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Read the full story here Web Link posted Friday, December 16, 2011, 10:56 AM
Town Square
Review: 'Shame'
Original post made on Dec 17, 2011
Read the full story here Web Link posted Friday, December 16, 2011, 10:56 AM
a resident of Crescent Park
on Dec 17, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Wanting to get out and see a movie I attended the 9:55 showing of "Shame" last night at the Aquarius theater. What a shame that was.
The movie sounded interesting, maybe even comedic, sister visits sex addict brother, but certainly a lot of room for an interesting or revelatory takes on "Sex addiction" or family relations.
Instead this movie is just a downer, and a downer with no point or redeeming qualities. There is nothing said that is revelatory or that indicates an arc or development of the character. The movie relies on shock scenes done in a kind of cool, blase, matter of fact way to wink at the audience that says you are modern and sophisticated, you can see what is happening here .. when in fact there is really nothing happening, and what does happen is non believeable.
For example in one scene Brandon the supposed sex-addict hero supposedly gives in to his boss and invites him along to go see his sister singing in a swanky upscale club. The sister goes on and sings the most depressing downbeat version of New York, New York, one of the most God-awful performances in a movie I've ever seen, and rather ridiculous that she did not get ignored or booed off the stage. Brandon's slimy and married boss puts the make on his sister right before his eyes, and Brandon does nothing when they get home to his one-bedroom Manhattan apartment but go out running when they commandeer his bed for their clearly one-time affair. I found it unbelievable that anyone would allow this to happen to them, let alone their emotionally vulnerable sister.
The other thing is that by interpretting the the song New York, New York in New York the movie is clearly trying to be clever and making a comment of what it thinks is New York, the impersonal big city cliche, but there is nothing coherent in that aspect of the movie either. Yes, big cities can be impersonal, yes cliche, so ?????
This scene is so full of confusion that it is a perfect example of why most modern movies are so bad, and movie attendence is way down. In economic times in the past movie attendence has gone up - presumably because people want to escape. I however just wanted to escape from this movie though.
Anyway, my point is that these days directors and producers have freed themselves from having to actually make any sense in a movie, or any thought or insight into the human condition or create real characters that have 3 dimensions and that you might care about - by throwing loaded images and scenes up in front of the audience these days and letting them working it out for them in a kind of Rorshach test, and it creates buzz and controversy by all the argument it provokes.
Movies these days, at least ones like this, most of them, are pretentious and illiterate, masquerading as literature commenting on the human condition, using trolls and dupes to make their case for them in online review boards, when in fact they are just anti-literate wastes of time. They do not have to be, but clearly when they wrote and decided to produce this movie there was just nothing in mind. What is the point of this movie? Nothing. There is absolutely no reason to see it - so don't, save your money and your time. If you want to see a better and closer up version of porn just do a quick search on the Internet - don't accept this kind of slip-shod trickery masquerading as literacy or even a movie, there is nothing to see here, move along, as was said near the end of the movie itself.


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UO law prof Rob Illig got a little hot under the collar the other day and his series of emails went viral. As The Oregonian puts it, it's not "cute-puppy viral" either. UO econ prof Bill Harbaugh called attention to rants (and lists the sites that have picked up the story) the on his UO Matters blog.
According to the Oregon Law Blawg, in its response to the brouhaha, the issue was a proposal that a group of law faculty came up with — " to divert the law school's portion of the faculty merit pay funds to a post-graduate fellowship program for new law grads, in lieu of accepting a pay increase."
In other words, because it is hard for law students to get a job after they graduate, the faculty wanted to help them out. According the website Above the Law, which calls itself "a behind the scenes look at the world of law," only 57 percent of 2013 law school graduates are "employed in full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage."
Illig's posts about the proposal made at a meeting that he did not attend contain gems like "Is this some kind of faculty version of white-man's guilt?"
He writes, "As I learn more of the details of Friday's proposal, I am even more perplexed by its logic and frightened by its poison," and continues:
"Voting on this important a decision without notice and without serious consideration was a gross breach not only of procedure but of TRUST.
What did the agenda say? "Discussion of Graduate Fellowships." Pardon my French, but this is absolute bullshit. Colleagues do not ambush one another like this.
How can I trust the administration or any of my faculty colleagues? No wonder we've become a third-tier law school. Who's going to want to come here to study or teach in this kind of poisonous atmosphere?"
You can read them all here.
The Above the Law blog writes Illig's emails "are simply wondrous," and says Illig sounds like "an entitled baby."
Above the Law also says that Illig has point, if phrased poorly:
"While we agree that it may be unfair for the school to cancel professors' raises, this is the kind of educational crisis that requires everyone involved to give a little bit more, lest they find themselves on the receiving end of a faculty buyout offer or, worse yet, a layoff. It's not like this hasn't happened at many law schools already. Unfortunately, like the honey badger, Professor Illig doesn't seem to give a s**t."
In the end, the faculty plan, Illig's viral rant notwithstanding, got shot down, according to the post by Jen Reynolds on the Oregon Law Blawg:
"Last Friday, this group brought this idea as a resolution (included below) to the regularly scheduled faculty meeting. A wide majority of those present voted to approve the resolution—in addition, a majority of the full faculty support the resolution.
We brought the matter to the Provost and although he is supportive of our goals he cannot bend the University rules to make this creative idea happen. However, we remain committed to finding ways to fund post-graduate opportunities and address other employment issues facing our graduates."

subset: commoncrawl


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The five sites you must stop reading (and five to replace them)
Is the Onion still funny, or have you just gotten used to reading it so you haven't seen it decline from its '90s heyday to the pool of mediocrity it is today? How about Boing Boing, McSweeney's, CNN.com, or Perez Hilton? It's time to feel bad about what you like, for that is the path to enlightenment, or at least to not being that dink who IMs me month-old jokes about Bush.
The Onion
When it was worth reading: In the 90s, when it was fresh and fake news hadn't yet been properly done. Articles started with an ironic lede and developed into a larger farce, like the 1997 story "Supreme Court Overturns Car," which depicted the Court as a wild frat. Just three years ago, the Onion still successfully mined the mundanities of modern life: Wikipedia sticklers, cops suspecting terrorists and teens, fat women1, and Christian rock bands.
Why you must stop: The Onion is like Dane Cook: where are the jokes?2 The schtick — ironic headline, similarly ironic lede, endless reiteration of lede — is tiresome. "Not So Horrible Thing Happens In Iraq" might have been funny four years ago. This parody of unfunny humor columnists feels witty until you realize you could write its series of non-jokes yourself.
Maybe the Onion didn't even change — it just looks worse against all the new competition. Politics is better satirized by the Daily Show franchise, celebrities better mocked by bloggers, mundanity better picked apart by more bloggers.3 All that's left for the Onion is the same observational humor that normal people make. Instead of telling a friend, "Hey, isn't that Wes Anderson movie just like all his others? Heh, and he always puts the Kinks in the soundtrack," you can send a friend the Onion article that says just that. Ha! Ha! This article is funny because it's true!4
What it's still good for: Mocking other lame publications, as in "Pitchfork Media gives music 6.8." And the AV Club is still neat.
Replace with: NPR puts its weekly news quiz, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! online. It's not as hip, but that's why it has room to be funny. By the way, they had Colbert on this week.
McSweeney's Internet Tendency
When it was worth reading: About four years ago.
Why you must stop: Just like the Onion, McSweeney's has fallen into an endless schtick. Everything is either "A thing as if it were done by my family/co-workers/friends" or "I am an expert at normal life" or "Overextended metaphor"5 or "Basically an Onion column "Mundane thing done wacky!"
What it's still good for: Outsourcing your own jokes. The last funny article on this site was "Thomas Kincade's Experimental Period."
Replace with: Old Garrison Keillor collections. Try "Happy to Be Here" or "We Are Still Married." For fresh funny, read the humor section of The Morning News, or get over your wry self and read some balls-out humor at Corporate Casual.6
When it was worth reading: When the only other option was TV
Why you must stop: It's not news, it's fark: sensationalist stories that don't constitute world-changing news. The site's headlines, often with invitations to "watch this," have long been fodder for Gawker. The front page looks like an "oddly enough" section. So either take that to its logical conclusion and read full-on trash, or switch to a real news site.
What it's still good for: I dunno, knowing what other CNN readers are talking about?
Replace with: MSNBC for better (not perfect) mainstream headlines; Drudge for a quick screamy snapshot of the day's stories, and Fark for stupid news.
Perez Hilton
When it was worth reading
Why you must stop: It's vile, unimaginative pulp by a man who is friends with Paris Hilton. Perez's taste in celebrities is only outshittied by his writing style. Maybe everything that sucks has some connection to Dane Cook, because Perez's weak neologisms7 could have been coined by the inventor of the "SuFi."8
What it's still good for
Replace with: The Superficial has decent writing, Pink is the New Blog has better photo vandalism.
Boing Boing
When it was worth reading: When one blog could catalogue all the wacky things on the Internet.
Why you must stop: The net's too big now, and Boing Boing misses plenty. That's fine, it's not their job to make sure no one sees something funny and weird before you do. But the best stuff shows up in a million other blogs anyway, so Boing Boing is no longer a must-read.
What it's still good for: Boing Boing TV (a new series) has original . Xeni Jardin9 interviews people like the director of the Simpsons movie and Bill Gates's Microsoft co-founder.
Replace with: Tumblr blogs, which have all the junk-drawer appeal with none of the context or commentary. Try Tumbl.us, Scribbling.net, and A Garden of Varied Delights. If you want something higher-class, savor the baroque feel of Kottke and Fimoculous.
Click to view1Whatever the Dove campaign says, fat women will always be fun to laugh at.
2Or like Steve Wright's unfunny cousin. Or like New Yorker cartoons in which, says Gawker, "the rate of humor is the exact same as naturally occurring humor in the world."
3And "The Office."
4Before I realized how desperately unfunny it would be, I originally wanted to write a parody article called "Onion makes observation about modern middle-class life, stretches premise out to 1000 mildly amusing words."
5See also: 1, 2, 3. I thought about just listing McSweeney's headlines and hoping you'd get the picture, because that seems to be the style McSweeney's readers respond to.
6Disclosure: The writer of "Corporate Casual" sometimes writes for the same publisher as mine. This isn't even really a disclosure, I just want him to notice me and maybe Facebook message me, like, "thanks doug for the plug."
7"Fauxmance." Okay, not even his word.
8It's the finger, but with the ring finger extended too. It's a "super finger." He named a company after it.
9Fun Fact: If Hillary Clinton is Data from Star Trek10, Xeni Jardin is that sexy Cylon from Battlestar Galactica.
10Or Johnny Five from "Short Circuit"
Nick Douglas writes at Valleywag and Too Much Nick. Those things you like? He is over them. But he listens to Billy Joel, so you're still ahead.


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Read the full story here Web Link posted Tuesday, June 18, 2013, 11:45 AM
Town Square
Menlo Park school bond measure officially approved for November ballot
Original post made on Jun 18, 2013
Read the full story here Web Link posted Tuesday, June 18, 2013, 11:45 AM
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jun 18, 2013 at 12:31 pm
So Renee - what kind of bond will it be - Capital Appreciation Bond? What's the term of the bond - 25 yrs, 40yrs? What's the actual cost of paying off the bond - $50 million, $100 million?
You mentioned they determined the wording for the ballot - what is the wording?
a resident of Menlo Park: Suburban Park/Lorelei Manor/Flood Park Triangle
on Jun 18, 2013 at 12:36 pm
To say this decision was not surprising is the world's greatest understatement. The $23 million bond measure was a foregone conclusion and the meeting was merely a formality. It's not that the Board members are necessarily all clones of each other. It's that the administration is genius at presenting things to support their desired outcome thereby downplaying or eliminating debate. Board members can't or won't do their own further due diligence to dig deeper.
So, it's all about the sell now. That's why there was an entire meeting devoted to word-smithing. Notice how they have stepped back from saying they'll definitely tear down and rebuild to take some of the heat off? Keep an eye on how the engineering evaluation turns out. Again, no surprise because I'm sure it's already been determined by one of the cronies who will be hired to do the project. Get ready to hear that the O'Connor School is a health and safety hazard and if we don't vote for the Bond our children will be at risk.
I feel sorry for people who stretched to afford and live in smaller homes in Menlo Park and will now be paying for another lavish building project. But that's just the way things work here.
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Jun 18, 2013 at 12:50 pm
Good Lord! How is it that the German-American school parents and students can be enormously passionate and proud about their existing school, but the MPCSD board feels it needs to spend $23,000,000.00 in improvements before it deems it worthy for MP kids?
This should make for some interesting debate!
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jun 18, 2013 at 1:17 pm
I'd always suggest that you attend Board meetings when possible as it may give you a new perspective. It is hard work and takes a lot of commitment to review these sorts of issues and I feel that the Board does its level best to get to a sound decision and to consider the wide range of issues. If you would like to be part of the dialogue, why not attend a meeting?
a resident of Atherton: other
on Jun 18, 2013 at 1:23 pm
And what if the bond measure doesn't pass? What is plan B?
I would have been happier about voting for a smaller bond to do lighter renovations to bring the campus up to date and opening it sooner instead of dragging it out. They are already getting more portables at Laurel this year, just a year or two after finishing the renovations.
In other districts there is a school your kids are sent to if the most desirable school in the district is impacted (I am thinking about Redwood City and the Roy Cloud School) And San Carlos where you dint always get the closest school to your house if impacted. Where is the Menlo Park school like that? Why dont any of our schools ever fill up and become impacted? Now everybody already in the district has to pay for a new school for the people who are flooding in. You'd think property values would be even higher than they are.
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jun 18, 2013 at 8:04 pm
I certainly would not like to be the parent of a child who is sent out of his or her "impacted" neighborhood school into a substandard overflow facility and away from all the other children in his or her own neighborhood. I'm really glad that we are taking steps necessary to ensure that ALL children in the District have an equal opportunity to a good education in quality school facility.
a resident of Encinal School
on Jun 18, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Some basic information that people should be aware of: When voters consider whether or not to vote for the bond in November, they should be aware that there is no exemption for seniors for bonds. Seniors may apply for an exemption for a parcel tax, but not for a bond.
a resident of Encinal School
on Jun 18, 2013 at 9:16 pm
While I agree another school is needed and O'Connor is the right call, keep in mind that there's already a ballot initiative to continue the parcel tax of homeowners.
You will get one or the other, but not both. When I see both measures, I plan on voting YES on the bond, NO on continuing the parcel tax.
Our school district already gets ZERO dollars from the tax increase from MoonBeam Brown's proposition from last November. So we get taxed/bonded not once (high federal + state tax brackets), not twice (the nov proposition), not 3 times (the federal tax on investment income over 250k) not 4 times (the parcel tax) but FIVE times (the O'Connor bond).
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jun 21, 2013 at 12:28 pm
<<Some basic information that people should be aware of: When voters consider whether or not to vote for the bond in November, they should be aware that there is no exemption for seniors for bonds. Seniors may apply for an exemption for a parcel tax, but not for a bond.>>
I read elsewhere that the cost in taxes would be $30 per hundred thousand of property value, not the $8 noted in this article. This will cause some seniors to lose their homes. Many are stretched to their limit now and cannot possibly afford increased property tax. It is absolutely shameful that they were not excluded.
a resident of Encinal School
on Jun 21, 2013 at 6:49 pm
For Anonymous regarding there being no exemption for seniors for bonds -- It is important to note that the reason seniors are not excluded from paying for the bond is that bonds do not come with a provision for an exemption. The public, however, may think that since parcel taxes do provide the opportunity for an exemption that bonds would too. This is a very deceptive assumption. Hopefully, voters will understand this when they go to the polls.
a resident of Atherton: other
on Jun 22, 2013 at 9:09 pm
The absolute paradox of this new taxation scheme is that we have this loser board constantly begging for more funding while they simultaneously have DESTROYED the district at the command level. The latest is the departure of the lead tech, Jim. Why? Ask him! He told Maurice for at least 20 minutes that he CAN NOT STAND working for a destroyer! Or, words to that effect.
The District Office has been, and continues to implode. Our board REFUSES to REMOVE Maurice.
I expect several Principles are looking for employment elsewhere this summers.
The terrible dimensional destructive properties of this Superintendent and this STUPID and ignorant board will last for several years!
Meanwhile, these old ladies and the old guy want the voters to trust them! Surreal.
Again, I'm not joking. I'm NOT lying.
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Jun 22, 2013 at 10:06 pm
Crown sounds like an insider, and I hope things at the "command level" aren't as bad as Crown makes it sounds, but who knows? I also hope that if there are problems with today's leadership, it doesn't lead to a destructive reaction by voters that will damage tomorrow's prospects. A new school must come into the system to deal with enrollment that is way higher than expected, and how can that new school be built without the bond money?
a resident of Menlo Park: Felton Gables
on Jun 23, 2013 at 8:58 am
I really appreciate the District is adding a new campus to deal wiith enrollment growth. I also appreciate all the good work that has been occurring. Thank you MPCSD!
a resident of Encinal School
on Jun 23, 2013 at 10:05 am
In response to Hoping, rest assured that things are as bad as Crown makes them sound - actually, they are way worse! This shouldn't be about voting for the bond or not. The main issue needs to be about understanding that new leadership is desperately needed for the District -- including the bullying superintendent and the District's ineffective School Board.
a resident of another community
on Jun 23, 2013 at 1:54 pm
"Crown" is absolutely right on the money. The letter that the outgoing tech director wrote to the district community really encapsulates the climate in Menlo Park since Maurice Ghysels became the superintendent. Quoting from his letter, "As Dr. Ferdinand Porsche once said: 'Change is easy. Improvement is far more difficult.'" He also went on to state that he is leaving on his own terms rather than waiting for it to be his turn on the chopping block, as everyone believes that next year will be another round of bloodshed.
At the school sites, we are pretty sheltered as our principal does a good job of shielding us and parents from this toxicity. But any interaction with the district office and you can see that the climate in the district is at its all time worst. Ghysels is unable to do anything but remove people who challenge him or that he deems are smarter than he is because the only way he can lead is by submission, not by respect. Jo Mitchell was able to keep the district on course last year, but after her ousting, Allison Liner is ill-equipped to manage the burden of an inadequate superintendent. Neither Ghysels nor Liner are able to build and manage quality programs. They just throw out ideas and hope that something sticks. They show up at our school all smiles (and with ice cream!!) and hope that is enough to build buy-in. Menlo Park teachers are highly educated and are able to see past this facade. And the board turns a blind eye to it all.
I completely agree with "interested community member". I wouldn't vote in a $23 million dollar bond until there is district leadership qualified to lead our district in a positive direction.
a resident of Atherton: other
on Jun 23, 2013 at 6:04 pm
yes, I know and so do the above people, and everyone knows, including the board. Terry, a board member, with Maurice, did all possible to stop the district office survey and have now stopped all possible email communication at the district level.
Terry and Maurice HATE anyone outside knowing the survey results. I can not wait for it to go public. You guys will not believe it at all.
a resident of another community
on Jun 23, 2013 at 7:57 pm
[Comment removed because poster is using multiple aliases in the same thread.]


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Processing Information Archive
Laptops will Become More Cooler Now!
November 3, 2009
Many times, we face the heating up of our laptops, but now it will become a story of the past. Some scientists and researchers are on the verge of developing a new technology which is going to help the laptops cool down. In a recent study published in a renowned Physics Journal, Nature Physics, Jairo


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New transit schedules, Alexander Street-University Place detour to go into effect
The week of Oct. 13, NJ TRANSIT and TigerPaww shuttle schedules will change. Additionally, a detour will begin Oct. 16 around the Alexander Street-University Place intersection as a roundabout is constructed.
New NJ TRANSIT rail and TigerPaWW schedules
NJ TRANSIT has announced that new rail schedules take effect as of Sunday, Oct. 13. The University will adjust the TigerPaWW shuttle schedules as a result of the change in rail schedules. The updated TigerPaWW schedule that will take effect on Monday, Oct. 14 also is available online.
Alexander Street and University Place detour route to begin Oct. 16
Starting on Wednesday, Oct. 16, vehicular traffic will be detoured onto a temporary road that will bypass the intersection of Alexander Street and University Place.
The current intersection of Alexander Street and University Place will be closed to through traffic for the construction of the new roundabout. Alexander Street will be closed from College Road south to just north of the new Princeton Station parking lot.
This newly constructed temporary bypass road will connect Alexander Street, from just north of the new Princeton Station parking lot, to University Place, east of Wawa. This detour route will remain in place until February 2014. The temporary traffic signal at the intersection of College Road and University Place will be operational while the detour is in effect. This signal will go into "flash" mode beginning on Monday, Oct. 14; it will begin normal operation on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
In addition, there will be changes to pedestrian and bike paths during this phase of work. There will be no changes to rail service, bus service, parking, taxis and bike facilities during this phase. Detailed information about transit services is available online.
Wawa will remain open; short-term metered parking will be accessible off of the bypass road.
Please follow directional signage that is posted, and use caution as you walk, bike and drive in the area.
Updated maps showing vehicular and pedestrian detours are available on the Arts and Transit Project website.


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Could it be?
The one WinMo Smartphone that won't crash?
Asus has unveiled its latest smartphone, which, it claimed, is the "fastest business PDA phone in the world". Under the Asus P565's shell is an 800MHz Marvell processor that Asus said will help the phone deliver "system performance beyond anything else on the market". The talker's also supposedly great at handling "resource- …
The one WinMo Smartphone that won't crash?
it looks like it was the winner in some primary school "design your bestest mobile phone" competition... would look nice as a drawing on the fridge but anywhere else would just be wrong.
Hey, 1975 just called - they want their "style feature" back.
"it's disappointing to see that the maximum HSDPA 3G connection speed is just 3.6Mb/s" - why? In practice connection speed over HSDPA rarely exceeds 1Mbps, unless you happen to sit in a really good spot (in which case others will come along and 3G bandwidth will be shared out soon anyway)
Guys... putting a big ring of plastic around the edge of screens doesnt make it look bigger! You tried it with the Eee and now this. Learn from the Eee, if you think the screen needs to look bigger... make it bigger!
Sounds about as important to my life as the number of stream processors that the whatever-graphics-chip-it-came-with inside my computer has. Who are they hoping to attract with boasts of being the fastest? They seem to be introducing a feature that is intended to improve the user experience into markets that either care more about look and feel and attached gadgets (ie, consumers) or which have definitively chosen a quite different user experience (ie, business people with their Blackberrys).
Until now, I thought nothing said desperation like Windows Mobile. But I guess true desperation is Windows Mobile and shouting about intangible numbers.
It's just that fugly. Sack the design department.
what I find infuriating is when they claim 250 hours standby time for _any_ phone.
sure if it's switched off, sim removed, it might be ok for 10 days then. but wtf does that have to do with real life?
it would make a lot more sense if they told the truth: you'll need to charge it every other day.
fair enough - but why BS about it?
I used to have a nokia 6110, not sure how many here remember it. even that didn't go for a full week (using it like 2 hours a day), let alone 10 days for crying out loud.
I would almost consider it if it does the HSPA on 900MHz. But I agree it's ugly. And the screens too small (I was quite fond of the 3.5" on the HTC Blueangel before I squished it with my car).
I'm wondering if the 3.6Mbps limit is one that can be fixed with an update. It seems odd a new product would come out with that limitation in hardware (unless there's a stack of old chips laying around a warehouse somewhere).
And @gabor: Some of my older Nokias used to get a good 10 days standby. I'm not much of a talker, so I used to go that sort of time without a call, and they'd last it.
I do find the claim that ANY WinCE powered phone would pull it off a little unbelievable though.
did they go and put Windows Mobile on it? That's reason enough for me not to buy it.
I'm waiting for a manufacturer to make a decent Linux based smartphone. I'd have thought Asus of all people might have done that, if only because of their Eee legacy.
And I agree with gabor about battery life. I don't think I've ever found a phone who's battery lasts as long in real life as the blurb said it would. Having said that, my current phone (a Nokia E90) has a pretty decent stand-by life, as I only charge it about once a week, and it's on 24/7.


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For those of us on this side of the Atlantic who first caught Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchants' brilliant original U.K. version of "The Office" on DVD a decade ago, the disks proved a double blessing. We got to own some of the greatest comedy in TV history – and we got to pause the action during some of the most cringe-inducing moments in TV history (the "Training Day" episode alone took us a week to get through).
In the years since, the increasingly on-demand entertainment world has turned binge-watching into literally a spectator sport – thanks, in great part, to the miracle of Netflix. But as the first season of Gervais' latest TV show, "Derek," hits the U.S. via the streaming service Thursday, it might be time to consider taking our time.
Netflix, of course, isn't the only source of on-demand entertainment, but it may be the leading force in changing the way we view TV fodder on screens of various sizes. It's the go-to place to catch up with acclaimed shows that are hard to stop watching – among them, "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad" and "Arrested Development."
The streaming service helped new fans discover "Arrested Development," building the demand for more episodes – which it supplied with the revival of the quirky comedy on Netflix in May, seven years after Fox decided there was no more money in the banana stand.
The event marked a watershed in mass marathon viewing – the new season's "Rashomon" approach invited both binging to put the puzzle together quickly and repeat viewings to catch what we might have missed the first time around. Some of us enjoyed the new episodes, while others were both underwhelmed and overwhelmed. Netflix also scored with two other addictive originals that made some of us prisoners to our televisions: the compelling political thriller "House of Cards" and the jailhouse drama "Orange is the New Black."
We're not quite sure what to expect from "Derek," which marks a departure for Gervais and seems, judging from previews, to move at a slower pace than his past efforts. Gervais plays a kindly oddball who works in a nursing home – a far cry from the clueless arrogance of middle-management buffoon David Brent of "The Office" or the ego-vs.-art-conflicted actor Andy Millman of "Extras." Among Gervais' "Derek" costars is his comic foil, Karl Pilkington, who is finally playing a character other than his cranky, eccentric self.
Unlike "Arrested Development," which premiered on Memorial Day weekend, "Derek" arrives amid a very busy beginning of the fall season when our attention is stretched across the network and cable spectrum, perhaps making binge-watching less appealing. The show premiered in the U.K. last year to mixed reviews – some critics accused Gervais of mocking vulnerable people, a charge he denied. The debate is likely to reignite as "Derek" debuts on Netflix Thursday.
Take your time to form an opinion, and savor what's shaping up as a bittersweet turn by Gervais. In the meantime, get a head start on "Derek" by checking out preview below:
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.


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Mad Scientists Will Not Destroy Earth After All
Great news everyone! That gigantic super collider outside of Geneva that was going to create a black hole that would swallow the earth and and then the whole universe and all the little children has been pronounced safe! "A new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider scheduled to go into operation this fall outside Geneva, is no threat to the Earth or the universe, according to a new safety review approved Friday by the governing council of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or Cern, which is building the collider.'There is no basis for any concerns about the consequences of new particles or forms of matter that could possibly be produced by the LHC,' five physicists who comprised the safety assessment group wrote in their report. Whatever the collider will do, they said, Nature has already done many times over."
"In a press release, Cern's director general Robert Aymar said, "With this report, the Laboratory has fulfilled every safety and environmental evaluation necessary to ensure safe operation of this exciting new research facility."
"It is full speed ahead, they say, on the new machine, which is designed to accelerate protons, the building blocks of ordinary matter, to energies of 7 trillion electron volts and then bang them together to produce tiny primordial fireballs, miniature versions of the Big Bang. Physicists will comb the detritus from those fireballs in search of forces and particles and even new laws of nature that might have prevailed during the first trillionth of a second of time.
"Some critics have argued, however, that Cern has ignored or downplayed the risk that the collider could produce a black hole that would swallow the Earth, or that it could create some other dangerous particle.
"The safety group, however, pointed out that cosmic rays have produced equivalently energetic collisions with the Earth and other objects in the cosmos over and over again. "This means that Nature has already completed about 10^31 LHC experimental programs since the beginning of the Universe," they write. But the stars and galaxies endure." [NYT]


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Sterilization-Resistant Labels
Designed for wet, dry and radiation sterilization processes, these computer imprintable labels are resistant to autoclaves, chemicals, detergents, washing and temperature extremes of up to 400 degrees Celsius. The labels are perfect for identifying instrument trays, microsurgical/medical devices and much more. The labels are available in a wide range of durable materials and can be supplied blank or pre-printed with logos and color-coding. Printed variable data such as lot, batch and serial numbers, as well as 2-dimensional barcodes, can be added in-house with a thermal transfer or laser printer.
Related Reads


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We keep seeing movie posters everywhere featuring Disney's newest villain, Dr. Facilier of The Princess and the Frog. He's quite a dandy fellow, if you ask us. The feather in his top hat and his dapper jacket with tails got us thinking about our favorite Disney villains of all time, which made us realize that they basically all have some serious diva traits. Take a step onto memory lane — hopefully your mom won't have to bust out the sheet protectors because of those awful Ursula nightmares again.
Cruella De Vil — 101 Dalmatians: Have you asked Cruella how she is lately? We're sure she replied, "Miserable, darling, as usual. Perfectly wretched." Spoken like a true, self-important diva. If Cruella De Vil were a real person, she would be the number 1 target of PETA — seriously, who is malicious enough to collect a ton of adorable puppies only to skin them? And no doubt, with those cheekbones, that lady's had some work done.
Maleficent — Sleeping Beauty: When you're dubbed the "Mistress of All Evil," you pretty much guarantee yourself a spot on the Best Disney Villains of All Time list ... not to mention this bad-ass morphs into a dragon at the end of the movie. Really, the person we should be giving credit to here is Eleanor Audley, because she is the voice of Maleficent and the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. Talk about mastering your craft.
Jafar — Aladdin: Jafar has a devilishly colored, flowing cape, precisely arched eyebrows, a stroeable beard with a perfectly preened curl, and a big gold serpentine staff. Yeah, it's pretty obvious Jafar wasn't trying to steal Princess Jasmine from Aladdin for romantic purposes. When he told her that Aladdin had already been executed, that queen wasn't trying to steal her, he just wanted to instigate some drama.
Ursula the Sea Witch — The Little Mermaid: Nothing like basing your villain on a drag queen to lure in a gay crowd. Ursula the Sea Witch is described as an "obese, purple-skinned, white-haired female human with a black facial mole and tentacles." As voiced by Pat Carroll, the evil sea creature — who makes Ariel trade in her voice for the ability to walk — was based on both the sorceress in the Hans Christian Andersen story and the drag queen Divine.
Mad Madam Mim - The Sword in the Stone: Never underestimate a woman with an ego, a shag gray bouffant that can just as easily be pulled back into pigtails, and the ability to morph into anything she wants with the power of magic. The Sword and the Stone is one of Disney's less remembered movies, and Mim is only in it for 15 minutes. But it's the most entertaining part of the movie, and the wizards' duel between her and the good Merlin is a hoot.
Lady Tremaine — Cinderella: What child with an even slightly scary stepmother didn't fear Lady Tremaine's wrath (and sour puss)? It made her and her janky daughters being left in the dust by the royal carriage that much sweeter.
The Queen - Snow White: Yes, there are many queens in Disney fairy tales, but only one known simply as "The Queen." As Snow White's wicked stepmother, she is the first Disney villain and probably the best remembered. Of course, she is far more scary as the witch with the poison apple that she turns into near the film's end, but as the fading beauty who narrates the piece, she inspired millions of gay men to practice saying, "Mirror, mirror on the wall ... "
Captain Hook - Peter Pan: The porn star stache, the Cher-like curls and that cocked hat with the blown out feather make Captain Hook equal parts villain and metro Pirate Queen. But it's his fear of Crocodiles (one of which ultimately does him in) that makes Captain Hook such a memorable villain.
The Queen of Hearts - Alice in Wonderland: Alice herself best sums up the Queen of Hearts as a "fat, pompous, bad tempered old tyrant." And as much as we would like to demand that every moron who crosses our path to be beheaded, perhaps it's a bit over-the-top.


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Last August I wrote about Reid Strain, a forward out of the Fire U18 Youth Academy team who earned the chance of a lifetime when he was called up for the Puerto Rican senior team in their 2-1 friendly loss to World and European champions Spain.
Though he didn't play in that match, Strain appears to be a budding star in the Puerto Rican setup and tallied another goal for the nation's U-20 side this week during CONCACAF World Cup qualifying in Puebla, Mexico.
Trailing 1-0 to Jamaica on Tuesday, Strain tallied the 22nd minute equalizer below before the Reggae Boyz hit back with three second half goals to win 4-1.
WATCH: Reid Strain tallies for Puerto Rico U-20s


text: That is a really good question. I think that she would teach a very well rounded education to her children. So I think that math and english would be in there somewhere. I mean look at her kids, half of them are prefects and most of them got great scores in school. I think she taught them well!Originally Posted by Ryan The Wizard


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The longtime former leader of the national union for Border Patrol agents was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego Thursday on charges that he funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in union funds for his own use.
Terence J. Bonner, widely known as "T.J." during the 22 years he was president of the National Border Patrol Council, was accused of getting paid for supposed union-related work and travel when he was actually conducting personal business, including visiting a mistress in Chicago and attending sports events.
The indictment also says Bonner was reimbursed for lost pay while doing union work when he was actually at home downloading and viewing pornography — on computer hard drives purchased at union expense.
In addition, Bonner was charged with submitting bogus travel reimbursement claims for things such as meals and rental cars that he claimed to have incurred while traveling on union business. Instead, the trips were for personal business, according to the indictment.
Bonner, who lives in Campo, was indicted on one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 charges of wire fraud. Attempts to reach him Thursday night for comment were unsuccessful.
Authorities have been investigating Bonner since the spring of 2010, just before he retired as an active duty agent and about one year before his term as president expired, said George McCubbin, current president of the National Border Patrol Council.
"We've cooperated throughout," said McCubbin, an agent based in Tucson, Ariz. "Initially, when we first heard about the investigation, we weren't too happy about it. As the investigation unfolded and more light was shed on the situation and the more we heard about what had been going on, the more upset we were getting."
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement that the alleged fraud victimized fellow agents and "is a particularly troubling form of corruption that must be addressed."
Bonner is the latest in a growing list of border law enforcement agents who have been arrested or indicted on corruption charges since 2004.
Some 138 Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have been charged, the vast majority of them for taking money to allow drugs or illegal immigrants into the country.
Bonner was the head of the union during a time when the Border Patrol nearly doubled in size, a rapid increase that some have said lowered recruitment standards for agents and contributed to the rise in corruption cases.
The indictment lays out a scheme in which Bonner, as head of the union's executive committee, promoted policies that gave union officers additional benefits, such as clothing allowances and a "reward" policy that allowed each union officer to spend up to $800 a year on gifts or meals for spouses or significant others at any time they chose.
Another policy allowed union officers to be reimbursed at premium rates for pay they lost while performing their union duties. Ordinarily, premium pay is awarded for working Sundays or holidays.
This "lost wages" policy advocated by Bonner required officers to provide proof to the treasurer of the unioni that they were doing union business for the time claimed.
The indictment says the union paid Bonner $87,862 in false "lost wages" claims between 2007 and 2010. The payments were made by an unidentified co-conspirator who did not request the proof that Bonner was doing union business, as the policy called for.
That person has not been charged.
False vouchers for travel expenses in the same time period totaled $48,066, the indictment says. The amounts listed in the indictment are not inclusive of all the allegedly illegal payments Bonner got, prosecutors said.
McCubbin said that the investigation began when Bonner submitted vouchers to the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C., seeking reimbursement from the government. They were denied because they were not submitted in time. Bonner filed a grievance, McCubbin said, which led to an arbitration hearing.
That is what triggered the investigation, he said.
Bonner remained president until the end of his term in 2011. McCubbin said Bonner was "private and secretive," and had been the leader of the union for so long that few challenged him on how the operation was run.
"As law enforcement officers, there was a trust factor there," he said. "Obviously, he didn't think that applied to him."
Since the investigation, McCubbin said the union has changed how it works internally. "When we became aware of all this, we implemented a lot of internal checks and balances we didn't have before."
The union represents about 17,000 agents who pay $56 a month in dues.


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Open Source
Caml-shift [12-Aug-2010, version 2010-08-11, Stable]
two OCaml implementations of Dybvig, Sabry, Peyton-Jones' delimited continuation framework. The framework supports `static' ( shift/ reset) and `dynamic' ( prompt/ control, shift0, control0) delimited continuation operators with multiple, arbitrarily typed prompts.
GenePool [13-Oct-2008, Alpha]
GenePool is a framework for writing evolutionary optimization algorithms in OCaml. This library is not a complete solution but rather is a generic skeleton which takes care of the plumbing and nuisances of optimization. You provide GenePool with functions that give meaning to fitness and reproduction and after a specified number of generation, GenePool returns an array of the best "genomes" it evolved.
Ott [08-Jan-2007, version 0.10.2, Alpha]
tool for semantic definitions of programming languages and calculi. The tool takes as input a definition of a language syntax and semantic relations, in a concise and readable ASCII notation that is close to what one would write in informal mathematics. It builds parsers for symbolic and concrete terms of the language, generates LaTeX to build a typeset version of the definition, and generates Coq, HOL, and Isabelle versions of the definition.
Promela [10-Sep-2012, version 0.4, Beta]
The PROMELA library is an OCaml library providing types and functions to create, analyze and modify PROMELA programs as used by the Spin model checker.
gprint [20-Apr-2006, Development code]
The facility that prints results and types of expressions evaluated at the top-level is now available anywhere in the program -- in bytecode- or natively compiled programs. Generic printing is a (perhaps unintentional) `side-effect' of MetaOCaml -- of the fact that a code value is not merely AST; the code value also captures the type and the type environment of variables and other values. Generic printing is a library that works with the unmodified MetaOCaml (which is _fully_ compatible with the regular OCaml).


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Chemex Coffee Filters – Circles
100 Pre-Folded Chemex Filter Circles
(These filters are not bleached – they are oxygen-cleansed for whiteness)
For use with any Chemex Coffee Brewer except 3-Cup (Pint) models.
Coffee contains about 50 different elements. Only two are desirable: aromatic coffee oils and caffeine. The rest is a mixture of acids, fats, oils and bitter flavor elements which must be removed if the coffee is to have a rich taste. A really good cup of coffee is clear, full-bodied and aromatic, without bitterness or sediment.
Chemex? filters are 20-30% heavier that competitive brands, so they are able to remove even the finest sediment particles as well as the undesirable oils and fats. The formulation of the filter permits the proper infusion time by regulating the filtration rate – not to slow, not too fast. Good infusion of the coffee grounds (as in brewing and steeping tea) gives coffee a richer flavor while at the same time making possible precise fractional extraction: filtering out the undesirable components which make coffee bitter by allowing only the desirable flavor elements of the coffee bean to pass through.
Detailed Product Description:
The Chemex? filter is folded into a cone shape, exactly as in laboratory techniques. This assures uniform extraction since the water filters through all the grounds on its way to the apex of the cone. The Chemex? filter is guaranteed not to burst under the weight of the liquid during filtration, and not to break when lifting out the grounds.
Free Shipping!


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Skip to comments.Buffalo Senior James LeGrand Brutal Beating Caught on Tape
Posted on 06/04/2013 4:20:50 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A brutal beating of a Buffalo, N.Y. senior was caught on video. WGRZ-TV was given a video of a Buffalo man who was brutally beaten by a group of high school student.
The incident happened in North Buffalo at Shoshone Park two weeks ago as James LeGrand, who is a part of Buffalo Mayor Byron Browns Impact Team, was in the parks parking lot when he noticed two girls arguing with a bunch of student who surrounded them and were encouraging them to fight. He tried to break up the fight several times and then got a camera and started taking pictures. When he warned the students he was going to show their principal at nearby Bennett High School, the crowd turned on him.
Each time I turned, you know, somebody was hitting me from behind, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardianlv.com ...
Yep. It's whom you suspect it is.
Video shows the same pack/feral kids.
Victim super nice black guy, perps all black.
OOhhh..they face long term suspensions...that's just going to KILL their Princeton scholarships...
IF they know WHO did this, WHY aren't they in the SLAM.
Let me guess - black.
Oops, sorry. that was raaaacist, wasn't it?
I am sooo racist.
As I was reading the article my mind automatically inserted the word 'black' in front of 'girls' and 'student(s).'
I simply assumed that this incident involved black students due to the behavior involved.
The fact that it's been two weeks and no one has been arrested made me even more subconsciously biased.
It was wrong of me and I apologize.
{watches video]
Never mind.
no, your comment was not racist... meerly racial...
Proof that high capacity mags are needed!
Mayhem, at the least, lock the animals up for 20 years.
That's why I left my dear Buffalo.
Please read the article, or at least attempt to...
The writing of this article is so bad that I had to comment. Nearly the entire article is written in very substandard English, and is only semi-coherent. Here is a shining example of what passes for writing in the media today:
"The problem here is that the Buffalo Public School District has done its own investigation and has pretty much most of the students in the video have been identified. The station was told that long term suspension proceedings are already ongoing."
No, that is not a faulty cut/paste job. It is exactly what is proudly on display on the Buffalo Guardian Express website, written by that wily wordsmith Paul Kasprzak. If you check out other articles by him, you can see that this is not an isolated item.
What really floors me is that this article made it through whatever editing process they have. (I am assuming that someone edits the copy before it its the public website; perhaps that is a BIG assumption...)
Just pathetic writing and subsequent editing, really pathetic. And to think that these people make their living plying these wares...
P-89 15 rds
That's because the site is at best a blog trying to sound like a newspaper. They have a bunch of Twitter handles that sound like real papers and "New Yorker Times" as one of their other sites.
I wouldn't trust that there is a single true word in the story. Here's a story about one of their want ads.
Yep, and the Guardianistas won't do one story on black on white crime.
Sheesh, how crooked can people be? I assumed it was a local rag with website... Goes to show I need to investigate further! Thanks for pointing this out... What a racket!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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MOUNT DORA, Fla. - A detective with the Lake Mary Police Department is teaming up with the Lake County Firefighters Charities to raise money for 7-year-old Jay Ryon, a Sorrento child who is battling leukemia.
Detective Ron Tomassi is hosting an event called "Firearms Freedom For Females," as a fundraiser for Ryon, whose father works as a Lake County firefighter.
Ryon is currently undergoing chemotherapy and the family is struggling to pay for his treatment. The boy has a strong following on Facebook with a "Team Jay" page.
Tomassi told Local 6 in an email: "28 years ago, the quick response and actions of a South Florida Fire Department's paramedic, saved the life of my son. I have carried with me, the promise I made then, to help a firefighter if ever the chance presented itself. And it has."
The class is designed to teach effective street survival skills and will include training materials and information on how women can protect themselves if ever in a violent
The course is provided by Tomassi, a 34-year veteran in law enforcement with all proceeds going to the Lake County Firefighters Charities, towards Ryon's care. An hour class usually costs about $60, but women age 18 and up are welcome to participate with any donation they feel is appropriate. To register call Detective Ron Tomassi at 352-552-7010 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
The event is Saturday at 31205 Round Lake Road, in Mount Dora.
Copyright 2014 by ClickOrlando.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Wendy Purnell, Todd Myers
Wed, 07/13/2016
AUDIO: People worry about plastic grocery bags, but we discuss why they aren't as scary as people think and some new ways to profit from plastic that gets in the water. Also, GMOs, solar energy, polling data and much more. How do we do it? We're resource economists - we make the most of everything.
Holly Fretwell
Mon, 10/19/2015
What does sustainability mean? Holly Fretwell discusses the costs and benefits of recycling and waste management with John Stossel.
Frank Wolak
Mon, 12/08/2014
Q&A with 2014 Lone Mountain Fellow Frank Wolak.
Charlotte Huus-Henriksen,
Fri, 01/03/2014
Dino Falaschetti, PERC's Executive Director, shares a story on the lessons of green energy policy and green growth.
Mon, 12/09/2013
What's ahead for global energy markets? How will the U.S. shale revolution affect our energy future? To find out, we asked Stephen Arbogast, an expert with more than thirty years of experience in finance working with the energy sector. As Prof. Arbogast explains, when it comes to global energy...
Thu, 10/17/2013
For every $100 billion that the United States centrally directs to clean energy, GDP may decrease by over 0.4%, says Dino Falaschetti.
Andrew Morriss
Sun, 01/13/2013
For more than two decades, special interests have persuaded Congress to mandate Americans buy ethanol whether they want to or not. As a result, 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is now used for ethanol rather than food.
Brian Steed
Tue, 11/01/2011
"Green energy" generation is being curtailed, delayed, or prohibited due to competing environmental goals. For example wind turbines are killing endangered bats.
Linda Platts
Fri, 07/01/2011
Artificial trees do the job of real trees - removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.


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text:
Police have made arrests for cannabis growing and criminal damage in a crackdown on thugs on a Doncaster estate.
Officers have been running a series of patrols on the Royal Estate in Edlington after residents raised concerns.
They revealed they have made a string of arrests since the start of the action.
Last week a man was interviewed over alleged cannabis cultivation at a house on Princes Crescent.
In June, 12 cannabis plants were destroyed and a man was arrested, also for allegedly growing the drugs.
Three off-road motorbikes were seized from a property on Gordon Road.
All three were destroyed by officers.
Within the first six weeks of the crackdown, one man was arrested and charged with 11 counts of criminal damage.
Another was arrested and charged for two separate allegations of criminal damage, police said.
A spokesman for the Edlington Safer Neighbourhood Team said extra resources had been allocated to the estate.
He added: "There is a 'No Tolerance' approach to crime on the estate."
The issue of anti-social behaviour in Edlington was made a priority for the area's Safer Neighbourhood Team after it was raised by the public at a Partners and Communities Together public meeting, known as PACT.
Officers will meet residents again next week to decide whether drug growing and criminal damage in the area are still the main priority.
The decision will be made after the meeting on Thursday, July 17 at Yorkshire Main Community Centre.


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Maximum Christmas overdrive
Whether you're staycationing or visiting the Gaylord, prepare for a glorious onslaught of holiday cheer. If the million-plus lights and 52-foot tree aren't enough, how about the resort's famous ICE! show featuring Shrek the Halls which they keep at nine degrees? Don't worry, they provide coats.
DEETS: Gaylord Texan Resort, 1501 Gaylord Trail, Grapevine. Through Jan. 1. $26.95. GaylordHotels.com


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Monday 12th November 2012
"We haven't had anything like this in New York for over twenty years". Wynton Marsalis
The Ronnie Scott's Late Late Show!
MONDAY - THURSDAY 11pm-3am
FRIDAY - SATURDAY 1am-3am
£10 Entry, £5 Students (with ID), FREE entry to MU, Club members and main show ticket holders
In 1959, saxophonist Ronnie Scott opened the door to a small basement club in London's west end where local musicians could jam. Today, it is one of the world's most famous jazz clubs attracting packed houses and the biggest names in jazz and popular music and Ronnie Scott's welcoming, stylish setting is also home to London's coolest late night hang.
Each night Monday to Saturday, after the main act, Ronnie Scott's presents the Late Late Show, where some of the UK's finest jazz talents take to the stage for a late night blowing session.
More information about Alex Garnett, Here...
The stageposts along Toussaint's career have all made their mark - the Caribbean, New York, and London. From a calypso band in his teens in St Thomas, Toussaint moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music where fellow students included Branford Marsalis, Greg Osby, and Jeff Watts.
In 1982, he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. 'I learned more in four years with Art than I'd have learned in ten had I not got through that audition,'says Toussaint, who played alongside Mulgrew Miller, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison and Lonnie Plaxico. While in New York, Toussaint also worked with Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner and Gil Evans, and regularly led the jam session at New York's Blue Note club. Touring with the Messengers, he always looked forward to London where he made friends amongst the capital's young musicians.
'I met Cleveland and Trevor Watkiss, Steve Williamson and Julian Joseph. Being of Caribbean descent myself, I saw similarities in the blend of musical influences - jazz, African, calypso and reggae.
In 1987, Toussaint accepted an invitation from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to teach improvisation for three months. He's still here. From London, Toussaint works extensively in Europe and the US with his bands: Nazaire and the Jean Toussaint Quartet.
In the last few years he has toured Europe with Max Roach, headlined at the world-famous Sweet Basil in New York, joined Cedar Walton in London and worked with Horace Silver. With a commission for composition from the Arts Council he has toured the UK with old friends Mulgrew Miller, Terence Blanchard and Reginald Veal.
Troy studied at the Guildhall School of music in London and started out performing with Jean Toussaint and Soweto Kinch.
Between 2004 and 2008 Troy toured with American Vibes Legend Roy Ayers who he has also recorded with. These included tours in Europe, Asia, Australia and the States, notably concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in LA, Montreaux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and a Blue Note tour of Japan and New York. He has also toured with Don Blackman, Michael Urbaniak, Tom Browne and Ronnie Laws.
In 2004-2006, Troy toured extensively with Soul artists Roachford and Jocelyn Brown and in 2007 joined with Amy Winehouse and Producer Mark Ronson which has included performances at the Grammies and Brits in 2008 as well as many other major festivals around Europe. In 2010, Troy played on the Platinum selling Record from Rumer.
Troy has also played with Adele, Lu Lu, Chaka Khan, Cliff Richard, Macy Gray, Branford Marsalis, Kyle Eastwood, Gary Bartz, Lonnie Liston Smith, Daniel Merriweather, Suggs , Gloria Gaynor, Grace Jones, Sister Sledge and Q-Tip.
Recent productions include 2 Albums for Sony Poland for artist Mika Urbaniak which won a 'Frederic' award for Best Pop Album and went Gold. He also recently wrote the theme music for 'Don't Stop Believing' for Channel 5 presented by Emma Bunton.
Troy's debut album '40 Days' was released in June 2006 under J'Noir Records and features veteran UK and US musicians Jean Toussaint, Jason Rebello, Eric Revis and Marcus Printup as well as long standing partners, Soweto Kinch, Michael Olatuja, Femi Temowo and Karim Merchant. The Album also features the Prague Philharmonic strings. Recorded in Brooklyn, New York, this stunning album fuses a blend of Jazz, Gospel and music from the Streets – now available on itunes and Amazon.
Troy is now a visiting professor at The Guildhall School Of Music and Drama in London and has been asked to give clinics at other institutions around the UK including Drum Tech, Trinity college of music and the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Troy has had featured interviews with Drummer Magazine, Jazzwise and Rhythm Magazine and he endorses Yamaha Drums, Sabian cymbals, Pro-Mark Sticks and Evans Drumheads.
Tell us what you think of Alex Garnett presents... Jean Toussaint Quartet below..


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After a two week hiatus, Stephen Colbert returned to television where he shed light on the blooming love affair between Mitt Romney and Donald Trump. The latest wave of Trump-fueled "birtherism" along with the real estate tycoon's beef with George Will is featured here. More importantly, Colbert does some key math and figures out how Romney will climb to his goal of 50.1 percent of the vote.
Watch the video below:
|The Colbert Report
|Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
|Donald Trump's Creative Truth & Mitt Romney's Poll Numbers


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Former South Florida wide receiver S.J. Green had 62 catches during his entire four-year collegiate career. He had 61 just this season alone for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes, after hauling in 87 receptions in 2011.
So Green, for one, is plenty convinced that his former Alouettes coach Marc Trestman is ready for his new role as head coach of the Chicago Bears.
"I feel like he'll do very well," Green said early Wednesday morning, speaking with SI.com right after the Bears announced they had tabbed Trestman to replace Lovie Smith. "He entered the West Coast offense into what we did. It was a hard transition ... (but) the offense we ran is pretty much what you see in an NFL game.
"I can watch NFL teams and call out plays that we run. The offense we run, I'm sure, will be successful in the NFL. By choosing Chicago, (Trestman) feels like he has the personnel he needs."
Trestman's game plans certainly paid off with the Alouettes. In 2008, Trestman inherited a team that had gone 8-10 the year prior and promptly led them to an 11-7 mark. That season ended with a trip to the Grey Cup (the CFL's Super Bowl equivalent), the first of three straight Alouettes appearances in the game. They won the title in both 2009 and '10.
"What he's done as a head coach in the CFL has been really impressive," Andrew Bucholtz of Yahoo's CFL blog, the 55-Yard Line, told SI.com via email. "He's helped the Alouettes take a jump from a good team to a great one.
"General manager Jim Popp, who's drawing NFL interest of his own, is also a part of that, but the Alouettes, and quarterback Anthony Calvillo in particular, have gone to a new level during Trestman's tenure."
News of Calvillo's improvement ought to be music to Bears' fans ears. No doubt, Chicago's hiring of Trestman has a lot to do with the belief that he can push Jay Cutler to the next level.
Trestman was an NFL assistant coach, for various teams, from 1985-2004. During that run he worked with the likes of Bernie Kosar, Steve Young, Scott Mitchell, Jake Plummer and Rich Gannon -- all of whom thrived, with Trestman's help.
Calvillo threw for an average of 5,089 yards during Trestman's five seasons with Montreal. And while the CFL and NFL games have their differences, Trestman's offense could help Cutler and the Bears reach a high ceiling offensively.
"One thing he does is he uses his talent to his advantage," Green said. "If he has a good receiver, he's going to scheme his offense there -- he builds around what he has, from the quarterback on down."
From a personality standpoint, Trestman may remind Bears fans of Smith -- "I think there would certainly be some similarities to Lovie Smith," Bucholtz said, "but they're not completely identical" -- though the most noticeable changes could come on the field, where the Bears have turned from the defense-first thinking of Smith to Trestman's offensive-minded background.
As such, the trick for Trestman will be to catapult the Chicago offense forward without ruining the team's identity as an opportunistic defensive outfit.
"This is a fair concern, and the Alouettes' defense hasn't been all that great lately," Bucholtz said. "However, their defense has shone at times during Trestman's tenure, and it was the primary reason for their 2010 Grey Cup victory.
"I think the key there is finding the right guy as defensive coordinator. This past year, Jeff Reinebold didn't seem like the ideal fit (and the Alouettes parted ways with him after the season). If Trestman can find a talented defense coordinator whom he can work with, I wouldn't worry about the defense too much."
Bucholtz also pointed out that Trestman has been an "excellent motivator" while with the Alouettes, an aspect of Trestman's coaching style that Green spoke highly of, as well.
Green played his college ball under the fiery, in-your-face Jim Leavitt. Trestman, he said, is a 180 from that approach.
"Two totally different coaches -- both effective coaches, but Trestman is more of a laid-back coach," Green said. "He's not going to get in your face, he's not going to cuss you out ... if he needs to get his point across, he can and will."
Even with all of Trestman's CFL accolades, though, this constitutes a major roll of the dice for the Bears. Trestman has not coached in the NFL since 2004 and he has not called plays for an NFL team in more than a decade.
There is past evidence of the CFL-to-NFL jump working -- former Bills coach Marv Levy went that route, as did ex-Vikings head man Bud Grant (who brought Trestman to the NFL as Minnesota's running backs coach in 1985). This is a leap of faith from the Bears, nonetheless.
"There's no dispute that the CFL and NFL are different games and that the NFL would be an adjustment for Trestman," Bucholtz said. "But in some ways, I think it may be less of an adjustment than it would be for an NFL offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator to take over as a head coach.
"The game's different, but the head coach's responsibilities are very similar: put together a solid game plan, hire a good staff, get the most out of your staff and your players and get all the pieces to fit together."
Trestman has done that, and then some, while with the Alouettes.
This gamble may backfire on the Bears down the road. You'll have a hard time finding anyone who's worked with Trestman predicting a flop, though.


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Profit slump, but Newcrest shares surgeBrian Robins
Published: February 9 2013 - 3:00AM
SHARES in goldminer Newcrest Mining surged on Friday as investors reacted positively to the lack of bad news in its half-yearly earnings, taking the view that the worst of the group's woes may now be behind it, with the focus shifting to the flagged rebound in production.
This drove the shares sharply higher from the outset, closing ahead $1.17 at $24.52, a 5 per cent gain, and ending at the day's high.
In the December half, Newcrest earned $320 million, ahead of a consensus of about $290 million to $300 million, but well down from $659 million a year earlier. Earnings a share dived to 42¢ from 86¢.
Despite the investor optimism, Newcrest remained wary about talking up its prospects, flagging that second-half production will hit the low end of its earlier guidance as it ramps up production at Cadia East in New South Wales as well as at Lihir in Papua New Guinea.
Earlier the company had flagged gold production of between 2.3 million and 2.5 million ounces for the full year.
In the December half, it produced 0.95 million ounces of gold, down from 1.17 million ounces a year earlier. ''Achieving guidance will be primarily dependent on the speed of the Lihir plant ramp-up and access to high grade … at Gosowong [Indonesia],'' it said.
The complexity of the new plant at Lihir may make it difficult to boost output quickly, analysts warned, given the legacy of the issues that have plagued the mine.
Cadia East came on stream at the start of the year, while Lihir's start-up was this month.
''They've spent the money and finally it may be delivering,'' Geoff Breen at RBC Capital Markets said. ''It was a clean result.''
Settling down the two projects will go some way towards easing investor concerns following the problems that have hit the company over the past 18 months, particularly in the wake of the $9.5 billion Lihir acquisition in 2010, which had been a serial underperformer.
From being the long-term darling of the local goldminers, a succession of problems, from excessive rain at Cadia to declining gold grades, have sapped investor confidence in the company.
The share prices of most goldminers have been weak over the past quarter amid caution that the gold price will continue to decline, together with concerns that rising costs will continue to squeeze margins and shareholder returns.
Explaining the profit fall, lower gold production had the largest single impact on the downturn, accounting for $458 million of the decline, with the balance due to lower copper and silver sales and lower metals prices.
Gearing stood at 16.9 per cent at the end of the half, which is expected to reduce as cashflow rises following the Cadia East and Lihir expansions along with a decline in capital spending.
A steady interim dividend of 12¢ a share has been declared.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/business/profit-slump-but-newcrest-shares-surge-20130208-2e3vk.html