text:
Melody Maker, November 12th, 1988
by Simon Reynolds,
'Black Sun' is perfect, too perfect. Loop's sound is the gravity's rainbow cast by a black hole — it's just that it's not a star that's collapsed under its own mass, but rock itself. Loop music consists of infinite refractions of black, it's a contoured void: ridges and troughs of moribund sound, like the sastrugi of deep space (sastrugi are the wave patterns left in snow by the wind). 'Black Sun' says it all: Loop are an inferno that emits no light, a pyre for "the end of me". Catch me in the right frame of mindlessness, and I can think of no greater liberation than to be mired in the entropy of their endless end, sucked under and eclipsed. Loop have me vegging out. On the cusp of coma.
The irony is that the phrase "black sun" is the perfect evocation of everything in Loop music with the solitary exception of the song 'Black Sun' itself. It's the most dazzling and elevating record they've made so far, as exhilarating as surfing on the solar wind.
In person, naturally, Loop are not the Thanatos-worshipping cosmonauts you might conceivably hope for. Robert is a curious mix of crap-cutting matter-of-factness and intensity. John chips in occasionally with the odd, sleepy but telling comment. Neil is apparently mute.
In person, naturally, Loop are not the Thanatos-worshipping cosmonauts you might conceivably hope for. Robert is a curious mix of crap-cutting matter-of-factness and intensity. John chips in occasionally with the odd, sleepy but telling comment. Neil is apparently mute.
Loop have a constituency, what I would call the headfuck contingent: that punky/hippy confluence, leatherbound long hairs, the kind of people who live in squats, are into comix, horror, drugs, the mindblowing in general. The kind of people you rub shoulders with, with subtle variations, at Spacemen 3 shows, or World Domination/Mutoid Waste events, or the Adrian Sherwood/Tackhead axis. Have Loop connected with a scene and its desires, or helped to bring it into being?
John: "Who knows? Chicken and egg, innit?"
What you do seems to be what people want, now. It seems right for 1987/88. Why?
Robert: "It's hard for me to say, because the things I was involved in before Loop were on similar lines. Bit more art-oriented, less rock'n'roll based, drawing on stuff like Can, Faust, Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Skidoo. But I was always into the repetition element. It's just that until Loop I was never the instigator, I just played bass or sang."
Isn't it the case that the kind of acid rock elements in what you do, only became permissible again in the last two or three years?
"But you see, I don't think psychedelia ever went away really. Even during punk, when liking Pink Floyd meant you were a boring hippy, people still listened to garage punk, which is where acid rock came from."
And do you see the artschool avant-funk you were into as having the same aims as psychedelia?
"Yeah, cos it's all based in repetition, and what some people would call a trance-like effect."
It sounds like you ought to be in sympathy with the Acid House scene.
"Oh no, that stuff's just nonsense. Sure, it's repetitive, but in a bland way. We like to think we build on our repetitiveness. With Acid House, they just sit on a synthesizer for half an hour and make squiddly-diddly noises. That scene is basically just a small diversion for the beer boys. In three months they'll be back listening to Level 42. It's just a fad, not a musical movement. All the trendies are turning off it already, they're now starting up Minneapolis bars dedicated to Prince-type music."
Who do you feel are your peers, your spiritual kin?
"Tackhead. The On-U sound. Apart from that, I don't listen to a lot of new stuff."
John: "Maybe stuff like Glenn Branca."
Robert: "Branca, Steve Reich, all that lot. Stuff we've been listening to for a quite a while. Reggae too."
There does seem to be a dub-derived spatial awareness to Loop.
"I've learned a lot from listening to Adrian Sherwood's production, the way he structures sound. Lee Perry too."
Do you feel any kinship with the American noiseniks — Dinosaur, the Buttholes, Sonic Youth...?
"We like 'em. A lot of people bracket us with them, but that seems kind of lazy. I think a lot of that comes down to the fact that those bands have all been influenced by the same things as us. But we're all trying to do different things with those influences. I think the big similarity is the attitude to volume: using volume as an instrument."
For a while I had difficulty with Loop: the attention to what seemed like period detail — the wah-wah, the Detroit '69 hair — got in the way of my recognising something new.
"That all came out of the music I was into. Hendrix and that. But just because we use a wah-wah, doesn't mean we're Sixties kids. We are influenced by a lot of bands from the Sixties, but we're also influenced by Seventies bands, and even a few Eighties ones. I just wish people would look a little bit further than saying 'Oh, they're stuck in the Sixties'. Sure, we draw on The Velvets, and The Stooges, but we also draw on later stuff like Faust and Can and Neu, and we've got a whole load of modem technology, and we're doing it NOW. I was a really big Birthday Party fan, and there's probably some of that in there as well."
If there is a link between the Birthday Party's bacchanalian seizures and Loop's seized-up mantras, it's that both are indebted to The Stooges. If Cave took Iggy's chaotic exhibitionism and hammed it up to the limit, Loop work from The Stooges more downered, inhibited side. Loop take the desperation of the first Stooges album, abstract it from the specific teen kicks and aggravations that fired it, and turn it into an inchoate, cosmic howl.
Asheton's bastardised, barbiturate blues is abased even further: a piteous, infantile wail, wah-wah as primal screams. Sometimes the guitar on Loop songs is an endless sub-blues solo, but paraplegic, stunted rather than expansive. The Stooges' ballad 'Anne' could almost be the Loop prototype, in its limpid stupor and strange inertia of love ("floating in your swimming pool" — the lover's monstrously dilated pupils?)
Robert: "When The Stooges and the other Detroit bands like MC5 and SRC got going, the hippy thing was very strong still. Everybody wanted to love one another. The nihilism of bands like The Stooges was almost a statement against all that dippiness and mellowness. There was probably the same kind of feel there and then, as there was in London in 1976. In fact, punk drew a lot on The Stooges and MC5. Those groups and a few others, like The Velvets, were all punk could draw on, cos those were the only groups during that whole time when everyone was tuning in, turning on and dropping out, who said: 'Fuck this!' The only ones who resisted the hippy self-indulgence, all those 25-minute solos and fuck kissing the sky. (Which Hendrix could do better anyway and do within a three, four-minute song.) But at the time, all those groups people respect nowadays — The Velvets, Iggy, Suicide, New York Dolls — they sold fuck all!"
This then, is the lineage you feel part of — the Lester Bangs' tradition of wilfully "moronic" monotony and minimalism. What do you think repetition repetition repetition can do for people?
Robert: "It's very much a form of psychological music. It's something you either get into or you fuckin' hate. Some people prefer verse/chorus songs that 'go' somewhere. The drugs thing has been totally overblown, though: you don't have to be out of your face to get into repetitive music."
John: "It can either totally relax you, or totally aggravate you. We did some tape loops for the album, and when we played them at a very quiet volume they were soothing, but when we turned the volume to max, it put you on edge. That's the psychological element."
You seem to be keen to downplay the acid connection, but there does appear to be a link between the effect your music has on the listener, and the acid experience.
Robert: "Yeah, but our music's very psychological, and acid's a very psychological drag. I can only really repeat what I've said previously: yeah, we're into it, but there's no way it's necessary to take it in order to get into our music A lot of our stuff is based on the more nightmarish experiences in life. No bad-trip experiences, cos that's already closeting it and pigeonholing it. You can have a bummer trip whether you're on acid or not.
"Everyone's got their own personal phobias, stuff that really gets them. And that's what I'm interested in. The psychological aspect of human life. Why are there such things as madness? You can read all the books, and yet no one has any real conclusion as to why there's madness, or paranoia."
John: "I like to know why people do the funny things they do. Not just murderers, but the really banal, the weird things people do."
Robert: "It's been said in medical chronicles that taking LSD is the closest you can come to madness. But how do they know? No one really knows. They can do x number of interviews, but they still don't know what it's like."
John: "Physically, the effect of acid is supposed to be very close to schizophrenia."
Some psychoanalysts see schizophrenia as a kind of language disorder, in that identity — one's sense of continuity extending from past into future — is an effect of language. Indeed, time itself is an effect of language, of syntax. The schizoid experience is said to involve a loss of memory, and a blindness to the future. Instead the schizophrenic lives in a perpetual present tense, which is vivid to an often unbearable degree; the doors of perception are open wide to the insupportable dazzle of The Moment, whereas normal people always have some kind of focus (their minds partially occupied by forward planning or retrospection).
The parallels with acid are obvious: what for some is a highly sought after "trip" (timeless, beyond words, transcendental) is for the schizophrenic a living hell of exile from language and any sense of purposive continuity. Reality can no longer be interpreted, managed by being made meaningful; instead, its materiality is overwhelmingly intense. But this effect is felt as a numbing loss of reality — as Loop put it, "too real to feel".
Robert: "Ever seen a programme called The Mind Machine? One week it was all about this composer who had really severe amnesia. His memory could only extend to a couple of minutes previous. When his wife visited him at the hospital, he said: 'This is the first time I've ever seen you, but I know I love you'."
John: "If you're into that kind of thing, a brilliant book to get is The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, by Oliver Sachs, with all these case stories of people with strange neurological and perceptual disorders."
Robert: "That's what I'm into, not the fictional stuff but the factual, which is fuckin' strange enough."
It seems to me that one of the effects of repetition in music is this heightened awareness of The Moment, this complete immersion in NOW — something both alluring and perturbing.
John: "They've been doing that for thousands of years."
Robert: "You listen to Steve Reich or to John Cage in the Sixties. And he was an influence on John Cale. And before that there was Erik Satie, who'd write a two-minute piece and at the end put: 'repeat ad infinitum'. But the repetition thing goes way back, to tribal rhythms..."
Is Loop in some way a reaction against the idea of rock being about narratives — both small (the song as story) and large (rock as the Way Forward to a better world)? The very name Loop seems to lock into a different strand in rock history — the repetition axis — and a different idea of what music is for: rock as a (locked) groove that takes us nowhere (to a Utopia, literally no-place, outside language.
"Well, the reason we chose the name was because it fitted what we wanted to do perfectly. People say we pinched it off a John Cale track, and I make no bones about it, yeah, we did. It's a very rare flexi from 1967. Cale has said that it's where Lou Reed got his Metal Machine Musicidea from."
Are Loop a "good night out"? Or is it a bit more massive than that?
John: "Some people are quite disturbed by it. But then a lot of people like being disturbed. Like us!"
Robert: "I like a lot of films that disturb your sense of reality, and prey on you."
I ask the question because you've said before that you'd like to close down the bar when you come on stage, and have the audience locked in, their minds unable to wander. Seems kinda sadistic, or at least megalomaniac.
Robert: "That's my perverse side coming out. That remark was a stab against the trendiness of people saying, 'oh yeah, let's go see Loop', and then spending the whole evening in the bar. I hate that, especially if it's a sell-out gig and people are still queuing out there hopelessly who really want to see the band, and there's people in there who only came to be seen."
John: "But if I went to see a band, and they locked the audience in, I'd really get into it, I think."
It's almost as though the response you expect from your audience is a submission.
Robert: "Oh yeah, but a lot of people don't want that at all. But I think there should be more things like that in music. Music is my biggest passion, and the way I really get into things is almost a submission to music. It's not as though we would dictate to people, but it'd be nice if there no diversions from the music."
Loop have the most perfect, ultimate song titles around — 'This Is Where You End', 'Fade Out', 'Fix To Fall', 'Torched', 'Heaven's End', 'Burning World', 'Crawling Heart'... Looking at the imagery, I can see a preponderance of negatives — imagery of annihilation, immolation, terminal experiences, apocalypse, falling...
"Yeah, but falling can be a totally orgasmic experience. Falling can be a good experience, not a bad one. But you're probably right. It sounds corny, but I am interested in the darker side of life. Why? Because a lot of people are really consciously trying to switch off from that.
"Life is full of ups and downs, and a lot of people can't accept or face the downs. All they want is the highs all the time. They want to avoid anything bad happening to them, or avoid even considering that bad things could happen to them. It's a mental block. In a roundabout way, the songs are about how you may well live this comfortable life, but someday things are gonna prey on you."
And why the recurrence of fire imagery...
"It's the greatest destructive force, ever. Death by fire... I mean, I'd rather drown than burn to death, put it that way."
Isn't there a perverse attraction to fire, in a metaphorical way: the desire to be consumed by something — music — as though by flames? A conflagration to relieve people of their self-consciousness and abolish the borders between things. Is that what you experience when you play live?
"When we're playing, all I think about is trying to play the same song as everyone else. It's so nerve-racking being on stage that you've no time to think about the effect it has on you or anyone."
Tell me some more about your ideas about falling...
"If I could get over my phobia about planes — cos I just don't trust them — more than anything else I'd love to jump out of a plane with a parachute. But to freefall. I reckon that must be the most free you can ever be, and it must be overwhelming. You can either be totally petrified, or think: 'This is the best thing that's ever happened to me.' I'll probably force myself to do it, one day."
That seems to be a big clue to what Loop are all about — either an excess or an absence of gravity, either way a loss of orientation...
"Yeah, I'm very into disorientation. That is the overall effect we aim for with Loop."
And the effect of that topsy-turviness, and the unrelenting repetition, I can only describe as stultifying. In the best possible sense. It seems that's the most intelligent thing music can do — reduce, or perhaps, elevate the listener to a state of holy stupor.
John: "Emptied. I feel empty when I'm doing it. I do! That's what I like."
Robert: "It's like those old Tibetan geezers who chant the same thing over and over again. You see, there's a romantic beauty about death. A lot of people are scared of death, but I'm not. I'd hate to die a violent death — by immolation, say — but to slowly slip into whatever death entails... If I go, I wanna go in my sleep. Or at least, let it be quick. Cos I think death can be beautiful; you read about all these people who've had astral projections, and to me it just sounds like the most beautiful thing you can experience. We're very much into beauty, and we're very much into ugly things. And certain ugly things can be very beautiful."
Listening to Loop I feel wombed (or is it entombed?) This is regressive rock, in a very literal sense. But Loop don't evoke the pearly, lambent glow of AR Kane's amniotic Utopia; Loop are a darker, more shuddery backwards fall through the mesh of language, the circuitry of power with which we administer ourselves as productive adults, back back into the primal abjection from which we're shaped. Loop are immense but primitive. If U2 are rock as clarion call of the super-ego, Loop are rock as siren-song of the Id.
Sometimes Loop's music reminds me of a nameless feeling that can invade you when insomnia has brought you to the end of the night: a sensation of surging further and further away from everyone, accompanied by a simultaneous expansion and attenuation of the self, as though the grotesque swelling of your mind was wiping out the entire universe.
Where did the image of the 'Black Sun' come from?
"The 'black sun' is the 'heart of darkness'. It's a heart. Anytime anyone talks about the 'heart', you have this radiant imagery. But to me, there's this very, very dark side to it. They say 'follow your heart', but your heart can take you to the most dismal places ever. 'Black Sun' is about the darker side of a love for someone, where it's almost schizophrenic. One minute you feel totally radiant with the thought of someone, the next you feel very destructive about someone."
"Follow your heart" means put yourself in thrall to stupidity, which can be glorious, or indecently asinine — like contemplating suicide when a phone call doesn't materialise...
Robert: "Some people's passions can verge on the ludicrous."
So 'Black Sun' doesn't refer to black holes or anything astrophysical...
"In a way, yeah, cos a heart can collapse in on itself. Your true feelings can totally disintegrate. You can explode into violence, or implode into self-destruction. 'Black Sun' is a love song in a bastardised kind of way. But it's not personalised, it's just my thoughts on love, not a specific love affair. Just another angle on the old story of how love can tear you apart."
Is there anyone you've encountered who you feel is on the same wave-length as Loop?
"Only one person: Mark Stewart. But then I've heard horror stories about him. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of bands who are into it for the sake of music, and not self-glorification or money. But we don't run into them so much. Stewart is the only obvious example of someone with the right attitude.
"It's still on the cards that we might do a Loop vs Tackhead collaboration. We had the Tackhead Sound System with us the last time we played ULU, and Sherwood was saying that there were things we did that they'd never thought of. So it would be a genuinely interesting collusion. They haven't really influenced our music, but they have influenced our production values, how we structure sounds."
The second Loop album, Fade Out, is now scheduled for release in the first week of 1989. Has it lived up to Robert's claim earlier this year that it would be much heavier than Heaven's End?
"I think so. On the first album, there was a load of subtleties, but I don't think anything on this LP is subtle, It's all pretty brutal. It's a step forward, I think. Maybe in two albums time we'll get it right."
How can they take it further?
"A lot of people expect us to do the bog-standard Sixties cover version, but I don't want us to rely on that. That's why we did 'Thief Of Fire' on the EP, and that's why we're doing Can's 'Mother Sky' on the B-side of 'Black Sun'. With 'Thief Of Fire' we got rid of The Pop Group's bastard funk and just looped it up. But with 'Mother Sky' we're actually pretty close to the Can original. It's uncharted territory for us.
"That whole Seventies Krautrock thing — Can, Faust, Neu, even early Kraftwerk — were treading on very similar territory to what we're into. You can definitely tell they were influenced by a lot of psychedelic music, and they just exaggerated the repetitiveness."
John: "Their music was very simple, very intoxicating."
Robert: "Can are definitely an influence. Can's 'Mother Sky' is a lot more mellow than ours, but it's still close."
Faust, I can see easily — there are parts of So Far, The Faust Tapes and IV that sound incredibly similar to Loop's warp and weft of distortion. Can struck me as being rather too whimsical for you to tolerate...
"People say that Damo Suzuki's singing is very up in the air and lighthearted, but we're more influenced by Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit, the rhythm section. Everything they did was totally stripped down. Can is definitely where PiL came from, Jah Wobble. And we're influenced by Metal Box. PiL is what turned us on to Can and Faust, in a roundabout way. What I think about the Acid House scene is, if only people were adventurous enough to play a Can track... cos the people would go fuckin' apeshit."
One way Loop could go forward is to relinquish the beat altogether. At the start of the Fade Out album, there's a 25-second interlude, what sounds like a symphony of drones, as portentous as the distant trembling in the air the citizens of Dresden must have heard on the eve of the firebombing. The mosaic of almost ambient guitar noise in the middle of 'Straight To Heart' suggests another direction for them, one that Loop indulge singlemindedly for the first time on 'Circle Grave' (also on the B-side of 'Black Sun').
One way Loop could go forward is to relinquish the beat altogether. At the start of the Fade Out album, there's a 25-second interlude, what sounds like a symphony of drones, as portentous as the distant trembling in the air the citizens of Dresden must have heard on the eve of the firebombing. The mosaic of almost ambient guitar noise in the middle of 'Straight To Heart' suggests another direction for them, one that Loop indulge singlemindedly for the first time on 'Circle Grave' (also on the B-side of 'Black Sun').
Robert: "I love doing that stuff, but to me it's soundtrack music. I'm very interested in ambience, but I'd like to combine it with visuals."
John: "Do you ever listen to any ECM stuff? Some of it's brilliant. I'd really like to work with someone like Keith Jarrett or Egberto Gismonti."
Robert: "There's so many things you can do with this format, it's knowing which way to go. Originally, I had the idea of making the second album totally subversive of the first one. Just do weird, almost unplayable stuff. But there were still some things I wanted to do with the basic Loop sounds. We can save all that for the 'difficult third album'. But all the stuff you mentioned is on the horizon. No boundaries. We haven't scratched the surface yet, we've only brushed against it.
"There's so much you can do with technology. Like on the track 'Fade Out', we use an effect on my vocal called 'preverb'. You turn the tape over and add reverb on it, so that when it's played back the right way round, all the reverb comes before the vocal. On the next album, we want to use a holophonic system for 3D sound. A system of mikes geared around how people's hearing actually works. We like to abuse technology, take it as far as it can go.
"Sherwood has the same attitude. Like stereo, people don't even exploit stereo today. They don't abuse stereo, make sounds swim around a venue like we do. That's why I say people should really listen to Loop. They should have no distractions, just immerse themselves in it, cos there's a lot in there."
No distractions, just let yourself be driven to distraction. If that's what Loop demand from a listener, what do they give?
"The right to choose. To find out why they like our music. We're not forcing anything on anyone."
Then, as we go on into extra time, Robert launches into a tirade about the music press, as gargantuan, circular and potentially interminable as a Loop groove. The Press always gets it wrong, it seems. It either arbitrates what it is people are supposed to see in Loop, thus ending the flux of indeterminacy that Robert claims is was what Loop offer, or it misrepresents what the band are about, falsifying quotes in order to sensationalise certain aspects (eg: drugs). Or it claims too much for Loop, its ardent garlands of hyperbole proving to be embarrassing millstones round the neck that the band find it hard to live up to. Chris Roberts' mind's eye fantasia, and Paul Oldfield's astrophysical/apocalyptic delirium have been a source of discomfort.
Roberts' confusion (he wants people to surrender themselves to Loop, but believes that in the process they've granted the freedom to see whatever they like into Loop) is actually spot on.
For Loop do comprehend the two poles of pleasure in rock today: the Rorschasch Blot (AR Kane-ish illegibility in which you can read whatever you fancy) and the Richter Scale (the more overpowering arsequakin' end of things). They do impose freedom. And Loop are a loop; a Moebius strip history of rock repetition, running from garage punk, psychedelia avant-funk, dub, to the present, and back again. A continuum of continuum rock, spinning on its own axis, going nowhere faster every day.
For some, all this will have been too clinical. But in all honesty I can say I'm not arrogant enough to imagine I can simulate in words what Loop do. I can just take stock of the damage, gather the clues to how they got there, and give you directions to the brink. Maybe the only tone humble enough is that of an autopsy, an inquest into "the end of me". And believe me, they did it, Loop punched a vast crater in the fabric of this paltry discourse. I fell. I was void. It can happen for you too.
Paul Oldfield reviews Loop for Melody Maker singles column, November 26 1988
A Gilded Eternity
(Situation Two)
Melody Maker, January 20th 1990
by Simon Reynolds
It's clear now that Loop peaked with their magnificent brace of EPs in 1988,Collision/Thief Of Fire and Black Sun/Mother Sky. Last year's Fade Out was just a consolidation of the first album (some would say, a reiteration). And lost month's drab, ungainly 'Arc-Lite' obviously heralded the proverbial "traumatic third album". Here it is.
The title, A Gilded Eternity, is at once perfect and predictable: it actually sounds like one of the more cumbersome metaphors dreamt up by we here at the MM branch of the Loop Fan Club. A Gilded Eternity is another gesture at what Loop were aiming at with the phrase "heaven's end". Heaven is an "endless end" to the anxiety and restlessness of fleshly existence. The "apocalypse now" that Loop, the Spacemen et al, yearn for is an end of history and an end of geography: an escape from the shackles of time and place. Some radical psychoanalysts believe that it's time itself that is the source of Man's alienation.
A Gilded Eternity also suggests to me what Loop should be doing musically. By now, they should have transcended the riff, transcended rhythm, and disappeared in a nebula of originless sound. Their black energy should have turned to lustrous entropy. They should have reached the nirvana of "heaven's end". We've seen glimpses of this sublimated meta-rock before, in the coda to 'Forever' (off the first LP) and with 'Circle Grave' (off the Black Sun EP): dislocated drones that circle each other endlessly, like gravity ripples round a black hole.
New songs like 'Valour' and 'Afterglow' seem to promise the final coming of this rock afterlife. But put the needle in the groove, and it's instantly clear that Loop are still stuck in the garage. Only this time round they've lost the gargantuan, irresistible momentum of yore. Their riffs no longer sound primordial so much as underdeveloped. Where once Loop were about goingnowhere fast, now they just seem to be going nowhere. With 'Nail Will Burn' they even get there, only to find it's like the area between East Croydon and Selhurst. And 'Breathe Into Me' trundles grey like Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry, of all people.
There's a couple of tracks on A Gilded Eternity where Loop get beyond themselves. 'Blood' is a brilliant dub-scape clearly influenced by Mark Stewart: a radioactive wasteland, dust-plumes of Can guitar, and radio static crackle vocals like Mayday signals from survivors trapped beneath the glowing rubble. 'From Centre To Wave' is very Joy Division: glazed bass drones and slash after slash of guitar, superimposed into a glare of sound.
The closing 'Be Here Now' is the best excursion here through Loop's traditional terrain. Magnificently pregnant, impending chords are repeated for what feels like an eternity (not quite a gilded one) before the entrance of Robert's listless vocal. The verses alternate just a bit too neatly with an absolutely beautiful solo, which rears up to raze the upper echelons of the sky in identical fashion on each of its appearances. The song finally blazes true just before the end. But at nearly 10 minutes, 'Be Here Now' sounds like a sketch for a really overwhelming track.
A Gilded Eternity, then, is a disappointment. Loop are letting themselves, and us, down. Better to have risked reinventing themselves (even at the cost of producing a calamity of indulgence), than to give us more of the same, only less so.


text:
Debate rages over firefighting airplanes
Just as fire season arrived in the West, the federal government touched off a blaze of controversy. In May, citing safety concerns, the Interior Department and the Forest Service canceled their contracts for 33 privately owned large air tankers.
The decision followed a report from the National Transportation Safety Board, which detailed three plane crashes in the last ten years that claimed eight crewmembers' lives. The planes' worn-out wings had cracked during flight, and the report concluded that "no effective method currently exists to ensure continuing airworthiness" of the aircraft, many of which are recycled military planes from the 1940s and '50s.
But the decision to ground the fleet drew furious criticism from politicians bracing for a dangerous, drought-fueled fire season.
In a letter, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, D, blasted U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, who oversees the Forest Service, for not developing a plan for safety inspections immediately after two tankers crashed in the summer of 2002. In June, the Forest Service announced it would rent 100 alternative aircraft — including helicopters and single-engine planes — at a cost of $66 million.
Oregon Congressman Greg Walden, R, who chairs the House Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee, asked the Federal Aviation Administration to quickly develop an inspection system so air tankers deemed airworthy could be used this summer.
Meanwhile, the grounded air tankers are available for hire elsewhere; Oregon's Department of Forestry took advantage of the current glut to hire some to fight fires on state lands this summer.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Skeletal Macaulay Culkin 'Looks Very Sick,' Warns Health Expert
By Debbie Emery - RadarOnline.com Reporter
Macaulay Culkin captured the hearts of millions as the cute kid in Home Alone, but the 31-year-old actor is now striking fear into the hearts of his fans with his startling weight loss, and RadarOnline.com has evidence of his horrific transformation.
In images obtained by Entertainment Tonight, Culkin was snapped looking pale and gaunt in New York City on Wednesday when he stopped to sign autographs for fans, while drinking the energy drink Red Bull.
Sporting sunken cheeks, scraggly hair, pale skin and glazed eyes, he was barely recognizable as the cherubic kid who had fought off bungling burglars in the 1992 comedy classic.
"He looks very sick," nutritional expert Majid Ali, who has not treated the star, told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview. "Either he is heavily partying or he is very ill.
"What he has could be a number of things, but lung illness, digestive problems, or immune deficient disorders, are what come to mind," he explained.
However, Culkin's rep vehemently denies there is anything wrong with the former child actor. "Macaulay Culkin is in perfectly good health," his spokesperson told ET.
Adding fuel to the speculation over his declining health, the aspiring DJ pulled out of his monthly gig at NYC club Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village on Thursday night.
Once one of the most recognizable faces among young actors, Culkin has been in virtual hiding since his devastating split from Black Swan star Mila Kunis in 2010 after eight years together.
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- Dianne Feinstein Refuses To Retire Before Her Senate Term Ends In 2024 Despite Colleagues Arguing She Is 'Mentally Unfit To Serve'
The Richie Rich star notoriously found the transition from millionaire child actor into adulthood a difficult one. He announced his retirement from acting at the age of 14 after a feud over finances with his parents, Christopher Culkin and Patricia Brentup, but then returned to the big screen in the club classic, Party Monster.
He later revealed his own penchant for partying when he was busted for the possession of marijuana and illegal prescription drugs in 2004.
In 2008, Macaulay and his family were rocked by tragedy when his sister, Dakota, was killed after she stepped out in front of a car in West Los Angeles late one night as she left a bar.
Lady Gaga Talks Eating Disorder, 'I Used To Throw Up All The Time'
Karolina Kurkova Reveals Shocking Modeling Industry Weight Pressure
Nutritionist Doubts 20-Inch Waist Model's Diet Claims: 'A High Metabolism Doesn't Work That Well!'


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Spencerport at Ironderquoit
Team Results History
SportsFive started to collect scores from each team in 2003. By selecting a team above and running the report, users can see the win/loss records for each team. Also available are graphic reports that demonstrate trends.
on 10-03-2023
|The Information presented on this page has been submitted by a team coach, a team reporter or a SportsFive reporter. If there are errors or missing data, please contact the team's Head Coach.


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Sudoku by Brainium is the #1 Sudoku game you know and love for your Android phone and tablet, and the best way to learn and improve your skills in this classic puzzle game.
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Drexel Scientist Studies Hurricane Sandy Impact on NJ Coastal Wetlands One Year Later
- Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health to Serve as National Coordinating Center for New NIH Community-led Health Equity Research Program
- Fitness and Staving Off Weight Gain May Be More Important than Weight Loss for Preventing Kidney Disease in Obese Adults, Drexel Study Says
- What is Drexel's Strategic Plan?
- Drexel Awarded Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Grant to Help Atwater Kent Collection Uncover Philadelphia's Diverse Historical Narratives
Hurricane Sandy landed right on top of Dr. Tracy Quirk's wetland monitoring stations – but it wasn't all bad news.
Quirk, an assistant professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science at Drexel University, had been performing wetland research for several years at monitoring sites in Barnegat and Delaware Bays in New Jersey. Recording devices installed at these sites continuously measured water level and salinity for a wide range of wetland studies at Drexel and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.
As Sandy hit and water levels rose, those measurements continued.
"We have continuous data on how long these areas were flooded and how high the water rose at these sites," said Quirk.
It was a stroke of good luck to have captured detailed measurements during a storm of this rare magnitude. Quirk recognized that the data could provide new answers to the questions she had been investigating about how wetland ecosystems sustain themselves and function. Now she could also learn how marshes responded to the severe disturbance effect of the storm.
"The prospect of future storms of this magnitude suggests that we will need to understand their effects on ecosystem dynamics as part of the 'new normal,'" Quirk said.
In February she began working on an intensive year-long project, funded by the National Science Foundation, to evaluate ecosystem processes in New Jersey's salt marshes before, during, and for a year following Hurricane Sandy. Quirk is beginning to analyze findings from the study now.
Good News/Bad News: Coastal Marshes Protective from Worse Flooding, But Findings Suggest They're Diminishing and Sinking
There was some good news from the marshes: Although some water-level recorders were over-topped and stopped recording (making it difficult to use direct measures of the water height), there was evidence of marsh swelling during the storm. That swelling is an indication of marshes' ability to absorb some of the storm surge – which, in hard-hit urban areas, had resulted in high water marks up to seven feet during Hurricane Sandy. Quirk points out that resilient, healthy wetlands near coastal areas have a key role in protecting local communities from hurricane-induced storm surges and flooding.
"Imagine having a marsh in front of your house instead of concrete," Quirk said. "Paved areas make flooding worse because water has nowhere to go."
"Imagine having a marsh in front of your house instead of concrete," Quirk said. "Paved areas make flooding worse because water has nowhere to go."
In her post-Sandy research, Quirk was interested in finding out whether the storm affected how the marshes sustain themselves. The disturbance of an intense storm could alter the delicate equilibrium between flooding, vegetation growth and sediment deposits in wetland ecosystems – either temporarily or long-term.
That's where the bad news comes in. As she works through the data analysis this fall, Quirk said she hasn't found much sign of sediment deposits, before or after the hurricane struck. Sandy had the potential to deposit a lot of sediments, fast, which would have been good for building up wetlands. Hurricane Irene in 2011 had been associated with a bump up in wetland accretion by several millimeters at a number of locations in the region – a bonus growth equivalent to the amount that typically accrues in an entire year.
"Sediment-limited systems like coastal lagoon marshes largely depend on deposition by storms to vertically adjust elevation, so they don't sink relative to sea level," Quirk said. "In places where we have ongoing monitoring, the evidence suggests that some sites are subsiding – sinking below the surface – rather than increasing elevation at a rate similar to local sea level rise. Surface deposition would be a good thing for these marshes."
Any number of reasons could explain why those hoped-for sediment deposits didn't materialize, she said. Maybe the unusually high tide during Hurricane Sandy caused less suspension of sediments in the storm-surge waters. Or maybe the storm water did carry sediments and plant debris, but dropped them on the barrier island or inland along the tree line and not at her sampling sites in the marsh interior.
Essential to Protect Coastal Marshes from Subsiding into Water
Whatever the reason, Quirk's findings point to cause for continued concern over the coastal marshes' future.
Whatever the reason, Quirk's findings point to cause for continued concern over the coastal marshes' future.
"These salt marshes provide a number of extremely valuable ecosystem services and benefits to society," she said. Storm surge protection is just one of these. Coastal marshes also provide excellent habitat for commercially and recreationally important fish and shellfish, especially as a nursery ground for these animals. They're also important for storing, transforming and removing nutrients that can be harmful to the aquatic ecosystems.
The areas of tidal wetlands remaining in New Jersey have been sharply reduced in proportion to the past, with surrounding areas built up with bulkheads and other development – making the remaining wetlands all the more crucial to protect because they cannot shift inland.
"With accelerating sea level rise, it is unknown how many of these marshes are going to be able to keep up because they are dependent on plant growth, which is a slow process," Quirk said.
"Since 2010, the northern area of Barnegat Bay and the marsh on the bayside of the barrier island at Island Beach State Park is converting before our eyes from marsh to open water."
An earlier version of this article ran in EXEL 2013, Drexel University's research magazine.
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Grandma's Pea Feast
1 Soup = 280 Kcal
- 1 bag of COMPLETE VEGETABLE SOUP
- 300 ml soya milk (1,8 %)
- 1 bay leaf
- Leek (50 g)
- Defrosted peas (50 g)
- 1 tablespoon of fresh marjoram (plucked)
- 1 pinch of pepper
- Parsley to taste
Cut the leek into pieces and cook it together with 1 bay leaf in the soya milk. Take out the bay leaf as well as some rings of leek. Add marjoram to the leek-milk and puree everything together. Stir in 1 bag of Vegetable Soup, add peas and the remaining leek rings. Add pepper and additional marjoram to taste. Decorate with fresh parsley if desired.
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The US Coast Guard Presented Crowley with its 2000 William M. Benkert Award
(Seattle; June 23, 2000) – The United States Coast Guard this week presented Crowley Marine Services, Inc., with the William M. Benkert Award, the premier national award recognizing excellence in marine environmental protection.
The award was presented by Rear Admiral R.C. North, Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety and Environmental Protection, U.S. Coast Guard, to Tom Crowley, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, during the American Petroleum Institute Tanker Conference in La Jolla, Calif. Charlie Nalen, vice president, Environmental Affairs, Safety & Quality for Crowley Maritime Corporation, was also in attendance to accept the award on behalf of the company.
The Coast Guard said Crowley was selected for the award because as vessel and facilities operators, Crowley had implemented outstanding marine environmental protection programs programs that far exceed mere compliance with industrial and regulatory standards.
"I am pleased and honored to accept this award on behalf of all of our employees around the world," Crowley said. "The William M. Benkert Award recognizes our employees dedication to excellence in marine environmental protection. Our continuing efforts to provide safe and pollution free marine transportation is important to our customers and the communities in which we do business."
"Crowley followed a risk assessment approach that specifically targeted critical areas by clearly defining its goals and management practices to achieve a zero pollution goal, North said. "Crowley developed a root cause incident investigation and analysis program to identify correctable problems, and also established clear environmental performance measures as a part of its business plan. These measures are directly tied to its environmental management goals."
Crowley's commitment to an effective environmental management system, employee training programs, environmental outreach to communities and partnerships as well as performance measurements were evaluated. The application of the company's environmental protection programs include all of the Crowley Marine Services Alaska, U.S. West Coast, East Coast and international operations.
Coast Guard evaluation for the award is competitive, and the standards for winning are rigorous and demanding. Four preliminary review boards each chaired by a U.S. Coast Guard Captain, evaluated reports submitted in each of the four categories and recommended recipients. An executive evaluation committee comprised of six members from trade organizations, non-government organizations and other government agencies made the final selection based on input from the four preliminary review boards. The award is named for Rear Admiral William M. Benkert, a Coast Guard officer known for leadership and vision in marine environmental protection.
Crowley Marine Services, with U.S. West Coast operating headquarters in Seattle, and East Coast & International Operating headquarters in Jacksonville, provides specialized marine transportation and logistics services on a worldwide basis, operating one of the worlds largest fleets of marine and related equipment. The companys primary services include tanker escort and ship assist; petroleum transportation and sales; contract barge transportation and ocean towing; logistics and support services; marine salvage and emergency response; and all-terrain transportation. More information on Crowley Maritime Corporation and its subsidiaries can be found on the Internet at www.crowley.com.
# # #


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Purchased 24th June 2009 Great condition. No lens scratches Both batteries for Light system upgraded to brand new NiMh internals in August 2014 so brand new and perfect. Inon Mega Float Arms make whole system perfectly neutrally buoyant! You can push the system out in front of you and swim to it - awesome! New Batteries in Remote handles Never had any issues with handles or screen. Includes perfect condition Sony XR520 Video Camera and all accessories and two batteries. Don't get much chance to use anymore so selling a dear friend! Only used for annual trip overseas 4 trips in total so has less than 50 dives in total on the whole unit. USD$3900 for everything including a Lowepro Pro Roller X300 Protective Travel Case.


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Whimsical Happy-Go-Lucky a Breath of Fresh Air
- Jeffrey Huston Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- 2008 24 Oct
DVD Release Date: March 10, 2009
Theatrical Release Date: October 17, 2008 (limited); October 24, 2008 (wider)
Rating: R (for language)
Genre: Comedy-Drama
Run Time: 118 min.
Director: Mike Leigh
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Samuel Roukin, Karina Fernandez
Everyone needs a Poppy. She is the personification of Happy-Go-Lucky, a breath-of-fresh-air kind of movie that is sure to do more than put smiles on peoples faces (though it will, and often) and actually lift their tired, world-weary spirits. But it's also one of dramatic and thematic consequence, expressed with benevolence. Poppy won't only inspire you to lighten up but to also lighten the burdens of others.
Eschewing a definitive narrative arc, British indie-auteur Mike Leigh (Vera Drake, Secrets & Lies) brings his improvisational approach to this episodic character piece. Yet where most of his previous efforts have been unflinchingly raw, Happy-Go-Lucky is unabashedly whimsical. It's a visit into the life of Poppy, a single, 30-year-old grade school teacher with a carefree approach to life. Even the most serious stick-in-the-muds or ill-tempered buzzkills (like her driving instructor) actually draw out her personality rather than extinguishing it.
Poppy is a joyful nonconformist. She laughs in the face of trouble, smirks at pretense, giggles through physical pain, and doesn't even let theft of property get her down. She has a gift of taking the edge off, whether by playfully pestering friends or (for her own catharsis) ending a tough day by bouncing on a trampoline. She'll even wave "hi" or offer a bubbly "hello" to complete strangers as she bikes through North London. She's not merely someone who won't allow anything to keep her down; she impulsively wants to bring everyone up.
Her relentless charm initially belies a deeper thoughtfulness and compassion. Though she may appear flighty at first, Poppy also appreciates and takes in the simple things—like a beautiful sky—and that is the strength of her charm. She's a free-spirit because she's so aware of what life has to offer, not blissfully clueless to its challenges.
It is the challenges, in fact, that ultimately reveal her deeper layers and lead to tender moments. In one subplot at school, she counsels a bully with effort and patience. In another extended sequence, she shows kindness (possibly even at her own risk) to a mentally-unbalanced homeless man. But it's the relationship with Scott, the driving instructor, that offers the most engaging storyline. Her blithe demeanor clashes with his demand for seriousness, structure and rules. Each new lesson escalates the tension, but it's fascinating to see what evolves under the surface.
As Scott's external anger grows, it's also apparent that Poppy fascinates him. He is, in fact, attracted to her, drawn to her, but completely unable to let his guard down and show it. Scott's so bound by his deep-seated bitterness that It's both poignant and unsettling to watch him progressively make things worse with Poppy even though we know he wants just the opposite. It's a relationship that does not evolve in the way we've come to expect from movies, and it includes a rather intense confrontation, but its power comes in that authenticity.
Heretofore an unknown character-actress (with small roles in previous Mike Leigh films), Sally Hawkins crafts a stunning breakthrough performance as Poppy. Her embrace of life is infectious and absolute; it involves her whole being—a true "joie de vivre". It's no surprise she took Best Actress honors at this year's Berlin Film Festival, and she's sure to be in the Oscar buzz mix as well.
The rest of the cast—from her close friends to a potential paramour—deftly support Hawkins' central character, and Karina Fernandez's earnestly passionate Flamenco dance instructor is an inspired highlight (giving the term "My Space" a hilarious new meaning). Most compelling is Eddie Marsan as the driving instructor; he achieves the impossible by bringing humanity to a character who becomes increasingly unhinged. That we care for Scott even as he grows more antagonistic toward Poppy is a testament to Marsan's skill and deep vulnerability.
Happy-Go-Lucky does not begin with a particular inciting moment nor is there one of closure at the end. The film enters and exits Poppy's life in the same way: randomly. Nevertheless it is a complete film because we've seen a complete portrait of this wonderful spirit—one that is endearing, moves us, and that we'd do well to emulate more often than we probably do. Watching this slice-of-life encourages us to remain undaunted in the face of strife (talk about a timely message!), yet care enough to know that for many it's a struggle to come to that level of peace. It is a spirit best defined when someone offers Poppy this bit of realism: "You can't make everyone happy." Poppy's innocent, sincere reply: "There's no harm in trying, is there?"
- Drugs/Alcohol: Drinking occurs occasionally, and drunkenness follows (in the context of laughing, fun, having a good time, etc.).
- Language/Profanity: Profanities (including the "F" word) are heard throughout, but not relentlessly so. Occasional suggestive innuendos.
- Sex/Nudity: A group of girlfriends talk and joke about cleavage while drunk. Poppy uses fish fillets to stuff her bra. When Poppy visits her osteopath, she is in her undergarments during the examination (but no actual nudity is shown). Poppy and her boyfriend kiss passionately and begin disrobing, but the scene is cut short before going where those moments are clearly headed.
- Violence/Other: A moment late in the film comes close to physical violence against Poppy, but it remains largely an extreme verbal tirade. Still, it maintains a legitimately threatening tone.
Jeffrey Huston is a film director, writer and producer at Steelehouse Productions in Tulsa, Okla. He is also cohost of the "Steelehouse Podcast," along with Steelehouse Executive Creative Mark Steele, where each week they discuss God in pop culture.
To listen to the weekly podcast, please visit www.steelehouse.com or click here. You can also subscribe to the "Steelehouse Podcast" through iTunes.


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NOVOSIBIRSK – A vampire has been killing thousands of goats in Russia.
Horrified farmers and smallholders are confronted by the drained corpses of their livestock in the morning, bloodless and bearing puncture marks to the neck but otherwise largely in tact.
But local cops are reluctant to record apparent vampire attacks, as they await official recertification, leaving the locals up in arms.
"If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk! Only our police force are doing jack-diddly about it," complaining locals told Komsomolskaya Pravda. "They say that there is no vampire. Come if you will journalists, have a look at what is happening to us."
Local animal keeper Natalya told of her experiences.
"It's been happening since the night of June 10," she told WWN. "I was sleeping, my daughter was sitting at the computer looking at the internet. She says that about 2.00 am she heard a sound in the yard. Some whining.
"The dog which guards the farm screamed for 15 minutes and then quietened down. The dog's behavior drew the attention of my daughter Natalie, but she didn't think it was important. She thought that if a stranger had come to the house then the dog would bark. And here it was more like whining, you think of howling at the moon.
"In the morning it became clear why the dog had been howling. I got up and went to the barn to milk the goats. I looked and saw right on the doorstep a goat with its neck thrown back unnaturally. On the neck there was something like a bite mark, the belly was torn, and there were huge claw marks. I came over bad and started screaming, I ran to the house to see the children were alright," she said.
Whatever killed the goats never tried to eat the flesh, it just drank its victim's blood.
Natalya's news of a vampire spread like wildfire among residents of Krasnoginnoe village, then it became clear that nearby Tolmachevskoye and Chick villages had also been afflicted.
The blood-suckers had targeted cattle in Tolmochevskoye. "It's come from the devil. I've seen it. My brother, even when he lived near St Petersburg seven years ago accidently photographed a vampire. He took the usual family picture and then saw the demonic face through the kitchen window. Grey-red it was, such an unpleasant face, like a bat with fangs," Natalie's uncle Viktor Shushpanov told KP.
"My brother showed me this photograph and upon the advice of his family he burned it," he said.
"All the people are scared, they fear that the creature will move onto children," the head of the village said. "We have organized night patrols of six people. We walk through the village, on the look out for this wickedness. But so far we have had no results."
While hopes for speedy retribution are fast diminishing the beast has turned out to be a boon to troubled parents, presenting a very useful threat for naughty children.


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Espadas to coordinate the European Committee of the Regions' Green Deal Working
The Commission for the Environment, Climate change and Energy (ENVE) of the European Committee of the Regions has elected the mayor of the Spanish city of Seville, Juan Espadas (ES/PES), as its new Chair. The upcoming Circular Economy Action Plan and Climate Pact, the 8th Environmental Action Programme, biodiversity protection, air quality and water management are amongst the key dossiers on the table. Not least, Juan Espadas will lead the works of the newly created Green Deal Working Group, which is to ensure the voice of cities and regions is at the heart of the EU's path towards climate-neutrality.
With an academic background in EU and environmental law and 30 years' experience developing public policies in territorial planning and the preservation of the environment, Juan Espadas, mayor of Seville, is not a newcomer in sustainability matters.
From 1990 to 1996, Juan Espadas was a top manager at the environmental agency and at the regional ministry for the environment of the Andalucía government. From 1997 to 2000, Espadas was secretary general of EGMASA, an environmental management public company of the Andalucía regional government. From 2000, the new ENVE chair acted as director general for environmental quality and preservation of Andalucía. From 2004 to 2008, Juan Espadas became deputy regional minister for the environment and after acted as regional minister for housing and urban planning from 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2013, Espadas was vice-president of the commission for the environment and climate change of the Spanish senate.
Juan Espadas was elected Mayor of Seville in 2015 and re-elected in 2019. Mayor Espadas is a permanent member of the European Committee of the Regions since September 2016. Juan Espadas is also president of the Spanish Network of Cities for Climate and member of the political board of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.
On 13 February, after his election as new ENVE Chair, Juan Espadas declared: "I am the mayor of the fourth largest city in Spain, Seville. For me, the European Committee of the Regions is where cities meet, find common solutions and fight for EU policies to be targeted to their needs. One of the key issues my presidency will focus on is on coordinating the works around the Green Deal, which has to, above all, support cities in fighting the climate crisis while making them more socially inclusive. A just transition means addressing social inequalities and the climate emergency together. This is why we need the Green Deal to be adequately financed with additional new resources. It cannot happen at the expense of other important policies for our territories, like the Cohesion Policy. The climate targets set at global, European and national levels – and of course, the Sustainable Development Goals, need to be translated into local realities.
"I thus believe the role of cities will be even more important in the future. The Covenant of Mayors, for instance, is an excellent example of urban climate action already delivering concrete results. Without cities and regions, the European Union will not be able to become sustainable nor carbon neutral. Without the EU, cities and regions will not be able to face this challenge either. We need more cooperation, a better understanding of local realities, more ambition and, most importantly, we must deliver. Cities can strengthen the European project. If we want to make the European Union more credible, we need to involve them in all decisions."
Juan Espadas is currently the rapporteur of the opinion The renewal of the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities. "With the renewal of the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities, we are calling for a reformed multi-level governance that puts cities at the centre of EU decision-making. Mayors around Europe are working hard to find solutions to tackle the climate crisis, address growing inequality and build sustainable communities. Cities can translate the European Union's objectives into reality but they need to be given a bigger role in designing and implementing these policies as well as the necessary resources to invest in sustainable development", said Mayor Espadas.
The 2007 Leipzig Charter is a political declaration, which aimed both to promote greater use of integrated urban development policies and to pay attention to disadvantaged neighbourhoods within the overall context of cities. It was the first step towards an urban agenda for the EU. In the second half of 2020, the German Presidency of the EU will call for a renewed Leipzig Charter, fostering the transition of our cities towards a greener, fairer and more competitive social model.
The ENVE Commission has elected Rastislav Trnka (SK/EPP), Chairman of Košice Self – Governing Region in Slovakia as 1st Vice-Chair and Emmanuel Disabato (BE/Greens), member of the Parliament of the Wallonia region as 2nd Vice-Chair.
Contact: David Crous // firstname.lastname@example.com // +32 (0) 470 88 10 37


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Compact pack rifles are usually designed to be carried for emergencies, and this ultra lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber model, from Mountain View Machine & Welding, will greatly improve your chances of survival since it can also be transformed into a telescoping fishing rod.
Weighing in at just under a pound, the .22 caliber single-shot bolt-action rifle is not only light and easy to carry, but the use of aluminum and carbon fiber make it weather resistant too. When you're hungry, or when the local wildlife decides that they are, you don't want a little rain to get in the way of putting this to good use.
The rifle breaks down into two main components in just a couple of seconds, making it easier to stash in a backpack. And with the addition of a reel screwed onto the pistol grip, and a rod that extends from the stock, you've got yourself another survival tool in the same $425 package. Let's see your corkscrew-packing Swiss Army knife do that. [Pack-Rifle via The Firearm Blog via UberReview]


text: Who wouldn't want to hold a rooster over a doll? This is a beautiful studio portrait. Check out the detail using the zoom control. You can even see how calm the rooster is! And the young lady truly likes this rooster. For more information about this photo, click here. For more interesting and unique photographs, check out our Digital Collections. And no clucking!


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Akiva Goldsman finally admitted it: Batman And Robin was not his finest hour. But superhero buffs it was the most important movie in superhero history, and Goldsman is planning a slew of new movies about DC's heroes.
In an interesting interview with the LA Times, screenwriter/producer Goldsman seems reluctant to trash his 1997 film, which almost ruined his career along with Lost In Space. But he does admit:
"What got lost in 'Batman & Robin' is the emotions aren't real," Goldsman said, picking his words carefully. "The worst thing to do with a serious comic book is to make it a cartoon. I'm still answering for that movie with some people."
But perhaps Kevin Feige, the president of production at Marvel Studios, explained B&R's significance better, "That may be the most important comic-book movie ever made...It was so bad that it demanded a new way of doing things. It created the opportunity to do 'X-Men' and 'Spider-Man,' adaptations that respected the source material and adaptations that were not campy."
And he's got a point: it did teach us all that there is a wrong way and a right way to make campy comic book movies. And if it made future comic book screenplay adapters more careful with how they portray this world, then that's one thing it has going for it as well.
Interestingly the horrible failure of a film didn't stop Goldsman from moving forward with his career and putting out the very successful A Beautiful Mind adaptation. And now that he's established his bona fides as a more serious writer, moving on to I Am Legend and writing/directing for Fringe, he's coming back to DC Comics, working on a number of upcoming projects.
Jonah Hex is wrapped, and Goldsman described Josh Brolin's character:
He's a character that has been described as having one foot on Earth and one foot beyond the grave, that he speaks to the dead . . . at the same time he is very much [like Sergio Leone's] 'The Man With No Name.'
Along with Jonah Hex Goldsman is still hard at work on The Losers and Lobo, the movie about the super powered blue-skinned alien biker. But most importantly, he's hard at work on a new Swamp Thing:
Goldsman said will be closer in tone to the character as presented in Alan Moore's eerie, metaphysical horror comics than the rubber-suit bog creature from the 1982 Wes Craven B-movie. "We want a film with real Southern, dark horror overtones, a little bit like a classic Universal horror film," Goldsman said, knowing full well that his presence on the project will stir controversy — it's a character that filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has called one of the "few remaining Holy Grails" in comics.
But it's not just DC heroes in Goldsman's future — his big-screen directorial debut may be a version of A Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin's fantasy novel set in an alternate New York, with a thief and a flying horse.


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The sturdy, stylish way to keep your gear secure and dry.
At Retrax™, our mission is to design, develop, and manufacture America's #1 retractable truck bed cover. We will accomplish this by providing the most innovative, highest quality products – all backed by superior customer service and prompt product availability. Our covers are built to last, delivered on time and are ruggedly stylish.
- Open a Retrax™ truck bed cover, and you will be impressed by the way it smoothly glides back and forth at your slightest touch. Sealed ball-bearings allow the Retrax™ to retract or close easily without the use of springs, pull straps, Velcro or snaps.
- A patented low profile design incorporates a front cover that is flush with the rolling cover, streamlining the overall appearance and providing a firm, dependable seal to help keep the bed dry.
- The best warranties in the business: All Retrax covers have a limited lifetime warranty.


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The problem with "grass roots" as a metaphor is that it reduces its contributors to the miniscopic. Not microscopic, because then you couldn't see them without a microscope. But miniscopic, meaning they're small. You have to get down on all fours to eyeball them and say hi.
So I've been thinking about alternative meaphors where large movements are involved. For that you have to go deeper. Not into the dirt, because that has connotations of filfth and death. Rock roots is okay, in the sense that serious rock for the most part is solid, or what geologists call "competent". You can build on it, and with it. The largest slabs of it are "tectonic".
But maybe we can go deeper than that, below the Earth's crust. How about "magma roots"? That occurred to me while reading Ron Schott's post, Building a Google Earth Geology Layer. Ron is a hard rock geologist who has been a good source of wisdom (and occasional correction) toward my own geology obsessions. What Ron proposes (in both his posts title and its detail) is a great idea — for Google, for the geology field, and for the rest of us.
Ron's goals are modest in manner and ambitious in scale:
What I'd like to do here, with the help of the geoblogosphere (via the comments to this post, initially), is to set out some goals, examples, and use cases that could guide the development of a Google Earth geology layer. If there's interest in building on this idea, I'd be happy to set up communications tools, create KML tutorials, or do anything else to facilitate a coordinated effort to develop such a layer. Hopefully, by leveraging the knowledge and efforts of the geoblogospheric community, along with excellent new resources for developing KML, we can make a real start toward building a useful geology resource.
For now, what I'd like to do is to begin to collect best practices/examples of good uses of KML in illustrating geology in Google Earth. I'll start by pointing out the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program's collection of Google Earth KML files and another collection of geologic KML resources at San Diego State University. These should give you some idea of the sorts of things that will be possible. Also helpful would be use cases – how would you like to use a geology layer in Google Earth? Suggestions here will offer us guidance as to what the most important elements of a Google Earth geology layer should be.
I'm not a geologist, but I want to do everything I can to help raise this barn. Or, to keep from mixing metaphors, uncork this volcano.


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Intuit has agreed to buy online payroll provider PayCycle for $170 million in a move to expand its software-as-a-service offerings for smaller businesses, Intuit said Tuesday.
PayCycle is based in Palo Alto, Calif., and provides online payroll services to about 85,000 small businesses in the U.S. It was founded in 1999 by two former Intuit employees and says its mission is to "make paper-based payroll obsolete."
PayCycle already integrates with Intuit's QuickBooks software. It is also offered as an option with Microsoft's competing Money software, and it was unclear Tuesday if that will still be the case after Intuit completes its acquisition.
Intuit said the purchase will help it to expand its own payroll offerings and further its move into the SaaS market.
Intuit will offer the service to small businesses directly, and also through accountants and financial institutions. It faces a growing list of competitors offering online payroll, including Sage, NetSuite, MPay, CompuPay and Paychex.
Intuit expects the cash transaction to close in the third quarter, when PayCycle will be made part of Intuit's small business group. PayCycle CEO Jim Heeger, a former Intuit CFO, will stay as an adviser for six months to help integrate the two companies.


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PS3 Media Server is a DLNA-compliant UPnP Media Server. Originally written to support the PlayStation 3, PS3 Media Server has been expanded to support a range of other media renderers, including smartphones, televisions, music players and more. Because it is written in Java, PS3 Media Server supports all major operating systems, with versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The program streams or transcodes many different media formats with little or no configuration. It is powered by MEncoder, FFmpeg, tsMuxeR and AviSynth, which combine to offer support for a wide range of media formats.
Current features:
- Ready to launch and play. No codec packs to install. No folder configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. All your folders are directly browsed by the PS3, there's an automatic refresh also.
- Real-time video transcoding of MKV/FLV/OGM/AVI, etc.
- Direct streaming of DTS / DTS-HD core to the receiver
- Remux H264/MPEG2 video and all audio tracks to AC3/DTS/LPCM in real time with tsMuxer when H264 is PS3/Level4.1 compliant
- Full seeking support when transcoding
- DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder
- OGG/FLAC/MPC/APE audio transcoding
- Thumbnail generation for Videos
- You can choose with a virtual folder system your audio/subtitle language on the PS3!
- Simple streaming of formats PS3 natively supports: MP3/JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF, all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG)
- Display camera RAWs thumbnails (Canon / Nikon, etc.)
- ZIP/RAR files as browsable folders
- Support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb
- Internet TV / Web Radio support with VLC, MEncoder or MPlayer
- Podcasts audio/ Video feeds support
- Basic Xbox360 support
- FLAC 96kHz/24bits/5.1 support
- Windows Only: DVR-MS remuxer and AviSynth alternative transcoder support
Download: PS3 Media Server 1.90.0 | 52.0 MB (Open Source)
View: Homepage | Release Notes


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By Erinn Bucklan, upwave.com
Even if you're one of the many people who believe that exposing yourself to day-to-day germs is healthy for your immune system, it's still wise to take steps to protect yourself from the most infectious germs in your home.
"Bugs like Escherichia coli (E.coli), salmonella and campylobacter can make you pretty sick or even kill you," says Douglas Powell, professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, and author of Barfblog.com.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that seven pathogens cause about 90% of these illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. Scientists dub them "food-borne illnesses" because they're microbes that invade your body through the gastrointestinal tract. (Considering that we put our hands to our faces anywhere from 18 to 40 times per hour, is it any surprise that our mouths are the primary point of entry?)
You'll recognize the poisoning by the fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea that results.
Luckily, it isn't too hard to eliminate the dangerous microbes you may unknowingly drag into your home.
"Chlorine bleach is your friend," says Powell, referring to one of the most effective toxin-destroying products around.
Rooting out the microbes' whereabouts, on the other hand, can be trickier. Read on, and you'll learn how to eliminate from your home the microbes and toxins that could affect your family's health.
Good: Rearrange your fridge to reduce your risk
You don't have to travel to Latin America to experience a case of Montezuma's Revenge. Each year, one in six Americans contracts food poisoning right here on U.S. soil, according to the CDC. In fact, a mere trip to your refrigerator could put you at risk.
"The raw meat you bring home from the grocery store has bacteria that can result in diarrheal disease," says Dr. Rose Devasia, assistant professor at University of Louisville School of Public Health And Information Sciences in Louisville, Kentucky.
A recent report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest listed ground beef, chicken, turkey and steak as the most susceptible to disease.
Devasia recommends double-bagging the meats or placing them on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator on a plate, away from the likes of the apples, strawberries or celery you'll eat cold.
"You'll go on to cook your meat to kill these microbes," she says, "but you don't want that slimy liquid from the package to spill onto the fruits and vegetables you eat raw."
Better: Place toothbrushes far away from the john
You wouldn't lick your toilet on purpose. Yet leaving a damp, exposed toothbrush within three feet of the loo isn't much better.
"Studies have shown that bacteria in the toilet can disperse in the air after flushing it," says Devasia. "Toilet water -- along with whatever you've deposited in it -- gets aerosolized and lands onto what's nearby, like a toothbrush or hand towel."
A recent University of Manchester study found that the average toothbrush contained about 10 million germs, including E. coli and staphylococci.
An easy fix: Put the lid down on the toilet before you yank the lever to dispose of the contents.
Adds Devasia: "We all know the bathroom is not the cleanest place, so wash your hands to avoid getting yourself sick." Soaping up at the sink can reduce your chance of getting ill by 30%.
Best: Leave your shoes at the front door
Sleeping with the enemy may only be a closet door away. If you walk through your house with your shoes on, you may be dragging in all kinds of nasty germs and chemicals from the great outdoors.
The bottoms of your shoes spread many unhealthy agents, from pollen and pesticides on the lawn to salmonella in bird poop. In fact, as many as nine different kinds of pathogens can thrive on shoes, according to a University of Arizona study.
Microbes can survive and even multiply because of nutrient-rich soil and other deposits left on the soles.
"In my house, we take our shoes off when we enter," says Devasia. "Why drag in a bunch of dirt and dust? Even if you clean floors and carpets regularly, there is some level of dirt that remains."
And if the idea of shoe removal cramps your family's style? Tell them it is a lot better than the alternative types of cramps -- the ones brought on by intestinal distress.
This article was originally published on upwave.com


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Races in GTA IV
- This article is about races in GTA IV multiplayer. For the single player races in GTA IV see Brucie's Races.
A Race is a competetive multiplayer game in Grand Theft Auto IV. The race is customizable to suit the player in control's wants.
Italics means that the player can choose regardless if they are the one in control or not
- Race Class (16 Vehicle Classes, Boats, Helicopters, Free Race or Cannonball Run)
- Vehicle
- Vehicle Color
- Race Track
- Number of Laps (1-8 or Random)
- Vehicle Damage (Normal or Scrapes Only)
- Traffic (Parked, Low, Medium, High or Off)
- Pedestrians (Low, Medium, High or Off)
- Gamertag Display (On or Off) *Turning this feature Off removes your Gamertag over your car but the colored dot remains*
- Voice Chat (On, Off or Proximity)
- Time of Day (Morning, Midday, Evening, Midnight or Random)
- Weather (Clear, Overcast, Drizzle, Rain, Foggy or Variable)
- Description (On or Off)
- Radio Station (Choose from all the GTA IV radio stations)
- Kick Player
Vehicle Class
The vehicles of the game are split into different classes. These are listed below with the fastest car of the class at the top, and the slowest at the bottom;
2 Door:
4 Door:
People Carrier:
In a race, the player may not exit his/her vehicle and can respawn to the last checkpoint by holding down Triangle or Y, except in Free Race or Cannonball Run.
GTA Race
A GTA Race is essentially the same as a normal Race, but the competitors may use weapons to kill or slow down the competition. You may also exit and enter other vehicles. There are two additional features for a GTA Race, including which Weapons will spawn on the track (All Weapons, Off, Health Only, Pistols, Shotguns, SMGs, All Guns or Guns & Grenades) and Auto-Aim (Allow or Disallow). The Rocket Launcher and Molotov Cocktails also appear, but only on the "All Weapons" setting.
If you die in a GTA Race, you will respawn near your last completed Checkpoint on foot, next to a Faggio.
However, these races can be very cheap and turn into impromptu Deathmatches, as other players often block off the road near a weapon location and kill many players, often getting more money than the winner of the race.
† This vehicle may not be the best choice for a race, as its acceleration is lower than the Sultan and the FIB Buffalo/NOOSE Patriot respectively.
See also
- Street Rage in GTA Liberty City Stories.
- Single Race in GTA Chinatown Wars.


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A couple years back, we condemned digital photo frames as the spam of CES—this year, in the wake of the Christmas of Kindle, every company has its own ebook reader. And that's a bad thing.
There will soon be two kinds of happy ebook-reader owners. The people who paid a fair amount for a reputable ebook reader from one of the companies they already buy books from, and the people who spend like $50 on a no-name ebook reader that supports a lot of formats, who gets every book they can think of as a pirated copy over BitTorrent. Everyone else—both the buyers of tier-two ebook readers and the makers of them—are going to be screwed.
You know we have an ambivalent attitude about the big-name ebook readers. The Kindle is the best ebook reader you can buy right now, if you're in the market, but it's still hampered by a slow e-ink black-and-white display—not to mention a heavy reliance on Amazon's own book sales operation, which bothers some people. We respect what Jeff Bezos and Amazon have done to teach the world about digital book reading, and we understand why Barnes & Noble has to get in this game in order to plan for the future—or simply survive.
But the introduction of e-ink-based readers by many big tech companies and a handful of feisty little ones threatens to sow confusion in the market place, encourage piracy, and screw over any company who gets in and then can't really hack it against Kindle and Nook. And all of it will be a pointless exercise when long-lasting slates are a reality.
E-ink is an interim technology, a stopgap measure to keep our attention till we have full-color video tablets (slates?) whose batteries last for "days." A flood in the market might ensure that everyone buys one by this coming Christmas, but it'll become increasingly hard to distinguish the good from the bad, will emphasize cheap devices over quality of interface and service, and will render most people completely confused and off-put.
They will buy some $100 reader, then wonder why they can't borrow books from their friend who has a Nook, or can't get the same stuff that's sold on the Kindle. While I assume most of these new ebook readers support the ePub standard, buyers will easily run into dead ends in the labyrinth of DRM (understandably) required by the publishing business.
Some of these people will give up on buying books altogether, even if they don't stop reading. Yes, a flood of cheap e-ink readers will grow ebook piracy more than ebook sales.
In fact, cheap e-ink readers will essentially be targeted at people with libraries of pirated books, for people who read the fine print of file compatibility, and ignore all the wireless connectivity and insta-bookstore stuff that consumers are currently excited about. Many of you would say that's not a bad thing, and I think piracy is as inevitable as publishers going digital—whether they like it or not.
The worst thing of all is that these ebooks will all struggle to get out the door (like so many ebook players "introduced" last fall), or will die on storeshelves, the stuff nobody wants. Price will move some units, for sure, but most of them will be also-rans, like so many MP3 players released this past decade that weren't iPods.
Maybe this glut of ebook readers isn't offensive to you—most of you don't have to step over them on your way to cover 3D TVs that are also everywhere at this show—but there's no reason for them, and the more we try to keep track of, the more annoyed we get. Your choices: Go Kindle, wait for a cheap-as-hell reader, pray for a slate, or buy a book. A real paper-and-ink book.


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As was noted in the previous post, we attempted our trip during the Bombogenesis storm that wreaked havoc across Southern California. This kind of storm can often result in disaster as highways get closed or damaged by landslides, but we were lucky and were able cross the Inyo Mountains and Darwin Plateau without problems. But we did get the opportunity to see some great geology, and even were able to add a new stop to our itinerary (because we missed a different one, but I'm not complaining).
Our first sight as we approached the mountains was the snow covering the desert peaks (first picture above), a hint to the seriousness of the storm we were challenging. The tilted rocks are Paleozoic-aged (300-550 million years) limestone layers. They recall a time when California was very different, completely submerged under a shallow tropical sea. We would be seeing more of these fascinating rocks later on. The road crossed the flat uplands of the Darwin Plateau, and then plunged down a steep incline towards the Panamint Valley.
We actually had fog in this arid environment, since the clouds were crowding against the edge of the steep mountains. As we passed the Father Crowley Vista Point, the clouds briefly parted and we had a view into the deep gorge of Rainbow Canyon. At this point, the slopes and flats are covered with basaltic lava flows ranging in age from 8 to 4 million years old. The immediate question becomes, why volcanoes? Why right here?
In a sense, volcanism is possible almost anywhere on the planet. It's not that there is magma everywhere, but that a hundred miles beneath our feet there is a zone, the asthenosphere, where the rock is almost molten, but not quite (perhaps 5-10% liquid). To melt this rock and create volcanic activity would require raising the temperature (as happens at hot spots like Hawai'i), or releasing pressure (pressure keeps the rocks from melting in the same way that pressure cookers prevent water from boiling). There aren't any hot spots in the immediate vicinity, but the crust across the Basin and Range Province has been stretched and thinned, allowing pockets of basaltic magma to form and rise into the rocks above, often following fault zones to the surface.
|Looking across the Panamint Valley towards Hunter Mountain. The dark rocks on the left summit area are identical to the rocks at Father Crowley Vista Point.


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Kovalev, Huberdeau bridge age gap for Panthers
Alex Kovalev's first NHL appearance came before Jonathan Huberdeau was born. For that matter, it even predates the first game in Florida Panthers' history.
He's a tad experienced, to put it mildly.
At 39, with his name already etched on the Stanley Cup and with 429 goals - and counting - to his credit, there isn't much more for Kovalev to prove on the ice. And at 19, with one goal and one career game under his belt, Huberdeau figures to still have plenty to learn about playing the game at its highest level.
So the Panthers decided to put them together on the same line for training camp. And the potential is already eye-popping.
Kovalev and Huberdeau both had three-point efforts in the Panthers' season-opening win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. Kovalev is more than twice Huberdeau's age, and the players might hail from different eras, but an impressive training camp and solid opening-night together suggests that the Panthers might be on to something.
''You can tell he's a talented kid,'' Kovalev said.''He's really patient with the puck. He can hold on to it. Pretty strong on his feet and it's really fun to play with a player of that type. You know if you give it to him, you'll get the puck back. You're not worried about helping him out. He's strong enough to make the plays. That makes the job easier.''
In a way, Kovalev and Huberdeau are both dealing with high expectations.
Neither was with Florida last season when the Panthers ended a 12-year playoff drought by winning the Southeast Division title. If there was a knock on the Panthers a year ago, it was a lack of goal-scoring prowess, which was perhaps most notable in shootouts.
Huberdeau was the No. 3 pick in the 2011 draft, and has long been thought of as Florida's future. Kovalev, who wasn't in the NHL last season, wanted to prove that he can still play. Together, one might help the other live up to those standards.
''It's great. They're coming along. They have some chemistry,'' Panthers defenseman Brian Campbell said. ''They're smart players. Everybody wants to play with smart players.''
Campbell's assessment of Kovalev: ''He definitely has some stuff left and can bring stuff to our game.''
And his thoughts on Huberdeau: ''Sometimes you don't notice him and all of a sudden it's in the back of the net or he makes a great play.''
Take the excitement of coming off a playoff season, and add a second line like Kovalev and Huberdeau being centered by Peter Mueller to that mix, and it's easy to see why the Panthers have big hopes in 2013.
''For sure, it's crazy,'' Huberdeau said. ''Having the chance to be on the same line, he's a great player, Mueller's a great player too, and it's crazy to be on the line with them.''
Kovalev wasted no time making an impression on his teammates.
During training camp, no shortage of Panthers - forwards, defensemen and goaltenders - raved about Kovalev's skills. Defenseman Keaton Ellerby found out there's more to him than just fancy stickwork.
On the first day of camp, Kovalev and Ellerby collided. Ellerby went flying.
''It was like running into a wall,'' Ellerby said.
''All that Russian training,'' Kovalev responded.
The Panthers and Kovalev had been talking for a while before finally getting together on a deal to give him a tryout for camp. By the end of the first practice, it became apparent that the tryout contract wouldn't be Kovalev's last with Florida.
''I can still stickhandle. I can still skate. I can still make plays. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here,'' Kovalev said. ''I'd be wasting my time and someone else's time. I know I can match anybody in this locker room. I can still play this game. That's why I'm here.''
He's also here to be a mentor of sorts.
Kovalev pulled Huberdeau aside before Saturday night's opener for a quick pep talk, someone with about 20 more years and 1,300 more games of experience deciding to offer a bit of wisdom about how to truly make the jump from juniors to the NHL.
''I said to him, the game is the same,'' Kovalev said. ''Maybe just a faster pace, maybe bigger guys, but the game is still the same.''
Huberdeau's first shot after that chat? His first NHL goal, a play set up in large part by Kovalev.
The Panthers kept rolling from there, winning their opener 5-1.
''Kovi missed a year and came back,'' Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller said. ''And he looked like the guy I saw in Montreal.''
Huberdeau was reminded of those Kovalev days as well. Huberdeau grew up around Montreal, where he closely studied the way Kovalev played the game with the Canadiens, with whom he played from 2004 through 2009.
He has a little better view of the way Kovalev plays now.
''Every time he'd take a slap shot, it would go in,'' Huberdeau said. ''I remember one time he got hit, lost his glove and just went around the guy and kept the puck. That was unbelievable. He can do a lot of stuff on the ice.''
Apparently, he still can. And in this 48-game regular season, his skill might go a long way.
''We just have to play every game like it's our last game, like a playoff game, and that's what it's going to be, I think,'' Kovalev said. ''For me, I'm in good shape, and I don't see a problem keeping up with these guys.''


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Home Topics Cleaning
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