulously luxurious!" is meaningless; "More staff than guests, three heated swimming pools, and each room has a jacuzzi, a bearskin rug in front of the fireplace and panoramic windows with views of the Mighty Mountains" tells much more. "Good music, terrific staff and a great atmosphere" could apply to any bar; "Dark, smoky den crowded with local hipsters, with knowledgeable bartenders and live jazz on Fridays" gives some idea of what to expect.
- Avoid superlatives (the best, the biggest, the tastiest, the most fascinating) unless they are objectively true and of specific interest to the traveler.
- Don't move your listing to the top. In most cases listings should be ordered alphabetically within a section. Moving a listing to the top of the list for any reason other than alphabetization is considered touting.
- Be concise. One sentence to one paragraph of factual information is reasonable, an entire section (or subsection) of an article devoted to singing the praises of one random hotel or restaurant is not - especially if much of the listing is fluff (...it's great to enjoy leisurely, sunny summer afternoons here!) or the owner's opinion of their own product.
- Avoid assertions of proximity to nearby attractions. The description section of a listing is for describing that listing, not the rest of the town (...conveniently located near <insert name of every major tourist attraction within the city>). If it's attached to the convention center or right on the pier then note that using the "directions" field of the listing template, but otherwise save descriptions of the area's attractions for the "See" section. Instead, contribute detailed lat-long coordinates of the property (see Wikivoyage:Geocoding)—it will be much more helpful for a traveler choosing a place to stay.
- Avoid references to third-party ratings and rankings unless they are truly exceptional. For example, "Lonely Planet approved" should be avoided since there are thousands of businesses that are "Lonely Planet approved", but "rated the #2 hotel in the Middle East by Generic Travel Magazine in 2010" might be worth mentioning. Listings that include such references but provide no mention of why the business is highly rated offer little value to travelers; a long list of accolades is no substitute for actually describing the establishment.
- Don't include referral codes in URLs. Some businesses use referral codes to track where traffic to their web site is coming from (example: http://example.com/site.html?from=wikivoyage). Referral codes don't benefit travelers and will lead to removal of the listing.
Contributing constructively
Guidelines for business owners
- See also: Wikivoyage:Welcome, business owners
If you own a business or work for a marketing company you should expect that your edits will come under more scrutiny than those contributed by travellers. As noted previously, business employees, like everyone, are welcome to add information to Wikivoyage, but anything seen as advertising is likely to be removed. Additionally, because the goals of creating a travel guide often differ from those of hotel chains, tourism boards, and other business entities, contributors should be aware that there are no guarantees that even properly-formatted listings will always be kept in Wikivoyage guides. To make a contribution that is less likely to be removed:
- Follow all of the guidelines above to avoid having your contribution identified as touting.
- Create a user account and identify yourself as the owner of the business on your user page (but don't advertise the business there). Doing so adds some transparency by clearly identifying you as a business owner, and also gives voyagers a way to contact you with questions.
- Never remove competitors' listings from articles or edit them negatively. If there is a problem with a listing it can always be edited for accuracy, and if an establishment is truly vile it can be removed after being discussed on the article's talk page. Removing the listings of competing businesses without discussion is strongly frowned upon.
- Never remove negative comments left by others about your establishment. If you think the comments are unfair, say so on the Talk page and let the community reach a conclusion.
- Include exact prices. We know you hate to do this, but listings without pricing information may be deleted. While it's best to avoid false precision (as the item you're promoting as "only €99.99" is indeed going to set the traveller back "about €100"), vague terms like "reasonable" or "affordable" are worse than useless. If prices vary, provide a price range (example: "$100-$200, varies by season").
- Do not edit war. If your listing is removed look at the article history or, if a message notification pops up on your screen, look at your user talk page to see why it was removed. Discuss it on the talk page for that article. Repeatedly re-adding a removed listing without first discussing why it was removed makes it more likely that editors will see your contributions as advertising, and less likely that your listing will be allowed.
Guidelines for destination marketing organisations
Tourist bureaux are in a unique position as their extensive, up-to-date knowledge of individual destinations could greatly improve Wikivoyage. Unlike an individual business, a convention and visitor bureau is likely to make wholesale changes to a page which affect not one or a handful of listings but entire articles and destinations. This may produce a good article, this may produce an entire destination page which looks like a misplaced advertisement or reflects poorly on the host community.
- Don't copy-paste verbatim from your existing brochures. Try to match the style of existing articles: informational, not promotional. We're looking for original content which puts the voyager first, and we need to be able to share that content freely without restrictive copyrights. Word this like a travel guide, not like a sales pitch.
- Explain your changes. In one common pitfall, a new user removes outdated or erroneous information (for instance, deleting half a dozen restaurants from one city), only to have the next editor put everything back because they have no idea why content was removed. If a venue is closed or no longer in business, say so. If something in the article is factually wrong, say so. If someone undoes your contributions, discuss this on the talk page before being drawn into an edit war.
- Lose the promotional tone. Many common clichés are best avoided as they're vague ("just steps away!") or read more like an advertisement than a fair and factual description.
- Don't try to list absolutely every venue in the city. Your own local brochures may be a directory of every food or lodging business in town (or every member of your chamber of commerce), but we just want a few good options in each category. If a venue has seen better days or is not worth a visit, simply leave it out.
- Include a complete description for the venues you do choose to list. At least, include the location, contact info, prices, a paragraph or so explaining what's special about this place. A list of every hotel in town with names, but no descriptions, tells the voyager little. A select few good options, with a full description and a pin on a locator map for each, is far more useful to the traveller.
- Show us what's unique about your town or destination. Don't waste extensive time and effort describing individual franchise locations if every restaurant or café in an entire national chain serves exactly the same fare the same way... at least not if there are local independents which are offering the traveller something memorable or unique which deserves a local listing.
- Don't list points of interest which belong in some other article. There's a great museum or a big shopping mall two towns away? Odds are, it's already listed in the article for that community - and, if it's missing, add it there instead of trying to turn it into a selling point for your own town. Save the "see" and "do" sections for unique or interesting things to see or do in your city, town or rural area; any links to the next town with an article can go in the "go next" section.
Marketers and SEOs
- Note: Wikivoyage implements
so there is no SEO benefit to listing a website here.
Because there is an inherent conflict of interest when someone is being paid for their edits, if you are working for a hotel chain, a marketing agency, or a similar organization then you may not add listings for that business to Wikivoyage articles. Wikivoyage is not a yellow pages, so adding every individual location for a hotel brand or restaurant chain is not an appropriate use of this site. If a hotel is truly exceptional, or if a city has a very limited number of lodging options available, you may propose a listing to be added by suggesting it on the article's talk page, but do not add the listing yourself. Marketers that add multiple business listings should expect to see their contributions reverted, and in the worst case repeated violations of this policy may lead to blocking of the contributor's account and possibly blacklisting of the business in question.
Marketers and paid editors may make factual corrections to existing hotel listings, but these changes should be strictly limited to non-subjective information such as URLs or phone numbers. As explained above, do not remove negative information from a listing without first discussing the change; if a listing states that a hotel has a dated interior but the property has undergone recent renovation, point out this fact on the article's talk page and let someone else update the listing.
Good. The following is an example of a good business listing. It is properly formatted according to our manual of style, includes an estimated price range for a standard double room, and has a description that provides useful, factual information for a traveller:
- Anaheim Super Lodge, 123 First St, ☏ +1-888-555-5555, email@example.com. This 55-room hotel has a pool, 24-hour gym, free HBO, free Wi-Fi, two conference rooms, and a massive lobby fireplace. The on-site Super Restaurant is open 6AM-10PM daily and serves Asian-fusion cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere with prices from $10-30 per main course. An airport shuttle runs every thirty minutes. $100-200.
Bad. This listing is for the same hotel, but the address is improperly formatted, there is no contact information, no price range, and the description is pure marketing fluff:
- Anaheim Super Lodge (Anaheim), 123 First Street, Anaheim, CA 95555. The Anaheim Super Lodge is in Anaheim. Our luxurious hotel is a traveler's dream, located just minutes from the airport, shopping, and local attractions. Well-appointed rooms invite you to a wonderland ideal for your next business or pleasure trip.
Edits inserting such listings are routinely reverted, and if repeatedly added, the listing may be blacklisted.
See also
- Welcome, business owners - Useful information for business owners who want to work with the Wikivoyage community.
- Template:Tout - A template that can be placed on the user talk pages of editors who have made promotional edits to provide them with a standardized message about why their edit was removed, and how they can contribute constructively.
- External links - Guidelines on what external links are appropriate and how they should be formatted.
- Tour listings - Guidelines on when it is appropriate to list a tour company on Wikivoyage.
- Apartment/Rental listings - Guidelines on when it is appropriate to list an apartment or holiday home rental agency on Wikivoyage.
- Tone - Overview of the tone to use in Wikivoyage articles.
- Be fair - How to approach reviews of businesses and destinations.
- The traveller comes first - The golden rule of Wikivoyage - the interests of the traveler always come first.
- Avoid negative reviews - It is often better not to list a business than to provide a negative review.
- Words to avoid - Guidelines on some words to avoid in listings and articles.


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Friday, December 1, 2017
Dharur Fort is located in Dharur city, in the Beed district of Maharashtra.
Panoramic view of Dharur Fort aka Fatiyabad fort in Beed district of Maharashtra. |
That's Me at Dharur Fort aka Fatiyabad fort in Beed district of Maharashtra. |
After exploring Dharmapuri fort, we travelled via Ambajogai to reach the fort. Directions to the same are tagged on Google maps, the road that Google maps had selected was superb, though the distance between both forts is around 72 KM, we still reached Dharur within 1 1/2 hours.
The village is located very close to the fort premises, there is provision for food and water in the village.
The fort has a long history, it states that there was a old fort here called Mahadurga, the fort has been conquered by mains rulers in the past.
Look at this pic, doesn't the fort fortification look amazing. the bastions also look good.
What we did notice is that, work is being carried on the renovation of this fort, which is good. But it was dusty in the fort premises.
What we did come across is that this fort is a mix of land fort and hill fort, its main entrance is via land, and has got valleys on the other three sides. A very strategic way of building a fort from defense point of view.
At the entrance there are two huge bastions. As the fort walls are low in height, there are holes in the walls, used to fire at enemy soldiers.
This fort has got plenty of bastions within its premises.
The renovated fort walls are broad at certain places, if there was a ramp leading to these walls, we would have got the car, Hehe.
There is a water body both within and outside the fort premises, water is not portable.
There are a couple of structures within the fort premises, there are no signboards stating what historic significance they hold.
There is also a Pit (Muslim saint or holy man) in the fort. The walls of its enclosure are painted white.
There are a couple of tombs in the fort premises. Not sure who they belong to.
Within the forts there are many broken walls and Darwaza.
The view of the three valleys around the fort walls is amazing.
This fort is huge, it took us around an hour to explore it. We were not able to see any cannons on this fort.
Next what, we again had lunch (chinese cusine) at a local streetside eatery and then headed back to Mumbai. Mumbai was around 450 KM away that is roughly travel time of around 12 hours.
This trip was different from our regular trips, some of the land forts we explored on this trip were outstanding. though we didn't have to climb, we just loved to get lost in its abundant history.
Structures within Dharur Fort aka Fatiyabad fort in Beed district of Maharashtra.
Bahadurgad Fort, Unknown Tombs near Jagdamba Devi Temple in Rashin, Karmala fort, Paranda Fort, Dharashiv Caves, Ausa fort, Kharosa Caves, Udgir Fort, Kandhar Fort, Nanded Fort and Dharmapuri Fort are the places we explored on this trip.
Keep reading my blogs, many more trips to come.
NOTE: Please click on the words in large font in the blog to read about them.
NOTE: Please click on the words in large font in the blog to read about them.


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Anglers ensnare fish with bait, or with man-made lures that look like bait. Anglerfish do the same thing – they have worm-like growths on their heads that act as living fishing lures to entice their prey. The swordtail characin, a small fish from Trinidad and Venezuela, has a similar lure, and it uses it not to attract food, but sex.
The male characin has a small bean-shaped patch attached to his gill flaps by a thin thread. When he swims, he holds these 'flags' against his body. When he encounters a female, he flares one of them out in front of her. The female clearly thinks that the flag is food, for she bites at it vigorously. While she's occupied, the male sidles across and impregnates her with his sperm. Unlike many other fish, which shoot sperm and eggs into the water, characins fertilise each other internally, just like us. The male, however, doesn't have any sort of penetrating organ, so he needs to bump into the female just so. And his bizarre ornament ensures that she's in exactly the right place. Niclas Kolm
and Göran Arnqvist
have been studying the characins for several years, and they've shown that characins from different Trinidadian streams have distinctly shaped flags. Now, they think they know why. The characins feed on manna from heaven – insects that fall into the water from overhanging plants. On average, half of their diet consists of tree-dwelling ants, but that proportion can vary between 10 and 75 per cent. The ant portion of their menu is dictated by their environment: if they live in wider streams, they have more plants growing overhead, and more ants fall within their reach. Now, Kolm and Arnqvist have shown that the flags of male characins look more like ants in streams where the female eats more ants. Together with Mirjam Amcoff and Richard Mann, they captured characins from 17 different streams around Trinidad. They measured the shape of the male's flag and the contents of the female's guts, and showed that these traits are related. In streams where females eat more ants, the males' flags are more tapered and curved towards their far end. This more closely mimics the shape of an ant with its narrow waist connecting a thick torso and abdomen. It's very different to the oval shape of a beetle – the characins' second favourite food.
Are these ant-like flags more successful at attracting ant-eating females? Kolm and Arnqvist found out by using characins that had been raised in captivity, and had never seen an ant before. They fed these females with either ants or other insects, before presenting them with males from different streams. Sure enough, females that had gorged on ants were more likely to attack the ant-like flags of males from streams where females naturally eat lots of ants. It's a really elegant experiment – one that strongly supports the idea that the male flags have evolved to tap into the sensory biases of the females. As Kolm writes, "The shape of the male flag ornament…has evolved to track the search images that females employ in foraging." It's a lure that evolves according to the preferences of its target. But the important thing here is that those preferences are originally driven by the environment. It's the width of the streams that determines how many ants the females encounter, and thus what shapes the males' lures take. This process, where animal signals evolve to account for the properties of their environment and stand out more strongly, is known as sensory drive. And in this case, it's driving the divergence of different characin populations. Reference: Kolm, Amcoff, Mann & Arnqvist. 2012. Diversification of a Food-Mimicking Male Ornament via Sensory Drive. Current Biology http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.05.050