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Movie Guide
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld. With Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Omar Epps, Janeane Garofalo, Jason Lee. (85 min.)
Sterritt * See review, page 15.
Director: Carl Franklin. With Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Amanda Peet, Jim Cavaziel (115 min.)
Sterritt ** When her husband is charged with a wartime atrocity he never told her about and says he never committed, an attorney (Judd) teams with an old-time military lawyer to clear his name, encountering violent threats from forces that want to hush up the affair. The story has possibilities, but you'll spot the big plot twists long before they happen, and the acting by Judd and Cavaziel is strictly by the numbers. Ditto for Franklin's filmmaking.
Director: Arnon Goldfinger. With Mike Burstyn, Lillian Lux, Susan Burstein-Roth, Fyvush Finkel. (85 min.)
Sterritt *** An amiable documentary journey through the unique culture of Yiddish theater, as experienced by old-time stage star Pesach'ke Burstein and members of his family who followed a similar path in the US and elsewhere. The movie is more a family album than a historical study, but you'll learn a lot and your toe will tap, tap, tap. In English, Yiddish, and Hebrew with English subtitles.
Director: Olivier Assayas. With Emmannuelle Béart, Charles Berling, Isabelle Huppert. (180 min.)
Sterritt ** See review, page 15.
Director: Mickey Lemle. With Ram Dass, William Alpert, Dr. Huston Smith, Krishna Das. (93 min.)
Sterritt ** A documentary visit with Ram Dass, who was named Richard Alpert when he and fellow Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary pursued controversial research into psychedelic drugs in the 1960s era. Later he traveled to India for an education in Eastern religion and philosophy, and became a New Age icon in the US. That's the aspect of his career emphasized by this frequently sentimental portrait, along with his efforts to confront physical ailments in terms of his spiritual convictions.
Director: Guillermo del Toro. With Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Norman Redus, Luke Goss. (108 min.)
Staff *** This sequel is every bit as good as the original, though it didn't have much to measure up to. Blade, a half-human, half-vampire who can withstand daylight and do kung-fu in a bulky leather jacket, has dedicated his life to hunting down vampires. But now he must team up with an elite squadron of them to hunt even deadlier vampire mutants. The frenetic fight scenes are too fast for non-vampire eyes, but those familiar with the original should find plenty to like. By Alex Kaloostian
Director: Jonathan Frakes. With: Jesse Bradford, French Stewart, Paula Garcés. (90 min.)
Staff ** Zak Gibbs (Bradford), a physics professor's son, accidentally gets hold of an experimental wristwatch that slows the world around him almost to a standstill. Evil forces kidnap the prof, hoping to turn this benign invention into a weapon for sale to the highest bidder. Zak and two friends set out to stop them. A fresh cast and delightful effects early on promise something special, but the script quickly shifts out of hypertime into plodding formula. By M.K. Terrell
Sex/Nudity: A few instances of innuendo. Violence: 9 scenes, including shootings. Profanity: 3 mild expressions. Drugs: 1 scene with drinking.
Director Danny DeVito. With Robin Williams, Edward Norton, DeVito. (100 min.)
Sterritt *** Producers replace a bribe-taking TV clown (Williams) with a straight-arrow entertainer (Norton) who's shocked by the onslaughts of greed, corruption, and violence he gets from his agent (DeVito) and everyone else in the kiddie-media world. This pitch-dark satire marks a surprising career step for Williams, who plays the vengeful clown with surprising ferocity. It's also an impressive achievement for DeVito, who turns the wildly cynical screenplay into a kinetic cartoon full of brain-spinning images. Stay away if you treasure the lovable image Williams has cultivated in previous films, and don't take the kids!
Director: Henry Jaglom. With Ron Silver, Greta Scacchi, Maximilian Schell. (99 min.)
Sterritt *** This romantic comedy takes a low-key look at a high-strung film festival, using it as the backdrop for intersecting stories about a young actress looking for a break, an aging diva longing for a comeback, an indie newcomer and a studio hotshot scrambling for the same star, and others of their ilk. The cast is superb, and Jaglom's improvisational style works well, turning loosely strung incidents into an easy-going treat.
Sex/Nudity: 3 instances of innuendo. Violence: None. Profanity: 6 strong expressions. Drugs: 4 scenes with smoking and drinking.
Director: Chris Wedge. With (voices): Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary. (81 min.)
Staff *** Unlike the characters in "Ice Age," the computer animation that rendered them shows no sign of extinction. The woolly mammoth, sabre-toothed tiger, and sloth in this story look wonderfully realized thanks to the animation technology. If only the story were as three-dimensional. It's a fairly standard tale in which an unlikely gang of animals bond as they rescue a human infant separated from his tribe. What lifts the film is its humor, including a sequence hinting at why the Dodo is doomed to extinction and hilarious set pieces that recall the late Chuck Jones' "Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunners" 'toons. By Stephen Humphries
Staff ***1/2 Superb animation, edgy, bright, fun.
Sex/Nudity: None. Violence: About 25 instances of cartoonish violence. Profanity: None. Drugs: None.
Director: Mira Nair. With Naseeruddin Shah, Roshan Seth, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shetty. (111 min.)
Sterritt *** Celebrants gather in New Delhi for the Punjabi wedding of an Indian-American groom and an Indian bride who's not sure she's ready for matrimony. Despite its entertaining trappings, this is a thoughtful story, touching on sensitive issues of sexuality and child abuse. Nair hasn't lost her eye for revealing details of personality, behavior, and environment. In English, Hindi, and Punjabi with English subtitles.
Staff ***1/2Vital, zesty, mix of comedy, drama.
Sex/Nudity: 10 scenes, mostly innuendo and kissing. A few scenes implied child abuse. Violence: None. Profanity: About 12 expressions. Drugs: At least 8 scenes of drinking and smoking.
Director: Hal Hartley. With Sarah Polley, Robert John Burke, Helen Mirren, Julie Christie. (106 min.)
Sterritt ** Following the trail of a missing news team, a young journalist meets a mythological Icelandic monster who's melancholy and mean, passing the hours of his endless life by cursing fate and killing any human who's unlucky enough to cross his path. Like some movie creatures of the past, this odd villain is baffled and enraged by his inability to live comfortably in the world, and the movie gains poetic power through Hartley's view of him as a kind of tragic hero, worthy of pity as well as fear. The movie is uneven, but has fresh, imaginative moments.
Sex/Nudity: 3 instances innuendo and implied sex. Violence: 12 scenes, some with torture. Profanity: 24 strong expressions. Drugs: 28 scenes with smoking and drinking.
Director: David Fincher. With Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Kristen Stewart. (110 min.)
Sterritt ** A woman and her young daughter scurry to a bunkerlike sanctum when three crooks invade their new Manhattan home to steal a fortune that happens to be locked away in the panic room itself. This is a minimalist thriller, centering the action on five characters in one place during a single three-hour period. Also present is Fincher's long-standing affection for hyperactive camera movements, juicing up any scene where the acting or dialogue sags. There are many, since David Koepp's screenplay isn't nearly surprising or clever enough to sustain a reasonable degree of suspense on its own.
Staff **1/2Nail-biter, intense, goofy at times.
Sex/Nudity: None. Violence: 9 instances, some quite violent. Profanity: About 60 expressions, mostly harsh. Drugs: 6 scenes with drinking, smoking, including illegal drug use.
Director: Paul Anderson. With Milla Jovovich, Eric Mabius. (100 min.)
Staff ** When a nasty virus is released in a secret lab, the compound's artificially intelligent security system locks everyone in and kills them. But the afflicted don't stay dead long they turn into zombies on a quest to seize control of the world. It's up to a group of government commandos to stop them. The zombies and commandos do their jobs, but Milla Jovovich is the only thing that really shines as the gun-toting, evening-gown-wearing heroine. By Alex Kaloostian
Sex/Nudity: 6 instances, including seminudity. Violence: 20 scenes with violence, including fighting. Profanity: 15 harsh expressions. Drugs: None.
Director: John Lee Hancock. With Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, Brian Cox. (129 min.)
Staff ***1/2 Quaid plays a teacher-turned-Major League Baseball player in this Disney movie based on the true story of Jim Morris. While coaching another losing season of high school baseball, Morris cuts a deal: If his players start winning, he'll try out for the majors. By now an aging father, Morris defies skeptics with his uncanny 95-m.p.h. fastball. For adults who believe G stands for "goofy," Quaid's intense performance will convince them to take this film seriously. By Ben Arnoldy
Director: Tom Dey. With Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo, Drena De Niro. (95 min.)
Sterritt * A jaded Los Angeles cop and a fame-hungry colleague become the unlikely stars of a reality-TV series cooked up by a producer with more ambition than integrity. The movie tries to offer something for everyone, from comedy to car chases. But the filmmakers are so busy cramming all this into 95 minutes that they forget to make the scenes funny, exciting, touching, suspenseful, or anything else that might make the film worth watching.
Sex/Nudity: 1 instance of innuendo. Violence: 8 scenes, including shooting. Profanity: About 50 strong expressions. Drugs: At least 3 scenes of smoking and drinking, including 1 with illegal drugs.
Director: Wally Wolodarsky. With Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum, Harland Williams. (94 min.)
DUD Three frat brothers, framed for stealing their animal house's treasury, disguise themselves as women and hide out in a feminist sorority until they can clear their names. Of course, no one recognizes them. As the boys learn to respect women, we wonder why the filmmakers have none for the audience. This rip-off of "Some Like It Hot" seems to ask: If Billy Wilder can get away with this plot, why can't we? Maybe because Wilder had taste and intelligence. By M.K. Terrell
Sex/Nudity: 32 instances of innuendo, nudity, implied sex. Violence: 11 scenes, including rape. Profanity: 28 strong expressions. Drugs: At least 14 scenes of drinking, smoking, including illegal drugs.
Director: Joseph Cedar. With Aki Avni, Tinkerbell, Assi Dayan. (98 min.)
Staff *** The captain of an elite commando unit and his best friend, a radical rabbi's most brilliant student, both love the rabbi's independent-minded daughter. When she chooses the captain, the student begins planning a massive, far-reaching bombing scheme in the Middle East. Only the captain can stop it, but he's under arrest as a co-conspirator. This surprisingly low-key exploration of the radical mindset won the Israeli equivalent of an Oscar. By M.K. Terrell
Sex/Nudity: Some innuendo. Violence: 5 scenes, including a beating. Profanity: A few mild expressions. Drugs: 6 scenes with tobacco use and drinking.
Director: Gary Burns. With Don McKellar, Tammy Isbell, James McBurney, Marya Delver. (83 min.)
Sterritt *** The setting is a Canadian urban complex, and the main characters are four young workers who've made a bet on who can go longest without venturing outside for a breath of non-recycled air and a glimpse of sunshine not filtered through sheets of glass. This smart, creative social satire skewers cheaply dehumanizing architecture and self-absorbed yuppie mentalities in skillfully assembled scenes. See it in a theater that's way downtown, and city life may never look the same.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón. With Maribel Verdú, Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal. (115 min.)
Sterritt ** Faced with serious new problems in her life, a young Spanish woman living in Mexico City takes off on an impulsive road trip with two adolescent Mexican boys fueled by youthful energy, intoxicants, and hyperactive sex drives. Cuaron gives an offbeat flavor to this coming-of-age tale by combining up-close camera work with a modernistic third-person narration, and by touching on noteworthy social issues in the margins of the story. Too much repetition and an unconvincing finale take their toll on the picture's overall effectiveness, though. In Spanish with English subtitles.


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SimpleAir in Texas said Thursday it had settled its patent infringement litigation against Apple, and entered into a confidential license agreement by which Apple had taken a license to its patents.
Records of the district court in Texas show that Apple and SimpleAir filed Thursday before the court a joint motion stating that they had entered a confidential settlement and license agreement dated May 16, and asking for an order dismissing with prejudice all claims and counterclaims asserted between the two parties. The court granted the motion.
Apple could not be immediately reached for comment.
A similar joint motion by Research In Motion and SimpleAir was granted by the court on April 23.
SimpleAir, which describes itself as an inventor-owned technology company, said it reached the principal terms of a settlement with Apple at the courthouse shortly before the case was set to go on trial on April 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division.
SimpleAir filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, Research In Motion, and other companies including Facebook on September 23, 2009.
The four patents asserted by SimpleAir in its complaint of September, 2009 are U.S. patents numbers 6,021,433, 7,035,914, 6,735,614, and 6,167,426, and can be viewed on the U.S Patent and Trademark Office website. The patents are related to the system and method for transmission of data, and contact alerts for unconnected users.
John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Textile design #253 from Sonia Delaunay, 1928-30. Gouache, ink, and pencil on paper. Private collection © L & M SERVICES B.V. The Hague 20100623 Photo: © private collection
As New York Fashion Week Fall 2011 draws to a close, I wanted to compare some beautiful textile patterns that fashion designers this past year have shown with selected objects from our upcoming exhibition, Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay. While all of these designers were perhaps not directly inspired by Sonia Delaunay, it is clear that her influence on the development of color and pattern in fashion throughout the 20th and now 21st century is still holding strong. We know that our exhibition will inspire many new and established designers, so we can't wait to see what patterns the Spring 2012 fashion season brings!


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We are standing in Rochester Cemetery, in Iowa, but we are not being invited to look at its gravestones. We are here to look between them, for new life – or, rather, for living traces of an ancient and almost extinct world. You could say that we are looking for the past in the present, and for clues towards possible ecological futures. But I haven't even begun to grasp what any of that means. Not yet.
Two local environmentalists are poking around between the graves, trying to find plants with lyrical names such as rattlesnake master, pale purple coneflower and rough blazing star. Cemeteries, along with railway cuttings, are the last refuges of the once-abundant flora of the tall-grass prairie. The intensive agriculture practised by settlers in Iowa, the "most altered state in the US", has come close to erasing this ecosystem in less than two centuries.
It is late autumn, and most of the plants can only show us seed heads, at best. Not very lyrical, and hardly thrilling to the uninitiated or uninterested. Some of our group wander off to decipher inscriptions on worn tombstones or to chat about other things.
The international writing programme at the University of Iowa in 2003 was a melting pot of ingredients from around the world. We bubbled together happily enough but retained distinctive flavours: poets from Vietnam and Mongolia, a novelist from Chile, a Polish philosopher and a Chinese screenwriter.
Not all of us shared the passion for environmental writing that had driven the programme director, the poet Christopher Merrill, to organise this prairie weekend. But two of us did, at least. Gregory Norminton, a young English novelist, greeted me most mornings, over coffee at the hotel, with baleful comments about the latest ecological folly as exposed on the pages of the New York Times. He saw very little hope for our overcrowded and degraded planet, and he felt its sickness in his bones, in his gut and in his heart. I tried to resist his pessimism but did not know enough to offer a more positive reading of the world.
Norminton was up to speed on these things, and I was not. He grasped basic ecological concepts and could discuss debates in the environmental movement with some fluency. He knew his trees, even in the US, and I did not, though I probably had the edge on him as a birder. But that does not say much for either of our skills in that department.
Nevertheless, I had been hoping that birds would provide the theme for my next book, though from a human rather than an ecological perspective. I had an idea about exploring the traces left on our cultures by charismatic migrating birds, such as cranes, eagles and swallows, from cave paintings to popular music. Even this was a very new field for me. I had been invited into the Iowa programme on the back of my first book, an account of terrorism and state terrorism in the Basque Country. Rather weary of writing about people who kill each other, I was looking to natural history for a more congenial subject.
The migration-and-culture project had led me on a wonderful journey, following cranes on their annual journey from the cork oak savannahs of Extremadura, Spain's most African landscape, to the melting snows of a Swedish spring. And it would soon lead me to the International Crane Foundation, not far from Iowa, in Baraboo, Wisconsin. But by then I had abandoned that book and found the seeds of a new one.
Strange ritual
The night after our visit to the cemetery we were all invited to participate in a strange little ritual. It seemed the antithesis of anything environmentally healthy. There was an acrid smell of petrol in the air, and soon the pungent stench of damp, scorched vegetation. A rank patch of motley plants, perhaps 500 sq m, and already collapsing before the advance of winter, was marked out by a firebreak.
Would we like, our hosts Mark and Val Müller asked us, to help burn their prairie? We were standing on land that had been farmed for many decades, its natural diversity reduced to a single annual corn crop. Several years earlier the Müllers had cleared out the corn, ploughed it one last time and sowed native plant seeds, gathered locally from remnant prairie patches such as Rochester Cemetery. But a prairie community needs the alchemy of periodic fire if it is to flourish – hence the unusual invitation. Norminton was the first to jump in, wielding a drip torch through the flickering shadows. It had rained during the week, however, and the expected conflagration was denied us.
That was my introduction to the counterintuitive world of ecological restoration, where you burn a prairie to make it flourish, slaughter cute and furry mammals to save indigenous birds, and poison healthy trees to bring back native forests.
Working through those difficult issues would come later, however. For that night, despite the anticlimax with the prairie burn, Norminton and I were just fascinated by the notion that a prairie could be "restored" at all; that "natural" status could be returned to land claimed and cleared for human use. Like many people, we had grown up with the idea that if we wanted to save the natural world we had to preserve it from any human intervention.
The idea that humans could participate in nature to our mutual benefit, that we could be the agents of recovery of degraded ecosystems, was, we both dared to think, rather inspiring.
"I wonder if this kind of thing is happening in other places?" Norminton reflected aloud. "And if it is, wouldn't it make an interesting book to describe projects like this for general readers?"
My heart leaped and sank in the same instant. I suddenly knew that this was the book I wanted to write – but, damn it, my new English friend had come up with it first. One is supposed to be ethical about these things.
I kept my frustration to myself for a few days, and then one night, over a beer or two, it boiled over. I asked Norminton whether he intended to write the restoration book he had talked about. "My dear chap," said Norminton, whose democratic principles have not erased a certain Oxbridge hauteur, "that's nonfiction. I only write fiction." Would he mind, I asked in some trepidation, if I tried to write it? "I'd be delighted," he said. Then, after a short pause, he added mischievously, "As long, of course, as you say it was my idea in the preface."
I am delighted, 10 years later, to honour this small promise. Neither of us had the slightest idea at the time whether ecological restoration was a phrase known only to a few nostalgic prairie lovers in Iowa or was, instead, an idea reshaping new conservation thinking worldwide. That quest has taken me to places and concepts I never knew existed.
I found restorationists working on huge public-works projects in South Africa, and on small plots of jungle, using ancient Mayan techniques, in Chiapas, in Mexico. In Australia the Gondwana Link Project attempts to reconnect eight distinct ecosystems across 1,000km through small- and large-scale restoration projects. In New Zealand repeated extinctions of native species have led to the radical creation of "mainland islands", where alien mammals are exterminated to restore indigenous plant and animal communities.
It was a very special pleasure to return to Ireland and find that innovative restoration work is being undertaken by semi-State bodies such as Bord na Móna and Coillte, by the State through the National Parks and Wildlife Service and other bodies, and by dynamic NGOs such as Woodlands of Ireland. Restoration was no longer exotic; it was under my nose in my native place, but like many other people I was unaware of it.
No fixed principles
The practice of ecological restoration, and its related scientific discipline of restoration ecology, are not established fields with agreed or fixed basic principles. They are more like lively adolescents, buzzing with energy and vibrant contradictions. Restorationists are, after all, attempting to engage with a global environment whose evolutionary shape-shifting tendencies are accelerated unpredictably by climate change.
Nevertheless, the spark that the phrase "ecological restoration" ignited for me on that damp night has become a steadily burning passion that continues to illuminate two hopeful prospects I glimpsed on that occasion: firstly, that the natural world is considerably more resilient than I had thought, and that damaged and degraded ecosystems can rebuild a great deal of their complex webs of species, communities and ecological processes if we give them half a chance to do so; and, secondly, that human beings can assist in managing this restoration process, and that in so doing we may restore our own relationship to nature.
"Saving nature", then, might not just mean a last-fence stand to preserve shrinking islands of wilderness by keeping people out of them. Through restoration we might escape from our locked dichotomy between the twin roles of destroyers and preservers and find a more rewarding way to facilitate and participate in natural processes.
The human stories I encountered show evidence of our frailties: in science, in policy and politics, and in personal relationships. But they carry, overall, a welcome reminder that there is nothing inevitable about humanity's current starring role as the bad guy of Planet Earth. The obstacles are daunting, but enough scientific knowledge is available to turn us into the caretakers or stewards of the biosphere, of which we form an integral part.
I've learned that soil was the basis of all restoration but that very few restorationists pay it much attention. And that those who did confessed freely that they understood very little about how the microfauna and microflora under our feet interact. If restoration was part of the solution to the global environmental crisis, it was clearly no silver bullet.
But I had also heard a rousing address by Keith Bowers, then chairperson of the Society for Ecological Restoration, telling delegates that "ecological restoration is the reframed environmental movement" and that that reframing was focused on "restoring the future".
I am not starry-eyed about ecological restoration. From a scientific perspective alone, the race to close restoration's knowledge gaps, even as climate change and other accelerating human effects on the environment are widening them, will be very difficult to win. Indeed, some leading restoration ecologists now question whether it is winnable, sparking a passionate controversy within the movement.
And even if this race is winnable in theory, there are a host of daunting obstacles in practice: rapidly expanding human populations; the seemingly inexorable rise of consumer demands on critically limited resources; and the ideologies of unregulated greed and apocalyptic irrational fanaticisms that stride the world stage of human affairs.
But restoration, as a conservation strategy that embraces both biodiversity and human needs with energy, imagination and innovation, offers new paths through this bleak scenario. The future of our planet, and of our species, may depend on whether we decide to follow them.
Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century is published this month by University of Chicago Press; it will be launched by Mary Robinson on December 5th


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What are the best microwavable heating pads?
When suffering from aches and pains, a microwavable heating pad is great for finding relief. With options available in a wide range of shapes, sizes and fillings, it can be tough to know which is the best microwavable heating pad.
Keep reading for all the essential information you'll need to choose the perfect heating pad for you. We've also listed some recommendations, including the Huggaroo Original Microwavable Heating Pad, which is the ideal choice for anyone with shoulder, neck or upper back pain.
What to know before you buy a microwavable heating pad
You can find microwavable heating pads in a range of shapes. Some come tailored to fit specific areas, such as around the neck and over the shoulders. Others are simple rectangular or circular shapes and suited to use in a range of areas.
If you want a heating pad to warm yourself up on cold days or general aches and pains that might spring up anywhere on the body, it's best to get a simple-shaped pad.
Also, check the size of any heating pads you're considering. If you want a pad you can hold to your knee, wrist, ankle or other small spots on your body, you don't need a colossal heating pad. On the other hand, you'll want a larger option if you intend to wrap it around the back of your neck or want to cover a large area. Whatever size of heating pad you choose, make sure it will fit comfortably inside your microwave.
Microwavable heating pads can have a range of fillings. Many contain natural materials, such as rice, wheat and flaxseeds. These have the added benefit of being biodegradable and have a pleasant natural smell when heated. You can also find some pads that contain gel. These tend to retain both hot and cold for slightly longer, but they aren't as eco-friendly and are messy if the pad gets punctured.
What to look for in a quality microwavable heating pad
Heating time
Check how long it takes to heat your microwavable heating pad when you need it. It's rare for any pads to take more than a couple of minutes to heat up, but some are even more conveniently quick, taking 30 seconds or less.
Removable cover
If you use your heating pad regularly, you might appreciate a removable cover. This allows you to take the cover off the machine or hand wash it to keep it clean. Without a removable cover, you'll only be able to spot clean your heating pad should it get dirty.
Aromatherapy options
You can find microwavable heating pads infused with natural fragrances, either from essential oils or dried herbs. Some buyers love this added touch of relaxing aromatherapy, while others would prefer an unscented option. The choice is yours to make.
Although it's far from the most critical feature of a microwavable heating pad, it's nice to be able to choose from a handful of colors or prints.
How much you can expect to spend on a microwavable heating pad
Expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $50 for a microwavable heating pad, depending on the size, shape, filling material and overall quality.
Microwavable heating pad FAQ
Are microwavable heating pads just for therapeutic use?
A. Microwavable heating pads are often used for therapeutic reasons, like muscle pains or period cramps. But you can also use them to warm yourself up. Slipping a warm heating pad into your bed on a cold night or sitting with one in your lap on the couch can help take the edge off when the temperature drops.
Can you also use heating pads for cooling?
A. While heat can help with many aches and pains, some injuries and ailments need a cold compress rather than a warm one. Luckily, you can also use many microwavable heating pads as cool packs by putting them in the fridge or freezer to chill. Check before buying whether your chosen heating pad is suitable for cooling and follow the chilling instructions for best results.
What's the best microwavable heating pad to buy?
Top microwavable heating pad
Huggaroo Original Microwavable Heating Pad
What you need to know: Wrapping over the shoulders and up the back of the neck, this is the ideal choice for those with back and neck pain.
What you'll love: This option is suitable for both hot and cold use and stays on the area hands-free so that you can go about your business. It has a pleasantly soft exterior.
What you should consider: Some people don't like the herbal scent or say they can barely notice it.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top microwavable heating pad for the money
My Heating Pad Microwavable Heat Pad
What you need to know: An affordable heating pad that's versatile enough for use on a range of areas or for general warming.
What you'll love: It features fleece on one side and cotton on the other, retains heat well and there's added pressure from the weight of the bag that can have added therapeutic value.
What you should consider: It could be longer, especially for those who want to wrap it around the neck.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Nature Creation Microwavable Upper-Body Wrap
What you need to know: This large wrap-style heating pad is perfect for people with shoulder, neck and upper back pain.
What you'll love: The front closure helps the pad stay put whatever you're doing. It's suitable for hot and cold use and has a naturally pleasant aroma from herbs and grains.
What you should consider: It doesn't extend up the back of the neck.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Sorry, there are no Albert Hammond Jr dates.
Albert Hammond Jr's fourth solo album, Francis Trouble is available everywhere globally. The album explores a deeply personal topic – the stillborn death of Albert's twin brother, Francis, and the lingering effects that event has had in his life and music.
In November of 1979, Hammond Jr's mother, Claudia, miscarried. Although they rushed to the hospital, Claudia and Albert Hammond Sr. were told that the baby was far too premature to live. Albert continued to grow inside of his mother undetected until she was nearly six months pregnant.
Although he had always known of the existence of Francis, it was not until he was 36 years old that he learned from an aunt that part of Francis had remained behind in the womb and was born alongside him – a fingernail. With his music moving in a different path than before, Hammond Jr wondered if this new direction came from another avenue of himself, perhaps emanating from whatever he and the departed Francis had shared for the few short months they had together.
Taking a page from Bowie, Hammond Jr says: "What the music says may be serious, but as a medium it should not be questioned, analyzed or taken too seriously. I think it should be tarted up, made into a character, a parody of itself. The music is the mask the message wears and I, the performer, am the message."
Working within this mentality, Hammond Jr created Francis Trouble, an homage to both the death of his twin and his own birth, as well as the complexities of identity that arise because of their intermingling. The number 36 became especially relevant, as he had learned more of Francis's story at that age, and because he was born on the 9th day of the 4th month of the year. Significantly, the album is exactly 36 minutes long.


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One of my resolutions for 2012 is to break free of Microsoft Outlook. My dislike of that program knows no bounds, yet I've been stuck with it for years. Now I'm shopping for replacements.
First, I'll need a new e-mail client, and I know Mozilla Thunderbird's reputation well enough to make it my first candidate.
After spending an afternoon with the program, I found myself exasperated by one incomprehensibly dumb feature (or lack thereof): when you reply to an e-mail, Thunderbird doesn't mark it as read.
Huh? Seriously? It's true. By default, Thunderbird will mark a message as read after you've viewed it for a certain amount of time (five seconds is the standard setting). But I always turn that option off, as I'm not always done with an e-mail the first time I look at it.
With that setting off, Thunderbird won't mark any message as read, even if you reply to it. Ridiculous.
Fortunately, there's an add-on that can save the day. It's called Change Quote and Reply Format (not the most glamorous name, I grant you), and it works.
To get it, click the link above, scroll down to the bottom of the page, then download the file (which is provided in xpi format). Now fire up Thunderbird, then click Tools, Add-ons.
Next to the field marked "Search all add-ons," click the little gear and choose Install Add-on From File. Navigate to the folder where you saved the xpi file, click it, and then click Open.
Now click Extensions, find the Change Quote and Reply Format add-on, and click Options. Click the Format and actions tab, then enable Mark message as read after reply. Click OK and you're done.
Now, when you reply to an e-mail, Thunderbird will mark it as read. Duh, Thunderbird!
Contributing Editor Rick Broidawrites about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at email@example.com, or try the treasure trove of helpful folks in the PC World Community Forums.Sign up to have theHassle-Free PC newslettere-mailed to you each week.


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Spotify just filed for a direct listing in the U.S., sidestepping the traditional IPO process, and now we're starting to see some of the true financial guts of the company — and some of the significant risks it faces from challenging services from Apple and Google.
Apple, for example, charges apps a percentage of revenue for subscriptions processed through the App Store. Apple Music, meanwhile, will always deliver Apple 100% of the subscription revenue that it receives from subscribers (sans record fees and all that kind of stuff, of course). Apple, too, has a direct integration with its iOS devices and also a huge amount of brand recognition even though Spotify is a massive service. Spotify says it has 159 million monthly active users and 71 million premium subscribers, while Apple has 36 million paying subscribers as of February 2018.
Here's the full boilerplate from the filing:
Our current and future competitors may have higher brand recognition, more established relationships with music and other content licensors and mobile device manufacturers, greater financial, technical, and other resources, more sophisticated technologies, and/or more experience in the markets in which we compete.
In addition, Apple and Google also own application store platforms and are charging in-application purchase fees, which are not being levied on their own applications, thus creating a competitive advantage for themselves against us. As the market for on-demand music on the internet and mobile and connected devices increases, new competitors, business models, and solutions are likely to emerge.
As owners of the platforms themselves, Apple and Google will always be able to dictate the terms. And while Spotify is a massive service, its success still hinges on users listening on their mobile devices. It may be able to build a strong brand and create some inertia against potential changes from Apple that could incite user backlash, but at the end of the day, Apple runs the system where its users actually get the service.
As Apple begins diversifying its revenue streams to create a services branch that the company likes to say will be the size of a Fortune 100 company, music is increasingly becoming a core part of that. Google, too, owns its app store platforms, and will recognize 100% of the revenue from its own service. We haven't seen the full potential of these companies' approaches to the music space, in particular with Apple Music which appears to be steadily growing, but Spotify is clearly recognizing it as an existential threat.


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Eye Contact
As a street photographer, I am an observer - an observer of people & moments. I am not part of the story until someone sees me. In each of these photos, however, one person has noticed me and my camera. And their captured eye contact changes the dynamic of the scene. Suddenly, I am a part of this captured moment, whether or not I wish to be. The same for anyone who looks at these photographs - in each case, your presence is acknowledged.Read More
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2 bells, 2 pigeons & a face


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RICHMOND, Va. – Two weeks ago, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sailing along looking like a lock to make it into NASCAR's Chase for the championship, standing fifth in points in one of the most consistent seasons of his career.
Then he finished 30th at Watkins Glen, and 36th at Michigan.
Suddenly the most popular driver in the Sprint Cup Series is feeling some heat.
"The confidence is there, but the stress is there, too," he said during a pause from testing Wednesday at Richmond International Raceway, where all four Hendrick Motorsports teams are spending two days.
Earnhardt has fallen to seventh in the standings, just 20 points ahead of teammate Kasey Kahne, who is 11th with three races remaining before the field is set in the regular season finale at Richmond.
The top 10 in points automatically qualify, along with two wild card selections that place a premium on victories. Kahne has two, leading everyone outside the top six, and Earnhardt doesn't have any.
"You definitely don't like to be in this situation," Earnhardt said. "I don't think anybody wants to be on the bubble or even worried or concerned about points leading up to Richmond, so we hope to have a couple of good weeks to put ourselves in a pretty comfortable situation before we even come here."
Earnhardt has three career victories on the 0.75-mile D-shaped oval, which drivers say combines short-track bumping and banging and a superspeedway feel, but his last victory here came in May 2006.
"It's a tough track," he said. "Just looking at everybody as a whole, nobody really comes here and is just great every time. It's not a track that you see one team consistently dominate. We've had good cars here and brought back the same setup and it just didn't work. You're never really sure when you show up."
The series moves to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, and also stops in Atlanta before returning to Richmond with what looks to be a battle that could go down to the final laps under the lights at RIR.
Matt Kenseth, who is sixth in points, and No. 12 Martin Truex Jr. are separated by just 35 points.
"The intensity definitely ramps up a little bit, especially with all these short tracks right here butting up against the Chase with Bristol and Richmond," Earnhardt said. "It definitely puts some tension in the air and makes everybody a little bit more nervous because anything can happen."
BOXERS OR BRIEFS?: Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson enjoys interacting with fans on Twitter because it can help build his fan base, but said there are pitfalls, too.
In connecting with people who like you, he said, you also make yourself available to those that don't.
"The social media world is an amazing world and a great place to connect with your fans and to show you fans part of your life that they don't generally get to see, and also a side of your personality," Johnson said, "but it's also a great area for haters to get involved and do whatever they want.
"I don't think anyone's immune to it. It doesn't matter what sport you're in. Haters have a chance, and I'm sure most of them are sitting in their mom's basement in their underwear sending these tweets."
BRISCOE'S BACK: Ryan Briscoe will be back at Sonoma Raceway to defend last year's victory after missing two races with a broken right wrist.
Briscoe was cleared to drive following a full day test for Panther Racing last week at Sonoma, where he wore a carbon fiber wrist brace. He broke his wrist in the first doubleheader event at Toronto last month and needed surgery to repair the break.
"My wrist held up pretty good during the test, although the brace was a bit of a nuisance," Briscoe said. "But we made good progress during the test and worked through our program really well. I was pleased with our pace and definitely looking forward to coming back next week to find more speed."
Briscoe has seven career IndyCar starts at Sonoma. He won last year driving for Penske Racing and has four podium finishes and has led 66 total laps.
"We knew Ryan was a tough guy and would bounce back from his wrist surgery quickly," Panther owner John Barnes said. "He looked great at the test we had last week and you don't have to do much research to see how well he's done historically at Sonoma Raceway."
Briscoe has been alternating with Oriol Servia at Panther since JR Hildebrand was released following the Indianapolis 500. It will be Briscoe's sixth and final race with the team as he's scheduled to fulfill his ALMS commitments the rest of this season.
DILLON MOVING UP: Ty Dillon will move from the Camping World Truck Series to the Nationwide Series next season, replacing older brother Austin in Richard Childress Racing's No. 3 car.
The move has long been expected as Austin has been preparing to move full-time to Sprint Cup. No sponsor has been announced for Austin in Cup, and nothing official has been announced by Childress.
But RCR has said Yuengling beer will sponsor Ty Dillon for eight races in the Nationwide Series.
Ty Dillon is fourth in the Truck standings, and on pace to follow the same path as his older brother, who ran two full seasons in the Truck Series before moving up to the Nationwide Series.
LEADER OF THE PACK: After his third-place finish at Mid-Ohio on Saturday, Ohio native Sam Hornish Jr. leads the Nationwide Series driver standings. He holds a 13-point edge on Elliott Sadler, with Regan Smith and Austin Dillon tied for third, two more points off the pace, and 11 races remaining.
"We have a long way to go yet." Hornish said. "It's tough running out there, but a lot of fun."
PERFECT YEAR: Jeremy Bullins, crew chief for Roger Penske, prepared cars that won all three of the road-course races on the Nationwide Series this season. That's just a part of eight victories for him and his crew this year.
"We're certainly on a good streak; there's no getting around that," Bullins said. "We keep trying to make improvements to our cars, and building new cars and try to keep things moving forward."
AJ Allmendinger has won in his only two starts on the circuit this year — both on road courses — at Road America and on Saturday at Mid-Ohio, and Brad Keselowski won at Watkins Glen two weeks ago.
"Penske cars have just been good on the road courses," said Michael McDowell, who finished second to Allmendinger at Mid-Ohio. "It's not one thing in particular. I've been trying to figure it out, too."
AP Sports Writers Rusty Miller and Noah Trister contributed to this report.
Follow Hank on twitter at: http://twitter.com/hankkurzjr


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WHO is leading a global campaign on depression for World Health Day 2017, celebrated today. Its goal is to enable more people with mental disorders to live healthy, productive lives.
Key facts
- Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, more than 300 million people of all ages suffer from depression.
- Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.
- More women are affected by depression than men.
- At its worst, depression can lead to suicide.
- There are effective treatments for depression.
Depression is a common illness worldwide, with more than 300 million people affected. Depression is different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to challenges in everyday life. Especially when long-lasting and with moderate or severe intensity, depression may become a serious health condition. It can cause the affected person to suffer greatly and function poorly at work, at school and in the family. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide. Close to 800 000 people die due to suicide every year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.
Although there are known, effective treatments for depression, fewer than half of those affected in the world (in many countries, fewer than 10%) receive such treatments. Barriers to effective care include a lack of resources, lack of trained health-care providers, and social stigma associated with mental disorders. Another barrier to effective care is inaccurate assessment. In countries of all income levels, people who are depressed are often not correctly diagnosed, and others who do not have the disorder are too often misdiagnosed and prescribed antidepressants.
The burden of depression and other mental health conditions is on the rise globally. A World Health Assembly resolution passed in May 2013 has called for a comprehensive, coordinated response to mental disorders at country level.
Types and symptoms
Depending on the number and severity of symptoms, a depressive episode can be categorized as mild, moderate, or severe.
A key distinction is also made between depression in people who have or do not have a history of manic episodes. Both types of depression can be chronic (i.e. over an extended period of time) with relapses, especially if they go untreated.
- Recurrent depressive disorder: this disorder involves repeated depressive episodes. During these episodes, the person experiences depressed mood, loss of interest and enjoyment, and reduced energy leading to diminished activity for at least two weeks. Many people with depression also suffer from anxiety symptoms, disturbed sleep and appetite and may have feelings of guilt or low self-worth, poor concentration and even medically unexplained symptoms.
Depending on the number and severity of symptoms, a depressive episode can be categorized as mild, moderate, or severe. An individual with a mild depressive episode will have some difficulty in continuing with ordinary work and social activities, but will probably not cease to function completely. During a severe depressive episode, it is very unlikely that the sufferer will be able to continue with social, work, or domestic activities, except to a very limited extent.
- Bipolar affective disorder: this type of depression typically consists of both manic and depressive episodes separated by periods of normal mood. Manic episodes involve elevated or irritable mood, over-activity, pressure of speech, inflated self-esteem and a decreased need for sleep.
Contributing factors and prevention
Depression results from a complex interaction of social, psychological and biological factors. People who have gone through adverse life events (unemployment, bereavement, psychological trauma) are more likely to develop depression. Depression can, in turn, lead to more stress and dysfunction and worsen the affected person's life situation and depression itself.
There are interrelationships between depression and physical health. For example, cardiovascular disease can lead to depression and vice versa.
Prevention programmes have been shown to reduce depression. Effective community approaches to prevent depression include school-based programmes to enhance a pattern of positive thinking in children and adolescents. Interventions for parents of children with behavioural problems may reduce parental depressive symptoms and improve outcomes for their children. Exercise programmes for the elderly can also be effective in depression prevention.
Diagnosis and treatment
There are effective treatments for moderate and severe depression. Health-care providers may offer psychological treatments (such as behavioural activation, cognitive behavioural therapy [CBT], and interpersonal psychotherapy [IPT]) or antidepressant medication (such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [SSRIs] and tricyclic antidepressants [TCAs]). Health-care providers should keep in mind the possible adverse effects associated with antidepressant medication, the ability to deliver either intervention (in terms of expertise, and/or treatment availability), and individual preferences. Different psychological treatment formats for consideration include individual and/or group face-to-face psychological treatments delivered by professionals and supervised lay therapists.
Psychosocial treatments are also effective for mild depression. Antidepressants can be an effective form of treatment for moderate-severe depression but are not the first line of treatment for cases of mild depression. They should not be used for treating depression in children and are not the first line of treatment in adolescents, among whom they should be used with caution.
WHO response
Depression is one of the priority conditions covered by WHO's Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). The Programme aims to help countries increase services for people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders, through care provided by health workers who are not specialists in mental health. The Programme asserts that with proper care, psychosocial assistance and medication, tens of millions of people with mental disorders, including depression, could begin to lead normal lives – even where resources are scarce.
Videos about depression
These short videos have been produced as part of WHO's "Depression: let's talk" campaign. They highlight some of the symptoms of depression following childbirth and the importance of talking as the first step towards getting help.
Let's talk about depression – focus on adolescents and young adults
Let's talk about depression – focus on older people
Let's talk about depression – focus on women with young babies


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The story of asbestos in this country ought to serve as a cautionary tale: A seemingly miraculous fiber was widely introduced into common consumer products; only after it was already in millions of homes did the general public realize that it causes a particularly terrible form of cancer. Now, treating victims and cleaning up contaminated communities is costing billions of dollars, while thousands of people endure the toll of a debilitating and deadly disease.
Nanotechnology is another innovation that promises to bring consumer products to a whole new level â and, once again, it looks like nano products will become widespread and entrenched before we have a complete picture of what the risks are.
Nanotechnology involves extremely small particles measuring 1 â 100 nanometers (down to 1/100,000th the width of a human hair). This gives the particles more surface area relative to their weight, which can make them more reactive and change their properties in other ways. Such changes can offer new opportunities, but they can also pose dangers. In fact, a pilot study published in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology suggests that carbon nanotubes behave like asbestos, causing mesothelioma-like lesions in the body.
Hereâs the study abstract (references omitted):
Carbon nanotubes have distinctive characteristics, but their needle-like fibre shape has been compared to asbestos, raising concerns that widespread use of carbon nanotubes may lead to mesothelioma, cancer of the lining of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos. Here we show that exposing the mesothelial lining of the body cavity of mice, as a surrogate for the mesothelial lining of the chest cavity, to long multiwalled carbon nanotubes results in asbestos-like, length-dependent, pathogenic behaviour. This includes inflammation and the formation of lesions known as granulomas. This is of considerable importance, because research and business communities continue to invest heavily in carbon nanotubes for a wide range of products under the assumption that they are no more hazardous than graphite. Our results suggest the need for further research and great caution before introducing such products into the market if long-term harm is to be avoided.
There are the usual caveats about making any sweeping assumptions based on this: itâs one short pilot study, done on mice, and the nanotubes were injected directly into the body, which is not how most of us would be exposed to the fibers. What it does tell us is that we ought to slow down and quit pumping these fibers into workplaces and the marketplace until we know more.
Carbon nanotubes are already used in dozens of products, including electronic components, tennis rackets, and golf clubs, and the Washington Postâs Rick Weiss states that theyâre expected to be a $2 billion industry within the next few years. Kenneth Changâs New York Times article suggests that consumers arenât likely to inhale nanotubes from bicycle frames, but cites one of the study authors cautioning that workers may be at more of a risk, just as construction workers and mechanics have a higher risk of asbestos exposure.
As Olga Naidenko pointed out last week, though, most nano workplaces donât have the kind of monitoring or controls necessary to protect employees â and theyâre not getting information and best-practice guidance from industry or government, which might help them put appropriate programs in place.
Regulating nanotechnology is challenging, because weâre not exactly sure how fibers of different sizes will behave. Even in this mouse study, shorter nanotubes didnât cause lesions, while longer ones did.
Plus, when considering the nanotechnology field as a whole, there are several different fibers. In addition to the carbon nanotubes, nano particles of silver are widely used to give products antimicrobial properties. As Carole Bass pointed out in The New Republic earlier this month, spreading nano-silver particles far and wide could have serious consequences for the environment as well as for individuals â for instance, the bacteria we rely on to clean our water and perform other services might suffer. This means that the FDA and EPA will both need to be involved.
âWeâve got to have the right research, and really fast,â nanotube study author Andrew Maynard of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies told the Washington Post. But the question is, will we get the right research and put it to use quickly, or will the companies that make and use nanotubes gum up the process?
Like tobacco companies, the companies that made and used asbestos denied that there were problems with the substance long after they knew about the diseases it caused. (Iâll put in a quick plug for David Michaelsâs Doubt is Their Product; Chapter 2 of the book tells the sordid asbestos story, and weâve put related documentary evidence online.) Letâs hope that the companies using carbon nanotubes donât stand in the way of regulating a substance that has the potential to cause another asbestos-type public health crisis.Â


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Roller Blinds Blockout Blackout Curtains Window Modern Shades 0.9X2.1M Grey
Bright sunlight disturbing your sleep? Want some privacy from the nosy neighbours? House too hot in summer? Then our Blockout Roller Blind is perfect for you. It solves all your problems in stylish modern fashion.
The roller blind operates seamlessly due to its smooth chain drive system and can stay open partway to let in as much or little light as you prefer. It is durably crafted with a sturdy 1mm thick aluminium tube frame, plastic bead chain and polyester fabric blind. The 185gsm high-density weave blockout fabric effectively blocks out the heat and sunlight to offer complete privacy and peaceful slumbers. Easy to install, the blind is suitable for various types of walls and windows, and the contemporary design and colour will update any room or space beautifully. Most importantly, a P clip is included to make the blind child-safe, to safely secure the chain and prevent any accidents.
So, what are you waiting for? Order our roller blind today to take complete control over your home lighting.
Modern and stylish design
Can stay open partway
Smooth chain drive system
Sturdy 1mm thick aluminium frame
High-density weave polyester fabric blind
Durable plastic bead chain (85 beads per metre)
Heat insulation
Low maintenance
P clip to secure chain
Easy inside installation
Suitable for different types of walls and windows
Frame: Aluminium
Blind fabric: Polyester
Overall dimensions (W x H):
90cm x 210cm
Package Content
1 x Blockout Roller Blind
1 x User Manual


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You shall not post this on anywhere for public use
You shall not sell this for public use
Do not replicate and forward without permission
Do not claim this as yours
Do Not Translate it into your languange and claim ownership
At the Unova Pokemon League, the heated tournament battles between the finalists ensue. Following Black's victory over Luke Kermit, the next to take the stage are Cheren and the PokeManiac, Petash.
Keeping a calm look, Cheren orders a FeatherDance from his Unfezant, and Petash warns his Deino to stay cautious and not to be hit by the swirling feathers. Unfortunately, the excessive amount of feathers proves to be too much for the little dragon to dodge, and a few inadvertently land on its body, lowering its attack. The Announcer voices out his concern for Deino, and watches as it charges towards to deliver a Bite on Unfezant's left leg. However, due to its weakened attack, the move barely does any damage, and Unfezant goes airborne after shaking its opponent off. Cheren then commands a Sky Attack, and to everyone's surprise, the giant pheasant doesn't appear to require any charging, and immediately dives down to strike at Deino with its beak, fainting it with the powerful blow.
Black cheers for Cheren from inside his capsule, and the Announcer declares the boy the winner, granting him entrance into the semi-finals. Petash picks up his fainted Deino, and feels completely fascinated by the power Cheren demonstrated. He walks over to praise Cheren's skills, and grins that he is not sure if Cheren is aware of it, but Deino is actually a Pokemon who could not see, which is why it was quite a tough battle for it. So far, he has been lucky and made his advance by simply tackling and biting at his foes, but clearly such a reckless strategy would not work against Cheren. The way Cheren used Power Herb to omit the need for charging in Sky Attack truly amazed him, and he is inspired to work even harder from now on.
Yet, before Petash could finish his line, Cheren turns away without a word, and causes the little boy to sweatdrop in embarrassment. Black witnesses the whole thing from his capsule, and is surprised that Cheren, being an extremely polite person, would act so cold and oblivious towards the friendly gestures of others. He watches as Cheren retreats into his own capsule, and wonders what has happened to his childhood companion.
In an adjacent capsule, the purple-robed man pleased with Cheren's behavior, and grins that a cold heart is indeed dependable. In fact, he is convinced that coldness is the key to being alive, and starts to giggle maniacally as he trembles from the coldness he feels. His actions are spied on by Looker through his Excellent Scope, and the international police officer finds the robed man even weirder than he thought. Not only is he showing signs of feeling cold despite having worn such fluffy clothes, but he also appears to be enjoying the cold. He flips out his book with the contestant list, and turns to the page of the robed man. He reads that his name is Gray, which means a mixture of black and white, and finds the name just as weird as his actions.
At that moment, the Announcer commences the third match, and calls upon the Hoodman, a mysterious contestant, and Marlon, a man who is a bigger splash than the sea. The athletic swimmer greets his opponent, and picks a Pokeball from the fishing net he is holding to send out his Jellicent. The Hoodman shoots out a Pokeball from within his cloak to release a Beheeyem, and the two Pokemon quickly engage in a close-up combat.
Marlon states that the sea is his home, and although he was born on land, he has spent more time with his Pokemon at sea. Riding the waves, he has fought countless marine Pokemon, and the strength and skills he built up has enabled him to come this far in the League. Marlon commands a Scald, and Jellicent instantly unleashes a jet of boiling water on Beheeyem, inflicting it with the Burn status. Marlon is interested to know what the Hoodman thinks, but the Hoodman seems barely fazed, and says although Burn can slowly chip away a Pokemon's health, it doesn't concern his Beheeyem because it can regenerate its own cells. Beheeyem uses Recover, and further powers up itself with Calm Mind before firing an Energy Ball, which hits Jellicent directly and knocks it backwards.
The room roars with excitement at the turn of events, and Marlon feels exhilarated by his opponent's skills. He laughs that the Hoodman's tactics are making him ashamed, and he is truly thrilled and glad to be fighting someone so strong. He finds it exciting that a psychic type knows a grass type attack, and giggles that he should really give his best. He reveals that his Jellicent also knows Recover, and the ghost jellyfish quickly restores its own health with the move to prepare its revenge. It leaps off the ground to launch itself onto Beheeyem, and Marlon states that it is time to compare their physical strength. He adds that his Jellicent's ability is Cursed Body, and points out that Beheeyem is now disabled from using Energy Ball.
Yet, the Hoodman once again stays calm, and Marlon notices that Beheeyem's shadow is slowly elongating on the ground. Before he realizes what is going on, and dark globe of energy emerges from the shadow to strike at Jellicent, and the Announcer exclaims that Beheeyem has unleashed a Shadow Ball attack. The super effective move knocks out Jellicent instantly, rendering it unable to battle further, and the Hoodman is declared the winner of the match.
Marlon is shocked and amazed at the same time by what has happened, and grins that the Hoodman has really raised his Pokemon well. He is glad that their match ended in such a great mood, and thanks the Hoodman for the great battle. The Hoodman states that Marlon is too humble, and as he turns to leave, mutters to himself how he has gained a lot from the match himself. The fact is, by participating in this tournament, he has had the chance to observe powerful trainers closely, which serves as a great reference and is closely tied to the subject that he is researching on.
With Marlon defeated, the Announcer calls for the last semi-semi-final match, and Iris carefully makes her choice of Pokemon inside her capsule, since the tournament has the unique rule that regardless of how many Pokemon a contestant uses, he or she loses if any single one Pokemon is knocked out. Iris is confident that she will not allow herself to be knocked out in one hit, and jumps out of her capsule to the stage as the Announcer introduces her as the girl who knows the hearts of dragons, a contestant who is highly regarded by the judges. Black gestures to show his encouragement to Iris, and the girl waves back before facing her opponent, the purple-robed man Gray whom she nicknames the fluffy man.
Up in the audience stand, Looker and his Croagunk watch intently, and Iris proceeds to send out her Fraxure while Gray calls forward a Cryogonal. Iris sees that she is up against an ice type which her Fraxure is weak against, but is hardly concerned because her knowledge in dragon types will surely make her the winner of this match and earn her entrance into the semifinals to fight Black.
Fraxure charges forward to deliver a punch on Cryogonal, but the snowflake Pokemon weaves its ice chain and quickly immobilizes Fraxure on the ground. The Announcer voices out his concern that Iris seems stumped rather early in her battle, and wonders what she plans to do next. The girl watches Fraxure struggle against the ice chain around its body, and recalls having given it special training after witnessing a similar situation during Black's training on the Tubeline Bridge. However, she is slightly worried as to whether Fraxure can pull it off, and Gray giggles that no matter how harsh a dragon attacks, it cannot do much if it is rendered immobile.
The Announcer sees that frost is starting form on Fraxure's body where the ice chain is fastened around it, which causes the dragon to tremble from the cold. He wonders if the outcome of the battle is already set, but Iris voices out her encouragement to Fraxure, and hollers that they must not lose. She tells Fraxure to recall the reason why they have to win, and her fiery passion causes distress to Gray. Literally sweating, the purple-robed man mocks that having powerful emotions is not going to help her. However, Iris snickers that emotion is not the only thing she has, and at that moment, Fraxure skillfully uses its tusk to break one of the ice marbles forming the chain, and thus tearing the whole chain apart. The Announcer is astonished to see that the dragon has endured the cold and secretly split the chain, and Iris grins that Fraxure's diligence in sharpening in tusks has paid off.
The two-tusked dragon then grabs the broken chain which is still attached to Cryogonal to hurl the snowflake Pokemon onto the ground, which stirs up a shower of rocks and dust. Iris makes use of the situation to have Fraxure immobilize Cryogonal with Rock Tomb, and Gray attempts to retaliate with Ice Beam. However, Iris mocks that he is too slow, and gets Fraxure to finish off its opponent with a super effective Rock Smash, fainting it and earning her victory in the match.
Black cheers for Iris in his capsule, and the Announcer officially declares Iris the fourth semifinalist. Iris tells Gray that she isn't bluffing when she claimed to know about dragons, and says since she knows their weakness well, she has come up with appropriate strategies to counter them. With that, she bids Gray goodbye, and the robed man fumes with rage as he leaves the stage. Inside another capsule, the Hoodman watches Gray walk off in defeat, and muses that losing may not be a big deal after all.
High up near the audience stands' exit, Brycen leans against the door as he watches the match on stage. He recalls what the Gymleaders said about having completely no memory of how they were kidnapped, and finds this saying unusually odd. It is almost as if suggesting that their memories have been tampered and erased, and although it is an extreme thought, there is indeed a Pokemon that is capable of doing just that, the cerebral Pokemon Beheeyem. Among the contestants, one who conceals his true identity happens to own one, and he wonders if it is just a coincidence and that he has been thinking too much.
However, White, having checked on Beheeyem's data on her Pokedex, thinks that there is value in this investigation, and the Icirrus Gymleader wants to know if she is really willing to help. In response, White gives him an assuring nod, and stands next to her full team of Pokemon, Amanda, Jessica, Nancy, Dorothy, Unibo and Barbara…Thanks To Coronis For Writing this for us
514: VS Deino
Volume 50


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The FileUploader component supports the drag-and-drop functionality to upload files.
In this demo, the dropZone property specifies the HTML element in which you can drag and drop files for upload. The dropZoneEnter and dropZoneLeave events allow you to customize the drop zone when the mouse pointer enters and leaves this zone while dragging the file.
Allowed file extensions: .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png
Maximum file size: 4 MB


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Apple sends out invites for September 10 iPhone event
It's official. Apple has scheduled an event for a week from today and we're expecting a new iPhone. Read on for more details.
Mark your calendars for next Tuesday, September 10. Apple has just sent out invites for a news event that day, where we're expecting to see the next iPhone.
This year's tagline is simply, "This should brighten everyone's day."
The event is taking place at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., and begins at 10 a.m. Pacific. CNET will be there to bring you all the news, live. Stay tuned for more details on how to watch.
It's unclear at this point if Apple will also be offering a live video stream of the event. It didn't do so at last year's iPhone press conference, but proceeded to run live video for its October iPad Mini event, as well as its Worldwide Developers Conference this past June.
The date for the event matches up with previous reports, including one from AllThingsD as well as The Loop.
Apple event invitations through the years (pictures)See all photos
The event is strongly expected to bring two new models of the iPhone, both a high- and low-end range, the latter of which will be plastic. A series of leaks in the run-up to next week's event have shown colors of both models, though not a fully functioning device. The last time Apple held an event at its campus, it was for 2011's iPhone 4S, which brought Siri along with other new features.
Along with new iPhones, the event is expected to bring a formal release time for iOS 7, Apple's software overhaul which debuted at WWDC in June. The company has previously delivered finalized versions of that software to developers before releasing the same thing to consumers days before new iPhones go on sale.
New iPads or Macs are not expected at this particular event; Apple broke those products out into their own event last October.
The invite comes just hours after Microsoft's announcement that it plans to buy most of Nokiain a deal worth $7.2 billion.
CNET will have more details on what's expected, as well as how to watch next week's event in the coming days.


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Sunday, 24 July 2011
Summer Holiday Dress
The fabric is some amazing vintage stuff that's been in my stash for as long as I've had a fabric stash worth speaking about. I can't exactly remember, but I think it was an ebay purchase about six years ago, when 50's/early 60's stuff wasn't really my thing. Something (maybe the colours?) must have attracted me though, and I'm so glad I bought it. I'm equally glad that a younger, less capable seamstress-me didn't get her mitts on it and make a hash-up of a project from it. Indeed, miraculously this fabric evaded all scissor-happy endeavours until I rediscovered it in a box at my folks' house a few weeks ago. The print is so amazing, it features little vignettes of some non-specific Mediterranean holiday destination in that really early 1960's idea of foreign travel and life. It's so evocatively kitsch, I could weep! Wouldn't you just love to order a sangria/ouzo/pastis/grappa at this little al fresco bar?!:
As you can see, it's a wiggle dress consisting of a basic bodice and A-line skirt with the additions of wide shoulder straps and red ruffle detail. I begun by using the strapless bodice pattern pieces from Simplicity 4070 (pictured below), which was also the pattern I used as the starting point for my Frida Kahlo dress. Actually, I think I'm getting better as seeing the potential in an initially unappealing sewing pattern. I made a size 12 toile and fitted it (I found I needed to make additional darts at the front side panels towards the bust to stop some unpleasant side gaping).
I used the skirt pattern pieces from some bland 1990's wiggle dress pattern, adding to the side seams to make sure the top of the skirt's measurements corresponded with those of the bodice. Once the skirt was attached to the bodice, I tried it on and found the skirt section was too bit so I skimmed off some of the side seams to fit nicely over my hips.
I considered making this a halter dress, but I really wanted to feel comfortable wearing this dress so didn't want to have to wear it with a strapless bra and therefore be constantly aware that the bra might be visible at the back. So I opted for nice, secure, wide self-straps instead. I got my boss to help me position them exactly over where my bra straps normally sit so they are completely covered and that whole area is not a concern!
As awesome as this fabric is, I felt it needed something extra to really pop, so before I added the shoulder straps, I decided a contrast red ruffle would give it the constrast pop I was looking for. I found some nasty synthetic blend fabric that was more or less the same red as the red in the fabric's print design in the fabric bins under my bench at work and fashioned myself a ruffle. Initially, I had the ruffles going all along the top of the bodice, but it didn't work around the underarm area as moving my arms around meant the ruffle tended to get flattened down, so I unpicked it and respositioned it to feature just around the front area instead, tapering down to nothing towards the underarms.
Because the fabric is quite floppy, I felt the bodice needed some help to keep its shape. I decided to line it with more of the nasty red synthetic stuff. I chose not to line the skirt, as I tend to wear tights or holdups when wearing dresses and skirts, and I thought tights plus skirt plus skirt lining might end up feeling too bulky and hot.
Having had our little trip to Bologna back in May, I'm not going away again this summer, but with the spirit of holiday so very present in this dress, I feel it's pretty much a constant party whenever I'm wearing it!
49 comments:
- Kestrel said...
So pretty! Fabulous fabric and a great shape that really suits you.
- 24 July 2011 at 18:41
- Roisin Muldoon said...
Oh, Zoe, that is amazing! I love the fabric - I have a dress made out of fabric with little vignettes of Hawaii all over it, and it is just so holidayish that it makes me smile every time I wear it. The ruffles are adorable as well - well done you!
Oh and with you on the halterneck - I find myself turning halter straps into shoulder straps more and more often now. Going braless just doesn't appeal, sadly :(
- 24 July 2011 at 18:42
- Unknown said...
What an adorable dress! The fabric is so cute, and it fits you beautifully :) I love the ruffle too.
Ashley x
- 24 July 2011 at 18:44
Totally fabulous. I love the kitschy adorableness of it all. I'm currently on the hunt for some black and white tiki fabric to make a similarly styled dress. Great job!
- 24 July 2011 at 18:52
You look va-va-voom sexy! Nothing better than to see a woman confidently wearing a gorgeous dress. I LOVE the fabric. Can't imagine a 'you' before you were into this type of look! You deserve to be very proud and I love all the photos.
- 24 July 2011 at 19:05
- Unknown said...
That print is aMAzing, as is your new dress, as are you in it!
Me gusta!!
- 24 July 2011 at 19:10
- lollipops for breakfast said...
it's just WOOOOW! i really love it. excellent choice for fabric and pattern :D
- 24 July 2011 at 19:13
- Kit said...
I love this dress so much- very clever mixing and matching patterns. The fabric is fab as well!
- 24 July 2011 at 19:13
- Kat said...
Oooh that fabric is just too cute! Great dress, it fits you perfectly and I love the finishing touch of the red.
- 24 July 2011 at 19:24
- Stacy aka Stacybeads said...
Oh girl, you KNOW this dress just pushes all my buttons in the best way! The print, the colors, the shape...it's all so retro fab I literally gasped when I saw it. Well done!
- 24 July 2011 at 19:34
- Magpie Mimi said...
Fab dress! Very va va voom! You must feel a million dollars in it!
- 24 July 2011 at 19:35
- Lynne said...
Oh my goodness, it's gorgeous! And so glam! Happy wearing :)
- 24 July 2011 at 19:44
- Unknown said...
It looks great on you :)
- 24 July 2011 at 19:56
- House of Pinheiro said...
Amazingly gorgeous!
- 24 July 2011 at 20:11
- MrsC (Maryanne) said...
Fabulous! It is so perfect for you. The red frill was a stroke of sheer genius.
Where are you posing? Fascinating background!
- 24 July 2011 at 20:48
- Jane said...
It's beautiful Zoe. It fits you perfectly and the fabric is divine, I LOVE the little sangria bars! It was definitely worth waiting for the right time to turn your fabric into such a spectacularly sexy number. x
- 24 July 2011 at 20:53
- katherine h said...
Cute dress! Have a Sangria for me.
The pop of colour with the ruffle detail really makes it.
- 24 July 2011 at 20:56
You look *fab*! The ruffle really makes it zing"
- 24 July 2011 at 21:00
- Claire Cooper said...
Its great. I love the fabric and the style.
- 24 July 2011 at 21:42
Eek! It's adorable! Great job!!
- 24 July 2011 at 23:00
- Kirsty said...
WOW !! Love it !!! You look great in it too. Perfect fabric for a perfect dress.
- 24 July 2011 at 23:42
- Sunduri Das said...
Very cute. I love your shoes. They don't make prints like they used to, huh?
- 25 July 2011 at 01:13
- Shelly said...
Amazing dress! It really suits you and clearly this cute fabric was meant for this dress.
- 25 July 2011 at 01:20
- Meg the Grand said...
The fabric is fantastic and the dress shows it off to its full advantage! Love the red ruffle and those amazing shoes - they help make the red in the fabric pop! Well done!
- 25 July 2011 at 04:19
Beautiful dress and so looooovve the shoes!!! I would love a pair if you don't mind sharing where you found them?
Thanks, Jeri
- 25 July 2011 at 04:47
- Brumby said...
Absolutely love the dress, the color is amazing on you and print is so fun! I know what you mean about fabrics, there are a few I cut into as a teenager from Mums stash which adult me regrets, I would love to get my mitts on them now and make something more worthy out of them.
- 25 July 2011 at 06:27
- Maria (viola33) said...
Beautiful dress! I particulary love red lining and I just LOVE the print!
- 25 July 2011 at 07:38
- Debi said...
Wowza! That is one hot dress! I love all the little details on the dress like the print and the neckline! So beautiful and perfect for summer!
- 25 July 2011 at 08:47
- Christina said...
Wow, great dress! The red ruffle just makes it - I'm deeply impressed.
- 25 July 2011 at 09:44
- Alessa said...
It's very awesome, I love the print and the red ruffle! Also, great shoes!
- 25 July 2011 at 10:27
- Unknown said...
Oh, Zo, you look fabulous! Love that dress!!
- 25 July 2011 at 11:03
- Suzanne said...
- 25 July 2011 at 11:39
- charlotte said...
wow wow wow !!!
- 25 July 2011 at 14:28
- Alexandra said...
Such a gorgeous dress..i love it! xx
- 25 July 2011 at 14:33
- liza jane said...
Wow, such a nice dress! The red ruffle detail you added is fantastic. I love the wide straps, too.
- 25 July 2011 at 15:20
- Rehanon Mackenzie said...
Pow, pow!! You and that dress are both shooting from the hip - you gorgeous pair ;-) That fabric is so lovely and made even more fantastic by the fact that vignette is one of my favourite words in the English language. xxx
- 25 July 2011 at 17:11
- Tanit-Isis said...
I love it---red and aqua may be my new favourite colour combination! That little ruffle just at the front is genius, too.
- 25 July 2011 at 17:33
- ellie said...
Very nice work,Zoe! I love the way you put in the ruffle!
- 25 July 2011 at 20:27
- sonia said...
- 26 July 2011 at 20:13
- No Regrets, Inc. said...
Beautiful outfit! And such a nice lining & shoes.
And that fabric. I want to go on vacation right now! I'd bring that dress along.
- 27 July 2011 at 00:09
- Lizzie-s said...
That is stunning, i wish all fabric was that awesome.
I think I just heard you mentioned on 6 music - and now am feeling like a crazy stalker so thought I'd better introduce myself - Hi I'm Lizzie x
- 27 July 2011 at 11:36
- frk.bustad said...
The dress looks great on you! And I love the frills on the bodice. I don't mind photo-heavy posts at all!
- 27 July 2011 at 12:38
- Roobeedoo said...
Whoah! That dress has SO MUCH va va voom and you are totally working it, baby! ;)
The red frill is the spark of genius I think!
- 30 July 2011 at 15:23
- Cross Stitch Queen said...
I love the dress and you look great in it.
Barcelona must have been awesome!! Love the Ramblas, I am sure that you may have gotten awesome sewing mags there. Great place!!
I think that the patterns you have picked up are just lovely. You are obviously talented in the sewing realm.
Nice blog!
- 31 July 2011 at 05:33
- Tilly said...
A bit late to this party but...
Vavavoom! Miss Zo! Ooh la la this is gorgeous! I adore the pleated red bit peeping over the top. What a stunner! x
- 31 July 2011 at 21:19
- Michelle said...
I love this dress so much! The fabric is amazing - what a great find!
- 6 August 2011 at 07:16
You are the party! Looks amazing on you. It's so great to rediscover a fabric, and this baby was worth the wait.
- 10 August 2011 at 15:26
- Cecili said...
Your dress is wonderful and you look amazing in it! Just looking at it made me happy :)
- 16 August 2011 at 09:26
- Unknown said...
Your blogs and accumulation attracts me to arrive rearward again n again. fashionbuzzer
- 27 February 2016 at 09:02


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It's the last day! I don't know if I'm happy or sad. What about you? Did you write for 31 days? Did you read for 31 days?
I'm so happy for all of you (and me!) who dared to try this. And if you wrote 31 posts?! Cruises for everyone, just check under your seat for a key to your cabin……..if only.
Anyway, I was stunned, shocked, flabbergasted and other words that show I had no idea what to expect at the number of participants (1239) in this year's 31 Days. I was sure after people did it last year they'd figure out how much work it was and no one would want to do it this year. But, since you did, Caroline and I are talking about ways to organize the link up. But that means some of the work would be on you to organize yourself and link up under the right category.
Does anyone have any great ideas about how to organize this monster? I'm in over my head and never planned on being an organizer for something this large, if you have any advice let's talk in the comments. I'll be referring back to them all year!
If you loved it, you can thank me, and if you hated it, you can blame Darren from Problogger, because it's his fault we started all this in the first place. I loved writing this year (I love every October and this was my fourth year writing for 31 days) and just want to say thanks to all of you who read, wrote, or otherwise put up with us 31 Dayers.
Also, I'm not counting this as today's post, you can find the last-ish post to Home. On Purpose. here.


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Stockroom Fantasy
We've all had a crush on a fellow co-worker, just hoping to catch him alone at the right time. Jasper Robinson has had his eye on Matthew Keading for a while so while the teen boy is in the back room restocking DVDs Jasper seizes the opportunity to lend a helping hand. Matthew surrenders to Jasper's firm handling and shows how willing he is to please by swallowing Jasper's thick, shaved cock. Leg up and bent over Jasper rams deep into Matthew's hairless hole. Watch the big finish as Jasper is more than happy to clean up Matthew's mess. Starring: Jasper Robinson, Matthew Keading
Click HERE to watch the full length movie!


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OCEAN CITY – The contention surrounding the 88-unit Rivendell project reached a reprieve this week with the City Council voting unanimously to lift the stop work order issued earlier this month for the top floor of the building.
The Buccin-Pollin Group, owner of the Rivendell, came before the Mayor and Council Tuesday afternoon with attorneys Wendy Stabler as well as Calvin Nip Jenkins, to request that the Mayor and Council lift the stop work order placed on the top floor of their building. Removing the stop work order will allow work to continue on the top floor until the Buccini-Pollin Group goes before the Planning and Zoning Commission, where officials will be requesting an amendment to the height outlined in the Planned Overlay District (POD) POD plan.
The Rivendell project, located between 80th and 81st streets bayside, has spurred complaints from neighboring condominiums for months, with criticism running the gamut from noisy construction to improper height of the building. The height issue finally came to a head earlier this month when it became apparent that the building was indeed five-feet taller than the original POD plan called for, which resulted in the stop work order.
At a City Council meeting earlier this month, Rob Buccini, co-founder of the Buccini-Pollin Group, project architect Keith Iott, and attorney Pete Cosby explained they had no idea that the plan had been presented at a height five feet less than the current height. Buccini said the building was constructed based on the permit drawings, not the POD drawings presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The Buccini-Pollin Group implored the Mayor and Council to let crews continue with construction at their own risk until the amendment hearing, but the City Council agreed that it would not lift the stop work order until the on-going issues with the neighbors were solved.
Since that time, negotiations have ensued, with Stabler and Cosby briefing the Mayor and Council on the progress at last week's City Council meeting.
This week, all interested parties came before the Mayor and Council once again, to request a lifting of the stop work order on the ninth floor and to present the Mayor and Council with a summary of the negotiations.
"We have spent a lot of time over the last few weeks attempting to address three series of issues," Stabler explained.
The issues included, ongoing construction activity, damage to properties and proposed operations of the Hobbit Restaurant, which is to be located on the bottom floor of the building.
"We spent a lot of time in good faith negotiations attempting to address all of those issues," Stabler said, explaining that officials had met with representatives of the Triton's Trumpet Condominiums and the Bay Princess Condominiums.
Buccini addressed the Mayor and Council, assuring them that they had been working to correct the mistakes that had been made over the course of construction.
"It was not for a lack of us being here," he said.
Buccini informed the Mayor and Council that negotiations with Shirley Eshleman, president of the Bay Princess Condo Association, had been completed and that Eshleman had been more than "reasonable" during those negotiations.
Although negotiations were completed with Eshleman, three residents from Bay Princess who were not in agreement with the Bay Princess Condo Association approached Buccini, requesting monetary compensation for the bayview they have lost. Buccini explained to the council that those individuals live on the second and third floors, which were certainly not affected by the five-foot discrepancy in the building height. As a result, no monetary compensation will incur.
"I think that we've done everything that you've asked of us earlier this month," Buccini told the Mayor and Council.
Jenkins spoke on the negotiations between the Buccini-Pollin Group, Tommy Heiderman, owner of The Hobbit, and the Bay Princess Condo Association. He explained that 18 concessions had been agreed upon with each the Buccini-Pollin Group and Heiderman maintaining nine concessions, which included items such as no dumping of bottles between 5 p.m. and 10 a.m., no illuminated signage and white lights only on the 81st Street side and no live band or amplified music outside.
"We are in favor of the stop work order being lifted," said Jenkins, adding that the sooner construction is completed the better.
Despite the headway made with the Bay Princess Condo Association, negotiations were yet to be completed with Charles Barrett from the Tritons Trumpet Condo Association maintaining that no negotiations had been met.
"We've only been offered normal, neighborly things." Barrett said of the negotiations. "That should have been happening all along."
Barrett conceded that the majority of their problems lie with the builders, SBI Inc., but that the responsibility still lies with the person paying the bills, the Buccini-Pollin Group.
Buccini addressed claims previously heard from Barrett that work was still occurring on the ninth floor, saying, "we just aren't building there, that would be insane for us to do."
Blaine Smith, Zoning Administrator, agreed that no work had been done to the ninth floor, adding that an inspector had been to the site earlier that day and found the floor to be the same as it was three weeks ago.
"Today is the day to ask for what you want," Councilman Jim Hall said to Barrett, facilitating an impromptu negotiation to occur at the meeting.
As a result, a five-minute recess was called in hopes of reaching an agreement before voting on the stop work order.
Negotiations were reached after the brief recess, with the Buccini-Pollin Group agreeing to re-seal and stripe the northern 50 percent of the Triton's Trumpet parking lot, to power wash and repaint the north side of the building and to work with Tritons Trumpet on the enhancements at the end of 80th Street.
With negotiations finally met, the council voted unanimously to lift the stop work order. City Solicitor Guy Ayres noted for the record that the Buccni-Pollin Group was proceeding at its own risk, and that the council's decision in no way guaranteed the outcome of next month's amendment hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission.


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On Demand
May 21 – August 4, 2013
Maribeth Collins Lobby
The Hallie Ford Museum of Art invited their Facebook friends to curate an experimental exhibition entitled "On Demand." Thirty works from the museum's Northwest Collection were selected by the museum's curators and were displayed on the museum's Facebook page where voting will occured between April 29 and May 5. This exhibition is unique in that the process for choosing art for exhibitions is normally reserved to the museum and exhibition curators.
The exhibition has been organized by museum Collection Curator Jonathan Bucci who says, "The museum is always looking for new ways to engage with our supporters. This exhibition will allow our friends to select artworks that have not been seen in many years, or in some instances, ever seen at the museum."
Artworks on display include; John Rock (American, 1919-1993), First Class Carriage on the Midlands; Margaret Prentice (American, b. 1944), Water Walking; William Morris (American, b. 1957), The Crow Vessel; Miles Cleveland Goodwin (American, b. 1980), Christmas Day; George Johanson (American, b. 1928), Flower Fire; Frank Boyden (American, b. 1942), Dance II; Arthur Runquist (American, 1891-1971), Hollyhocks; and Carl A. Hall (American, 1921-1996), Interlude, Okinawa. "On Demand" opens May 20 and continues through August 4.


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Events archive
Edith Ojo (Brighton based arts freelancer) and Nicola Stylianou (MoDa, Middlesex University)
8 November 2018 - 5:00pm
Fashioning Africa at Brighton Museum
Yusuf Serunkuma Kajura (Makerere Institute of Social Research)
1 November 2018 - 5:00pm
African Studies Seminar Making Somaliland: Popular Culture, Identity and National Consciousness
Florence Bernault (SciencesPo)
25 October 2018 - 5:00pm
Pavilion Room
Transactions: Revisiting How Domination Worked in Colonial Africa
Judith Byfield (Cornell University)
18 October 2018 - 5:00pm
Pavilion Room
Gender, Spectacle and Nation-making in Post-WW II Nigeria African Studies Seminar Judith Byfield (Cornell University) Pavilion Room, St Antony's College
15 October 2018 - 5:00pm
African Studies Centre and Oxford University Africa Society (AfriSoc) invite you to the public lecture by Alhaji (Dr) Muhammadu Indimi OFR: My Life & Personal Experiences in Addressing the... Read more
12 October 2018 - 5:00pm
The African Studies Centre will formally inaugurate its International Advisory Board (IAB) on 12 October, 2018. The Board will be formally inaugurated by the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi... Read more
Oxford Africa Annual Lecture
African Studies Centre Annual Lecture 2018 - 'The African rising narrative - where now?' - CANCELLED due to unforeseen circumstances
Prof. Paul Zeleza (Vice-Chancellor, United States International University-Africa)
8 June 2018 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Investcorp Building, St Antony's College, Oxford
We sincerely regret to inform you that the Annual Lecture has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is Vice Chancellor (President) and Professor of the Humanities and... Read more
South Africa Discussion Group
5 June 2018 - 5:00pm
St Antony's College - Pavilion Room
Rocco Zizzamia (ODID) 'The Welfare Consequences of Labour Market Volatility: The South African Case' (explaining why voluntary decisions to leave jobs are surprisingly frequent amongst those for whom... Read more
2 June 2018 - 2:30pm to 5:30pm
Investcorp Building, St Antony's College, Oxford
Ambassador Abena Busia, Prof. Patricia Daley, Dr. Tunde Oseni, Dr. Simukai Chigudu, Prof. Kole Omotoṣo (keynote speaker)
2 June 2018 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Investcorp Building, St Antony's College, Oxford
The Oxford University Africa Society focuses on African affairs at the University of Oxford. It seeks to set the agenda for the future of the African Continent by providing a platform for students... Read more
Shelter from the storm: Somali migrant networks in Uganda between international business and regional geopolitics
Mohamed Hersi (Independent)
29 May 2018 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm
African Studies Centre Seminar Room
No prior registration is required to attend the seminar, but masters and doctoral students are encouraged to sign up to the online list of graduates working on the Horn of Africa: http://goo.gl/... Read more
South Africa Discussion Group
Crispian Olver (Author of 'How to steal a city')
22 May 2018 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Pavilion Room, St Antony's College
CRISPIAN OLVER'S career as liberation activist, government bureaucrat and academic has been intimately involved in South Africa's transition to democracy and state formation process. While practising... Read more
Hussain Abdullahi Mahmoud (Technical University of Mombasa)
22 May 2018 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm
African Studies Centre Seminar Room
The pastoral livestock trade in the Horn of Africa is highly dynamic. Animals are traded and moved within countries, across national borders and beyond the region for export – principally to the... Read more
African Studies Seminar
Mai Hassan (University of Michigan)
17 May 2018 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Pavilion Room, St Antony's College
The government faces a principal–agent problem with lower-level state officers. Officers are often expected to use the state coercive capacity endowed to them to politically benefit the government.... Read more
Dan Mains (University of Oklahoma)
15 May 2018 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
African Studies Centre Seminar Room


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