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Hello bloggers, is everyone well today?
Before today's post a reminder that the January challenge finishes today, you still have time to get your entry in as it closes at midnight (UK time)
This month the challenge is 'Anything Goes' and there are some great prizes
Full details and the entry link can be found on our Challenge Page at the top of the blog or click here
I have so many lovely cards to show you using our clear stamps that I couldn't choose!
I thought you were probably more familiar with our circular sentiment sets so I thought today I'd showcase the pretty vintage stamps and some of our other sentiments
There's a huge selection to choose from and until midday today our fabulous offer is still on…
… buy any two sets of the clear A5 stamps for £12.00 and you can have one of our Love Sentiments sets absolutely FREE
Here are a few examples of what you can do with the clear stamps, either as the focal point of your work or as an embellishment…
Grunge Swirls, Journaling Tags, Greetings Postmarks, Words For Tickets,Vintage Background, Antebellum papers, Daffodils
Handwritten phrases, Grunge Elements, Background Bits – Notes, Tags – Madame
Background Bits – Industrial, Tags – Monsieur
Everyday Grungy Messages, Bonnets and Bowties papers
A Little Message, Grunge Postcard, Vintage Sentiments – Just To Say
and finally a couple more cards using elements from the Love Sentiments set…
…be sure you get your order in for the clear stamps before noon (UK time) to get your free set!
That's it from me, another week gone can you believe it!
Make sure you stop by over the weekend as I'll be introducing our first Guest Designer for 2014 tomorrow and then on Sunday I'll have news of our new blog candy which will start on Monday!
Have a lovely Friday everyone x


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subset: commoncrawl


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SHADOWSTRIKE – Confirmed For Warriors Of Metal Fest VII
Cincinnati, Ohio – The Warriors of Metal, Inc. non-profit organization is excited to announce that newly discovered Long Island, NY power metal band, SHADOWSTRIKE has been confirmed for Warriors Of Metal Fest VII to take place at O'Sheckys LIVE Bar & Grill on June 27th and 28th in Columbus, Ohio.
SHADOWSTRIKE was first brought to the attention of Warriors Of Metal Fest organizers by Steve Jasuilewicz, one of the guitarists and founding members of the Pennsylvania's Beyond Fallen; one of the earliest confirmed bands for the Fest this year.
ShadowStrike guitarist and vocalist Matthaus Krais states: "We are all very excited to be a part of Warriors Of Metal Fest VII. This will not only be our first time performing in Ohio, but it will be our first time performing in the Midwest period. There are many amazing bands playing this festival and we can't wait to see them all perform as well as share the stage with them and of course bring our music to all the fans!"
The band has posted "Gales of Winter" off their forthcoming Infinite Power EP – listen below:
Bands confirmed for Pre-Fest Showcase on Thursday, June 26 at O'Sheckeys Live Bar & Grill include: ETERNAL LEGACY (headliner) AUTOMATON, DEADIRON, LOWER 13, DETHRATS, GRAVE ROBBER, SPLIT THE ABYSS and WINTERHYMN.
Warriors Of Metal Fest VII confirmed bands thus far for the main Fest on Friday, June 27 & Saturday June 28 include: ARMORY, A SOUND OF THUNDER, A TORTURED SOUL, BENEDICTUM w/ special guest LEATHER LEONE, BEYOND FALLEN, BURNING SHADOWS, CELLADOR, CRUSADER, FLESH ENGINE, LORDS OF THE TRIDENT, MITHRIDIUM, NOBLE BEAST, RESISTANCE, RESTLESS BREED, SHADOWSTRIKE, SHALLOW GROUND, STEEL ASSASSIN, VALHALLA and ZEPHANIAH.
Keep up-to-date with all of the developments such as band announcements and ticket information for next year's show through the Warrior's of Metal Fest's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/warriorsofmetal
(Source: CLAWHAMMER PR)
* For more info on SHADOWSTRIKE:
This entry was posted on March 16, 2014 at 7:15 am and is filed under Heavy Metal, heavy metal bands, Metal, metal bands, metal music, Music, news, rock music, rock music news, world news with tags long island new york, Metal News, metalodyssey, ohio, ohio metal festivals, power metal bands, shadowstrike, warriors of metal fest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Super Salamanders - National Zoo FONZ
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Super Salamanders - National Zoo| FONZ Search Donate Now Shop Visit Animals Membership Science Education Support the Zoo Home Publications Smithsonian Zoogoer Super Salamanders Asia Trail's newest inhabitants aren't pretty faces. But they are a dream come true. By Caroline Treadway Ever since curators at the Smithsonian's National Zoo heard about Japanese giant salamanders (Andrias japonicas), they've wanted them. Why? Because, as senior curator Ed Bronikowski puts it, "They're big, ugly, and cool as hell." In this Issue That zoological fascination fueled a nine-year odyssey that has The Mating Game joined two cultures on opposite ends of the Earth in striving to conserve this incredible amphibian. After nearly a decade of Birding at the Zoo hard work, perseverance, and creative problem-solving, A Birder's Almanac Bronikowski and chief veterinarian Suzan Murray brought six Super Salamanders Japanese giant salamanders from the City of Hiroshima Asa Zoo What's Normal? to the National Zoo last December. Current Issue Browse Archive About Smithsonian Zoogoer Podcast Related Resources Asia Trail Japanese giant salamander facts Join FONZ to receive Smithsonian Zoogoer in your mailbox! The National Zoo hopes to establish a breeding colony of Japanese giant salamanders. (Mehgan Murphy/NZP) What are these supersize salamanders and why did the Zoo want them so badly? Well, the animals' name pretty much sums them up. Native to Japan, these salamanders are huge. They can grow longer than five feet and weigh upwards of fifty pounds. They are rumored to live for more than a century. In Japan, these stream dwellers are called hanzaki, which means "half change." The Japanese revere their enormous amphibians, honoring them with temples, parades, and songs. They also protect the animals, deemed a "national natural treasure," by law. Japanese giant salamanders are one of three species of cryptobranchids. Other members of this family are Chinese giant salamanders (the world's largest amphibians, slightly larger than their Japanese cousins) and hellbenders (smaller salamanders native to the southeastern U.S.). Hanzaki thrive in swift, cold mountain streams that eventually meander through farmland and cities in Japan. These sleek giants are perfectly designed for life in the aquatic fast lane. With wide, flat heads, camouflaged bodies, and rudder-like tails, the salamanders use grippy toe pads to maneuver on slick algae. Salamander Secrets http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/Zoogoer/2010/3/Salamanders.cfm[2/23/12 9:53:37 PM]
Super Salamanders - National Zoo| FONZ What little is known about this exotic icon, American scientists have learned from Kazushi Kuwabara, the "godfather of the Japanese giant salamander." Since 1974, Kuwabara has scrupulously studied the salamanders, unraveled their intricate breeding secrets, and designed the Asa Zoo's salamander breeding grounds. The Asa Zoo was the first place in the world to breed Japanese giant salamanders in captivity—a testament to Kuwabara's salamander savvy. Since the Asa Zoo sits smack in the middle of Japanese giant salamander territory, Kuwabara funneled nearby streams through the zoo's salamander grounds, providing the exact conditions —water quality and temperature—the salamanders would have in the wild. The method worked, and the Asa Zoo has bred hanzaki this way since 1979. In mating season, Kuwabara has discovered, a male salamander travels to find a cavern in a sandy stream bank and excavates a large oval nest. The "den master," as scientists call the breeding Senior curator Ed Bronikowski and male, aggressively defends chief veterinarian Suzan Murray his nest from intruders. But admire a giant salamander at the when the right female slithers Asa Zoo in Japan. (Courtesy of Ed by, he immediately welcomes bronikowski) her in to mate. Scientists theorize that the den master quickly identifies breeding females by sense of smell, but that's still a mystery. In a unique display of external fertilization, the female giant salamander enters the den and lays a string of white eggs, which the male fertilizes with his sperm. The two begin a circular dance around the eggs and sperm, stirring them. The den master then allows other males and females to enter the nest and join the spawning circle. After fertilization, the others leave, and the den master assumes responsibility for the eggs. He meticulously guards and cares for them. Even months after they hatch, he continues to tend the tiny larval salamanders, forgoing food. Besides humans, adult hanzaki have few predators, but juveniles make a tasty snack for birds, turtles, and snakes. Kuwabara noticed that if the father leaves the nest, the young salamanders' survival rate decreases dramatically. Does he secrete an anti-fungal chemical that protects his young? This is just one of many questions Zoo scientists hope to explore. "The Japanese giant salamanders are curious animals that live differently from humans," Kuwabara says. "I hope we can work together to understand their strange lives. I am sure we have a lot to learn about them." Amphibian Appetites In the wild, hanzaki are ambush predators that blend into their surroundings and wait for a fish or crab dinner to swim by. When it does, the salamanders deploy lightning reflexes. A mouthful of sharp, tiny teeth grasp the prey, which is swallowed whole. "They're really adorable until you think about putting your hand in front of their face," says Zoo biologist and keeper Rick Quintero, who's spent nearly every day with the salamanders in quarantine since they arrived at the Zoo. "Especially when you see them eat a fish. It's a violent attack on anything near their face." But hanzaki can't http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/Zoogoer/2010/3/Salamanders.cfm[2/23/12 9:53:37 PM]
Super Salamanders - National Zoo| FONZ thank their tiny, lidless eyes for dinner. The salamanders hunt with a sixth sense akin to touch. Like most amphibians and fish, Japanese giant salamanders are wired with a web of motion sensors running down their sides. This "lateral line system" is studded with nerve A box containing Japanese giant endings that detect salamanders awaits shipping to the U.S. movement and (Courtesy of Ed Bronikowski) electromagnetic fields. Heavily concentrated around the face and mouth, this heightened sensitivity makes hunting a snap, literally. "If something is moving, they know it's there, no matter how tiny it is," says keeper Robin Saunders, who specializes in hellbenders. "And not only do they know it's there, they know exactly where it is, how big it is, and how fast it's moving." Hanzaki aren't picky eaters. They forage on fish, crabs, invertebrates, and anything else that comes within reach, including mice, snakes, and occasionally each other. According to Saunders, salamanders near cities sometimes mistake plastic bags and other inedible items for prey. Salamanders might eat trash in the wild, but certainly not at the Zoo, where nutritionists design strict diet plans based on weight and natural feeding habits to avoid obesity and disease. Each week, the hanzaki get a ration of raw fish—capelin, herring and smelt. As denizens of cold water, Japanese giant salamanders have slow metabolisms and don't need to eat every day. Salamander SOS Hanzaki haven't escaped the habitat destruction, pollution, and disease devastating amphibians worldwide. In a recent article, Smithsonian salamander specialist Jennifer Sevin wrote that the species is "susceptible to extinction by potential environmental fluctuations, and requires extensive conservation measures." But scientists responding to the global amphibian crisis have primarily focused on frogs. "The prettier the frog, the more attention it gets," says Bronikowski. "And we support frog conservation at the National Zoo. But we also want to focus on salamanders because not enough zoos, facilities, and aquariums are focusing on salamanders." To meet this challenge, the Zoo has joined the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Cryptobranchid Interest Group and hopes to take a lead role in salamander science and breeding in the U.S. The salamanders' slippery skin is a key part of the problem. Highly permeable and vascular, it allows for underwater breathing but also makes the animals extremely vulnerable to pollution. Zoo pathologist Tim Walsh says that even low levels of contaminants, over time, can cause problems for amphibians that are constantly bathed in toxins. "We worry about any kind of runoff that's getting into streams—herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers around farms," he says. "And in cities, a whole mixture of chemicals just washes off the street into streams, whether it's oil dripping from cars—petroleum products—or whatever's associated with nearby industry: heavy metals, organochlorines, and various chemicals." http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/Zoogoer/2010/3/Salamanders.cfm[2/23/12 9:53:37 PM]
Super Salamanders - National Zoo| FONZ Japanese giant salamanders from Hiroshima arrive at the National Zoo. (Mehgan Murphy/NZP) Japanese giant salamanders must also contend with hybridization. Japanese farmers once imported the bigger, more aggressive Chinese giant salamander to raise for its valuable meat. (One giant salamander can reportedly sell for $1,000.) Some Chinese salamanders escaped into the wild, where they both interbreed and compete with their Japanese cousins. As salamander numbers dwindle, these iconic animals and their habitat need all the help they can get. In Japan, communities have begun to modify cemented irrigation ditches and dams that prevent breeding and foraging, making them more hanzaki-friendly. With so many threats facing the Japanese giant salamander, the Asa Zoo and National Zoo have teamed up on a bold project—creating a breeding colony outside of Japan. Toward that end, the Asa Zoo gave six of its salamanders to the National Zoo. Will the animals agree to breed half a world away from home? Bronikowski hopes so. "We are keeping our fingers and toes crossed," he says. "Giant salamanders are like the giant pandas of the amphibian world." Mike Davenport's Dream The salamanders' arrival fulfilled a deeply held dream of Mike Davenport, a former curator. He helped design Asia Trail and desperately wanted it to include Japanese giant salamanders. In 2000, Davenport drew up a curatorial agreement with the Asa Zoo. But endless permitting hiccups and delays prompted the Zoo to borrow a salamander from the Cincinnati Zoo for the exhibit's debut. Visitors loved the 50-year-old female salamander, but she soon died from chronic liver disease, despite painstaking efforts to save her. Keepers were heartbroken. And when Davenport retired in 2009, the Zoo was giant salamander-less. These and four other Japanese giant salamanders were gifts from the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima. (Mehghan Murphy/NZP) http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/Zoogoer/2010/3/Salamanders.cfm[2/23/12 9:53:37 PM]
Super Salamanders - National Zoo| FONZ Senior curator Ed Bronikowski inherited the "giant" challenge. He reinvigorated relations with the Asa Zoo and patiently forged through a jungle of red tape alongside registrar Laura Morse. "The amount of labor that goes into all this is just incredible," Bronikowski says. "And that's on both sides of the ocean. They're zoo people just like we're zoo people. Permitting is a necessary part of conservation to be sure, but it can be quite tedious." While permits inched toward approval, Bronikowski had time to build the Zoo's entire salamander facility. He tweaked the Asia Trail exhibit, guided the installation of new quarantine tanks, and built a brand-new salamander breeding facility at the Reptile Discovery Center. This state-of-the-art system mimics key features of the Asa Zoo's. "It's really exciting to think outside the box and try to re-create environmental conditions from a natural stream that's halfway around the world," Quintero says. Bronikowski and Quintero crafted every detail of each tank, plumbing system, and exhibit. They aimed to match the salamanders' wild environment in hopes of promoting future breeding success. The breeding facility alone required a panoply of mechanical, biological, chemical, Keepers release Japanese giant and UV filters; new salamanders into their new habitat external plumbing; (Mehghan Murphy/NZP) redundant water chillers; insulated reservoirs; and three independently operational tanks connected with tubes perfect for salamanders to wriggle through. In the new facility, the salamanders enjoy the seasonal temperature variation and water flow they'd have in Japan. That's not all. Bronikowski brought stream samples back from Japan, as templates for water chemistry in the Zoo's new facility. After reverse-osmosis filters strip D.C.'s city water of everything but hydrogen and oxygen, the water is then reconstituted to match the Japanese stream samples. Building Relationships Japanese giant salamanders are more than just a cultural icon or a symbol for struggling amphibians. The salamanders bring two distinct cultures, with different scientific practices, together in the fight for conservation. "Whether it's giant pandas, golden lion tamarins, Przewalski's horses, or any of the other endangered species we work with, we are building relationships," says Bronikowski. "That's what the National Zoo does." —Freelance photojournalist Caroline Treadway is a former Smithsonian Zoogoer intern. More: "What's Normal?" If you have a comment about Smithsonian Zoogoer magazine, please email it to us. Smithsonian Zoogoer 39(1) 2010. Copyright 2010 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved. Share http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/Zoogoer/2010/3/Salamanders.cfm[2/23/12 9:53:37 PM]
Super Salamanders - National Zoo| FONZ Newsroom Events Volunteers Careers & Internships Contact Site Map Privacy Copyright Help http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/Zoogoer/2010/3/Salamanders.cfm[2/23/12 9:53:37 PM]
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In the News: Braithwaite's Cancer Battle Inspires Donors
Everyone knows how important it is to check the organ donor "box" on our driver's license. There's also a way to help others in life-threatening need while we're still living. Anyone interested in becoming a bone marrow/stem cell donor can join the National Marrow Donor Program through a simple test that requires only a swab of cheek cells.
After struggling with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma since 2003, Dr. Tom Braithwaite, Augustana class of 1978, a hospitalist for Sanford Health, recently learned he is in need of a bone marrow transplant.
His longtime friend and former neighbor, Rob Oliver, president of Augustana, talks with KELO-TV about the importance of joining the National Marrow Donor registry as a way to help the thousands in need of bone marrow and/or stem cells.
Braithwaite's Cancer Battle Inspires Donors
By Brady Mallory
We often look to our doctors to cure what ails us, but there are times when the doctor is the one who is in need of some medicine. That is the case for a well-known KELOLAND doctor, whose battle with a deadly disease shows us that the best prescription does not always come in the form of a pill.
"So, we're going to do the swab part of the testing," a nurse said at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls.
There is no blood, no needles and no tears. Just a cotton swab.
"It's similar to brushing your teeth; that's the pressure you will use," the nurse said.
In a few short seconds, Augustana College President Rob Oliver and his DNA are ready to be on the National Marrow Donor registry. Oliver spent 40 seconds swiping four cotton swabs on the inside of his cheek. The swabs are wrapped up and sent into the organization. If Oliver is a match, he will be notified. If you are between age 18 and 60, you can be a donor, too.
"They really want donors between 18 and 44 and I'm just a little over 44," Oliver said with a big laugh. "We're going to encourage our students and encourage all young people because the younger donors are really the best."
This story is not about Augustana students or Oliver.
"When something like this happens to your good friend, you do what you can," Oliver said.
His good friend is Dr. Tom Braithwaite, an internal medicine physician who has also been a good friend to the many patients he has cared for over the years. Years ago, Braithwaite was Oliver's neighbor.
Learn More
Learn more about the National Marrow Donor Program
"When our second daughter was born, we took our other daughter over and left her with the Braithwaites and we've been good friends for 25 years," Oliver said.
Only nine years ago, Braithwaite found himself on the other end of the stethoscope when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After repeated chemotherapy treatments, he was in remission. At the time he thought he had beaten the disease. His cancer came back four years ago, and then again two years later. At this time, Braithwaite was used to his disease.
"Not that there wasn't shock and awe with that as well, but you get more of the impression that this is more of a companion that is going to be with you," Braithwaite said via phone.
He is in remission again today, but is currently at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, undergoing tests for a bone marrow transplant. High dosages of chemo essentially destroyed his bone marrow, giving him a disease called Myodisplastic Syndrome. A donor has yet to be found.
"We're pretty, pretty good at praying a lot," his sister Mindy Braithwaite said as she was touching a small pin on her lapel. "Every day, I put on my praying hands and I have his thumb print hanging around my neck. Just during the day, if I happen to touch them, I say a little prayer for him. I'm very optimistic he's going to be just fine."
A cure would be nice, but Braithwaite's faith has helped him cope.
"Regardless of how this moves or plays out going forward, I'm absolutely convinced I'm not alone during any step," Braithwaite said.
The chances of Oliver being a match for Braithwaite are pretty slim. That's why this story goes beyond just Braithwaite. Right now, there are about nine million people on the registry for the National Marrow Donor Program, but the number of people who find matching donors is much, much less. That is why Oliver and the Braithwaites want more people to know just how easy it is to get on the marrow registry. The more people on the registry, the more chances for life-saving donor matches. It is important to note that being an organ donor does not put you on the bone marrow registry.
"I've had that box checked on my driver's license ever since we had that opportunity to check the donor box and so you think about that. Well if something happens to me, then my organs can be donated to someone else. Well, I can do this while I'm alive," Oliver said.
With his friends, family, colleagues and more, Braithwaite certainly is not alone in his fight. His sister made a candid observation about how strong their family has been throughout years of chemotherapy, doctors visits and tests, but her words run much deeper.
"We're all just connected somehow; even across the miles," Mindy said.
With everything he is going through, the good doctor is using his battle to help other patients. Afterall, life is not necessarily about helping the people you know. It is about stepping up for the people you do not know; the ones you will probably never meet. In this case, all it takes is just a cotton swab.
You don't always have to go to a doctor's office to get on the National Bone Marrow Registry. You can also get the swab test in the mail by visiting the National Marrow Donor Program's website.


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Certainly there is a great deal of monotonous stupidity
in the comic strip, a cheap jocosity, a life-of-the-party humour which
is extraordinarily dreary. There is also a quantity of bad drawing and
the intellectual level, if that matters, is sometimes not high. Yet we
are not actually a dull people; we take our fun where we find it, and we
have an exceptional capacity for liking the things which show us off in
ridiculous postures--a counterpart to our inveterate passion for seeing
ourselves in stained-glass attitudes. And the fact that we do care for
the comic strip that Jiggs and Mutt-and-Jeff and Skinnay and the Gumps
have entered into our existence as definitely as Roosevelt and more deeply
than Pickwick-ought to make them worth looking at, for once. Certainly
they would have been more sharply regarded if they had produced the counterpart
of Chaplin in the comic film--a universal genius capable of holding the
and exciting the speculations of the intellectuals. It
happens that the actual genius of the comic strip, George Herriman, is
of such a special sort that even when he is recognized he is considered
something apart and his appearance among other strips is held to be only
an accident.
It is by no means an accident, for the comic strip is
an exceptionally supple medium, giving play to a variety of talents, to
the use of many methods, and it adapts itself to almost any theme. The
enormous circulation it achieves imposes certain limitations: it cannot
be too local, since it is syndicated throughout the country; it must avoid
political and social questions because the same strip appears in papers
of divergent editorial opinions; there is no room in it for acute racial
caricature, although no group is immune from its mockery. These and other
restrictions have gradually made of the comic strip a changing picture
of the average American life-and by compensation it provides us with the
freest American fantasy.
In a book which appeared about two years ago, Civilization
in the United States, thirty Americans rendered account of our present
state. One of them, and one only, mentioned the comic strip--Mr Harold
E. Stearns--and he summed up the "intellectual" attitude perfectly by saying
that Bringing Up Father will repay the social historian for all
the attention he gives it. I do not know in what satisfactions the social
historian can be repaid. I fear that the actual
fun in the comic strip is not one of them. Bringing
Up Father, says Mr Stearns, "symbolizes better than most of us appreciate
the normal relation of American men and women to cultural and intellectual
values. Its very grotesqueness and vulgarity are revealing" (italics
mine). (Query: Is it vulgar of Jiggs to prefer Dinty's cafe to a Swami's
lecture 1 Or of Mrs Jiggs to insist on the lecture! Or of both of them
to be rather free in the matter of using vases as projectiles? What, in
short, is vulgar?) I am far from quarreling with Mr Stearns' leading idea,
for I am sure that a history of manners in the United States could be composed
with the comic strip as its golden thread; but I think that something more
than its vulgarity would be revealing.
The daily comic strip arrived in the early nine ties-perhaps
it was our contribution to that artistic age-and has gone through several
phases. In 1892 or thereabouts Jimmy Swinnerton created Little Bears
and Tigers for the San Francisco Examiner; that forerunner has
passed away, but Swinnerton remains, and everything he does is observed
with respect by the other comic-strip artists; he has had more influence
on the strip even than Wilhelm Busch, the German whose Max und Moritz
were undoubt edly the originals of the Katzenjammer Kids. The strip
worked its way east, prospered by William Randolph Hearst especially in
the coloured Sunday Supplement, and as a daily feature by the Chicago
Daily News, which was, I am informed, the first
to syndicate its strips and so enabled Americans to think nationally. About
fifteen years ago, also in San Francisco, appeared the first work of Bud
Fisher, Mr Mutt, soon to develop into Mutt and Jeff, the
first of the great hits and still one of the best known of the comic strips.
Fisher's arrival on the scene corresponds to that of Irving Berlin in ragtime.
He had a great talent, hit upon something which took the popular fancy,
and by his energy helped to establish the comic strip as a fairly permanent
idea in the American newspaper.
The files of the San Francisco Chronicle will one
day be searched by an enthusiast for the precise date on which Little Jeff
appeared in the picture. It is generally believed that the two characters
came on together, but this is not so. In the beginning Mr Mutt made his
way alone; he was a race-track follower who daily went out to battle and
daily fell. Clare Briggs had used the same idea in his Piker Clerk
for the Chicago Tribune. The historic meeting with Little Jeff,
a sacred moment in our cultural development, occurred during the days before
one of Jim Jeffries' fights. It was as Mr Mutt passed the asylum walls
that a strange creature confided to the air the notable remark that he
himself was Jeffries. Mutt rescued the little gentleman and named him Jeff.
In gratitude Jeff daily submits to indignities which might otherwise seem
The development in the last twenty years has been rapid,
and about two dozen good comics now exist. Historically it remains to be
noted that between 1910 and 1916 nearly all the good comics were made into
bad burlesque shows; in 1922 the best of them was made into a ballet with
scenario and music by John Alden Carpenter, choreography by Adolph Bolm;
costumes and settings after designs by George Herriman. Most of the comics
have also appeared in the movies; the two things have much in common and
some day a thesis for the doctorate in letters will be written to establish
the relationship. The writer of that thesis will explain, I hope, why "movies"
is a good word and "funnies," as offensive little children name the comic
pages, is what charming essayists call an atrocious vocable.
Setting apart the strip which has fantasy-it is practised
by Frueh and by Herriman--the most interesting form is that which deals
satirically with every-day life; the least entertaining is the one which
takes over the sentimental magazine love-story and carries it through endless
episodes. The degree of interest points to one of the virtues of the comic
strip: it is a great corrective to magazine-cover prettiness. Only one
or two frankly pretty-girl strips exist. Petey is the only one which owes
its popularity to the high, handsome face and the lovely flanks of its
heroine, and even there the pompous awkwardness of the persistent lover
has a touch of wilful absurdity.
Mrs Trubble, a second-rate strip unworthy of its originator,
is simply a series of pictures dramatizing the vampire home-breaker; I
am not even sure she is intended to be pretty. When nearly everything else
in the same newspapers is given over to sentimental ity and affected girl-worship,
to advice to the love lorn and pretty-prettiness, it is notable that the
comic strip remains grotesque and harsh and careless. It is largely concerned
with the affairs of men and children, and, as far as I know, there has
never been an effective strip made by, for, or of a woman. The strip has
been from the start a satirist of manners; remembering that it arrived
at the same time as the Chicago World's Fair, recalling the clothes, table
manners, and conversation of those days, it is easy to see how the murmured
satiric commentary of the strip undermined our self-sufficiency, pricked
our conceit, and corrected our gaucherie. To-day the world of Tad,
peopled with cake-eaters and finale-hoppers, the world of the Gumps
and Gasoline Alley, of Abie the Agent and Mr and Mrs
serve the same purpose. I am convinced that none of our realists in fiction
come so close to the facts of the average man, none of our satirists are
so gentle and so effective. Of course they are all more serious and more
conscious of their mission; but-well, exactly who cares?
The best of the realists is Clare Briggs, who is an elusive
creator, one who seems at times to feel the medium of the strip not exactly
suited to him, and
at others to find himself at home in it. His single pictures:
The Days of Real Sport and When a Feller Needs a Friend,
and the now rapidly disappearing Kelly Pool which was technically
a strip, are notable recreations of simple life. Few of them are actively
funny; some are sentimental. The children of The Days of Real Sport
have an astonishing reality and none are more real than the virtually unseen
Skinnay, who is always being urged to "come over." They are a gallery of
country types, some of them borrowed from literature-the Huck Finn touch
is visible-but all of them freshly observed and dryly recorded. Briggs'
line is distinctive; one could identify any square inch of his drawings.
In Kelly Pool he worked close to Tad's Indoor Sports, and
did what Tad hasn't done--created a character, the negro waiter George
whom I shall be sorry to lose. George's amateur interest in pool was continually
being submerged in his professional interest: :gettings tips, and his "Bad
day . . . ba-a-ad day" when tips were low is a little classic. Deserting
that scene, Briggs has made a successful comedy of domestic life in Mr
and Mrs. No one has come so near to the subject-the grumbling, helpless,
assertive, modest, self- satisfied, self-deprecating male, in his contacts
with his sensible, occasionally irritable, wife. As often as not these
episodes end in quarrels-in utter blackness with harsh bedroom voices continuing
a day's exacerbations; again the reconciliations are mushy, again they
are genuine sentiment. And around them plays the child
whose one function is to say "Papa loves mamma" at the most appropriate
time. It is quite an achievement, for Briggs has made the ungrateful material
interesting, and I can recall not one of these strips in which he has cracked
a joke. Tad here follows Briggs, respectfully. For Better or Worse
is considerably more obvious, but it has Tad's special value, in sharpness
of caricature. The surrounding types are brilliantly drawn; only the central
characters remain stock figures. Yet the touch of romance in Tad, continually
overlaid by his sense of the ridiculous, is precious; he seems aware of
the faint aspirations of his characters and recognizes the r6les
which they think they are playing while he mercilessly shows up their actuality.
The finest of the Indoor Sports are those in which two subordinate
characters riddle with sarcasm the pretentions of the others-the clerk
pretending to be at ease when the boss brings his son into the office,
the lady of the house talking about the new motor car, the smalltown braggart
and the city swell-characters out of melodrama, some, and others so vividly
taken from life that the very names Tad gives them pass into common speech.
He is an inveterate creator and manipulator of slang; whatever phrase he
makes or picks up has its vogue for months and his own variations are delightful.
Slang is a part of their picture, and he and Walter Hoban are the only
masters of it.
Ketten's Day of Rest is another strip of this genre,
interesting chiefly as a piece of draughtsmanship. He is the most economical
of the comic-strip artists, and his flat characters, without contours or
body, have a sort of jack-in- the-box energy and a sardonic obstinacy.
The Chicago School 1 have frankly never been able to understand--a parochialism
on my part, or a tribute to its exceptional privacy and sophistication.
It pretends, of course, to be simple, but the fate of every metropolis
is to enter its small-town period at one time or another, to call itself
a village, to build a town hall and sink a town pump with a silver handle.
The Gumps are common people and the residents of Gasoline Alley are just
folks, but I have never been able to understand what they are doing; 1
suspect they do nothing. It seems to me I read columns of conversation
daily, and have to continue to the next day to follow the story. The campaign
of Andy Gump for election to the Senate gave a little body to the serial
storyhe was so abysmally the ignorant Congressman that he began to live.
But apart from this, apart from the despairing cry of "Oh, Min," one recalls
nothing of the Chicago School except the amusing vocabulary of Syd Smith
and that Andy has no chin. It is an excellent symbol; but it isn't enough
for daily food.
The small-town school of comic strip flourishes, in the
work of Briggs, already mentioned, in Wester's swift sketches of a similar
nature, and in Tom
MacNamara's Us Boys. The last of these is an exceptional
fake as small-town, but an amusing and genuine strip. It is people by creation
of fancy--the alarmingly fat, amiable Skinny, the truculent Eaglebeak Spruder,
the little high-brow Van with his innocence and his spectacles, and Emily,
if I recall the name, the village vampire at the age of seven. Little happens
in Us Boys, but MacNamara has managed to convey a genuine emotion
in tracing the complicated relations between his personages-there is actual
childhood friendship, actual worry and pride and anger--all rather gently
rendered, and with a recognizable language.
It is interesting to note that none of these strips make
use of the projectile or the blow as a regular denouement. I have
nothing against the solution by violence of delicate problems, but since
the comic strip is supposed to be exclusively devoted to physical exploits
I think it is well to remark how placid life is in at least one significant
branch of the art. In effect all the themes of the comic strip are subjected
to a great variety of treatments, and in each of them you will find, on
occasions, the illustrated joke. This is the weakest of the strips, and,
as if aware of its weakness, its creators give it the snap ending of a
blow, or, failing that, show us one character in consternation at the brilliance
of the other's wit, flying out of the picture with the cry of "Zowie,"
indicating his surcharge of emotion. This is not the same
thing as the wilful violence of Mutt and Jeff,
where the attack is due to the malice or stupidity of one character, the
resentment or revenge of the other.
Mutt is a picaro, one of the few rogues created
in America. There is nothing too dishonest for him, nor is there any chance
so slim that he won't take it. He has an object in life: he does not do
mean or vicious things simply for the pleasure of doing them, and so is
vastly superior to the Peck's Bad Boy type of strip which has an apparently
endless voguethe type best known in The Katzenjammer Kids. This
is the least ingenious, the least interesting as drawing, the sloppiest
in colour, the weakest in conception and in execution, of all the strips,
and it is the one which has determined the intellectual idea of what all
strips are like. It is now divided into two-and they are equally bad. How
happy one could be with neither! The other outstanding picaresque strip
is Happy Hooligan-the type tramp who with his brother, Gloomy Gus, had
added to the gallery of our national mythology. Non est qualis erat--the
spark has gone out of him in recent years [1]. Elsewhere you still find
that exceptionally immoral and dishonest attitude toward the business standards
of America. For the comic strip, especially after you leave the domestic-relations
type which is it
self realistic and unsentimental, is specifically more
violent, more dishonest, more tricky and roguish, than America usually
permits its serious arts to be. The strips of cleverness: Foxy Grandpa,
The Boy Inventor, Hawkshaw the Detective, haven't great vogue. Boob
McNutt, without a brain in his head, beloved by the beautiful heiress,
has a far greater following, although it is the least worthy of Rube Goldberg's
astonishing creations. But Mutt and Jiggs and Abie the Agent, and
Barney Google and Eddie's Friends have so little respect
for law, order, the rights of property, the sanctity of money, the romance
of marriage, and all the other foundations of American life, that if they
were put into fiction the Society for the Suppression of Everything would
hale them incontinently to court and our morals would be saved again.
The Hall-room Boys (now known as Percy and Ferdy,
I think) are also picaresque; the indigent pretenders to social eminence
who do anything to get on. They are great bores, not because one foresees
the denunciation at the end, but because they somehow fail to come to life,
and one doesn't care whether they get away with it or not.
Abie and Jerry on the Job are good strips
because they are self-contained, seldom crack jokes, and have each a significant
touch of satire. Abie is the Jew of commerce and the man of common sense;
you have seen him quarrel with a waiter because of an overcharge of ten
cents, and, encouraged by his
companion, replying, "Yes, and it ain't the principle,
either; it's the ten cents." You have seen a thousand tricks by which he
once sold Complex motor cars and now promotes cinema shows or prize fights.
He is the epitome of one side of his race, and his attractiveness is as
remarkable as his jargon. Jerry's chief fault is taking a stock situation
and prolonging it; his chief virtue, at the moment, is his funny, hardboiled
attitude towards business. Mr Givney, the sloppy sentimentalist who is
pleased because some one took him for Mr Taft ("Nice, clean fun," says
Jerry of that), is faced with the absurd Jerry, who demolishes efficiency
systems and the romance of big business and similar nonsense with his devastating
logic or his complete stupidity. The railway station at New Monia hasn't
the immortal character of The Toonerville Trolley (that meets all
the trains) because Fontaine Fox has a far more entertaining manner than
Hoban, and because Fox is actually a caricaturist--all of his figures are
grotesque, the powerful Katinka or Aunt Eppie not more so
than the Skipper. Hoban and Hershfield both understate; Fox exaggerates
grossly; but with his exaggeration he is so ingenious, so inventive that
each strip is funny and the total effect is the creation of character in
the Dickens sense. It is not the method of Mutt and Jeff nor of
Barney Google in which Billy de Beck has done much with a luckless
wight, a sentimentalist, and an endearing fool all rolled into one.
These are the strips which come to life each day, without
forcing, and which stay long in memory. I am stating the case for the strip
in general and have gone so far as to speak well of some 1 do not admire,
nor read with animation. The continued existence of others remains a mystery
to me; why they live beyond change, and presumably beyond accidental death,
is one of the things no one can profitably spec ulate upon. I do not see
why I should concede any thing more to the enemies of the strip. In one
of Life's burlesque numbers there was a page of comics expertly
done by j held in the manner of our most popular artists. Each of the half
dozen strips illustrated the joke: 'Who was that lady I seen you with on
the street last night?" "That wasn't a lady; that was my wife." Like so
many parodies, this arrived too late, for the current answer is, That wasn't
a street; that was an alley." Each picture ended in a slam and a cry--also
belated. The actual demolition of the slam ending was accomplished by T.
E. Pow ers, who touches the field of the comic strip rarely, and then with
his usual ferocity. In a footnote to a cartoon he drew Mike and Mike.
In six pictures four represented one man hitting the other; once to emphasize
a pointless joke, twice thereafter for no reason at all, and finally to
end the picture. It was destruction by exaggeration; and no comic strip
artist missed the point.
At the extremes of the comic strip are the realistic
school and the fantastic--and of fantasy there are but
few practitioners. Tad has some of the quality in Judge Rummy, but
for the most part the Judge' and Fedink and the rest are human beings dressed
up as dogs--they are out of Aesop, not out of LaFontaine. But the Judge
is actually funny, and I recall an inhuman and undoglike episode in which
he and Fedink each claimed to have the loudest voice, and so in midwinter,
in a restaurant, each lifted up his voice and uttered and shouted and bellowed
the word "Strawberries" until they were properly thrown into the street.
This is the kind of madness which is required in fantasy, and Goldberg
occasionally has it. He is the most versatile of the lot; he has created
characters, and scenes, and continuous episodesfoolish questions and meetings
of ladies' clubs and inventions (not so good as Heath Robinson's) and through
them there has run a wild grotesquerie. The tortured statues of his decors
are marvelous, the way he pushes stupidity and ugliness to their last possible
point, and humour into everything, is amazing. Yet I feel he is manque,
because he has never found a perfect medium for his work.
Frueh is a fine artist in caricature and could have no
such difficulty. When he took it into his head to do a daily strip he was
bound to do something exceptional, and he succeeded. It is a highly sophisticated
thing in its humour, in its subjects, and pre-eminently in its execution.
His series on prohibition enforce
ment had infinite ingenuity, so also his commentaries
on political events in New York city. He remains a caricaturist in these
strips, indicating, by his use of the medium, that its possibilities are
not exhausted. Yet for all his dealing with "ideas" his method remains
fantastic, and although he isn't technically a comic-strip artist he is
the best approach to the one artist whom I have only mentioned, George
Herriman, and to his immortal creation. For there is, in and outside the
comic strip, a solitary and incomprehensible figure which must be treated
apart: The Krazy Kat that Walks by Himself.


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Washington, D.C. (April 12, 2011) - The exiled Malaysian human rights lawyer and founder of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), Waytha Moorthy, completed a seven city tour of the United States sponsored by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) last weekend. Moorthy was jailed and then exiled from his native Malaysia, and HINDRAF was banned after organizing a peaceful rally of more than 50,000 in 2007, protesting the country's persecution of ethnic Indians and Hindus. Moorthy's speaking tour took him to several meetings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as well as stops on university campuses and community events. He called for international attention to be focused not only on the mass movement of Hindus and other religious minorities that was crushed by the Malaysian government in 2007, but also on the ongoing systematic discrimination.
"Mr. Moorthy's presentation was critical in educating Americans about the extent and pervasiveness of human rights abuses in Malaysia and the brutal repression of tens of thousands that tried to bring peaceful change there just as we are witnessing in parts of the Arab world today," said Samir Kalra, HAF Executive Council Member. "From destruction of Hindu temples to political persecution, Mr. Moorthy provided great personal insight into the daily struggles endured by the Hindu minority."
Hindus, who were brought to Malaysia from India as indentured laborers by the British during the 1800's, comprise between six and seven percent of that country's population. Many human rights organizations assert that Malaysian Hindus are economically deprived and lag far behind ethnic Malaysian Muslims who benefit from a majoritarian affirmative-action policy that includes discounts on housing, quotas in educational institutions, and preference for government jobs. Moorthy's lectures detailed attacks on temples and religious shrines and several high-profile legal battles where Hindus have been forced to deal with the Sharia law courts in personal and family matters.
"Our community was stirred emotionally by the story of personal hardship endured by Mr. Moorthy and so many fellow Hindus in Malaysia," said Dr. Chandresh Saraiya, a Tampa Bay physician who co-organized Moorthy's lectures there. "We are eager here to work with HAF to create greater awareness and understanding of the human rights issues faced by Moorthy and Hindus throughout the world where they are often a persecuted minority."
Moorthy sought political asylum in the United Kingdom after Malaysia revoked his passport in early 2008, and he remains the voice of HINDRAF after most of its founding members were jailed in Kuala Lampur. HAF joined Moorthy in December 2008, when the Foundation spoke at a briefing on Malaysia at the House of Lords. This most recent speaking tour is the latest of HAF's ongoing efforts to focus attention on Malaysia -- a country otherwise commonly held up as a model Muslim democracy.
"I am indeed grateful for this ten day HAF tour bringing me to the United States so I may spread awareness of the tragic situation confronting Malaysia's Hindu and other religious minorities," said Mr. Moorthy upon wrapping up his tour. "HAF's efforts through this tour and continued monitoring and reporting of events in Malaysia in their human rights report is critically important, and after feeling the support I received on this visit, I sincerely believe Malaysian Hindus can aspire to achieve concrete changes for their betterment and that of their children."
While in DC, over three days, Moorthy, accompanied by HAF's Associate Director, Jay Kansara, held meetings with twenty-one House and Senate offices, key subcommittees, and the Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights. They also met with fellows and staffers at the American Enterprise Institute and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
Throughout his trip, Moorthy showed footage of media coverage of the historic HINDRAF rally and the subsequent violent response by the Malaysian authorities, and he also described daily acts of discrimination faced by religious minorities in Malaysia. Kansara and Moorthy urged congressional leaders to hold a congressional briefing on the issue and persuade the Malaysian government to meet with HINDRAF leaders and address alleged rights abuses in that nation.
"HAF annually publishes the only comprehensive Hindu human rights report covering several countries, and Mr. Moorthy brings the pages of this report to life with his poignant story of Hindus in Malaysia and other parts of the Diaspora," added Kansara. "Mr. Moorthy's tour is a testament to HAF's commitment to follow through on its report with concrete action, and we are immensely proud to have given a platform to a true champion of human rights."


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Monday the streets of Oakland will roll out the red carpet for some of Hollywood's biggest names.
The premiere of "Moneyball" at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland will bring the likes of Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Billy Beane, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, David Justice, Bud Selig and more to the East Bay.
The movie tells the story of Oakland Athletics' General Manager Billy Beane and his unique approach to scouting players and developing a team to keep a small market team competitive in Major League Baseball.
The movie is based on the popular Michael Lewis book of the same name.
While some baseball purists have criticized the movie for taking liberties with what actually happened behind the scenes of the A's successful -- yet championship-less early 2000 seasons -- the script, by Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote "The Social Network," has received positive reviews from critics.
The stars will begin to arrive at the theatre around 5 p.m. and the screening will take place an hour later.
The event is closed to the public.
Monday the streets of Oakland will roll out the red carpet for some of Hollywood's biggest names.


text:
|Marvin Suites are newly renovated hotel located in
a quiet "Soi" (small street) right off Sathorn road, in the heart of
one of Bangkok's prime financial and retail districts.
We're conveniently situated walking distance from Surasak BTS skytrain station, Silom road - one of Bangkok's prime shopping and entertainment districts, and the vast green expanses of Lumpini park.
Designed with the needs of executives in mind, every detail of our studio and one-bedroom, and the complimenting facilities and services we offer are specifically planned to ensure that regardless of whether you're staying in the city for only a few short weeks, or scheduled to remain in the city for months, Marvin Suites will serve your every need.
Studio Deluxe Room (Size: 28 sq.m.)
Ideal for lone professionals visiting Bangkok for short or long term working engagements, or young couples with no children looking for a conveniently located hotel in which to spend a few months in the city, Marvin Suites Luxury Studios are pleasant and comfortable living spaces fully equipped with all the amenities you need for a carefree stay.
One Bedroom (Size: 50 sq.m.)
Designed with the needs of executives in mind, Marvin Suites' one bedroom are the perfect living quarters. Every detail of these plush 2-room 40m2 domiciles was planned to ensure that whether you're staying in Bangkok for just a few short weeks, or scheduled to remain in the city for a few months, you'll be sure to have everything you need available in your room. The suites are great for relaxing by yourself after a day of activity, and can serve just as well for entertaining guests.
Each unit has a fully functional kitchenette and dining area. The bedroom is entirely separated from the living room and has ample cupboard space for storage of clothes and gear.
|Located in a quiet neighborhood right off Sathorn road,
the address of choice for many of Bangkok's most prestigious and successful
companies, Marvin Suites Hotel were conceived to serve
as a convenient and efficient living space for professionals and executives
coming to Bangkok on business, as well as individuals interested in
spending more than just a few short days touring the city. As such we've
made every effort to ensure your day-to-day needs are addressed, enabling
you relax and focus on the purpose of your visit:
Cozy 11 Café
From morning to evening, breakfast to dinner, our in-house restaurant provides beautiful international favorites in a pleasant atmosphere and at reasonable prices. Whether you're heading out early for business, or returning late after a day of touring, the Cozy 11 Café is there to help you relax and replenish your energy.
Business Center
Many of our guests are professionals, executives and entrepreneurs attracted to Bangkok due to its prestigious status as the bustling business hub for the region. If you need a quiet space to work, read email, our Business Center is here to serve. Please don't hesitate to ask us for referrals and connections to members of the local business community, via our parent and partners companies we have extensive connections and are happy to assist whenever we can.
Concierge Services
As part of our mission to make your visit to the "City of Angels" as smooth and pleasurable as possible we're happy to offer you our concierge service - helping you arrange tickets, tours, bookings and anything else you desire.
For over twenty years Thailand has been one of the world's favorite tourism destinations. Talk to us about your plans and we'll be happy to book you on tours that will help you understand why. Whether your simply looking for a one day guided excursion to sight-see Bangkok's most famous sites, or thinking about a longer vacation in Phuket, Samui, Chiang Mai, or elsewhere – either way we're happy to help you with all your travel arrangements.
Transportation and Parking
We're happy to help you with all your transportation needs:
Housekeeping Service
As a hotel establishment we provide daily housekeeping services for your suite.
Laundry and Dry Cleaning Services
We're happy to provide a full range of laundry and dry cleaning services.
Safety Deposit Box and 24 hour Security Service
For increased security you're very welcome to elect to deposit valuables, important documents, and expensive gear in our safety deposit box. We provide a round-the-clock security service to ensure your full safety.
All our suites and public areas are provided with secure high speed wireless internet connectivity enabling you to surf the web, check email and use your laptop in comfort and safety.
Tuk Tuk Service
Catch a ride in the infamous Tuk Tuk as a part of your Bangkok Experience. At Marvin Suites we provide Tuk Tuk Shuttle service for free to our guests to the nearest BTS Sky Train Station. This service is available from Monday to Saturday (9AM-5PM).
|Internet at Lobby
|Waiting Area
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Marvin Suites Hotel is located in a quiet "Soi" (small street) right off Sathorn road,
in the center of one of Bangkok's best known financial and retail districts.
We're conveniently situated walking distance from Surasak BTS skytrain station, Silom road – one of the city's most famous shopping and entertainment districts, and the grassy expanses of Lumpini park.
Marvin Suites is a strictly non-smoking building, therefore smoking is strongly prohibited and violation of this policy will result in penalty charges.


text:
Chicago lost its Olympic bid for the 2016 Summer Games. I, for one, am relieved. Excerpt from an excellent piece at the East Coast Bias:
To prepare Chicago, Mayor Daley would have needed to remove a number of poor communities from the south side, relocating them outside of the county, or far west within the city. There would have been cost overruns, as previously stated, cutbacks on services for current residents, the creation of structures at a high cost (in a time of fluctuating value) that will NOT be used after the Olympic event. It's the kind of production that loves a blowhard that promises big things and scrambles to deliver. It's the kind of production that would be better served by a more lax news media, easily-manipulated fiscal policy, and disenfranchised/ easy to move residents.
I would also add that although Mayor Daley guaranteed that no city tax money would fund the infrastructure changes or any other Olympic expense, in an effort to step to the plate, the Chicago City Council voted unanimously to cover any financial shortfalls were it to win the Olympic bid.
The City Council had already promised $500 million to the cause, not to mention the other $50 million used just to prepare for the bid.
I realize that most Chicago residents don't know where the "poor people near UIC, the United Center or McCormick Place" went. They just know that it's nice and clean now and they go on their merry way. It doesn't really cross their minds that there are people hurting in this city.
I would love to see this zeal for an Olympic Games diverted to fixing the problems of this city. Put it towards Chicago Public Schools, perhaps?


text:
After the Shuttle
ESA astronaut Michel Tognini looks to the future, "Now that the Shuttle is ending, we have to think differently. Time has moved on, we can't stay all our lives in low Earth orbit and we have to go further."
"Looking at the future exploration of the Moon and Mars, we won't go there with Space Shuttles, but with capsules. However, reentry from space as a plane is still something magnificent which has to be studied, and the Space Shuttle gave us valuable 'lessons learned' on every flight.
"I'm sure people would have loved to fly on the Shuttle, but maybe they will have the chance on a new Space Shuttle built with new technology, materials and computers, which might be ready within ten years."
The last word should go to the last ESA astronaut and non-US citizen to fly on the Space Shuttle, Roberto Vittori. Flying on STS-134, the penultimate flight, he views the end of the Shuttle programme in a different way and agrees with Tognini about the possibilities for new winged vehicles.
"I've flown in space twice before on Soyuz, but its my first flight on the Shuttle, so that's the way I look at it. I know Endeavour is scheduled for its last flight, and it seems strange to me because when you see the spacecraft close up, it looks brand new. I know it's over 20 years old, but it seems still in perfect shape," said Vittori.
"The Shuttles are just the first examples of future hypersonic machines so, although we expected to retire them, the question is not 'if', but 'when' there will be a new vehicle similar to the Shuttle. From a pilot's standpoint, one of the most interesting areas for me is hypersonic flight and the Shuttle is the only vehicle capable of flying in this region.
"So I don't think of the 'last Shuttle flight', I see the Shuttle as a prototype of transport for future generations. As a test pilot, it will be very exciting to be part of expanding this hypersonic experience."


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Dear Frugal and Simple Readers,
At the beginning of 2012, I started thinking more about my writing and the topics I was passionate about. My website at the time, Frugal & Simple, did not seem to be fitting into my vision, mainly the word frugal. {We still consider ourselves to be frugal but that word can mean so many different things. Our frugality is purchasing less but higher quality whereas most people view frugality as more for less.} I wanted to write more about living minimally and green as well as share more about parenting and our financial philosophy. I felt limited by the name Frugal & Simple.
After attending the Killer Tribes conference, I was inspired to finally take a risk and start over. During our drive home late that night, Intentionally Simple was born. It's a little scary to be leaving the comfort of this site and starting over from scratch but it's also exciting, I feel like I have more direction now!
I'm so excited about my new space and would love to have you join me over on Intentionally Simple!
I'd love for you subscribe to Intentionally Simple via email or RSS.
Thank you so much for reading Frugal & Simple and being a part of this community! I'm sad to be saying goodbye to this space but excited about Intentionally Simple!
— Rachel


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Neither Left nor Right, just wrong: Canadian Public Policy stalling tactics
December 1, 2006
Benign colonialism for dummies: how to impress OECD while Canada's First People live in Brazil-like favela. Canadian Public Policy research has been usefully challenged by seasoned journalist Atkinson Fellow Marie Wadden's recent series which continues her research begun in 1978 in response to the hidden horrors of Canada's Innu town, Davis Inlet. The True North strong and free has been limping for a long time.
Neither Left nor Right, just wrong
Decades later, Wadden concerned about the elusive solutions for problems of addiction in Canadian Aboriginal continues her research by visiting remote communities to find stories that will unsettle Canadian complacent apathy, compassion fatigue and worldly-wise jaded perspectives. We just do not want to give up the adventure stories that inspired our youth of Arctic explorers in frozen, isolated, hinterland Hudson Bay posts. Perhaps her shocking series will shake our stubborn pryde in our grandfathers' mythologies while shamefully neglecting tragic tales from our Other grandparents.
Her passion for the subject earned her the 2005 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and led her to a year-long, cross-country trek to look at the causes, effects and potential solutions to the addiction crisis among Aboriginals. Her series of stories — Tragedy or Triumph; Canadian Public Policy and Aboriginal Addictions — is appearing in the Star and online at thestar.com/atkinson. Wadden began her career at CBC television in Newfoundland 27 years ago and has won numerous journalism awards. The St. John's resident is the 17th winner of the Atkinson Fellowship and the first from east of Montreal. The fellowship, sponsored by The Atkinson Charitable Foundation, the Toronto Star and the Beland Honderich family, aims to further liberal journalism in the tradition of Joseph E. Atkinson, the Star's founder. The Atkinson Series, Tragedy or Triumph, Canadian Public Policy and Aboriginal Addictions
Seven years in a Third World military dictatorship did not prepare me for the harsh reality of the everyday lives of Canadian Inuit and First Nations. I felt shame, powerlessness and confusion stemming from years of work as insider in cultural institutions devoted to Inuit studies. It took me ten years to build heightened levels of trust so all the stories pored out. The more I learned and accepted without offering bandaid solutions, patent excuses, weak explanations or high-haded social theories, the more stories seemed to come to me. It was as if I had a pair of antennas, an open channel to a stream of unending stories each one corraborating the other. The more I learned the more I questioned so I paralleled the kitchen table accounts with deep research into footnotes of published materials, Hansards, and cross-disciplinary work. I asked more specific questions of Inuit elders and the knowers in communities. (The knowers were often Inuit women of any age who had been chosen to learn more because of their superior abilities to learn languages. Their emotional maturity, discretion and wisdom was daunting. Often stories were shared in whispers. I would never get permission to share them. Potent stories of individual personal strength, survival could not be shared because the surviving members of the perpetrators of violence and injustice were still alive. In small isolated hamlets there are systems of power in everyday life that are as imposing as those on parliament hill. This explains why a convicted sex offender can be chosen to represent a community (where family violence is extremely high — off the charts in terms of the Canadian average) in the political arena. In Third World countries there is always the hope that education and maturity, in civil society and democracy, might provide improved access to human rights for citizens. My despair, my overwhelming sense of hopelessness, became consuming as I realized that this tragedy was taking place in one of the more advanced democracies with a relatively informed civil society. I began to meticulously develop a detailed timeline of the social histories of First Nations, Inuit (and African-Canadians). I would take the stories shared by friends and students and cross-reference them with dates provided by classical ethnographers, anthropologists, art historians, museologists, geographers, geologists, administrators and Hudson Bay Company reports. I reread the entire series of Inuit Studies, Inuit Art Quarterly and realized that it was not bad research on my part that made me so shamefully unaware. The very cultural institutions on whom we depend for insight into our shared communal memories, these institutions have failed us miserably. They continue to perpetrate distorted histories insisting covertly on presenting a benign colonialism. Examine the brilliant RCAP, the most in-depth (and expensive) report, undertaken using a progressive research methodology called Participatory Action Research (PAR). It's on-line and available for anyone! Read the section on how our institutions of public curricula were specifically called upon to reexamine distorted histories in collaboration with Inuit and First Nations communties. The do as I did and examine what these institutions have done since then. A tourist visiting Canada's cultural institutions, either virtually or in glass, steel and stone buildings, such as the National Gallery of Canada or the Museum of Civilization, or exploring Cybermuse, will not learn of the depth of despair of First Nations and Inuit communties. They will leave perhaps learning something of the heroic status of the Hudson's Bay Company, Inuit art cooperatives, the benefits to Inuit of entering the international art market, the exquisite aesthetics of Inuit clothing from the pre-1950s, Inuit legends shortened and deformed for consumer tastes. They will learn about the dynamic Inuit culture as if the best of the culture sank with the Nascopie. Explorers and Hudson Bay Company employees are heroized when their work should now be reviewed through the lens of the informed, intelligent generation born in the 1930s and 1940s. Remove the overt desire to portray colonialism in Canada's north as benign, to continue to cherish histories of post WWII heroism of southerners who conquered the hinterland to benefit all Canadians. Challenge the assumptions that learning English, the market system and the northern form of Canadian democracy was beneficial in the long-run. Unsettle the assumption that the errors were in the past and we should all move on. The litany of mistakes outlined in this brilliant, moving, informed series can be complemented by a thorough reading of one of Canads' most-difficult-to-read stories, Mistakes. Let's ask the communal archives of memory for the answers to the questions about what really happened to Inuit-Scottish, Inuit-Danish and Inuit-Icelandic children abandoned in the 1930s, 1940, 1950s, 1960s by their fathers who returned south and built profitable careers on their heroism, adventures in Canada's north while ignoring pleas from their former partners, and even own children abandoned to the care of small vulnerable hamlets. We no longer accept that the genetic pool of the Scottish, British, American, Danish and Icelandic improved Inuit and First Nations do we? How can we continue in 2006 to lionize those who felt pryde in their improvement of the gene pool? Is there no way that we can honour our blue eyed grandfathers without simply forgetting. We need serious, committed memory work on the level of what has been done in Post WWII Europe. The situations are in no way the same. But the revamping of our institutions of communal memory is just taking too long. In Post WWII Europe it became evident over the decades that it could not be ignored by national cultural institutions. In Canada it has been politically shrewd to use delaying tactics in our museums just as we have in land claims issues, and the dozens of other recommendations of the RCAP. Read the most recent articles by Canada's anthropologist and you will find apologies for these institions arguing that great progress has been made. After al we do have an Algonquin canoe floating silently in the Group of Seven section of the National Gallery of Canada. Silently is the word. Speak to renowned Algonquin elder William Commanda and put his voice through a loud speaker in those galleries. Listen to him describe the starvation when tourism trade grew as southerners flocked north to enjoy the Canadian Shield. Hear his gentle, firm voice as he describes in elaborate detail how he built canoes to stave off starvation as the First Nations communities were denied access to their fishing camps which had become the land of the tourists. He speaks without rage. His voice is still powerfully spiritual. He calls for a freeing of the rivers from the damage of the dams. In the room devoted to Canadian art of the 1950s install a Stan Douglas type piece where the voices of Inuit and First Nations whose lives were irrevocably changed by the one of the worst incidence of TB on the planet speak of their grandfathers, camp leaders, fathers, the hunters, trappers and fishers buried in unmarked graves near Moose Factory's sanitorium.
In the National Gallery of Canada's Inuit Art section (in the basement) remind visitors that the artists whose works continue to be revered, have suffered starvation in Canada in the 1940s and 1950s, have succumbed to alcoholism, and drugs, that they have met violent deaths through suicides, murders, or in preventable house fires. How many Canadians know the other stories connected to Inuit women artists who made history when they were honoured with the Order of Canada, Canada's highest award or the Royal Canadian Academy? One died alone in a hospital near Montreal in the 1980s, so depressed because of her linguistic isolation (she could only speak Inuktitut) that she gave away her ulu, the woman's knife so affectionately mentioned in articles about Inuit art. Another was confused at one time when nortern officials refused food to her family during the peoriod of starvation in the 1950s. What about Canada's most widely admired Inuit artist whose works are honoured internationally who was now ill, forced to live on city streets and was so badly beaten by police he carried a lump on his forehead for weeks. They and/or their families still live in houses where the entire contents of their fridges are a plastic bottle of ketchup and mustard. The have developed diabetes. A few have become violent and abusive. So many Inuit artists are in the Baffin Correction Centre at any given time that local people suggest a visit as part of the itinerary for Iqaluit, Nunavut's art scene. Then let's see some footage of the renowned Inuit elder and activist, as he describes through his son, artist and interpretor, his trip to New York or his interpretation of one of his carvings. Let's hear him sing with tears in his eyes, the song he wrote for the homeless man on the streets of New York. Where is the strong articulate voice of Sheila Watt-Cloutier in any contemporary site claiming to represent to Inuit culture? If you do not know this name you should. She has made history. What about Paul Okalik, Peter Erniq. These are names all Canadians should know. Let's begin with something simple: honest, inclusive timelines. Let's contextualize stories about Inuit culture. Stop funding Inuit studies unless there is a critical component that examines issues, not as tidy sanitized disciplines that claim to be protecting Inuit art and culture from the sordid truths of everyday life. Inuit art and culture are dynamic, alive, robust. The Inuit art and culture market will survive but perhaps not by continuing to enrich southerers or those who live decades in the north, return to the south and continue to become enriched on their insider knowledge. If Inuit benefited fully from their own art production in a sustainable, equitable fashion there would be far less need of so much government intervention. There is more percapita talent in the tiny hamlet of Clyde River waiting for a venue than there is many southern cities. There is also far more youth suicide, violence against women and despair.
The private Atkinson Foundation, founded in 1942 by former publisher of The Toronto Star, promotes social and economic justice in the tradition Joseph E. Atkinson. This includes the work of Armine Yalnizyan, (2000), "Inequality Rises As More Families Slide To The Bottom Of The Income Scale: Tax cuts don't address economic reality says new report," Centre of Social Justice, January 27, 2000 http://www.atkinsonfoundation.ca/publications/The_Great_Divide_Armine_
Filed in Aboriginal Women in Canada, anthropology, child poverty, Chronologies, critical ethnography, CulturalAnthropology, del.icio.us, First Nations, human rights, Memory Work, Nunavut, OECD, Political Philosophy, Public Policy, Risk Society, social exclusion, Social Justice, Timelines, urban ethnography, virtual, visual anthropology, vulnerability to social exclusion, webliographies
Tags: Aboriginal Women in Canada, Arctic exiles, Atkinson Foundation, benign colonialism, Canada's nasty secrets, Canadian Policy Research Network, child poverty, CHRC, cyber citizens, Davis Inlet, del.icio.us, digg, economic efficiency model, ethical topography of self and the Other, Ethical turn, everyday life, First Nations, First Nations social history, forgetting, homelessness, Inuit, Inuit Art Quarterly, Inuit social history, land claims, Make Poverty History, Marie Wadden, mass media, Nunavut, OECD, Other-I, Policy Development, policy research, postcolonial, RCAP, refugees, relocations, romanticism, social exclusion, Statistics Canada, Status of Women Canada, SWC


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This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label "Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. – Ed.
In the spirit of helping people work better together, over the last few weeks we made big improvements to Google presentations, introduced a version of Google Docs optimized for Android tablets, and enabled more dynamic content in Google Sites. We also celebrated the fact that Silicon Valley has gone Google!
Google presentations reloaded
On Tuesday we launched a completely rebuilt version of our web-based presentations application, so you can build more beautiful presentations together with colleagues and classmates. Google presentations now lets you make great-looking slides with animated builds, advanced slide transitions and better support for drawings, tables and themes. Plus, we made it easier to create presentations with others, without the hassles of attachments. Your whole team can work together in the same version of a presentation at the same time, and you can see who's doing what, chat with others, and see a full revision history at any moment in time.
Google Docs on Android tablets
We've made it faster and easier to work with Google Docs on Android tablets with a new version of the Android application that takes full advantage of larger screen real estate. The three-panel view lets you browse filters and collections, see your document list and view file thumbnails and details simultaneously. You can get the Google Docs Android app for free from the Android Market.
Charts in Google Sites
Charts are often created in spreadsheets, but sometimes you want charts to appear in other places, like your team or project sites. In Google Sites, now you can select "Chart" from the "Insert" menu, and navigate to the Google Spreadsheet where your chart or data is located. You can also choose to have your site's chart update in real-time when someone updates the underlying spreadsheet.
New look for Google Docs and Sites
We started rolling out a new look in Google Docs a couple months ago, and now this new design is available throughout all our collaboration tools. In addition to a cleaner, simpler design, we've made it more clear when your files are being auto-saved and added new icons to help you see at-a-glance who your docs are shared with. You can also customize the overall "density" of screen information, a great feature if you want to fit more onto a smaller display.
Who's gone Google?
Successful small businesses tend to stay laser-focused on improving their core businesses, without getting distracted by peripheral activities that don't make them more competitive. For example, most small businesses don't want to spend time or money developing in-house expertise to run email and other IT systems. Case in point: 97 percent of Business Insider's "Silicon Valley Startups to Watch" use Google Apps.
More than 5,000 businesses and thousands of other organizations start using Google Apps every single day, and more of our customers have shared their stories recently so you can hear why. A warm welcome goes out to Philz Coffee, Mid-Atlantic Door Group, Bradford & Barthel, LLP and the City of Mesquite, Nevada.
I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For more details and the latest news, check out the Google Apps Blog.


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Yesterday was the closing night of STAGE FRIGHT: AN IMPROVISED HOMAGE TO HITCHCOCK. For those of you who missed the run, or for anyone who might want to catch a little more, there are now two full shows available on Vimeo. Featured below are the shows from the last two Saturdays. A special thanks to KEVIN REGAN for filming.
Show from Saturday, April 23rd
Suggested Location: Library + Suggested Psychological Fear: Spiders
Show from Saturday, April 30th
Suggested Location: Blimp + Suggested Psychological Obsession: Counting


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Get the Kindle version of A User's Manual for the Human Experience: 2017 Edition $3.99 on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2sJeN9b
Feeding the hamster in your brain
Feens site is down at the moment, but this is one reason I have websites on different servers. SO, I know y'all need the new Feens episode for your morning commute, so here it is.
Michael W. Dean, Dianna Keiler and Jeremy Hizenburger talk about what REALLY happened this season on "Mr. Robot", how Blue Oyster Cult broke MWD's heart TWICE, why J. Neil Schulman needs to accept Bitcoin and quit whining and quit resting on his laurels and get a day job like the rest of us for chripessake even Einstein had a day job and you're not him, The Monero Fluffy Pony FTL interview including "THAT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS", Big Head Press, cats, worms, space, anti-Semitic people who bug Michael, how "Narcos" is totally Shakespearean at times, and SO much more.
Canon VIXIA HF200 camera test. Be sure to click on the hi-def setting!
Low-Cost Hi-Def video gear list:
I was pretty amazed at how little I needed to spend to put together a gear setup for hi-def filmmaking. What I usually do is get to something late, when the prices have come down, instead of being a first adopter. This setup would have cost about ten grand a few years ago.
First of all is the Canon VIXIA camera. They list for $1100 bucks, but I found one for $433 (NOW $289!) on Amazon. (If that package sells out, there are other places selling them on Amazon for a few dollars more.) This thing is unbelievably small, but shoots hi-def, and is capable of getting a really good look and sound if you take care with the setup.
Next thing you need is a good microphone. This one is amazing for the price, and it's what I used in the camera test above….The Audio-Technica ATR-35S Lavalier Microphone. $17 on Amazon.
You'll also want to get a 3.5mm Stereo Male to 3.5mm Mono Female Adapter. It doesn't produce stereo sound (you don't WANT stereo sound for dialogue in a movie, even Hollywood records talking in mono), but it will record your mono mic as two tracks of mono, rather than one track, which will save you a lot of pasting and panning in the editing. Here's one for five dollars.
If your camera does not come with a tripod, I recommend this one from Polaroid, $17.58 on Amazon. It folds down and fits snugly in the included soft carrying case.
For a larger memory card, I recommend this, SanDisk Extreme HD Video 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Memory Card (you'll need at least Class 4 to do hi-def video, and Class 6, the highest class, is the best.) $64.05 (now $30!) on Amazon. Holds over an hour of hi-def video, or nearly two hours at the second-highest camera setting, which is the setting I prefer. It still looks great, and is easier to edit and takes less rendering time.
I'd recommend getting a second battery, since they only last about an hour before needing recharging (you charge them in the camera). Get the BP-809, $55.14 (now $40) on Amazon.
Finally, you'll need something to safely carry your camera in. I got an aluminum briefcase for $25.69 on Amazon. I took out the compartments and simply put foam in there. Cut it to where it holds everything snugly without squishing things.
So far we've spent a paltry $625 bucks (if you order all this together on Amazon, shipping should be free.) If you already have a computer with at least four gigs of RAM, you should be able to edit a FEATURE-length film with this setup.
The Vixia camera comes with a disc that has some video editing software on it, but it's not very robust, more for editing short YouTube videos than feature films. For feature films I recommend Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (which I already had). $750 (now 500_ here. Not cheap, but it's the best there is. You can get it for Windows or Mac, and it runs fine on Windows 7, which is what I have.
For really serious editing of feature-length films (like my latest), you'll want two external hard drives. I recommend these, the Cavalry CAXM Series 1TB. Connects via USB 2, but also includes much-faster eSATA connections, if your computer can handle that. (Mine can, but I had to hook it into the motherboard with the included breakout ports.) on Amazon.
The Vixia takes good stills too.
All in all, a great little camera, and if you want one, I'd recommend you get one before they sell out.
–Michael W. Dean
Click above image to see the budget for "Guns and Weed, the Road to Freedom".
The director is the author of the book $30 Film School. We recommend it. It has almost everything we know on how to make a movie….Though that movie was written about miniDV, not hi-def, but most of the info is the same. For an update on the hi-def info we used to make Guns and Weed, check out this blog post by Michael Dean, "Lo-cost Hi-def video gear list", which covers gear and software used.We also learned a bit (including how to do animations and greenscren, which we'd never done before) from the good guide Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Classroom in a Book. (I already had Premiere, got it free from Adobe as a review copy.)
This book also helped us with learning to color correct. We did that ourselves, as well as the sound mix, and the book gave us good tips on in-program audio compression and EQ. It also taught us all we needed to know about outputting for hi-def delivery to our distributor, outputting to DVD for promo copies, and outputting hi-def cleanly for both iPad and for YouTube.
Here's a post by Michael Dean called Secrets of Home Recording (Including "How to soundproof your home studio for under ten bucks"), which has information on the recording techniques we used for the music and voiceover, and here's another post if you're on a budget. The sultry narration for the film was done by Michael's wife, DJ.
The entire film was made for $2350, including the hi-def camera, in a period of just over four months. Here's an interview with Michael and Neema about some of the specifics of how that all worked.
Michael W. Dean