text:
SF Signal's Watchlist. Like so many of the authors I've interview in the Keeping An Eye On Series, Alex is just beginning what looks to be a long writing career, but already has a few of the awards and honors that aspiring writers dream of. He didn't have to wait long either as his debut novel, A Scattering of Jades, won several awards including the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2003. Since then he has gone on to write several more novels as well as some more diverse work, including comic books, non-fiction, and even some ARGs.
I hoped that Alex would spill the info on his secretive Star Wars book but Lucas has a lightsaber to his throat. Instead I had to settle for a great interview full of rabid fans, tree-hugging pinkos, and other information not bound by an NDA. Read on for more!
SoY: If we are keeping an eye on you, what should be looking for in the near future? What have you been working on recently?
AI: I'm working on a couple of novels. One is a big historical SF book that starts off in the 2070s and moves back to 1913 before ending up in the 1960s. It involves HG Wells, nuclear war between India and Pakistan, and Europe during the two world wars, as well as a bunch of other stuff. The other one is a picaresque fantastical-historical novel that takes the form of a fake memoir written by a famous 18th-century hoaxer named George Psalmanazar, in which he gives the real story behind his real-life memoir in which he said he was giving the real story.
Also I'm doing a couple of other comics projects, writing a screenplay for Buyout, and working on two licensed projects—one a Dungeons and Dragons novel and the other a Star Wars novel set in the Old Republic period. And then there are the short stories, which I'm always pecking away at. So lots of things are on the boil.
AI: I think Buyout is a good entry point. From my perspective, which is the only one I have, that book has most of my good qualities as a writer and manifests the fewest of my flaws. I have my own sentimental favorites for other reasons—I still love The Narrows because there's one character I got absolutely right, and A Scattering of Jades because the research and story came together better than I had any right to expect, and various of my stories for various reasons—but if a reader really wanted to know what makes me tick as a writer, then Buyout would probably be the book to start with.
SoY: Describe your writing style in haiku-form.
AI: Eek. This one is tough. Maybe:
What is this feeling?
How would this person react?
Try to get it right.
SoY: Your first novel, A Scattering of Jades, won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2003. Can you describe the journey between setting out to write A Scattering of Jades and getting it published? What was it like to win an award with your first novel?
AI: I started to write Jades in August of 1993, and had a complete draft by December of 1996. There followed a (retrospectively) comical series of miscommunications and resignations and lost manuscripts etc., by the end of which I was ready to tear my hair out because people kept telling me they loved the book right before they left publishing forever or were murdered by elements of the Black Hand or disappeared on an expedition to Lemuria or whatever. The first guy who ever read the book all the way through, John Klima, bought it—but it took nearly six years to get someone to read it all the way through.
Jades came out and won the Locus Award, which was terrific—it also won the International Horror Guild and Crawford awards for best first novel, which was extra terrific. This is where the 'rising star' appellation seems in retrospect a bit ironic, since I haven't had a sniff of an award since then. I was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award in I think 2003 for "Gus Dreams of Biting the Mailman," but for whatever reason I don't seem to get on awards ballots very often. When Jades was just out and all of that was happening, though, I was over the moon. I was convinced that stardom was imminent. The intervening years have maybe taught me otherwise. It's a little odd for me to consider myself a rising star in a field where I've been working for ten years.
SoY: You've worked with two of the most complex continuities out there in Marvel Comics (Daredevil) and Star Wars. How do you handle starting a project in such an established universe? Do you approach writing differently if you are writing in a shared universe versus a universe of your own creation?
AI: There are differences to working with an established continuity, sure—but in some ways I think they're akin to the differences between writing formal poetry and free verse. The strictures of the sonnet or villanelle or sestina drive you to see what can be done within those strictures. If you're writing free verse, the only rule is that you do something good. Probably when I'm working on a story that I build from scratch, I can let myself go a little more, but established continuities are an exciting challenge, and because they've been around for so long and have such passionate followers, they inspire a writer to create work that deserves that passion. At least that's how I approach it.
SoY: Similarly, with established universes come established fanbases with preconceived notions of what should or shouldn't happen. Have your experiences with these often rabid fanbases been positive or negative? Any particular stick out in your memory?
AI: One thing I remember is reading on a couple of comics websites, shortly after Daredevil Noir was announced, that it was a stupid and redundant idea. People had already formed their opinions about it based on how they felt about the existing character without giving a single thought to the possibility that the story might be worth reading. Then it was interesting to see a number of those commentators change their minds and decide it was a pretty cool story. This is the dynamic you let yourself in for when you work in established continuities. But it's all good in the end because the readers are interested and respond to what you do.
SoY: You've written both novels and comics. How did you transition from writing novels to writing for comics? Does working across multiple formats make it easier to stay creative?
AI: I find that working in different formats is great for creativity. Not only are you telling different kinds of stories, but you're constantly discovering new ways to tell stories. Some of those discoveries are transitive across formats and some aren't, but all of them get you thinking in unexpected directions, which is always great. There's a learning curve, though. It was tricky for me at first to learn how to say less in a script. My instinct was to go into great detail about everything I wanted in every panel, but I found it worked better (at least in terms of my relationship with the artist(s) I was working with) if I wrote the script so that it had everything in it I really needed to see in a certain way, and left the rest up for discussion as the script gets transformed into a comic book. Until I find a better way, that's what I'm going to do—and of course that interaction is much different from the internal discussions you have while you're writing a piece of fiction.
SoY: You are contracted for a 6 issue miniseries but you get to pick the superhero/comic book character. Who would you choose and what type of story would you want to tell?
AI: I think I would do a story in which Dr. Strange and Wong fall in love and confront an occult menace accidentally brought into our world by Jack Parsons in 1950s San Francisco just as the Beat era is really coming into its own.
AI: The truth is, I wish I had writing habits. I write whenever I can snatch a moment or an hour. If you're a single guy with no kids and no job, you get to have a writing schedule. If not, you sledgehammer it in wherever you can make it fit. That's what I've been doing for eight years now, and it has sort of worked. In the end, it's the writer and the blank page. If you want to make something happen, you will; if not, that's a separate question. I do confess to a weakness for writing in bars because I like the background noise they provide. Beyond that, all I can say is that it may be bizarre, but I take time where I find it and I try to find time wherever it appears. It's all pretty ad hoc.
SoY: Excuse my geek-out but I am a complete and utter Star Wars junkie. Can you provide any details of your upcoming Star Wars novel featuring Nomi Sunrider?
AI: I really can't say much. The story develops the relationship between Nomi and Vima Sunrider and involves a resurgent threat from Sith and Mandalorian forces. Plus I introduce a new character that I'm really enjoying, a sort of interstellar scavenger who runs across some artifacts that are a little more than he can handle.
AI: The passage of time is probably the one thing most likely to make me no longer up-and-coming. My first book came out seven years ago, and my short fiction started to appear two years before that. I'm a little surprised (pleasantly, of course!) to have been included on that list; I guess sometime in the last few years I had stopped thinking of myself as up-and-coming, and I'm glad that people disagree! If, however, I were to be removed from the list, I would nominate Vandana Singh to replace me. If she isn't already on it.(She is)
SoY: Who wins in a fight to the death between Harry Potter, Optimus Prime, Tom Bombadil, and Boba Fett?
AI: Because I am a tree-hugging pinko at heart, I'm going to say Tom Bombadil.
SoY: You get to choose a single SF/F author (can be living, dead, or zombie) to write one additional book. Who do you choose and why?
AI: I want Philip K. Dick to write The Owl in Daylight. Or, if that's not possible, I want him to write the sequel to The Man in the High Castle he began and apparently abandoned. There's a chapter of it in his papers at Cal State-Fullerton. Either way—especially with The Owl in Daylight—I want Tessa Dick to stop her graverobbing.
SoY: What's the best thing you've read this year?
AI: Probably Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. It's not new, and it's not SF, but it really is the best thing I've read in the last year. Killer book.
SoY: [Obligatory pimpage] Is there anywhere online that readers can follow you and your work? [/obligatory pimpage]
AI: Funny you should ask. There's the blog and the twitter and the Facebook, etc. There's also a web site that is still in the process of being rebuilt. That's at alexanderirvine.net and will soon have actual information on it.
Unfortunately for me, Irvine's Star Wars novel won't be out for a while. Fortunately for me, and for anyone who isn't hopelessly addicting to Star Wars continuity, that Historical SF novel sounds might intriguing. H.G. Wells? I'm thinking time travel... The George Psalmanazar fake story about a fake book written by a conman sounds pretty good as well.
On a related note, I wonder if I stopped learning about new books now, would I finish everything I wanted to read before I died? Sigh. At least some authors COUGH* GRRM *COUGH give you time to catch up on your reading.
Anyway, thanks again to Alex for participating. And go out and buy Buyout!


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This election season there's a billowing cloud of misinformation being sprayed into the American psyche like a burping tail pipe on a primered Vega.
And its smoke is thicker and blacker than ever before thanks to the Citizen's United Supreme Court decision.
Billions have been spent for one purpose and one purpose only: to obscure and distract from the fact that Mitt Romney is backing the identical agenda George W Bush did.
It's really and truly that simple.
Lower taxes for the rich, cutting regulations for Wall Street, hawkish foreign policy with in many cases the same neocon foreign policy advisers W. Bush used make Romney/Ryan "W Bush 2: The Sequel to the Greatest Disaster Movie in Recent U.S. History, Available in Imax."
So please, America, don't fall for this con all over again. Taxes for the rich are at record lows. The uber-wealthy and corps hide profits overseas and work the loopholes to avoid paying what they should. And because of the resulting tax shortfall, deficits soar and education and infrastructure are cut. Why in God's name would anyone in their right mind support cutting taxes for the wealthy more? Especially when it's been proven over and over again to do very little for the economy?
And the idea of cutting regulations for Wall Street after the '08 collapse is as crazy as a guy in a hospital gown by the side of a highway waving Barbie dolls at passing cars. With the derivitives market larger than ever we need way more regulation of Wall Street, not less. And worst of all, Romney's hawkish foreign policy is a beat for beat redux of the Bush doctrine of attack at the slightest hint of threat that led us into the disaster of the Iraq war. Call it "the edgy drifter with a knife" policy.
Voting for Romney after the train wreck of that was the eight years of W. Bush is like losing your pay check playing a rigged game of three-card monte and then playing the same game again a week later cause the cards are a different color.
But Obama is a socialist! He's made things worse! What about the deficit?! Stop your witchy liberal word spells!
These objections to Obama are nonsense and lies at best. They just are. This isn't a "liberal" POV. It's just the truth. Obama does have real failings as a president (illegal drone strikes, a baffling desire to make more trade deals, failure to prosecute past war crimes), but being a socialist big spender is not remotely one of them. The stock market and corporate profits have soared under the Obama administration. And the deficit is 60 percent from tax short falls from the '08 collapse and 20 percent from the Iraq war finally being properly counted. Only $1 trillion of the $5 trillion deficit is from spending that was for the stimulus package that stopped our nation from falling into a depression by any economic metric available. The fact is Obama has spent less than any president in 50 years.
Even Obamacare is a private mandate that will drive billions to the insurance industry, much like the auto insurance mandate. Hardly socialism. In fact, it was a Republican plan to begin with.
But Romney and his billionaire backers have twisted facts and outright lied like we've never seen before. And why? Because if they had to stand on the issues they wouldn't receive a vote. Because Romney and Ryan are exactly on the same page as W. Bush. And that page is stained with champagne and sturgeon eggs.
If Romney wins it will be because voters voted for the lies and the brand ID of the Republican party, not because of facts, context and reality. This is the essence of how a con works. The con man gets the mark to respond emotionally rather than logically. Please, don't fall for it. With climate change becoming the biggest challenge of the next hundred years we can't afford four years more of corruption, misinformation and inaction. We just can't.
We must give up on this blind brand allegiance nonsense -- "the Republican party is for self-reliance and America" -- and start looking at the reality of what they do. They ignored warnings on 9/11, making us far less safe, give billions in subsidies to oil companies, no-bid contracts to the former vice president's company, cut taxes for the rich during a war, stand against equal pay for women, froze the budget to drive our AAA rating down. They are corrupt, for the rich getting richer and for dismantling our government including FEMA, Medicare, and Social Security.
And worst of all, the Republicans do everything they can to make it hard for people to vote. This isn't just creepy and dirty. This is anti-American and an insult to all those that have given their lives for our right to vote.
At a certain point if you're voting for Romney you have to look around the room and see who you're with. W, Bush and Cheney will vote for Romney. Sarah Palin will vote for Romney. Glenn Beck will vote for Romney, as will Rush Limbaugh. Rupert Murdoch, Hannity and Donald Trump are voting for Romney. Have these people been right about anything in the past 20 years? For real. Think about it.
This election needs to be the end of the con. The end of "trickle-down economics." The end of the loopholes. The end of no rules for the rich and powerful. The end of veiled racism, sexism and homophobia as a way to distract those you're ripping off.
This era of "relative truth" can end. We can return to science, facts and fairness. But it means stopping this right vs. left, Dem. vs. Repub., North vs. South idiocy. A lot of money was spent to divide us like this and every day that we don't stop and question the messaging this country slips a notch.
We've been having the same argument for 30 years and the evidence is clear: Cutting taxes for the rich, deregulating all the rules set up after the Great Depression and needless wars don't even remotely work, whether it's George W. Bush or Romney who's at the wheel of the belching sputtering Vega.
Seriously, America. Take a beat, think and look hard at the numbers. You're better than this crap. And we've got real stuff to work on together.

subset: commoncrawl


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When not watching one of the most boring World Cup matches in recent memory, Japanese soccer fans were watching the tattoo on the arm of Greece's Theofanis Gekas. The tattoo fail, that is.
As noted on Hachima, the tattoo reads "寒冷殺人魔" (kanrei satsujin ma) in Japanese, which literally translates as "cold (weather) murder demon." The problem is that the kanji used here for "cold" (寒冷) refers to weather, as in "chilly" or "frigidity" or "cold" as in a "cold front." In Chinese, the tattoo doesn't make sense, either, and the "cold" here refers to weather. This tattoo is gibberish.
Ironically, this isn't the first time Japan has noticed Gekas' tattoo. The same thing happened in 2010, during the last World Cup. Maybe the country will notice it again during the next one, too!
Though, as you can see in this new pic from Getty, Gekas is sticking with his tattoo and hasn't covered it up. Yet.
Scuttlebutt online says Gekas' tattoo is supposed to mean "Cool Killer." At least in Japan, the correct way to write that would be "Reikoku na Satsujinki" (冷酷な殺人鬼), which means "Coldhearted Cutthroat," "reikoku" (冷酷) meaning "cruel" or "cold-hearted" and "satsujinki" (殺人鬼) meaning a "bloodthirsty killer." And in Chinese, "cold-blooded killer" would be 冷血杀人魔.
Sadly, what Gekas has now is hardly badass, and it makes it seem like Gekas is murdering winter weather. Maybe he is! You know, causing global warming, messing up the climate. If so, then, he is truly to be feared.
No wonder Japanese Twitter users are miffed. But you know what miffed about? Why Japan couldn't score, playing against a team with only ten players on the field. Forget kanji screw ups, now that shit is truly baffling.
W杯】ギリシャ代表ゲカス選手、「cool killer」という意味で漢字の入れ墨を頼んだ結果悲しみを背負うことにwwwww [はちま起稿]
Top photo: deathash13
To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


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"Hey, Phillip, let's take a boat trip down the entire length of the Mississippi River!" So began a remarkable Huck Finn-style river voyage by two self- described adventurers, travelers, and videographers.
Ryan Jeanes' casual remark to his business partner, Phillip Hullquist, planted the seed that grew into the duo's three month odyssey from one end of America's most iconic river to the other — a 2,300 mile river adventure from the Mississippi's headwaters in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico…and resulted in their full length documentary movie, "The River is Life".
"What's stopping YOU?"
Many people may dream of being adventurous enough to drop everything and do something like travel the length of the Mississippi for three months. Some may talk about their plan for years. But few will actually do it. And that is the whole point film makers Jeanes and Hullquist drive home in their documentary, "The River is Life."
"Dream it. Live it. Film it" is the slogan the duo has pinned to their video company, 11 Visions. Phillip sums up their philosophy with a poignant question. "What's stopping you," he asks, "from doing the things you really want to do?"
Ryan and Phillip have made a boating adventure film that's an engaging, watchable, and very interesting film about America. "It's hard to imagine who wouldn't enjoy this sweet, terrifically amiable documentary," writes Mike Schulz in the River Cities' Reader, a newspaper serving five cities along the upper Mississippi.
Passion for adventure
"When we started our film company, says Phillip, "we wanted to do and document the things we're passionate about." Adventure is their passion, and they did it on a shoestring. "Kayaking down the Mississippi is a fairly inexpensive venture although you'll need to commit a significant period of time to complete such a journey."
Boating for weeks on end, and camping nightly at the water's edge, meant they had to pack all the camping gear any adventurer would need for an extended trip, plus all their cameras and video gear. Ryan and Phillip chose twin Sea Eagle 380x Explorer Kayaks. "We took a test run in a Sea Eagle," says Phillip, "and decided we really needed two boats to carry us and all our gear."
Experimenting with various loading arrangements, they found their best plan was to ride and paddle in tandem in one 380x while towing their boatload of gear behind them in the second kayak.
"The 380x can carry a lot of gear," says Ryan. "It can carry 300 lbs. of stuff, gear, tents, cook stoves, computers, video gear, backpacks, food, clothes, even solar panels to charge our cell phones."
The choice of serious adventure boaters
Sea Eagle's Explorer Kayaks are the kayak-of-choice for serious adventurers. Watch Sea Eagle owner, Ted Pasternak, navigate white water rapids in his Sea Eagle 420x Explorer Kayak.
Phillip and Ryan were serious boaters, but not experienced ones. They gained their boating experience along the way. "We didn't have that much boating experience," says Phillip. "We didn't know what conditions we were going to encounter. But we made the decision early to err on side of safety. People advised us to get longest boat we could. They told us they're the fastest and had the most space for our gear."
Ryan agrees, "We're certainly long haul boaters but not professional boaters at all. The 380x is the perfect boat for all kinds of conditions" from bottoming out in shallow waters up north to crossing Lake Winnibegashish — a 67,000 acre Minnesota lake the Mississippi flows through. If we'd been in hard hull kayaks, I don't know if we'd have made it. The performance and stability of the 380x are incredible. I love that boat."
"I've always wanted to do X"
"Lots of people have great ideas for adventures," says Phillip. "They'll say, 'I've always wanted to do X.' Most peoples' dreams are usually doable – but they haven't done them yet. It's basically a matter of really wanting to do something and going out and doing it."
"There's a spiritual pull to adventuring," Ryan told us. "Human beings look for experiences to learn about ourselves. We like being challenged; we want to see how we'll react to see what we're made of. The idea of journeying is part of every culture in the world."
Adventure a week at a time
Not all adventurers can clear their calendars several weeks or months at a time to live their dreams. But dreams are still doable. "We ran into a three- generation family boating the entire Mississippi as we were," says Phillip. "But they couldn't take three months off; they did it one week at a time. They boat to a certain point in a week's time, then start from that point a year later. "They're living their dream a week at a time and will eventually navigate the whole river."
What's next for this pair of video camera-toting adventurers? "I want to try white water kayaking," said Ryan. His passing comment, like "Let's boat the Mississippi," may be the start of a new adventure documentary film. Watch for it at a movie theater near you!


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The Rockland Breakwater extends 7/8 of a mile into the center of Rockland Harbor. At the end of the breakwater stands the Rockland Breakwater Light. The breakwater was built between 1881 and 1899 with 768,774 tons of granite. The lighthouse was built in 1902 after an appropriation of $30,000 by the US Congress. It was constructed by the W.H. Glover Company of Rockland.
The United States is one of the most diverse countries on earth, jam packed full of amazing sights from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York to Mount Hollywood California.The Northeast region is where it all started. Thirteen British colonies fought the American Revolution from here and won their independence in the first successful colonial rebellion in history. Take a look at these rolling hills carpeted with foliage along the Hudson river here, north of New York City.The American south is known for its polite people and slow pace of life. Probably they move slowly because it's so hot. Southerners tend not to trust people from "up north" because they talk too fast. Here's a cemetery in Georgia where you can find graves of soldiers from the Civil War.The West Coast is sort of like another country that exists to make the east coast jealous. California is full of nothing but grizzly old miners digging for gold, a few gangster rappers, and then actors. That is to say, the West Coast functions as the imagination of the US, like a weird little brother who teases everybody then gets famous for making freaky art.The central part of the country is flat farmland all the way over to the Rocky Mountains. Up in the northwest corner you can find creative people in places like Portland and Seattle, along with awesome snowboarding and good beer. Text by Steve Smith.


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An arctic fox licks its' lips after feasting on a caribou carcass. Arctic fox seem to follow wolverines looking to scavenge off of their food sources, in a similar manner to how they follow polar bears on the sea ice.
Eagle at nest along the Yukon River.
Kluane National Park in Yukon, Canada. The rare Dall sheep are a thin horn sheep that is all white. Found only in the Yukon and Alaska. Kluane Lake in the background, image taken during the rutting season of November.
A white wolf dances across the snow covered tundra of Northern Alaska. The wolf and wolverine have an interesting relationship. Wolverines scavenge wolf killed carcasses for much of their sustenance. They depend on wolves for food, however wolves seem to despise wolverines and will chase them down and kill them when they encounter them.
Tony and Clarence Alexie butchering caribou at the Yukon/NWT border.
Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refugee, Alaska, Yukon, Porcupine Caribou Herd, 1002 lands
Wind River, Yukon Territory. Images from 2 week canoe trip through the Wind River in Northern Yukon, Canada. Part of the Peel Watershed and the Rocky Mountains.
Arctic Loon on her nest at 1:00 a.m. on the Yukon's North Slope. Her head is beading water from the constant rain.
A weeks old black bear cub comes out of its' den for the first time. The sow (mother) was just like a human mom, she was dead tired. She patiently waited while the cub cried and screamed (like a human baby), until after 45 minutes the cub got tired and retreated back into its den. The relived mother followed.
Grizzly Sow scouring the river for spawned out chum salmon.
Barren Ground caribou near the Dempster Highway in Yukon, Canada
Dall sheep ram with beautiful black eye rings. Sheep Mountain in Kluane National Park. Yukon Winter scene.
Black Bear at her den with baby new-born bear cub. Bear cub takes its first visit outside the den. Yukon, Canada.
Often, sub-adult grizzlies will team up and fish together for protection and increased vigilance from adult grizzlies. These sub-adults were on an early morning tour looking for spawning salmon.
Musk Oxen sparring on Alaska's Arctic Coast. ANWR
A small herd of caribou are silhouetted by midnight ligh on Alaska's North Slope. Caribou are the main food source for North Slope wolverines.
Three Trumpeter Swans walk along a frozen pond, as they are watched from the trees. Yukon, Canada.
A fox investigates one of the wolverine live traps during a blizzard. Wolverine crawl into the wooden boxes and pull at the meat that is wired to the inside, the wire releases the roof, which then traps the wolverine inside the wooden box. A signal is emailed to the biologists, who then need to arrive within eight hours, to ensure that the wolverine doesn't eat its' way through the 4 inch log walls of the box.
Grizzly Bear avoiding a car in Haines, Alaska.


text:
(from: Quran The Final Testament, by Rashad Khalifa, PhD.)
[15:0] In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
[15:1] A.L.R.* These (letters) are proofs of this scripture; a profound Quran.
[15:2] Certainly, those who disbelieved will wish they were submitters.
[15:3] Let them eat, enjoy, and remain blinded by wishful thinking; they will find out.
[15:4] We never annihilated any community, except in accordance with a specific, predetermined time.
[15:5] The end of any community can never be advanced, nor delayed.
[15:6] They said, "O you who received this reminder, you are crazy.
[15:7] "Why do you not bring down the angels, if you are truthful?"
[15:8] We do not send down the angels except for specific functions. Otherwise, no one will be respited.
God's Messenger of the Covenant*
[15:9] Absolutely, we have revealed the reminder, and, absolutely, we will preserve it.*
[15:10] We have sent (messengers) before you to the communities in the past.
[15:11] Every time a messenger went to them, they ridiculed him.
[15:12] We thus control the minds of the guilty.
[15:13] Consequently, they cannot believe in him. This has been the system since the past generations.
[15:14] Even if we opened for them a gate into the sky, through which they climb;
[15:15] they will say, "Our eyes have been deceived. We have been bewitched."
[15:16] We placed galaxies in the sky, and adorned it for the beholders.
[15:17] And we guarded it against every rejected devil.
[15:18] If any of them sneaks around to listen, a mighty projectile will chase him back.
[15:19] As for the earth, we constructed it, and placed on it stabilizers (mountains), and we grew on it a perfect balance of everything.
[15:20] We made it habitable for you,* and for creatures you do not provide for.
[15:21] There is nothing that we do not own infinite amounts thereof. But we send it down in precise measure.
[15:22] And we send the winds as pollinators, and cause water to come down from the sky for you to drink. Otherwise, you could not keep it palatable.
[15:23] It is we who control life and death, and we are the ultimate inheritors.
[15:24] And we fully know those among you who advance, and we fully know those who regress.
[15:25] Your Lord will surely summon them. He is Most Wise, Omniscient.
The Human Race
[15:26] We created the human being from aged mud, like the potter's clay.
[15:27] As for the jinns, we created them, before that, from blazing fire.
[15:28] Your Lord said to the angels, "I am creating a human being from aged mud, like the potter's clay.
[15:29] "Once I perfect him, and blow into him from My spirit, you shall fall prostrate before him."
[15:30] The angels fell prostrate; all of them,
[15:31] except Iblis (Satan). He refused to be with the prostrators.
[15:32] He said, "O Iblis (Satan), why are you not with the prostrators?"
[15:33] He said, "I am not to prostrate before a human being, whom You created from aged mud, like the potter's clay."
[15:34] He said, "Therefore, you must get out; you are banished.
[15:35] "You have incurred My condemnation until the Day of Judgment."
[15:36] He said, "My Lord, respite me until the day they are resurrected."
[15:37] He said, "You are respited.
[15:38] "Until the specified day and time."
[15:39] He said, "My Lord, since You have willed that I go astray, I will surely entice them on earth; I will send them all astray.
[15:40] "Except those among Your worshipers who are devoted absolutely to You alone."
[15:41] He said, "This is a law that is inviolable.
[15:42] "You have no power over My servants. You only have power over the strayers who follow you.
[15:43] "And Hell awaits them all.
[15:44] "It will have seven gates. Each gate will get a specific share of them."
[15:45] As for the righteous, they will enjoy gardens and springs.
[15:46] Enter therein, peaceful and secure.
[15:47] We remove all jealousy from their hearts. Like one family, they will be on adjacent furnishings.
[15:48] Never will they suffer any fatigue therein; never will they be evicted therefrom.
[15:49] Inform My servants that I am the Forgiver, Most Merciful.
[15:50] And that My retribution is the most painful retribution.
Angels Visit Abraham
[15:51] Inform them about Abraham's guests.
[15:52] When they entered his quarters, they said, "Peace." He said, "We are apprehensive about you."
[15:53] They said, "Do not be apprehensive. We have good news for you: an enlightened son."
[15:54] He said, "How can you give me such good news, when I am so old? Do you still give me this good news?"
[15:55] They said, "The good news we give you is true; do not despair."
[15:56] He said, "None despairs of his Lord's mercy, except the strayers."
[15:57] He said, "What is your mission, O messengers?"
[15:58] They said, "We are being dispatched to guilty people.
[15:59] "As for Lot's family, we will save them all.
[15:60] "But not his wife; she is destined to be with the doomed."
[15:61] The messengers went to Lot's town.
[15:62] He said, "You are unknown people."
[15:63] They said, "We bring to you what they have been doubting.
[15:64] "We bring to you the truth; we are truthful.
[15:65] "You shall take your family during the night. Stay behind them, and make sure that none of you looks back. Go straight as commanded."
[15:66] We delivered to him this command: those people are to be annihilated in the morning.
[15:67] The people of the city came joyfully.
[15:68] He said, "These are my guests; do not embarrass me.
[15:69] "Fear GOD, and do not shame me."
[15:70] They said, "Did we not enjoin you from contacting anyone?"
[15:71] He said, "Here are my daughters, if you must."
[15:72] But, alas, they were totally blinded by their lust.
[15:73] Consequently, the disaster struck them in the morning.
[15:74] We turned it upside down, and showered them with devastating rocks.
[15:75] This is a lesson for those who possess intelligence.
[15:76] This will always be the system.
[15:77] This is a sign for the believers.
[15:78] The people of the woods also were transgressors.
[15:79] Consequently, we avenged from them, and both communities are fully documented.
[15:80] The people of Al-Hijr disbelieved the messengers.
[15:81] We gave them our revelations, but they disregarded them.
[15:82] They used to carve secure homes out of the mountains.
[15:83] The disaster hit them in the morning.
[15:84] What they hoarded did not help them.
End of the World Unveiled*
[15:85] We did not create the heavens and the earth, and everything between them, except for a specific purpose. The end of the world will come, so treat them with benign neglect.
[15:86] Your Lord is the Creator, the Omniscient.
[15:87] We have given you the seven pairs, and the great Quran.
[15:88] Do not be jealous of what we bestowed upon the other (messengers), and do not be saddened (by the disbelievers), and lower your wing for the believers.
[15:89] And proclaim: "I am the manifest warner."
[15:90] We will deal with the dividers.
[15:91] They accept the Quran only partially.
[15:92] By your Lord, we will question them all,
[15:93] about everything they have done.
[15:94] Therefore, carry out the orders given to you, and disregard the idol worshipers.
[15:95] We will spare you the mockers,
[15:96] who set up another god beside GOD. They will surely find out.
[15:97] We know full well that you may be annoyed by their utterances.
[15:98] You shall sing the praises of your Lord, and be with the prostrators.
[15:99] And worship your Lord, in order to attain certainty.*
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answers provided by Abe and
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text:
Zero Waste Cooking For DummiesExplore Book Buy On Amazon
You can do a lot to prevent kitchen fires. Although you can't remove every possible source of a kitchen fire, you can minimize fire risks by removing hazards and maintaining your kitchen. Follow these prevention tips to keep your kitchen safe:
Keep appliances serviced, clean, and in good repair. Dump the crumb tray and clean out the toaster crumbs periodically from the toaster or toaster oven. Wipe out the microwave. Clean the oven. Unplug any appliances that start acting funny, then have them repaired or replace them.
Unplug electric appliances when not in use. Toaster ovens, mixers, coffee makers, and so on, continue to draw electricity even when they're not turned on. So if the wiring is old or faulty, or if the thermostat overheats, a fire could break out.
Install a smoke detector near, but not in the kitchen. You don't want the small amount of smoke or steam that cooking sometimes generates to constantly trigger the alarm — but you do want it to sense an actual kitchen fire.
Use caution when lighting the pilot light or burner on a gas stove. Follow the manufacturer's instructions
Don't use metal in the microwave. The sparks can turn into fire or can seriously damage your microwave.
Don't overfill pots or pans with oil or grease. The hot oil or grease, like in this figure, can splatter and cause a fire.
Wipe up spills and don't cook on a dirty stove. Grease buildup is flammable. A clean stove is a fire-free stove.
Always roll up long sleeves and tie back long hair when cooking. You don't need your beautiful flowing silk sleeves trailing in the spaghetti sauce, and you certainly don't need to catch on fire!
Never leave cooking food unattended. Stay in the kitchen, especially if you're cooking in grease or if the oven is at a very high heat. Turn off the burner or oven if you need to leave the house or get caught up in a phone call.
Keep dish towels, pot holders, and paper towels away from the stove. You might have left a burner on by accident, and built-up heat could ignite combustibles left near or on the stove or oven.


text:
Top Items:
Inside AdSense:
Ad and image placement: a policy clarification — We've recently received a number of emails from publishers asking how we feel about the placement of images near Google ad units. There's been some confusion on this issue, and so we turned to our policy team to set the record straight.
Amit Agarwal / Digital Inspiration: Google Has Some Good News, Some Not-So-Good News for Bloggers & Content Publishers
Toivo Lainevool / AdMoolah News and Views: Google Claryfies Policy on Images and Ads
Darren Rowse / ProBlogger Blog Tips: AdSenseAd Clarify Policy on Images Near Ads
Haochi Chen / Googlified: Don't Include Images Next to AdSense
Kevin Rose / Digg the Blog:
New Digg Features O' Plenty — Big update today. Tons of new features to share with you - many inspired by feedback you've given us over the last few months (thanks!). Check out this video for a quick overview, or read below for more details. — Interface Design, Digg Goes Widescreen
Om Malik / NewTeeVee: Digg revamps to emphasize video
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!: Digg Changes Ridiculously Overhyped, As Usual
Thomas Hawk / Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: New Digg Layout Looks Great
Scott Gilbertson / Monkey Bites: Digg Gets A Makeover And New Features
David Chartier / Download Squad: Digg unveils major video, podcast and story management upgrade
BuzzShout / ShoutBlog: Digg redesign focuses on video
Mathew Ingram / mathewingram.com/work: Is Digg getting better, or worse?
Muhammad Saleem / The Mu Life: Digg 'Enhanced', Not Updated
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com: NEW DIGG FEATURES COMING TODAY. DIGG MUSIC STILL AWOL
Dion Almaer / Ajaxian: Digg.com Updated: Now with Lightboxes
Om Malik / GigaOM: Digg Does Video
Redbarren / ben barren: Episodic MP3 Vignette Folksonomic Vetting
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Digg Breaks Away From All News Focus
Digg Breaks Away From All News Focus
Discussion: Read/WriteWeb, InformationWeek Weblog and The Social Web
Richard MacManus / Read/WriteWeb: Digg Goes Multimedia - Launches New Video, Podcasting Features
Mitch Wagner / InformationWeek Weblog: Digg Unveils New Features
Jon Murchinson / nasa.gov:
NASA and Google to Bring Space Exploration Down to Earth — MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - NASA Ames Research Center and Google have signed a Space Act Agreement that formally establishes a relationship to work together on a variety of challenging technical problems ranging from large-scale data management …
Discussion: Gizmodo, Google Blogoscoped, Monkey Bites, Tech_Space, Valleywag, ResourceShelf, Google Operating System and Search Engine Land
Scott Gilbertson / Monkey Bites: Google Space: Google Partners With NASA
Ionut Alex. Chitu / Google Operating System: Google Earth Goes to Space
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land: Google & NASA Partner To Make NASA's Data More Accessible
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
NASA-Google partnership ready for liftoff — The NASA Ames Research Center and Google have signed a formal agreement to collaborate on projects ranging from studying scientific-data search technology to using Google Earth flyovers for the moon and Mars. — The R&D partnership was announced …
Discussion: Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog
iPhone surprises technology world — A net phone called the iPhone has been launched by Linksys just weeks before analysts were expecting Apple to release a similarly-named device. — The wireless iPhone allows users to make free or low-cost internet phone calls using the Skype service.
Discussion: Scobleizer, Monkey Bites, Cult of Mac, Ubergizmo and Alice Hill's Real Tech News
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer: Cisco dots the "i" on Apple
Scott Gilbertson / Monkey Bites: The Nightly Build: Monday December 18
Pete Mortensen / Cult of Mac: iPhone Introduced — But Not By Apple
Michael Santo / Alice Hill's Real Tech News: Right Name, Different Company ... Linksys Launches the iPhone
Nancy Gohring / Macworld:
The iPhone is launched ... by Linksys, not Apple
The iPhone is launched ... by Linksys, not Apple
Philip Michaels / MacUser: Exclusive! Super Cool Device to Ship Soon!
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
PixSense, offering auto-storage of mobile photos & video, raises $5.4M — PixSense, a service that lets you automatically save and store your mobile phone photos — without the pain of syncing with a PC — has just raised $5.4 million in a first round of funding.
Discussion: michael parekh on IT
Ilene Adler / beta.pixsense.com:
PixSense Secures $5.4 Million in Series A Funding for Mobile Photo …
PixSense Secures $5.4 Million in Series A Funding for Mobile Photo …
Discussion: Mashable!
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!: ClickStar Sucks, Pixsense Funded, GeoBeats, MyWaves, Boxbe …
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Australian court rules against MP3 link site — update Linking to copyright music posted elsewhere online without permission can be illegal, an Australian appeals court ruled Monday. — The issue before a three-judge panel at the Federal Court of Australia was whether Stephen Cooper …
Discussion: Weatherall's Law, Boing Boing and GigaLaw.com Daily News
Mike / Techdirt:
Allowing Linking To MP3s Still Illegal In Australia; Ruling …
Allowing Linking To MP3s Still Illegal In Australia; Ruling …
Discussion: Weatherall's Law
Brady Forrest / O'Reilly Radar:
Google Deprecates Their SOAP Search API — In an odd move Google has quietly deprecated their Search SOAP API, will no longer be issuing keys, and have removed the SDK from their site. They did not even issue a blog post about it. They will continue (for how long?) to support existing users, but will not do any bug fixes.
Discussion: Quoderat, Nelson's Weblog and onfocus.com
Google Blogoscoped:
Google Kills Their Search API
Google Kills Their Search API
Discussion: Global Nerdy, Search Engine Roundtable and Googlified
Joey deVilla / Global Nerdy: Google Drops the SOAP
Phoenix / Search Engine Roundtable: Google Discontinues The Free Google Search API Key - Is It Gone Forever?
Haochi Chen / Googlified: Who's the Next Google Answers?
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Suburbs against the U(ni)verse: the battle over AT&T's fiber rollout — Introduction — It wasn't supposed to happen like this. AT&T's IPTV-based U-verse service was being tested with great fanfare in San Antonio, and the company was ready to start in on the real deployments.
The rich feature set for MySpace Mobile on Cingular includes: — Uploading Photos — Available on select Cingular handsets, MySpace Mobile allows Cingular customers to select photos stored on their mobile device and upload them to their MySpace profile. The same terms of service for MySpace …
Discussion: The Technology Chronicles, Webware.com, Monkey Bites, The Blogging Times, 21talks, Phone Scoop and dailywireless.org
Nicole Lee / Webware.com: CINGULAR HORNS IN ON HELIO WITH MYSPACE
Scott Gilbertson / Monkey Bites: The Morning Reboot: Monday December 18
Minic Rivera / The Blogging Times: MySpace partners with Cingular Wireless
Katie Fehrenbacher / GigaOM: MySpace Hooks up with Cingular
Rcade / Workbench:
My Battle with MGM Over Wargames.Com — For the past three months I've been privately engaged in a time-consuming dispute with Nathan J. Hole, a lawyer representing MGM Studios who claims that Wargames.Com, a domain that I've owned since April 16, 1998, is the rightful property of the film company …
Kate Kaye / ClickZ:
Edelman and NewsGator Team to Offer Conversational Ads — Despite some hiccups, Edelman has been in the forefront of brand and social media convergence this year, and a new joint offering with NewsGator Technologies is no exception. The PR firm has linked with the RSS feed platform provider …
Discussion: Monkey Bites and Amyloo
Michael Calore / Monkey Bites: NewsGator and Edelman Launch New RSS-Powered Ads
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
Edelman, Newsgator to Create Branded Communities, Conversational Advertising
Edelman, Newsgator to Create Branded Communities, Conversational Advertising
Discussion: Strumpette and media landscaping
Amanda Chapel / Strumpette: PR Adds Powerful New Tool to Circumvent Traditional Media
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Digg continues to battle phony stories — Digg continues to crack down on users who plant phony stories on behalf of marketers, recently deleting a user who posted a story about a company that offered to compensate him. — The news aggregate site, which allows users to play editor and decide …
Discussion: digg
Jeremy Kirk / InfoWorld:
Malware: Quality drops but quantity rises — Kaspersky: Ever-increasing amounts of malware are taxing the resources of security companies — They just don't make malware like they used to. Or at least like they did earlier this year. Even low-quality malware, however …
Discussion: Techdirt
Adam Lasnik / Official Google Webmaster Central Blog:
Deftly dealing with duplicate content — At the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in freezing Chicago, many of us Googlers were asked questions about duplicate content. We recognize that there are many nuances and a bit of confusion on the topic, so we'd like to help set the record straight.
Discussion: Search Engine Land, Small Business SEM and Greg Boser
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land: Google's Tips On Duplicate Content Worries
Matt McGee / Small Business SEM: Google addresses duplicate content
WebGuerrilla / Greg Boser: Adam Lasnik on Duplicate Content
Ben Charny / MarketWatch:
Google's radio ad tests hit snag — analyst — SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Google Inc.'s nascent radio advertisement business, known as Google Audio, has run into an unexpected snag: it seems Google doesn't have access to enough radio airtime for would-be advertisers to thoroughly test out the initiative, an analyst said Monday.
Discussion: TechCrunch and Hear 2.0
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch: Google Audio Ads Snag
Mark Ramsey / Hear 2.0: Google Audio shifts gears
New York Times:
EBay Is Expected to Close Its Auction Site in China — Acknowledging that the online auction market in China is enticingly fast-growing but frustratingly tough to crack, eBay will shut its main Web site in China and enter into a joint venture with a Chinese company instead, a person briefed on the plans of the companies said yesterday.
Discussion: PaidContent and VentureBeat
Staci D. Kramer / PaidContent: EBay Rethinks China; Will Close Own Sites, Open New One In JV …


text:
Richard Linklater's sneakers squish-squish-
squished against the wet tiles. We were walking the perimeter of the Illini Union, on the campus of theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. It was a stormy night in April, and students sat slumped in leather chairs, hunched over laptops, rain from umbrellas pooling at their feet.
As we walked past, we talked about the Big Stuff, the passing of time, the universe, knowing when to leave a good thing alone and when to meddle. Somehow, it didn't feel pretentious.
"You know, I've always felt like I make movies that play in real time," he said, "like we're watching these things just happen. Maybe because I've always been self-conscious about time passing and I've always been worried about time. Even as a kid, I was into cosmology, how time relates to galaxies, stuff like that. I thought life was precious, that movies should be about that; that you don't have to be religious to feel it."
We kept walking.
As he spoke, in somewhat long, quiet monologues, as we moved through that hallway and into a study lounge, it was hard not to imagine Linklater's camera trailing behind, a lengthy, gliding tracking shot that captured everything and not much at all. Then again, a week earlier I had seen "Before Midnight," Linklater's latest, opening Friday in Chicago, and I was still under its spell. Like "Before Sunrise" (1995) and "Before Sunset" (2004), it's about an American named Jesse and a Parisian named Celine, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, and as with those first two films, there are lots of long, unbroken shots of the pair walking, talking. We grow aware of the smallest moments, of every change in their emotional barometric pressure.
It may be the best special effect you see this summer.
Heck, it may be the best special effect of the past two decades, a two-part, three-movie trick perpetrated by a filmmaker and his actors: First, there is the illusion of intimacy, that we've been watching an actual couple all these years, meet, separate, fall in love, grow distant.
"Which is such a special effect," Delpy told me later. "You have no idea how uncomfortable, though I feel close to him after all these years, it is to have Ethan touching me. I literally have to shut down as Julie! It's like having your breasts touched by a brother."
The second part of that trick: The illusion of real time passing, of watching life move in miniature.
"Which is in there because Rick, and I probably don't have to tell you this if you have met him, really is obsessed with the clock," Hawke said on the phone last week. "I mean, 'School of Rock,' what could be this ordinary kids movie, has classroom scenes shot in one or two long takes. 'Slacker' takes place in real time, 'Dazed and Confused' over one night. 'Waking Life' seems to unfold in what I think is four seconds. This is a filmmaker who has a lot to say about the clock ticking on the wall — and ticking in the back of our heads."
Indeed, in "Before Sunrise," Jesse and Celine meet on a train and decide to get off in Vienna, where they spend the night walking the city, getting to know each other and understanding that they will separate when Celine's train arrives in the morning. It's ridiculously romantic. And "Before Sunset" is even more so: The pair meet nine years later in Paris. Jesse is a successful author, and Celine shows up at a book reading. They get reacquainted in the 80 minutes before Jesse must be at the airport and fly back to the United States. In both movies, Jesse and Celine are trying to beat the clock, to get everything said before their time's up.
"Before Midnight" is different. They're a couple now. They have kids. That clock on the wall seems different.
Linklater and I rounded a corner and entered a mostly deserted study lounge. A door slapped open nearby, and a pair of back-packed students stomped in, shaking themselves free of the rain. A splatter flew as we passed, and Linklater winced and smiled. "This place," he said, "it makes me feel like, 'Wow, I'm a student still,' then we pass a few students, and I feel like, 'Wow, no, I am old now. And so much time has passed.'"
Linklater, who is 52 and was in Champaign as part of Roger Ebert's film festival, is a pleasant paradox: a middle-aged filmmaker with shaggy, flyaway '70s hair who could pass for a graduate student, a revered clock-conscious director whose temper is so happenstance that, when he speaks in his mellow Texas drawl, images of Owen Wilson float up.
Hawke told me: "For every movie we made together, there are two that didn't work for whatever reason. We have been in pitch meetings, trying to get people to invest money in scripts, and Rick announces he's honestly not sure if this film will work, that he doesn't even know if making this film is fiscally responsible! He's, like, the opposite of the image of the director as hustler." Go figure.
With the "Before" movies in particular, Linklater's been working in a patience-requiring tradition that stretches from Francois Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series (which followed the life of a Parisian, played by the same actor across decades) to the recent finale of NBC's "The Office," which ended on the lines: "There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?"
He has become a master of the cinematic metronome, so keenly attuned that, as I sat through the "Before" films again, it was hard not to be reminded of personal hopes, failures, lost opportunities and the value of what remains, how I am about the same age as Hawke and Delpy, and the development of their characters roughly traces my own, in real time. You recognize the symmetry that occurs, how the series begins with Jesse and Celine witnessing an argument and ends with an epic, already much-buzzed-about argument between Jesse and Celine themselves.
Even Hawke's character, who is 41 in "Midnight," recalls how at 18 he wrote a letter to his 40-year-old self reminding himself not to fall into the very traps he fell into. Which Hawke actually did: "It was nonsense. You see so many adults lose their idealism, and at 18 you snicker and wonder where it went. I didn't want to be one of those people, so I wrote a letter. Which probably explains a lot about why Rick and I are close."
Actually, in a way, the series itself is a kind of letter from Linklater to himself. When I asked him the origin of the initial idea for "Before Sunrise," he shifted uncomfortably, then said something he hasn't said often:
"It's personal and I don't talk about it, but I met a girl in Philadelphia in 1989, and we ended up spending the night walking around, flirting, doing things you would never do now. I was at that stage in life where I was open, so we just walked and got to know each other. I remember, even as we were walking, thinking, 'This could be a movie. Not the intrigue that happens after people kiss and sleep together, but this, this period of learning about another person.' Which is probably what makes me a boring partner and boyfriend in the real world — throughout history! I'm never quite there for people, I'm never quite present. I'm always somewhere else."
What happened after? I asked.
"Well, later I was at a film festival in Europe, and I had never left the U.S. before that, and I spent time walking alone around Berlin and Vienna, which is where the Europe settings for the film came from."
What happened with the girl? I corrected.
"It's pretty sad," he said.
I waited.
"She died."
Hawke told me Linklater hasn't been comfortable mentioning this until "extremely recently," but he and Delpy knew the details: Her name was Amy Lehrhaupt, and she and Linklater met in a toy shop. For a time, they kept in touch by phone but drifted apart as the Austin, Texas-based filmmaker began a serious relationship. He always thought that maybe she would show up at a screening of "Before Sunrise" and realize her influence, but later, after the film was released, he heard from a friend of Lehrhaupt who knew about their walkabout. Lehrhaupt had died in 1994 in a motorcycle accident, a few weeks before the first movie began shooting. If you hang around through the closing credits of "Before Midnight," you'll see: The film is dedicated to her.
After Linklater said this, I looked around. A few students sat nearby, but no one was eavesdropping. Linklater pointed to their headphones. Indeed, every one wore headphones. "It's a different world," he said wistfully.
So different that Linklater told me he feels lucky to have made "Before Sunrise" before the encroachment of Facebook, of never having a good reason to lose touch: "A decade later, there would have been no way they lost touch completely or (as is explained in 'Sunset') missed each other when they tried to reconnect."
Besides, the series is about the magic of connection and the tenuousness of that connection — "the poetry of attraction," Linklater calls it. Which is somewhat ironic considering how efficiently these movies are made.
"I come from a musical family and played an instrument my whole life but have never been very good," Delpy said. "The only people who are good, practice like crazy, so I practiced the clarinet like crazy, and my dad said, 'Oh, clarinet is so easy.' My point being, even people who know better, who know how hard it is do something flawlessly, can't help forgetting the work involved. The truth of these movies is, they are tediously rehearsed, every detail planned, every overlapping line scripted. It's so precise that it's almost a joke when people think we are acting off the cuff. But every single line in all three of these movies has been written."
Linklater cast Hawke and Delpy in 1994, then, with them, completely rewrote the screenplay he had. Delpy said they were not credited because screenwriting guild rules gave authorship to the originators (Linklater and a friend, screenwriter Kim Krizan) and were never seriously challenged.
"Now the way it works," Linklater said, "is me and Ethan and Julie have a gestation period and start emailing ideas, and at some point, when we feel these characters are living in us, we bring everything that happened to us since the last movie, pages of material, stream-of-conscious rambling, and hole up for this intense writing and rehearsal period and get maybe a half a page of script from every 10 pages that we brought in."
For "Midnight," this started a couple of years ago: For months, they considered tracing a day in the lives of Jesse and Celine, who didn't come together until the last 15 minutes, right before bedtime, as parents of children often do.
That idea, too potentially unsatisfying for a series so rooted in the connection between its actors, was tossed last summer, and the three came together in Greece, where, for 10 weeks, they wrote, rehearsed, then shot the film; as with "Before Sunset," "Before Midnight" was made in 15 days for less than $3 million.
And like "Before Sunset," your first thought while watching is: Everyone seems a little more weathered, a little wiser and a little dumber. ("Rick is about a decade older," Hawke said, "so he's like a lap ahead of Julie and I developmentally, and sees things with a different intensity, probably more foresight than we do, so the movies have both visions working within them.") And your last thought is: Is that the last movie?
Delpy said nobody wanted a second film, but then they were Oscar-nominated for their screenplay, so …
Hawke said the third film "feels resolved to me in a way the others did not."
As for Linklater?
For the past decade, for a few days each year, he has shot material with the same young actor, material that will appear in an upcoming film. So time, as his great subject, has not receded. "And yet, I am always asked by people to do a 'Dazed 2,' 'School of Rock 2,' and some things you want to remain themselves. I would be fine if we never did another 'Before' film. It would not feel like we didn't accomplish something big here. That said, six years on, maybe Julie and Ethan and I get to talking, then I go, 'Hey, you know …'"


text:
One of the great things about archives is that you can run across interesting information in places you'd never expect. For example, the Mike Seeger tape logs in the Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (30025) are largely comprised of long lists of the song titles and performers which make up the track listings of his numerous field recordings. But hidden among the pages and pages of track listings are occasional gems of personal musings, background stories, or random anecdotes like the following:
In August 1988, I spoke with Bud Reed about the Monroe Brothers engagement in the 1950s at the New River Ranch. . . He said that they booked them separately for the same day, then somehow they sang together on stage. . . Bud said that some of the public attended because of the widely circulated folklore that they had fought and broken up – and that the big scar on Charlie's neck was from a knife wound from Bill. These people wanted to see them fight again. I've heard many such stories about these two."
Listen below to a clip from the brothers' (fratricide-free) collaboration that day:
Lonely Little Robin
The entire concert is recorded on SFC field tape FT-12917.


text:
Official memo justifying drone strikes leaks
A Justice Department "white paper" justifying the use of lethal force against Americans involved in terrorist activity became public Monday night after it was obtained by NBC News.
The 16-page memo, which NBC said was provided to Congress in June of this year, emerged on the same day 11 senators stepped up their effort to demand the Obama Administration's formal legal opinions approving of the so-called targeted killing program. They appear to be linking that drive to the confirmation of CIA director nominee John Brennan, whose hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee is set for Thursday.
The "white paper" appears to contain many of the same arguments reported to be in classified legal memoranda endorsing the use of deadly force against U.S. citizens who help plot or carry out terrorist operations. However, the document NBC obtained is not classified and may have been prepared to satisfy Congressional requests without declassifying or releasing the formal opinions.
(POLITICO LIVE: Will Brennan CIA nomination be affected by memo leak?)
The newly-disclosed document argues that the use of deadly force is justified even when a terrorist suspect with a pattern of engaging in attacks against the U.S. can't be linked to any specific imminent attack in the future.
"The condition that an operational leader present an 'imminent' threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future," the DOJ white paper says. The memo suggests that involvement in recent terrorist activities is enough to make a deadly strike legal, as long as "there is no evidence suggesting he has renounced or abandoned such activities."
Obama Administration officials have previously said that such an operation could only be undertaken where efforts to capture a terrorist suspect are "not feasible" or would present "undue risk" to U.S. troops or operatives. However, the Justice Department "white paper" gives this argument a very broad sweep, declaring that capture can be deemed infeasible if the country where the suspect is located won't consent to a capture operation or if a cpature operation "could not be physically effectuated during the relevant window of opportunity."
The DOJ "white paper" also dismisses arguments, advanced most recently by a federal judge in New York, that killing a U.S. citizen abroad could violate U.S. federal criminal law.
The memo drew a sharply negative reaction from civil liberties advocates, who maintained their call for release of the more-detailed legal justifications behind the program.
"This is a profoundly disturbing document, and it's hard to believe that it was produced in a democracy built on a system of checks and balances. It summarizes in cold legal terms a stunning overreach of executive authority – the claimed power to declare Americans a threat and kill them far from a recognized battlefield and without any judicial involvement before or after the fact," Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement Monday night.
The "white paper" also leaves some key legal questions about the targeted killing program unaddressed. They include whether the use of deadly force against terror suspects would be lawful if the suspects aren't affiliated with Al Qaeda or an associated group and whether such an operation could be legally mounted inside the United States.


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Public release date: 3-Dec-2008
New study finds diet rich in fruits and vegetables may strengthen bones
Chevy Chase, MD—Diets that are high in protein and cereal grains produce an excess of acid in the body which may increase calcium excretion and weaken bones, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The study found that increasing the alkali content of the diet, with a pill or through a diet rich in fruits and vegetables has the opposite effect and strengthens skeletal health.
"Heredity, diet, and other lifestyle factors contribute to the problem of bone loss and fractures," said Bess Dawson-Hughes, M.D., of Tufts University in Boston, Mass. and lead author of the study. "When it comes to dietary concerns regarding bone health, calcium and vitamin D have received the most attention, but there is increasing evidence that the acid/base balance of the diet is also important."
Average older adults consume diets that, when metabolized, add acid to the body, said Dr. Dawson-Hughes. With aging, we become less able to excrete the acid. One way the body may counteract the acid from our diets is through bone resorption, a process by which bones are broken down to release minerals such as calcium, phosphates, and alkaline (basic) salts into the blood. Unfortunately, increased bone resorption leads to declines in bone mass and increases in fracture risk.
"When fruits and vegetables are metabolized they add bicarbonate, an alkaline compound, to the body," said Dr. Dawson Hughes. "Our study found that bicarbonate had a favorable effect on bone resorption and calcium excretion. This suggests that increasing the alkali content of the diet may attenuate bone loss in healthy older adults."
In this study, 171 men and women aged 50 and older were randomized to receive placebo or doses of either: potassium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, or potassium chloride for three months. Researchers found that subjects taking bicarbonate had significant reductions in calcium excretion, signaling a decrease in bone resorption.
"In this study, we demonstrated that adding alkali in pill form reduced bone resorption and reduced the losses of calcium in the urine over a three month period," said Dr. Dawson-Hughes. "This intervention warrants further investigation as a safe and well tolerated supplement to reduce bone loss and fracture risk in older men and women."


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Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 129
Plato's artistically expressed philosophy can be called idealistic in the sense that it teaches that the bases of reality are eternal, immaterial Ideas or Forms. Material things exist only because they participate in the existence of the Ideas or Forms. Physical matter is inferior to spirit, and that is why the human person, who is essentially pure spirit, is hampered in this life by the physical body. The philosopher is one who is able to distinguish between the deceptive qualities of material existence and the real reality that is nonmaterial. Philosophy is a way of life, the two foundations of which are a sound intelligence and a sound morality. Its sole purpose is to attain the Good. For Plato, Socrates was the prime example of the model philosopher.