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Two groups of researchers searching for extrasolar planets—planets orbiting stars other than our own sun—laid claim today to an astronomy milestone: photographing extrasolar planets directly, rather than inferring their presence through effects on their parent stars.
A team led by astronomer Paul Kalas of the University of California, Berkeley, detected a planetary candidate orbiting Fomalhaut, a star 25 light-years away in the constellation Pisces Australis (the Southern Fish), using visible-light observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. Another group, led by astronomer Christian Marois of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, British Columbia, used infrared to image a family of three planets orbiting HR 8799, a star nearly 130 light-years distant. (Marois was also a member of Kalas's group.) Both teams report their findings online today in the journal Science.
Of the more than 300 other known exoplanets, all have been detected indirectly by their effects on their parent stars—either a wobble in induced by the object's orbit or a decrease in detected light from the star as the planet passes in front of it. Other photographed objects have been too massive to be conclusively labeled planets, falling instead into the brown dwarf category (objects about eight to 80 Jupiters in size that lack sufficient mass to ignite hydrogen fusion in their cores, thereby never becoming true stars); have been found to themselves orbit brown dwarfs rather than stars; or have not been shown to be gravitationally bound to a star.
"Finally, we now have separate images where you can see, actually see, the planet," says astronomer Mark Marley of the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., who did not participate in the research but wrote an article for Science summarizing and analyzing the teams' results. (Marley commented for SciAm.com as a scientist in the field, not as a representative of NASA.) "I've been using the analogy," he says, that "it's like you're in an apartment building and you can hear the people in the next apartment through the walls, so you know they're in there, but now you have opened the door and you can see the people."
Kalas and two of his co-authors, astronomy professor James Graham of U.C. Berkeley and astrophysicist Mark Clampin of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., had ventured in 2005 that Fomalhaut should harbor planet-size objects in its orbit, based on the disk of dust ringing the star. "At that time we hypothesized that there should be a planet shaping the ring," Kalas says. By looking at Hubble images from 2004 and 2006, Kalas and his colleagues were able to track a speck, dubbed Fomalhaut b, inside that ring that seemed to be orbiting the star.
"When you look at Fomalhaut b, its location is consistent with where we expected to find a planet, interior to the dust ring, and it shows orbital motion—and that's also encouraging," he says. "If this speck of dust had moved in a different direction between 2004 and 2006, we wouldn't believe that it was associated with Fomalhaut."
Fomalhaut b is significant for its small size, estimated to be between the mass of Neptune and three times the mass of Jupiter, which would place it squarely in the realm of planets. An object larger than about 13 Jupiter-masses is considered a small brown dwarf rather than a large planet. "The upper bound to Fomalhaut b is unprecedented," Kalas says. "Our upper bound definitively excludes that Fomalhaut b is a brown dwarf or a star." The planet, he says, "can't possibly be more than three Jupiter-masses," because a more massive object would clear its gravitational sphere of debris, meaning that the dust belt would have to be farther away than it is.
Marley notes that Kalas and his colleagues saw the exoplanet at two different wavelengths from Hubble, but attempts to see it from the ground failed. As a result, they lacked data points describing the object and, so, still had to make some inferences about it.
"If you look at the other exoplanet discoveries, or shall I say the other candidate exoplanets found by ground-based observations, the contrast [between them and their stars] is a factor of 10,000 or 100,000," Kalas says. "The contrast between Fomalhaut b and the central star is 100 million. And it's impossible to get this from the ground" in visible wavelengths. "Our selection is fairly rigorous and conservative. There may be specks in there that are also planets, but we've not been able to confirm them as such. Fomalhaut b is the most rigorously tested."
Marois and his team used ground-based infrared detection to seek out exoplanets around nearby, young, massive stars—those whose planets would have wide orbits and emit significant amounts of radiation as they cool from their relatively recent births millions of years ago. After narrowing some 80 candidate stars to 20 "really, really interesting" ones with infrared excess (indicating the presence of orbiting dust), the researchers settled on a particularly appealing star.
"For HR 8799, the infrared excess was consistent with dust orbiting at around 80 astronomical units," or roughly 80 times the distance from the Earth to the sun (7.4 billion miles, or 11.9 billion kilometers), Marois says. "And that's usually a sign of planet formation, the residue of the planet formation. So that's usually a very good sign."
By comparing data captured by various telescopes in 2004, 2007 and this year, Marois's group selected three objects, all estimated to be below the brown dwarf threshold, orbiting HR 8799. "These are the first images of a multiplanet system, but these are as well the first detections of planets at separations that are similar to the outer planets of our own solar system," Marois says. The innermost exoplanet around HR 8799 has an orbit that would place it between Uranus and Neptune in our solar system. (Fomalhaut b, by contrast, orbits at nearly twice the distance of the farthest-flung planet around HR 8799, albeit around a larger star.)
"Kepler himself would recognize these as planets," Marley says, referring to the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who formalized his laws of planetary motion in the 17th century. "You can see the planets in close to circular orbits, you can see them moving, and this system also has a dust disk, as people now believe our own solar system out beyond the orbit of Neptune has."
Marley acknowledges that the exact mass of the objects could be called into question, even pushing two of the masses into the realm of brown dwarfs, but does not view that uncertainty as a deal-breaker given the magnitude of the discovery.
Further characterization of the objects from both groups will enhance astronomers' understanding of star and planet formation. Toward that end, Kalas is awaiting the repair of the Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which failed in 2004, to give a more detailed look at Fomalhaut b. Hubble could also help confirm the exoplanet's status next year by photographing it farther along its predicted orbital path. As for Marois, "there are actually two other objects that we're tracking" around another star, he says. "We're not sure if these are background objects or planets, so we're going to be confirming these next summer."
UPDATE: Click here to listen to a podcast about the exoplanet discoveries.


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Chevron, Plaintiffs Seek Gains as Verdict Nears
By David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
02 March 2010
As a verdict nears in the long-running environmental lawsuit against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador, both sides are ratcheting up the pressure.
This morning, a man who says oil field contamination in Ecuador's rain forest killed two of his children will try to meet with Chevron's new chief executive officer, John Watson. Together with some of his American supporters, Emergildo Criollo will go first to Watson's home in Lafayette, then to the company's headquarters in San Ramon, carrying with him petitions signed by 325,000 people asking Chevron to settle the suit.
"It's been 16 years of legal process," Criollo said Monday, speaking through an interpreter. "People are still dying. They're sick. So we're really hoping this new CEO takes a new position."
There's little sign, however, that Watson will change the strategy set by his predecessor, David O'Reilly, who retired at the end of last year. Under O'Reilly, Chevron fought hard against the lawsuit, which is slowly playing out in the courthouse of the small Ecuadoran town Lago Agrio.
Chevron fired its latest salvo three weeks ago, accusing a key court-appointed expert of hiding a conflict of interest that the company says should disqualify him from participating in the trial.
The expert, Richard Cabrera, estimated in a 2008 report that Chevron should pay $27.3 billion in damages and remediation costs if it loses the suit. According to Chevron, Cabrera did not disclose to the court his ownership of an oil field cleanup company that is registered to work with Petroecuador, the state-run company that still pumps oil in the region.
"We've got Cabrera, who appears to be lining his own pocket through his work," said Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson. "Cabrera's report is a fraud."
Representatives for the plaintiffs replied that Petroecuador isn't a party to the case, eliminating any potential conflict.
Both sides are pursuing much the same strategies that they have for years.
Similar approaches
Chevron has sought to chip away at the credibility of the trial process and the people involved in it, including Cabrera and one of the previous judges. With Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa publicly stating his support for the plaintiffs, the company argues that the entire process has been tainted by politics and corruption.
The plaintiffs, working with American lawyers and activists, have focused on winning over the public. They favor camera-friendly events, such as Criollo's trip to Lafayette and San Ramon, that will rally public support to their cause and put pressure on Chevron to settle. The Rainforest Action Network, one of the groups supporting the plaintiffs in the case, recently placed ads in the New York Times with a picture of Watson, calling on him to change the company's position.
Different incarnations of the lawsuit stretch back to 1993. At first, they didn't involve Chevron.
Texaco pumped oil in Ecuador from 1964 to 1992, working in partnership with Petroecuador. As part of its operations there, Texaco dumped a mix of crude oil and water into open pits near the wells. When Texaco left the country, it agreed to clean up a portion of the area, while Petroecuador continued to operate the wells.
Chevron inherited the lawsuit when it bought Texaco in 2001. The company argues that any further cleanup in the area should be Petroecuador's responsibility.

subset: commoncrawl


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Dhesigen Naidoo
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Society for Ecological Restoration


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ClearPlay In Action!ClearPlay has two major sections of the movie to clean up: the surprisingly explicit (considering the tweenage fan base) honeymoon and a disturbing, bloody birth scene. Besides that, there are some minor language incidents muted as well as some trimmed sexual dialogue. With ClearPlay on full, all is pretty tame. I certainly wouldn't let any Twilight fans in your house watch this film without filters, and the filmmakers should be ashamed of themselves for sexing up this movie.
Should I Break My Neck to Get Breaking Dawn?…Okay, in my wisdom I will split my review into two for the two different audiences of this film.
Review for Twilight FansExcepting the slow pace and any moral outrage you may feel over the eroticized honeymoon, you'll love it!
Review for Non–Twilight FansNeed I even bother? This fourth installment of Twilight is somehow more plodding than the others and felt even more like a soap opera, probably due to the lack of action. This film is tailor made for those who are invested in the joyless love of Edward and Bella. If that isn't you, shave a cat, schedule a two hour appointment, run for President, rent a different movie, whatever — just be elsewhere. It's too late for me. Excuse me while I go carve a tombstone for my soul.
Brian Fuller —ClearPlay Vampire Wedding Planner
Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and some thematic elements; 117 min; Directed by Bill Condon


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Southern Style Chipotle Buff Burgers
Ingredients Chipotle Mayonnaise
1 chipotle pepper in Adobo Sauce
2 tablespoons Adobo Sauce
6 sprigs flat leaf parsley
½ teaspoon kosher salt
The juice of ½ of one lime
1 cup mayonnaise
1 ½ pounds ground chuck
½ pound ground buffalo
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chipotle powder
6 pats salted butter
Vegetable oil, for brushing the grill
6 slices chipotle cheese
12 ½ in thick slices sourdough bread
6 romaine lettuce leaves
6 slices red onion (1/4-in-thick)
6 slices tomato (1/4-in-thick)
Directions: Preheat gas grill to medium-high. To make the mayonnaise, pulse the chipotle pepper and adobo sauce in a blender until smooth. Finely chop the parsley. Add the pepper sauce from the blender, chopped parsley, salt and lime juice to the mayonnaise in a small bowl. Mix well and refrigerate until ready to serve. To make the patties, combine the ground chuck, buffalo, salt, pepper and chipotle powder in a large bowl. Mix loosely to avoid compacting the mixture. Divide the mixture into 6 equal portions. Place a pat of butter in the center of each portion and form the patty around it so that the butter is in the center. Brush the grill rack with oil. Place the patties on the rack, cover and grill until browned on the bottoms, 3-4 minutes. Turn the patties and grill another 3-4 minutes for medium rare burgers. During the last minute of grilling, top each patty with the chipotle cheese. When the burgers are done, remove from the grill and wrap in foil to keep warm. Place the bread slices on the grill and lightly toast each side. To assemble the burgers, spread a generous amount of the chipotle mayonnaise to all 12 slices of bread. On each of six of the slices of bread, stack a lettuce leaf, an onion slice, a patty, and a tomato slice. Top each stack with remaining slices of bread and serve. Makes 6 burgers


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Boy, this would really be a problem if Brazil were going to host any major international sporting events in the next, say, three years.
The problems at the Rio de Janeiro clinic, known as Ladetec and the only one in the country accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency to test athletes' samples, date back a while. In January of 2012, Ladetec falsely accused a Brazilian volleyball player of doping with Androstanediol. A WADA investigation found it had improperly performed a certain testing procedure, and suspended the lab from performing isotope ratio mass spectrometry for nine months.
At the time, Brazils' WADA rep said it was no big deal—Ladetec just wasn't particularly good with certain testing methods.
"It is important to understand that not all labs are proficient in every technique. This is something normal that can happen to laboratories. The problem would have been if (Ladetec's) accreditation had been revoked."
Well, here we are. Earlier this month, after multiple site visits, WADA again suspended Ladetec, and yesterday announced it will revoke the lab's credentials. From WADA's statement:
"The revocation will enter into force September 25, 2013 and means that the laboratory – which is currently suspended – will no longer be authorised to carry out the testing of doping control samples on behalf of Wada or any testing authority.
"In the meantime, the suspension remains applicable and Ladetec is therefore ineligible to perform analysis of doping control samples for any testing authority."
There's no detail given on what exactly the lab did, or failed to do, only that it was in "non-compliance with the International Standard for Laboratories," which are WADA-conceived guidelines. Ladetec can appeal the permanent revocation of its credentials before the international Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the suspension can't be fought.
This is a huge issue for Brazil and WADA. Ladetec was to test the samples from next summer's World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics, and there's not another site in the country that's qualified to take its place. But even more than that, it's another useful reminder that PED testing is only as good as the people carrying it out.


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One of the activities my two boys (ages 5 and 7) and their 2 year old cousin all love to do together is play with the play kitchen at my parents' house. There's just something about pretending to cook that appeals to kids. For a long time, before we had our own play kitchen set up in our home, it was one of the things my kids were most drawn to at children's museums and friends' houses. Come to think of it, my sister and I are four years apart and rarely played together growing up but my sister's Little Tikes kitchen was one thing that we both enjoyed.
|Me and my sister, circa 1986.
Carolyn Parkhurst's Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly (illustrated by Dan Yaccarino) perfectly captures young childrens' fascination with cooking and creating. We are introduced to siblings Henry and Elliebelly via their cooking "show". Henry, the older sibling, has his own vision of how their show should proceed. As Henry tries to instruct his "viewers" in the finer points of making raspberry-peanut butter-marshmallow waffles, the toddler Elliebelly wreaks havoc and frustrates Henry with her very toddlerlike demands. First she insists she be allowed to help. Then she orders Henry to wear a pirate hat. Frustrated but undeterred, Henry gamely works around his dervish of a sister until their play is interrupted by their (offstage) mother's offer of real waffles.
One of the things I love most about this book is that the author clearly gets how kids play, and how easily older siblings become frustrated with their younger siblings. Reading the interactions between Henry and Elliebelly is a lot like listening in on my own kids as they play in one room while I'm in another. It was a nice touch to have their mother's offstage responses to their bickering presented in quote bubbles. Henry and his little sister are a bit younger than my own kids but their personalities are remarkably similar. It's not a stretch to accept that Elliebelly insists Henry wear a pirate hat while they do their "show" because I have a son who likes to wear a Batman cape while doing just about anything.
We decided to make Henry's raspberry-peanut butter-marshmallow waffles, with one caveat: we didn't follow Henry's recipe. His recipe calls for "Seventeen cups of imported flour from Kansas," and duck eggs. And that is before Elliebelly decides to add pizza and "Baby Anne" to the mix. Yeah. I think we'll stick with a more traditional approach. If you can even call raspberry-peanut butter-marshmallow waffles traditional. We whipped these up for an after school snack.
Raspberry-peanut butter-marshmallow waffles
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter (more if you desire a more peanut buttery taste)
- mini marshmallows
- raspberry fruit spread
Additional equipment: waffle iron.
1. Prepare base waffle batter. Mix together eggs, Pamela's mix, water and oil. Stir until combined.
2. Stir 2 tablespoons peanut butter into batter.
3. Fold in 1 or 2 handfuls of marshmallows.
4. Pour batter into heated waffle iron. This was exactly enough for 4 waffles.
|Avoid this.
These were easy to throw together and made for a sweet snack. They had a light peanut buttery taste and the raspberry spread was a nice complement. Watch, my kids will probably ask me to make these all the time now.
* As an Amazon affiliate I receive a small commission when items are purchased via links on this blog. Thank you for supporting Eat Their Words!


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This is the story of my attempts to speak publicly about my friendship with Todd Ashker, a reputed "leader" of the hunger strike in California's prisons. Since the latest hunger strike began on July 8, the California authorities have targeted Ashker for special attention, placing articles, editorials and op-eds in the California Press that paint him as some kind of neo-Nazi devil. The evidence they give for this portrayal is entirely from 1991 and before.
I know the Todd Ashker of 2013. For some years, I have corresponded with him and I have visited him in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of Pelican Bay prison, near the Oregon Border.
People change. Todd Ashker is not the man that the California authorities and the popular press make him out to be. Yet the press has consistently refused to print the alternative story of Todd Ashker today. California's top newspapers refused to print op-eds that I submitted to tell this story, instead printing ones that rehash the stereotyped view of him from 1991. They have no obligation to print my views. Yes, I am an expert of hunger strikes and isolated imprisonment around the world, having done research in Britain/Ireland, Turkey, and the US. These are the countries that have used this form of imprisonment most widely and I may be the only scholar who has done intensive work in all of these countries. I also published the definitive biography of Bobby Sands, a book that had a big influence on the men who are now on hunger strike. And I am among a handful of people outside of prison who actually know Todd Ashker.
Yet I am not concerned that California's newspapers refuse to publish my views. What concerns me is that they have refused to publish anything that paints a more accurate picture of the men in Pelican Bay who have taken this most selfless and courageous act of hunger strike.
On July 8 of this year, thousands of prisoners in California went on hunger strike. Their cause was simple, and just. They wanted to end one of the most horrific human rights abuses in recent US history: the confinement of thousands of poor men in conditions that would cause tremendous outcry if committed against an animal, such as a dog. A law suit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights claims that long-term isolation in California's Security Housing Units (SHUs) is a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which bars cruel and unusual punishment.
Some 80,000 men are today held in isolated confinement in US prisons, many of them in cells no bigger than a parking space, often without windows, and with just an hour of exercise alone in a "yard" that may be hardly bigger than their cell and is likely covered with plexiglass or expanded metal grating. Some men go for decades without human contact…even plant contact. No contact with any living thing except for the occasional guard on the other end of a chain.
A PBS reporter asked one California prisoner, when was the last time he saw the moon? Puzzled, he thought for a while and then answered, "The moon? Oh, I don't even know. It would have to have been back in '98."
I once asked my friend Bomani Shakur, in isolation in Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) since it opened in 1998, when was the last time he touched a tree? At first, he was also puzzled at the question. Then he said he thought it was in 1993. He told me that a leaf once worked its
way through the metal grating that covers their "outside" exercise yard. He took it back into his cell to have some slight contact with nature until a guard confiscated it sometime later.
In January 2011, three of four men who are held in such conditions in OSP went on hunger strike. The authorities told the men that they would never give in to such pressure. But after thirteen days they relented and they granted the prisoners their demands: to be able to touch their family on visits, to have recreation together, to have access to computers so that they could research their cases. Basically, these death-sentenced men were asking the authorities to grant them the same rights given to anyone else on dea
th row.
The Short Corridor Collective
The example spread to other prisons. Most significantly, it spread to Pelican Bay State prison in California, where a mixed-race group of eight men were held in solitary confinement on a single wing of the Security Housing Unit (SHU) nicknamed the "short corridor" since 2003 (they had all been in isolation much longer but in 2003 they were moved into a single pod and then kept together). They were in windowless cells and they were not allowed to have any direct contact. They were accused of being gang leaders because of things that had transpired in California prisons some decades before.
When they built the SHU in 1989, the California authorities instituted a program that they called "debriefing." It was a nice term for snitching. In order to get out of solitary and in some cases even to get proper medical care, prisoners would have to snitch against other prisoners. Amazingly, most men have refused this act. An oft-cited reason is that they would face imminent danger from other prisoners if they did so. But the main reason for many, including Todd Ashker, is that snitching would break an ethical code: one should not put others in danger just to save your own skin.
Placed in conditions of long-term confinement without hope of release, the prisoners in the "short corridor" did what other isolated prisoners have done since time immemorial: they began to create a community based on oral communication, or, shouting out the door. They found ways to pass notes. In spite of the authorities' efforts to separate them from each other, they built community. And the community transcended race. If these were men who had been isolated because of their leadership of racially-distinct gangs, no longer were they Latinos, Afro-Americans or whites; Black Guerrilla Family, Nuestra Familia, or Aryan Brothers. As prisoners in Lucasville, Ohio, had insisted twenty years before, during their 1993 prison uprising, the only race in the short corridor was the "convict race."
The "Short Corridor Collective" debated politics and discussed their situation. They read classics by Tom Paine and Howard Zinn. They discussed Mayan cosmology. Then, in 2009, two of their members – men who were accused of being Aryan brothers and one of whom would later be named in the mainstream press as a neo-Nazi – took part in a course I taught at Binghamton University-SUNY. Along with the students in the course, they and eight other prisoners from supermax prisons across the United St
ates, read classics in the sociology of prisons by authors such as Erving Goffman and Michel Foucault. They also read about experiences of other prisoners around the world, particularly political prisoners like Nelson Mandela and Bobby Sands. The point of the course was two-fold: to restore voice to those from whom it had been taken, and to recognize and learn from the expertise of those who actually lived a prison experience.
As in Ohio, the history of Bobby Sands and the Irish hunger strikers of 1980-81 held particular resonance for men in the SHU. For five years beginning in 1976, the "blanketmen" of the H-Blocks of Long Kesh prison outside of Belfast had endured conditions of isolation not unlike those faced by the men on the short corridor. And in response to those conditions, instead of turning inward they built a vibrant community based on solidarity. They sang songs and learned the Irish language together. They told stories to each other every night. They built a strong political consciousness. And they took great risks for each other, smuggling contraband like pen refills, cigarette papers, and tobacco into the wings and devising ingenious ways to share their booty. If caught, the Northern Irish prison authorities meted out punishments to them including a diet of bread and water and horrific beatings.
The men on Pelican Bay's short corridor learned a lot from Bobby Sands and his comrades. One of them, Todd Ashker, was imprisoned at the age of nineteen for burglary. In prison, he got caught up in the activities of the Aryan Brothers and he became heavily tattooed with symbols of white supremacy including swastikas. He was involved in violent incidents and a charge of a prison murder in 1987 finally landed him in isolation, first in the "bedrock" section of New Folsom Prison and then in the newly built Security Housing Unit (SHU) of Pelican Bay. In a horrific incident, in which Ashker insists he was set up by the authorities, a guard shot him at close range through a mattress, shattering one arm. He was left for days without medical care and in great pain.
In Pelican Bay's SHU, Todd told our class, he went through a transformation. He met another prisoner who introduced him to Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States, which had a great effect on him. Soon, instead of identifying with Nazis, Todd came to revile the kind of state oppression that they had imposed on populations. He began to think of many of the state's authorities, including the worst of the prison guards, as being akin to Nazis. The very word "Nazi" became a term of derision for him, and one that he has used in many letters to me over the years since 2009.
Most importantly, Todd learned to practice solidarity with all of his fellow prisoners (of all races and backgrounds). He gained a paralegal degree and he began to help others prepare cases against abusive practices by the authorities. He won six cases against the state of California for the lack of adequate healthcare he received after he was shot. The state of California just completed an 800 million dollar healthcare complex for prisoners. The state was dragged kicking and screaming into this program and they still have a long way to go, just as authorities including Governor Jerry Brown have inexplicably resisted US Supreme Court instructions to reduce their prison population from 174,000 to 119,000. How much of this would have happened without the pressure applied from Todd Ashker and other like-minded fighters for prison rights, many of them prisoners who gained expertise despite the state's intentions to just warehouse them?
By the way, one thing that we learned in our class was that many men in solitary confinement in the United States are not there for violent behavior, and hardly any of them are there because of their original conviction. Even if they were put into a SHU because of a violent act, many men spend years in isolation because they practice solidarity by helping other prisoners, most often as jailhouse lawyers. The authorities call this kind of thing "disruptive behavior." In California it can get a man "validated" as a member of a gang.
Now, I won't pretend that Todd Ashker was a stranger to violence. Even he admits that he committed crimes and he deserved to be imprisoned. But I know about the debates and discussions in the Short Corridor Collective since 2009. I visited Todd in late 2012, his first personal visit since 2007, and we discussed the debates of the Short Corridor Collective at length. Todd is a militant, but he is also committed to nonviolent resistance. He was already beginning to think that way before 2009 but then he was deeply influenced when he read about the example of Bobby Sands and his Irish comrades. The lesson Todd Ashker and his friends on the Short Corridor learned was that peaceful protest is the most effective way to speak truth to power. He consistently held to that position and it is the position that the
Collective has consistently put forward.
The California prisoners went through two hunger strikes in the summer and fall of 2011. They say that their studies of Mayan cosmology helped them to recognize the importance of timing. And their study of the Irish "blanketmen" taught them that they were not powerless. Like Bobby Sands and his comrades, they used the only weapons they had left: their own bodies and the knowledge that they were right. Indeed, the torture of isolation was so bad that they felt, as they still feel now on their third hunger strike, that it is better to die with dignity than to live in the conditions of hopelessness that the California authorities have imposed on them. While a core of prisoners led the strike and remained on it, they were supported at some points by thousands of prisoners.
After the 2011 hunger strikes, the men on the short corridor thought that they had reached an agreement with the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (CDRC) that would stop the horrendous practice of long-term isolation, and which would give prisoners ways to show good faith and to get out of solitary by good behavior rather than by "debriefing."
According to the prisoners, the CDRC officials went back on their word. They stalled and never put the agreement into effect.
A year ago, Todd Ashker wrote passionately to me about the prisoners' disappointment at the authorities' proposals and he laid out his vision of the future, a future that is unfolding as I write.
"We're quietly working to make the next action bigger than last year's – involving a lot more general population prisoners – hopefully a combination hunger strike/work stoppage [all peaceful actions!]; & it will not be for 2-3 weeks this time!!"
He added, "I personally don't expect to survive – but, it's all good, for the good of the cause…and I believe that while my body will die my conscious/spirit/life force/soul??? is eternal! So, I'm prepared for this – without fear!!"
The Current Hunger Strike and the Press Offensive
And that brings us to the current hunger strike. Early on, officials high up in the CDCR recognized that the only way to fight this powerful protest was to win the war of the media. Clearly, they cannot win a propaganda war that is based on prison conditions – the conditions and effects of long-term isolation are simply indefensible, as many experts pointed out in a joint Congressional hearing last year that was chaired by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. And the state is reeling from court decisions at all levels against their prison policies.
Since they could not win on the facts, the authorities set out to blacken the hunger strikers, particularly the four men from the short corridor who they identified as their leaders. How did they do this? They placed articles in the media that spread two ideas. First, they claimed that most of the hunger strikers are not fasting voluntarily but are doing so because they are afraid of being punished by the "godfathers" who lead California's prison gangs if they do not participate. Second, they spread the word that the "godfathers" themselves were not at all concerned about the torturous conditions they face in the SHU but, rather, they were just trying to get out so that they could regain their positions of gang leadership within the general prison population.
The latter claim I find particularly galling because it is a form of blaming the victim. No-one should be tortured by months, much less decades, of the kind of imprisonment that men face in the SHU. As Todd Ashker recently told The Guardian newspaper (9 August 2013), "each minute has been torturous to my mind and body." The men in the SHU don't need an excuse for protesting. The conditions they have faced for twenty to thirty years are reason enough.
The most scurrilous claims, first presented in a story written by Paige St. John of the Los Angeles Times (July 19), appeared under the headline "Gang members say hunger strike aim is to 'sell drugs, make money'." The article quoted two prisoners who got out of the SHU by "debriefing" and, reportedly, by quitting their gang affiliations with the Latino gang Nuestra Familia and the Aryan Brotherhood. One was quoted that, "The goal of the 2011 hunger strikes, from the perspective of the Aryan Brotherhood, was to get out of the [Security Housing Unit] because we knew it would kill the organization…We believed that if we were in the general population, we could sell drugs, make money and develop an influence on the streets." Now, anyone who knows anything about gang politics knows that this is a patently ridiculous statement, as the Aryan Brothers hardly depend on a few guys in the SHU to stay alive, especially "on the streets." But it is an effective piece of propaganda for the CDCR because they know that there is a large part of the population that is ready to believe anything about prisoners.
As a follow-up to this story, St. John contacted me, saying that Todd Ashker had told her about the influence my work on Bobby Sands had had in Pelican Bay and asking if I would talk to her about our relationship and about Ashker's character. I agreed. But then I decided that I must do more. I decided that I must tell what I know about Todd Ashker because I am one of the few people who had deep political and personal discussions with him over the past years.
I decided to write an op-ed for the LA Times, to refute the black propaganda that CDRC head Jeffrey Beard and the two prison snitches had been putting into the media.
On July 25, I submitted my article entitled "My Friend Todd Ashker" to the LA Times Op-ed team. They notified me the next day that they would not use the article.
On August 6, the LA Times instead ran an op-ed by Jeffrey Beard, in which he repeated the claim that the "Hunger strike in California prisons is a gang power play." Basically, Beard repeated the claims made in the first St. John story, about the purpose of the hunger strike and the character of the men from the Short Corridor Collective (a term, of course, that he did not use). But what set this new story in the op-ed apart from the earlier one was Beard's fantastic claim that the SHU "is not 'solitary confinement,' in that prisoners can have visitors and, in many cases, interaction with other inmates."
I have been there and I have seen the SHU. Visits are restricted to a couple of hours on Saturday and Sunday, and one can only speak to loved ones on a visit through a phone and through security glass. When I was on my last visit with Todd Ashker, I met a sister-in-law of Arturo Castellanos, one of the "leaders" from the Short Corridor.
"I come here every weekend to visit my husband," she told me, "but I have not touched him in twenty-three years."
As for "interaction with other inmates," this is done by shouting out the door. The fronts of the cells are covered with a porous metal sheet that you can barely see through. And, in Todd Ashker's case, since 2011 he has been in a cell that has a sheet of plexiglass over the metal front. It is like living in a bubble.
Not solitary confinement?! Please…
On the day that the LA Times told me they would not print my article, I decided to send it on to the Sacramento Bee, on the assumption that the newspaper in the state capital would be another good place to try and get out what I knew to be the real story of the Todd Ashker of today, and not the Todd Ashker of twenty years ago. I never heard back from the Bee.
But, like the LA Times, the Bee responded soon after by publishing the most insidious couple of articles in this whole episode. An article by reporter Dan Morain, "the Real Story behind Hunger Strike" (August 11, 2013) repeated a set of accusations that had already come out in previous articles that were leaked to the mainstream press by California's prison authorities. In it, a state-appointed attorney named Philip Cozens who represented Todd Ashker back in 1991, more than twenty years ago, claimed that he "never ran across anyone more dangerous than Todd Ashker." Calling him a "sociopath", Cozens told a story about how he was stabbed 23 years ago by an Aryan Brother named "Cornfed" Schneider. Without citing any evidence, Cozens simply asserts his belief that Ashker organized the stabbing.
One of the worst parts of the article is that it repeats the assertion that "[Ashker] and other gang leaders [sic] fomenting the hunger strike want out of security housing because their isolation limits their ability to conduct gang business, prison officials say."
The only evidence these unnamed prison officials have for this is a statement by two men who snitched after the 2011 hunger strikes in order to get out of the SHU, the same two snitches on whose testimony CDRC head Beard relied for his assertions about the hunger strikers' intentions in his LA Times op-ed. Like snitch evidence in general, this is most unreliable because these men would say anything to get out of the torturous conditions they faced. And now, as they are held in protective custody in "Sensitive Needs Yards" with the constant fear that the administration could turn them back to the general population, they will obviously say anything to protect themselves.
The article concludes that, "People who know Ashker say he is exactly where he belongs…there are people who walk this earth who are cunning and manipulative in ways the rest of us cannot imagine, least of all the pampered elite of Hollywood."
Well, perhaps the pampered elite do not know Todd Ashker, but I do. I have a different story to tell about him but it is one that the California authorities and the popular media do not want to hear.
Not satisfied with their reporter's claims, the Bee's editorial board lambasted celebrities who support the hunger strikers, under the headline, "Why are celebrities doing bidding of prison gang leaders?" In their editorial, they stated that "civil libertarians and Hollywood celebrities" like Jay Leno and Susan Sarandon "ought to save their outrage". Why? Because CDRC Secretary Jeffrey Beard told them that "the hunger strike has nothing to do with conditions and everything to do with gang leaders wanting to get into the general population so they can more readily conduct their gang business. We see no reason to
gainsay his statement."
In one of the most muddled statements of the new millennium, Beard "made clear" [sic] to the Bee's editors that "he is trying to move away from long-term segregation, while reserving long-term housing in the units for truly hard cases." Beard repeated his claim that solitary is not really solitary because inmates "can talk through the locked doors to their neighbors." And, after all, if they get too bored they can watch one of 23 channels on TV, "including the four broadcast networks, PBS, BET and ESPN, plus educational and self-help channels and Bible channels in English and Spanish." In a reckless endorsement of cruel and inhumane punishment, the Bee claimed that some prisoners "should remain" in the SHU and that "celebrities such as Peter Coyote, Jay Leno and Susan Sarandon and civil libertarians diminish their credibility by embracing the cause of gang leaders who masquerade as human rights advocates."
The strategy of the California authorities, in the face of indefensible human rights violations in their SHUs, has been to blacken the names of the leaders of the current hunger strike, which is about nothing more than ending those intolerable conditions.
Justice: The Real Reason to Hunger
Hunger strike leader Arturo Castellanos has stated publicly that he does not expect to ever be released from the SHU. He is doing this for others. And Todd Ashker has told me and others of a small group of friends that he expects to die before the California authorities make substantial reforms to their policies of long-term isolation.
His words bring to mind a story that an Irish priest told about his efforts to persuade Bobby Sands to end his hunger strike in 1981. He argued and argued, but eventually Sands quoted John 15:13 to him,
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
The priest knew that he was beaten.
Negotiations are in train that will hopefully bring an end to the worst agonies of the majority of prisoners in California's SHU. Yet CDRC head Jeffrey Beard has repeatedly stated that he intends to keep certain prisoners in indefinite SHU confinement.
But why? What have they done to deserve this treatment? Let us look at the record.
In their discussions, the men from the Short Corridor agreed that peaceful protest is the only way forward. They renounced the use of any form of violence. Todd Ashker was a major mover in this collective discussion.
As a result, they drafted a communique in August 2012 that called on California's prisoners to "collectively seize this moment in time and put an end to more than 20-30 years of hostilities between our racial groups." They continued, "beginning on Oct. 10, 2012, all hostilities between our racial groups in SHU, ad-seg, general population and county jails will officially cease. This means that from this date on, all racial group hostilities need to be at an end. And if personal issues arise between individuals, people need to do all they can to exhaust all diplomatic means to settle such disputes; do not allow personal, individual issues to escalate into racial group issues!"
The first signature on the document was Todd Ashker.
The communique had more than its intended effect when a coalition of youth gang leaders called the Youth Justice Coalition issued their own statement. Saying that, "the men in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican bay are again leading all of us," the gang leaders called on
"all youth in the streets, schools and lock-ups throughout California" to "end all the killing and drama between hoods, crews, and races" and to "work toward lasting truces." The statement called on young people to "take the same mentality and skills we have used to hustle drugs, bang our hoods and promote our crews to unite in a powerful movement to demand dignity, respect and equality for all our people."
Todd Ashker is a major mover in the movement for peaceful change in California's prisons and on its streets. I think one could say the same of the other three men who develop and sign statements from the Short Corridor Collective, as well as many others who support them. There are similar people who are locked up in solitary confinement all across the United States. It is not just a violation of the Eighth Amendment to keep them there. It is a waste that we do not find a way to utilize and encourage the talents and energies of men like Todd Ashker. We as a people are poorer for it.
Denis O'Hearn is author of Nothing But an Unfinished Song: Bobby Sands, the Irish Hunger Striker Who Ignited a Generation (Nation Books, 2006). He is Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University – SUNY, Visiting Professor at Boğaziçi University Istanbul, and has been Keough Visiting Professor, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, Notre Dame University.


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Friday, June 11
Friday Dose of Cute: Just Hatchin' Out
11 comments:
Darling. Thank you SO much for these first photos of the newcomers to our world.ReplyDelete
Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island
Looking good!. Are these mixed breed or a specific breed hatching out?ReplyDelete
- Anonymous6/12/2010 10:05 AM
Hi. I just stumbled across your blog. I'm just wondering, where in Missouri are you? I live in Jonesburg, Missouri which is halfway between Columbia and Saint Louis.ReplyDelete
I understand if you are keeping your location confidential. Thanks!
I have enjoyed reading your blog, including lots of the older posts. Love the pictures of the animals! I look forward to visiting again.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous6/12/2010 9:05 PM
I just found your blog and am really enjoying it! I have Aracunas too, but no new babies since April. It was great to see some!ReplyDelete
beyond awesome! wow they are SO MUCH LARGER than the eggs! it's a wonder the egg just doesn't explode under pressure.ReplyDelete
Haha! So cute :) I can't believe that something that big can fold up small enough to fit inside one of those eggs. Amazing!ReplyDelete
Hi Everybody,ReplyDelete
Thank you all for taking the time to write - and welcome new visitors! :)
Hey Nathan,
These chicks are official Missouri Mixed Breeds. No clue exactly what they are, but I do know that all of our chickens and chicks come from this mixed batch of eggs that Whitey was given by a friend of mine in June 2007 - and that hatched into these seven chicks. Little Whitey - who is 10 years old! - is the only pre 2007 chicken left.
Hi Jen,
It's always nice to hear from somebody else in Missouri! We do keep our specific location private, but we're in the southern half of the state.
C(h)ristine and Eleanor,
I know - the whole chick/egg thing really is amazing. If I hadn't seen for myself how the chicks are perfectly packed inside the eggs, I wouldn't believe it. At the end it's a tight fit. I think they must be very glad to get out! :)
So sweet!ReplyDelete
How exciting! We are novice chicken keepers, but have yet to hatch our own eggs. I love reading both of your blogs-I gave you a "Happy 101" award over on my little blog this week because your posts inspire me!ReplyDelete
December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.
Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.
Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!
Please note that I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be a while before yours appears.
I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.
I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your e-visits to our farm!


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Kraus "Supreme Commander" LP from Kraus on Vimeo.
Opaque grey wax Release date: 10/31/12 Class is in session: if your world is one where Supreme Commander is a shoot-em-up video game, 'electronic music' is something perpetrated by sleazy guys in tracksuits and bling, and the only noteworthy sound ever to have emerged from New Zealand is the neutered yuppie-pop of Crowded House, Auckland's wildly inventive Kraus is sitting you down for some hardcore re-education. The latest and strangest import from Oceania's exploding scene, Supreme Commander is a mind-fucking 36-minute filmstrip of Kraus' animatronic alternate-reality, where the deep-fuzzed guitars and modular electronics have minds and souls and personalities of their own, gurgling and stuttering, screaming and warbling and melting and hissing with total unpredictability. Like the underwater exotica of Raymond Scott, or the squishy 'visual sounds' of electronic—music pioneer Norman Mclaren, Kraus' singular vision refuses to moor to any particular time or place, dripping scuzz as it lurches lysergically from alien cockpit to opium den. Some seriously skewed and utterly unclassifiable shit from the onetime drummer of N.Z. space-punks the Futurians, this is the surprise jam of late 2012.


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10/100/1000 Copper Ethernet Tap
With 1 network Connection and 1 Monitor Connection
Overview & Features Specifications Data Sheet Support
24x7 Real-time Secure Access and Monitoring
The USRobotics 10/100/1000 Copper Tap provides easy 24 x 7 access to your Gigabit Ethernet segments. Ideal for security applications or anywhere you need non-intrusive dedicated access to your network links for real-time observation or monitoring on a dedicated port mirror. A convenient DIP switch on the back of the tap can be used to select auto-negotiation at 10/100 or fixed speed and duplexing settings at 1000Mbps. The 10/100/1000 Copper Tap's fault tolerant design will help ensure that network performance and integrity will not be affected by power loss.
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* To eliminate power as a single point of failure both power supplies must be used. The second power supply must be connected to a different external power source circuit than the first power supply.
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Contact Us


text:
What a difference a year makes. Roughly 15 months ago, I put together a guide to the top 10 Linux distributions at the time, and Ubuntu was far and away the most popular choice.
Today, Ubuntu has fallen to No. 2, and Linux Mint is the clear winner, at least according to DistroWatch's popularity rankings.
It's a different landscape now in the world of desktop Linux, so as 2011 draws to a close and 2012 dawns, I'd like to take a look at where things stand when it comes to the many choices available in this free and open source operating system.
Anything could change in the coming months, of course, but here are the top 10 desktop Linux distributions as of late December 2011.
1. Linux Mint
Back in 2010 Linux Mint was only third in popularity; today, it reigns supreme among Linux distributions, according to DistroWatch.
Why the jump? Well, the biggest factor is that it really is a great distribution, designed to be easy to use and welcoming for newcomers. Mint is actually based on Ubuntu, but it adds a custom desktop and menus, unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface.
As part of its goal to provide "a more complete out-of-the-box experience," Mint also includes browser plug-ins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java, and other components. It's also compatible with Ubuntu software repositories.
Probably the biggest difference today between Mint and Ubuntu–and widely considered one of the main reasons for Mint's recent popularity–is that it's taken a flexible approach to desktop environments. Rather than forcing users to jump into Ubuntu's controversial Unity or the equally controversial GNOME 3, Linux Mint 12 gives users numerous options for making such transitions gradually.
2. Ubuntu
Then, of course, there's Ubuntu, which was long the clear favorite and certainly the distribution that first brought desktop Linux to mainstream attention.
There's no denying that it's still a very good distro; the main reason some grumble about it is the mobile-style Unity interface it's chosen to use as its default.
That's not to say that there aren't choices, however, and Debian-based Ubuntu has numerous other advantages going for it as well, including ease of use, Long-Term Support (LTS) versions suitable for businesses, and numerous variants tailored to specific industries and niches. Ubuntu also plans to enter the mobile arena, potentially offering a seamless experience across devices down the road.
3. Fedora
Though last year it occupied the No. 2 spot on the DistroWatch list, Fedora now comes in third on that list, presumably as a result of the shifting around of Ubuntu and Mint.
This distro is the free version of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), so it's not entirely surprising that it tends to be strong on enterprise-focused features. With excellent security and a choice of desktops, Fedora has become increasingly user-friendly with each passing year, so it's now just as suitable for newer users.
4. openSUSE
It's interesting to note that openSUSE was No. 4 on DistroWatch last year with some 1200 hits per day where this year it's in the same spot with more than 1450.
Sponsored by Novell, the openSUSE project has three main goals: "make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors," in the project's own words.
Included in openSUSE is the widely acclaimed YaST installation and configuration tool as well as a choice of desktops and a stability and flexibility that have won many users' hearts.
5. Debian
Considered by many to be the "granddaddy" of Linux distributions, Debian has risen from No. 6 last year to No. 5 today. With a history that dates back to 1993, Debian is one of the most well-tested and bug-free distros available. It's not necessarily as easy to use as Mint and Ubuntu are, but it's a popular choice among longtime Linux fans.
6. Arch
Another interesting change is that Arch has leaped from No. 9 last year all the way up to No. 6 today, and I have a theory as to why that is. Specifically, as more widely popular distros like Ubuntu and Mint begin turning to the new generation of mobile-style, touch-enabled interfaces, I think more experienced power users are increasingly turning to less "shiny" operating systems like Arch and Debian, where there aren't the same slick, highly graphical interfaces to get in their way.
In any case, Arch is not a distribution that targets beginners, but it's a powerful one for those with the necessary know-how.
7. PCLinuxOS
Though it occupied the No. 5 spot last year, PCLinuxOS has fallen to this year's No. 7 spot in popularity. It is a nice, user-friendly Linux distribution, though, and it offers out-of-the-box support for many popular graphics and sound cards and peripheral devices. A bootable live CD provides an easy-to-use graphical installer, and the default desktop is the lovely KDE.
8. CentOS
Here's another big difference between the top 10 popularity lists for this year and last: CentOS didn't even appear on it last year. This year, however, it's at No. 8, while Sabayon–last year's holder of that spot–is no longer within the top 10. In any case, CentOS is a fully compatible rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that targets enterprise users who don't need full, paid certification and support. It is now one of the most popular Linux distributions for web servers.
9. Puppy
Moving up from last year's No. 10 spot, Puppy Linux is now ninth in popularity on DistroWatch, presumably on the strength of its compact stature and ability to run beautifully even on older or slow hardware. Not only is Puppy "extraordinarily small," as its makers note, but it also loads into RAM, making it extraordinarily fast. On most systems, in fact, boot time is just 30 to 40 seconds.
10. Mandriva
Last but not least we have Mandriva in this year's tenth spot, down from No. 7 last year. Though it offers some very nice features, Mandriva has suffered from leadership problems, as I noted last year. Still, it rolled out an attractive new release in August, complete with the KDE desktop and a raft of new features for flexibility and ease of use.


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Trayvon Martin's parents: Juror B29's revelations 'devastating'
theGRIO REPORT - The parents of Trayvon Martin reacted Thursday to an interview a juror in the George Zimmerman trial gave to ABC News, in which she admitted that she ultimately, she didn't hold out for a conviction...
The mother of Trayvon Martin reacted Thursday to an interview a juror in the George Zimmerman trial gave to ABC News, in which she admitted that she ultimately, she didn't hold out for a conviction.
The Juror, known only as B29, or "Maddy," since she revealed herself — including showing her face — to ABC's Robin Roberts, said Zimmerman "got away with murder" in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, but that Florida law, as understood by the jury, made it impossible to convict.
"I was the juror that was going to give them the hung jury. I fought to the end," she said during the interview, for which ABC News aired clips on Thursday. "That's where I felt confused, where if a person kills someone, then you get charged for it. But as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can't say he's guilty."
Zimmerman was acquitted on second degree murder and manslaughter charges July 14th.
Maddy, a nurse's aide and the lone non-white juror on the panel, said she is having trouble sleeping after the verdict.
"It's hard for me to sleep," she told ABC. "It's hard for me to eat because I feel I was forcefully included in Trayvon Martin's death. And as I carry him on my back, I'm hurting as much Trayvon's Martin's mother because there's no way that any mother should feel that pain," she said.
Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton issued the following statement Thursday night on behalf of herself and Tracy Martin:
It is devastating for my family to hear the comments from juror B29, comments which we already knew in our hearts to be true. That George Zimmerman literally got away with murder.
This new information challenges our nation once again to do everything we can to make sure that this never happens to another child. That's why Tracy and I have launched The Trayvon Martin Foundation to try and take something very painful and negative and turn it into something positive as a legacy to our son.
The full interview with Juror B29 airs Friday morning.
Follow theGrio at @theGrio.


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Message Board
Denny DeMartino Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that DeMartino has written!
Author DeMartino's Book Reviews
Heart of Stone - Astrologer 1
Ace, Feb 2001, 6.50, 299 pp. ISBN: 0441008076 By 2130, earthquakes and gigantic flooding caused by tidal waves dramatically have changed the face of the planet leading to chaos. During the abyss, a power hungry individual grabbed control and declared himself Emperor. A few generations later, his descendants still rule. With the discovery of zero-point gravity, the after life is no longer a mystery and astrology is one of the most influential o...
Wayward Moon - Astrologer 2
Ace, Jul 2001, 6.50, 304 pp. ISBN: 0441008305 In the future with the discovery of zero pint gravity, death no longer remains a mystery, as it is only a portal from one life into another. Astrology regained credibility as a science with people like Philipa Cyrion assisting the police in solving crimes through horoscopes, reading palms and cards. Disgusted with earthly politics and its ruler Emperor Theo, Philipa joins Hadrien as independ...


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Rechercher une page de manuel
Langue: en
Version: 2005-05-20 (openSuse - 09/10/07)
Section: 2 (Appels système)
NAMEfcntl - manipulate file descriptor
#include <unistd.h> #include <fcntl.h> int fcntl(int fd, int cmd); int fcntl(int fd, int cmd, long arg); int fcntl(int fd, int cmd, struct flock *lock);
DESCRIPTIONfcntl() performs one of the operations described below on the open file descriptor fd. The operation is determined by cmd.
Duplicating a file descriptor
- Find the lowest numbered available file descriptor greater than or equal to arg and make it be a copy of fd. This is different from dup2(2) which uses exactly the descriptor specified.
On success, the new descriptor is returned.
See dup(2) for further details.
File descriptor flagsThe following commands manipulate the flags associated with a file descriptor. Currently, only one such flag is defined: FD_CLOEXEC, the close-on-exec flag. If the FD_CLOEXEC bit is 0, the file descriptor will remain open across an execve(2), otherwise it will be closed.
- Read the file descriptor flags.
- Set the file descriptor flags to the value specified by arg.
File status flagsEach open file description has certain associated status flags, initialized by open(2) and possibly modified by fcntl(2). Duplicated file descriptors (made with dup(2), fcntl(F_DUPFD), fork(2), etc.) refer to the same open file description, and thus share the same file status flags.
The file status flags and their semantics are described in open(2).
- Read the file status flags.
- Set the file status flags to the value specified by arg. File access mode (O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, O_RDWR) and file creation flags (i.e., O_CREAT, O_EXCL, O_NOCTTY, O_TRUNC) in arg are ignored. On Linux this command can only change the O_APPEND, O_ASYNC, O_DIRECT, O_NOATIME, and O_NONBLOCK flags.
Advisory lockingF_GETLK, F_SETLK and F_SETLKW are used to acquire, release, and test for the existence of record locks (also known as file-segment or file-region locks). The third argument lock is a pointer to a structure that has at least the following fields (in unspecified order).
struct flock { ... short l_type; /* Type of lock: F_RDLCK, F_WRLCK, F_UNLCK */ short l_whence; /* How to interpret l_start: SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR, SEEK_END */ off_t l_start; /* Starting offset for lock */ off_t l_len; /* Number of bytes to lock */ pid_t l_pid; /* PID of process blocking our lock (F_GETLK only) */ ... };The l_whence, l_start, and l_len fields of this structure specify the range of bytes we wish to lock. l_start is the starting offset for the lock, and is interpreted relative to either: the start of the file (if l_whence is SEEK_SET); the current file offset (if l_whence is SEEK_CUR); or the end of the file (if l_whence is SEEK_END). In the final two cases, l_start can be a negative number provided the offset does not lie before the start of the file. l_len is a non-negative integer (but see the NOTES below) specifying the number of bytes to be locked. Bytes past the end of the file may be locked, but not bytes before the start of the file. Specifying 0 for l_len has the special meaning: lock all bytes starting at the location specified by l_whence and l_start through to the end of file, no matter how large the file grows. The l_type field can be used to place a read (F_RDLCK) or a write (F_WRLCK) lock on a file. Any number of processes may hold a read lock (shared lock) on a file region, but only one process may hold a write lock (exclusive lock). An exclusive lock excludes all other locks, both shared and exclusive. A single process can hold only one type of lock on a file region; if a new lock is applied to an already-locked region, then the existing lock is converted to the new lock type. (Such conversions may involve splitting, shrinking, or coalescing with an existing lock if the byte range specified by the new lock does not precisely coincide with the range of the existing lock.)
- Acquire a lock (when l_type is F_RDLCK or F_WRLCK) or release a lock (when l_type is F_UNLCK) on the bytes specified by the l_whence, l_start, and l_len fields of lock. If a conflicting lock is held by another process, this call returns -1 and sets errno to EACCES or EAGAIN.
- As for F_SETLK, but if a conflicting lock is held on the file, then wait for that lock to be released. If a signal is caught while waiting, then the call is interrupted and (after the signal handler has returned) returns immediately (with return value -1 and errno set to EINTR).
- On input to this call, lock describes a lock we would like to place on the file. If the lock could be placed, fcntl() does not actually place it, but returns F_UNLCK in the l_type field of lock and leaves the other fields of the structure unchanged. If one or more incompatible locks would prevent this lock being placed, then fcntl() returns details about one of these locks in the l_type, l_whence, l_start, and l_len fields of lock and sets l_pid to be the PID of the process holding that lock. In order to place a read lock, fd must be open for reading. In order to place a write lock, fd must be open for writing. To place both types of lock, open a file read-write. As well as being removed by an explicit F_UNLCK, record locks are automatically released when the process terminates or if it closes any file descriptor referring to a file on which locks are held. This is bad: it means that a process can lose the locks on a file like /etc/passwd or /etc/mtab when for some reason a library function decides to open, read and close it. Record locks are not inherited by a child created via fork(2), but are preserved across an execve(2). Because of the buffering performed by the stdio(3) library, the use of record locking with routines in that package should be avoided; use read(2) and write(2) instead.
Mandatory locking(Non-POSIX.) The above record locks may be either advisory or mandatory, and are advisory by default.
Advisory locks are not enforced and are useful only between cooperating processes.
Mandatory locks are enforced for all processes. If a process tries to perform an incompatible access (e.g., read(2) or write(2)) on a file region that has an incompatible mandatory lock, then the result depends upon whether the O_NONBLOCK flag is enabled for its open file description. If the O_NONBLOCK flag is not enabled, then system call is blocked until the lock is removed or converted to a mode that is compatible with the access. If the O_NONBLOCK flag is enabled, then the system call fails with the error EAGAIN or EWOULDBLOCK.
To make use of mandatory locks, mandatory locking must be enabled both on the file system that contains the file to be locked, and on the file itself. Mandatory locking is enabled on a file system using the "-o mand" option to mount(8), or the MS_MANDLOCK flag for mount(2). Mandatory locking is enabled on a file by disabling group execute permission on the file and enabling the set-group-ID permission bit (see chmod(1) and chmod(2)).
Managing signalsF_GETOWN, F_SETOWN, F_GETSIG and F_SETSIG are used to manage I/O availability signals:
- Get the process ID or process group currently receiving SIGIO and SIGURG signals for events on file descriptor fd. Process IDs are returned as positive values; process group IDs are returned as negative values (but see BUGS below).
- Set the process ID or process group ID that will receive SIGIO and SIGURG signals for events on file descriptor fd. A process ID is specified as a positive value; a process group ID is specified as a negative value. Most commonly, the calling process specifies itself as the owner (that is, arg is specified as getpid(2)).
If you set the O_ASYNC status flag on a file descriptor by using the F_SETFL command of fcntl(), a SIGIO signal is sent whenever input or output becomes possible on that file descriptor. F_SETSIG can be used to obtain delivery of a signal other than SIGIO. If this permission check fails, then the signal is silently discarded.
Sending a signal to the owner process (group) specified by F_SETOWN is subject to the same permissions checks as are described for kill(2), where the sending process is the one that employs F_SETOWN (but see BUGS below).
If the file descriptor fd refers to a socket, F_SETOWN also selects the recipient of SIGURG signals that are delivered when out-of-band data arrives on that socket. (SIGURG is sent in any situation where select(2) would report the socket as having an "exceptional condition".)
If a non-zero value is given to F_SETSIG in a multi-threaded process running with a threading library that supports thread groups (e.g., NPTL), then a positive value given to F_SETOWN has a different meaning: instead of being a process ID identifying a whole process, it is a thread ID identifying a specific thread within a process. Consequently, it may be necessary to pass F_SETOWN the result of gettid(2) instead of getpid(2) to get sensible results when F_SETSIG is used. (In current Linux threading implementations, a main thread's thread ID is the same as its process ID. This means that a single-threaded program can equally use gettid(2) or getpid(2) in this scenario.) Note, however, that the statements in this paragraph do not apply to the SIGURG signal generated for out-of-band data on a socket: this signal is always sent to either a process or a process group, depending on the value given to F_SETOWN. Note also that Linux imposes a limit on the number of real-time signals that may be queued to a process (see getrlimit(2) and signal(7)) and if this limit is reached, then the kernel reverts to delivering SIGIO, and this signal is delivered to the entire process rather than to a specific thread.
- Get the signal sent when input or output becomes possible. A value of zero means SIGIO is sent. Any other value (including SIGIO) is the signal sent instead, and in this case additional info is available to the signal handler if installed with SA_SIGINFO.
- Sets the signal sent when input or output becomes possible. A value of zero means to send the default SIGIO signal. Any other value (including SIGIO) is the signal to send instead, and in this case additional info is available to the signal handler if installed with SA_SIGINFO.
Additionally, passing a non-zero value to F_SETSIG changes the signal recipient from a whole process to a specific thread within a process. See the description of F_SETOWN for more details.
By using F_SETSIG with a non-zero value, and setting SA_SIGINFO for the signal handler (see sigaction(2)), extra information about I/O events is passed to the handler in a siginfo_t structure. If the si_code field indicates the source is SI_SIGIO, the si_fd field gives the file descriptor associated with the event. Otherwise, there is no indication which file descriptors are pending, and you should use the usual mechanisms (select(2), poll(2), read(2) with O_NONBLOCK set etc.) to determine which file descriptors are available for I/O.
By selecting a real time signal (value >= SIGRTMIN), multiple I/O events may be queued using the same signal numbers. (Queuing is dependent on available memory). Extra information is available if SA_SIGINFO is set for the signal handler, as above.
Using these mechanisms, a program can implement fully asynchronous I/O without using select(2) or poll(2) most of the time.
The use of O_ASYNC, F_GETOWN, F_SETOWN is specific to BSD and Linux. F_GETSIG and F_SETSIG are Linux specific. POSIX has asynchronous I/O and the aio_sigevent structure to achieve similar things; these are also available in Linux as part of the GNU C Library (Glibc).
LeasesF_SETLEASE and F_GETLEASE (Linux 2.4 onwards) are used (respectively) to establish and retrieve the current setting of the calling process's lease on the file referred to by fd. A file lease provides a mechanism whereby the process holding the lease (the "lease holder") is notified (via delivery of a signal) when a process (the "lease breaker") tries to open(2) or truncate(2) that file.
- Set or remove a file lease according to which of the following values is specified in the integer arg:
- F_RDLCK Take out a read lease. This will cause the calling process to be notified when the file is opened for writing or is truncated. A read lease can only be placed on a file descriptor that is opened read-only.
- Take out a write lease. This will cause the caller to be notified when the file is opened for reading or writing or is truncated. A write lease may be placed on a file only if no other process currently has the file open.
- Remove our lease from the file.
- Indicates what type of lease we hold on the file referred to by fd by returning either F_RDLCK, F_WRLCK, or F_UNLCK, indicating, respectively, that the calling process holds a read, a write, or no lease on the file. (The third argument to fcntl() is omitted.)
When a process (the "lease breaker") performs an open(2) or truncate(2) that conflicts with a lease established via F_SETLEASE, the system call is blocked by the kernel and the kernel notifies the lease holder by sending it a signal (SIGIO by default). The lease holder should respond to receipt of this signal by doing whatever cleanup is required in preparation for the file to be accessed by another process (e.g., flushing cached buffers) and then either remove or downgrade its lease. A lease is removed by performing an F_SETLEASE command specifying arg as F_UNLCK. If we currently hold a write lease on the file, and the lease breaker is opening the file for reading, then it is sufficient to downgrade the lease to a read lease. This is done by performing an F_SETLEASE command specifying arg as F_RDLCK.
If the lease holder fails to downgrade or remove the lease within the number of seconds specified in /proc/sys/fs/lease-break-time then the kernel forcibly removes or downgrades the lease holder's lease.
Once the lease has been voluntarily or forcibly removed or downgraded, and assuming the lease breaker has not unblocked its system call, the kernel permits the lease breaker's system call to proceed.
If the lease breaker's blocked open(2) or truncate(2) is interrupted by a signal handler, then the system call fails with the error EINTR, but the other steps still occur as described above. If the lease breaker is killed by a signal while blocked in open(2) or truncate(2), then the other steps still occur as described above. If the lease breaker specifies the O_NONBLOCK flag when calling open(2), then the call immediately fails with the error EWOULDBLOCK, but the other steps still occur as described above.
The default signal used to notify the lease holder is SIGIO, but this can be changed using the F_SETSIG command to fcntl(). If a F_SETSIG command is performed (even one specifying SIGIO), and the signal handler is established using SA_SIGINFO, then the handler will receive a siginfo_t structure as its second argument, and the si_fd field of this argument will hold the descriptor of the leased file that has been accessed by another process. (This is useful if the caller holds leases against multiple files).
File and directory change notification (dnotify)
- (Linux 2.4 onwards) Provide notification when the directory referred to by fd or any of the files that it contains is changed. The events to be notified are specified in arg, which is a bit mask specified by ORing together zero or more of the following bits:
Bit Description (event in directory) DN_ACCESS DN_MODIFY A file was modified (write, pwrite, writev, truncate, ftruncate) DN_CREATE A file was created (open, creat, mknod, mkdir, link, symlink, rename) DN_DELETE A file was unlinked (unlink, rename to another directory, rmdir) DN_RENAME A file was renamed within this directory (rename) DN_ATTRIB The attributes of a file were changed (chown, chmod, utime[s])
(In order to obtain these definitions, the _GNU_SOURCE feature test macro must be defined.)
Directory notifications are normally "one-shot", and the application must re-register to receive further notifications. Alternatively, if DN_MULTISHOT is included in arg, then notification will remain in effect until explicitly removed.
A series of F_NOTIFY requests is cumulative, with the events in arg being added to the set already monitored. To disable notification of all events, make an F_NOTIFY call specifying arg as 0.
Notification occurs via delivery of a signal. The default signal is SIGIO, but this can be changed using the F_SETSIG command to fcntl(). In the latter case, the signal handler receives a siginfo_t structure as its second argument (if the handler was established using SA_SIGINFO) and the si_fd field of this structure contains the file descriptor which generated the notification (useful when establishing notification on multiple directories).
Especially when using DN_MULTISHOT, a real time signal should be used for notification, so that multiple notifications can be queued.
NOTE: New applications should consider using the inotify interface (available since kernel 2.6.13), which provides a superior interface for obtaining notifications of file system events. See inotify(7).
RETURN VALUEFor a successful call, the return value depends on the operation:
- The new descriptor.
- Value of flags.
- Value of flags.
- Value of descriptor owner.
- Value of signal sent when read or write becomes possible, or zero for traditional SIGIO behavior.
- All other commands
- Zero.
On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.
- EACCES or EAGAIN
- Operation is prohibited by locks held by other processes.
- The operation is prohibited because the file has been memory-mapped by another process.
- fd is not an open file descriptor, or the command was F_SETLK or F_SETLKW and the file descriptor open mode doesn't match with the type of lock requested.
- It was detected that the specified F_SETLKW command would cause a deadlock.
- lock is outside your accessible address space.
- For F_SETLKW, the command was interrupted by a signal. For F_GETLK and F_SETLK, the command was interrupted by a signal before the lock was checked or acquired. Most likely when locking a remote file (e.g., locking over NFS), but can sometimes happen locally.
- For F_DUPFD, arg is negative or is greater than the maximum allowable value. For F_SETSIG, arg is not an allowable signal number.
- For F_DUPFD, the process already has the maximum number of file descriptors open.
- Too many segment locks open, lock table is full, or a remote locking protocol failed (e.g., locking over NFS).
- Attempted to clear the O_APPEND flag on a file that has the append-only attribute set.
CONFORMING TOSVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. Only the operations F_DUPFD, F_GETFD, F_SETFD, F_GETFL, F_SETFL, F_GETLK, F_SETLK, F_SETLKW, F_GETOWN, and F_SETOWN are specified in POSIX.1-2001.
F_GETSIG, F_SETSIG, F_NOTIFY, F_GETLEASE, and F_SETLEASE are Linux specific. (Define the _GNU_SOURCE macro to obtain these definitions.)
NOTESThe errors returned by dup2(2) are different from those returned by F_DUPFD.
Since kernel 2.0, there is no interaction between the types of lock placed by flock(2) and fcntl(2).
POSIX.1-2001 allows l_len to be negative. (And if it is, the interval described by the lock covers bytes l_start+l_len up to and including l_start-1.) This is supported by Linux since Linux 2.4.21 and 2.5.49.
Several systems have more fields in struct flock such as, for example, l_sysid. Clearly, l_pid alone is not going to be very useful if the process holding the lock may live on a different machine.
BUGSA limitation of the Linux system call conventions on some architectures (notably x86) means that if a (negative) process group ID to be returned by F_GETOWN falls in the range -1 to -4095, then the return value is wrongly interpreted by glibc as an error in the system call; that is, the return value of fcntl() will be -1, and errno will contain the (positive) process group ID.
In Linux 2.4 and earlier, there is bug that can occur when an unprivileged process uses F_SETOWN to specify the owner of a socket file descriptor as a process (group) other than the caller. In this case, fcntl() can return -1 with errno set to EPERM, even when the owner process (group) is one that the caller has permission to send signals to. Despite this error return, the file descriptor owner is set, and signals will be sent to the owner.
SEE ALSOdup2(2), flock(2), open(2), socket(2), lockf(3), capabilities(7), feature_test_macros(7) See also Documentation/locks.txt, Documentation/mandatory.txt, and Documentation/dnotify.txt in the kernel source.
Contenus ©2006-2023 Benjamin Poulain
Design ©2006-2023 Maxime Vantorre


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Donna Brunswick drove to a Costco last month to pick up 2 pounds of raw flank steak — not at the wholesale club, but from a truck in the parking lot.
"Typically you wouldn't buy meat off a random truck," says Brunswick, a technical manager in Atlanta.
But she says $20 for the slab of beef was a good deal. And she liked the filet mignon she bought from it in December when it was that day's offering. "The truck meat was delicious," she says.
The meat didn't just fall off the back of a random truck. It was sold by Amazon, which already sells just about anything online but now also hawks discounted seafood, Panini presses and more from what it calls the Treasure Truck.
It's a quirky way for the online retailer to connect with shoppers in person, expand its physical presence and promote itself. Amazon has also used the trucks to try to bring people into Whole Foods, the grocery chain it bought last year. The service debuted two years ago and the trucks now roam nearly 40 cities in the United States and England .
The inspiration, says Treasure Truck Director Margot Johnson, was the ice cream truck, another store on wheels that pops up unexpectedly.
While Treasure Truck sales are a tiny piece of the giant online retailer's business, the value to Amazon may be in the app downloads the trucks generate, their ability to test what products are hot sellers, and the buzz they create, says Aaron Cheris, who heads Bain & Co.'s retail practice.
"Amazon does a lot of things because they can," Cheris says.
What's sold on the trucks? The item is a secret until the day the trucks roll out. People who sign up get a morning text announcing the deal of the day. At the circus-like trucks, which light up and blast music, Amazon workers play games with shoppers and help them take selfies. They have custom designs, like a lobster and lighthouse on the Boston truck; cowboy boots in Dallas; and a race car in Indianapolis. A bubble-blowing machine is usually going.
"It's so kitschy," says Evelyn Molina, who bought a $20 bouquet of roses, lilies and other flowers from the Miami Treasure Truck. Molina, who blogs about parenthood at MommyMafia.com, decided to treat herself since it was parked near her workout spot.
The first Treasure Truck hit the streets of Amazon's Seattle hometown in 2016. It expanded to 25 U.S. cities by last fall, and then a dozen British cities, including London and Manchester, late last year. Amazon won't say if it plans to expand further.
The trucks go out a couple times a week and spend a few hours roving between the parking lots of malls, office complexes or banks. Amazon rents those spaces, but it can also park in front of its own Whole Foods stores.
Molina got a $5 Whole Foods coupon when she picked up a "Star Wars" toy in December from a truck parked nearby. The coupon had to be used that day, so she bought grapes, chicken tortilla soup and other groceries.
"They totally got me," Molina says.
Amazon picks what's sold on the trucks, Johnson says. There are holiday-related goods, such as the Godiva chocolates and dozen red roses it sold before Valentine's Day; trendy items, like the Instant Pot pressure cooker; or food, such as uncooked shrimp or raw chicken wings. (The trucks have refrigeration, Johnson says.)
But roving stores come with their own perils. Philadelphia's Treasure Truck went up in flames last month while parked away for the night. No one was hurt, and Amazon says it is investigating how the fire started.
And then there's weather: Amazon can cancel outings due to rain, snow or other bad conditions.
In early May, the truck in Austin, Texas, was canceled because of heavy rain. Cleo McAllister was bummed she couldn't get her hands on the $15 moving-and-talking doll version of a Porg, the bird-like creatures from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." She didn't want to buy it elsewhere, since the Treasure Truck price was at least $10 cheaper than other stores, including Amazon.com itself. She lucked out several days later, when the Porgs were back. She's bought other things from the Treasure Truck as well.
"It's an excuse to get out of the office and do something at lunch instead of sit at my desk," says McAllister, an office manager.
But she hasn't been tempted by the steaks or seafood.
"I'm just not one to buy food off the back of a truck," she says.


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Two weeks ago I reposted an article from the ElvisBlog archives. It took about 10 minutes to do, compared to 6-8 hours to create a new one. I chose it partly because it contained content that never showed up on any other Elvis websites.
I have other old posts that also contain exclusive material, so let's dust them off. Today's post appeared back in August 2011. As you read on, you will see why these comments from Al Wertheimer are so unique. I think you will really enjoy this.
No matter what network you watch the news on, you probably saw a feature two weeks ago about the newly revealed identity of the girl in "The Kiss," Alfred Wertheimer's iconic Elvis photo. She is Charleston, SC resident Barbara (Bobbi) Gray, who is now 75. "The Kiss" was photographed in 1956, so it took 55 years for her identity to be revealed.
If you would like to read the whole story, there is a lengthy article on Vanity Fair.com by noted author Alanna Nash.
Five years ago, I did six hours of phone interviews with Al Wertheimer as research for an article I wrote for Elvis International magazine. The article was a 50th anniversary look at the time Al spent with Elvis in 1956 and all those images he took of the future King of Rock. The interview was preserved on tape, and a short portion of it dealt with the history of "The Kiss" photo. Alfred has kindly given me permission to reproduce his recollections here.
First, a little history. From June 29 to July 4, 1956, Alfred Wertheimer spent nearly every waking moment around Elvis. Colonel Parker had not yet clamped down on the media with strictly limited access to his star. Wertheimer was with Elvis for the Steve Allen Show rehearsal and telecast, two concerts in Richmond, a major recording session at RCA Victor ("Hound dog," "Don't Be Cruel") three long train rides, an afternoon with Elvis' family at their home, and a big holiday concert in Memphis.
Wertheimer took photographs almost constantly and finished with 2500 'commercially viable' (his words) photographs. After he teamed up with EPE, his Elvis photographs have adorned calendars, coffee mugs, T-shirts, and dozens of other collectibles.
"The Kiss" was photographed between shows at the Mosque Theater in Richmond, VA on June 29. Wertheimer took all shots in black-and-white, and he used only natural light, no flash bulbs. This enabled him to be as inconspicuous as possible, and Elvis mostly paid him no attention as he clicked away.
Al Wertheimer Reflects on the Snapping of "The Kiss"
We were between shows. I'm down at stage level, and I look down this long narrow passage and I see these two figures at the end. There is still light enough [to take photographs] because there is a small window at the far end. It's probably around 6PM, so there's still a certain amount of light left. There's a 50 watt bulb over their heads.
It was like, "Leave me alone, give me some privacy, this is what I want to do, stay away."
But, I'm thinking, "A true journalist wants to get the story. And, the story is right there. A very stark hallway, a little light, two silhouettes… " So, I decide to be a human tripod and lean up against the wall. There's a railing going back.
She's on her tippy-toes, and even on her tippy-toes, she only reached Elvis' chin, so she must have been around all of 4 foot 10. With her 3 inch heels and whatever she finally gets up to his chin area. Elvis is about 6 feet.
I squeeze a few frames off and then I say, "Well, I think I'll take a chance. However, (You know, this is all going on in my mind) if Elvis doesn't like it, he may ask me to leave. Well, that would cut my story short and I wouldn't want that to happen." But, then I say, "But he wouldn't do that. (You know, I'm playing all the characters in my mind) He's involved with the girl. He wouldn't do that. Take a chance, Al"
I move in three or four feet, I take another shot. And then I go Hollywood. I say, "Well, this is not too good an angle. I can get a better angle than that." So, I climb up on the handrail, and now I'm three feet away from them. Elvis is up against the wall while she is sort of in his arms.
And now I'm clicking away and they still don't see me. Totally oblivious to me. I now get courage, so now I'm doing like acrobatics with my legs, leaning forward. I'm practically on top of their heads.
I'm shooting another couple of clicks, or like the British would say, knocking off a couple more snaps. "
So, then I just sort of got everything I could get from that particular point of view, and I kind of back off six or seven feet. I'm having a conference with myself, and I'm saying, "The real angle is past them on the landing slightly below where they are standing." It's like two steps down and there's a landing going down.
So, I decide to be like the building superintendant. I kind of walk up to them and say, "Excuse me. I'm coming through," in like a very official maintenance man tone. I finally settle myself comfortably on that landing area that's about eight or ten feet beyond them. Now, the light is coming over my shoulder into their faces, so I'm getting front light rather than back light. And the 50 watt bulb is still over their heads.
And then she finally puts her pocketbook down. Elvis has been trying to kiss this lady for a while. He's tried everything. She now was feeling like well maybe she might give in. So she puts her pocketbook down and they are cuddling real tight.
She says, "Elvis, I'll bet you can't kiss me." So, she sticks out her tongue, you know, sort-of maybe half way.
He says in a very cool manner, "I'll bet I can." So, he sticks out his tongue and first he moves too fast. He moves in too fast and bends her nose. So, then he backs up like nothing ever happened. Backs up and comes in a second time, and barely touches the tip of her tongue.
This is really like something two ten-year-olds would do. [laughs]
And, I've been accused of taking the most erotic kiss ever!!
So, anyway, the kiss takes place. I said to myself, "I've got the story. That's it. I can't do better than that. So, why don't I take on my maintenance man's attitude again and come by them once more and go out to the stage area.
"Excuse me. Coming through." [Laughs]
From a photographer's standpoint, Alfred truly did get the story. He never dreamed there would be a second story 55 years later, about the girl in "The Kiss." And, I think his recollection of how the image came about is another really good story.
© 2011 Philip R Arnold, Original Elvis Blogmeister All Rights Reserved www.ElvisBlog.net
I hope you enjoyed this visit to the ElvisBlog archives as much as I did. Al Wertheimer was the subject of seven other posts, and there may be more exclusive stuff in some of them. If so, I'll repost them sometime this year.


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