text:
Get DVD Talk Feeds
Easily weighing in as the most exhaustive DVD treatment of a film series in 2004, The Ultimate Matrix Collection is daunting in its mere description—10 discs holding everything you ever wanted to know about The Matrix trilogy. Debuting in two incarnations—a standard edition and a Limited Edition—that vary only in their packaging, the set is a Matrix monster, plugging you in to a brand-new visual presentation of the first film and assembling a vast array of heretofore unseen special features and, for good measure, also throwing in some stuff you might already have in your collection.
Particularly if you're a fan of the saga, this set is going to deliver some redundancy. But can you resist the sheer coolness of this comprehensive behemoth? The Ultimate Matrix Collection is a scrumptious, only slightly flawed film-school compendium of a remarkable series of films, and even if your reactions to the Wachowskis' cerebral trilogy were of increasing disappointment as it approached its narrative climax, this set will give you a much deeper understanding of the astonishing intellectual scope of the project and will show you exactly what it was like to be on the sets, making these films. The Ultimate Matrix Collection truly lives up to its title.
When we first spoke of The Matrix, it was in hushed tones—"What is the Matrix?" we whispered, echoing the film's mysterious and compelling marketing campaign. Bolstered by obviously groundbreaking effects and a foundation in sci-fi kung-fu noir, the trailers hooked us at soul level, and we flocked to the cineplex like true movie geeks. When that Matrix code began raining down the screen, we knew we were in for something special, and the film—written and co-directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski—delivered on its multi-layered promises. The Matrix exploded at the box office, at once thrilling audiences with its spectacularly choreographed action sequences and engaging the mind with its underlying explorations of religious motifs, age-old philosophical questions, and mythological constructs. More than anything else, perhaps, it was a film that supremely kicked ass.
Or perhaps you, like me, required a second viewing to truly appreciate The Matrix. It's a dense creation, and on first viewing, it's almost too much to process. On the surface, it's a rousing, immersive sci-fi actioner, filled with neo-noir set-pieces, energetic wire-fu (little seen in American cinema at the time), surprisingly effective martial-arts clashes among the principal cast, and blistering special-effects innovation. The film's "Bullet Time" sequences have been an endless source of homages and ripoffs since 1999, when The Matrix hit screens, and the film's dark, seamless CG landscapes proved instantly provocative. Taken as only that—a sci-fi techno joyride—The Matrix is an already entertaining and groundbreaking film, but it's the deeply resonant story within, the stuff that's going on underneath the stylish escapism, that makes the film remarkable.
The Matrix begins in the world of today but escapes this realm in a way heretofore relegated to world of ideas. Computer hacker Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves)—who goes by the hacker alias Neo—is living a life of quiet desperation and foundering in the grip of a stifling corporate career. One day, as if yanked by fate, he's contacted by the stylishly mysterious, black-clad Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who apparently belongs to a group of computer terrorists led by the legendary Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). Bedecked in dark leather, with ultra-cool eye-pieces affixed to his face, Morpheus explains to Neo that he is actually a slave in a world ruled by machines, and that reality as he knows it is actually a construct, a dream, a Nozikian computer program devised by sentient machines to keep humanity enslaved in pods while using our collective life force as a source of energy. This virtual-reality construct is called the Matrix.
Morpheus has freed Neo from the Matrix because he believes that Neo is "The One" who will ultimately bring an end to the struggle between man and machine, and bring victory to the underground human mecca of Zion. As you might expect, Neo finds his new predicament a bit hard to swallow. The Matrix is about his struggle to find his way in a new world, and to come to terms with his role as the chosen one. It's a rebirth into a new consciousness, and Neo embarks on the mythic journey of the Hero. Indeed, the film dutifully follows the Hero's path—the loss of innocence, the call to adventure, the crossing of the threshold, the initiation, the meeting with the goddess, the transformation, the revelation. Along this path, Neo confronts many challenges, most of them at the hands of Agent Smith, a sinister, sentient program within the Matrix.
Filled to brimming with skewed notions of reality absorbed from the likes of Descartes, Kant, Lewis Carroll, and Philip K. Dick, The Matrix gets more and more intricate the deeper you burrow into its rabbit hole. Turn a corner here, and you're confronted by the specter of Gnostic Christian theory. Look in that door, and you're faced with Plato allegory. Pick up that ringing phone, and you're on the line with Jean Baudrillard. And somehow, the magical contraption manages to hold together, bursting from the screen with high-tech, Joel-Silver gloss while harboring a deep, delicious pop wisdom at its heart. The Matrix was, and remains, a superbly crafted and intelligent science-fiction flick, a near-perfect singular celluloid entity.
Which made the prospect of a sequel interesting. After the success of The Matrix at the box office and its almost instant ascendance into pop-culture iconography, Warner didn't hesitate to green-light the filming of back-to-back sequels. Turns out, the Wachowskis had envisioned a trilogy all along, and only after the first film's financial triumph was it possible for their tale to continue. The result was a 4-year process of extending the universe and ideas of the original film, resulting in a Matrix double-whammy in the summer and fall of 2003. Anticipation rocketed skyward, thanks to both the cult status of the original movie and another soul-stirring marketing campaign.
When The Matrix Reloaded debuted, it crashed headlong into those feverish anticipations. Perhaps no film could have lived up to the first film's reputation of standalone, mythic perfection. But The Matrix Reloaded is a splendid—if flawed—sequel, infusing the Matrix mythology with a tangible sense of more. True to the very notion of the sequel, Reloaded expands the world of the first film, lending a remarkable new depth and density to the underlying philosophies—and I say philosophies, plural, because the film is a wild amalgam of jazz philosophy, raking in classical influences and regurgitating them into the established Matrix realm. And like the first film, it kicks some serious ass—in fact, Reloaded contains the most thrilling, elaborate action set pieces of the entire trilogy. All of which makes you wonder why, even though it broke box-office records, most audiences were left underwhelmed.
The story kicks off with the revelation that the machines have discovered the location of the Zion underworld, and a quarter million Sentinels—vicious, flying spider-like hunter robots—are digging their way toward a brutal confrontation with the last vestiges of humanity. Morpheus clings fervently to his belief that Neo will become the savior of his race, and Neo continues to explore his unique capabilities and develop his powers. Reloaded becomes a race against time, as Zion's military leaders prepare for battle and Neo struggles to gain a deeper understanding of his role in the fate of humankind. He's also haunted by a nightmare of Trinity dying, and in this film, they consummate their love just as Zion celebrates its earthy, multicultural humanity in a much-maligned Rave sequence that precedes the preparation what could be man's greatest battle. (These two scenes establish Reloaded as the sexiest Matrix film.) As Zion thrums with nervous energy, waiting for that first Sentinel to pierce its vast ceiling, an old friend reacquaints himself with Neo: Agent Smith, seemingly destroyed at the end of the first film, has returned in a new form, and he will unwittingly become the key to mankind's survival.
The yin-yang symbiosis of the relationship between Neo and Smith, the increased levels of religious iconography, the general sense of far more going on beneath the surface, and—let's get right to it—that talky, intricate scene between Neo and the Architect: These things no doubt turned off many viewers, who had hoped for more of the relative simplicity of the first film. Whereas The Matrix might require two viewings to truly appreciate its deeper meanings, Reloaded requires three or four—and each time you take it in, it becomes larger and more cerebrally resonant.
That being said, Reloaded can be talky, and therein lies its primary fault. Even the first Matrix, at times, fails to heed the age-old cinematic and literary wisdom of "show-don't-tell," giving Morpheus long, long scenes of exposition, just flowing out of his mouth. But the ideas of that film are more accessible and, to a certain degree, philosophically tighter. Reloaded's ideas come at you in a less-structured manner, from the mouths of multiple new characters, and audiences were less likely to invest the effort to understand them. Adding insult to injury, the deeply expository Architect scene—rather than another wire-fu extravaganza—acts as the film's climax, at which point you could practically hear the collective rustle of the audience checking its watches.
Reloaded asks a lot of its viewers. It attempts to balance its cacophony of ideas with brilliant action sequences and that gorgeously green Matrix style, but in the end, viewers were unwilling or unable to digest the film's symbolic and mythological influences. I believe it to be a woefully underrated sequel, and I think if the third film had lived up to the promise of the second film, the Matrix trilogy would already be heralded as an unprecedented "sci-phi" classic rather than dismissed as "one great film and two films bloated with talky nonsense." I believe it's in the third film that the Wachowskis lost their way.
The Matrix Revolutions debuted to a sense of diluted expectation, but I had confidence that the Wachowskis could come up with a satisfying emotional and intellectual payoff to what had come before. Once again—this time despite a muted marketing campaign—the film broke opening-weekend box-office records, but quickly faded out. Hopeful fans had packed in, desperate to see that payoff, but word of mouth was more of a disappointed murmur. Audiences filed out of auditoriums bemoaning the confusing story and the lack of engaging characters—and at least on the latter point, I found myself in reluctant agreement.
Revolutions begins precisely where Reloaded left off, with Neo confronting a weighty spiritual challenge, Morpheus facing the notion that his beliefs have been false all along, and Zion anticipating the imminent invasion of a quarter-million angry machines. Agent Smith continues to gain power, having now found a way to inhabit the real world. As the saga's chaos of ideas come to a head, Revolutions becomes an all-out war film (with very little actual military sense), staging fantastically elaborate CG battle sequences between man and machine, and filling in the blank spots with silly, naïve battleground machismo and plucky female warriors wandering Zion tunnels—all at the expense of everything we care about in the Matrix universe: the characters. Through most of the film, Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity are non-entities, ghosts of what they were, often separated by circumstance or—worse—merely riding along on the waves of the film's underlying meanings. They no longer feel like willing participants in their own story.
What should be the emotional climax to the entire saga—Neo's journey to Machine City to confront the malevolent AI presence that controls the Matrix and threatens the existence of humanity—ends up a hollow, solely cerebral moment. At hand is the Apocalypse at Zion, the final cataclysmic confrontation between the increasingly parallel Smith and Neo, as well as the essential Eros-inspired pure love between Neo and Trinity, and yet none of it resonates in the heart. Even after multiple viewings, you're left at once admiring the film's philosophical scope and regretting the saga's loss of pure narrative. The Wachowskis have sacrificed the indelible personalities of their characters and the powerful narrative drive established in The Matrix and in most of Reloaded in favor of a cold, steely clatter of fragmented intellectualism.
Although I acknowledge the Wachowskis' desire to avoid handing their audiences easy answers, and I appreciate—quite deeply—their efforts to deliver a thinking man's action saga, I wish Revolutions hadn't lost sight of the trilogy's most fundamental aspects: the narrative drive atop the heap of assembled ideas, and the beating hearts of the very human characters who inhabited the first two films. I remain in awe of the outrageous scholarly scale of the Matrix saga, and I will often return to it to study its intricacies. But at this moment, having digested the films for the third or fourth time, and having explored every facet of this exhaustive Ultimate Matrix Collection, I'm still experiencing the bitter aftertaste of that damn red pill.
The packaging for the Ultimate Matrix Collection: Limited Edition carries with it a definite coolness, but the construction is rather flimsy. The discs are stacked in a clear-plastic box, which is labeled elegantly but feels on the cheap side. You slide discs out on thin plastic trays. On the other side of the box is a very well-designed and finely painted Neo bust. Behind the box is a glued-on paper representation of the raining Matrix code, but my copy was marred by one of those damned security stickers. (Why couldn't they affix the sticker to the plastic box, so that it could be easily removed?)
The included booklet has a terrific metallic-green 3-D cover. It includes a reprint of the Written Introduction by the Wachowski Brothers, which also appears on Discs 1, 3, and 5. The rest of the book is devoted to outlining the DVD contents, along with production and behind-the-scenes photographs, conceptual art, and trivia.
Is the packaging worth the extra 50 bucks? Well, let me tell you: It looks awfully cool on my shelf. Isn't that all that matters?
Warner presents The Matrix saga in terrific anamorphic-widescreen transfers of the films' original 2.35:1 theatrical presentations. The biggest image news in the Ultimate Matrix Collection is the creation of a brand-new, sparklingly clear transfer for the original film, which originally debuted on disc during the early days of DVD. Although the image was excellent for its day (going on 5 years ago), looking at it from the perspective of 2004—at a time when our standards have risen and our eyes have become more demanding—reveals an aged appearance. Grain is unnecessarily heavy, and a certain dimness prevails, affecting fine detail and depth.
The new Matrix image is quite different from its previous incarnation, not only in its added levels of depth and detail but—more controversially—in its slight modification from the original theatrical look toward a solid visual style that more closely resembles that of the sequels. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions amped up the green-tinting of the scenes taking place within the matrix and added a more pronounced tinting of blue to real-world scenes, as well as a glowing gold to represent the spiritual. This new effort on the original film's look, supervised by the Wachowskis and director of photography Bill Pope, has applied the same color palette to the film's timing—to the consternation of some diehard fans. Frankly, those who are complaining about the new look are probably forgetting the fact that the original film already did have the green tinting. It's only been marginally elevated in the interest of stylistic consistency.
But, damn, is this a good-looking transfer! I have absolutely no problem with the subtle differences in color, as they give the saga a splendid visual harmony and, more important, the new transfer gives the first film a striking cleanliness and sharpness that renew your appreciation for the Wachowskis' unique visual handiwork. Detail is absolutely fine and filmlike, and the image attains a pleasing depth with its inky blacks, measured contrast, and colors that are perfectly and consistently in service of the new palette. I noticed the appearance of some slight natural grain, and I noticed some very minor ringing on hard edges.
The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions are presented in the same transfers that graced their originally released DVDs. Which is to say that they're both reference-quality, providing images of peerless depth and sharpness with little in the way of digital enhancement or noise.
For all three films, the set provides excellent—if not perfect—Dolby Digital 5.1 audio presentations. Let's talk about the good first. The Matrix DVDs are already established as reference-quality DVDs, boasting very aggressive soundtracks with wide-open soundfields and sensational attention paid to directional sound. These are immersive experiences, mirroring the theatrical soundfield in their envelopment (that is, if you saw the films in excellently equipped auditoriums). When you pay close attention to the front soundstage, you notice a seamless sense of panning combined with clear, natural, even rich effects and vocals. (Regarding vocals, see below for a related complaint.) Attention to fine sound detail is admirable, and the lack of annoying laser-focused directionality is refreshing. Diffusion of appropriate information into all channels puts you right in the midst of the action without sounding gimmicky. The score comes across especially well, with a terrific low-end oomph that also benefits the more resonant effects.
I need to pay special attention to the surround activity. Tour the back of your room with these soundtracks blaring, and the sense of envelopment isn't lost. As you're aware, the Matrix films are filled with action that comes from all directions. They're bursting at the seams, particularly in the sonic realm. The films' many action sequences swirl around you, effects panning past you fluidly and Don Davis's score thrumming from a central location within the room.
The bad news is that, like many recent DVDs and even CDs, dynamic range sounds compressed, thanks mostly to faulty mastering. Although the low end has a terrific, vibrating resonance, the powerful bass is often at the expense of mid-level detail such as, you know, dialog. I found myself frequently forced to crank the volume of these soundtracks 10 decibels beyond my usual reference level to get adequate richness in the midrange. I doubt the presence of DTS would have significantly improved the problem, as the engineers responsible would probably have applied the same grievous overcranking in mastering.
Each film offers English and French 5.1 tracks (the French tracks are dubbed in Quebec). You can access English, French, and Spanish subtitles.
This set's exhaustive extras span all 10 discs, providing about as comprehensive an education about the making of—and meaning behind—the Matrix films as possible within the limitations of the DVD format. I have just come away from a many-hours study of the video, text-based, and still-frame supplements contained herein, and I'm quite happy to say that there's very little actual redundancy going on. We do get some repetition of ideas here and there, but they're presented in different contexts or from different points of view. One of the more enticing aspects of these supplements is the effort on the part of the Wachowskis and the DVD production team to provide a balance of the self-reverential and the critical, embodied primarily in the dual commentaries—themselves acting as a sort of yin and yang—that you'll find over each of the films in the trilogy.
That being said, The Ultimate Matrix Collection gives rise to inevitable complaints. Several previously available features are repeated here, and if you already own them, you're probably going to feel some frustration. Foremost among the redundancies are The Matrix Revisited (which is Disc 2 here), The Animatrix (which is Disc 7 here), the video and audio presentations of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and some of the supplemental footage in the Revisited discs for those two films. I don't deny that those are marks against this set, but the sheer comprehensiveness of the set really does demand the attention of the DVD geek and any fan of The Matrix.
More complaints: There were several times, while clicking through documentaries and short featurettes, when I perceived a certain lack of organization or focus, as if the producers had such a monumental amount of material to work with that they often had trouble putting it in order. Particularly on the three Revisited discs (discussed in detail below), I felt a certain frustration that certain major aspects of the production were given cursory attention—say, in a montage sequence—whereas a relatively minor detail or sequence got micro-detail attention. Or a certain action sequence would receive superficial attention, and only here and there in various featurettes would its specific facets receive more focused attention. There's a randomness to the special features that becomes a bit confusing.
I was also a tad disappointed to see that 95 percent of the video features are presented in full-frame. The immediate contrast to be made with this set is the Return of the King Extended Edition DVD, which—like its predecessors—boasts 1.85:1 anamorphic-widescreen supplements. I can't help but feel a tinge of regret that this set doesn't provide the same attention to the tech geeks among us. I realize that most supplemental footage is shot with 4:3 video cameras, and to accomplish widescreen in such instances, you'd have to crop the image, resulting in lost resolution. But at the same time, I feel real gratitude when a set goes to the extra effort of enhancing its extras. Also, I was frustrated by the fact that the video elements offer no skipping ability, giving the menu navigation an unintuitive quality.
But don't let my quibbles give you the idea that I'm not appreciative of the exhaustiveness of this amazing set. The Ultimate Matrix Collection completely lives up to its title, assembling perhaps every known scrap of behind-the-scenes footage and art, as well as creating captivating supporting material, all in the effort of immersing you fully in the world of The Matrix. Let's walk through the voluminous extras piece by piece.
Disc One: The Matrix
The first supplement you come to on Disc 1, under the Commentaries section, is a Written Introduction by the Wachowski Brothers, spanning about a dozen screens, in which the brothers write—somewhat snarkily and in satirically high-falutin language—about the origins of The Matrix, which they call "a chop-socky flick that comments on the Hegelian dialectic while having a guy who can fly and stop bullets." They also take a moment to comment on why they won't talk about their films, and use their reasoning as a justification for this set's included commentary tracks, which are the next items you come upon in this set.
The Wachowskis envision these two saga-spanning commentary tracks—one from a philosopher duo who enjoy and appreciate the films and another from a group of critics who do not—as complementary in the sense that the juxtaposition of perspectives inherent in the dichotomy creates an implied dialog. It's a fascinating idea that works beautifully in theory, but let's see how it works in "the real world."
The commentary labeled The Philosophers: Dr. Cornel West & Ken Wilber is extremely rich and layered, and it's by far the more involving of the two tracks (at least for this Matrix explorer). Although you'll notice a fair number of silent spots, you really won't mind, because they give you a cerebral break between long strings of powerful thoughts spanning religious allegory, philosophical influences, and mythological structure. It would be easy to dismiss some of these explorations and tangents as mind-scraping gobbledy-gook, and certainly they require you to be open to meaning and willing to accept The Matrix films as something far more than science-fiction action flicks. As these two learned men—who, admittedly, are completely immersed in the philosophical foundations of the films and somewhat blind to the arguably more important functionality of all three films as movie narratives—point out, The Matrix is a many-layered, endlessly curious, resonant work of pop philosophy, rich of meaning and always unraveling in unpredictable ways. I'm inclined to agree, the more I delve into these films' underpinnings, but the question of whether the Matrix films as a whole are successful as films is another question—and one that becomes increasingly important as we move toward the third film. Nevertheless, this is an endlessly fascinating track, if your mind is open to it.
The track labeled The Critics: Todd McCarthy, John Powers & David Thomsen—presents a conversation that's much more likely to annoy you. McCarthy (Variety), Powers (Vogue), and Thomsen (The Biographical Dictionary of Film) make up a catty, name-dropping group prone to summoning the specters of Cocteau, Godard, and film noir, and letting significant dead spots go by, but nevertheless, this track provides a satisfactory counterpoint to the philosopher track, exploring the arguably more essential role of these films as films rather than merely conveyors of resonant ideas. There's definitely a barrier that you must get past here: These critics, assembled into something of a circle-jerk, project the sense that their noses are lifted in film-school superiority, particularly at the start of their conversation. But they do loosen up as the track progresses, and their points are well-taken. Although they have more praise for the first film than not (and in fact end up just watching and appreciating a lot of it), their thoughts about the telling-instead-of-showing nature of the narrative begin here, and I found myself almost reluctantly agreeing with these three. And really, their conversation becomes more involving as we get into the commentaries for the sequels.
Missing from the original Matrix DVD release are several noteworthy special features, including a Commentary by actress Carrie-Anne Moss, visual effects supervisor John Gaeta, and editor Zach Staenberg (no big loss), a good Making of the Matrix featurette, and an Isolated Score by Don Davis track. However, some of the material from the featurette, as well as the well-known easter eggs, finds its way onto the following disc.
Disc Two: The Matrix Revisited
The 2-hour-and-2-minute The Matrix Revisited documentary is the same documentary that was previously available as a standalone disc. This is an utterly exhaustive and almost nostalgic behind-the-scenes look at the making of the first film from the perspective of beginning work on the much-higher-budgeted sequels. It starts in November 1997, sixth months prior to principal photography, and ends in 2000 as rehearsal for the sequels begins. It features generous contributions from the Wachowskis, producer Joel Silver, director of photography Bill Pope, conceptual designer Geof Darrow, visual effects supervisor John Gaeta, production designer Owen Paterson, editor Zach Staenberg, kung-fu choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, actors Keanu Reeves, Hugo Weaving, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Anne Moss, and many more. It's fun to hear the Wachowskis defend their film by saying, as if drugged, "We like kung-fu movies," then segue into the film's origins in Baudrillard's Simulacra & Simulation, a book that actually has a cameo in the film. There's a lot of talk about how now many people—particularly the studio types—just "didn't understand" the concept and the film, and about the Wachowskis efforts to make people understand. Those efforts include elaborate storyboards and conceptual art, and the contributions of Geof Darrow. We then move through set construction and costuming, training ("Kicked my ass," says Fishburne), and actual shooting of several key scenes in Australia (including a scary injury to Moss's ankle), shooting and blocking of several fight sequences ("How we trained and how we filmed were two different things," says Reeves), post-production, the innovative work of the two visual effects companies that contributed to the film, the creation of Don Davis's score (with contributions from both Davis and music supervisor Jason Bentley), and the reaction among the cast and crew to the finished film ("Morpheus scared the shit out of me," says Fishburne). It ends with a brief preview of the sequels. One conclusion after watching this documentary: Andy Wachowski plays with his shoes and goatee a lot. You can watch The Matrix Revisited in one long chunk (that's longer than the actual film), or you can watch it in pieces, thanks to a Chapter Selection screen.
The Music Revisited, which was an easter egg on the original disc, provides 41 tracks of music used in The Matrix.
Under Behind the Matrix, you get six featurettes, totaling 18 minutes if watched with the Play All function.
Under Take the Red Pill, you get two featurettes, adding up to 17 minutes if watched with the Play All function.
Under Follow the White Rabbit, you get nine terrific fly-on-the-wall, narration-free featurettes, totaling 23 minutes if watched with the Play All function.
This disc is different from the original release. It contains a wealth of new featurettes but also drops a few. Missing are the short What Is to Come?, What Is the Animatrix?, Whatisthematrix.com?, and The True Followers featurettes.
Disc Three: The Matrix Reloaded
As with Disc 1, the first extra on Disc 3, under the Commentaries section, is the same Written Introduction by the Wachowski Brothers, so here's an alarming bit of repetitiveness that I hoped wasn't a foreshadow of redundancy to come. (Fortunately, it wasn't.) I suppose the introduction is here for those who might eventually buy these discs individually, outside the set.
We get a second installment of the commentary labeled The Philosophers: Dr. Cornel West & Ken Wilber, and this is a terrifically enriching track when you consider that Matrix Reloaded plays even more deeply with meaning than the first film—sometimes to the detriment of the top-level storytelling. In a way, this track comes across as more of an intellectual defense of the sequel, because both men understand that both sequels met with less-than-enthusiastic public reception. One of the great discussions of this track regards the complex, symbiotic relationship between Neo and Smith. But even more important to both Reloaded and Revolutions is the role of Eros and pure love, which the men discuss at length throughout. We also get a whole new, deeper understanding view of Neo "doing his Superman thing" when we consider Nietzche's notion of the superman rather than the comic-book notion. The Rave sequence is celebrated—as it should be—as a necessary celebration of the body before the confrontation with the machines.
The second installment of The Critics: Todd McCarthy, John Powers & David Thomsen track is when these holier-than-thou boys (still name-dropping) really begin criticizing. In that way, they're acting as the voices for the many critics of the sequels, decrying the films' increasing reliance on philosophical and religious underpinnings and doubting that many of the meanings the Wachowskis were going for actually work in the film. They call the religious imagery and symbolism "oppressive" in the context of the narrative, and as far as the narrative is concerned, they call the dialog wooden and the story filled with self-conscious, masturbatory references. On and on, they criticize the proceedings, calling attention to flaws as compared with the perfection of the first film. You can often hear their derisive laughter at patches of dialog. They call the Rave scene a hilarious, boring, beer-commercial, Joel-Silver, multicultural disco scene. At the same time, they'll describe certain passages of dialog as poetic, and some of the imagery as artistic. I find it very telling that these critics fail to acknowledge the Nietzchian element of the superman in Neo's ascendance and instead just complain about the dredging up of another comic-book superhero. There's definitely the sense that even though they have some valid points about the movie as a movie, they're missing the intended scope. After listening to both commentaries on this disc, you gain a real appreciation for the inclusion of these polar-opposite tracks and the effect they have on your understanding of the films and their strengths and flaws.
Missing from the original Matrix Reloaded DVD release are several supplements, including featurettes called Preload, The Matrix Unfolds, The Freeway Chase, Get Me an Exit, and The MTV Movie Awards Reoladed. However, some (but not all) of the material from the featurettes finds its way onto the following disc.
Disc Four: The Matrix Reloaded Revisited
The Matrix Reloaded Revisited disc differs from the first Revisited disc in that it provides a series of shorter featurettes rather than one lengthy documentary. My preference, given the somewhat disconnected nature of what follows, would be for the long documentary, but that's a personal choice.
The 42-minute Enter the Matrix featurette offers film footage that you might not have seen before, unless you've played the Enter the Matrix video game. This was mostly footage that the Wachowskis shot specifically for the game, and it offers story and character development that expand the Matrix universe. This featurette begins with a short 1-minute introduction in which Joel Silver, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Anthony Wong (Ghost) talk about the background of the Enter the Matrix video game and how the experience of the game is incorporated into the world of the film. Presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 2.0 are, in order of appearance within the game, as follows:
The I'll Handle Them section, which totals 17 minutes if watched with the Play All function, studies the filming of the Merovingian Chateau fight sequence.
The Car Chase section, which totals 55 minutes if watched with the Play All function, studies the intricate freeway chase in micro-detail.
The Teahouse Fight section, which totals 7 minutes if watched with the Play All function, takes a brief look at the tabletop fight between Neo and Seraph.
The Unplugged section, which totals 40 minutes if watched with the Play All function, takes a detailed look at the wildly over-the-top fight sequence between Neo and a hundred Agent Smiths.
The Exiles section, which totals 18 minutes if watched with the Play All function, gives you a good look at the various "exile" characters in Matrix Reloaded.
Disc Five: The Matrix Revolutions
As with Discs 1 and 3, the first extra on Disc 5, under the Commentaries section, is the same Written Introduction by the Wachowski Brothers.
The third installment of The Philosophers: Dr. Cornel West & Ken Wilber commentary begins with West declaring there's "nothing like these films in American or world culture." The philosophers maintain that you really have to read or interpret the Matrix trilogy as a whole to truly understand it. You probably wouldn't want to jump straight into this third philosophers' track before listening to their thoughts over the first two films, because there's a definite progression to both the saga and this rich, continuing discussion of it. Also, because Revolutions is the most inner of the three films, the most focused on meaning, the most removed from the traditional sci-fi action template, their discussion of this film is arguably the most involving, simply because every intellectual facet of the entire saga obviously culminates here. The most interesting aspects of this track, for me, involve the discussions of Neo and Smith as yin and yang—as opposites who must ultimately become one—as well as the importance of Neo's connection with Trinity. West calls modern critics just "too lazy" to appreciate the sequels for what they're offering.
The third installment of The Critics: Todd McCarthy, John Powers & David Thomsen commentary continues these guys' diatribe against the dramatic elements of the story. Although in the case of Revolutions I fall more on the side of the critics than the reverential philosophers, I can still manage to fit my opinion of the story firmly between the two poles of thought. In a way, these laughing critics come across as surface-oriented, blind to deeper meaning, and that becomes tiring, particularly if you've first listened to the philosophers and gained a deeper appreciation for what the Wachowskis have attempted. But there's no denying at all that Revolutions, much more so than Reloaded, suffers from a lack of character focus and narrative sense, and that's what these guys focus on. I find it interesting that one of the critics, at one point, admits that there are surely people who could explain the films' meaning to them in detail. Perhaps they need to listen to the other commentary—and vice versa.
Missing from the original Matrix Revolutions DVD release are several supplements, including featurettes titled Revolutions Recalibrated, CG Revolution, Super Burly Brawl, Before the Revolution, and 3-D Evolution. However, some of the material from the featurette, as well as the well-known easter eggs, finds its way onto the following disc.
Disc Six: The Matrix Revolutions Revisited
Similar to The Matrix Reloaded Revisited, this disc brings you a series of featurettes rather than one long documentary. More people-focused than the first two Revisited discs, this one really gives you a deep appreciation for the Herculean efforts of the craftsmen and craftswomen involved in the production.
The Crew section, which totals 25 minutes if watched with the Play All function, gives you generous peeks at the guys and gals behind the scenes, the people with the typically thankless jobs.
The Hel section, which totals 28 minutes if watched with the Play All function, offers a look at the strangely derivative Club Hel sequence, which nevertheless offers some innovations, as you'll see.
The Siege section, which totals 40 minutes if watched with the Play All function, is a detailed examination of the film's ridiculously elaborate machine attack.
The Super Burly Brawl section, which totals 17 minutes if watched with the Play All function, is a look at the final battle between Neo and Smith, which takes place in "chubby rain" and spans the sky. Frankly, I felt that this section didn't dive quite deeply enough into an important sequence.
The New Blue World section, which totals 26 minutes if watched with the Play All function, feels like a kind of "miscellaneous" section, holding featurettes that didn't fit well in the exisiting categories.
The Aftermath section, which totals 40 minutes if watched with the Play All function, discusses a few of the sequels' post-photography elements.
Disc Seven: The Animatrix
This disc is virtually identical to the standalone Animatrix DVD that debuted just prior to the theatrical release of Matrix Reloaded. The menus are the same, except for a unifying element at the very start, involving the Architect's many-monitored perspective.
This anthology of nine anime short films is an excellent expansion of the Matrix universe. The Wachowskis enlisted seven animation artists from Japan, Korea, and the United States to helm the films, and the result is a cornucopia of styles and palettes. Many of the shorts have direct ties into the narrative of the live-action films, and they can illuminate your understanding of the Matrix films' sometimes-labyrinthine plot complexities. The Wachowskis wrote four of the tales and collaborated closely with the animators of the other five.
The nine shorts that make up this DVD are by turns thrilling, disturbingly violent, unrelentingly kick-ass, and—I'm afraid to say—a bit uneven. However, the fool's gold is far outweighed by the real stuff, and in the end, the disc offers an exciting and extremely rewatchable grab-bag of animated gems, comprised of widely varying styles that both enrich your appreciation for the animation medium and provide an eye-popping evening of entertainment.
You can choose to Play All, or you can watch the shorts individually. I wish that the creators of this new set had paid some attention to the menus, because the original menus aren't as user-friendly as I would have liked, but they're not horrible. The disc contains the following nine short films:
Image quality of these animated films is exquisite. All the Animatrix shorts appear in absolutely fine anamorphic-widescreen transfers of their 2.35:1 presentation. Across the board, the short films boast a level of fine detail and gorgeous depth that will bring a grin on your lips. In Final Flight of the Osiris, for example, you can study the fine pores of the characters' faces in minute detail. Throughout, colors pop, and black levels are richly deep. All the distinct color palettes are rendered dramatically. I noticed no aliasing along hard lines, and only occasional artifacting. I do have very small complaints, though. First, I noticed the presence of minor edge enhancement in scenes of high contrast. Second, I witnessed a few moments in which mosquito noise reared its head on bright whites. Third, in an isolated case, Final Flight of the Isiris seemed a bit darker than I remember it being in the theater—but still eminently watchable.
Sound quality is also top-notch. The disc includes English, French, and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks (with appropriate subtitles, including Spanish). Each is full and rich, offering clear and distinct dialog with no brittleness, a punchy and full music presence, and immersive surround effects that are at once entertainingly directional and enveloping.
As for Animatrix-related supplements, you'll find several enticing features under a section labeled Bonus_Data.
Missing from the original disc is a featurette titled Enter the Matrix: In the Making, a 3-minute preview of the Enter the Matrix video game.
Disc Eight: The Roots of the Matrix
Here's perhaps the most dense and intellectually enjoyable disc of extras that I've come across in my DVD-reviewing years—they're full of foundational information, but the material is presented in an entertaining way, much like the Matrix films themselves. What does it say about me that I was completely and utterly involved with the two deeply exploratory documentaries on this disc, and found them, especially the first one, to be the most enriching of the entire set? Both delve appreciatively into the "jazz mythology" of the Matrix films, exploring the many philosophical and religious and scientific underpinnings of the story. Let me put it this way: You'll gain an extra degree of geek enjoyment from these two documentaries if you can appreciate that they're both 1 hour and 1 minute long (1:01).
I was happy to see that these two pieces, unlike all the material on the Revisited discs, are presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen.
Return to Source: Philosophy & The Matrix (61 minutes)—This is a fantastic dive into the mind of The Matrix series, taking you through the ideas behind each film, one by one. A gaggle of philosophers (most of them university professors) and science-fiction authors (including Bruce Sterling and John Shirley) revel in their enjoyment of the chaos of influences and ideas that make the films so rich behind the kung-fu and action sequences. Excitedly, they talk about the importance of Gnostic Christianity, Plato's allegory of the cave ("The life you've led isn't the totality of what's possible for you"), Rene Descartes ("What is real?"), George Berkeley ("Reality exists only in your subjective experience"), Immanuel Kant ("The structures of the mind bring forth reality"), Friedrich Nietzsche ("We need to wake up from the herd mentality"), Jean Baudrillard ("The map of the real is more important than the real"), and Robert Nozik ("Would you be willing to plug into a fantasy life and not even realize you're plugged in?"). Then they move on to the second and third film—and as one philosopher says, "The Wachowskis delivered an entertaining action film in the first Matrix, and wanted to bring in more of their riddles, more of their tapestry of ideas, in the second and third films." Essential to The Matrix Reloaded, according to these enlightened commentators, are the Hindu Upanishads ("All things are united as one and come from the same source"), the New Testament ("The Old Testament made new"), Pierre-Simon LaPlace ("What happens at every given moment is determined by the universe's smallest parts"), and David Hume ("How do we know the future will continue to be like the past?"). Even the rave is explained, for you rave-haters: It's a celebration of embodiment and sensuality, which is what differentiates the humans from the machines. You might have also been frustrated by the many times Neo, in Reloaded, faces a choice of two options—binary choices—but the idea of his inability to transcend dichotomies is essential to his character: Neo's a slave to his choices. Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is very important to the second film—particularly his ideas about causality and free will. Revolutions is celebrated as a return to enlightenment and at the same time (in the epic battle against the machines) a nod to the Book of Revelations and the Apocalypse. A Taoist sense of balance and harmony is also essential to the final film, and it's interesting to see how the yin-yang notion plays out. It's also no surprise that the humans and machines end up coexisting in peace. Key quote in this documentary: "It's the perfect movie to build a philosophy course around. Modern philosophy begins with Descartes thinking that we're brains in vats." You come away from this documentary admiring the Wachowskis' extraordinary ambition in embarking on a project with such enormous intellectual scope.
The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction (61 minutes)—This documentary focuses on the saga's notion of humanity's dependence on and eventual slavery to machines. This starts as a rather disturbing look at our increasing interaction with computers and, for example, video games, so that we're more involved with the "reality" of a virtual world than with the real world. Virtual environments have become so real and so artistic and interesting that we prefer those environments and lose sight of our humanity. The mind-body dualism of Descartes is again brought up in this discussion of man as machine, leading into the notion of artificial intelligence, the intricacies of which are talked about in detail. This documentary doesn't offer the kind of specific analysis of the films that the first documentary does, but it's fascinating scientific background material nevertheless. Cool quote: "The first aliens we meet are going to be the ones we invent."
Watch for a series of Easter Eggs that add up to about 20 minutes of additional material. The first is a 4-minute piece that talks about the stages of the Hero's Journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell, and how they manifest themselves specifically in the story of The Matrix. The second is a 4-minute dissection of the very considered names used for the major characters in the films (Trinity and the importance of threes, Morpheus and the God of dreams, Agent Smith and the creation of weapons). The third is a 2-minute piece that discusses the importance of the Merovingian and Persephone in the mythology behind the series. The fourth is a 5-minute piece that talks about the multiple interpretations you can take from the films ("Is Agent Smith the film's Christ figure?"). The fifth is a 1-minute look at intelligent, modular robotics. The sixth is a 2-minute glance at the use of biological molecules in building next-generation computing materials. The seventh is a 1-minute look at people's casual reaction to the notion of an artificially intelligent robot.
Disc Nine: The Burly Man Chronicles
After wading through the exhaustive material presented on the three individual Revisited discs, you might think there's nothing left to see, but the single documentary contained on this disc will probably change your mind. At this point in my reviewing efforts, I felt a sense of awe as I understood the lengths to which The Ultimate Matrix Collection is going to provide an unprecedented understanding of the making of these films.
The Burly Man Chronicles (95 minutes)—This is a very satisfying, comprehensive, fly-on-the-wall documentary chronicling the making of Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, which were shot back to back over a period of about 4 years, beginning in August 2000. Behind-the-scenes footage is presented chronologically, through every aspect of the production, so that you get a real understanding of what exactly was happening when, and what scenes were being shot or prepared for simultaneously with others. Much of the actual information here is redundant from the Revisited discs we've already seen, but for you completists out there (and if you're reading this deeply into this review, you probably are one), there's a ton of new footage, giving you a much firmer idea of the mood of the set, the details of the production, and the day-to-day tasks of the many artisans involved. On the whole, there's a terrific voyeuristic feel to this footage, and it gives you more of a sense of the actual making of the film—within the context of the real world—than anything else in this set.
Follow the White Rabbit—This familiar feature lets you watch the Burly Man Chronicles documentary with a white-rabbit icon enabled. When it appears on your screen (which is quite often), press Enter to access additional information about individual craftspeople involved in the production of the films. (I was surprised to see that these little video segments add up to nearly 90 minutes of additional material!) You can also access these short featurettes in three groupings, as follows:
Disc 10: The Zion Archive
Now we come to the more static, non-video-based supplements. Yes, the films' trailers are here, but mostly, this is a collection of slide shows and galleries that show off conceptual art, production design, CG concepts, and storyboards. What I didn't find, however, were marketing materials such as posters and publicity photos, the former of which were quite striking.
The Zion Archive is, hands down, the most exhaustive collection of conceptual and production art that I've ever seen assembled on a DVD. Although its menus are clunky and unintuitive, there's a wealth of information here, if you're into things like storyboards and pre-production art. The archive is divided Storyboards, Characters, Ships, Machines, and Sets, and subtopics beneath those topics take you to quick slideshows of art for just about every aspect of The Matrix that you can think of. I'm amazed by the depth of artwork presented here. The menus are needlessly cryptic, with labels that appear for a couple seconds, then disappear, giving way to mere symbols that you're required to remember. There's even a Help icon that you can click if you forget what the icons stand for. Doing so will bring the labels back, but only temporarily. I found this irritating, particularly because you can navigate only by way of the icons.
The Media of the Matrix is broken down into three subsections for The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions and gives you a generous array of Trailers and TV Spots, as well as Music Videos by Marilyn Manson ("Rock Is Dead") and P.O.D. ("Sleeping Awake"). I was disappointed to see that both the Teaser Trailer and Theatrical Trailer for the first film are presented in full-frame only, with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. The sequel trailers fare better, with an upgrade to anamorphic widescreen (but no surround sound).
The 9-minute Rave Reel is a video montage of CG-progression shots, showing glimpses of early versions of finished animation. All three movies are represented, and there's no real rhyme or reason to the imagery that flies at you, but it's a kick to see it all as one cumulative effort. It plays like a hyperkinetic CG music video.
The 10-minute Matrix Online Preview is a sneak peek at a new online-gaming edition of the Matrix video game.
Despite niggling complaints, The Ultimate Matrix Collection is a spectacular achievement in comprehensive DVD film study. It's got some elements you might already be familiar with, and its voluminous supplements aren't quite as perfectly organized as I hoped they might be. However, the presentation of the films is, in many ways, peerless. Image quality, including the new Matrix transfer, is universally fine, and sound quality is above average. The sheer fabulousness of this set—which celebrates the making of, and meaning behind, a uniquely innovative sci-fi techno wire-fu cerebro-noir saga—easily deserves DVD Talk's very highest recommendation. Free your mind with this year's finest DVD set.


text:
A couple of days ago I wrote a blog postulating that Without Changes, You Have No Story, and I stick to that premise. Characters need to change, the relationships of the characters to each other need to change, story expectations need to change, the direction of the story (and each scene) needs to change. But there was a discussion on that blog post centered on what degree it is possible for characters to change, and if they truly do change, and that made me think.
Some psychologists say we never change in any basic way, that our characters and essential personalities are our foundation, that we can only change in small ways, such as changing our habits or changing our focus. This is at odds with books about writing, which claim characters must do a complete about face, a 180° turnaround to show how the events of the story affected the characters. I thought I'd created strong character arcs for each of my characters, with my characters ending up different from the way they began, but now that I consider it, I don't see that my characters change in any fundamental way. They become more of who they were, perhaps, but not recognizably different.
In More Deaths Than One, we see a gradual change in Bob Stark, the hero, see his current concept of himself eroded until he becomes what he once was and now will always be. (A bit cryptic, I know, but since this is the crux of the story, I don't want to spoil it in case you haven't yet read the book.) But he didn't really change. He only seemed to change.
In A Spark of Heavenly Fire — which was inspired by a Washington Irving quote: "There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." — Kate Cummings seems to change in response to the red death and the resulting martial law that is destroying Colorado, seems to kindle up and beam and blaze in the dark hour of adversity, but there are hints in the story that she was always like that. Her spark of heavenly fire — her generosity — was merely hidden from herself and from us until a life-altering event stripped her to the core.
In Daughter Am I, Mary Stuart never truly changes, though she also seems to change. She was unsure of herself, unsure of what she wanted, unwilling to make a commitment of any kind even to a job, until she set out to discover who her grandparents were, who wanted them dead, and why her parents lied about their existence. It wasn't out of character, perhaps, for her to drive halfway across the country in search of the truth because she only went along with what others wanted. At least in the beginning. As the journey progressed, she learned the truth she was seeking, and an even greater truth — who she is. She is granddaughter, daughter, and herself. Mostly herself. But that isn't a change. It's a discovery. A coming home.
In Light Bringer, neither Becka nor Phillip change. Again, they just discover who they are, a truth that had been kept from them their whole lives. In all my books, but Light Bringer especially, what changes is the reader's perception of who the characters are. The truth is slowly revealed, and each revelation seems to show a change in the characters, but in the end they simply become what they always were.
How very odd to learn this so long after having written the books.
(Click on a title to read the first chapter of the book.)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
In the wake of a jury of six women — reportedly five white and one Hispanic — returning a 'not guilty' verdict for George Zimmerman, soul legend Stevie Wonder publicly pledged during a concert Sunday in Quebec City, Canada, not to perform in the state of Florida until its 'Stand Your Ground' laws are abolished, reports Complex Magazine.
Though defense attorney Mark O' Mara decided to go with a self-defense claim rather than a 'Stand Your Ground' defense, the jury instructions included language clearly indicative of that law, including that Zimmerman had "no duty to retreat" in the face of an alleged attack by 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Martin, who was unarmed, was fatally shot at close range with Zimmerman's Kel-Tec 9mm handgun, which has since been returned to him.
Wonder, who has been an activist for change throughout his career, was clear that he would not be performing in Florida, nor any other state with 'Stand Your Ground' laws.
"The truth is that—for those of you who've lost in the battle for justice, wherever that fits in any part of the world—we can't bring them back. What we can do is we can let our voices be heard. And we can vote in our various countries throughout the world for change and equality for everybody. That's what I know we can do.
"And I know I'm not everybody, I'm just one person. I'm a human being. And for the gift that God has given me, and from whatever I mean, I decided today that until the Stand Your Ground law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again. As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world.
"Because what I do know is that people know that my heart is of love for everyone. When I say everyone I mean everyone. As I said earlier, you can't just talk about it, you have to be about it. We can make change by coming together for the spirit of unity. Not in destruction, but in the perpetuation of life itself."
Wonder canceled a December 6, 2012 performance in Israel for the 'Friends of the Israel Defense Forces,' which raises money for Israeli soldiers and their families.
After fans and critics of Zionism and Israel's violence against Palestinians petitioned Wonder to pull out of the event, he issued the following statement:
"Given the current and very delicate situation in the Middle East, and with a heart that has always cried out for world unity, I will not be performing at the F.I.D.F. gala," Mr. Wonder said in a statement to Reuters. "I am and have always been against war, any war, anywhere."
Read more http://newsone.com/2634650/stevie-wonder-boycotts-florida/


text:
Just about every book about evolution points to the hand and foot structure of tetrapods —that is, land-dwelling vertebrates—as an example of homology. Tetrapods have five digits on their front and rear feet. Even if these do not always fully resemble fingers or toes, these creatures are still regarded as pentadactyl (having five digits) because of their bone structure.
The hands and feet of a frog, a lizard, a squirrel or a monkey are all of this kind. Even the bone structures of birds and bats agree with this basic design. Therefore, evolutionists claim that all these life forms are evolved from a single common ancestor and for long, they regarded the phenomenon of pentadactylism as evidence of this. In our own time, however, it was realized that this claim actually lacked any scientific validity.
Even evolutionists admit that pentadactylism is a characteristic found in different living groups among which they cannot construct any evolutionary relationship. For example, in two separate articles published in 1991 and 1996, the evolutionist biologist M. Coates states that the phenomenon of pentadactylism emerged on two separate occasions, independently of one another. According to Coates, a pentadactyl structure emerged in both Anthracosaurs and in amphibians, quite independently of each other.164 This finding indicates that pentadactylism cannot represent any evidence for the hypothesis of a common ancestor. (See Common ancestor.)
Another difficulty for the evolutionists is that these vertebrates have five digits on both their front and hind feet. Yet nowhere in the evolutionist literature is it suggested that front and back feet developed from a common ancestor and it is not hypothesized that they then developed independently. Therefore, we would expect front and back feet to have different structures as a result of different random mutations.
[T]he forelimbs of all terrestrial vertebrates are constructed according to the same pentadactyl design, and this is attributed by evolutionary biologists as showing that all have been derived from a common ancestral source. But the hind limbs of all vertebrates also conform to the pentadactyl pattern and are strikingly similar to the forelimbs in bone structure and in their detailed embryological development. Yet no evolutionist claims that the hind limb evolved from the forelimb, or that hind limbs and forelimbs evolved from a common source. . . . Invariably, as biological knowledge has grown, common genealogy as an explanation for similarity has tended to grow ever more tenuous. . . . Like so much of the other circumstantial "evidence"" for evolution, that drawn from homology is not convincing because it entails too many anomalies, too many counter-instances, far too many phenomena which simply do not fit easily into the orthodox picture. 165
The real blow to the claim of five-digit homology, so long propagated in evolutionist publications, was dealt by molecular biology. The hypothesis collapsed when it was realized that finger structure was controlled by different genes in different species with a pentadactyl digit structure.


text:
I ran into a bug in my code today based on an errant assumption. Namely, I thought that:
Thread[Equal[{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}]]
Thread[SameQ[{aa, bb, cc}, {dd, ee, ff}]]
{aa == dd, bb == ee, cc == ff}
Respectively (variables are undefined). What I get instead is
{aa == dd, bb == ee, cc == ff}
Which I can argue makes sense, since the lists aren't equivalent. But why doesn't
Thread work? What's the precedence argument here? How can I get the answer I want (
{False,False,False}) from a similar construct?


text:
Access BlackRock's Q2 2020 earnings now.
Our thought leadership in investing, risk management, portfolio construction and trading solutions.
Access BlackRock's Q2 2020 earnings now.
Our thought leadership in investing, risk management, portfolio construction and trading solutions.
Anne F. Ackerley, Managing Director, is head of BlackRock's US & Canada Defined Contribution (USDC) Group. She is responsible for the development and distribution of Defined Contribution strategies and services to both institutional and retail clients and consultants. Ms. Ackerley is a member of BlackRock's Global Operating Committee and the Human Capital Committee.
In Ms. Ackerley's former roles as the Chief Marketing Officer of BlackRock and as the Chief Operating Officer for the Marketing and Communications Group, she was responsible for driving BlackRock's marketing strategy, including ongoing efforts to build the BlackRock brand. Prior to these roles, she was the Chief Operating Officer of BlackRock's Global Client Group, developing and driving strategy across BlackRock's client businesses from 2009-2011. She held various leadership roles in BlackRock's US Retail Group from 2000-2009 including serving as the head of the mutual fund group, the business liaison to the mutual fund boards and President of BlackRock's open-and closed-end mutual funds.
Prior to joining BlackRock in 2000, Ms. Ackerley spent 15 years at Merrill Lynch, most recently as the chief operating officer for the mergers and acquisitions department.
Ms. Ackerley served on the board of Governors of the Investment Company Institute from 2002 to 2005 as well as on the board of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School from 2011 to 2013. She serves on the Harvard-Radcliffe Alumni Schools Committee and is a trustee of the Riverdale Mental Health Association. Ms. Ackerley was honored by the YWCA Academy of Women Leaders in 2013 and was named a 2013 trailblazer by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) for her work in advancing gender equity.
Ms. Ackerley earned a BA, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in economics from Harvard College in 1984 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1988.


text:
The Conout team was our preferred event partner during the conference.
Sebastian and his team were able to demonstrate their passion for event management and organized great activities during 3 days.
We conducted a boat tour on the Chiemsee followed by a great dinner.
Enjoyed a team building event with 35 international attendees and finally had a trip to the Bavarian mountains to a nice hut completed by a torch hike back to our bus.
We would always come back to Conout! A great partner


text:
Hey guys/girls,
Looking for some competitive play around the Fairfax area. Willing to drive to most courts. I am 4.5 and want to get ready for the summer. Connect with me if you are able......
All the best,
Views: 610
Replies to This Discussion
Hey Eric,
Just finished sending you an email!
Let me know if you want to hit today. My partner canceled and I need to get to the courts!
jrstriker 12 at yahoo dot com
James R.
Hi, My name is Vlad, I am a 24 year old guy.
I am also looking for an advanced partner to play tennis in Faifax/Chantilly in the evenig or on Weekends on a regular basis, myself used to play for 4.5 years professionaly when I was a tenneager, Pretty skilled on a court, just need a liitle time and practice to come back in a good shape.
Prefer aggressive tennis on a base line. Avaible nigths and weekends.
If you are interetsted, please call or text me at (703)-474-0555 or email at firstname.lastname@example.com
Are you still looking for tennis players? let me know
Hi Dennis,
© 2020 Created by Mark / The Mayor. Powered by


text:
Amy Sancetta / AP file
Bruce Springsteen performs at an outdoor campaign rally Nov. 2, 2008, for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama at the Cleveland Mall, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Bruce Springsteen will hit the campaign trail on President Barack Obama's behalf.
The musician will join former President Bill Clinton at a free rally in Parma, Ohio, on Thursday, two days after the second presidential debate. Obama will not attend the rally. Springsteen will also do a separate event Thursday.
Campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement reported by The Washington Post that Springsteen echoes the values the president is fighting for. He added that Springsteen's appearances will help get out the vote efforts in Ohio, a swing state whose 18 electoral college votes are considered crucial.
Springsteen campaigned for Obama in 2008, but this is his first political appearance of the 2012 cycle.
The president uses Springsteen's song, "We Take Care of Our Own," in his 2012 campaign song playlist at rallies, the Post reported.
Clinton has become an increasingly prominent surrogate for Obama, campaigning for the president in several battleground states.
Clinton and Springsteen's joint appearance in Ohio underscores the importance of the key swing state. Polls show Obama with a slight lead there over Mitt Romney, but the Republican presidential candidate is spending an increasing amount of time and resources in the state ahead of Election Day.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


text:
Carl Duisberg Centren is your competent partner for high-quality training programs in Berlin, Cologne,
Munich and Radolfzell. Our Intensive German courses are efficient and targeted, and experienced language trainers create the optimal learning environment for you so that you achieve your learning goals in best time.
The school, founded in 1958, offers various types of quality German courses for academic, personal or professional purposes all year round. Collegium Palatinum is committed to high quality standards in language education, and the programs are combined with culture and leisure activities. The school provide accommodation in host families or student apartments.
Welcome to the German Language School Colón in Hamburg. We will inform you about our varied program in German courses. We offer German courses in all variants; intensive courses, evening courses, individual lessons etc. Students from abroad can also get information about accommodation possibilities through Colón.
German in Germany is our motto since the establishing of the institute in 1970. For more than 45 years we only focus on teaching German as a Foreign Language, and today more than ever we are convinced about the future prospects of our goal: The easiest way to study the German language is here with us in Germany!
Privacy settings
Here you will find an overview of the types of cookies used on the website. You can set your consent for each category individually.


text:
A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
1903 - 1999
Historical Period:
The 20th Century and Beyond
Caroline Robbins (1903–1999) was educated at the University of London, receiving her Ph.D. there before going to the United States. She taught history at Bryn Mawr College from 1929 to 1971 and was chairman of the department from 1957 to 1969. Author of numerous articles on English political and constitutional history, she wrote the path-breaking history of 18th century classical liberal thought The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman (1959), Absolute Liberty (1982), edited Two English Republican Tracts(1969), and was chairman of the Papers of William Penn from 1967 to 1979.


text:
Danny Welbeck and Jesse Lingard both scored twice as English champions Manchester United got its first win of the David Moyes era with a 5-1 victory over the A-League All Stars at Sydney's Olympic tadium on Saturday night.
Prolific Dutch forward Robin van Persie, who missed the defeat in Thailand which opened United's tour last week, added the fifth in a 28-minute cameo appearance at the end of the match to send the red-clad majority in the 83,127 crowd home happy.
With Wilfried Zaha a constant menace down the flanks, Moyes will have been happy with his attack in the absence of unsettled striker Wayne Rooney, who left the tour to receive treatment on a hamstring injury.
"It was a great night and a very special night to get my first win as Manchester United manager," said Moyes, who took over from Alex Ferguson at the end of last season.
"It was a good performance. We could have got a few more goals (but) we stepped up, I thought we looked a bit fitter tonight, a bit more ready."
The All Stars defended in depth to try to negate the pace in the United attack and carved out a few chances of their own. Brisbane Roar's Besart Berisha scored their consolation goal early in the second half.
The first United goal came in the 11th minute and was made by a neat step over the ball from Welbeck which set Lingard through on goal, the 20-year-old calmly placing the ball to the right of Ante Covic for his first goal for United.
United doubled its lead in the 34th minute when Welbeck was put clear through and the England striker, who scored just two goals for United last season, steered the ball past Covic and into the net.
Berisha scored for the home side in the 52nd minute when the Albanian striker found himself free on the edge of the box and scuffed his shot inside Anders Lindegaard's right-hand post.
But United struck again two minutes later when the impressive Lingard dragged the ball on to his right foot and smashed it into the top right-hand corner of the net.
Van Persie came on for Ryan Giggs after 62 minutes and eight minutes later swung in the corner from which Welbeck headed in his second goal of the match.
After a raft of substitutions, the match looked like fizzling out until Van Persie was played through in the 87th minute.
He made a hash of his first attempt to score but when the ball came to him again on the edge of the box, he made no mistake.
"To get Robin back on and get him started was good," Moyes added.
"But I think it was impressive that Danny got a couple of goals. I said to him in there: 'On another night you might have got four or five goals.'"
Manchester United: 5 (J Lingard 10', 54', D Welbeck 33', 70', R van Persie 86')
A-League All-Stars: 1 (B Berisha 52')


text:
This HowTo explains how to produce an "uncleaned RTF" file from an OmegaT project. This format may be a practical interchange format for users of other CAT tools, particularly Trados and Wordfast Classic.
Points to note:
This code/procedure combination has not yet been thoroughly tested (though initial reports are promising).
The script is available for the Windows platform only.
It only enables translators to generate (i.e. deliver) Trados uncleaned files. It does not enable them to "translate" bilingual files supplied by their customers.
1. Insert Trados segment delimiters
To produce a bilingual OpenOffice.Org file containing the Trados segment delimiters, close the OmegaT project, then run the following AutoIt script (requires Windows) on the project's project_save.tmx file:
2. Create target documents
Create the target documents as usual and convert the file to Microsoft Word.
3. Apply styles to delimiters
In Microsoft Word, run the following macro to apply the relevant styles to the target document(s):
Private Sub AddTw4winStyles()
On Error Resume Next
Dim sMark, sInt, sExt As Style
Set sMark = ActiveDocument.Styles.Add(Name:="tw4winMark", _
With sMark.Font
.Name = "Courier"
.Size = 11
.Hidden = True
.Subscript = True
.ColorIndex = wdViolet
End With
Set sInt = ActiveDocument.Styles.Add(Name:="tw4winInternal", _
sInt.LanguageID = wdNoProofing
With sInt.Font
.Name = "Courier"
.Size = 11
.ColorIndex = wdRed
End With
Set sExt = ActiveDocument.Styles.Add(Name:="tw4winExternal", _
sExt.LanguageID = wdNoProofing
With sExt.Font
.Name = "Courier"
.Size = 11
.ColorIndex = wdGray50
End With
End Sub
Copyright Marc Prior 2009-2011


text:
View ACF COVID-19 Responses and Resources
Located in the Rio Grande Valley, the Pueblo of Pojoaque's agricultural land is irrigated naturally through snowmelt and rain that runs down the surrounding mountain peaks. Residents of the area have practiced sustainable agriculture for centuries.
However, in the mid-2000s, local agriculture did not produce enough for all community members to access fresh, affordable healthy foods. The closest retail grocery store to the pueblo was 15 miles away, contributing to community members' food insecurity.
The pueblo began a two-year Administration for Native Americans grant in 2009 to improve tribal members' nutrition and expand the local food economy by developing the pueblo farm. To carry out the project, the pueblo hired an agricultural director and a farm operator with extensive experience. Despite a devastating series of fires that produced a water shortage in 2011, the director impressively expanded the farm. Together, they planted around 490 fruit trees and vines, and harvested more than 3,200 pounds of tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, cucumbers, jalapenos, and onions.
Project staff consulted elders and farmers in the Rio Grande Valley to deepen understanding of dry season and traditional farming. Through this research, the pueblo implemented traditional cultivation methods, such as waffle gardens and terraces, and Heirloom and traditional seeds. This method enabled the community to enjoy the same crop varieties as their ancestors.
Additional innovative techniques included using organic pest repellents and rotating crops to keep the soil safe and nutrient-rich. Passing on lessons learned, project staff coordinated Growers Outreach seminars at locally owned farms, providing experiential learning to community members in sustainable agricultural practices.
In addition to expanding community food production, project staff provided guidance on nutritious food preparation. Through weekly classes in healthy, ceremonial, and traditional cooking, tribal members learned a diet full of fruits and vegetables is a powerful tool against diabetes and obesity.
Lessons on healthy eating resonated strongly with 200 community youth who learned through the Edible Classroom project how to work in the orchard, plant and harvest garden vegetables, plan a menu, and cook lunch with harvested produce.
As a result of this project, the entire community has greater food security, the pueblo farm has expanded production, and families have started home gardens. Agricultural director Frances D. Quintana said, "The time is going to come when you grow your own food." The pueblo has invested in the farm and in nurturing generations of future growers; they will be prepared when that time comes.


text:
Carpeting: Wool Carpets
Wool's naturally crimped shape is the formation of millions of air pockets that act as insulation to help regulate room temperature and reduce energy bills. Also, Berber carpet is easy to clean and purifies your indoor air for up to 30 years from common contaminants like formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide by locking the contaminants deep in the core of the fiber.
Soft, yet resilient, this fiber can withstand the toughest treatment and still bounce back.
Brand Overview
Masland Carpet
Profile | Website | Warranty | Clean | Maintain | Green
Masland Carpets and Rugs was founded in Pennsylvania in 1866 and still today boasts of its heritage as the leading carpet manufacturer in the United States. Since 1866, Masland has insisted that its carpets and rugs maintain the highest quality. The tradition of manufacturing quality products has been practiced for over 140 years and continues to be practiced today.
Wools of New Zealand
Profile | Website | Clean | Maintain | Green
At Wools of New Zealand, we celebrate that natural quality, and strive to deliver it to you in the fine carpets and rugs made from our native wool. That is our pledge to you.The Wools of New Zealand brand identifies products which are rich in New Zealand wool and that meet strict performance criteria. On certified products you will always see these symbols together so you know you have found quality combined with full transparency and integrity.
Godfrey Hirst Carpets
Profile | Website
With over 150 years of manufacturing experience, Godfrey Hirst is a world-wide producer of high quality tufted wool carpets.
Fabrica Carpet
Profile | Website | Green
Fulfilling the promise of our corporate mission of "Quality without Compromise" Fabrica manufactures carpets for the most demanding segments of the high-end style residential market. Our distinctive broadloom carpet has earned Fabrica an international reputation for exquisite style and exceptional performance.


text:
The next generation Insulating Concrete Form
The Government's drive for greater sustainability and efficiency in the construction sector has encouraged alternative methods of building recognised under the title "Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)" – although this is expected to change to Efficient Methods of Manufacture under the Code for Sustainable Homes.
ICF construction is evident around the world in all types of buildings – apartment blocks, basements, offices, hospitals, schools, shops, hotels as well as housing.
Building with ICFs dramatically reduces the time and cost of construction and offers huge advantages in energy saving, fire safety, thermal efficiency and acoustic performance – and is also the greener, more sustainable choice.
A complete system
ICF Tech is the only complete ICF system specifically designed for the UK construction sector. The system includes all the elements required to construct ICF walls such as the floor supports, bracing and alignment system and closers to seal the window and door cavities.
We can provide trained installation support to oversee your build, including architectural, structural and construction related areas. Our trainers can assist your build during critical build stages such as prior to, and post, concrete pours to ensure that you have no issues with your build.
Environmental choice
Our system enjoys excellent eco credentials in terms of environmental profiles (A+ BRE assessed ratings) from a design approach that makes use of recycled materials wherever possible.
Through its thermal and air infiltration performance, ICF construction can significantly reduce the ongoing operational CO2 emissions of buildings, which are responsible for some 50% of the UK's total CO2 emissions.
Structural performance
The ICF Tech system consists of strong yet lightweight, interlocking forms made from flame retardant Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). Once the forms are constructed the structure is filled with a Self Compacting Concrete to form a high performance monolithic concrete wall. We can advise you on the correct mix for any situation, including basement construction. Our work with Aggregate Industries and BASF has resulted in the world's first concrete developed specifically for ICFs, Rheo Cell ICF.
External finishes
An ICF building can look like any other by adding brick slip systems, timber cladding, render or commercial cladding systems. We have worked with clients whose properties are finished in copper and cedar cladding, thin coat flexible renders, brick slips and conventional stone finishes. Whatever your project requires can easily be accommodated with our system.
Acoustic performance
Due to the density and thickness of the concrete cores within the ICF Tech system, excellent acoustic insulation is provided.
Cost effective
The ICF Tech system is around 10% more cost effective than traditional house building techniques achieving code level 3/4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes for little more than the cost of meeting Part L of the current Building Regulations with normal brick and block and timber frame construction.
Our ICF system achieves 0.19 W/m² K with our standard form and can go down to 0.11W/m² K using additional insulation, yet with a structural width starting from just 250mm. We achieve air permeability ratings as low as 0.74m³/m²/hr @ 50Pa measured (without additional draught exclusion techniques). High performance and still cost effective.
British design
ICFs have been used in the construction industry for more than 50 years mainly in the self build markets particularly in the USA. The ICF Tech system has been designed specifically for the UK market, complying with Building Regulations and British Standards, and of course, completely metric modular. Volume house builders and smaller property developers can now benefit from the ICF Tech system, which is designed to be the 'next generation' ICF system delivering real benefits including design flexibility, thermal performance, ease of use, speed of construction and cost effectiveness.
Green Guide
A+ Rated
ICF Tech systems are A+ rated according to the BRE Green Guide to Specification assessment scheme, making it amongst the most sustainable, environmentally responsible building systems available today.


text:
Forget investment and savings rates, worker productivity and wage scales to determine which countries will become richer or poorer. What really stimulates economic growth is whether you believe in an afterlife -- especially hell. \nAt least that's what two Harvard scholars have found after analyzing data collected in 59 countries between 1981 and 1999. \n"Our central perspective is that religion affects economic outcomes mainly by fostering religious beliefs that influence individual traits such as honesty, work ethic, thrift and openness to strangers," the researchers, Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary, wrote in the October issue of American Sociological Review. They also happen to be married. \n"For example, beliefs in heaven and hell might affect those traits by creating perceived rewards and punishments that relate to `good' and `bad' lifetime behavior," they wrote. \nThe data comes from six international surveys, including ones by Gallup, the World Bank and researchers at the University of Michigan. They include questions about attendance in places of worship and religious beliefs. There were four measures of economic development: per capita GDP, educational attainment by adults, the urbanization rate and life expectancy. \nOddly enough, the research also showed that at a certain point, increases in church, mosque and synagogue attendance tended to depress economic growth. Barro, a renowned economist, and McCleary, a lecturer in Harvard's government department, theorized that larger attendance figures could mean that religious institutions were using up a disproportionate share of resources. \n"It's all been rather surprising," McCleary said."People didn't believe you could quantify aspects of religion. We wanted to be intellectually provocative. We see about five more years of study to get out all the stuff we want. We're trying to raise interesting questions in a different way." \nSince the German sociologist Max Weber wrote about the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism, social scientists have argued that culture -- including religious habits -- is part of the complex mix that determines a country's economic health. What distinguishes the work of Barro and McCleary, some scholars said, is that it uses a sophisticated analysis of a huge set of data to quantify the arguments of anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists. \n"The study's important less for what they found than that they looked," said Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona, in Tucson. "They are not the first to look at this but they are the first to look at this as systemically and as rigorously as they have. For forever, people have been saying that culture matters in analyzing economies." \n"I think this is a new beginning for the rigorous relationship between religion and economic development, " added Chaves, whose forthcoming book examines how religious congregations influence politics and culture. "They've given us a data set and some tools to examine this in a new way." \nOne of the motivations for undertaking the study, McCleary said, was that empirical research on economic growth typically neglected the influence of religion. \nThe research team also wants to look at how religion affects other political and social issues like democracy, the rule of law, fertility and health. At the moment, they have a paper on government and the regulation of religion that is under review by the American Journal of Sociology at the University of Chicago on government and the regulation of religion. \nSome of their findings, which have been written about in The Economist and The Christian Science Monitor, first appeared in 2002 as a paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research. \nAs the couple began their study, McCleary said, it was clear that the widely discussed secularization thesis -- the idea that a country becomes more secular as it becomes richer and more industrialized -- did not apply to the US, one of the most religious nations in the world. \nAnd over the last 30 years, many East Asian countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, have experienced both rapid economic growth and the spread of Christianity, Barro said. \n"South Korea is a good example of that rapid growth and more religion," he said. There the number of converts from Confucianism and other Eastern religions to Christianity is growing rapidly, he explained. \nSome of the lowest levels of religiosity were found in China and North Korea. The lowest levels of economic growth were in sub-Saharan African countries. The former East Germany (which includes Weber's birthplace) was one of the lowest in both religiosity and growth. \nBut one of the major challenges to such research is that countries that vary in their religious beliefs and practices also vary in ways that have nothing to do with religion, said Paola Sapienza, a professor of finance at Northwestern University. \n"Are you really picking up religion or something that correlates with it, like certain laws or social and economic institutions?" she asked. \nLast year, in the Journal of Monetary Economics, Sapienza and her colleague Luigi Zingales at the University of Chicago, and Luigi Guiso, of the University of Sassari in Rome, published a paper that did not compare countries but looked at the relationship between religious beliefs and the attitudes shown to foster economic growth. \n"On average," they wrote, "religious beliefs are associated with good economic attitudes, where good is defined as conducive to higher per capita income." \nBut that study found that more religious people were also less tolerant of other races and nationalities and had more negative attitudes toward women. The study based its findings on World Values Surveys data collected at the University of Michigan. \nBarro and McCleary also used data from the World Values Surveys, which Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, has been taking for more than 20 years. His surveys of 78 countries show strong links between widespread public values and beliefs, or political culture, and motivation to work, sexual and religious norms and the presence or absence of democratic institutions. \n"I find that belief factors play a major role in economic growth, but here is one of the world's leading economists saying so," Inglehart said, referring to Barro. "When Weber argued that big breakthroughs in economic growth were in Protestant countries, it was at a time when many cultures were shaped by Protestant institutions. His notion in the broadest sense is that belief factors play a role in economic factors." \n"This is a revised view of the Protestant ethic," he continued. He noted that many mostly Protestant, wealthy countries were now more interested in quality of life, and that many Eastern countries were now more focused on economic growth -- with some populations even converting, as Barro noted, to Christianity and specifically to Protestantism. \n"Confucian countries are now the most Protestant countries on earth, in terms of a moral imperative to work hard, save money, to do well," Inglehart said.
Swedish Member of Parliament Hampus Hagman is pushing for changing the name of the nation's trade office in Taipei to signal improved relations with "Asia's perhaps foremost democracy." Hagman on Wednesday last week proposed renaming the Swedish Trade and Invest Council to "Sweden's Office in Taipei," following similar changes by other nations. The Swedish Trade and Invest Council, part of Business Sweden, is owned by the Swedish government and Swedish industry. Taiwan and Sweden share important values such as respect for democracy, human rights, the rule of law and freedom of speech, Hagman said in the motion, adding that the two nations
TWO CASES: The five allegedly conspired with conglomerates, threatening the nation's governance and subverting the rules of ethical conduct, a deputy chief prosecutor said Taipei prosecutors yesterday charged three legislators and one former lawmaker with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) in a case linked to former Pacific Distribution Investment Co (太平洋流通) chairman Lee Heng-lung's (李恆隆) battle with the Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) over ownership of the Pacific SOGO Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) chain, while independent Legislator Chao Cheng-yu (趙正宇) was indicted in a separate case involving two funeral services companies and a plot of land in a national park. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Chen Chao-ming (陳超明) and Sufin Siluko (廖國棟), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清) and former New Power Party legislator
PENGHU INSPECTION: Taiwan cannot let its enemies strut around in its airspace, Tsai said, one day after a Chinese spokesman denied a median line exists in the Taiwan Strait Following China's assertion on Monday that there is no "median line" in the Taiwan Strait, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday pledged to defend the nation's airspace during a visit to an air force base in Penghu, saying that Taiwan cannot allow others to flex their military muscle in its territorial airspace. Tsai praised the "heroic performance" of the pilots of the Indigenous Defense Fighters who have been intercepting Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force planes in recent days. "I have a lot of confidence in you. As soldiers of the Republic of China [ROC], how could we let enemies strut
EFFICIENCY: The rules for Philippine arrivals were revised after 17.6% of arrivals with symptoms tested positive, compared with 0.7% of those with no symptoms Starting today, Chinese spouses who hold a reunion permit can apply to enter Taiwan and travelers without symptoms from the Philippines do not need to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival, but are to be tested after a 14-day quarantine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that from today, Chinese who are married to a Taiwanese citizen and hold a reunion permit can apply to the National Immigration Agency for entry into Taiwan. Chinese who are married to a foreign national and hold an accompanied reunion permit


text:
Photographic equipment
Redirect page
Redirect to:
These are the Camera Kits used by members of this community. If you are new to panoramas, you might want to check experience reports about these kits before investing in one of them.
You can also look at the individual Cameras, Filters, Lenses, Flashes and other optical accessories. Chances are you already own one of these. Users like you share here their experience with this equipment. Please take the time to contribute your experience as well. When entering a comment, please finish it with ~~~~ to identify that it is your comment.


text:
UPDATED: Video of this talk is now available. In this great post, Ann Medlock describes her "near-TED experience" speaking at a regional offshoot of the TED conference. She describes the high stakes the TED conferences set out for their speakers. Here's the list:
Speakers are given the TED Commandments, which writer Amy Tan called a prescription for a near-death experience. Said rules include: Be personal. Be vulnerable. Make people laugh/cry. Do something the audience will remember forever. Say something you've never said before. Share an idea that could change the world. Do not pitch for your company or organization. Do not go over your allotted time. Do not read. Rehearse and be spontaneous.Even better, she describes how it felt to go through the talk, including:
- how it feels to speak in such a large venue that you can't relate to the audience with eye contact (too many lights, size of room);
- how she planned and actually executed her speech;
- what she did to compensate for a last-minute equipment change (yes, that even happens at TED);
- how she compared herself to the speakers before and after.


text:
Maps and Directions
Interactive Campus Map / Virtual Tour (opens in new window)
Printable PDF Map (opens in new window)
Phone: 215-951-2800
Email: email@example.com
Center City Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey, Central and Western Pennsylvania:
Take the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) to Lincoln Drive, Exit 340A. Follow Lincoln Drive to Gypsy Lane (first right). Gypsy Lane will end at School House Lane. Turn left on School House Lane to Henry Avenue. Pass over Henry Avenue and make your first right into the Office of Admissions driveway.
Delaware County:
Take City Line Avenue (Route 1 North) to Lincoln Drive. Follow above directions from Center City, Philadelphia.
Washington, Baltimore and Wilmington:
Take I-95 North to I-76 West. Follow above directions from Center City, Philadelphia.
Northeast Extension - Pennsylvania Turnpike:
Exit Turnpike at Norristown, Plymouth Meeting (Exit #333). Go right after the exit and head east on Germantown Pike to first traffic light. Make a right onto Chemical Road. Go through three lights and at your fourth light, make a left at the five point intersection onto Ridge Pike. Take Ridge Pike to the Henry Avenue cutoff (bear left). (You'll be on Ridge Pike for approximately 3.5 miles.) Take Henry Avenue about 6 miles to School House Lane.
New York:
Take New Jersey Turnpike to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Exit Pennsylvania Turnpike at Norristown, Plymouth Meeting (Exit #333). Follow above directions from Northeast Extension.
The campus is easily accessible by train or bus. By bus: the SEPTA Route 32 bus from Center City stops at the corner of Henry Avenue and School House Lane (right across the street from the Office of Admissions). By train: from 30th Street Station, Suburban Station, or Market Street East, take the Manayunk/Norristown Line to Easts Falls Station. You can then walk to the campus (about a 10-minute walk). Exit the station on the Midvale Avenue side. Take a right onto Midvale Avenue; take a left onto Warden Drive. When you hit Henry Avenue, turn left. At the first light (School House Lane), make a right and cross over Henry Avenue. The Office of Admissions is on your right.
If you came to campus using Route 1 or Route 76, drive back down School House Lane (past Gypsy Lane) until it dead-ends into Ridge Avenue at the bottom of the hill. Turn left onto Ridge and in two-tenths of a mile turn right to the entrance for I-76. This will lead to Route 1 and I-76 East and West.


text:
It amazes me that I can mail my regs to Scubatoys, have them serviced and mailed back for less $ and in less time than it takes my local store.
My local store requires proof that all your gear is serviced before you can dive on any of their trips. Sounds OK of a rule on the surface. However, they take 21 days and charged $187 to service my reg and BC a few years ago. They charge even bigger bucks for rush service. I didn't feel that 10 days was rush service. If the business model of any store is to trap you into paying higher prices for equal or lesser service, they will have to rely on new customers because repeat customers will be hard to come by as I will mail my gear to Scubatoys for service.
Thank You Scubatoys!