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Directed by: Brendan Muldowney
Written by: Jamie Hannigan
Produced by: XYZ Films
Other cast: Jon Bernthal, Richard Armitage
Release date: 11 August 2017
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Running time: 96 min
Short Synopsis
Ireland, 1209. An island on the edge of the world. A small group of monks begin a reluctant pilgrimage across an island torn between centuries of tribal warfare and the growing power of Norman invaders. Escorting their monastery's holiest relic to Rome, the monks' progress is seen through the eyes of a pious young novice and a mute lay-brother with a violent past. Their mission soon becomes fraught with danger as they trek across a rugged landscape that's been ravaged by years of tribal warfare.
Promotional Images
More Info
Pilgrimage is an Irish medieval thriller film. The film premiered on April 23, 2017 at the Tribeca Film Festival in its "Viewpoints" section. It was scheduled for general release (screen / VOD / streaming) on August 11, 2017.
Tom's Character: The Novice / Brother Diarmuid
Brother Diarmund is an inexperienced young monk living in a remote monastery in Ireland, circa 1209 A.D. His friend, an unnamed mute monk looks after him.
Full Cast
Tom Holland as The Novice / Brother Diarmuid
Richard Armitage as Raymond De Merville
Jon Bernthal as The Mute
John Lynch as Brother Ciarán
Stanley Weber as Frère Geraldus
Eric Godon as Baron de Merville
Tristan McConnell as Dugald
Eoin Geoghegan as Crovderg
Diarmuid de Faoite as The Captain
Tony Condren as Wolf Head
Extended Synopsis
Spoiler Alert
Cappadocia in 55 AD. A man in a shift and sandals is led via a rope by a group of other men into the middle of a desert valley before some high cliffs. The leader of the group of men tears the man's necklace from his neck. The pendant is in the form of an (anachronistic) staurogram. The leader spits on it and throws it on the ground. The leader urges the other men to stone the man. They pick up stones from the ground and stone him — brutally. He falls down and is clearly unconscious and possibly dead. The leader then picks up a larger, broader stone and raises it above his head to deal the final blow; as he begins to throw it down, the camera cuts to black. The next scene is a view of the west seacoast of Ireland. A young man in a monk's robe (Tom Holland) is gathering mollusks by pouring water on the beach and watching them pop up and grabbing them. He curses in Gaelic when one of them snaps at his finger. He is accompanied by a man carrying a yoke with two baskets on it: "the Mute" (Jon Bernthal) who is wearing leather boots to the knee, breeches, and a shirt, and seems to be collecting seaweed. The boy muses about the first people who decided to eat these things and what they were thinking, and speculates about the purpose of animal life, as he has been instructed by Brother Cathal to believe that the purpose of animals is to serve man. The two abandon the beach and walk over the dunes when they see a group of three mounted men on a crest, looking down at them. The boy immediately breaks into a run, hurrying back to an area further inland where we see a group of monks working (doing the tasks typically associated with maintaining a monastery such as gardening, tending to animals, etc.) around something that could either be ruins of a complex of buildings, or the remains of some kind of pagan monument, it's not entirely clear which, or it could be both. It's not entirely clear what order the monks are but there's a suggestion later that they are probably Benedictines. The boy informs the monks that he sees riders. Meanwhile, the Mute, apparently unconcerned, catches up. Someone asks which clan they are from. The Abbot (the head of the monastery, whom the monks call Abba [father] — asks all those present if the relic has been moved. They agree it hasn't. The abbot tells them to stay calm. Next we see them in prayer, in a group in a spare stone hut or cottage. They are singing Salve, Regina which is the Marian hymn sung at Compline during the Ordinary Time after Pentecost.
The boy is standing in the back row, right in front of the door, and he turns around. Through the door he can see both the Mute doing something or other with an animal, and one of the riders from earlier, a Cistercian monk in the customary white robe (Stanley Weber as Brother Geraldus). The Cistercian falls to his knees on the paving stones that lead to the hut, kisses the ground, and advances toward the monks.
Singing Salve Regina implies they are going to bed immediately, but that's not what happens. Next we see the boy scraping an animal hide in the building complex, while a little way away, Geraldus and the Abbot stand out on a promontory toward the sea. They speak English with each other. The Abbot notes that they don't get many visitors who've traveled as far as Geraldus, who says papal authority knows no limits. Geraldus gives the Abbot a rolled up piece of paper that purports to be a document from Pope Innocent III. The Abbot says he's had no word; Geraldus says that Innocent's current situation demands discretion and, over the Abbot's protests, that there is no debating papal authority (clang). Jerusalem has been lost and the Faith is suffering, with enemies and heretics challenging it. The Pope thinks the relic has the power "to separate the faithful from the faithless, to summon the wrath of G-d upon his enemies." Geraldus tells the Abbot that the relic can supply the power to win the upcoming Crusade and the Abbot can't hide it away. Next, we see the monks proceeding out with torches, and then extracting the relic from its hiding place, in the ground; they have set up a structure with a crank. They pull out a large, heavy object covered in a sheep skin. They uncover it partially and we see a fancy, golden reliquary encrusted with jewels. We see Geraldus look at it and he murmurs a Latin prayer. I think he's saying "Deo patris sit gloria [he says: Deus] euisque soli filio," part of a stanza in a number of Latin hymns ("Glory be to G-d the father and to his only son"). The next day Abbot is blessing the monks who will accompany the relic: Brother Ciaran (John Lynch), who's in charge, along with brothers Rua (Rúaidhrí Conroy) and Cathal (Hugh O'Conor), and Diarmuid. As the Abbot blesses him, Diarmuid crosses himself. The Abbot tells the monks in Gaelic they will be transporting the relic to a ship at Waterford, and from thence they will accompany it on its way to Rome. One of the monks objects, but the Abbot repeats the charge and tells them to go with God. He then takes Ciaran aside and says that they will need strong hands and the Mute will go along with them. Ciaran looks at the Abbot and the Abbot says he's sorry to give Ciaran so much responsibility and Ciaran says, "it's not that," and expresses that he's worried about the boy, because all he knows is the monastery. "That's why he needs to go," the Abbot replies. The reliquary is placed on the back of a cart in its sheepskin covering. The two riders who accompanied Geraldus lead the way, followed by Geraldus on his horse, followed by the cart, with Ciaran driving; while Rua and Cathal follow on foot with thick stocks and Diarmuid and the Mute pick up the rear. They depart and all the monks are standing there, looking at them, as they leave. As they are traveling, the cart wheel gets stuck in a hole in the unpaved path, and as the monks try to loosen it, the skies darken. We see the sky and a huge lightning strike comes down and hits the reliquary and the sheepskin catches on fire. Geraldus' horse runs away. One of the men on foot (Diarmuid?) grabs the sheepskin and pulls it off the reliquary, which is unharmed. One of the other monks (Cathal?) touches the reliquary and singes his hand. Then it begins to pour. They regroup and move onward. That night, while camping, they discuss the relic. These conversations are in English.
Geraldus, referring to the chieftains who are guarding them, notes that they won't go near the relic. Rua remarks that they know what happens to people who disturb the relic, a snide remark made in a way that suggests that if Geraldus knew this, he wouldn't be moving the relic either. Rua then tells the story of how the relic protected the abbey when it was attacked by Norsemen (who'd been active in Ireland for two centuries already). The monks heard the attack, ran into the church and saw an angel striking the relic; they ran away, but when they came back a large storm had blown up and sunk the Norse ships with their crews. Next to the relic were the burnt bodies of other Norsemen. "Only the pure of heart can touch the relic and live," Rua concludes. Geraldus then asks about the Mute. Ciaran says he's been with them five years and he's a "converso, a lay brother." Geraldus notes that the Mute doesn't fear the relic. Rua says he's a mute, a half-wit; Diarmuid objects. Cathal tells Geraldus that Diarmuid found him washed up in a little boat on their shores without food. Geraldus thinks this must have been a punishment. Ciaran notes that the Mute does everything they ask of him and has not spoken and they shouldn't ask further questions, but go to bed.
The next morning, Diarmuid is walking slightly outside the camp in the scrub, and sees the Mute kneeling with his arms extended, facing the sun as if meditating. He has a huge cross tattoo on his back. Diarmuid turns away before the Mute can see him.
They continue their journey; Geraldus complains about the weather in French and Ciaran answers him in French. Geraldus asks if he's seen Rome and he affirms, and then Jerusalem? Ciaran says nothing. He pauses the procession alongside a stream to fill up with water, but the two chieftains object: the stream runs through a fairy fort and is enchanted; he shouldn't drink it. Rua has to translate it and calls it "the place of the Sidhe. They say the Tuatha De Dannan come out at night and play among those rocks. They cast spells upon the water. Bewitch travelers."
Geraldus scoffs, resisting the suggestion to move on. "You are soldiers of Christ, you would run from a mere skirmish?" He demonstratively fills his water container, then casts out any demons in the name of St. Matthias and the triune God, and drinks. He wants Diarmuid to do so as well, but Diarmuid won't; the Mute interposes himself between Geraldus and Diarmuid and swallows huge draughts of water. As the group leaves the area, we see the body of a decomposing sheep in the stream. A little further on, the Mute looks feverish — Ciaran gives him some leaves to give to those who drank from the water. Geraldus asks what it is and while Diarmuid is silent after saying it's "water mint," Ciaran answers that they are good for stomachache. Geraldus says he isn't experiencing any stomachache.
Meanwhile, the chieftains see something in the mountains and decide to abandon the party. Geraldus objects that they were supposed to take them all the way to the Mervilles' border, but the men insist that war is coming. The monks are now alone, briefly; they enter a forest (and now, I believe, we're in Wallonia — the forest scenes were shot in Belgium).
They see the Mervilles coming and they are concerned; the stocks they are carrying are weighed and prepared to be used as weapons. Here, as throughout the film, Raymond de Merville announces himself with a horn blast. Geraldus asks the brothers to "have a little faith."
Geraldus and Sir Raymond speak French with each other. Raymond says he's surprised to see Geraldus, and when Geraldus says they were supposed to meet up, Raymond notes that not everyone returns from Gaelic territory. He makes a disparaging comment ("You found a souvenir?") as he looks toward the relic and sees the Mute. After a moment, Geraldus says he'll discuss it with Raymond's father; Raymond agrees in a vaguely menacing tone to take him to his father. The Normans (Raymond and another on a horse, and several men on foot) close ranks around the monks and they turn around, proceeding in the direction they came.
They proceed in a rank through the forest on a path, but as they emerge from it toward a stream, they see the carcasses of a little fox nailed to a tree, and under the fox, incised into the bark, a spiral triskelion. Diarmuid asks one of his brothers to explain, and the brother says that it is the symbol of a group (iirc, the Ua Mordha) that had been fighting the Normans. Ominously, he says that the group had been praying to God for help, but God did not listen, so they started to believe in other things. A little further away, they can see two men spearfishing on the other side of the water: poachers, as Raymond notes. He then orders his soldiers (Dugald — Tristan McConnell) to pursue them, and one of them shoots an arrow that hits one of the poachers.
While they are awaiting the results of this pursuit, the monks pause and the Mute kneels on the path and secures his baskets (on the yoke) more closely. Raymond approaches the monks, looks more closely at the Mute, and says to him (in English) that he probably didn't expect to be a pack-mule upon joining the monastery. Cathal tells Raymond that he's not a monk, but "a converso. A lay brother." Raymond says that his men recognize the Mute, but don't know from where, and asks him to settle their wager on it, naming cities crusaders would visit. There is a veneer of charm and casualness here but anger is seething beneath the surface. Diarmuid senses both Raymond's menace and the Mute's discomfort and interjects that the man can't speak. Raymond asks if he's also deaf. Rua says that the Mute can hear. Raymond muses that he chooses not to. He then changes into French and asks how someone who can't speak confesses his sins. Ciaran replies in French that they pray for him. Raymond remarks how good it must be to have friends who do this for him "solely on faith."
Meanwhile the soldiers have returned and inform Raymond that the poachers are finished poaching — he has two severed hands in his possession and drops them on the ground where the beagles fall all over them.
The march continues, with the sort of long tone of a hurdy gurdy resonating in the background. Eventually the party enters a camp of the Mervilles, filled with fires and white tents and all the iconography of a medieval encampment, where Raymond is met by a hostler who takes his horse and Fournier (Gaëtan Wenders), his father's aide de camp. Raymond asks after his father and says he's brought guests along. The energy between the two men is not positive. Diarmuid watches the camp with interest.
In the camp, Geraldus is brought to Raymond's father, the Baron de Merville (Eric Godon). They embrace. The men speak French with each other. Geraldus tells the Baron he thought he'd be in the south, and the Baron tells him he has to keep his eyes on his border — resistance shoots out of the ground and has to be cut back. He asks Geraldus if he "found what he was looking for." Geraldus responds in the affirmative. The Baron tells him he'd really have liked to have gone on the Jerusalem pilgrimage at Geraldus' side, and seen Rome, and met the Holy Father, but now he will probably die and be buried in Ireland. So he asks if he can get a look at the relic to help him in his prayer, to inspire his knights and to support him in completing their holy task (presumably, the continued colonization of Ireland). Geraldus looks slightly hesitant but agrees that he cannot refuse the request of such a devoted servant of the Church.
The next morning — Diarmuid is walking slightly outside the camp in the scrub, and sees the Mute kneeling with his arms extended, facing the sun as if meditating. He has a huge cross tattoo on his back. Diarmuid turns away before the Mute can see him.
Next, we see the Baron, Geraldus, and Ciaran standing in front of the back of the cart with the reliquary, with Raymond directly behind him in a row of knights, and the knights flanked by the brothers. "A pretty box," Raymond says. Geraldus responds that it is a shell, and directs Ciaran to open the reliquary. Ciaran says, "This is unwise," but pulls the key to the reliquary out of his cassock as Geraldus tells the official story of the relic: Matthias' (Judas' replacement among the apostles) was martyred while spreading the Gospel to the barbarians of Cappadocia. We see a flashback to the rock, dripping with blood. Matthias gave thanks while he was being stoned, so the rock caught fire and burned his torturers and when they cried out for mercy, the ground swallowed them whole (this is why we don't see any corpses in the flashback, presumably) and Matthias' body was taken to heaven.
The Baron looks visibly moved, but Raymond is not having it (the expression on his face is incredibly interesting — a combination of disbelief, pain, sarcasm). He says, "and this is that rock? Most impressive!" The Baron apologizes for his son, whom he feels has been living out on the borders too long among the heathens. Even so, the knights all kneel simultaneously and Raymond with them.
Cut to an evening scene, with the Normans and the brothers at a long table under a tent, the remains of a meal in front of them. They are drinking wine. The Baron and his men are complaining in French about how hard it is to get rid of the Irish no matter what they do; they disappear into the bogs. The Baron asks Geraldus what he would do, and Geraldus says he would drain the bogs; the Baron laughs. The Normans are hugely amused. The Baron asks Raymond for more to drink as he needs to drain a bog. More laughter. Shouts of "à boire!" There's an atmosphere of unease although Ciaran is the only other monk who understands what's being said.
Geraldus excuses himself. He and Ciaran walk a little way away from the table, speaking English (again, it's not clear why) and Ciaran asks for details of the agreement Geraldus has made with the Normans. Geraldus refuses until Ciaran points out that the sanctity of the relic and his brothers' lives are involved, and hints that the Normans are dangerous and can't really be trusted. Geraldus reminds Ciaran that he knows what the customary recompense is for engaging in crusade: he has offered the Normans absolution. From what Geraldus says, it's clear that he sees the relationship between the Church and the crusaders as a quid pro quo to get things done and obligate the Normans to them — "the blackest of their deeds bind them to us." Ciaran disagrees.
Later, Ciaran and Diarmuid (inexplicably speaking English to each other) are seated by a campfire, talking. Diarmuid has talked to Rua, who has that the foreigners know nothing but war and will conquer this land — but he wants to know if there was peace before? Ciaran replies that it was a long time ago, and he was a boy (presumably he's referring to the years before the Norman invasion of 1170), but that even then there was no peace. When Diarmuid asks why, Ciaran gives a very undoctrinal answer: that peace needs to be grown and "that is beyond the reach of most men." It's not entirely clear what Diarmuid makes of this insight.
The next morning, Diarmuid is relieving himself, and when he's finished, he sees Raymond releasing a pigeon. In English, Raymond accuses Diarmuid of being a spy for his kinsmen. (Interesting insofar as we have no idea about Diarmuid's backstory.) Diarmuid points out that the monks rise early every day and tries to walk past Raymond. He says that the monks serve God. Raymond is skeptical, pointing out that unlike his father, he is not impressed by pious men: "Anyone can wear the robes of a monk." The Mute appears, however, and interposes himself between Raymond and Diarmuid. Again, Raymond seems almost to recognize him. Someone calls to Raymond to tell him to assemble his men as they want to celebrate mass before leaving. "Une autre fois, alors," he says to the Mute (another time, then).
Next, we see the camp at mass. There's plainsong in the background that I didn't recognize, but it doesn't sound like part of the Eucharistic prayer. One of the monks is distributing the bread; we see someone (Raymond's father?) receiving the Eucharist reverently, but Raymond takes a piece and does not look happy. Then Diarmuid passes with the cup and offers it to Raymond, and the look on his face is truly awful.
Cut to the same party as before (monks and Raymond's men) plus Fournier, passing through the forest. Raymond's telling (in French) the punch line of a joke that may be about anal sex and infidelity. His men laugh. Ciaran looks unhappy; Geraldus asks him (in English) if he is troubled and Ciaran denies it. They move out of the edge of the forest and as they do, they see heads of Normans on poles. A bridge has been burned out, and again we see the fox carcass and the spiral triskelion.
Raymond sees what has happened, and picks up a shield from his opponents — it also has the spiral triskelion on it. "Ua Mordha," he screams (the name of an Irish clan), and spits at it before tossing it on the ground. This entire scene is in French. He orders one of his soldiers to return to his father and inform him, then come back. He tells another contingent of men to come with him to pursue the people who burnt out the bridge, because they should be able to catch them. Fournier objects that he's taking the men away, and Raymond says, "my men." With a great deal of sarcasm he promises Fournier that they will return in time to protect them.
After they leave, Geraldus asks Fournier if there's no other way. Apparently several bridges have been washed out, but they will go via "the Hollows." Geraldus asks what these are, and Fournier says that they are a not-much-traveled part of the woods with a poor reputation that they will change. The much reduced party proceeds through the woods.
They pause at some point — the sounds are ominous, and Fournier calls a halt. As he's saying "qu'est-ce qu'il se passe?" (I think) a soldier sees the spiral triskelion again, and as he looks more closely, the Ua Mordha (members of an Irish clan) emerge from the woods and attack the party.
A battle ensues. I can't remember all the unique events of the battle in order, but a few important ones as best I can remember — as it begins, the Mute jumps on Diarmuid and pushes him to the ground as he watches what happens. Someone hits Rua in the head with a hammer and blood spurts out and he dies. Fournier and all of the soldiers are killed. The Mute is knocked out and partially unconscious.
Ciaran, who has been driving the cart, is also knocked out, in the cart. A clansman runs up to the back of the cart and tries to open the box and starts prying the jewels off of it; Diarmuid sees this and tries to interfere; he's about to get killed when the Mute wakes up, picks up a sword, and saves him. As this particular marauder is killed we hear a clanging sound.
However, this occurrence allows an Irish man to grab the reigns of the cart and take off with the cart — Diarmuid starts running in pursuit. The Irish folk keep pouring out of the woods, including a man with a mask over his head made out of a wolf's head, and the Mute keeps fighting them. He is very clearly an extremely skilled and vicious warrior. He picks up a sword from one of the dead Normans and kills a few more. At the end, he has really lost control and he bashes the wolf man's head over and over again with his shield.
Diarmuid is chasing the cart and falls down. The Mute is chasing an Irish man and stumbles over Diarmuid and almost beats him to death before Diarmuid is able to make the Mute aware that it's him.
At the end of the battle, the cart with the relic / reliquary is gone, in the hands of the Irish, along with Ciaran. All of the Norman soldiers are dead, particularly Fournier, as is Rua. Geraldus, Diarmuid, Cathal and the Mute are left in the place where the battle took place and they debate what to do. Cathal picks up the pearls and jewels that the Irish man had tried to pry off the reliquary. Geraldus wants to pursue the relic. He tells the others than the destruction of all of the people around them is a sign of the miracle; when the Irish man tried to touch the reliquary, the relic caused the destruction of their attackers. He also insists to the Mute that he's in the service of the church and that his work is not yet done. God rejoices at the destruction of savages. Geraldus presses a sword into the Mute's hands to urge him onward. Geraldus wants to track the rock — he intimates that the Mute can do this — while Cathal believes they should wait until Sir Raymond catches up with them. Diarmuid worries that the Irish might return first, and tells the group it is their duty to try, so they decide to track the reliquary.
The Mute grabs a number of torches from the carts and hands them to the monks. Then they start tracking. Eventually they head into the forest and the Mute sneaks up on a sentry and breaks his neck while the monks — and we — watch. Then the monks sneak up on the Irish encampment. They can see the reliquary. Brother Ciaran is tied to a tree and his face is covered with snot. As night falls, they debate what to do. Diarmuid points out that they don't need to carry the reliquary, they just need the relic. He says he will take it and carry it, but he wants someone else to free Ciaran while he's doing it. Geraldus tells Diarmuid that they can't do both, that their bodies are God's tools to do his will, and that Ciaran would tell him the same thing. Geraldus says they will pray for Ciaran's soul.
Diarmuid creeps into the encampment and begins to free Ciaran (Geraldus is incensed). For some reason Ciaran and Diarmuid speak English with each other. Diarmuid tells Ciaran to save his strength. While Diarmuid is sawing away with a dull knife at Ciaran's bonds, our attention turns elsewhere as we see Raymond enter the Irish encampment with some of his soldiers. (At least one time I saw it there were gasps of surprise. One of them was mine. I figured he had abandoned the party because he wasn't into escorting the relic, not because he was actively trying to undermine the relic mission.) Geraldus is outraged.
The leader of the group tells Raymond and his companions in Irish that they want a new deal — that they were prepared to steal the stuff but that they were attacked by a monk. Raymond doesn't understand any of this and turns to his aid, who explains what happened. Raymond asks where the other man is; The aid says that he's dead and a monk killed him.
The camera turns back to Ciaran and Diarmuid. Ciaran tells Diarmuid he has to go now. When Diarmuid refuses, Ciaran tells him that he threw the rock from the cart at the last point where he saw them following it. Diarmuid should find it, and go East, protecting himself and the relic. Diarmuid runs back to the other monks.
Back at the center of camp, the aid tells Raymond that the Irish want the reliquary. Raymond is fine with that, stating that he only needs its contents. But he discovers that the reliquary is empty, and comes over to Ciaran to ask where the rock is. (This conversation is in English.) Ciaran accuses Raymond of breaking his vow to protect them, and Raymond cites his vow to his king. King and pope are quarreling and the relic would be a good piece of leverage in the argument. Ciaran says he would be rewarded for bringing it to the pope; Raymond says he should prove his loyalty to the king, who is worried that the Normans in Ireland are too loyal to their cousins in Normandy. Ciaran states that Raymond would betray his own father's chance at salvation. Raymond tells Ciaran that his father is too afraid of what will happen after death to safeguard the future of his family.
Raymond asks again where the relic is, pointing out it will be returned eventually. Ciaran says he doesn't know where it is. Raymond pulls out a nasty tool and says he got it from a priest in Constantinople who used it during the Crusades to get the Greeks to tell them where gold was. Raymond sticks it in and twists it. He offers to kill Ciaran quickly if he'll tell him where the rock is. Ciaran begins the steps of an exemplary martyrdom — he calls out the name of Jesus in Irish. Raymond calls out to his soldiers to start tracking the monks. He tells Ciaran it doesn't matter if he won't tell him — another stone will do just as well. Ciaran tells Raymond that God loves him and that he and God will forgive him. Raymond pulls out his entrails. This is nasty to watch and frustrating in that if you don't catch what Raymond is saying here, his motives remain completely obscure because he never states them at any other time.
Next, we see the remaining monks (Geraldus, Diarmuid, Cathal) and the Mute looking through a clearing with the aid of torches. They find the rock or what they believe to be the rock. Geraldus leads them in saying four verses from Psalm 94 (Vulgate: Psalm 93), while they look at each other. Diarmuid puts the rock in his medieval messenger bag. Then Geraldus starts to lecture him about his disobedience over Ciaran; Diarmuid's duty is to obey. They are in an eternal war with the Devil and "in this war, he waits a lifetime, an eternity, for a single moment of witness such as yours. Do not give it to him again." The next morning they are using the last of their water, getting ready to go. Cathal is convinced that they will be killed. "We are not alone," Diarmuid says. "We are never alone. Have faith."
Next we hear Raymond's horn and a clanging sound at the same time — just as the monks emerge into a vista where they can see the river and thus the way to Waterford. "Praise be," Geraldus says, "God has heard us." They rush to the river's edge, pursued by Raymond, and get in the water in hopes of confusing the trackers. They take cover, crouching in a clearing. Raymond and his men are near, but there is a tremendous amount of fog and he can't see them.
Raymond is clearly frustrated and begins to taunt them (in English): do they think they can walk on water? He offers to let them live if they give him the rock. "It shouldn't be a difficult decision," he says, "pas pour un soldat," switching into French and apparently referring to the Mute. He says that the Mute has changed his appearance, implying that he knows him (but we never find out in detail how); a man can change his appearance and the way he speaks but not who he is. The camera flashes back and forth between Raymond and the frightened monks. Raymond begins slashing through the brush, telling the monks to keep the rock; he will get a different one, but they should kill Geraldus. At this, Geraldus says something, and the monks shush him. Geraldus tells him he is endangering his salvation, and Raymond says that if he waits long enough, there will be another crusade and another chance for absolution; it is the way of the world.
Raymond then switches back into English and asks whether Geraldus has told the monks how he got this very important responsibility? He then says Geraldus' entire name — which I didn't understand fully but which ended in d'Albi — so he was from a noble family in Albi (France), a major center of Catharism (the film doesn't tell you this). Raymond says that when Geraldus discovered that his father was supporting heretics, he had him tortured and then burnt at the stake. Their lands went to the Church, thus securing Geraldus' future. Geraldus says something and one of Raymond's soldiers shoots an arrow at him, narrowly missing.
The monks get up and flee, eventually emerging through the water into a clearer area, where they hear a clanging sound. It's a ship's bell. At this point, the film's score switches into anachronistic polyphony, which for some reason really bothered me, although it won't bother most viewers. They find a rather violent and greedy boatman and his mate, who speaks to them in Irish, threatens them with a hammer and doesn't agree to take them (despite assurances of payment upon arrival). Geraldus loses his composure: "We are men of the cloth; doesn't that mean anything in this accursed country?" and Diarmuid cautions him to calm down. Geraldus wants to sic the Mute on the boatman, but Diarmuid rejects this possibility and Geraldus starts to say that Diarmuid is evil and not worthy to carry the relic, when Cathal comes up with the jewels from the reliquary and they receive transport.
They all get into the boat. Geraldus starts reciting the Lord's Prayer in Latin. Diarmuid asks Geraldus if what Raymond said about him is true. Geraldus says he serves the Church and his conscience is clear, silencing any questions Diarmuid might want to ask. Geraldus continues with the information that his father never repented and never thought he had done anything wrong. But Geraldus learned that day "it was not his faith in the Church that he lost, it was his fear of it." All seems well, though, until they wash up on a sandbar — the tide is going out. Just as they notice this, they hear Raymond's horn again. We see Raymond and a few of his men riding across the sands toward the boat.
The boatman gives the jewels back and tells them to get out of the boat; Diarmuid points out that they are not going to leave any witnesses. They toss out all the goods in the boat. Geraldus takes this chance to urge the Mute to turn around and confront Raymond and his men — saying he has not yet done enough to be saved, and offering him absolution in exchange for the defense, at the end appealing, "save us." Interestingly, Geraldus addresses the Mute with the informal "you" (tu). As he speaks French, the other monks don't really understand what is being said although they ask. The Mute turns toward the soldiers and the boatmen and the monks start pushing the boat through the sand toward the river, as arrows from Raymond's archer get closer and closer to them.
Eventually, the monks get the boat going on open water, but as they get underway, an arrow hits the boatman's mate and he falls in the water. This is interspersed with cuts of the Mute preparing to fight (he takes off his shirt) and then fighting with Raymond's men. Raymond orders his men to concentrate on the rock, not on the Mute. The monks are rowing like crazy. Raymond orders his men to try to catch the boat at Waterford. On the boat, Cathal turns toward Diarmuid but he has an arrow in his chest. Back on the beach, the Mute has fought his way through most of Raymond's men (he bites one on the ear) and fights with Raymond. Raymond inserts the disemboweling tool into the Mute's stomach, taunting him that he will suffer while the monks watch, but the Mute is not easily deterred. He continues fighting and when he gets close to Raymond, Raymond says, in French, who are you? where are you from? and the Mute pauses for a second, whispers "Hell!" and then bites through Raymond's jugular vein.
Back on the boat, Geraldus tries to convince Diarmuid that a miracle is occurring and that the sound of the swords from the fight on the beach is the sound of the angel striking the relic. "The bell will inspire an army of men like him. Men who will retake Jerusalem. Men who will retake the world. … All doubt will be swept away. Stand with the Church and live, or stand against it and be crushed." Diarmuid pulls out the relic, and it looks like he's going to throw it overboard — he wants to give it back to God. Geraldus tries to take the relic away from Diarmuid, and the boatman warns them to be still or risk capsizing. Geraldus falls into the water with the messenger bag with the rock and seemed to have drowned.
We see Raymond's dead body on the beach, and the Mute breathing his last breaths. Diarmuid is standing in the boat. He looks out at the landscape, which we see with him. The boatman says, "where to now?" Diarmuid look at the boatman, helplessly.
Filming started in April 2015. Filming locations included the West Coast of Ireland and Ardennes in Belgium.


text:
MIT professor charged with hiding work for China
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was charged Thursday with hiding work he did for the Chinese government while he was also collecting U.S. dollars for his nanotechnology research.
Gang Chen, 56, was arrested by federal agents at his home in Cambridge on charges including wire fraud, officials said.
While working for MIT, Chen entered into undisclosed contracts and held appointments with Chinese entities, including acting as an "overseas expert" for the Chinese government at the request of the People's Republic of China Consulate Office in New York, authorities said. Many of those roles were "expressly intended to further the PRC's scientific and technological goals," authorities said in court documents.
Chen did not disclose his connections to China, as is required on federal grant applications, authorities said. He and his research group collected about $29 million in foreign dollars, including millions from a Chinese government funded university funded, while getting $19 million in grants from U.S federal agencies for his work at MIT since 2013, authorities said
"It is not illegal to collaborate with foreign researchers. It is illegal to lie about it," Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters.
Chen's attorney said the professor "loves the United States and looks forward to vigorously defending these allegations."
"Since Gang moved to this country over 30 years ago, his life has been the epitome of the American dream. He has dedicated his life to scientific advancement in mechanical engineering," attorney Rob Fisher said in an email.
Gang was ordered released from custody during a hearing held via videoconference before a Boston federal court judge. Hours earlier, agents executed search warrants at his home and his office at the university, said Joseph Bonavolonta, head of the Boston FBI office.
MIT said it is "deeply distressed" by Chen's arrest.
"MIT believes the integrity of research is a fundamental responsibility, and we take seriously concerns about improper influence in U.S. research. Prof. Chen is a long-serving and highly respected member of the research community, which makes the government's allegations against him all the more distressing," the school said in a statement.
Chen's arrest comes nearly a year after federal authorities arrested another nanotechnology expert at a prestigious university in the Boston area. Harvard Professor Charles Lieber was charged last January with lying about his ties to China's Thousand Talents Plan, a program designed to lure people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China.
Lieber's attorney has denied the allegations, calling the professor the "victim in this case, not the perpetrator."
The cases are part of a pattern of Justice Department prosecutions against researchers at American universities who are accused of concealing their professional relationships with Chinese institutions. Dozens of academics working in the U.S. have been charged in cases that often accuse them of failing to disclose research grants they had received from universities in China.
Earlier this month, several groups including Asian Americans Advancing Justice sent a letter to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden urging him to end the DOJ's so-called "China Initiative." The groups said the initiative has "greatly increased the targeting and profiling of Asian Americans and immigrants, particularly those of Chinese descent who are working in science and technology."
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
128 responses to "The Business Rusch: The End of The World as We Know It"
And the English majors in New York are all standing around the water coolers singing their own Kumbaya song, "Business as usual, my Lord, Business as usual… Nothing is wrong here, nothing is wrong.
It's like they've all attended too many "Attitude Control" weekends and took the Koolaid recipe to work with them.
The denial kills me.
The idea that books by revered 19th century writers like Dickens were considered junky reads 150 years ago reminds us that in order for something to be "good," the conventional wisdom is that it must only appeal to a small number of people. The "masses" read E.L. James (or Danielle Steel or Nicholas Sparks or anyone who's sold more than you think they should have) so those writers and their books must be crap.
The irony for me is that, at least in romance publishing, the entire industry works on a tent pole model. Because Kristan Higgins sells lots of books in her sub-genre, publishers only want to acquire works by new authors whose work in that sub-genre is enough like Kristan Higgins that they can be packaged to appeal to Higgins's fans. In other words, the authors who sell the most books must by definition be writing the right stories.
This insults the readers. Readers want to read new books by new authors that are good, not derivative. Which is why a lot of the best 21st century writers will find their way to independent publication because industry professionals are rejecting them. And if those writers are making more money self-publishing than they can with trad publishers, why should they shift back?
I worked with Steve Wasserman when he edited the LA TIMES Book Review…but that was over a decade ago.
He went back to NYC & became an agent. Dave Ulan runs it now. Steve Wasserman's views are those of NYC publishing, as a group usually the last to sniff the breeze.
I spent 2 weeks in that milieu in May and they have learned little, as you say.
The important lesson is as you also say: the future, especially for genre, lies in the indies.
He's an agent? LOL! Well, that explains a LOT.
Just so you know, I log into your site pretty much every morning and then curse when I realize it's not Thursday.
Yeah, Lara. Everyday should be Thursday! 🙂
And now that I've read the latest Author Guild statement, posted June 4th, the only explanation I can think of by now is that the AG was dropped on its head from a great height, with tragic results:
your new website looks great kkr. Clear, clean look.
Just from being an old codger: The man who reads narrowly is narrow, not deep.
A few years ago Brandon Sanderson and I were driving along on a signing, and we got to talking about how the chains were killing one another. Amazon was indeed a culprit, primarily because they had a better business model. In all businesses, "He who best serves the needs of his customers will win." So we were bemoaning the fact that Borders was in a bad spot and Barnes and Noble was on its way out, and suddenly Brandon said, "You know, this will just rejuvenate the boutique shops," and he was right. There is no better time to start an indie bookstore, and it has been that way for three years.
Thank you for this post, Kristine. I've been thinking (and posting) about this subject myself recently, because I have a manuscript just about ready to go. And as a first-time novelist, picking my publishing route demands serious consideration.
I'm still deciding, but I feel as though I improve my future prospects if I get a novel traditionally published first. What do you think?
Woohoo and preach it, sister. Particularly you do a great job, I think, of debunking a lot of the grease the traditional publishers are pouring into the media.
For a somewhat more metaphorical argument about why professional writers should side with Amazon and cheer for the Department of Justice in this case, see the piece on my blog titled "Amazon versus Apple, Guns to the Indians, and the Viewpoint of the Fish" at http://thatjohnbarnes.blogspot.com/2012/06/amazon-versus-apple-guns-to-indians-and.html. And in general, independent writers — whether independent in publishing, politics, spirit, or any other aspect — need to repeat that slogan from the antiwar struggle of a few years ago: "Not In Our Name." If you hear a local writer being interviewed on radio or TV about this, pick up that phone and your list of credentials, and make it clear that the writing, bookselling, and publishing community is NOT, NOT, NOT united on this issue.
I was recently on a panel, 'Editors, Agents, and Other Endangered Species,' at Baycon where the other panelists were not generally favourable to Amazon. I pointed out that Amazon had not cheated or done anything illegal to get to where it is–they simply understood that the traditional model was completely broken and went for it, providing terrific service to the bookbuying public on the way. As a result of Amazon's success, many indie authors are now benefiting. There were loud gasps of disbelief from the other panelists when I pointed out that Amazon pay my royalties on the nail, every month, like clockwork, and that I can monitor my sales and royalties in real time (the same incidentally is true with Lightning Source (POD). And after 10 months, sales of my nonfiction Greek island memoir are still rising (just under 500 in May), long after it would have been off the shelves with a traditional publisher.
Oddly enough I think the publishing industry stumbled upon the answer to their own problem with sales. The e-book as a gateway drug to the hard stuff 🙂 .
One way to increase sales is to increase customer base and the easiest way to do that is to market to everyone who has a pad or an iphone (fast, wide distribution). That whole 'mommmy porn' which they disdain was easy, light, enjoyable, engrossing reading (going by the reviews) and it would be easy to shift readers from that to a title which that demographic could scoop up and download quickly before they forgot about reading all together (I'm imagining that not everyone who read that was a 'reader' to begin with given the demographic that they keep touting). The big publishers have the $$$ to do this easily and yet …. crickets. But, shhh, we shouldn't have to tell them how to do their jobs and the fact that they insult women by calling it 'mommy porn' just goes to show how good at marketing they are.
Great article!
You're awesome! I LOOOOOVE your posts! Keep 'em coming!
I'm so sorry you couldn't be there at the Superstars! Maybe next year? I hope to meet you someday!
P.S. I'm glad your site is back up again! Kudos!
Well, I, for one, am enjoying The New Yorker SF issue – my subscription paid for by indie-published SF after my escapist check was cashed.
I have nothing else to say in my defense.
I don't think I need anything else.
I can't imagine the amount of ego it takes to make the statements that Turow was willing to utter at such an open forum. Calling the Department of Justice "one of our antagonists", makeing fun of a best selling author, and claiming Amazon, a company thats put money in the pockets of countless authors, is evil? That calls for a whole new level of arrogance. And from a lawyer no less! Why would any lawyer worth his salt deliberately antagonize the people investigating his bread and butter?
But after reading the rest of story I came away quit happy. Wassermans comments just prooved to me that the trade publishers, and their Authors Guild minions, are still drinking their own kool-aid. This meeting sounds like it was a support group for the condemned. As if they got together to ignore the facts en mass, there-by makeing the kool-aid taste better.
But I'd like to thank Mr. Turow as he has done me a great service. This information allows me to better define my publishing plans for the future, as I now know the mindset of the people "who know better than me". I'd like to thank them all for showing me their cards.
They shot themselves in the foot with DRM, then they did it again with the collusion charge. Sounds to me like nobody's learned a thing yet.
Denial is one of the stages of dealing with a terminal disease.
Can you imagine the size of the bucket of sand needed for Turow to stick his head in? Amazing.
Nice article. A question and a couple comments…
Independent booksellers are growing in number and growing in sales. Why is that bad news for traditional publishers? Because they geared their sales force to market to only four or five customers—the chain bookstores. And oddly, that includes their "antagonist" Amazon. Now their sales force is only equipped to sell to two or three customers, and has no revenue to grow sales to independent booksellers.
Conceptually I don't get this (and I confess I find the last sentence to be a puzzle in itself…). Those bookstores are presumably going to fill their shelves with books. It seems highly unlikely they'll find a way to fill them with self-pub books. So I would guess their stock will come largely from trade publishing regardless of how much effort trade publishers put into "selling" to the small-fries. Sort of pulled vs pushed but still coming from the same source. What am I misunderstanding?
Regarding the chart from Coker's Forbes article. The 10% attributed to the "publisher" in the New model would seem to me to represent Smashwords or better phrased the "distributor" and would not be something the author could co-opt. At least, that's my impression given Coker as the source, and the graphic otherwise mimicing the Smashwords premium distribution model. (I suppose, reworded your point stands in that you can now distribute directly to Amazon, and potentially BN, Apple, and Kobo shortly.)
And then lastly, you touch on this but I think the number of books in print based on Bowker's ISBN tracking is largely meaningless. It's a byproduct of POD printing and ISBNs becoming virtually free add-ons to digital publishing rather than indicating a book with investment that indicated it would be printed in some reasonable numbers.
As someone who had nothing before indie books came around (in fact, you're the only pro editor who ever bought one of my stories before I sold a bunch of books on my own), I have a hard time getting worked up about the travails of the publishing industry. NY still has its advantages, and I don't expect it to go away, but I wish they would stop whining about people finding success in other ways.
I'm thrilled with the freedom and opportunities we can now take full advantage of in building our careers. It seems to suit my independent/stubborn streak. Furthermore, the options for business minded writers are multiplying faster than we can count them.
A few years back when we were embarking on this new cutting edge of publishing, the wisdom was to pursue both traditional publishing and indie publishing. More and more it seems that there is less value and more headaches than ever going traditional.
Agents in this new world of publishing have become about as useful as a hitching-post post Henry Ford.
Is there now any point in traditional publishing at all?
Every time you write one of these NY publisher posts I am more and more amazed at the stupidity on that end. I am nobody, but even I am selling books – mostly ebooks a few at a time. My print versions are not selling nearly as well as the ebooks, though. I am about 25 ebooks to 1 print. What are your percentages of ebook vs print?
I lieu of paypaling this time, I bought one of your books.
That graph says it all. Thanks, Kris.
I love that Wasserman quote: "in certain genres (romance, science fiction and fantasy) formerly relegated to the moribund mass-market paperback, readers care not a whit about cover design or even good writing, and have no attachment at all to the book as object. Like addicts, they just want their fix at the lowest possible price, and Amazon is happy to be their online dealer.""
OMG! This is such a relief! I've been so misled.
I can finally stop editing and taking pains to package my romance backlist well! NO ONE CARES! They're just addicts!
I can finally stop editing and taking pains to package my fantasy backlist well! My readers don't care about quality!
I can tell my dad, a science fiction writer, to relax and stop sweating over Hugo-quality material! No one cares! Science fiction readers are just junkies!
I can tell my publisher to stop spending all that money on my award-winning cover artist! An LA Times book reviewer has declared that it's pointless! My readers are indifferent to brilliant cover art! We could probably just package the worthless sh*t that I write in a brown paper wrapper!
Whoa! So GLAD Mr. Wasserman enlightened me. The pressure to write well, the pressure on my editors to acquire and edit well, and the pressure on my cover artists and designers… Gone! It never mattered! Our readers our brain-dead junkies! Yay! What a RELIEF not to have to behave like REAL writers, editors, artists, and publishers, after all!
LOL and may I please quote you?
Of course. (I never say anything in a public place that I'm not willing to be quoted on. This saves tears and recriminations.)
I thank you for your kindness and classy forthrightness. Here is a link to my reprint of your immortal words: http://www.scifiwright.com/2012/06/from-the-pen-of-laura-resnick/
You have a great ability to catch the mentality and state of mind of traditional publishers, Kristine, and I've found that entry heartening.
Do you and Dean think the percentage mentioned by Wasserman is accurate in that quote : "Readers of e-books are especially drawn to escapist and overtly commercial genres (romance, mysteries and thrillers, science fiction), and in these categories e-book sales have bulked up to as large as 60 percent"
I ask that, because I think the main stat we lack is a stat of ebook/versus books genre by genre. As an indie publisher, I do not mean to give up selling physical POD books (and Dean has great advices on his blog to do just that), but if I write science-fiction and I learn 60 or 80% of all the science-fiction books sold are ebooks, I'd rather focus on ebooks.
Last question if you don't mind, I've heard by the co-founder of Feedbooks (a french website) that Barnes & Noble was in a disastrous financial condition. Do you confirm ?
Thank you, Kris! Loved hearing that indie booksellers are growing in number! My favorite memories as a child and teenager involved time browsing in our little neighborhood bookstore and consulting the knowledgeable book-lovers that worked there. B&N is too loud and too uninformed – it can't hold a candle to the soft music and sharp-eyed bibliophiles working at The Book Nook that used to be on our corner.
Also, what exactly is "junk"? Dickens once was considered too popular, a pulp writer. Funny, huh?
I think you've made two excellent points. First, that the same guys now decrying the fall of B&N and Borders are the same ones who were saying those guys were evil incarnate in the early to mid 90s. Second, that the arrogant attitude of traditional publishers isn't doing them any favors. They sneer at all the uneducated peasants who have the audacity to read Fifty Shades of Grey or some other "trashy"(in their opinion) novels. Basically, they're saying that the reason they're going under is that readers are just too stupid to appreciate the culture traditional publishers bring.
I promise that when they fall, most people won't even stop to notice, much less weep.
LOL There must be something in the tea this morning, or else you have a psychic link with my DH. Over breakfest, he discussed how I needed to get my ISBNs ordered and the print copies of my novel ready this summer before the holiday season hits. This is such a great time to be a writer!
Hey! My DH is pressing me about POD also! I know he's right, and I do have that project on the schedule. Need to finish writing the current novel. Then get my publisher web site up. THEN do POD. Busy!
Wow. This was such a frightenly lucid assessment it is going to enrage some people.
Someone who gives a damn about writers in the Authors Guild should snatch Scottie T up and make him read your posts like homework.
Won't help 'cause pride goes before a fall–but they'll know when they look in the mirror that they're doing the wrong thing for working writers.
"…the number of print books published by the major publishing houses was flat this year (going along with what we already know) and the number of self- or indie-published titles fueled the growth in print books."
Woohoo! *fistpump* Indie writers represent! Just put my second novel into trade paper, and am formatting two more. So I contributed a tiny bit to that statistic. I'm so proud.
"Readers of e-books are especially drawn to escapist and overtly commercial genres (romance, mysteries and thrillers, science fiction), and in these categories e-book sales have bulked up to as large as 60 percent."
No, not really. Because I bought the following authors in e-book format in the last twelve months: Emily Dickinson, Rudyard Kipling, Jane Austen, Thomas Wolfe, Jack London, Benjamin of Tudela, Lord Byron, Homer, and Mark Twain. Of course I also bought that overtly commercial trash, but my buying habits are not confined to them.
I hate this whole snobbish attitude. There is no caste in writing; this week we lost a giant of a writer, Ray Bradbury, whose writing falls pretty much exclusively into the category of overtly commercial trash. Yet his work will be remembered long after the public has forgotten this year's literary bore-fest.
My bookshelves are not organized by genre. They are alphabetized. Same thing with my writing: westerns, science fiction, romance, fantasy and even a literary novel. Indie publishing gives me the freedom to wear whatever hat suits me at the moment. Trad publishing will never grant their writers that kind of freedom.
Wow, just wow. And they said this publicly? I am so sorry, Author's Guild, I did not mean to sully your art and…./snort, okay I can't. This is just ridiculous. Scott Turow needs a wake up call. If you need me, I'll be over here, writing "junk."
P.S. I love the kitten picture at the top of your website. All the changes look great!
Great post! I'm never more thankful that I didn't bother with traditional publishing and I'm relieved to see indie bookstores staying strong and growing! I've been appalled at the state of B&N and the sheer lack of books on their shelves. I'd happily support and independent than walk back through those doors.
As a writer of "mommy porn", I've never been accepted in literary circles. I write erotic romance and Romance Writers of America (RWA) barely accepts the genre, let alone the Author's Guild. We're the bastard children in the class warfare that is American publishing.
You state that, when it comes to ebook sales, "junk sells." Well, so does sex…and the elitists can turn their noses up at me all they want–as I make my way to the bank with my 70% royalty check.
Thanks for a good article. You remind me to keep my head high and keep writing!
Hi Kris,
Great article, as usual. 🙂 One thing stands out to me, though: those Bowker numbers. I seem to recall you and Dean telling us at the Character Voice workshop to be leery about using Bowker statistics, because publishers tend to by big stacks of ISBNs and then not use them all at once (Dean mentioned a big book of ISBNs you guys still have from your Pulphouse days). Assuming I understood correctly, doesn't that put a bit of a damper on those print book #s, since many of those new ISBNs may not have been used for actual books yet?
Erm, that should be Publishers buy big stacks, not by big stacks.
Wow. Nicely put. Do folks like Scott Turrow realize how sad they sound when they say such foolish things? If I were Turrow, I would indie publish while I still had my bestseller status and rake in the dough. He keeps up like this, he's going to miss the boat.
Indeed. They're dissing a bestselling author at their annual gala, and they're… the =what= Guild again? What's up with THAT?
I belong to NINC and SFWA. And I certainly don't recall either org ever using an official function to publicly diss the work of non-member writer. How is that anything but grotesquely inappropriate for a writers' organization?
As for Turow once again postulating that the DoJ is at odds with writers when it investigates alleged antitrust violations… Er, the DoH case is about major corporations involved in alleged price-fixing and collusion. Do Turow, the AG Board, and/or the members of the AG really want to live in a society where the government looks the other way on that kind of thing? Well, okay, they're free to be victims of corporations if that's the fate they desire. But I have no such desire, and I want to DoJ to continue investigating and prosecuting alleged antitrust violations.
Awesome entry. Really shines a spotlight on the rampant egomania of some of the players in traditional publishing. I can only shake my head at Wasserman's claim that "readers of e-books are especially drawn to escapist and overtly commercial genres." SFW?
Publishing is a commercial venture. So publishers ought to stop pretending that they are anything more than glorified deliverymen, and provide their costumers — readers — with the products that those customers want. And they ought to recognize the value of the people capable of creating those products to their customers' satisfaction. But I'm preaching to the choir on that.
Why does Wasserman speak ill of genres that are "overtly commercial"? As if treating a book like a product somehow diminishes its value. Apparently he would prefer that those sordid romance, mystery and thriller, and science fiction books be sold quietly in backalleys. He fails to realize that the physical book itself, or the digital ebook file, is not what the consumer is really buying. Readers buy stories. Books are just delivery systems. Packaging. Ways to transport ideas from one mind to another.
It's stunning, sometimes, just how inside-out traditional publishing is. They treat their customers like drooling idiots with a preference for squalid garbage, they treat their manufacturers like drooling idiots incapable of delivery a product to a consumer, and they treat their critics like drooling idiots too dimwitted to understand that, no, no, traditional publishing isn't really inside-out, it just looks that way to all of you drooling idiots.
Every time I even briefly consider the prospect of attempting to go traditional with my novel, I just remind myself how little they think of me, and the urge passes. All of your sarcasm, and much, much more, is absolutely called for.
"publishers ought to stop pretending that they are anything more than glorified deliverymen, and provide their costumers — readers — with the products that those customers want. And they ought to recognize the value of the people capable of creating those products to their customers' satisfaction."
Bob Mayer made a similar point in an article on Digital Bookworld which caught my attention, when he pointed out that just as railroads forgot they were in the transportation business and started to think they were in the railroad business, publishers forgot they were in the business of delivering stories to readers and started to think they were in the publishing business–that their physical product, rather than the writer's STORY, was what readers were buying.
I prefer physical books to ebooks. But, yes, I'd certainly buy a story I wanted in ebook format if that were the only format available (as if often the case with midlist backlist these days). And there really aren't any circumstnaces under which I'd by a print book with NO content, or with content that I didn't really want to read.
I always find this commercial vs. literary snobbery amusing – how quickly they forget Shakespeare (and so many other revered icons) wrote for the masses.
Ah, Shakespeare. Quite a promising poet in a minor way, when he was writing those sonnets and sucking up to Queen Elizabeth's courtiers. All very proper. Pity he squandered his talents by going into that low-brow theatre business.
I wonder what ever became of him? He could have been somebody if he'd stuck to proper literature.
Just a couple of quick comments:
(1) Mr Wasserman's article misses the point for another reason. If one plots things out on a timeline, one will find that Borders (recently) and Crown (not as recently) — while they both had immense management problems — both ended up in bankruptcy due to greedy commercial landlords. In each instance, the first renewals of leaseholds on large swaths of stores came due at the same time and crimped cashflow. The land itself, however, had not changed — there were no new oil deposits found under the Borders in Champaign, for example; only its value largely due to the presence of the store itself had (arguably) changed. The little housing bubble we had recently should cause you to question whether the actual value had changed… or whether it was illusory at best.
(2) I must disagree with the simplistic royalty math offered… but showing why I disagree also validates one of Our Gracious Hostesses other points, with a vengeance.
Imagine these stacks represent dollars. Half of the stack on the left goes to a book's distributor. Another 35% of that stack goes to a book's publisher. A book agent takes 2.2%, leaving the author—the person without whom the book would not exist—to collect 12.75% of the book's revenue.Over half of the stack on the right goes to the author—60% of the book's revenue. The book's publisher gets 10% and the distributor gets 30%. If the writer is smart, she becomes the publisher as well, and gets a full 70% of the revenue of that book.
Hmmm. Let me see: 70% versus 12.75%[.]
Talk to any business person and ask them which is the better deal. If you have to ask at all. Because a fifth grader can tell you which stack benefits the writer the most.
This comparison is valid if, and only if, both of the following conditions are met:
(a) The per-item prices are comparable. They need not be identical; if the author is choosing to price her e-novel at $9.95, while the publisher (under the resale price maintenance agreement currently being attacked as price-fixing) charges $12.95 for the same work, the numbers still work out in the author's favor — just not by as much. However, even a fifth grader would still see that one stack is bigger than the other.
(b) Total sales volume is comparable. For example, I'll take 12.75% of $1 million over 70% of $10,000. This, however, assumes that something that the commercial publishers are doing — and doing on purpose, and doing replacably (and predictably) — is the sole cause of the difference in total sales. As Our Gracious Hostess notes, it sure as heck ain't their sales forces (she's far too generous to them, in fact). With the rise of internet-based selling of all kinds, it's no longer the "invisibility" of not being stocked at the nearest store.* I could name half a dozen books that sold more when offered independently by their authors, without misleading covers and blurbs and et cetera, in the six months after the authors' republication than they did in the multiyear "efforts" by commercial publishers.
My point here is that the math itself isn't quite so simple… but that the implications of that nonsimplicity largely reinforce Our Gracious Hostess's other points.
* Casebound ("hardcover") books have gotten so expensive — largely due to outmoded pricing models, but that's for another time — that they're no longer impulse buys for most of the populace. Even mass-market paperbacks are inching toward too-expensive-for-an-impulse-buy; outside of the major metropolitan areas, a mass-market paperback costs more than a movie.
I should learn not to type too quickly without enough caffeine — sorry about the typos.
I like to break down the numbers a different way. If I, as an unknown writer, do somehow sell a book to a traditional publisher, I'll probably receive a $5,000 advance, take it or leave it, with no significant prospect of its ever earning out. So how much do readers have to fork over at retail to earn me that money?
In MMPB from a traditional publisher, I'm getting 8 percent if I'm lucky (assuming that sales and returns are reported honestly); lower rates from some houses. That means that readers have to spend $62,500 for me to earn that $5,000; which equates to 7,822 copies of a $7.99 paperback.
With a self-published ebook, I'm getting 60 percent on sales through an aggregator; more than that on direct sales through Amazon, but a bit of that will be lost to their bandwidth charge, so we'll simplify the math and assume 60 percent across the board. I'll need $8,333.33 in retail sales to earn my $5,000 nut. If I'm charging $3.99 for that book, I need to sell 2,089 copies.
I make the same amount of money from a quarter of the number of the readers, and charging half the price. It's a lot easier to find buyers for 2,000 widgets at $3.99 than for 8,000 widgets at $7.99. Of course books are not widgets; but different cheap editions of the same book are essentially fungible.
Looked at another way: if the reading public spends a million dollars on traditional print books, it provides a living wage for approximately two full-time writers. If it spends a million dollars on self-published ebooks, it provides the same wage for 15 writers. Gee, I wonder which is better for the writer.
Agreed. Such a fascinating twist on the data, Tom. It's one that should be put up in bright lights.
Great post, Kris! Love the stacks of books graph. (And I love the new look on the blog!)
One thing that frequently gets left out of these discussions is an advantage to the writer that is tangential to business concerns. I've heard it from many indie writers (Dean comes to mind) and I've experienced it myself.
The new, indie publishing system makes writing a JOY again. The freedom it gives us has changed writing from drudgery (please the marketing department, please the sales department) back to a fun activity. For that reason alone, unless there are big changes in traditional publishing, I'm never looking back.
I don't know anything about the governance of the Authors Guild, but it seems to me that the membership should be looking carefully at whether Turow's positions are a good match with their own.
I'm not sure if business majors would help. They're all right for running a legacy business, but typically don't work out well in environments that are in the midst of rapid disruption and/or disintermediation.
With respect to literary value and publication format, it might be worth examining the cases of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Dickens published his work in the cheapest possible venue of the time (newspaper serials) and made a fortune. Austen got ripped off by her publishers (the first one required her to underwrite the entire cost of printing, then charged a sales commission on top, the second one conned her out of all rights for £110) and died in genteel poverty.
Have you seen the list of 160+ authors who have sold more than 50,000 self-published ebooks?
Another indication of the growth of self-publishing.
Well, if the traditional publishing industry is really disgusted with all those "junk" books that are like crack for addicts, then I suppose they can give back all that money they've made from writers with names like Martin, Bradbury, Mieville, Le Guin, etc.
And, for the first time in a long while, I can imagine a landscape with thousands upon thousands of small, independent bookstores all across the land. Now I only wish some of them would stop fighting Amazon and embrace the age in which they live, a possible second golden age for indie booksellers.


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By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com March 15, 2010 Human Events is reporting that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) fighter/attack aircraft's per-unit cost has skyrocketed to $112 million, and The New York Times is reporting that the F-35 JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) fighter/attack aircraft has ballooned in cost from 60-90 percent in real …Read More »
Tag Archives: tactical laser
Lasing Skulls in the Digital Age: Tactical Laser Weapons Finally Maturing for Future Warfare Applications: Meet the Boeing ATL (Advanced Tactical Laser) Airborne Laser Weapon
By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com October 15, 2009 There's a scene at the beginning of the 1985 film Real Genius showing a fictional "Crossbow Project" demonstration video of some unlucky bastard (perhaps a third-world dictator or politician?) getting instantly vaporized by a space-based laser weapon fired from a satellite. The video is being shown to a bunch …Read More »
Viridian Green Laser Sights for Tactical Weapons: Green Beats Red
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. All photos were shot with an Olympus Stylus 790 SW 7.1-megapixel digital camera, which is advertised as "shock + waterproof". January 9, 2009 When most people think …Read More »
U.S. Air Force Having Serious Trouble Keeping F-22 Raptor Pilots
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com October 28, 2008 According to a recent Air Force Times article, the F-22 Raptor has the lowest pilot-retention rate of any U.S. fighter or attack aircraft measured, at a rather abysmal 33%. Compare this to 81% for F-15E Strike Eagle pilots and 68% for F-15 Eagle pilots respectively, and, gentlemen, we've got …Read More »
Deployable Weapons-Grade Solid-State Tactical Lasers by the end of 2008?
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com September 7, 2008 Laser warfare may be closer than we think. Danger Room and Gizmodo both report that Northrop Grumman is promising the U.S. military that it will have working, deployable weapons-grade solid-state, electric lasers (tactical lasers) ready to go by the end of 2008. Solid-state electric lasers have been making progress …Read More »
Laser Gunship Fires Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Against Ground Targets
The following is a Boeing press release: ST. LOUIS, Oct. 13, 2006 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has begun flight testing for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program and has generated "first light" of ATL's high-energy chemical laser in ground tests, achieving two key milestones in the laser gunship development effort. During the "low-power" …Read More »
DefRev Quick Hits 4 from SHOT Show 2006: More Tactical Goodies
by David Crane david at defensereview.com – Vltor Weapon Systems is now manufacturing Russian-type 7.62mmx54R (7.62x54mm) PKM General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG) for U.S. military forces. It's our understanding that the Vltor PKMs will be used for familiarization training, and possibly OPFOR (just seems logical). DefRev got to view and handle one of these guns at the Vltor booth, and …Read More »
New Military-Grade ADT/Oerlikon Contraves Laser Light Module (LLM 01) Tactical IR Laser Aimer/White Light Module Introduced to U.S. Market by Advance Defense Technologies (ADT): British SAS and German KSK (Special Forces) Ready!
February 17, 2006 Last updated on 11/07/12. Photos below are of German KSK (German military Special Forces) and Dutch Special Forces operators with the Oerlikon Contraves Laser Light Module (LLM 01) tactical aiming laser/white light (laser aiming device/tactical white light) attached to their weapons. Click on photos below to view them full-size. The following is a slightly edited Advance Defense Technologies (ADT) …Read More »
LAMSA Weapons Systems Soldier's Laser Aimer/Illuminator for SPECOPS
by David Crane [email protected] Click on digital photos to view them full-size. All digital photos accompanying this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are the property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview recently got a chance to view a few interesting new products at the Larue Tactical booth at SHOT Show 2005. The first are the new LAMSA Weapons Systems/BEAMSHOT/Larue Tactical Soldier's Laser …Read More »


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From 1995 to 1998, Dr. James Andrews performed nine Tommy John surgeries on teenage patients. From 2003 to 2008? 224. Young, amateur pitchers are breaking down faster than a Dusty Baker rotation and no one knows what to do.
Actually, what to do is obvious, but youth baseball coaches and parents are too concerned about Lil' Johnny's big pay day or about winning the BIG GAME no one will remember in 10 years, to give a crap about his weak little arm. When your 13-year-old has five workable pitches and throws more innings a week than C.C. Sabathia, that's a problem.
Andrews explains to The New York Times Magazine that he's been fighting this issue for years, but no one seems to care. There are dozens of little leagues and interscholastic leagues and other amateur programs and none of them can agree on pitch or innings limits that make any kind of sense. And without those limits, coaches will keep sending their pitchers out there until their arms fall off. That's why Andrews says there's an "epidemic" of torn ligaments and busted shoulders.
Reading about what some of these kids go through boggles the mind. One kid pitches 10 months a year for four different teams. Caleb Duhay (pictured), a 12-year-old in last year's Little League World Series, pitched four games in 10 days and threw 288 pitches—all of them high-pressure, tournament throws. In a 10 day-span last month, Josh Beckett threw 201 and C.C. Sabathia threw 214, and they only had two starts each. Those guys are also highly paid major leaguers.
Another kid, Alden Manning, pitched a complete game with a sore forearm and then missed an entire year with Tommy John surgery. His dad and his coach thought they were looking out for him, but since they aren't orthopedic surgeons they apparently had no clue what they were doing to him. Kids throw more pitches, harder and in more pressure-packed situations then ever before, and the only people benefiting are doctors with knives.
But I've got a radical solution. Are you ready for it? Listen up: When a kid's arm is sore ... don't let him pitch. If he's already in the game and he gets tired ... take him out. I know this is a complicated procedure—even a lot of major and minor league managers don't seem to grasp it, but letting an injured pitcher pitch won't suddenly make him not injured. Call me crazy, but it just might work.
Arms-Control Breakdown [NY Times]
P.S. Interesting bit of trivia from the article—James Andrews was the 1963 SEC Champion in the pole vault. That must explain his fascination with things that bend.


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By Judy Reed
A drunk-driving related accident in Cedar Springs claimed the life of a Wyoming man Saturday night.
According to Cedar Springs Police Chief Roger Parent, the crash occurred at the intersection of White Creek Avenue and 17 Mile Road about 10:25 p.m. Saturday, October 4. According to a witness, a red Jeep driven by Todd Michael Benoit, 35, of Rockford, was heading northbound on White Creek Avenue, and had stopped before pulling out into the intersection in front of a westbound, full-size Dodge pickup truck. The Jeep was struck in the front passenger's door.
Cedar Springs and Solon Township fire and rescue responded to the scene, and used the Jaws of Life to extricate the passenger in the Jeep, Derrick Mitchell Holstege, 19, of Wyoming. Paramedics performed CPR on the young man, before sending him to Butterworth Hospital, where he later died. Benoit, who is reportedly the teen's father. was also sent to the hospital by Rockford Ambulance, in critical condition. Parent said that alcohol appears to have been a contributing factor on the part of Benoit.
At that time of night, the light flashes red for north-south traffic on White Creek and flashes yellow for east-west traffic on 17 Mile Road. Parent said that the witness told him the northbound Jeep stopped, and then he (southbound witness) stopped, and then the Jeep proceeded into the intersection. "He (Benoit) may have thought it was his turn to go, and not have realized that there was a flashing yellow the other way," said Parent. "But alcohol was also a factor."
The driver of the pickup, a 33-year-old man from Howard City, was not injured. "Due to the seriousness of the crash, he voluntarily submitted to a preliminary breath test," explained Parent. "The results were negative for alcohol."
The accident remains under investigation at this time.


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Grand Challenge Award Information
This page describes basic information on the NSF Grand Challenge Award that funds part of the
Quake project
Award title, number, and duration
Title: Earthquake Ground Motion Modeling in Large Basins
Number: CMS-9318163
Duration: 9/1/93 - 2/28/98
NSF program managers
Cliff Astill
George Lea
Robert Voigt
Principal Investigators
Keiiti Aki
(Co-PI), Dept. of Geological Sciences, USC
Jacobo Bielak
(PI), Dept. of Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
Omar Ghattas
(Co-PI), Dept. of Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon
Thomas Gross
(Co-PI), School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
David O'Hallaron
(Co-PI), School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Francisco J. Sanchez-Sesma
(Co-PI), Inst. of Engineering, UNAM


text: My Larrivee LV-03RE came equipped with LR Baggs Element preamp installed. The output impedance as listed in the manual is 620 ohm which is Lo Z. Connecting cable is unbalanced. Do I need a Z matching transformer to match the 620 ohm output to 10 Meg ohm input on my Hi Z input acoustic/guitar amp? I must run volume level at high level when playing through an amp. Any suggestions?


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Indiana State University officials are working to create a uniform policy for minors on campus to ensure children are protected and to prevent child abuse scandals like the one that rocked Penn State University.
The Tribune-Star reports a committee led by ISU Vice President John Beacon is looking at existing policies and procedures and best practices at other universities. It will present its findings at the trustees' meeting in October.
Beacon says most departments lack policies for background checks or other requirements for dealing with minors. He told trustees at a recent seminar that the university is "vulnerable."
ISU President Dan Bradley says the new policy should focus on the safety and health of minors on campus and outline what needs to happen if an incident occurs.


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7 Micro Drive, Woburn, MA 01801
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Typically, our fabrication shop bids on a job, usually based on engineering drawings, and if awarded the contract, we begin the fabrication process. Often times we employ a multitude of value-added processes, including welding, cutting, forming, and rolling metal.
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When working on a metal fabrication project, our experts work with you throughout every step of the way. Metal fabrication usually starts with drawings with precise dimensions and specifications. As the client, we encourage you to submit your ideas of the way you want your design to come out. Typical projects include loose parts, structural frames for buildings and heavy equipment, and stairs and hand railings.
Creating a one-off welding project and using the product to ensure the desired functionality, stability and code compliance before you engage in the costly process of manufacturing multiple units, is a very sensible thing to do. We can create an aluminum prototype for testing or to reinforce a building's framework. We have a well-earned reputation for on-time delivery, a fabulous work ethic and precise work that sets us apart from all our competitors. When searching for the right metal fabrication shop in Salem MA, look no further than the team at Boston Welding.
If you are interested in learning more about a top metal fabrication shop in Salem MA, contact the experts at Boston Welding today for an estimate. Call us at 781-932-0035 or request an estimate online today.


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Constant darkness throws a molecular switch in mammals that shifts the body's fuel consumption from glucose to fat and induces a state of torpor in mice.
While their findings could provide new insight into mammalian hibernation, researchers note that the pivotal metabolic signal that emerged from the dark also presents a new target for obesity and type 2 diabetes research. A series of experiments pinpointed 5-prime adenosine monophosphate (5′-AMP) as the key molecular mediator of the constant darkness effect, switching mice from a glucose-burning, fat-storing state to a fat-burning, glucose-conserving lethargy.
Active mammals – a bear foraging for food or a human running a marathon – also undergo a similar switch, burning glucose first to fuel their efforts, and as blood sugar is consumed, their bodies switch to burning fat.
"How does the body know when to switch? 5′-AMP is the signal. I believe it's the same metabolic system, whether we are talking about hibernation or not," said senior author Cheng Chi Lee, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry.
The team started with a basic question: What actually sets off hibernation? "These animals dig deep burrows," said Lee, an expert in circadian rhythms. "They are constantly in the dark. Why not darkness as a switch?"
Mice do not hibernate but they can slip into a similar short-term state of torpor. Lee and colleagues started with a microarray analysis of gene expression in the livers of mice subject to the usual light-dark cycle and those kept in the dark for 48 hours.
One gene fired up in the dark – procolipase, which produces an enzyme (CLPS) required for degrading dietary fat. Expression of the gene previously was thought to be restricted to the pancreas and gastrointestinal tract. Yet messenger RNA for CLPS (mClps) was found in the livers of mice exposed to prolonged dark, an unexpected finding.
They repeated the experiment in mice with natural, or "wild type," genomes and three strains of mutant mice with impaired circadian rhythms.
The wild-type mice and two of the mutant strains exposed to regular light-dark cycles showed no sign of the gene's expression in their livers – it remained in the pancreas and stomach. The gene was expressed in the livers of some mice from a double-mutant strain that has absolutely no circadian response. All four genotypes of mouse kept in constant darkness had mClps expressed not only in their livers but in all peripheral tissue except the brain and kidneys.
"This is the first example of a gene that is turned on by darkness, where darkness itself is a signal," Lee said. "Twelve hours of darkness didn't do the job; it had to be at least 48 hours."
Tests showed it subsequently took five to seven hours of light exposure to inhibit the gene's expression in the liver. Taken together, these time delays pointed to the gene's expression being mediated by something in the blood. Another lab test showed elevated levels of 5′-AMP in the blood of mice exposed to constant darkness compared to those kept in the regular light-dark cycle.
To confirm the connection, the team injected 5′-AMP into mice exposed to a regular light-dark cycle. Three to four hours after injection, mClps was expressed in the livers of these mice and further tests showed expression in all tissues except the brain.
Injecting mice with 5′-AMP's more glamorous molecular cousins – adenosine triphosphate (ATP), adenosine diphosphate (ADP), both vital to providing energy to cells, and the signaling molecule cyclic AMP — did not produce the same effect.
The mice injected with 5′-AMP also were found to have a lower body temperature, a sign of torpor. Core body temperature measurements confirmed their lethargic state. Mice kept in constant dark also ate less, lost weight, and showed evidence of increased fat consumption, all hallmarks of hibernation in larger mammals.
The authors note that 5′-AMP has previously been shown to regulate enzyme activity for glucose usage and production. The brain requires glucose to function. By switching the primary source of energy in other organs from glucose to fat, 5′-AMP conserves glucose for brain function, the paper notes.
"5′-AMP is a pivotal metabolic signal whose circulatory level determines the balance of the peripheral organ energy supply between glucose, glycogen and fat," the authors conclude, raising the longer-term possibility of 5′-AMP-based therapies for obesity or type 2 diabetes.


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Intel said Monday it had settled a patent lawsuit with a research foundation that accused it of using a patented technology in its processor designs without permission.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation alleged that Intel used in many of its chips an invention of a circuit that executes instructions faster to boost performance. WARF is a private organization that patents and licenses inventions for the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
"I can confirm that we've reached an agreement to settle. However, terms of the agreement are confidential so I won't comment beyond that," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said via e-mail. WARF officials were not immediately available for comment.
The patent infringement lawsuit was filed in February last year in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Based on the invention, a patent titled "Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer" was awarded to four University of Wisconsin researchers in 1998.
The foundation said it made multiple attempts to license the technology to Intel and that the chipmaker declined to enter an agreement. It then filed the patent suit, seeking an undisclosed sum in compensation and an order preventing the chip maker from selling certain processors, including its Core 2 Duo chips.
The amount of the settlement was not disclosed.


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Embarrassing injury
Mileage: 23.0
Hours: 2:00
November mileage: 498.7
Temperature upon departure: 34
Rainfall: 0"
I was strolling up to ask a co-worker a question today when he blurted out, "Are you limping again?"
"Huh?" I asked, confused. My knee felt great. My foot felt great. I'd been gimp-free for more than six weeks, just about a personal record.
"I don't know," he continued. "You're kinda limping. What happened? Is it that bike thing again?"
I suddenly realized the acute pain I was feeling must be physically manifesting itself. But what could I say? That bike thing? You mean that bike thing where I grunt on my heavy bike all the way up to Eaglecrest just to look for snow, and there isn't even much snow up there, but I ride anyway on a faint trail across the frozen tundra and I manage to ride really fast until I hit a puddle that isn't completely frozen and plant my front tire 8 inches deep and my bike stops cold but my body flies forward and I'd probably still be spiraling into space if I wasn't stopped abruptly and painfully by my stem slamming into a very personal place that I can't describe in this place of business except to say that if I were a man, I would probably never have children ... That kind of bike thing?
But instead I just said, "Yeah, it's that bike thing again."
14 comments:
- AnonymousNovember 21, 2007 at 9:01 AM
When I moved to Flagstaff the first time, I experienced this new thing they call 'landscaping with cinders'. I was riding from downtown via the path along Route 66, and secided as traffic was clear on both sides that I should ride off the curb and across four lanes of road. I discoverd that when riding like a bat out of hell it is bad idea to ride though the cinders edging the bike path to get to the curb...I did make it all the way over the handlebars and cleared the first lane before I hit in the second. Laws of Physics, how doth I hate thee? Let me count the ways...ReplyDelete
But yeah, OUCH!
banged your No-nads?ReplyDelete
I'm betting that Geoff gets you a stem pad for Christmas! Or maybe sooner.ReplyDelete
I have totally done that. It freaking HURTS.ReplyDelete
I may have come up with something that will help you out in a situation like that. :)ReplyDelete
Oh for krysake! I had instant shrinkage when I read that last sentence. I'm holding myself right now.ReplyDelete
Oh god, here come the flashbacks.
Ouch! Very OUCH!ReplyDelete
Wait - so NPR set up a blog to blog about your blog? Awesome! Have a nice Thanksgiving Jill!!ReplyDelete
Recover well and quickly, then pedal on in your Alaskan paradise! I hope you enjoy a nice Thanksgiving!ReplyDelete
If you still don't like the "death sticks", here's another thing you might like to try in the snow:
What? No pictures of the carnage??? ;-)ReplyDelete
It is so un-satisfying not to tell your co workers how you were really injured. I miss being able to do that, I have one co worker who habitually falls down drunk, and she limps a lot. I have to listen to her crappy stories - yet when I want to talk about putting my knee into the stem because i slipped going around a burm, they just don't care. It's the bike thing.ReplyDelete
There aren't that many of us out there, but I am glad that you are writing.
- AnonymousNovember 25, 2007 at 3:14 PM
Oh yeah, ow. I just did that yesterday while mountain biking (for the first time ever). Ow. And still, ow.ReplyDelete


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AGN Feedback
Black holes have a significant impact on their environment. Over the past 10 years, a consesus has emerged that galaxy clusters are heated by the action of relativistic jets, blasting into the intergalactic medium from the supermassive black hole of the central massive elliptical galaxy of the cluster. This heating might be enough to counter-balance the radiative losses the cluster gas is experiencing constantly, as it emits X-rays that can be observed from space based X-ray telescopes.
How this heating occurs and whether the heat can, in fact, be distributed to just the right locations in the cluster is still an issue of contentious debate. We are running state-of-the-art hydro simulations of galaxy clusters under the influence of energy injection from a central jet. We use fully cosmologically evolved clusters and inject powerful, collimated jets into them from the cluster center. A movie of this process can be accessed from Fig. 2. The key difference to earlier studies is that we include, for the first time, the dynamic state of the cluster, rather than assuming that it is a spherically symmetric, hydro-static atmosphere. This has important consequences for the dynamical evolution of radio sources (jets and the large scale bubbles of hot gas they blow into the intergalactic medium).
One of the important early results is that internal cluster dynamics, excited both by the action of the jets themselves and simply due to residual motions from previous dynamical encounters, as well as turbulence induced by cluster substructure (e.g., moving galaxies) can redistribute the gas in the cluster center in such a way that it erases any channels that were previously carved by the jet. This means that subsequent powerful jet outbursts can efficiently couple with the dense gas of the inner cluster, making it possible for the jet to heat the gas that needs it most (the coldest gas near the center of the cluster).
XIM—a Virtual X-ray Observatory: Investigating the X-ray Appearance and Line Profile Function of Vortex Rings in Galaxy Clusters
Heinz, S., Brüggen, M., Friedman, S., 2011
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 194, Pages 21
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Prospects of High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy for Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback in Galaxy Clusters
Heinz, S., Brüggen, M., Morsony, B., 2010
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 708, Pages 462-468
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Swimming against the current: simulations of central AGN evolution in dynamic galaxy clusters
Morsony, B., Heinz, S., Brüggen, M., Ruszkowski, M., 2010
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 407, Pages 1277-1289
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The answer is blowing in the wind: simulating the interaction of jets with dynamic cluster atmospheres
Heinz, S., Brüggen, M., Young, A., Levesque, E., 2006
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, Vol. 373, Pages L65-L69
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