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Well, I've managed to somehow hobble through yet another year and I'm back for more Oscar talk. I'm doing it a little different this year. I usually start with the small awards and build up to the big best movie award but I figured I'd do the opposite this time. Firstly, nobody cares about those awards. Secondly, by time I got to the best picture award I always had to repeat stuff I had already said. I'm also trying to keep it a bit shorter than previous years. So I'm going to start out with the awards people actually care about. Going to go a bit in depth in the best movies first,then go through the acting ones and make a few comments then I'll just make go through the stupid awards very quickly. As always, this is mostly about my picks. I will also be making predictions, but for the most part this is about what I liked, not what I think the old farts in the Academy will actually pick. Every list of nominees is ranked from last to first. I'll also be sharing my own list of nominees.
Here we go!
9 - "The Tree of Life"
Terrence Malick is the most over-rated director in the history of movies. His movies rarely make sense, rarely tell a story and are rarely seen. Yet the 10 people who DO watch them claim he's a genius and if you don't like the movie you just don't get it, maaaaan.
I'm not above being too cool for the room guy. I love all kinds of quirky idiotic non-sense that the mainstream will never tolerate. But this is just too much. Watching a Malick movie is like watching Ed Wood try to make a Lars Von Trier movie. And as much as I hate Malick and every movie he has made, Tree of Life is BY FAAAAAAAAAARRR the worst thing he's done. And, yes, I will 100% honestly say this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Calling it a movie is a bit of a stretch though. It's more like a 2 and a half hour long montage of random scenes. It's a music video with no music. Just a bunch of random shots of crap nobody wants to see. People rarely even talked on screen, like you'd hear them talking, but you'd just see them sitting there sad without their mouths moving. Then insert random scenes of birds flying or trees being blown in the wind. Every once in a while Sean Penn would pop in out of nowhere just wondering through a building or walking in the desert for no reason. 20 minutes into the movie the whole thing stops and we get a 15-20 minute montage of planets and volcanoes erupting. It all feels very 2001-ish if Stanley Kubrick was retarded. The whole thing is insanely pretentious and comes off as movie making masturbation. And I haven't even talked about the DINOSAURS.
I have no idea what this movie was about and I don't think anybody involved in its creation has any idea either. The best comment I've seen on this movie was "I feel like I just watched a screen saver".
8 - "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
As much as I hate Tree of Life, I can understand why it was nominated. People have a hard on for Malick and think he's some great genius, blah, blah, blah. While Extremely Loud is not nearly as bad as Tree of Life, I cannot for the life of me come up with a single reason why anybody would nominate this for best picture. It's mediocre at its best, insulting at its worst and once again, insanely pretentious.
I love a good sad movie. Whether it's through happiness or sadness, if a movie can bring a tear to my eye, I think that's powerful stuff. But it has to happen organically. A movie has to DESERVE my tears. This movie doesn't deserve them because all it does is desperately TRY to make you cry. It is a truly pathetic attempt to yank any kind of emotion out of you that it can. It employs every single hack, trick, cliché Hollywood has ever used in a piss poor attempt to make you tear up. But since nearly every single character in the movie is either highly annoying or incredibly bland, it's not going to make people cry.
Oh, wait. I take that back. Of course it's going to make people cry. Because it needlessly uses and exploits the biggest tragedy in American history that is still way too fresh in way too many minds. Yes, the whole movie revolves around 9/11. Why? I have no idea. It's not necessary in the least. It's just blatant exploitation at its worst. It doesn't add a single thing to any character in the movie and it adds nothing to the story.
The story revolves around an infuriating and annoying kid whose father died in 9/11. But the way the father dies does NOT add anything to this story. He could've died in a car wreck. He could've died in Iraq. He could've died from cancer. He could've been shot in a robbery. But no, none of this happens because the filmmakers wanted to be able to shove all that awful imagery down our throats. They wanted to show the smoking buildings, they wanted to show the paper flying everywhere and best of all they wanted to show MANY close up shots of Tom Hanks falling to his death from the top of a burning and collapsing World Trade Center. It's all such a shameless ploy to be a tearjerker that it winds up doing the opposite as it borders on becoming comedy. It would make a great drinking game. Take a drink every time Tom Hanks jumps out the window. Take a drink every time a character says a line of dialogue that is so over the top flowery that it sounds like it was written by Emily Dickinson. Take a drink every time the annoying kid shakes his tambourine and makes you want to punch him in the face.
The only thing I found good about this movie was Sandra Bullock. I thought she excelled in her role and was probably the best performance of her career. It boggles my mind that she is ignored for this yet won for that Blind Side garbage.
7 - "Moneyball"
Speaking of needless movies. Good gravy, who thought this "story" deserved to be turned into a movie? You thought making Facebook into a movie was bad? Well, get a load of this one. A movie about baseball stats! YAY! The thing is, at least there was a story behind Facebook, there's NO story here. There's enough story here to write a few sports blogs, but to make a movie out of? The movie itself is very slow and boring. I would describe it exactly like I described Social Network. It's 2 hours of rich white people talking. And my biggest complaint is that if you actually follow sports you understand that nearly every second of this movie is BS.
The movie presents the story as this. In 2001 the Oakland A's lost Jason Giambi, Jason Isringhausen and Johnny Damon to free agency and the team was expected to tank without them. Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) meets an intern (Jonah Hill) who thinks the way baseball people draft and sign players is flawed and he uses math equations to pick the actual good players. So Beane, knowing that he can't compete with big market teams with his low payroll, makes this intern kid his assistant GM and they start signing a bunch of cheap lugs to fill in the empty holes and they keep winning without Giambi, Isringhausen and Damon.
Hold up. I've got some issues here.
A) - The character Jonah Hill plays doesn't exist. So already this is a MAJOR screw job to the actual story. And with the way the character is presented in the movie, he does EVERYTHING. If you follow the movie, there is no reason why Billy Beane should be credited as the guy who brought "moneyball" into baseball. The movie constantly shows that Beane does nothing but ask this guy which player they should get and then he gets him. All I got out of this movie is that Beane should've been fired and this intern kid should've been GM. Beane has a book about him and now a movie about him but according to the movie he didn't do a damn thing.
B) - According to the movie the A's lost those three players and this left the team in complete shambles. Beane replaces these guys with an injured Scott Hatteberg, a washed up David Justice and Chad Bradford, a reliever that the scouts didn't like because he threw funny. That's it. That's all he did and somehow this created a winning team. The movie presents this team as if it was a bunch of morons and rejects. They present it as if it was the Cleveland Indians from the Major League movies but these three small additions turn the team's fortunes around all by themselves. But in reality the A's still had a tremendous amount of talent on the team. The movie ignores Miguel Tejada, a 6 time all star and a future MVP of the league. It ignores Eric Chavez, a 6 time Gold Glove winner and the winner of the Silver Slugger award the year this movie is set in. It ignores Jermaine Dye, another All Star, another winner of both Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards and a future World Series MVP. Look at the numbers. That year Tejada and Chavez alone combined for 68 homeruns, 240 RBI and 195 runs. Hatteberg and Justice combined for 26 homeruns, 110 RBI and 112 runs. The movie also ignores the fact that Chad Bradford was already on the team the year before. So he was already there before the moneyball system was even being used.
But the most glaring omission of all is Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson. Hudson is mentioned only one time in the movie, in passing, but for the most part these three pitchers are completely ignored and their contributions to the team are never mentioned. If you're not in the loop, let me fill you in. Zito, Mulder and Hudson were pretty much the best pitching rotation in the league. They were so dominate that they were nicknamed The Big Three. Mulder is a two time All Star and a World Series winner. Hudson is a three time All Star and once led the entire league in wins, as an A. Zito is another three time All Star and won the Cy Young THE YEAR THIS MOVIE IS SET. But none of that is mentioned. The movie also doesn't mention Billy Koch. Koch was the pitcher who replaced Jason Isringhausen as the A's closer. The previous year, Isringhausen had 34 saves for the A's. His replacement, Koch, came in and had 44 and won the reliever of the year award. None of that is mentioned. The movie acts like the A's didn't have any pitchers. That they were down to using a pitching machine during games. In real life, the "moneyball" concept didn't have nearly the affect on the A's winning that year as having 3 All Star pitchers and the best reliever in baseball had, but yet NONE of that is mentioned because it gets in the way of the boring meaningless story they're trying to tell.
C) - The entire "moneyball" concept is a total failure. Going into the movie I knew the A's did not win the World Series that year. They have never won it since. They've been a very mediocre team for a decade now. Billy Beane and all his fancy numbers never amounted to anything. So I went into the movie wondering just how the hell it was going to end. The sports movie always has to end with the team winning in the end doesn't it? Well, they end the movie by trying to say Billy Beane changed the face of baseball forever. He didn't win the World Series but he completely revolutionized the way teams view players, stats and contracts. He changed everything.
But he didn't. He changed nothing. Several teams in baseball adopted the moneyball concept and they all failed. Just look at the A's themselves. Since implementing this system 10 years ago the A's have made the playoffs only 3 teams and have had 4 losing seasons a 1 .500 season. Look at the Mets. They implemented the system and have been one of the worst teams in the league. The only team that actually won anything using moneyball was the Boston Red Sox but they had a payroll 100 million dollars higher than the A's had which did a hell of a lot more for them than the moneyball crap did.
Add all that to the fact that the movie is slow, boring and every actor seems to be sleepwalking and I don't get this pick one bit. I'm not saying it's a bad movie. I'm just saying it ain't a good one.
6 - "War Horse"
War Horse is just weird. I had hopes for it but they didn't last long. I thought I was going into this serious WWI movie about a boy and his horse and instead I got some weird mish mash kids war movie. I don't know what this movie was and it doesn't seem like Spielberg knew exactly what he was trying to do with it. All the stuff with the horse comes off very silly and childish because they made the horse this super intelligent thing that can apparently understand the English language with no problem whatsoever. All the kid has to do is tell the horse what he wants him to do and he does it. Then the horse is making friends with other horses. And there is this duck that seems to understand everything too so he runs after the bad guys and tries to bite them on the ankles. The people are possibly even more annoying than the animals because every single character that sees this horse seems to fall in love with it and goes on and on about what an amazing creature it is. They act like it's some magical mystical thing. It completely feels like I'm watching Babe with a horse instead of a pig. It feels like a talking animal movie that forgot to make the animals talk.
But counteracting all the kids movie antics is the war part. The war scenes are as brutal as most any other war movie. People are getting shot, stabbed, sliced, blown up, gassed and killed off by the dozens. You've got people getting executed, you've got hints at rape and other nasty things and then in the middle of all this serious crap is this weird kids movie about this talking horse that doesn't talk. It's like if Garfield showed up in Saving Private Ryan. It makes NO sense. I keep mentioning talking animals because I spent most of the movie wishing the animals could talk. If the animals could talk, then the movie would make sense. Both in that I would at least figure out that this was supposed to be a kids movie and in that I would also be able to understand why this horse did the amazingly unbelievable things it did if I knew it was a talking horse. But the horse didn't talk and as a result the movie was a mess.
To make matters even more messy and confusing, the movie is basically an anthology movie. The movie starts with the horse with the kid on the farm. We get to know all these characters and get involved with their story but then it gets sold to the British army. Now all those farm characters have been replaced with brand new characters and a new storyline. Just when you're settled in with that, oh no, the horse gets taken by the German army and now we have another new cast and another storyline. Hope you don't get interested in these guys because a little while later they get killed and the horse ends up living on a French farm. Like this part? Well, too bad, it's over. The horse is now taken by the French army. Reset! Now the horse gets pissed at the French and goes AWOL. Ends up back with the British. WTF is going on? And in the middle of all this is one of the corniest scenes in movie history. The horse gets stuck in barbed wire in-between the British and German armies. Guess what happens? The two sides stop fighting and work together to free the horse. You know, like they would in real life. Complete cornball non-sense.
At the end of the day the biggest problem I had is that the movie really didn't have a point. It didn't say anything about anything. It was just a horse that went to war, met a bunch of people and then went home. Every single major plot point of this movie is in the 2 minute trailer. There's nothing here. It's just an empty void. I was sitting there watching it and during one of the big war scenes I just started looking at the set, all the people, all the horses, all the guns, cannons, tanks and I got really angry. I started thinking these people wasted multi-multi-multi-millions of dollars on creating this POINTLESS tripe. That money could've done so much good in this world, but instead it was used to make a talking horse movie where the horse doesn't even talk.
5 - "Hugo"
Hugo is a movie I really don't have much to say about. It just sat there. I watched it then got up and it went away. Visually it felt like a bit of a mess. Just too much going on at once. I figure if you saw this in 3D on the big screen it was probably amazing. But at home in old fashioned D it feels way too busy and convoluted. The story didn't hold my interest at all. I couldn't tell you what it was about except that its plot was almost exactly the same as Extremely Loud except this kid's father died in a fire instead of 9/11. One problem for me personally is that from the very first second and through every single frame of the movie, it reminded me of City of Lost Children. It felt like an over-budgeted, dumbed down, more childish and happy version of City of Lost Children. City of Lost Children is one of my favorite movies so watching Hugo I just kept thinking, I wish I wasn't watching this and that I was watching City of Lost Children again. All in all I just found the movie very mediocre.
4 - "The Artist" *predicted to win*
I like The Artist. I really do. It was fun and different and all that.I enjoyed the movie very much....
I just don't get the hype. More than that, it kinda pisses me off. I love old movies. I will almost always pick the 1940 movie over the 2012 movie. Less colors = more gooder. I love silent movies as well. The older movies were made by true artists in a time when even the studios actually cared about putting out quality material instead of basing a movie around how many toys or collectible cups they could sell. A time when they made movies to last, not to get one good opening weekend and one good first week of DVD sales before everybody realizes it stinks. But I'm in the minority in feeling this way. So many people act like watching a black and white movie is boring, trying to get them to watch one without sound is impossible. Yet many of these some people who despise black and white movies and silent movies are scorching their shorts over The Artist because it's different from the norm. I don't get it. Sure it's cool they recreated the silent film era almost perfectly. That's awesome. But what is making people who would normal despise a silent movie like this one? I have no idea. Why is a modern day recreation of something old considered cool while the thing it's recreating is not?
If you take the silent film aspect away from The Artist you can plainly see that it's nothing more than an average rom-com. There's nothing compelling or unique about its story. It's just the same old thing presented in a somewhat unique way. For some reason this makes it "amazing" because it came out in 2012. But if this came out in 1925 nobody would give a crap. It's simply getting the attention because it's a silent movie in 2012, it's not getting it because it's a GREAT silent movie. If The Artist had to go up against other great silent movies, it would get slaughtered. It wouldn't be looked back on as one of the great movies of the silent film era. It would've just been one of a million that might get played on TCM's Silent Sunday Nights once every couple of years.
It's a good movie, no question, but it's not great. It's not deserving of the hype and it's not deserving of this award. If you want to see a great silent movie see The General. See Metropolis. See City Lights, Nosferatu, Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Sherlock Jr, The Gold Rush, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, The Battleship Potemkin, The Phantom of the Opera, Broken Blossoms, Steamboat Bill Jr, The Kid, Ben-Hur, Wings, The Unknown, The Circus, The Man Who Laughs, The Lodger, A Trip to the Moon, It, the list goes on and on and on for days. There are silent movies out there that did things that would be amazing today with computers, made back then its breath taking. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were two of the most ground breaking and inventive film geniuses of all time. When you watch those movies you see stuff that was never seen before and never seen since. You watch The Artist and all you'll see is the same rom-com that comes out every couple of weeks except they used some computer filters to make it look old. Ooooh, wow.
3 - "The Descendants"
I enjoyed The Descendants but I've sat here staring for 10 minutes trying to think of something to say about it. For me it's one of those movies if I had seen months ago I'd probably be raving about it, but knowing that it's won a million awards and it's nominated for a million more it makes it a bit underwhelming even though it IS great. It's not a movie that's going to blow you away or anything but it's solid. Well written, well directed, and well acted. Every character is interesting and every cast member hits a home run. It might even make you cry without having to resort to showing you Tom Hanks falling from the top of the Twin Towers. It's funny and sad, depressing and uplifting. t may be #3 on this list but if anything in my top 3 won I'd be happy.
2 - "The Help"
I know. I'm supposed to hate this movie. I should loathe everything about it. But it ended up being surprisingly enjoyable. I didn't come out of it screaming OH MY GOD THIS IS AWWWEEEEEEESOOOOMMEEEE but it's exactly like The Descendants. It's well directed, it's well written and it's well acted and you really can't ask for much more than that these days. The entire cast was great. It's just a good, solid movie. It also managed to not be everything I feared it would be. I figured it would end up being one of those Fried Green Tomatoes type chick flicks. It may have come close a couple of times but it never fully went that far with it. I was also worried about the racial aspect. Hollywood is just amazingly stupid when it comes to race. I expected to see another embarrassing turd like Crash. I expected to see either the evil whitey stereotype or the poor black people can't do anything for themselves and need white people to help them stereotype. But I honestly felt the movie avoided both those stereotypes and seemed to present the race issues of those times with as much honesty as one could expect from a modern day Hollywood film. It didn't sugar coat what was happening at the time, but it also doesn't portray every black person as a noble, innocent victim. There are no broad strokes in this movie. The movie ends up being not about race, but about how people treat other people. It's also a movie that deftly switches back and forth between laugh out loud comedy to tear jerking sadness. It also features a very lengthy storyline about a woman eating a pie made out of shit. Plus it has Emma Stone in it. Even with stupid hair and being uglied up for the role, she still makes my pants uncomfortable.
1 - "Midnight in Paris"
If you had told me before I started watching this year's movies that I'd wind up picking the Woody Allen movie as my favorite of the bunch I might've decided to not watch them this year. But it's the only movie out of all 9 that grabbed hold of me from the very first second to the very last. It's smart, charming and, most of all, fun. It's one of those rare movies where you can see that every actor is having fun and enjoying the hell out of what they're doing and that fun is contagious the viewer. It's also a movie that has something to say. It has a message. And that is something that the rest of these movies, even the ones I liked, didn't really have. It's a bit weird that the light romantic comedy/time traveling adventure from Woody Allen is the most impactful movie of the bunch, but it truly is. Yet it's not going to beat you over the head with any messages either. It's a movie that you can certainly watch and just enjoy the time traveling fun and interesting, quirky, fun characters or you can look a little deeper and try to figure out other things going on. There's layer after layer after layer and every layer is great. It's as much a love letter to Hollywood as The Artist was but at the same time a biting critique of it as well.
I loved this movie but I really don't want to say much about it. I went into it cold, not knowing exactly what was going to go on and that made it even better. I just encourage people to see it for themselves. The sad thing is Woody Allen movies are a bit like the black and white and silent movies I discussed earlier. My whole life it seems everybody hates Woody Allen movies. Anybody around my age and younger seems to think Woody Allen movies are only for old people and they wouldn't be caught dead watching one. I was caught up in that for much of my life as well, until I actually watched one and realize everybody was retarded. If you don't think Woody Allen is funny, you're just insane. He's the most sarcastic smartass who ever lived. I've never seen anything funnier than when he gets out of the car in Annie Hall and says "Don't worry, we can walk to the curb from here." Ok, it's not funny in print but whatever.
If I picked the nominees...
The Iron Lady
The Help
The Descendants
The Artist
Midnight in Paris
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
500 - Terrence Malick for "The Tree of Life"
4 - Martin Scorsese for "Hugo"
3 - Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist" *prediction*
2 - Alexander Payne for "The Descendants"
1 - Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris"
I think I've made my thoughts on these movies pretty clear and directing pretty much falls the same way. I'm tempted to put Scorsese over Hazanavicius but I didn't because who gives a crap.
If I picked the nominees...
Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"
Alexander Payne for "The Descendants"
Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris"
David Fincher for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
Phyllida Lloyd for "The Iron Lady"
5 - Michel Hazanavicus for "The Artist"
4 - Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumolo for "Bridesmaids"
3 - J.C. Chandor for "Margin Call"
2 - Asghar Farhadi for "A Separation"
1 - Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris"
The Artist is going to win a lot of awards. It deserves some of them. But writing? How can a silent movie get best screenplay?
Bridesmaids was a decent comedy but that's about it. I don't think there's anybody funnier on Earth than Kristin Wiig. But an Oscar? For this paint by numbers comedy? Wut?
Truth be told I didn't watch Margin Call or A Separation. But Margin Call isn't nominated for anything else so I assume that the writing must've been pretty damn good for it to get nominated out of the blue like this. And I know A Separation is an Iranian movie. There's no way a movie from Iran is going to get nominated for an American award unless it's really great.
If I picked the nominees...
Midnight in Paris
Young Adult
5 George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Wilimon for "The Ides of March"
4 Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor for "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
3 John Logan for "Hugo"
2 Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillian, Stan Chervin for "Moneyball"
1 Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne, Jim Rash for "The Descendants"
Ides of March was a decent flick but ultimately ended up rather pointless. It built a lot of momentum and seemed to be building towards something and then it just fizzled to a who gives a crap ending.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy? More like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Just like Ides, it started off well but it bogged down. The first hour or so was pretty interesting but the second hour was boring, sleepy, slow and confusing.
You may be surprised that I pushed Moneyball up to two. While I didn't love it, they certainly came up with a mildly decent script despite the fact that they were telling the most useless story in the history of movies.
If I picked the nominees...
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
The Descendants
5 Melissa McCarthy for "Bridesmaids"
4 Janet McTeer for "Albert Nobbs"
3 Berenice Bejo for "The Artist"
2 Octavia Spencer for "The Help" *prediction*
1 Jessica Chastain for "The Help"
This Melissa McCarthy thing has to be the worst joke ever. How in the piss is that hideous woman nominated for a friggin Oscar? Hands down, the worst nomination ever. Her character in Bridesmaids was stupid, useless, obnoxious, unnecessary, annoying, pointless and the complete opposite of funny. It's a character that has been in every single "raunchy" R rated comedy since the 80s. She was the "Booger" of Bridesmaids. Nobody gave Booger the Oscar. I watched the whole movie expecting some big reveal that would explain why she deserves this nomination over other much more deserving people and there was NOTHING there. She was by far the worst part of the movie, ruined every scene she was in and nearly ruined the whole movie. I don't get this at all and never will.
Ultimately my decision was only between Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain. I gave Chastain a slight nod because I feel she's the one who had to stretch the most to really become the character she played. A character 100% nothing like Chastain. While Spencer pretty much just played the fat, sassy black lady. Not really all that much of a stretch. I thoroughly enjoyed Spencer but it seemed like her part was written specifically to be the role that stole the scenes she was in. It wasn't that Spencer stole the scenes, it was the script and pretty much anybody cast in that role would also get nominated. For me, Chastain was the one that truly stole every single scene she was in organically through nothing but her performance. Every time she was on screen I liked the movie more than the time she wasn't.
If I picked the nominees...
Sandra Bullock for "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"
Jessica Chastain for "The Help"
Octavia Spencer for "The Help"
Shailene Woodley for "The Descendants"
Rachel McAdams for "Midnight in Paris"
5 Max Von Sydow for "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
4 Jonah Hill for "Moneyball"
3 Kenneth Branagh for "My Week with Marilyn"
2 Christopher Plummer for "Beginners" *prediction*
1 Nick Nolte for "Warrior"
Max Von Sydow is another head scratcher. He doesn't talk for the whole movie. He plays a mute who writes everything on a notepad. I COULD'VE DONE THAT!
Jonah Hill? Jonah Hill?? Seriously? Jonah Hill plays Jonah Hill in the movie. Am I supposed to be impressed by that? If this category was Best Jonah Hill Performance, I MIGHT agree with this choice.
Christopher Plummer is a great actor and was good in Beginners, a movie I really, really enjoyed. But I feel the performance isn't as great as everybody is making it out. It just feels like another Oscar bait performance. You used to be guaranteed to get a nomination if you played a retard, these days gay is the new retard. Plummer plays a man who decides to come out of the closet and live as an openly gay man in his late 70s/early 80s or so. Then after that he gets cancer. An old gay man with cancer? That's Oscar bait 101 these days. And in reality all Plummer really did was play Chris Plummer and then play Chris Plummer with a pink scarf.
I don't really mean to take anything from it. It was good and I loved the movie. I was fully planning on giving my vote to Plummer because I liked the movie so much and for some reason this is its only nomination. But then I watched Warrior.
Nick Nolte blows all these other guys out of the water in Warrior. I say it's the best acting performance of the year, period, supporting, lead, female, male, period. He is absolutely riveting for every second of the movie. He plays a former alcoholic who is absolutely hated by his two sons. We see how much they hate him, we hear about his drinking and we hear about his abusive behavior, but Nolte plays it completely likeable and sympathetic. You just can't comprehend how this sad, pathetic old guy could be so hated by his own sons. It doesn't make sense. You feel sorry for the guy the entire time. But then there's one scene where we get to see what he was like drunk. He completely changes. His body changes, his face changes, he's ranting and raving like a maniac. The monster has been revealed but instead of fearing it you still feel nothing but sympathy that he has to live with that inside of him. Once you see Nolte in this movie it SHOULD be a no brainer.
If I picked the nominees...
Christopher Plummer for "Beginners"
Nick Nolte for "Warrior"
Albert Brooks for "Drive"
Corey Stoll for "Midnight in Paris"
John Hawkes for "Martha Macy May Marlene"
5 Glenn Close for "Albert Nobbs"
4 Michelle Williams for "My Week with Marilyn"
3 Viola Davis for "The Help" *prediction*
2 Rooney Mara for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
1 Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady"
Am I really supposed to be impressed that Glenn Close played a man in a movie? Seriously? We've all thought she looked like a man for 40 years.
I really do like Michelle Williams. Been a fan since Dick. But I have grown really tired of how Hollywood has treated her since Heath Ledger. Nobody was a bigger fan of Heath Ledger than me. No fan was more bummed when he died. But ok, enough already. It was nice to see everybody rally around Michelle Williams then, but you've been given her awards for 4 years now. Ok, we get it. She's not THIS good. Let's end the pity party.
Rooney Mara did a shockingly good job in Dragon Tattoo. She was a million times better in the role than the girl who originally played the part in the Swedish version. I almost talked myself into giving it to her based on the amount of times she showed her tits, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
This is another category that should be just cut and dry. Meryl Streep is un-naturally good in Iron Lady. She doesn't play Margaret Thatcher, she becomes Margaret Thatcher. It's unbelievable. I forgot it was her for long stretches of time and then I'd wake up and go oh my God, that's Meryl Streep! Meryl Streep is by far the best and most consistent actor of any gender since the 70s. Others like DeNiro and Pacino have fallen while she not only continues, but improves. There seems to come a point with people like this that you stop caring, they're too good, we all know it, no need to give her yet another award. We start overlooking greatness just because it's been great for so long. But it's not time to do it yet when it comes to Streep. Iron Lady is the performance of a lifetime but somebody who I would've thought had already had her performance of a lifetime.
If I picked the nominees...
Rooney Mara for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
Meryl Streep for "The Iron Lady"
Tilda Swinton for "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
Elizabeth Olsen for "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
Charlize Theron for "Young Adult"
5 Brad Pitt for "Moneyball"
4 Gary Oldman for "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
3 Demian Bichir for "A Better Life"
2 Jean Dujardin for "The Artist" *prediction*
1 George Clooney for "The Descendants"
This is, by far, the weakest category.
Oh, look at me, I'm Brad Pitt and I play Brad Pitt in Moneyball. WHO CARES? I truly can't believe THIS is the movie Pitt got nominated for. I am not one of those Brad Pitt haters. I think the guy can be a great actor sometimes and has been in some of the coolest movies for two decades now. But Moneyball is the most boring Brad Pitt I've ever seen. He sleepwalks through the movie and just plays himself.
Same thing with Gary Oldman. Gary Oldman rules. Has been amaze-balls in dozens of movies. THIS is the one that gets nominated? The one where he just walks around and whispers for 3 hours?? Seriously?
Bichir did pretty good in A Better Life but felt very miss-cast. Totally wrong for the part. I never bought him in this role despite all his efforts.
In all honestly I would make this one a tie if I could. Clooney and Dujardin were both good in their movies but neither blew me away. Neither stood out from the other. So I just have to go with the fact that I've been a Clooney fan forever. I used to love his dad Nick Clooney on AMC even. I didn't find his performance in The Descendants better or worse than he usually in, but this guy has acted in, produced or directed some of my favorite movies of the last few years. Plus he handled the Batman and Robin fiasco as classy as anybody could've. So that gives him the edge over Dujardin in my book.
If I picked the nominees...
Michael Shannon for "Take Shelter"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt for "50/50"
Tom Hardy for "Warrior"
Ryan Gosling for "Drive"
Ewan McGregor for "Beginners"
Pick - The Artist
Prediction - Hugo
Pick - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Prediction - Tree of Life
Pick - The Artist
Prediction - Jane Eyre
Pick - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Prediction - The Artist
Pick - The Iron Lady
Prediction - The Iron Lady
Pick - The Artist
Prediction - The Artist
Pick - Man or Muppet
Prediction - Man or Muppet
Pick - Transformers
Prediction - Hugo
Pick - Transformers
Prediction - Hugo
Pick - Transformers
Prediction - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Pick - A Separation
Prediction - A Separation
Pick - Rango
Prediction - Rango
Pick - Paradise Lost 3


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Related Articles
After getting good appreciation and international recognition for his first movie Sandalwood Sa Ri Ga Ma, director Sharat Khadri is back with his second venture titled as Mareyalaare. The movie started a while back but got delayed unexpectedly.However, the director has started working on the movie again.
The director has decided to go public and make it a crowd funded movie. This isn't the first time a Sandalwood movie is made by crowd funding. Last year, director Pawan Kumar made the critically acclaimed movie Lucia through crowd funding. The movie got rave reviews for a fresh storyline and wonderful direction.
Director Sharat Khadri has said that Mareyalaare is a romantic movie which deals with love, relationship and aspiration. The movie will be shot in Bangalore, Chikmagalur and Madhya Pradesh. The music will be composed by Arjun Janya. The movie will be debut for the new actor Thandav. Actress Pavithra Belliappa will be the female lead.
The director says that few more new faces will be introduced in the movie. He added that since the story line is fresh and different from all the stories seen so far, he wanted to cast new actors for the roles.

subset: commoncrawl


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Palm Pre Allows More Freedom For Application Developers
Posted: 03:43AM
Author: CheeseMan42
Apple has long had an app store that can be considered robust and perhaps even the best of app stores. Palm is hoping to unseat Apple in this with the applications allowed on the Palm Pre, the smart phone Palm is banking the future on. Palm believes that by taking away some of the restrictions present in iPhone applications, such as inability to run in the background, that it will be able to offer better applications. The Pre will also offer an application so that PalmOS applications can be run on the new webOS. The iPhone OS 3.0 will solve some of these issues, and its release may hinder the spread of the Pre.


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Step 1: Attend one's baby shower and get all kinds of cool stuff
Step 2: Thank everyone for coming then proceed to go into labor.
Maybe it wasn't exactly that simple, but Brooke's shower ended around 4:00 and she started labor at 5:00. That's the way to do it! Great timing, girl! Can't wait to meet Kinsey.
Csilla sent a gift from Rome.
Katy made a gorgeous quilt. Absolutely beautiful.


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AMD has announced availability of a new server platform, the AMD Opteron 6000 series, featuring eight- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market, the company noted.
The Opteron 6000 series server processors perform at up to two times the level of AMD's previous generation six-core processors, including an 88% increase in integer performance and a 119% increase in floating point performance, the company claimed.
The platform features enhanced integrated memory controller supporting four channels of DDR3 memory for up to a 2.5x improvement in overall memory bandwidth. It also has 33% more memory channels per processor than competitive 2P solutions.


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Recreation, Parks and Tourism 413
RCPT 413: Professional Issues in Recreation, Parks and Tourism
Prerequisites: Final semester prior to internship, have a minimum 2.5 cumulative GPA and a minimum 2.5 major GPA
Focuses on various professional concerns relative to recreation delivery. Emphasis given to internship/employment preparation, concept of a profession and professional organization, ethical principles and professionalism, and trends and issues in recreation, parks and tourism.
Detailed Description of Content of the Course
The course is divided into two specific units. The initial unit considers the preparation and selection of the internship (RCPT 470) which has direct carry-over to employment. Major topics considered in this unit include developing goals for the internship, resume and cover letter, and interviewing skills. In addition, the student will develop a portfolio appropriate for an interview, understand internship procedures, and investigate and select an internship site.
The second unit focuses on the concept and criteria of a profession as related to recreation, park resources and leisure services as well as examining the various recreation professional issues. Associated with this unit is consideration of ethical principles as applied to professional practice, attitudes and behaviors in the delivery of recreation in various settings.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
The first unit emphasizes the selection and arrangement of the internship (RCPT 470) which can also be used to enhance professional career employment opportunities to following graduation. Topics considered include: (1) conducting a self-assessment; (2) developing internship/employment goals; (3) investigating appropriate agencies; (4) developing a resume and cover letter; (5) preparing for and participating in interviews; and (6) selecting the best internship site.
The second unit considers the concept of recreation, parks and tourism as a profession in association with criteria of a profession in addition to examining current professional issues. Associated with this unit is the consideration or sensitizing students to ethical principles and professionalism as applied to professional practice, attitudes, legal issues, and behaviors in the delivery of recreation in various settings.
A variety of instructional methods will be used to promote a participative approach in exploring the various units. The methods used include but are not limited to the following: interviews, group discussion, oral presentations, in-class and take-home written assignments, small-group discussions, guest lecturers, literature reviews, demonstrations, attendance at professional meetings, and computer applications.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Prepare a cover letter and resume appropriate for internship and employment opportunities.
2. Develop a series of goals relevant to the internship.
3. Demonstrate interviewing skills relative to an internship.
4. Identify and describe contemporary professional issues and how they impact on the delivery of recreation, parks and tourism.
5. Identify and demonstrate sensitivity to ethical principles and standards of practice as applied to professional practice in recreation delivery systems.
6. Articulate the nature of recreation and leisure as a profession.
7. Articulate professional criteria and the relationship of criteria to the recreation, park resources, and tourism field.
Assessment Measures
Assessment of students in the course is based upon a number of factors; individual and group oral presentations and written assignments, reports, and exercises; field investigations; examinations and quizzes; attendance and classroom discussion.
Other Course Information
Review and Approval
Revised 2013
Reviewed February 2005 Edward Udd, Chair


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Stacy collects 10 useful Web 2.0 sites and mashes them up into one place for your clicking pleasure.
Stacy's Weekly Mashup: Complore, gumshoo, YouSendIt, Ning, Campfire
|Jun 1, 2006
|Stacy Reed
- Wayfaring - Create personalized maps and share them with your friends.
- BubbleShare - Share your digital photos and the stories that go with them.
- Complore -A social research collaboration tool to connect researchers in diverse fields.
- gumshoo - A simpler, safer, smarter way to shop eBay.
- PiXPO - Broadcast your personal videos, music and photos.
- Side Job Track - Quickly and easily manage your side jobs with simple project tools.
- Campfire - Chat and share files with clients and coworkers in real-time.
- YouSendIt - A secure and easy way to send files that are too big for email.
- Ning - Create and share your own social Web applications.
- OpenVlog - Record and share your vlogs for free.
Do you have any comments or suggestions for next weeks mashup? Let's talk it up in the forums! Click Discuss this article below.
About Stacy Reed
Stacy Reed is Tucows' resident software librarian and editor. She has been reviewing PC and mobile software as well as web services for over a decade. Helping developers improve and promote their products is only one of her areas of expertise. Stacy is also an advocate for Open Source, Creative Commons and freeware, taking special interest in educational resources, social media, cloud sharing, and mobile technology.
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Prayer is neither peaceful nor sacred when someone is forced to participate in it.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Freedom of Religion
Some people have still yet to realize that in order to have freedom of religion, there must be freedom from it as well. These are two sides of the same coin.
For, how can you exclusively worship a god without excluding other gods in the process?
I submit that one cannot avoid this; for in excerising your own freedom of religion, you are inevitably excercising your freedom from someone else's faith.
So then . . . stop feeling entitled and accept that everyone has this right-- and not just you.
Posted by Uruk at 20:20 View Comments
Labels: first amendment, freedom, liberty
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Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Richard Durbin said a dispute over federal funding for family planning agencies, which has proven to be the biggest and last stumbling block, had been resolved.
One source told NBC News that the issue was no longer on the table.
Congressional sources told National Journal that the outline of the spending deal includes up to $39 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget, $514 billion for the defense budget covering the remainder of this fiscal year, a GOP agreement to abandon policy riders dealing with Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Protection Agency, and an agreement to pass legislation Friday night to keep the government running while the deal is written in bill form.For the moment at least those funds to Planned Parenthood have not been cut, but the overall budget compromise was almost certainly several billion dollars lower in total funding for discretionary government spending than would otherwise have been the case had its funding not been held hostage.


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March 03, 2010
April 8, 1953: first big Hollywood 3D film
On this day's date in 1953, the first 3D movie made by a major Hollywood studio hit screens. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't
Jaws 3D
House of Wax, but rather Man In The Dark. From Wired: Six months later, Kiss Me Kate was released in 3-D. Eye-blindingly colorful and 3-Delicious. Bob Fosse dances in it and Ann Miller sings a song with the refrain "dick, dick, dick, a dick, dick, a dick, dick.
Back then everybody thought all movies will be in 3-D seriously! Who knew it would just fade away as a FAD, i still could not understand why 3-D movies suddenly stopped. I agree it would be asking for too much workwise, but movies like 'TItanic' and 'Transformers' ( the special effects and ship building etc.). would have taken equal time and sweat!
James Cameron. Aha , he came back with a bang, Da-Dimension. People flocked and waited for the movie as if they were waiting for summer holiday seat. Cameroon quoted a classic saying "The technology should wave its own wand and make itself disappear.'' But when people came out taking their 3-D glasses off, they kept wondering whether it was a 'fantasy world' by a genius or a 'bloody american assault'. Nevertheless James Cameroon got back the lost GLORY of 3-D CINEMA********
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Preston Lukem
March 4, 2010 at 5:10 AM
I never knew the first 3-d movie.
I had the same thought about 'AVATAR' THE MOVIE.
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Item Description
This beautiful traditional bar will be a welcome addition to your home's entertaining space. The curved bar makes a grand statement with its twist rope pilasters, scroll feet, and molding trim. The smooth marble top offers durability and classic appeal to the top of the bar. The reverse side of the bar provides plenty of storage for your supplies. Complete your bar with the coordinating bar stools.
Collection Description
Traditional details make this marble top bar and bar stool collection a way to incorporate old-fashioned hospitality into your home. The smooth marble top bar unit will be a welcome addition to your home. Paired with the matching bar stools, you will have a grand new entertainment space.
Product Details
|Item & Dimensions
|Length (side to side)
|Width (front to back)
|Height (bottom to top)
|Material & Finish
|Wood & Finish
|Warm Brown Finish
|Style Elements
|Case Detail
|Rope Trim Detail
How much is shipping?
Shipping is FREE!
Free Shipping all bay area of San Francisco, San Jose, Fremont, Tracy, Stockton, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and some nearest bay area.
Delivery FREE IN HOME is available on all of our items. Our professional two-man team will deliver your order into the room of your choice. You tell us where to place the item and we will do it for you free of charge.
We do assembly for extra $40 no matter how many pieces you buy
Can you ship to APO / FPO addresses?
Sorry we cannot ship to APO / FPO addresses. Our cartons are too large. You may want to ship to a friend or relative who can then forward your shipment.
All Products are covered under the manufacturer's warranty. Please contact us for help with warranty issues for products you purchased through our company. We strive to carry quality furniture that will very rarely require utilization of the manufacturer's warranty.
What if My Shipment Arrives Damaged?
Very rare situation that you experience damage in your shipment, please be sure to note it on the delivery paperwork you sign and contact us as soon as possible. If the carton is obviously severely damaged, please refuse the shipment from the freight company. We will arrange for a replacement or replacement parts to be rushed out. We will take the quickest route to remedy the situation. In the event a replacement is delivered to you before original shipment is returned, you are responsible for cooperating with the return of the item. Failure to return the damaged item will cause us to charge your credit card for the non-returned item.
What is the Cancellation Policy?
If we are able to cancel your order before it is produced and/or shipped, there is not a charge for the cancellation. If the product has been shipped, you will be responsible for all inbound and outbound shipping charges. These charges will be deducted from your refund.
Cancellations or returns must be authorized in advance.
Please contact us for cancellation or return for merchandise
What is the Return Policy?
Generally on all items the return policy is that you are responsible for round trip freight if the furniture has already been shipped or produced. Please contact us and we will assess your situation. A 20% re-stocking fee is also deducted from your refund. Since our products are offered with free shipping, please be aware that if you return one of these products our actual outbound shipping costs will be deducted from your refund. Please be careful when ordering your furniture and let us know if we can be of assistance in selecting the right furniture for your situation. Always measure the space you are placing the furniture. Sorry we cannot accept returns for assembled merchandise. Any returns must be in their original packaging. Items will not be authorized for return after 15 days from the delivery date. Your credit card will be refunded once the manufacturer receives the returned item.
Are finish colors accurate?
We do our best to accurately show the finish colors of each piece we carry, however colors can vary by personal perceptions, monitor type and age, video card differences and printing variations.
Contact number 510 541 8602


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The 9-hole round offers the complete golfing experience in half the time of an 18-hole round. It is compatible with the rules of golf and the handicap system.
Sitting in front of a computer all day? Stressed from chasing deadlines? Not spending enough time with your friends? Playing 9-holes of golf after work or at the weekend can help your health and wellbeing.


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Leolah Brown KICKED OUT Bobbi Kristina Funeral
The Accurate Source To Find Transcript To Leolah Brown KICKED OUT Bobbi Kristina Funeral."
[Leolah Brown KICKED OUT Bobbi Kristina Funeral]
[Leolah Brown (Bobbi Brown's Aunt):] Source: LYBIO.net
Whitney will haunt Pat Houston from the grave. She will haunt her. Pat, it's not over. It has just begun. It has just begun,
Why do you say that?
[Leolah Brown:]
I say that because I have information, I have evidence, I have knowledge of who Pat really is – she is not any relation whatsoever to Krissi — she's not even a Houston she's a Garland. But Pat Houston has – this is going to be a long drawn out thing, trust me. It's not over. It's not over. I'll be doing interviews and I'll be speaking out and telling the truth about Pat, who Pat is.
[The Bobbi Kristina funeral] it went wonderful, until Pat started speaking, and I didn't like that. I left.
What she say? What did she say?
[Leolah Brown:]
I just told her that Whitney was going to haunt her from her grave.
What did…
[Leolah Brown:] Source: L Y B I O . N E T
Not much, she's not saying anything, I really don't know what .. you know she's just being the phony person that she is.
Leolah Brown KICKED OUT Bobbi Kristina Funeral. I just told her that Whitney was going to haunt her from her grave. Complete Full Transcript, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Text.


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Lahore: A four-member delegation of today. The delegation was led by Korean Ex-Ambassador to Pakistan Mr Shin-Un who met with Chief Executive Officer PBIT, Habib Ur Rehman Gilani and other senior officials.
Mr. Shin-Un said that Korea was interested in exporting products to Pakistan and looking to tap into the cosmetics and health products. The delegates shared the biotechnology enhanced Ginseng products as well as high end skin care cosmetics which they were interested to introduce in Pakistan with help and inputs from PBIT. These products were already being sold across the world and Punjab was a great place to launch these international quality product ranges.
The CEO PBIT, Dr. Habib ur Rehman Gilani, emphasized the potential of the ever growing retail sector and a large young urban population present in Punjab. He further suggested for KOPAK's collaboration so that Korean tour operators come and visit Punjab and subsequently link up with TDCP to offer highly competitive packages of tourism in Punjab.


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Proceed to the observations made below...
What do you see in pictures 1, and 2? In the first picture,1, the side view, though containing some nice sculpturistic lines, doesn't look "Mustang" enough in comparison to the second picture, 2. Therefore, what I have done below, is attempt to reinvigorate the real Mustang bloodline, while simultaneously upping the ante.
If you look carefully above (observing the arrows), you can see two long curving lines that start out - with wide separation - by the front fender, and then in a swooping manner, converges at the rear wheel fender. Right here, a sumptious rump in the rear quarter panel is birthed, and gently dives down a bit over the rear wheel and then curves upward again, running into the tail lamps, which is followed tangentially by a spoiler profile. Also, checkout the lower arrows coming from the front wheel fender, and watch how it invisibly (I made it visible by highlighting it with red arrows) reaches into a sexy, near-derriere curvature into the lower part of the rear fascia (behind the rear wheel). See? You know me, I always try if possible, to put a little bit of the ladies into my automotive designs :)
Ok. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the ride as we show you a ton of otherwise hot pictures of the Ford Evos concept, of which Ford will be drawing some of its inspiration for the new 2014/2015 Ford Mustang concept! You got your popcorn right? (lol)
Also, further your reading at the following sources:
- Gebre Mesquitta


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Gulfnews.com/Palestinian girl: 'I can't wait to show friends my new arm'
SHAFAQNA (International Shia News Association)- Nine-year-old Palestinian Salwa Hesham has nothing but gratitude in her heart. Her Dubai visit has given her new hope.
Salwa, from Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem in the West Bank, was born with an underdeveloped left arm. She was flown to Dubai by the non-profit group Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) for medical treatment.
"Thank you so, so, so much to everyone who helped me. I will miss you all, especially Tarren, my therapist," Salwa told Gulf News, referring to the PCRF volunteers who have aided her since day one.
The third of six children, Salwa's family doesn't have the means to get her a prosthetic arm and medical care. PCRF stepped in by providing her with a myoelectric-controlled prosthetic arm through the help of sponsors. This highly advanced prosthetics uses the existing muscles in Salwa's residual limb to control its functions, even the fingers.
"I can now carry a handbag with my left hand and play with a ball or ride the swing, which was difficult to do before. Everything has become easier because I can now use both my hands," Salwa said.
Salwa has been spending the last two-and-a-half weeks with her occupational therapist, Tarren 't Hart, to train her how to use the new prosthetic arm. Although the task is challenging, she has progressed considerably well, 't Hart said.
"Within a short span of time, she's learned pretty much how to use the arm. It seems like she has taken on almost a new body part. She had to relearn many motor skills, which was a tricky task, but she coped very well," 't Hart, a senior occupational therapist at Mediclinic on Beach Road, told Gulf News.
Steve Sosebee, CEO of PCRF, wished Salwa a bright future with the new arm she received. He said many more need help just like her.
"We have many children with medical conditions coming from conflict areas like Syria, Iraq or Gaza who need medical care that their families cannot afford, and which we are obliged to help provide them."
PCRF will follow Salwa's case until she turns 18. They have pledged to fit her with a new prosthetic arm should she outgrow her current one. She is scheduled to fly home in a week's time.
"I'm so happy now. I can't wait to go home and show my new arm to my friends, go to school, and use it in everyday life," Salwa said.


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Saturday, 2 May 2009
Long Time, No Blog!
It has been far too long since I last did a blog entry. I am back on the studying game, I'm afraid. I have been studying for my Advanced Level Psychology and my exams are on 13th May (Paper 1) and 15th May (Paper 2), then I will be free for the summer hoorah! 15th May would be Mike's birthday so it is a special day and I will do my best for him.
I have quite a lot going on at the moment - my brother and SIL are coming across from USA to stay with me for a whole week and I am really looking forward to it. We are going over to see our 3 cousins and will have a big get-together with about 12 of us all together - it will be mad, but fun. One of the days my brother is over here, we will be going to London as there are quite a few people he wants to get together with, so we thought it would be nice to get everyone together in a restaurant. I'm glad I have taken the week off work, because I'm going to need a bit of a rest after all that ha ha!! Also I have a 3-day training course for work, over near Bristol so that should be good fun.
I hope you are enjoying some warm sunshine - I have been out in the garden all afternoon so I am getting a bit of a tan :-)
I am hoping to do some cross-stitch this weekend as I haven't done any stitching for weeks. In the small amount of free time I have had, I made a few birthday cards as I have a total of 7 birthdays in April/May - its a very busy time. I found a fantastic kit -- see above -- on the Internet (Michael Powell), which is a picture of Tenby in Pembrokeshire. Pembrokeshire has stunning coastlines (owned by the National Trust) and it has many wonderful places to walk and 'be'. The kit will bring back some very happy memories, as I was over there for the first time ever this Easter weekend, with a couple of friends. Coincidentally, we stayed at a lovely hotel called The Grange which was going to be used for some filming of the next Harry Potter film! When we were over there, we were lucky enough to have great weather and spent one day walking round Tenby with our cameras - it is a really picturesque seaside town, with cute pastel coloured buildings as you can see, from Michael Powell's beautiful representation above.
Well, I hope you enjoy the long weekend (for those in UK) as we have a Public Holiday next Monday yippee extra lie-in!
Happiness always
Alison xx
5 comments:
- Rowyn said...
Good luck with your exams.
Love the Michael Powell kit - it's gorgeous!
- 2 May 2009 at 23:00
- Von said...
Sounds like a very busy time for you! Glad you're getting away for some fun. :)
- 4 May 2009 at 05:36
- Chiloe said...
Have fun with your brother;-)
The kit must be a lot of work but it's surely worth it ;-)
- 9 May 2009 at 18:45
- Margaret said...
How absolutely exciting that your brother will be here in four days. Really - to stay? Wow that is so great for you Alison.
Hope your exams went well and that you now have loads of time to enjoy summer, stitching and of course your brother.
Love the Michael Powell kit you have. I've stitched one of his pieces and loved the journey.
hugs, Margaret
- 2 June 2009 at 18:40
- Margaret said...
I hope you still get around to reading your comments Alison and hope all is well there.
Have been wanting to contact you but since the new computer I can't get at your email address.
Please contact me at megratdataviadotcom so I will be able to write you and catch you up on our lives.
hugs, Margaret
- 5 June 2010 at 00:09


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Because electrolytes are dissolved in body liquids, whenever you're losing fluids you're losing electrolytes. Typically the most significant electrolyte loses, specifically sodium electrolytes, occur when your sweat rate boosts:
Dehydration and electrolyte imbalance are both symptoms associated with stomach bugs. Diarrhoea and vomiting lead to large fluid and electrolyte loss, that if left neglected, can lead to symptoms of severe dehydration and require medical attention. After a heavy night your electrolyte balance will also need to be corrected.
A lot of folks tend feel that dehydration can be corrected by ingesting lots of water. While this effective in replacing lost fluids, without replenishing lost electrolytes when you're dried out your body is unable to absorb any water you drink. Not only does this prevent rehydration, but by only taking on extra fluids the electrolyte balance becomes further diluted. The sodium, potassium, and chloride ions that contribute to electrolyte balance need to be replaced as well as fluids.
Electrolyte pills are the most effective way to maintain your hydration levels by exchanging both fluids and electrolytes. O. R. S Water balance Tablets contain a accurate blend of salts, mineral deposits, Which Of The Following Is Not An Electrolyte and glucose to bring back electrolyte balance. The blood sugar aids the absorption of sodium through the walls of the intestine, correcting the electrolyte balance in the blood circulating the body and allows the entire body to rehydrate by moving water to where it can needed the most.
water balance tablet formula
Salts, minerals and glucose
Increased electrolytes
Electrolytes tablet give a complete method of replenishing fluids and are far more convenient for sports athletes that are undergoing a lot of physical stress. If your body is losing drinking water at a rapid rate, then you'll need to drink a lot of water to counter this. The problem is that water stimulates a high urine flow, so your body is going to lose water from sweating, and lose it from proceeding to the toilet loads. The result is that your body is not rehydrated effectively. By taking an electrolyte tablet, you eliminate this problem and you don't have to drink all the drinking water to rehydrate.
Using electrolyte tablets also avoids consuming sports drinks containing high levels of sugar. Each time a drink contains far more sugar than salt, nor are absorbed properly and causes a build-up of Water Balance And Electrolyte Balance Are Interdependent Because | Vega Electrolyte | Benzoic Acid Electrolyte | Strong Electrolyte Definition | Electrolyte Ions | Hclo3 Strong Or Weak Electrolyte | Is Sodium An Electrolyte | How To Tell If Something Is A Strong Electrolyte | Define Weak Electrolyte | Which Of The Following Is Not A Hormone Involved In Water And Electrolyte Balance | fluid in the intestinal tract not an embrace your hydration levels.
Athletes And Electrolyte Tablets
Elite-level athletes are the ones that gain the most from electrolyte tablets. They're constantly putting themselves in situations where their body temperature is high. This specific contributes to excessive sweating and a high-risk of lacks. Many top athletes use O. R. S Hydration Tablets to rehydrate themselves on the move, ensuring their bodies are never in a state of electrolyte imbalance.
Children And Electrolyte Dietary supplements
Children can benefit from taking electrolytes
Children can also benefit from electrolyte tablets. Typically, children get dehydrated easily. This is because they have got boundless energy, and sweat quite a lot are not as aware about staying hydrated as older people are. So, giving children these tablets can be a great way to ensure they stay hydrated..
Staying Hydrated In Hot Climates
Hot climate leads to loss of electrolytes from sweat
People in hot climates are constantly at risk of dehydration. When you've ever stayed out there in the sun, then you'll probably have felt tired. Often, this is because the heat has caused to dehydrate. Your body has lost so much normal water during the day, and Signs Of Electrolyte Imbalance | Daily Electrolyte Requirements | How To Make An Electrolyte Drink | Electrolyte Imbalance Symptoms Chart | Is Tap Water An Electrolyte | Electrolyte Replacement Guidelines | Electrolyte Powder Packets | Electrolyte Powder Walmart | What Is A Electrolyte | Hydralyte Effervescent Electrolyte Tablets | you have a lack of essential minerals. All of this can be avoided if you take some O. R. H Hydration Tablets during the day.
Sickness And Water balance Drinks
While you are sick you lose water. Hydration tablets help you to maintain your hydration levels
Anybody that's sick will lose a lot of normal water. It's common for your body heat to rise due to a fever. By taking an electrolyte tablet, you can help keep yourself hydrated during your disease. It will help you recover from your illness, and keep dehydration at bay. Electrolyte tablets are the best way for individuals to moisturizer themselves. They have numerous benefits over only drinking normal water or sports drinks. The particular science behind ORS capsules will guarantee they're effective. To increase this, they avoid lead to the side results. They're medically safe, and exquisite for anyone to use.
For more information click our FAQs page.
Drop it. Dissolve it. Drink it. Those are the quick instructions Chicago-based BE Enhancements Inc. gives for the use of its quarter-size ZYM electrolyte tablets. The little effervescent drops -- which fizz and dissolve in water like Alka-Seltzer capsules -- are made to ease the process of
converting basic water into a vitamin-fortified, electrolyte-rich sports drink.
CamelBak Spirit
It's hard to go wrong with any of these offerings. Within use, they are all fairly similar. ZYM and CamelBak are stronger-tasting. As noted, ZYM Catapult's caffeine gives a noticeable boost. (CamelBak also offers tablets with caffeine. )
Overall, I was a devotee to the category of effervescent electrolyte tablets. The small tabs make getting sodium, potassium, magnesium (mg) and other performance boosters into your system as easy as plunking a tablet in water. The final bonus: The sugar-free tablets do not crud up a water container or hydration reservoir like sugary supplements can. Compared to the traditional option of mixing sports powder in water, ZYM, CamelBak, and nuun all provide a superior solution.
Original "Nuun Active" Electrolyte Tablets
For a decade or so, runners and cyclists have enjoyed the advantages of adding Nuun Active electrolyte pills to their water while exercising. Drop one into 16 oz. of normal water, and you get a pleasantly fizzy, lightly flavoured drink that helps replenish electrolytes you sweat away. People who often experience leg cramps also have noted good results from ingesting the stuff. In any case, from the nice alternate to Gatorade, Ki Electrolyte Or Nonelectrolyte | Signs Of Electrolyte Imbalance | Digoxin Electrolyte Imbalance | Coconut Water Electrolyte | Which Domain Of The Nursing Intervention Phase Includes Electrolyte And Acid-base Management? | Fecl2 Electrolyte | Electrolyte Rules | Which Of The Following Is Not An Electrolyte | Battery Electrolyte Is A Mixture Of Water And | Fluid And Electrolyte Nursing Quiz | et ing.
In early 2016, Nuun (pronounced "noon") released a brand new, reformulated version of their Active tablets, but it hasn't gone over well with die-hard fans of the original formula, especially for individuals who dislike plant-based sweeteners such as stevia remove.
Your own mileage may vary of course, but when it comes down to it, I'd recommend picking up a box of the old stuff while they still offer it. It comes with four 12-tablet pipes, with the respective flavours of lemon lime, tri-berry, citrus fruit, and orange.
ZYM electrolyte tablets
ZYM is one of three similar drop-and-dissolve options for people and outdoors types. The originator of the category, nuun & co. of Seattle, as well as hydration-products behemoth CamelBak Incorporation., offer essentially the same thing.
The products from all three companies come packaged in small plastic-type tubes with 10 to 12 tablets inside. Costs vary from about $6. 55 (nuun) to $10 (CamelBak). Within the last four years, We have used the products thoroughly, and each one is good. The dissimilarities come in the flavors each company offers as well as the amount and type of vitamins, electrolytes, caffeinated drinks or other constitutes added into the fizzing blend.
In 2004,
Electrolyte Shorthand
All athletes will experience some level of electrolyte loss and dehydration. The extent of this loss depends upon the sort of physical activity, but more significantly the rate of sweat. The average football player sweats anywhere between one 3% - 4% of body weight each game, to represent a high loss of electrolytes.
Like how your body triggers a temperature controlling sweat reply during exercise, travelling in hot humid climates will make you sweat and lead to electrolyte disproportion as your body efforts to cool down. Cabin dehydration on long transport flights causes electrolyte reduction, but not necessarily through sweat. The low humidity of an aircraft pulls moisture and electrolytes from your lungs, eyes, and nose as well as your skin.
Whatever allows you to sweat, electrolyte tablets are crucial for rehydration and sustaining optimum fluid balance.
Bicycling, diarrhoea and air create cabins have one thing in How To Make An Electrolyte Drink | Elite Electrolyte | Fluid And Electrolyte | Nursing Diagnosis Electrolyte Imbalance | Is Naoh A Strong Electrolyte | Is Na2so4 A Strong Electrolyte | Which Compound Is An Electrolyte | Electrolyte Normal Values | Strong Electrolyte Weak Electrolyte Or Nonelectrolyte | Trace Minerals Research Electrolyte Stamina | common; electrolyte disproportion caused by fluid loss. The fact that drinking water makes up between 50 - 60% of the human body, and 70 percent of muscle, heart, and brain tissue highlights how important hydration is for normal bodily function. That only takes fluid loss above 1% of body-weight to become dehydrated, and as you lose fluids your body is also dropping a blend of salts and minerals that need to be replaced for rehydration; this where electrolyte tablets come in.
hydration tablet method
What are Electrolytes?
With out electrolytes, your body simply would not work. Dissolved in body fluids, these small electrically charged contaminants are involved in almost every function throughout the body, and are specifically important when it comes to hydration. A mixture of sodium, potassium, and calcium ions creates a hydrating electrolyte balance that preserves cellular fluid balance through the body by moving water to where its most needed.
Personally i have tried nuun since 2006 on dozens of trips and training days. The company's flavors, from lemon-lime to cola, will be the most delicate in the class. Add a nuun tablet to your bike water bottle and in about two minutes you Altered Fluid And Electrolyte Balance | Lack Of Electrolyte Symptoms | How To Tell If Something Is A Strong Electrolyte | Glucose Electrolyte Or Nonelectrolyte | Electrolyte Protocol | Chapter 26 Fluid Electrolyte And Acid-base Balance | Recognize The Symptoms Of Electrolyte Imbalance | Ba(no3)2 Electrolyte | 40000 Volts Electrolyte Concentrate Reviews | Is Sodium An Electrolyte | get a drink that tastes refreshing and light. There is merely a hint of flavor, and it also does not overpower water's thirst-quenching natural state.
Typically the nuun tabs have 360mg of sodium apiece as well as three other electrolytes, potassium, magnesium and calcium. There is no sugar, no caffeine, and little else in nuun, which takes the most minimalist approach to its product in the fizz-and-drink category.
ZYM sets itself apart from nuun by adding B vitamins and, for its ZYM Massively increase product, 100mg of caffeinated drinks. I get a bigger immediate boost from ZYM than nuun. Its taste in either of you can actually two flavors (berry and lemon-lime), is stronger, too.
CamelBak's Elixir, another sugar-free pill, costs about $10 for a tube of 13 tablets. This is additional money than the competition, but Elixir is more focused and goes somewhat further. Each CamleBak tablet works for up to 24 ounces of water. I actually often use them in a 16-ounce bike normal water bottle, and the preference is noticeably stronger than nuun or ZYM.
Pocima, like one other companies' options, is not hard to consume. It comes in orange, lemon-lime, and berry flavors. All are good-tasting and refreshing.


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Mallorca Sunshine Sailing Adventure - enjoy the Mediterranean with SailCork
- On 14 12 2017
Escape to the sunshine in May and enjoy an excellent weeks sailing in the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. Join skipper Eddie English and hostess Jo English and experience the cruise of a lifetime from Palma to various destinations around the beautiful island of Mallorca. This is THE sailing destination of choice in the Mediterranean due to moderate winds and an amazing coastline with plenty of friendly ports with delicious food and drink available in every village and cove. Get to visit the places off the tourist trail and enjoy some great sailing. So read on to find out abour this great adventure!
Read more


text: and it's important to you, please sign this petition to pass a bill in honor of John Lennon called "The Imagine Act" which will ban the sale of firearms on the Internet, require background checks on gun retailers, as well as prohibit the sale of guns at private parties. The time is here. The time is now. Stop the madness.


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From Plato's Guns
I currently live in the south of Lebanon, in a farmhouse situated on a green Levantean hill. My gardener is a 26 year old Syrian who lives with his family in a separate cottage on the property. His wife is 20 and they have three children, the youngest being 4 months old. They both hail from a small town that's a good 40 minutes drive from Raqqa, ISIS's capital in Syria. Their town is under ISIS occupation, part of the swath of landmass under control of the terrorist army. My gardener gets regular news from his town via a cellphone network of brothers, sisters and cousins scattered inside and outside their town and who are all in constant touch with each other with news and updates of the great and the small. They are in constant circulation of their family, their friends and their neighbors' news. They are Micro Media messengers. They are the purest form of media. They cannot afford to lie or exaggerate to each other lest they cause unnecessary grief or danger to their loved ones. I am privy to these microcosmic stories and I would like to share with you my general impression of them.
Three years ago, the now defunct Free Syrian Army – an armed opposition to Bashar that was funded, armed and trained by, ehm, us and other terrorist nations – well, they entered by force of arms and took over my gardener's town and stayed there for a good year before ISIS – a foreign terrorist army that's armed and trained by, ehm, again, us and other terrorist nations – began incrementally appearing inside my gardener's hapless town. ISIS soon began a territorial war against the FSA in the town and ISIS soon won. So, basically, for a few months, our terrorists were fighting our other terrorists inside my gardener's town. Yes, it's absurd, but that's what happened. The losers, the FSA, well, we hate losers so we cut our losses with them and we stuck it out with ISIS the winners, investing more and more in their military buildup in my gardener's town and in other towns and villages under ISIS control in the vicinity.
Since their victory, ISIS have completely transformed my gardener's old town, previously famed for the beauty of its river banks and splendid Franco-Syrian architecture. In its two year reign, ISIS has painted most of the town's buildings in matt black – the universal color for bereavement and death. Anything that architecturally hearkened to traditional Syrian culture has been either darkened, or, completely demolished. Cousins who warily walk down the old narrow streets report a depressive and oppressive effect from this uniform and ubiquitous blackness; a soul-blinding blackness despite the glaring sun above – sun rays only emphasizing how black the town has become.
The town famous for its cheerful riverside restaurants and live bands is now an ISIS paradise where smoking, alcohol, music, and short hair on men is punishable by public beheading. The local men are forced to grow their hair long and the only facial hair allowed is the infamous (and unattractive) jowl-lined beard, sans facial hair on cheeks, and sans mustache. Yes, a mustache will get your head chopped off in my gardener's town.
Only religious channels on TV and radio are allowed transmission. All expressions of non-religious art is forbidden. Playing cards is considered gambling and is punishable by death. All forms of public sports and entertainment are banned. Mostly, the audio issuing out of the town is a mixture of prayers blaring out of shop speakers and minarets, punctuated by random human screams.
My gardener says that his town's population is estimated to be between eight and ten thousand civilian residents. When I asked him a few months ago how many ISIS terrorists are in his town, he despairingly said: "They're everywhere – like ants". Black ants.
Very few of these "ants" speak Arabic, let alone Arabic with a Syrian accent. For all intents and purposes, the invaders of this town are all foreign.
Needless to say, the townspeople live in daily mortal fear of the random death penalties handed out by capricious ISIS captains. In order to self-preserve and protect their families, everyone in the village complies by ISISian laws. They are allowed to leave the town, but only by written permission from ISIS security offices, after the reasons for wanting to leave have been investigated. They are free to leave yet most townspeople choose to stay. They do this because ISIS claims instant rights to the homes and fields of anyone who is not physically present in the town (think Israel here and its 'absentee' confiscation laws of Arab properties in Jerusalem). Simply, to leave an ISIS-occupied town in Syria is tantamount to giving ISIS one's house and orchard – fields that one's grandfathers had farmed, toiled and cultivated for several centuries. Syrian land-pride and fear of the humiliations of refugeedom keeps the natives mortally chained to their town – in the hope that the Syrian Arab Army will one day finally reach them and liberate them from their miserable and surrealistic hell.
The men of the town, in clusters of families, look after each other. They only leave their homes in pairs or more, usually to purchase food or to go to mosque for prayers. Mosque attendance is obligatory for males over 8 years of age and random headcounts at local mosque doors are the norm. If you are male, over 8 and you are caught not attending daily mosque prayers and Friday sermons without valid reason such as provable sickness, you will receive 30 lashes in public, followed by 30 days in a local ISIS rat-infested jail, where daily beatings and dirty drinking water are on the menu.
It is close to impossible to flee the town without permission as ISIS has a five kilometer radius of snipers positioned at every possible strategic asphalt exit and at every turn of goat path. When ISIS first took over, many a desperate young male attempted the deadly ISIS gauntlet and failed – their bodies dragged back through the town streets and their families' homes confiscated as further punishment.
With arbitrary interpretations of Sharia law and a strict dress-code imposed on the town, women there barely leave their homes, if ever. Even though when out in public, they are covered in black cloth from head to toe, they are brittle with fear of an ISIS fighter taking a liking to them and forcing them into marriage and into bleak ISIS motherhood. Some women have committed suicide as an alternative to an ISIS betrothal. When ISIS first took over, a list of the most beautiful women of the town was taken down and the husbands of these women were subsequently murdered to allow for these women's forced marriage to ISIS honchos. Even though their families are conservative Muslims and their lifestyle would be considered strict, this is not the Islam the local women know and practice. They fear walking the streets because they do not want to risk an added grief to their families, and because they also reject ISIS's version of Islam. Only ISIS's black-clad foreign brides swan down the streets in proud confidence.
Local boys are forbidden from playing on the streets and are daily herded into Madrases and mosques from sunrise till dusk. Girls are denied an education, even Koranic education, and are expected to stay illiterate and in the kitchens till marriage. Before ISIS, the poor of the town had a tradition of keeping their girls in school till age 14. Before ISIS, teen girls from poor families would pile into the back of rickety farming trucks early in the morning and sing their way to eggplant and potato fields for daily work and earnings. Since ISIS's rule, 37 teen girls were imprisoned and raped before they were carted out of town and sold as sex slaves – their crime was carrying a rake or a sack in a field – doing a 'man's work'.
Needless to say, a silent seething hatred in the breast of the townspeople perpetually brews. They have physically surrendered to ISIS, but not mentally and not ideologically. There is a determined resistance there, albeit a silent one… Mostly silent, that is.
When ISIS first took over, a few locals sided with them and acted as spies and snitches. Over time, these traitors have either been murdered or disappeared by faceless locals acting off their own volition, usually in revenge of family deaths caused by the traitors. These unorganized acts of resistance, these small dots of stealthy defiance would fill the hearts of the townspeople with joy whenever they would occur.
For over three years the citizens of my gardener's town have been forced to live with the black-clad grim reapers. For over three years the world did nothing to help these Syrian townspeople. No army and no messiah came forth to save them.
Not till Putin stepped in, that is.
One week after the Russian army began its aerial campaign against ISIS in the region between Raqqa and the Turkish border, the Syrian army, under cover of the Russian Air Force, thoroughly managed to liberate multiple villages and towns there, advancing up to 40 kilometers from my gardener's town. But then the Syrian Arab Army stopped right there, turning their attentions westwards instead, to more strategic battles against ISIS in other nearby villages.
When this happened, a good quarter of ISIS terrorists packed up and left the town – gone to Raqaa to defend it against eventual attack by Bashar's approaching military. Soon after, an extraordinary thing happened: a secret local and armed resistance made itself known in the town through the kidnapping and execution of ISIS terrorists. They worked by cover of night, they worked in small groups, and they left no fingerprints. Not even their own families know who members of this resistance are. ISIS bodies are still being discovered on a regular basis – and currently being so under-staffed, ISIS seems to be unable to keep tabs on all the townspeople 24/7 like they used to before the Russian arrival to Syria. They are losing their absolute control over the town.
Best of all, earlier this week, the Russian Air Force targeted and bombed six ISIS locations in the town itself. No doubt, the Syrian Arab Army will soon be turning their boots towards this town again. No doubt liberation is imminent.
Since the six bombings occurred, more ISIS men and their families have fled the village, rendering ISIS's hold on the town even weaker. Only about half of the evil black-clad "ants" now remain. And as a consequence of ISIS's diminishing numbers, the local resistance has been able to operate more freely and they are literally picking out ISIS fighters, killing them one by one practically on a nightly basis – either stabbing them down dark streets, hanging them from trees on the outskirts of town, bludgeoning their skulls with rocks in fields, or sniping them with hunting riffles while on guard duty. When ISIS security men claimed to have caught two resistance men and prepared for their public execution, a sudden riot broke out at the ghoulish event and local men clashed with ISIS fighters, resulting in the deaths of three civilians and four ISIS terrorists – as well as the successful escape of the two accused. This was the first civilian riot against the occupiers since the town was first taken over four years ago. It seems that when their odds improved, the people's rage manifested as a collective outburst of courage.
ISIS town bosses don't even have the luxury of a 'peaceful' execution anymore.
The atmosphere now is extremely tense in the town – ISIS is nervous because the Russians have marked them out and given them warning shots already – and the rage of the occupied people is barely containable, causing them many security problems internally. My gardener thinks that his village will be fully liberated before the winter is out. He says family and neighbors of the town are now quietly preparing and coordinating their efforts among themselves, anticipating to support the Syrian Arab Army when it reaches the gates of their town.
The changes that have occurred in the past couple of months in this town are tremendous – observed from the Micro Media's vantage. And what's striking here is the disparity in stories between the Mainstream Media in the West and the Micro Media in Syria. One side has reason to distort the news in the service of protecting a criminal government policy; and the other has reason to tell the truth so as to save its own life.
And the truth is that the Axis of Evil is losing in Syria: now beyond the point of no return – no thanks to and no matter the extraneous and suspect efforts of the French, German, Brit and American Air Forces now present in Syrian skies. The fact is, between the solid military capabilities of Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah – and not forgetting here the efforts of hundreds of trained and untrained local resistances – the Syrian war is covered and can be militarily concluded. It is only a question of time.
There is zero need for the sham and despicable new Saudi coalition to interfere further in Syria, and zero right for them to impose a "new leader" on the Syrian people. And there is also absolutely no need for Obama to pretend at fighting ISIS in Syria anymore. The show is practically over – the fat lady is singing the last few notes.
Ironically, technically speaking, the end of ISIS's rule in Syria is a PR victory for the USA and a face-saver for the Democrats before the elections hit. Despite American involvement in the birth, nurture and rise of ISIS, we still get something out of their defeat: a fake media victory, a crown made of shiny tin.
The people who are directly affected the most are taking care of business in Syria already and their liberation project is moving forward good and steady without any swanky media publicity, without further help from the outside world – and regardless of Putin's diplomatic invitation to the world to join him in the fight against global terrorism, starting with Syria. Regardless of all this, the job is getting done, terrorists are being either pushed back or killed, Syrian land is systematically and assuredly being retrieved – by the right guys, thankfully.
One here must throw ample cynicism at every conjured drama or invented obstacle in Syria that our Mainstream Media will report on in the meantime – it is all mass distraction – it is all meaningless and devoid of any reality. No, I do not wonder what the Mainstream Media will write about when towns like my gardener's are finally liberated. No, I do not look forward to their headlines. They will find a way to claim credit for their side, the very side that actually ignited the Syria war and unleashed an army of beheaders onto a mass of Syrian civilians. By now, I'm sure many of you readers have observed how the Mainstream Media have decidedly perfected the dark art of Newspeak – after all, they got so much practice selling us all these Middle East wars.
In due time, I will write a follow up to the town's story once it's been liberated. I did not reveal its name in this article so as not to compromise the identity and safety of my gardener's family who are stuck there in their occupied riverside town – but I will write a follow-up article once it's been liberated.
The news in this article was brought to you by Syria's Micro Media, a network of citizen correspondents.


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I grabbed these stats from today's edition of Ronnie Cho's White House e-newsletter for Young Americans:
Last Thursday the White House announced Summer Jobs+ which will bring businesses, nonprofits, and government together in an effort to create summer 2012 jobs and internships for low income American youth (ages 16 - 24). The goal is to have 250,000 employment opportunities ready to be offered to youth by the summer, of which at least 100,000 will be paid. The White House will soon release the Summer Jobs+ Bank, a one-stop online tool that employers can use to access youth where they already are, online. It'll be similar to the one created recently for veterans, and will be supported by Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Internships.com and AfterCollege.
Check out the list of employers who have already joined the Administration in this effort, and the types of opportunities that will be available for youth. Employers who want to join the effort should go to the Summer Jobs+ website.
The White House wants to know about your first job, how it impacted your career, and about the young leaders you've worked with. Share on Twitter using #summerjobs+ or via email by reaching out to Roberts.David @ dol.gov.


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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Task Force Platinum (sometimes referred to as Operation Platinum)
Evidence is starting to mount suggesting that when GW stepped in front of the microphone on that 5th day of September in 2006 and made the dramatic announcement that 14 "high value" detainees were moved to Guantanamo (http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2400470) that he was once again lying and that those men were already at Guantanamo and had been at Guantanamo for quite awhile. In fact, they were hidden away at Guantanamo from the ICRC and the world so that their torture could continue and they were only unveiled on that September day because the Bushies needed some ammunition (so to speak) to pass the Military Commissions Act and undo the latest Supreme Court rulings. If you or someone you know is willing to talk with me about this please send me an email: email@example.com
Posted by H. Candace Gorman at 3:55 AM
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I'm also kinda picky about it. I don't like my guacamole with sour cream, tomatoes, or too much onion flavor. I want the flavor of the avocados to be the star, I guess you could say I'm an avocado purist.
The texture is important to me too. I don't like having my guac too mushy or a jumble of chunks, there should be a good chunkiness to creaminess ratio.
Most grocery store bought guacs do not fit my specifications, so I've developed my own recipe.
- 2 Avocados
- 1 Jalapeno, seeded
- 1 Small shallot or about 1 tablespoon chopped
- ¼ c. Cilantro
- Juice of ½ lime
- Salt and pepper
Dice the avocados. Slice each avocado in half. Then give the pit a good whack with a knife so that the knife gets partly embedded in the pit and twist. The pit should pop right out. Next make parallel slices in the avocado flesh, followed by slices in the opposite direction to make little rectangles. Finally take a spoon and scoop out the diced avocado into a bowl.
Most of a jalapeno's spice lives in the ribs and seeds, so if you want your guac spicier leave the seeds and ribs in half the jalapeno. If you're a wimp when it comes to spice then make sure to remove all the seeds and ribs.
For some inconceivable reason some people don't like cilantro. If you are one of these people just use some flat leaf parsley instead.
Dump the shallot, jalapeno, and cilantro in the bowl with the avocado.
Download my recipe


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Private Prisons: Even Worse Than You Thought
Whatever you've already heard or read about the private prison industry, it's worse than you ever imagined. The immorality is bad enough: huge financial incentives to jail as many people as possible, prison owners and management being totally unaccountable to the public, etc.
But financially, private prisons are even more of a drain on taxpayers than we ever knew. The three largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group and Management and Training Corporation — have all been including occupancy requirements in their contracts with state governments. The state is required to guarantee maximum occupancy for these private prisons. If the occupancy rate falls below a certain level — usually 80%, sometimes 100% — taxpayers have to reimburse the private prison company for its lost revenue.
Is it just me, or does this conflict with conservatives' bootstraps/free enterprise rhetoric? A "private" company is financed by taxpayers, and reimbursed again by taxpayers when their "earnings" fall short — nice work if you can get it.
Also, the private prison industry has campaigned heavily for three-strikes laws, laws to increase prison sentences in general, and laws that would criminalize every imaginable type of private behavior. The more laws, the more "customers" the "private" prison industry can enjoy. So much for that "limited government" conservatives are always blubbering about.
This information was compiled by In The Public Interest.
Law and Order: SVU and CSI: New York have both had episodes featuring corrupt judges who worked hand in glove with a private prison. For every defendant convicted of a crime — no matter how petty — the judge received a "commission" from the private prison where this newly-convicted criminal got sent.
Unfortunately, those two TV episodes were not just fiction. They were based on something that's happening in real life every day. And it's getting worse.
Labels: CCA, Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group, In The Public Interest, Management and Training Corporation