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The shock and awe of Morrison
I have seen Toni Morrison a handful of times in my life. The most notable was the first time, when I went to hear her read from Paradise while studying abroad in London. It was 1998.
I replayed the speech I�d been practising as we waited in line. All about how I loved her, and what her books meant to me, and how I hoped one day to be a writer, just like her. A friend and I finally made it to the front of the line, and I opened my mouth with all of my 20-year-old�s confidence. You know what happened next? Of course, you do. Nothing came out.
I closed my mouth, swallowed hard and tried again. Mute. Struck speechless, for the first and only time in my life. I stood staring at her, so regal and kind, already hating myself for this silence. She leant over the table. She wouldn�t be rushed by the waiting crowd.
She held on to my hand with both of hers. I remember her warmth, which reminded me of my mother�s warmth, and thought how they both resisted the cold of destruction through all the hells they had to live through. I remember Morrison�s slight nod before she squeezed tightly and let go. I remember knowing what the nod meant between us, and walking away, dazed, because I would carry it in my body the rest of my life. My friend pulled on my arm. I saw it, she said.
Years later, I saw Morrison in the courtyard of a church in New York City. It was a few months after 9/11, and the usual people, a fandom made up of students of all ages, and adults of all races, all genders, spiralled around her.
In the crowding, I felt what I wanted from her, what we all want from the most gifted among us: to help us understand, to help soothe the hurt with what only they can see. We feel that same, devastating want now, at the news of her passing. That time I held back, wondering foolishly if she might remember me from London, too scared to get close enough to find out.
I was 15 years old the first time I read The Bluest Eye, and I didn�t quite have a grasp of the English language. I lived in Harlem, which was going through a transformation of sorts back in the early 1990s, with thousands of Dominicans spilling down from Washington Heights through Morningside Heights, about to burst it.
Although I had been going to public schools for three years, I was still in bilingual education classes; English didn�t stick. Home was dysfunctional, with a stepfather who openly abused my mother, and a legion of adults, neighbours, family members, who were hellbent on acting like short-term amnesiacs around Mami�s bruises and humiliations.
I had fallen into a reading habit out of revenge, my blinding hatred for a Spanish-language teacher who hated me just as much, who wished I would fail her class.
Reading those Spanish books, largely in defiance of someone who wanted to make me feel worthless, stupid, I had a deafening realisation: stories quietened the world around me, sniffed out the stench of the loneliness clinging to my life.
I walked into my local public library down on 125th Street and Amsterdam Avenue one cold afternoon. Like many children who walked in there on any given day, I was trying to escape home, find a quiet place where adults would leave me the hell alone.
There, I found an odd couple who did the exact opposite. They were two librarians: a black man, taller than any person I had seen in real life, and a short, plump white woman, who carried with her the pungent scent of tea tree oil.
On that first day, they walked me around the wide floor, showing me different sections I should get to eventually, amassing in their arms an enormous stack of books I should take home, while they debated back and forth which would be the best for me to start on.
It was their lightness with each other I found endearing, a scene I had seen play out between long-married couples on sitcoms, as I tried to learn English through the TV. Finally, they decided and handed me a slim book: The Bluest Eye.
I clung to that book, captivated by its cover, which featured a girl who shared my skin tone. I didn�t go to sleep all night, annoying my younger sister by keeping the lights on. At the end, there I was, not sure I knew exactly all that had happened in that story but shocked that the feelings in the book mirrored feelings I had known my entire life.
Just like Pecola, I had often been ridiculed and picked on for being the darkest child. Just like in the world of these characters, the idolisation of whiteness surrounded and isolated me. Who was this woman, this writer?
The next day, I went back and spoke to my new friends. I asked about her in my broken English, and they told me her real name, Chloe Ardelia Wofford, the first part sounding pretty close to mine, and somehow I became immediately convinced this woman had something to do with me.
I asked them to give me all her books. Some I started and finished; some I abandoned because they were too hard, knowing I needed more skill to take the plunge. In college, I became an English major largely because of my love of books, which was also my love of Morrison.
In that academic environment, I revisited all of her works, and had to relearn to read her the way I learnt to make love as a late bloomer, not knowing exactly what I was doing, and embarrassed that I would fake it, rush it, only to be slowed by a skilled, patient hand.
Her work resisted being rushed, and in it, even the parts that chilled me lit up something fierce.
Morrison�s body of work, within a world literary canon that remains as white and male as it has ever been, underscores what we know, but somehow, still refuse to embrace: genius isn�t categorically more present in one gender than in another, in one race more than another.
Regardless how lonely she remains in gender, in race, in that canon today, her legacy teaches us that.
Toni Morrison is and will remain an artist ahead of her time, beyond time itself. We often hear the worth of an artist measured in the impact she can make.
Does she create something new with language, with a voice unlike any other? Is she singularly reflective of the cumulative history that brought us to the moment in which she created her art? Yes, she did all of that. And what of the ephemeral other thing? The way she helped this black Dominican girl understand her life and her pain, and see the beauty of asserting her worth, through the force of Morrison�s own talent, her mind, which created an echo in mine?
That force lives in legions of us who aren�t amnesiacs, who understand the horrors around us, ahead of us, who will not play dumb or blind, who refuse to be silenced even if our names remain unknown or difficult to pronounce. All of us carry her, will carry her forward, today and always. In resistance, we carry her on.
� Cleyvis Natera holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction degree from New York University and is working on her first novel, Neruda in the Park
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Published Aug 8, 2019 at 8:00 am (Updated Aug 8, 2019 at 9:11 am)
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I lost the plot today – about 3.30pm. My patience, for today, had just about run out. For three weeks I've been duelling, coaxing, battling, pleading with, swearing at a computer that despite my bravest (sometimes stupidest) efforts, would not open up. Tonight, for the first time since then (and thanks in almost 100% of the recovery to Brian Gardner) I have a working 'puder with sound and music software – PHEW! Now I'm just too tired to do any…hahaha! But at least we're back! Three weeks of holiday, hey everyone needs one, ask Fran Healy, he was singing such a thing to me today (not exclusively you understand).
Superhuman degrees of patience
Filed under Music

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi There! Is this Your First Time?
Did you know if you Register you have access to free search tools including the ability to save listings and property searches? Did you know that you can bypass the search altogether and have listings sent directly to your email address? Check out our how-to page for more info.
- Price$650,000
- Acres1.36
3223 14th St W, Bradenton
General commercial zoning allows for multiple uses, with the potential to be developed as a Senior Housing Site. The city has confirmed a 95 bed facility can be developed on the site.
Essential Information
- Price$650,000
- Bathrooms0.00
- Acres1.36
- TypeLand
- Sub-TypeCommercial
- StatusActive
- UtilitiesCable Available, Electricity Available
Additional Information
- Days on Market665
- ZoningGC
Community Information
- Address3223 14th St W
- AreaBradenton
- SubdivisionAcreage
- CityBradenton
- CountyManatee County
- StateFL
- Zip Code34205
- Lot DescriptionOne + to Two Acres
Listing Details
- Listing Office:Eshenbaugh Land Company
Listing information courtesy of Eshenbaugh Land Company.
All listing information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed and should be independently verified through personal inspection by appropriate professionals. Listings displayed on this website may be subject to prior sale or removal from sale; availability of any listing should always be independently verified.
Listing information is provided for consumer personal, non-commercial use, solely to identify potential properties for potential purchase; all other use is strictly prohibited and may violate relevant federal and state law.
Listing data comes from My Florida Regional MLS.
Listing information last updated on June 4th, 2020 at 7:45pm EDT.


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Some more prestigious universities have reportedly invested in cryptocurrency projects, following Yale's announcement last week.
The Information reports that Harvard University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of North Carolina have all put their support behind at least one crypto fund.
The move could be seen as a vote of confidence in the crypto world, and a potential boost for legitimacy moving forwards.
Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Digital Currency Group subsidiary Grayscale, said: "We've had a couple of smaller investment allocations come through, in that they have been starting to dip their toe into the asset class in a way that forces them to have a little skin in the game."
The source quoted by The Information claims that the universities' endowments range from around $5 billion to Harvard's $29.2 billion.
Last week it was revealed that Yale University would be investing in funds run by Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz, both of which are dedicated to crypto.
The academic institution has reportedly invested 60 per cent of its endowment – which is now its primary source of revenue – into 'alternative' investments. The expectation is that it will spend a further $1.4 billion in 2019.
As more high-profile organisations begin to enter the blockchain and crypto worlds, many feel that it's only a matter of time before crypto becomes truly mainstream.


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God is great and desires for us to live a happy life, and there are three things He says that will make this happen.
1) He says don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. This means don't take advice, make plans with them and use prudence with them. Which says that we carefully weigh the consequences of a relationship with these individuals and act on right thinking.
2) He says don't stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of those who don't believe in him. Standing in the way doesn't mean that we block the way to Jesus but that we don't hang out with them getting into their sins with them. Why would we want to hang out with people whose conversation and behavior is nothing to do with God.
For example: You don't drink and party anymore, then why is it that you are still keeping company with people that do? This isn't to say that we can't witness, but the behavior is still that of the party scene. You still mingle with the drunks and the ungodly. This is "standing in the way," because your behavior and actions are still that of a drunkard. God says no stop that or I can't bless you.
3) He says delight in my way, the law and think meditate on it day and night. Read his word, study it, dissect it, eat it; it will save you. How is it that we say that we love the Lord and want a relationship with him and yet still continue to walk around and skip this most important and vital step of getting know him…it is impossible to know the things of God and be successful in this life if we don't study His word.
No wonder then people aren't being blessed. It is because we haven't grasped these three important factors of living; application is key. Amen.
Here's the Chapter: Psalm 1, take the time to study and review this lesson on how to be blessed, because if we aren't applying this word then it would be fair to say this is the reason we're not. The ending verse says that whatsoever the blessed man does prospers. I'm excited aren't you? Because God has given this awesome key to the kingdom.
Let us pray:
Thank you God for this lesson of what to and what not to do to be blessed. We want to live a pleasing life before you God not walk with people who are crooked in their dealings, who don't believe in you, who don't trust you. We want to commit today to make a better effort of seeking out relationships with others who know the word, walk in your spirit and can help us in our walk with you; but we can't do that if we don't hear you. Help us be better witnesses so that all will know that we serve you. We pray Oh God for revelation of your word for us, and we thank you. In Jesus name. Amen
Posted on August 9, 2011, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.


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How to Get a World-Record High Score
So, you're pretty good at games, huh? If only there was a way to prove it to the world. Oh, wait, there is: The Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard (http://twingalaxies.com) is the Guinness-endorsed clearinghouse for videogame high scores, and adding your name to the list is easier than you think (and I should know: I have the world record in "Balloon Fight," Game C).
How can you follow in my footsteps? Read on.
1. Pick a game. The bad news: Unless you have literally hundreds of free hours to spare, you're not going to be able to get good enough to challenge the records on the high-profile classics like "Donkey Kong" and "Ms. Pac-Man." The good news: The Twin Galaxies database has thousands of games, and a large majority of them don't have a single high score on record. You can even compete for the fastest completion times in games that don't have "scores" per se. Look through the list online, pick an obscure personal favorite (one you're comfortable spending a lot of time with), and get cracking.
2. Research and practice. No matter how good you think you are at a game, there's always room to get better (unless you're Billy Mitchell). Search out FAQs and post on message boards (including Twin Galaxies' own) for gameplay tips. Be sure to search TwinGalaxies.com for the game's official tournament rules and settings -- some strategies or tactics might be prohibited. Then, it's time to practice, practice, practice. Keep at it: Setting aside even an hour a day can quickly build your skills to a world-class level.
3. Setup and recording. Twin Galaxies needs videocassette proof of a high-score attempt, so you'll need to dig up a VCR and hook it up to your videogame system before you start your run (Twin Galaxies Recording FAQ has more information). Once that's done, make your play space as comfortable as possible. Remove any distractions (phone, pets, spouse, children, etc.) that could interrupt your playing. Go to the bathroom before you start -- nothing can ruin a run more than an urgent bladder pain. Don't let a bad attempt ruin your mood; just take a deep breath, keep your cool, and dive in again.
4. Send it in and gloat. Once you have video proof of your achievement, sign up for an account on TwinGalaxies.com and fill out a score submission form. Mail the form along with the tape to the indicated judge and, in a few weeks, your name will be alongside the greats! Don't rest on your laurels, though -- another competitor could be along any minute to challenge your record. Maybe you'd better add a few thousand more points to that record . . . just in case.
For more videogame news and information, visit http://www.crispygamer.com.


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Autonomous Customer Engagement can be defined as an engagement (either interactions or conversation) between a customer (human) and a machine. The machine is capable of engaging the customer, just like how human agents do. They create memories and hence can remember past events and co-relate it with current events. They learn, decide, predict and recommend just like the way humans do. And to an extent behave like sales agents, ensuring customer satisfaction, offering better deals and following up on purchases, with a goal to achieve higher customer retention and more revenue per customer. Continue reading →
Tag / machine learning
Explainable AI: Visualizing and Interpreting Machine Learning
Machine learning algorithms operate in a so-called black box — so the inputs and outputs are known, but how or why an algorithm makes the recommendation it does is not clear. Despite the AI media frenzy, companies and governments are concerned about the machine learning black box. The EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which takes effect next year, includes a right to explanation clause, or an explanation of how a model made a decision.
The Explainable AI (XAI) program aims to create a suite of machine learning techniques that:
- Produce more explainable models, while maintaining a high level of learning performance (prediction accuracy); and
- Enable human users to understand, appropriately trust, and effectively manage the emerging generation of artificially intelligent partners.
New machine-learning systems will have the ability to explain their rationale, characterize their strengths and weaknesses, and convey an understanding of how they will behave in the future. The strategy for achieving that goal is to develop new or modified machine-learning techniques that will produce more explainable models.
Evaluating the right AI Platform for your business
As businesses are increasingly laying their focus on artificial intelligence solutions, it might be important to understand what goes into implementing these solutions.
Most business product and solutions have now taken to the tone of customer satisfaction, making every solution look the same. It's only a matter of time, that they will all offer or at least speak about artificial intelligence. I would assume, it would become increasingly difficult for the businesses to understand the truth behind these systems. Continue reading →


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phoenix4ever said:Wondering if I should just forget about PS4 and start a new adventure with Switch...
phoenix4ever said:Yeah I could of course have both.
But how is the Switch?
OmegaDestroyer said:Love it but SUPER rusty.
OmegaDestroyer said:It's awful. Simply awful. Even worse? Your opponents are inklings, who's ink causes you to take more damage. I quit. I don't know if I need to grind up or what but that particular fight is pure garbage.


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One thought on "Hair ADD: It's Real and I'm Suffering"
A little advice from one who has had natural hair for 9 years, then a perm, and now starting all over with natural again (it's been 10 months now): Your hair will grow with time, patience, protective styles and natural oils (jojoba, coconut, castor, shea, etc.). The key is to PROTECT and MOISTURIZE while you wait to reach your desired length. I keep my hair in box braid extensions for 2 months at a time, wash the roots only once each month with a suds-less shampoo, and apply natural oils once a week in between washes. Whenever I take my braids out to let my hair "rest" for about 2 weeks, I always see growth ( I rest it by box braiding my natural hair and wearing cute head wraps). If you don't mess with your hair too much, it just grows all on its own. (My daughter is 4 years old and I have always box-braided her hair. It's down to her waist now!) Box braids are great because you can just get up and go each day without worrying about your hair. If your extension braids are long, the options for styles are too many to count. So braid it up, protect and moisturize. By the end of the year, you won't believe how easy it was to grow it out.


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- All Access Guru
9 Things to Consider Before Joining a Coworking Space
Updated: May 26, 2019
Whether you are a freelancer looking to move out of your home office, a budding start up team looking to step up operations, or a company looking for alternative serviced office options: coworking spaces could be for you.
Globally, shared workspaces have grown at a rate of 200% over the past five years, converting coworking from a trend into an established part of the office space market.
Most professionals operating as freelancers and entrepreneurs opt to work out of shared facilities for a multitude of reasons: cheaper rent, better amenities, shorter lock-in periods and visually appealing interiors are a few of them.
So if you are looking to move into one, what do you look for?
And most importantly, is it really for you?
Before we dive into what to look for, let's take a look at what coworking means, and what advantages it brings to the table.
Benefits of being in a coworking space
Coworking essentially refers to a facility where a common floor of workstations and cubicles are rented out in short or long term contracts to tenants, usually given out on monthly plans.
These packages are inclusive of the space you rent out, as well as the amenities that the facility has to offer such as power backup, IT and maintenance support, front office services, network connection etc., meaning you would not be spending to set your office; merely plug in to an organised set-up to begin your work. The mass expenditure and lengthy wait time with traditional offices is completely eliminated with the emergence of the coworking concept.
The availability of such cost- effective and simplified alternatives presents freelancers, solopreneurs and modestly-budgeted SMEs a highly-welcomed advantage to launch and build their operations, not to mention the creative and open work environment catalysing networking and collaboration with fellow co-workers.
9 fundamental factors that will help you identify the work space for your venture.
1. What do you need?
The first step would be to see what you are expecting out of your office space.
Identify and break down your company's daily operations, and evaluate whether moving into a coworking setup is really contributing to the overall improvement of your work.
Would it help you save time?
Will you be able to work longer and churn out more productive hours?
Will a professional setup help in achieving- and retaining- prospective clients?
Coworking is not one-size-fits-all.
List out your needs and expectations from your workspace, and you will have a clearer picture.
2. The type of space
A coworking space would usually offer three types of desks in their facilities: A flexible / hot desk, a fixed desk and a cabin space.
A hot desk refers to any available workstation in the facility that can be plugged into and worked in.
A fixed desk would be a reserved desk that has been allotted to you as per a schedule.
A cabin space would be your typical office suite, which is accessible by only you and your team.
A flexible desk would cost the least among them, and makes a smart option for freelancers, but it would mean packing up your desk at the end of every day, and that may prove counterproductive and cumbersome to a few.
Here the fixed desk emerges as an optimal option, as it would be your own dedicated desk customized to your creature comforts and work needs.
If your work involves extensively interacting with clientele, or storing and handling confidential information, then a slightly expensive option in cabin spaces would be more suitable.
3. Location
The geographical location of your office is quite an important factor that requires a lot of forethought and priority.
An ideally connected office space would need to have a good transport network, providing accessibility for the employees as well as your client base.
Moreover, your office space would need to have amenities like restaurants, medical facilities, entertainment options etc. in close proximity to further make it a location that can give your brand and operations a more premium outlook.
A location in premium regions of your city would cost higher, but guarantees better brand outlook and connectivity. Striking a right balance in terms of location and budget cannot be stressed enough.
4. Budget
Any expenditure to setting up your office space would be another crucial factor to prioritise.
How much are you willing to spend for your base of operations?
An advantage of taking up coworking spaces in such cases is cost effectiveness.
A traditional office space with the same amenities as a coworking outfit will almost always be more expensive to acquire.
Hence, shared offices can save you money in establishment costs, money that can be directed towards generating more business.
Facilities like maintenance, IT support, power backup, air conditioning, furnishings etc. are already available and this saves a huge portion of your budget and time during setup.
5. Amenities
The decision of choosing the amenities and facilities is greatly dependent on the kind of operations you run. There are a few basic amenities that serviced and coworking spaces provide as part of the package:
Maintenance (Janitorial, Technical support)
IT Support
Meeting/ Conference room bookings
Stationaries and printer services
Pantry/ Cafeteria
Power Backup
Ventilation Systems
Phone service
Lockers/ Storage facilities
Mail & Front- Desk services
Additional creature comforts like brewed coffee, nap zones, breakout events, and access to desks in multiple locations would be on offer at higher premiums.
6. Flexibility
When looking out for coworking spaces, it is important to understand how flexible the place is in terms of timings and future expansions.
Your workspace should be available to use during your work timings and during the off-days that you choose to work on.
Multiple facilities keep their workspaces open for use round the clock, but cease operating certain facilities such as front desk services and cafeteria after normal work hours.
Another aspect where flexibility takes priority is workspace modification. A coworking space should accommodate your space expansion and downsizing with minimal time wastage.
7. The Community
The virtue of working in coworking spaces is that you get to view other entrepreneurs and venturers developing their own businesses.
This is an excellent networking opportunity to learn, grow and even develop new client relations – all very important for freelancers and solopreneurs.
So a brief research into the individuals and companies that occupy a coworking community would do a lot of good, especially if you are looking to establish relations with your coworking neighbour.
8. Your workspace
Currently there are a lot of innovative, well-planned workspaces in the market, and more are popping up every day.
All these spaces would have their own creative design and unique environment within them.
Ensure your working space has the right layout and design to maintain a professional setup while developing a space that keeps your team engaged and encourages productivity.
Identifying a coworking space that suits you and your operations right is definitely a daunting task, but a rewarding one: studies have shown employees were 74% more productive in such work environment, as opposed to workers in traditional setups.
9. Trial Period
A trial period is a good way to get a feel of the space before you make a commitment and a lot of the coworking setups do encourage this by providing a general one week trial.
This time can be utilized to really immerse yourself into the shared space culture and to identify the changes you would like to make to your space after acquiring it.
Coworking has come a long way since its inception in 2005, evolving from being just an experimental concept to claiming its place as a mainstay in the office space market.
And as an increasing number of shared workspaces pop up across the globe, choosing the next destination for your business's operation becomes an ever-important factor in its long term development and profitability.
Using the above factors to evaluate your coworking options will surely help you make a clearer decision on your business's next destination, while gearing you up to understand what to expect at your new workspace.
Author: Arpan Naik, Novel Office, Bangalore, India
Coworking All Access Contact:
Jay Menorca | Co-founder


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Tourism equals big business for Warren County
WARREN COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) –
Tourism equals big business for Warren County, and the City of Vicksburg is the heartbeat that helps make it happen.
Cash, crowds and changing the culture of the county are just a few benefits of tourism in the city.
One of the places that people seem to enjoy is the The Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum.
"This is where Coca Cola was first bottled in the world 1894," said Vicksburg Foundation of Historic Preservation executive director Nancy Bell.
Located in downtown Vicksburg, tourists frequently stop by to check out the museum that features Coca-Cola memorabilia.
And of course, you can't walk out with buying an old fashion classic coke floats.
"For us, Coca-Cola is the number one icon," said Bell. "That's why people come here."
This is just one of the unique museums attracting visitors to the area.
Within the past 12 months, Vicksburg tourism officials say they have welcomed more than 20 thousand people to each of the city's museums.
"Sometimes, we have more people from outside the United States than from inside the United States," said Bell.
This has helped put the city and Warren County on the map when it comes to a top travel destination spot.
"We have over two million visitors coming to visit our attractions," said Bell.
Laura Beth Strickland is deputy director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.
She says the paddle-wheel cruises that stop in Vicksburg are also a driving force when it comes to tourism.
"Two or three boats dock weekly and so this is just a great time of the year for them to go out and see all the attractions," said Strickland. "They go see the Vicksburg National Military Park, visit several of our museums in Vicksburg."
Casino gaming in the river city also catches the eye of travelers.
"Tourism is the fastest way to grow the economy," said Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs.
According to Flaggs, travelers flocking to the city are also spending big bucks at the local hotels and restaurants.
Tourists paid nearly $1.8 million in hotel and restaurant taxes last year.
Rusty's Riverfront Grill is one the eateries that welcomes the overflow from tourism. Claudette Whitlock is the manager of the restaurant.
"It keeps us up to date, money, people traveling, and it keeps us rolling along good and keeps us busy through the summer months," said Whitlock.
City officials say tourism helps generate income and jobs.
"Twenty percent of Warren County is employed by the tourism industry," said Strickland.
"The owners make more money the servers make more money," said Whitfield. "It's spreading the wealth around."
With the new Margaritaville Resort just days away from opening in Vicksburg and several small businesses moving to the downtown district, leaders and business owners say the best yet to come for the city.
"I am passionate about Vicksburg not becoming a drive through city, but a destination and that is what we are going," said Vicksburg Convention Center executive director Annette Kirklin.
"People use to say Vicksburg had all this potential, but everything is on the rise in this town," said Strickland. "Hopefully, people come and enjoy the ride with us because it is just great."
Copyright 2018 MSNewsNow. All rights reserved.


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Crisp & Spicy Cucumber Salad
Total TimePrep: 25 min. + marinating
Makes6 servings
- 2 small English cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
- 1 large sweet red pepper, julienned
- 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 1/2 serrano or jalapeno pepper, seeded and thinly sliced, optional
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 teaspoon each salt, garlic powder and pepper
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh gingerroot
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
- Optional toppings: minced fresh cilantro, chopped peanuts and additional sliced green onion
- In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In a small bowl, mix marinade ingredients, stirring to dissolve sugar. Pour over vegetables; toss to combine. Refrigerate, covered, 30 minutes or overnight.
- Serve with a slotted spoon. Top as desired.
Editor's NoteWear disposable gloves when cutting hot peppers; the oils can burn skin. Avoid touching your face.
Nutrition Facts3/4 cup (calculated without toppings): 96 calories, 1g fat (0 saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 51mg sodium, 22g carbohydrate (16g sugars, 3g fiber), 2g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 vegetable.
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Oct 1, 2017
This is such a great, fresh side. I love to serve this along side Asian-inspired dishes. I've also found if you let it sit overnight, you don't need the water in the marinade. The vegetables will release enough of their own juices.
Sep 3, 2017
No major changes to this one- I had prepped veggies for another dish, so whatever form they were in, that's how I used them- my red onion was diced, my carrots were matchstick, etc. The title says it all on this one- crisp, spicy. I'll also add light and refreshing. It was a great side to burgers, a perfect summer lunch topped with some grilled chicken.
Sep 19, 2016
Aug 14, 2015
made without the jalepenos but was still too hot for my taste. Otherwise delicious and will make again. love the variety of veggies in this salad. Very colorful presentation.
Oct 1, 2014
Delicious. I served this on individual lettuce leaves. I used Champagne vinegar, and added 2 TBS of sweet chili sauce instead of the soy sauce. I chose chopped peanuts for my topping. Thank you, Alivia, for this tasty recipe.
Mar 12, 2014
Very attractive salad! Cool and crisp taste in spite of the spice! Definitely a keeper.
Mar 2, 2014
Made this for a lunch party and everyone raved about it.
Aug 13, 2013
Very refreshing. Loved the sweet asian inspired dressing. I added some grape tomatoes to it and omitted the onion. Will keep this for next summer's cook outs.
Jul 22, 2013
unique blend of flavors. refreshing and crisp. hint of hotness with cayenne and jalapenos
Jul 21, 2013
Easy, fast and healthy. I made it using my new spiral mandolin and it made the salad much more fun to eat. Excellent & cooling with fresh farmer's market cucumbers. Spicy dressing is a good twist on an old standby. Loved it!


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Six Albums That Nearly Broke Bands' Careers
Few bands can boast a flawless resumé. From moral mishaps to accusations of 'selling out', punk, rock and metal are peppered with tales of bands who took their excesses too far, and nearly crushed their own careers in the process. When the fuck-ups are musical though, you enter expensive, complicated territory.
Fandom is two-way street, and the influence a bands' throng can and should exert on their art is an oft-hotly-debated topic. Taking creative leaps of faith is important, but to leave your fanbase's expectations behind in search of success and sonic reinvention can prove deadly. Countless bands have tried and failed to switch things up; some of them never recovered from the critical hit such experiments took on their careers.
Rock's tribalism can be its biggest strength, or its greatest flaw. Its fans are often open to innovation, but always wary of mainstream invasion - sometimes, that tightrope becomes a razor-wire. Below, we delve into a bunch of rock's biggest musical missteps, some of which were almost career-killers.
New Found Glory - 'Coming Home' (2006)
'It's Not Your Fault', NFG's lead single from 'Coming Home'
Longtime poster boys for a pop-punk scene that thrived on high energy and even higher fives, New Found Glory's decision to whip out the keys for their fifth album startled some. It was a release that was largely heralded by the music press for its maturity - both in sound and in how they documented their relationships this time around, with bratty ex-girlfriend putdowns replaced with a considered approach to the difficulties of long-term, long-distance love. Nevertheless, 'Coming Home' irked many of their lifelong supporters, who saw the polished-up, piano-led professionalism of songs like 'It's Not Your Fault' and 'Oxygen' as a wilful turning-away from their punk-rock credentials.
It didn't take too long for NFG to return to their more sunny-side up sound. Its follow-ups (the 'Tip Of The Iceberg' EP in 2008, and 'Not Without A Fight' in 2009) found the band amping up the energy once more, returning to their pop-punk past - perhaps evidence that their radio-rock gamble didn't quite pay off at first. Nowadays though, given time to settle in, 'Coming Home' is often held up as an example of New Found Glory's versatility, and is heralded by the same fans who once poured scorn on it.
Panic At The Disco - 'Pretty. Odd.' (2008)
Nine In The Afternoon from 'Pretty. Odd.'
Few debut albums could boast quite as much counter-cultural impact as Panic! At The Disco's baroque-punk odyssey 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'. From Bach to Black Flag, the record fizzed with the energy of a thousand wide-ranging influences - their next step was a heel-turn.
'Pretty. Odd.' shocked and reviled Panic's eyeliner-loving audience on its release, as the band bizarrely chucked the exclamation mark, and with it, the energy of 'Fever…'. Imitating The Beatles in both sound and style, Panic's new guise was evidence of a creative trench between songwriter Ryan Ross and frontman Brendon Urie, as the former tried to steer their ship towards the 'Yellow Submarine' of his new favourite band, before eventually jumping overboard altogether. A musical misstep, it took a few years for Panic! to regain their alt-pop top-dog status (and, of course, that all-important punctuation).
Earth Crisis - 'Slither' (2000)
'Nemesis', from 'Slither'
Vegan, straight-edge and staunchly opinionated, Earth Crisis' image didn't quite match up with the 'woe is me' nu-metal brigade, making 'Slither' an odd foray into a new world. For a group who are to this day held up as the original innovators in metalcore, chasing the pack was seen as a sellout move from one of the scene's most anti-conformity flagbearers. Backed by some highly questionable, leather jacketed promo photos, it was a slap in the face to everything which came before it.
'Slither' sent Earth Crisis spiralling towards hiatus, with a brief, equally bizarre pause to release 2001's 'Last Of The Sane' covers album. Upon their reformation in 2007, it remained shelved, with its groove-laden sound consigned to the history books along with the nu-metallers it was trying to desperately to imitate.
Funeral For A Friend - 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves' (2007)
'Walk Away' from 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves'
Built on twisting, metallic riffing and the scream-sing vocal duality that would come to define metalcore in years to follow, few would have foreseen the two-footed leap Funeral For A Friend took into melodic rock a decade ago. 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves' was a statement of ambition and intent from the group - a ten-part narrative of a sailor lost at sea, it was a beautifully progressive step forward, earning them their highest UK Albums Chart rating at number 3. Unfairly derided by their fans who simply wanted more mosh-fodder though, 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves' quickly became known as Funeral For A Friend's first wrong foot after the sucker-punch one-two of 'Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation' and 'Hours'.
The group nursed their wounds with the patchy prog of 'Memory & Humanity', before careering back towards the fired-up melodic hardcore of their earliest influences. FFAF never quite reached the heights of those first two records though, 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves' becoming a stumbling block they could never quite recover from, as they soon acknowledged with a series of throwback, full-album tours towards the latter years of their career.
Discharge - 'Grave New World' (1986)
Less of a u-turn and more the biggest trip-up in rock history. Building a formidable following amongst hardcore's early devotees, Discharge's catalogue remains one of the scene's most idolised - with the exception of 'Grave New World'.
A bizarre, glam-rock exercise in how not to mix things up, it was brutal in all the wrong ways, ransacking their legacy and replacing it with odd facsimiles of the mid-80s' radio-rock excess. Frontman Cal Morris later blamed the change-up on his rediscovery of Led Zeppelin, but the damage was already done. A commercial and critical depth-charge, Discharge were forced to cancel their 'Grave New World' touring plans after shows reached riot-like levels of disappointment, with Bad Brains frontman H.R. even pelting the band with ice during their New York show. The band went their separate ways soon after, before reforming with a new line-up in 1990 to dump all over that legacy again. Grave indeed.
Four Year Strong - 'In Some Way, Shape Or Form' (2011)
Four Year Strong - Just Drive
Pioneers of the hardcore-powered pop-punk offshoot 'easycore', Four Year Strong took a strange sidestep with their third full-length. Chucking their synth player and slowing things down, the four-piece settled into their plaid and grunge roots, bouncy melodies replaced instead with four-chord, Dave Grohl-aping storytelling. The result was far from ideal, with a collective yawn greeting their new Foo Fighters-lite sound, and the band losing the ground they paved to the likes of Chunk! No, Captain Chunk and their peers in A Day To Remember.
It's fair to say the radio-rock gamble didn't quite pay off, with critical reception middling at best. Four Year Strong took a brief hiatus post-'In Some Way, Shape Or Form' to regroup, before returning to their bread-and-butter easycore sound on the 2014 'Go Down In History' EP and its self-titled full-length follow-up.
Tweet @ginandconnick and let him know what albums he missed off the list!
PS The latest New Found Glory is sick btw:
There are some huge albums still to come in 2020 – get excited!
Watch twenty one pilots' incredibly old-school lyric video for Level Of Concern.


text:
From OntologPSMW
Upper Ontology Summit (UOS) - Home Page     (1)
To be held as one of a series of meetings at NIST during Interoperability Week     (1A)
Public Upper Ontology Summit meeting - Wednesday March 15, 2006 1-5 PM EST - details at: Agenda & Proceedings page - UOS Joint Communiqué     (1B)
Deliverables:     (1B1)
- UOS and other preparation meeting dates and session page links     (1B1C)
- Obrst, Leo; Patrick Cassidy; Steve Ray; Barry Smith; Dagobert Soergel; Matthew West; Peter Yim. 2006. The 2006 Upper Ontology Summit Joint Communiqué. Journal of Applied Formal Ontology. Volume 1: 2, 2006.     (1B1D)
UOS Event Date(s) & Venue     (1B2)
- The Upper Ontology Summit Event: Wednesday, March 15, 2006, 1:00~5:00pm     (1B2A)
- UOS Preparation Meetings: Tue 14-Mar-2006 (all day) & Wed 15-Mar-2006 (morning)     (1B2B)
- Venue: US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Campus at Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA.     (1B2C)
Project Mission     (1C)
Develop the mechanism and resources to relate existing upper ontologies to each other in a manner that will increase reuse of knowledge among them, and thereby facilitate semantic interoperability among other ontologies that are linked to them. We want to make the world aware that the technology of upper ontologies has developed to a point suitable for commercial exploitation.     (1C1)
- As part of the NIST "Interoperability Week", a panel discussion for March 15th, 2006, which we shall call the "Upper Ontology Summit", is being organized by a committee consisting of members from the Ontolog community and NIST.     (1C2)
- The purpose of this panel is to bring together those who recognize the value of open upper ontologies, and in particular, the custodians (developers or maintainers) of the public versions of existing upper ontologies to find a way to interrelate those ontologies in such a way as to provide a freely available common ontology that has sufficient detail to precisely specify meanings of terms and concepts in domain ontologies and which is compatible with each of the starting upper ontologies. One possible method suggested to achieve this is to create a simplified upper ontology which is a compatible subset of all of the linked upper ontologies. The cooperation of the upper ontology custodians is essential, since it is likely that to achieve a compatible subset ontology or other interrelation, some modifications in one or more of the existing upper ontologies will be required. The possible areas of agreement will be discussed among the panelists prior to the March 15th meeting. It is hoped that at that meeting a public announcement, in the form of a joint communique by the co-organizers of this event, can be made that upper ontology builders will be working toward some means of interrelating their ontologies so as to provide a convenient means for users to rapidly develop knowledge bases that can be used with reasoning tools compatible with any of the existing upper ontologies. Another goal will be to develop agreement among developers of mid-level and upper-mid-level domain-spanning ontologies to use the compatible subset ontology as the common high-level ontology that will serve as their common reference ontology for specifying meanings.     (1C3)
- One near-term benefit could be to enable a large degree of compatibility and interoperability for the many projects developing knowledge bases that include the most common mid-level concepts such as the classes: Person, Organization, Event, Artifact, Document, Plan, Locations, and [[TimeIntervals]] and the relationships: has-parts, spatial relations, and causes, and dozens of others. Using the compatible subset of upper ontologies, domain ontologies or mid-level ontologies spanning domains can be developed and thereby achieve interoperability with the higher-level ontologies as well as enabling interoperability with other domain ontologies. Having such an agreed source of carefully specified meaning can avoid duplication of effort as well as assure interoperability among applications using that common subset ontology, even when the applications do not use the detailed axiomatizations that are available to avoid ambiguity. Having a less complicated high-level ontology for specifying meanings can speed the development of interoperable ontologies by significantly reducing the learning and implementation barriers associated with more highly axiomatized upper ontologies, The less highly axiomatized ontologies will nevertheless be able to be used directly in the more complex systems, and can be extended to take advantage of the greater capabilities of those systems.     (1C4)
- The Compatible Subset Ontology could be expected to provide immediate benefits by allowing developers of domain ontologies to all reference and reuse the same basic concepts with a greater level of detail and having considerably more precise meanings than the classes and relations now being referenced from Dublin Core or Friend of a Friend. In fact, those formalisms themselves could gain increased precision by referencing the Compatible Subset Ontology. Among the application categories that could benefit from this basic level of interoperability would be Enterprise Architecture ontologies, the developing Semantic Wiki, information exchange models for the Intelligence Community and other federal agencies, general information retrieval, e-commerce and the emerging Web Services network. Ontologies developed by using the compatible subset ontology could be immediately used and subsequently extended within any one of the more capable knowledge representation systems. This will provide a near-term basic level of semantic interoperability and a means to evolve when reusable knowledge and experience is gained within a broad community that agrees to the use of a common paradigm of meaning representation.     (1C5)
- Compatibility of such a subset with existing upper ontologies would likely require that certain details in each of the starting ontologies would be left out of the common subset. It might also require that some structures in one or more of the existing high-level ontologies would need to be modified in order to permit such a compatible subset to be created (more about that below). The assumption would be that organizations requiring the higher level of functionality, or the built-in knowledge, of one of the linked ontologies, and not needing interoperability with systems using some other linked ontology, would use the more functional ontology in preference to the COSMO. Those not needing such functionality might choose the simpler ontology. In either case, expert assistance in use of the COSMO should be available from the maintainers of the linked ontologies, and perhaps from others.     (1C6)
- With such a subset, it should be possible to guarantee that an ontology developed using the COSMO could be imported into any one of the linked ontologies and be logically consistent with that ontology. Export of a knowledge base from one of the linked ontologies to the COSMO might involve loss of information, depending on the ontology details. Ontology developers and users who do not yet have sufficient financial support to contract for the assistance of the expert custodians of any of the existing upper ontologies might find the barrier to development of compatible ontologies using the COSMO small enough to justify the effort that might not otherwise seem supportable.     (1C7)
Motivation for Developing a Compatible Subset Ontology     (1D)
- The subset COSMO might be considered as an introductory ontology to ease the learning curve for the linked ontologies but would itself have sufficient expressive power for serious applications -- at least quasi-second order (quantification over relations; returning classes as the value of a function), and more expressive than OWL + SWRL. Ontologies developed in OWL or OWL+SWRL would be able to be imported into the COSMO, provided that all semantic relations used in the less expressive ontologies had the same intended meanings as those in the COSMO. This is possible because the creators of knowledge bases in RDF or of ontologies in OWL or OWL+SWRL would be able to read the detailed documentation and axiomatization and would have to agree to accept the meanings expressed by that documentation and detailed axiomatizations, even if their own systems do not use the axioms. Accepting the nuances of meaning that the more expressive ontology specifies for relations would make even the less expressive ontologies accurately compatible with the more expressive ontologies. The upward compatibility of OWL would further reduce the learning barriers to the creation of meaningful domain ontologies by those without detailed understanding of any of the linked ontologies, or even of COSMO itself. A detailed natural-language description of the intended meanings of classes and relations in the COSMO, along with examples of usage, would provide most of the understanding required for accurate use of the included terms, even if the axiomatizations are not consulted. This would be supplemented by consistency checking. If the COSMO became widely used, third-party add-ons or interfaces, either to the COSMO or to the linked ontologies, could further improve the ease of understanding and encourage even wider use.     (1D1)
- The main virtue of such a subset ontology would be to avoid the need for users to deal with the greatest complexities of any one of the linked ontologies, when it isn't necessary, but nevertheless to preserve compatibility. By reducing the time and complexity barrier for beginning use of the existing ontologies, it would encourage ontology users to build their domain ontologies using meanings that are logically consistent to each of the linked ontologies. Simple RDF triples would acquire precise meanings if the terms in the triples are all present in the COSMO or have their meanings specified by combinations of the terms in the COSMO. If the individual linked ontologies have richer detail for specific classes, the simpler class representations in the COSMO would serve as abstracted "views" of the more detailed concepts.     (1D2)
- The use of specific concepts present in the compatible subset would commit users to the meanings of those concepts in each of the linked ontologies as well as in the COSMO itself. If interoperability is desired with another system using one of the linked ontologies, and reasoning is performed using that linked ontology, the more detailed meanings in that system would be definitive and controlling. Such meanings should be compatible with the less detailed meanings in the COSMO, but will not necessarily be compatible with the more detailed meanings in the other linked ontologies.     (1D3)
- Having a single "entry-level" upper ontology should help to advance the technology by providing a common paradigm for experimentation with reasoning methods, and by encouraging development of applications with the expectation that they could be reused as components of a larger modular system, with the COSMO as the common means of communication between modules. Some applications such as a natural-language front end or graphical interfaces could be developed open-source to make the entry of data from non-structured sources easier.     (1D4)
- The principle can be extended so that concepts in a less expressive Knowledge Classification could be linked to concepts in a more expressive ontology, and the meanings of the terms in the less expressive classification -- a taxonomy or thesaurus -- would thereby be accurately specified, even though the less expressive classification itself cannot distinguish nuances of meaning. When necessary, logical inference on terms in a less expressive ontology could be performed using the more detailed logical specifications.     (1D5)
Deliverable: Plans & Deadlines     (1E)
- At least one month prior to the March 15th Upper Ontology Summit meeting the custodians (developers and maintainers) of the participating public upper ontologies should begin discussion of the goals for the meeting and the method to prepare for the meeting. If possible, agreement should be reached prior to the meeting to announce at the meeting an "agreement in principle" to pursue some method to interrelate the existing upper ontologies so as to encourage creation of ontologies that can be imported or converted into one or more of those upper ontologies. The suggested method is to create a "Compatible Subset of Multiple Ontologies", an upper ontology that is less detailed than the existing upper ontologies but which can be immported into or translated into each of the linked upper ontologies.     (1E1)
- the above-mentioned annoucement to be presented in the formed of a joint communique at the Panel Meeting to the public and to the press. We expect some agreement to be endorsed by the said upper ontology custodians, co-organizer and sponsor organizations, as well as key potential adopters of the work product from this agreement.     (1E2)
- Development of a Compatible Subset of Multiple Ontologies (COSMO) will not preclude development of other methods to relate the upper ontologies so as to promote interoperability.     (1E3)
The Team     (1F)
- UOS Co-organizers:     (1F1)
- Co-conveners: PatCassidy, leoObrst, SteveRay & PeterYim     (1F1C)
- UOS Organizing Committee:     (1F2)
- SteveRay (UOS moderator)     (1F2A)
- PeterYim (coordinator)     (1F2E)
- Key Public Upper Ontology Custodians ("custodians")     (1F3)
- UOS Key Participants:     (1F4)
- Upper Ontology Summit Conveners: the UOS Organizing Committee members, the Key Public Upper Ontology Custodians and UOS Key Participants are referred to, collectively, as the UOS Conveners     (1F5)
- Co-Sponsors ('Co-sponsors' are organizations who are providing technical or funding support, and/or endorsing the purpose of this Upper Ontology Summit)     (1F6)
- co-sponsors (confirmed):     (1F6A)
- EPISTLE - European Process Industries STEP Technical Liaison Executive, the consortium responsible for the development of ISO 15926 (MatthewWest)     (1F6A3)
- CNR Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Laboratory of Applied Ontology (Trento & Rome) (NicolaGuarino & AldoGangemi)     (1F6A5)
- Cycorp (DougLenat)     (1F6A6)
- ECOR - European Centre for Ontological Research (NicolaGuarino)     (1F6A7)
- IBM Research (ChrisWelty)     (1F6A8)
- IEEE Standard Upper Ontology Working Group - http://suo.ieee.org (JimSchoening)     (1F6A9)
- ISO TC 184 SC 4 JWG8 - the ISO working group that developed the ISO 18629 Process Specification Language (PSL) standard (MichaelGruninger)     (1F6A10)
- MITRE (LeoObrst & PatCassidy)     (1F6A11)
- NCOR - (US) National Center for Ontological Research - http://ncor.us/ (BarrySmith & MarkMusen)     (1F6A12)
- cBio - The National Center for Biomedical Ontology (MarkMusen)     (1F6A13)
- NIST - (US) National Institute of Standards and Technology (SteveRay)     (1F6A14)
- OASIS UBL TC - the working group developing the XML-based Universal Business Language (UBL) standard (JonBosak)     (1F6A15)
- Ontology Works, Inc. - http://www.ontologyworks.com/ (BillAndersen)     (1F6A17)
- Bremen Ontology Research Group at Bremen University, supported by the faculties of Informatics and Linguistics and the Collaborative Research Center for Spatial Cognition (JohnBateman / TillMossakowski)     (1F6A19)
- Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo (BarrySmith)     (1F6A20)
- UMBC Institute for Language and Information Technologies (ILIT) - http://ilit.umbc.edu/ (SergeiNirenburg)     (1F6A21)
- University of Maryland College of Information Studies (DagobertSoergel)     (1F6A22)
- Stanford Medical Informatics (MarkMusen)     (1F6A23)
- University of Toronto (MichaelGruninger)     (1F6A24)
- Invitees to this UOS Event:     (1F7)
- upper ontology researchers and developers     (1F7A)
- active players in the ontology community     (1F7B)
- potential user organizations     (1F7C)
- potential funders of upper ontology and ontological engineering work     (1F7D)
- representatives from International Standards Bodies     (1F7E)
- leaders of the semantic web community     (1F7F)
- people in acdemia, research and industry working on semantic interoperability, knowledge representation, artificial intelligence ... who are engaged in the research, development and engineering of these subject matters     (1F7G)
- Discussion Archives:     (1G1)
- [uos-org] - UOS Organizing Committee List Archives - http://interop.cim3.net/forum/uos-org/ (password protected)     (1G1A)
- [uos-convene] - UOS Organizing Committee and Panelists preparation discussion Archives - http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/uos-convene/ (open)     (1G1B)
- Shared-File Workspace: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/UpperOntologySummit/ (open)     (1G2)
- Collaboratively Authored Document(s) draft workspace on this wiki:     (1G3)
Resources     (1H)
- The UOS Joint Communique is at: UpperOntologySummit/UosJointCommunique     (1H1)
- Pictures from the UOS event - see: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/work/UpperOntologySummit/picture/UpperOntologySummit_20060315/     (1H2)
- The official "NIST Interoperability Week" announcement - http://www.mel.nist.gov/div826/msid/sima/interopweek/index.htm (if page is still up)     (1H3)
- References:     (1H6)
- Funding:     (1H7)
- Needs:     (1H7A)
- Secured:     (1H7B)
- ...(put description and other pertinent info here)...     (1H8)
Conference Call, Meeting & Workshop     (1I)
- UpperOntologySummit/OrganizingCommitteeMeeting_2006_03_25 - postmortem meeting     (1I7)
- UpperOntologySummit/OrganizingCommitteeMeeting_2005_12_08 - Organizing Committee kick-off meeting/conference call     (1I19)
- http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2005_12_01#nidIAJ - opening discussions during the 2005-12-01 Ontolog conference call     (1I20)


text:
Music has been on the rise in UAE. The emergence of the Heavy Metal band in the country has given sufficient indication of the rise. The rising stars of country's very own Heavy Metal band Benevolent is preparing for the best in UAE. The band will perform in the Bur Dubai on Saturday but that isn't enough for the band. It is expected to a Music Tour in the country and attend many more shows.
For evidence that the popularity of heavy metal has grown into a regional phenomenon, you need look no further than the rising stars Benevolent.
The group's founders, Fadi and Hadi Sarieddine, are Lebanese brothers who formed the band in Kuwait in 2007 before moving to Dubai in 2010 for Benevolent.
Fadi sings, while Hadi plays the guitar and sings. Their Egyptian bassist Mohammed Gad is still in Kuwait, while their drummer Rahul Hariharan, lives in India.
Whenever the group has a gig, the band members get together a few days beforehand and jam out any cobwebs before taking the stage.
Hadi says the fact that the members are spread out is not a great challenge, and that their professionalism is what keeps the band ticking.
The four-piece will channel their energy into another fierce show at Bur Dubai's The Music Room on Saturday night, alongside the local acts Svengali and Perversion, and Iran's Kahtmayan.
For UAE fans it will be their first live taste of material from Benevolent's debut album The Covenant, which was released in March.
Hadi explains that the album is a major step forward from their first release, the 2010 extended play, Divided.
The Benevolent considers the performance on Bur Dubai as a progressive and constructive step towards the future. The members of the band say that the performance will open many doors of opportunity in the near future for the Benevolent band.


text:
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text:
This is Chef Bill M.! He has been here since Thursday, totally into many events going on at the college. He heard that we (the Art and Aesthetics Committee) were making a Moroccan dinner and he was very interested. In fact (because he knows how to work his way around a kitchen) he started looking up recipes that used the hazelnuts he brought from his tree out in Oregon.
Night all.


text:
Kimi: We won't say 'Oh f*** we'll give up
Kimi Raikkonen has vowed that Lotus will not get despondent if they don't make a positive start to the season.
The Enstone squad made a big impact at the beginning of the 2011 campaign when they claimed two podium finishes, but they went through a major slump mid-season and eventually finished a distant fifth in the Constructors' Championship. A lot is expected from Lotus this season after they recruited former World Champion Raikkonen as one of their drivers, and made a positive start to the Jerez test. However, their pre-season plans took a big blow at the second test in Barcelona last week when they were forced to pull out on day one after they discovered a problem with their chassis.
Raikkonen, though, says the team won't get discourage if they things don't go according to plan early in the season. "The last year I was with Ferrari we weren't always at the front," he told F1 Racing in an interview. "But they [Lotus] started well last year. We hope the new car will be strong but the rules are slightly different and you never know. "But let's say we're eighth or something; we won't say 'Oh fuck we'll give up'. We'll always try to improve and hopefully we'll be as high up as we can be."
From: http://www.planetf1.com
Raikkonen to reunite with former McLaren engineer
Kimi Raikkonen will have a familiar race engineer for his return to Formula 1 this year. Finnish reports in Turun Sanomat and the television broadcaster MTV3 claim that the 2007 world champion will work with Mark Slade.
Slade, recently at Mercedes GP working alongside Michael Schumacher, was Raikkonen's race engineer at McLaren years ago. Slade also previously worked as a race engineer to Mika Hakkinen and Heikki Kovalainen. Raikkonen will start working together with his engineer at Barcelona at the last test before Melbourne. "I wanted him and I am pleased that it worked out," Raikkonen confirmed. In other news, Eric Boullier has denied rumours Raikkonen is a shareholder in the Lotus team. It was reported that the 2007 world champion's retainer this year was subsidized by owner Genii granting the returning F1 driver a small slice of the Enstone based team. "He has no shareholding. It is complete nonsense," Boullier is quoted by MTV3. "Raikkonen has a two-year contract as driver," he added. "Genii Capital holds 100 per cent of the team." Boullier also dismissed suggestions Raikkonen, whose teammate is the reigning GP2 champion Romain Grosjean, is Lotus' obvious number one driver. "There is no such thing in the contract," he said.
From: http://totalf1.com
Raikkonen expects midfield battle
Kimi Raikkonen has admitted that he doesn't expect to be challenging the front-runners during the 2012 season.
Raikkonen makes his comeback this year having been absent for two seasons since leaving Ferrari. The 2007 world champion has had his motivation questioned, with some observers doubting how long he will remain with Lotus if not given a competitive car. However, Raikkonen said that his expectations for this season were not high, and that it was a situation he was familiar with. "I expect to have to fight in the middle group," Raikkonen told the BBC. "But it will not be a drama. It's no different to my last year at Ferrari."
Raikkonen did admit that he aspires to win another title, but said it wasn't the main reason for his return. "Of course the championship is the goal," he is quoted by Turun Sanomat. "It's fine to try it, but I am not obsessed about having another championship or not." With pre-season testing yet to get underway, Raikkonen has only driven the 2010 Renault in a private test so far. He said that one he gets to drive the new car his initial impressions will give an indication of how competitive he can be this year.
"Generally, if the car feels good right from the start, you are usually competitive (for the season). The races I don't think are so different (from 2009). Vettel was strong even then even though there is much more passing now, but that depends on the moving wing. I haven't tried it (DRS) yet, or the KERS because it was the 2010 car (at Valencia). But it's just one or two more buttons to push."
From: http://en.espnf1.com/lotusf1/motorsport/story/68711.html
Relaxed driver, relaxed team
According to Kimi Räikkönen it's much more nicer in Lotus than it was in Ferrari and McLaren.
Kimi Räikkönen doesn't miss his boss Ron Dennis from his McLaren-times or Ferrari's boss Luca di Montezemolo. He is already sure that the working peace between the driver and the team will maintain better in Lotus. "This is a relaxed team. Much more homey and warmer than Ferrari or McLaren. So far I have had really fun with the crew from Lotus and I don't think that the situation will change," Räikkönen said yesterday.
Lotus is getting a new F1-simulator
"It's going to be better than any other team has. I myself am not going to drive a lot in the simulator. Even if I would drive in the simulator all days I don't believe it would give any advantage in the final games." Räikkönen is still trying to get permission from Lotus to drive some rallies this year also. "One can get injured in normal life also but it's understandable that the team is trying to protect their drivers from dangerous hobbies. Maybe we can still reach unanimousity about the rally-matter at some stage." It is still possible that Räikkönen would drive in Finland's WRC-rally in August.
No Red Bull -plans
According to Räikkönen Lotus isn't a stepping stone to Red Bull. "I have no plans in Red Bull's direction," Kimi assured. Räikkönen doesn't see Red Bull or Ferrari as any special challenge. "If one wants to do well then one has to win everyone. Ferrari hasn't been in the top for a few years. For me it's just a team among other teams."
From: Ilta-Sanomat
Kimi Raikkonen drives F1 car for the first time since joining Lotus
Kimi Raikkonen has returned to the wheel of a Formula 1 car for the first time since the end of 2009, driving a two-year-old Renault R30 at Valencia as he reacclimatises himself to the sport with Lotus.
Raikkonen arrived at the track at 0830 CET and took to the wheel of a two-year-old Renault R30 car – painted in Lotus's contemporary black and gold livery and using Pirelli's demonstration-spec rubber – for an installation lap just after 0900. The Finn is taking part in a two-day session designed to help him reacclimatise himself with grand prix machinery. His first test with the team's 2012 car will take place at Jerez early next month. Under the terms of F1's strict testing limitations, teams are not allowed to run contemporary F1 machinery apart from at designated tests. However, machinery that is two years old is free from such restrictions – which is why Lotus is able to run him in a 2010 Renault car that is fitted with demo rubber.
Raikkonen last raced in F1 in 2009, when he was dropped by Ferrari and chose to switch to the World Rally Championship for the following year. He competed there for two seasons. Keen to return to racing, however, Raikkonen briefly tried the NASCAR truck series last year before eventually agreeing a deal with Lotus to return to F1 in 2012. Raikkonen said last month that he believed the biggest hurdle he faced in returning to F1 was getting used to the tyres. He told the Lotus website: "I don't think I've lost any speed. Getting on top of the tyres will be the hardest thing, of course, but I'm not really worried."
From: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97140
Interview before France 2007
Kimi, you look happier than normal.
KR: Why shouldn't I?
I guess it goes to show you have changed in recent times.
KR: Have I?
Six years of Formula 1 changes everyone.
KR: Not me. I continue to like the things that I liked six years ago: I enjoy myself with friends playing ice hockey. The difference now is that I don 't have so much free time to do it anymore.
Looking at what certain newspapers write, maybe it 's better this way.
KR: Some papers are full of nonsense. Thank God I don 't read much.
Have you ever thought of changing your attitude?
KR: I can't change my life depending on what people like and what they don't. Even more, on certain papers. I will continue to do what I love.
You talk as if your life is difficult.
KR: Well, it's not all fun walking out of your house and seeing loads of people looking for sensational stories. But, I cannot call myself unlucky, obviously.
Do you see racing as a way to escape from that?
KR: It's one of the reasons why I've always wanted to be a driver. When you go in the car and drive, stop and talk with the engineers, the rest of the world stays outside. The only thing that counts is going fast.
But, at McLaren Ron Dennis was watching things closely and kept things tight.
KR: Yes, but it's normal for a boss to ask how things go exactly and where people that are working for him go. I have never felt surpressed. I just pushed my day forward, fighting in the way I liked. Of course, I could not be seen as a classic McLaren driver because of that. But when you let your head down you're in trouble with Ron.
Have you ever feared that you could lose this independence going to Ferrari?
KR: It hasn't happened. On the contrary, at Ferrari I've immediately understood that I have my freedom. The team has welcomed me very well, I feel well, everyone helps me in a constructive way and the atmosphere is how I like it: very friendly. Believe me, I haven't found any difficulties in becoming part of the team.
You haven't impressed in the way the fans expected you to.
KR: I am the first to be dissapointed. But there are logical explanations, I haven't simply unlearned how to drive during winter. All the problems are technically related: learning how to drive the Bridgestone tyres, the way the tyres influenced the regulations. And then some driver mistakes of course.
What is so difficult using the tyres?
KR: That you can't find the limit, you don't understand it, as long as you don't push to the limit and stay on track. It's a matter of getting used to it, but I will.
Do you need more time?
KR: At the moment I feel very well within the team. Also now the team had to reorganize with new people in new roles. But we've only made mistakes in a couple of races. It's enough to have two races spot on to be back in the game.
So you think you can still win the championship?
KR: I will try it. I can't imagine McLaren reaching the end of the year without a technical problem.
Is it a big advantage to have your teammate in front of you?
KR: I wouldn't say so. Massa and I work well together.
If you remained with McLaren you might have led the championship now.
KR: I don't think about that a lot. I am with Ferrari and don't regret that. I wanted to change myself, I 'm happy to have done so. I knew very well that the two teams were at the same level. And that every once in two years McLaren is able to build a very fast car. I didn't expect anything else than what has happened. Apart from a few results from my part.
And still, at McLaren there are people that say you would be faster than Senna, at Ferrari there are people that say you would be faster than Schumacher.
KR: I'm honored. But it's not so unlikely to be the fastest and still lose. Success depends on a number of factors, the start of the season for instance.
The season has started better for Hamilton than for anyone else. Don't you think it's incredible a rookie does so well?
KR: He's good. He started in an ideal situation, in an ideal year. Had he made his debut in 2006, he would have suffered. He has been testing a lot on the tyres we use now and hardly did any testing with the Michelins. It doesn't happen normally with rookies but McLaren is a first class team and their car is very strong. No, it's not incredible.
Alonso and you were the new generation till the end of last year. And now comments go around that you are already retired!
KR: The public has a short memory. Only the last two or three races count.
Have you ever heard someone in the team say: 'Michael would have done it like this, Michael behaved in a different way'?
KR: No. The past is the past. I have my staff and I discuss the car and the races with the engineers that belong to me. Schumacher talks more with Felipe than with me. But it's not a factor that has influence on my race results. From my part, I don't even tell that I did 'this and did that' at McLaren.
Is it true that whenever friends come to visit you at your house in Switzerland, you can never resist to challenge them for whatever, be it swimming, karting, cycling?
KR: It's true. The visit is a lot more fun this way.
Have you ever thought about having children?
KR: Certainly, even more than one. I love children. But it's not the right moment for it. I want to be a serious father and as long as I fly from one capital of the world to another, that is not possible.
Will you learn Italian one day?
KR: I really hope so, but I am not rushing it. It's a beautiful language but very difficult. I've always played hockey, you know. Being behind books for hours, it's horrible.
What if you lose the championship? What about next year then?
KR: Next year will be a completely different story. New rules, no traction control. A different story.
Better or worse?
KR: More fun I suppose. And perhaps better for the drivers as there is a greater chance to make the difference. In case you have a good car obviously.
Once you've taken part in a race and won on snowmobiles under the name of James Hunt. Why was that?
KR: Maybe because I'm born in the wrong century. Had I been a driver many years ago, I wouldn't be in the spotlights, my life would have been a lot easier.
From: tuttosport.com
Interview with Kimi 2009
How much fun does a world champion have in the midfield of F1?
You always have to fight more in every race when you don't have such a strong car. And especially this year were we all are closer than before. That makes it exciting. But we all have more fun when we fight for the win.
Your last win is more than a year ago…
Of course it would be nicer if it wasn't that long ago. But I'm sure we will win again this year. But it's not easy to catch someone when you are behind.
How can you help as a driver in this situation?
I tell my engineers what I need. But they are still the same engineers who have built winning cars before so they know also without me. Everybody knows what he has to do.
No Italian chaos?
There is a lot of talk. The atmosphere is good. Sure, it would be better, if we win. That's normal. But differently than some say are we working hard. And there is no conflict inside the team.
Also not in Barcelona, where you couldn't get into second qualifying?
I thought I would come through. A silly mistake.
In Monaco the qualifying is very important because you can't overtake…
Actually Monaco isn't a good place to work. There isn't much space. But the atmosphere is great for the fans. And also for us drivers it is a nice challenge to get the perfect lap. If you manage that, it's a great feeling.
What is the most difficult spot?
The whole track is tricky. And this year we have to take care to not touch anywhere with the big front wings.
Do you have your yacht again in the harbor?
Probably not. And I have never slept on it but in the hotel. The yacht was for the guests. And it was mostly rented.
In Monaco there are lot of parties. Do you still like to party like in the past?
Yes, a lot. If I didn't have to work I would enjoy even more.
Would you prefer to race in the wild 70s?
Definitely! (laughs) That would have been much easier! There it was more about racing. That I would have liked. Driving is the relaxing part of the race weekend for me.
What bothers you the most in current F1?
If I could only drive, nothing! That is what I love the most. I'm here to drive races.
For how long? Fernando Alonso should replace you 2010…
Yes, I now that rumor. I have a contract for next year. So I will definitely be here. What happens then, I don't know. I have options to continue. But nobody knows what happens with F1.
Your buddy Sebastian Vettel is also under discussion for Ferrari. Would he suit the Scuderia?
He gets along with everybody. Sure he also wouldn't have any problems at Ferrari.
Does he have a real chance for the championship?
Sure! I mean, he has a good car. And until now the Red Bull drove without double diffuser. I'm sure he will be quicker in Monaco when he has one. So Sebastian has every chance for the title. Because I think he will fight for the win in most races.
You beat him all the time in Badminton. Doesn't he want to play something else?
We have already some other games…(laughs)
For example?
Table tennis.
Does he beat you at least there?
No, of course not! At least I still beat him off track this year.
Is it true that you move nearby him?
I move, but not to be close to him. But now we are just 10 minutes away. Before it was 25. Now I can beat him more often in Badminton.
Another hobby of yours is rally…
In the beginning of this year I drove a rally in Finland. When you do a job for years and then can do something where you learn anything every day, is that always more interesting. Rally is totally different to F1. You can't compare it.
Does it appeal you to drive with 200 through snowy forests?
Probably rally is more dangerous than F1. There is no safety road. But the risk is not the point why I love rally. It is simply something different than F1.
Is that your biggest passion now?
There are a lot of things I like. But that doesn't need to know the whole world. How boring life would be if you wouldn't have any passions? I enjoy my life in any case.
Source: SportBild
The Iceman on the hottest seat of F1
Iceman is a nickname given him by Ron Dennis, patron of the McLaren. Well suited to Kimi Räikkönen, a such cold, icy, essential driver that when he ran for the English team he used to answer to the questions of his engineers moving the head, to agree or say not, while he was passing at the 300km/h in front of the box. No surprise.
The Iceman arrived in F1 from the Finnish birches forests where he played slalom between the trees and on the creaking ice. He was 8 years old and he was a tiny but decided fair haired young man. On a very small car he skidded, he hit trees, he straightened and he started again. When he grew he made the same thing with a Lada, an old and in bad conditions Soviet car, bought with little money. It had a red body that he black painted. In the slalom between the trees it was much damaged. But it was the engine that betrayed him, not the blows. His father Matti put it in order. However his childhood and adolescence were serene lived near Espoo, in an old house builted by his grandparents. Sure, he didn't have a rich family, but his parents gave him everything also to cost of strange "sacrifices". His dad asphalted roads with the road roller. Mother Paula worked at the post office. Rami, his brother, who now runs in rally, was the adversary to beat. The house where they lived had an external bathroom and the family was saving money in order to built one inside. But the guys were so passionate for racing that parents thought the toilet could wait for and they bought two karts.
It was not easy for Kimi to go on the top, fighting against more competitive chassis, more powerful engines. A fifth place was a success for him. Kimi also desired a lot playing sport, hockey on ice specially, a real passion, like that one of Michael Schumacher for soccer, but he was not in the mood for studying. When he was 16 years old, in fact, he stopped his course for mechanics at the professional school and as soon as he was 18 he decided to leave the family in order to try his luck in United Kingdom, with the Haywood Racing, that gave him a Ford car to drive. His dad, when he said goodbye, put in Kimi's jacket pocket 500 dollars and told him in brief: "Nobody of us wants to hamper your career, go and live the life you like, but be careful and don't get you into troubles. And remember: this money is for your eating."
Matthew (at the registry office) Räikkönen, Kimi for all, played his cards. After some time, in a cold morning in 2001 he arrived at the Mugello circuit to drive a Sauber F1, with all the expert to look at him, like Schumacher or Piero Ferrari, and they said "oh!", and they ask from where that splendid rookie came from. Today he is a big of the F1. He will be 28 aged on 17th October, he earns about 30 million euro per year, he has bought a new house with many bathrooms and three years ago he married Jenni Dahlman, ex Miss Scandinavia. There are things to which he couldn't give up. For example, an evening with his best friends: "During my free time I do what I like", he says. He likes to have a drop (but the reputation attributed to him born from metropolitan tales). Or going to his gymnasium to lift weights because he says that physical exercise relaxes him.
His style of communication is very original. It could be defined: "Not, I do not know, it does not interest to me". So, in the age of the drivers who want to attract attention, he is the most nonconformist. And, in fact, he's the only one who evades from the rules of the image-man driver and great communicative man. He wants to go fast and to remain himself. And if you ask opinions, comments, backstage about his arrival in Ferrari, his relationship with Schumacher, the acclimatization in Italy, he answers frankly, but he doesn't go over ten words, conjunctions included. Then, it seems Kimi has one extraordinary gift: the awareness of himself. To such a degree that he has been able to erase, since the beginning, the insidious trap of the misunderstanding. Without haughtiness he simply said: "Schumi is incomparable, if we begin to draw parallels between who was and who is here, we don't go anywhere". As result, Ferrari and the supporters of the scuderia of Maranello will learn to know a driver who refuses any comparison with the master of Kerpen, one who says calmly: judge me for what I am and for what I am worth.
Q: Who wins the World-Championship?
KR: It's early to say it. Obvious, I hope to win it.
Q: Are you sure?
KR: Yes, I am, but the things in F.1 can change very fast, even if this year with the same tyres a parameter that made difference has been erased.
Q: What do you think you need to win it: more the car or more luck?
KR: More the car.
Q: More quality/style or charism?
KR: The style is a part of you, the charism can be acquired.
Q: Who has charism?
KR: Who can express some moral qualities and, with these one, he is able to motivate people.
Q: The strongest F1 car?
KR: That's able to win.
Q: McLaren and Ferrari: which differences?
KR: Technically it is difficult to make comparisons because many things are changed this year. From another point of view I can say that at Maranello there is "a more warm" atmosphere.
Q: How was your first meet with Ferrari?
KR: Very positive: people received me very well, trying to put me in the best conditions to express myself.
Q: Does a Ferrari style exist?
KR: Yes, sure, even if I am discovering day by day.
Q: From what can you recognize it?
KR: By the attention they put into the details, they put the person in the middle of the project.
Q: Someone says that you don't respect the mechanics of the car, that you are hard and you break a lot. Is it true?
KR: No, it isn't.
Q: What did your Ferrari engineer ask to you?
KR: Chris (Dyer) is an excellent technician and a nice guy: when we met for the first time he didn't ask me anything in particular. In the winter test days we have spoken a lot, as it's normal. We are going to know better, as we will spend much time together on the track.
Q: Have you spoken with Michael Schumacher?
KR: Sure, sometimes.
Q: Has he given you some advices?
KR: No, why should he do?
Q: Press says that the men of the scuderia compare you to Niki Lauda for your character instead of Michael Schumacher…
KR: I had not ever heard it. However I think it's early to say to who I look like.
Q: Did you draw inspiration from some special driver?
KR: Nobody in particular.
Q: Is it true that your love for the Ferrari comes from far away? That you had a Ferrari in your garage?
KR: Yes, I had and I still have an Enzo, a very beautiful car.
Q: Every kind of motorbikes: for water, ice, cross, road. A passion that cannot be given up?
KR: Absolutely: I like the speed, on every type of surface.
Q: What have you got in your garage? Have you got also some great motorbikes which cost 100.000 euro?
KR: I have a lot of motorbikes and cars, but the most expensive, the most precious is the Enzo.
Q: You live in Switzerland but you are still very affectionate to your home in Porkkala. Is Finland important for you?
KR: Yes, it is my country and I go back as often as I can.
Q: When you come back what do you do?
KR: It will seem boring, but I'm a simple person. I do exactly what boys of my age like to do: to go around with my friends, to listen to music, nothing of "sensational" that can attract the attention of the paparazzi.
Q: When did you feel that your life would have been to be a driver?
KR: It's what I have always desired to do.
Q: Better fish or pasta?
KR: I like both.
Q: With wine, beer or pineapple juice?
KR: Beer.
Q: A dinner with Flavio Briatore or Ron Dennis? With Jean Todt or Frank Williams?
KR: Sure with Jean.
Q: Have you more pleasure when you beat Felipe Massa or Fernando Alonso?
KR: I don't run against someone, I only try to win.
Q: Have you a book in your suitcase or on your bedside table?
KR: I don't read very much.
Q: Your favourite song?
KR: I don't have one in particular, but I often love to listen to music, above all the Finnish POP.
Q: London or Helsinki?
KR: Helsinki.
Q: Is it true that you are searching a house in Milan?
KR: No, it isn't.
Q: Your greatest passion?
KR: To be a driver: could I be luckier? I already have this job.
Q: Is your wife important?
KR: Sure, Jenni is a fundamental person in the equilibrium of my life.
Q: Do you like family?
KR: A lot: I love my family, my parents.
Q: Do you desire to have some children?
KR: Yes, but not now.
Q: The most romantic thing you have made?
KR: I don't like to speak about these things very much: it's a part of my private life.
Q: Is it easier to please or to displease all?
KR: Sure to displease: it's difficult to find something on which everybody agrees.
Q: What don't you like about what press says about you?
KR: When press writes false things, and unfortunately, it often happens.
Q: Everybody has a dark side. Have you already discovered it?
KR: Honestly I haven't ever thought about it.
Q: Are you superstitious?
KR: I'm not superstitious.
Q: What do you think before a race?
KR: I try to relax me and to think in a positive way.
Q: And the night before the race what do you do?
KR: I sleep!
Q: Play-Station or IPod?
KR: The Ipod, it's always with me.
Q: How is an engine made?
KR: I know well how an engine is made! Since when I was young I did like to work on my cars, and I still do it when I go in motoslitta; for example in F.1 I prefer to give this work to the technicians and the mechanics, but because there is little time: I like to know the details of what they do on the car.
Q: A surprising gift you have received?
KR: All the gifts made by my wife and my family: they are given with the heart and I feel it.
Q: Travelling around the world, what are you collecting?
KR: Trophies.
Q: Which watch do you prefer?
KR: The Tag-Heuer.
Q: Your clothing?
KR: Casual: jacket, jeans and t-shirt is my uniform.
Q: Your favourite brands?
KR: No brand in particular.
Q: The first time have you wear a smoking?
KR: When I was 14 or 15 years old and I was invited to a prize-giving of a kart championship in Finland.
Q: If a driver overtakes you on road in a wrong way?
KR: I know well that the road is not a race-track where I can run or overtake at the limit, so I think the others should make the same with me but if it happens I certainly don't react.
Q: Driving style of men and women: Which do you prefer?
KR: For me there is no difference, because when I'm in car I always want to drive.
Q: SUV or wagon?
KR: With two dogs, I prefer the SUV.
Q: Coupè or spider?
KR: Coupè.
Q: The most beautiful moment?
KR: The day of my wedding.
Q: The unhappiest moment?
KR: There have been various bad moments, but I can't say that there has been a situation worst of all in absolute.
Q: Are you sorry for the losers?
KR: For me winning is all.
Q: What are you afraid of?
KR: I'm afraid of something bad that could happen to my family.
Q: What do you desire to do in your life?
KR: I don't like thinking too much about future, I try to enjoy the moment.
Q: Why do you desire people will remember you?
KR: Because I have been a winner.
"I can't wait to get back behind the wheel"
Kimi, it has been three weeks since you were confirmed as a Lotus Renault GP driver for the 2012 season. How have you found the reaction to your F1 return?
KR: I have been surprised at how big the reaction has been so I guess people must have missed me!
What has been the best moment so far?
KR: Sebastian Vettel's impersonation of me at the Autosport awards! No, seriously, my two visits to Enstone have been great. The first one, at the team's Christmas party, made me realise how much support I have there. The second one, last week, allowed me to understand that this team has not been world champion by coincidence. I also saw all the investments they have made recently: new simulator building, CFD upgrade, 60% wind tunnel… It gives me a lot of confidence for the season ahead.
How difficult do you think you will find it coming back?
KR: Let's put it this way: before my two years of rallying I had nine seasons, 157 races and 18 wins in Formula 1. I know the sport well. When I went to rallying and when I tried NASCAR, there were many new things to learn, but with Formula 1 I feel like I'm coming home. I can't wait to get behind the wheel.
Do you think it will take you long to get back up to speed?
KR: I hope not! I am more motivated than ever and I don't think I've lost any speed. Getting on top of the tyres will be the hardest thing, of course, but I'm not really worried. Although the technical regulations don't seem to change much, they apply to a lot of areas and quite a few elements will have to be re-designed. As a result, the cars will be significantly different next year. The order could be shaken up, which will make things very interesting.
What is your schedule in the build-up to testing?
KR: We don't test the new car until February so it's a long wait. However, I should be able to jump into a two-year-old F1 car in January. Of course, there will be the usual training, but I will also be working on getting to know the team better and making sure I fully understand all the changes since I have been away.
What are your targets for pre-season testing?
KR: Finding out if we have a fast car! For me, learning how the team works will be another important aspect. Learning Pirelli's tyres will be the most important job, as it's a different approach from what I experienced before.
What are your plans over the Christmas break? Have you got anything special arranged?
KR: I am doing a lot of training. The most important area for me is to get my neck strong enough again, especially as it will be put through its paces in testing. Of course, I will also be celebrating Christmas with my family.
Any more snowmobile races planned?
KR: I was surprised by how much attention there was over me falling off a snowmobile. You can watch what happened on YouTube and it was probably the smallest and slowest crash I've ever had. It is almost embarrassing! I won a snowmobile race right before the start of the 2007 season and that year didn't go badly for me so who knows?
From: http://www.lotusrenaultgp.com
Kimi: I feel like I'm coming home
Kimi Raikkonen insists he won't take long to get back in the F1 groove as it feels like he is "coming home".
The Finn spent the past two years competing in the World Rally Championship, but he will return to Formula One in 2012 after signing a two-year contract with Lotus Renault. Many pundits believe Raikkonen will struggle on his return, but the 2007 World Champion doesn't think he will take too long to come to grips with the new regulations.
"Let's put it this way: before my two years of rallying I had nine seasons, 157 races and 18 wins in Formula 1. I know the sport well," he told the official Lotus website. "When I went to rallying and when I tried NASCAR, there were many new things to learn, but with Formula 1 I feel like I'm coming home. I can't wait to get behind the wheel." He added: "I am more motivated than ever and I don't think I've lost any speed.
"Getting on top of the tyres will be the hardest thing, of course, but I'm not really worried. "Although the technical regulations don't seem to change much, they apply to a lot of areas and quite a few elements will have to be re-designed. As a result, the cars will be significantly different next year. The order could be shaken up, which will make things very interesting." Raikkonen has already paid a couple of visits to the team's base at Enstone and liked what he saw.
"The first one, at the team's Christmas party, made me realise how much support I have there," he said. "The second one, last week, allowed me to understand that this team has not been World Champion by coincidence. "I also saw all the investments they have made recently: new simulator building, CFD upgrade, 60% wind tunnel… It gives me a lot of confidence for the season ahead."


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BONUS EPISODE: The Woke Files - Jason Weems
Hey listeners, if you haven't checked us out on Patreon, you've missed out on Randolph's new interivew show, The Woke Files. This is a special free edition of The Woke Files with guest, comedian Jason Weems. You've heard us talk about Jason's near-death experience on the show recently, but in this conversation, you can hear him tell it to Randolph in his own words. We have a special benefit show to help raise funds for Jason's medical bills this Wednesday, August 9th at the DC Drafthouse (www.drafthousecomedy.com), and you can donate to Jason's GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/welcome-back-weems