text:
Oberon/F (1994)
Oberon/F is the latest recruit to that important new
software category, the object-oriented component
framework. XVT and NextStep's Interface Builder are
probably the most famous current exemplars, but Taligent's
TalAE will soon be contesting that title. Oberon/F
provides a thin object-services layer which runs on top of
the host operating system and enables you to write
cross-platform portable and extensible applications as if
the host OS supported full object-orientation. Currently
Oberon/F runs on Win32s for Windows 3.1, NT and 95 and on
Macintosh System 7, but versions are planned for OS/2 and
Why component frameworks? Mostly because the class library
based approach to OOP which promised to deliver software
reuse has in practice have often disappointed (see
"Componentware", May 1994 Byte). Component frameworks aim
both to reduce the huge learning-curve of class libraries
and to enable software reuse by supplying big,
already-useful chunks. If using a class library is like
buying a load of bricks, then using a framework is like
erecting a pre-fabricated house, with the walls already
Oberon/F is wholly document-centric framework in which
everything is a document that you can edit within the
development system, which also serves as the runtime
system. Every Oberon/F document contains one or more
'views', software components that enable viewing and
editing of a particular data type eg. a text, a picture or
a spreadsheet. Each view is implemented by a separate
module, which gets dynamically linked and loaded on demand
like a DLL, but unlike Windows DLLs (or VBXs) you can
extend Oberon modules. If the appropriate module is
present, any Oberon/F document editor can edit any type of
view, so the concept of applications owning files has
completely dissolved.
Oberon/F incorporates a highly-efficient but proprietory
compound document model that allows you to embed views
into one each other in arbitrarily complex ways. In future
releases this system will be progressively integrated with
the COM and DSOM models used in OLE 2 and OpenDoc.
Where NextStep and Taligent are based on Objective-C and
C++ respectively, Oberon/F is based on the Oberon 2
language, Niklaus Wirth's successor to Pascal and Modula
2, and includes a compiler and debugger for the language.
(The Oberon/F system is being developed by Oberon
Microsystems inc. of Zurich, Switzerland, a commercial
firm founded by ETH alumni with Wirth as a director.)
Oberon is a strongly-typed, compiled language which
supports both modular and object-oriented programming, and
also Eiffel-like precondition and postcondition testing
using ASSERT statements. Unusually for a compiled language
it features an automatic garbage collector to preserve
memory integrity. (Taligent too has recognized that
extensible programming and 'malloc' don't mix, and is
adding garbage collection to its C++ compiler.) The
driving force throughout the Oberon project has been the
pursuit of simplicity, well illustrated by the fact that
my beta-0.9 Oberon/F system arrived on a single 1.4 Mbyte
floppy disk and occupies barely 4 Mbytes of hard disk
The programming, editing and debugging environment is
completely integrated, giving it the same sort of feel as
interactive interpreted systems like Smalltalk or Lisp -
this is an illusion as Oberon compiles straight to 32-bit
native 486 or 680x0 code. However the compiler is so fast
at 15,000 odd lines per minute and the modules you write
are typically so small that compilation time is seldom
The compiler, debugger and other software tools are all
based on Oberon/F compound documents; they are active,
editable texts containing hypertext-style embedded
objects. For example in a Show Loaded Modules window you
can highlight any module name in the list and immediately
decompile its interface definition; in a debug window
clicking on diamond-shaped markers lets you follow
pointers and traverse lists; in the editor errors are
flagged by markers embedded in the text which expand into
error messages when clicked.
The first release of Oberon/F provides - in addition to
the Development subsystem - just two component subsystems
called Texts and Forms. An ODBC database subsystem is
planned for the second release. In-place editing of
industry-standard graphics and spreadsheet formats will
not become available until a later release supports OLE 2.
The Text subsystem is a wordprocessor with features
roughly equivalent to Windows Write (eg. it supports
fonts, paragraph attributes and object embedding), but
unlike Write you can extend this editor in any way you
like. As a test example I decided to add the ability to
change a selected passage of text into upper-case (see the
code in Listing 1). A rather minor achievement you might
think, but consider these points:
1) This is not just a macro (as is, say, WordBasic) but a
native 486 code extension to the system.
2) This new ability is available within ANY piece of text
whatsoever in Oberon/F, and will be too in any future
programs that I add.
3) I didn't need to recompile the text editor and indeed
have never even seen its source code, only the published
programming interface.
4) This same code works identically on a Windows PC or a
Macintosh and automatically displays the proper
'look-and-feel' of either platform.
In Oberon/F exported parameterless procedures are called
commands and are executable from anywhere in the system.
The procedure UpCase* (the asterisk indicates it's to be
exported by the module DickText) is a command which
performs its action on the selection of the window which
currently has the focus. You can execute commands by
selecting any instance of their name on the screen and
using the debugger's Execute command, by building
interactive 'tools' containing clickable embedded
'commander' buttons, or more conventionally by installing
them into the regular Windows or Mac menu bar. The menu
system is defined in an Oberon/F document that you can
edit like any other, and you can even install the new
menus on-the-fly without restarting the system.
You can program Oberon/F at three levels of complexity,
and my little example illustrates the simplest, command
programming, which adds new functions to an existing view.
The next higher level is the writing of new views, ie.
visual representations for data types. The third, and
hardest level is the writing of 'container' views which
can contain other embedded views; Oberon/F editors are
normally container views.
The Forms component is a simple visual design tool for
data entry forms and dialogs. First you write a code
module that defines a record data type with various
fields, and then you design the corresponding form by
visually dragging control objects around on it as in
Visual Basic. Thereafter the Oberon/F runtime system
creates and maintains the connections between the screen
fields and the underlying data structure without you
having to write any further code, automatically updating
the field variables whenever the user enters data into the
form. The reverse process is not automatic, so when your
program updates a record field it must broadcast an update
message telling all screen views that they need to change
Oberon/F forms are stored as documents like any other and
you can modify their visual appearance without forcing a
recompilation of the application code, a great advantage
compared to conventional code generators. You can embed
forms in texts and vice-versa, recursively to any depth,
to construct a wide variety of user-interface styles. The
beta-release I tested supported the standard Windows and
Mac control types (text fields, captions, scroll bars,
push buttons, radio buttons, and check boxes) but Oberon
Microsystems are working to support OLE 2's .OCX format so
that future Visual Basic custom controls will be usable
from within Oberon/F.
Oberon/F is designed around a heirarchy of abstractions
that isolate modules from the physical hardware (for
cross-platform portability) and from one another (for
extensibility). The physical display, printing and file
systems are hidden in abstract object classes and are
accessed by creating reader and writer objects for them.
The most fundamental data type is a Store which represents
a body of persistent data that knows how to save and
retrieve itself from a non-volatile medium like a hard
disk. The module 'Stores' supplies readers and writers
that can map Oberon data types like characters, integers,
sets and other stores into binary data; stores can contain
other embedded stores and hence can represent compound
documents. Store is an abstract type that is never
instantiated directly; instead Oberon/F supplies three
extensions of Store called Models, Views and Controllers.
This MVC (Model-View-Controller) paradigm was originally
devised by the Smalltalk team at Xerox PARC; it divorces
the presentation of data from its storage and abstracts
from the OS-specific details of windows.
Crudely put, the model is the data itself while a view is
a particular presentation of the data transformed into a
rectangular display area. There may be many views onto the
same model, and if the model is changed this fact must be
broadcast to all views by sending messages. A view might
directly handle interaction with the user's mouse and
keyboard, but in complex applications this task is usually
delegated to a Controller object. Models, Views and
Controllers are themselves extensible, and in Listing 1
you'll see the use of a TextController object 'c' to
measure the current text selection, while the actual
processing takes place directly on a TextModel called
Though Oberon/F makes great use of inheritance internally
(eg. Stores -> Models -> TextModels) it strictly controls
external inheritance to preserve extensibility, by
imposing the classic separation of interface from
implementation. Many modules deliberately don't export
concrete types used in their interface, to prevent
application programmers from extending them directly.
Instead they export a global variable containing a
'directory object' whose 'New' method allows you merely to
create instances of a hidden concrete type, together with
an abstract interface type which you can inherit to
re-implement extensions of the type. This mechanism
retains most - though not all - of the power of
inheritance, but it's necessary to guarantee the future
extensibility of the program's semantics without running
into the so-called 'fragile base-class' problem (see
"Extensible Software Systems " May 1994 Byte).
In the messy world of PC operating systems the Oberon/F
approach of simplicity and austerity could hardly be more
at odds with industry practice. C++ programmers like to
party, and then use industrial-strength debugging tools
like BoundsChecker and Purify to clean up the mess
afterwards - the Oberon programmer expects to catch 90% of
errors at compile time and most of the remainder by
careful choice of preconditions. But then, twenty years ago
who'd heard of Diet Cola....
PRICE: Commercial version - $350
Educational version - free.
Oberon Microsystems Inc.,
Solothurnerstrasse 45
CH-4053 Basel
Fax: +41-(0)61-361-3846
Email: email@example.com
Listing 1
MODULE DickText;
IMPORT TextModels, TextControllers;
PROCEDURE UpCase*;
VAR beg, end: LONGINT;
ch: CHAR;
c: TextControllers.Controller;
buf: TextModels.Model;
r: TextModels.Reader;
w: TextModels.Writer;
(* determine extent of selected text *)
c := TextControllers.Focus();
IF (c # NIL) & c.HasSelection() THEN
(* make a buffer for upper-case text *)
buf := TextModels.dir.New(); (* a directory object *)
w := buf.NewWriter(NIL);
r := c.text.NewReader(NIL);
(* process selected text into buffer *)
WHILE (r.Pos() <= end) & ~r.eot DO
IF (ch >= "a") & (ch <= "z")
THEN ch := CAP(ch) END;
(* copy buffer back into document *)
END UpCase;
END DickText.


text:
In New Zealand, off premises IT services, like, for example hosted applications and infrastructure, are forecast to grow 7–9% each year until 2019, based on this year's NZ IT Services Market Analysis and Forecast report from IDC. The big winner will be cloud-based services, which will grow at a staggering 15–27% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) until 2019.
"New Zealand organisations are committed to shifting their IT needs off premises and into the cloud. There is a strong appetite for services that drive cloud and cloud integration, as well as investments in a strong network to enable these solutions" says Donnie Krassiyenko, IT Services Market Analyst for IDC. "At a business level, it is all about mobile applications transforming the way in which business connect to its customers via its staff and ongoing digital engagement".
The IT services market for New Zealand grew at a conservative level of 1.9% for 2014 (year on year) but IDC is forecasting annual growth rates of 2.6% each year until 2019. This uplift reflects the massive transformation that the market is realising as organisations take to a hybrid style infrastructure model with wider technology adoption across the organisation.
IDC's market share analysis found that Datacom is now the largest IT services provider (including business consultancy services) in the New Zealand market. Its strong representation of IT services across Systems Integration, IS Outsourcing, and Application Management has driven the company's increased market share, with the major industry penetration in Government, Communications and Media, and Finance sectors.
One of the key drivers of these growth trends is the notable improvement in the number of New Zealand organisations expanding ICT budgets over the past year. In the IDC's 2015 Asia/Pacific C-Suite Barometer, 19% of companies stated that budgets were increasing this year. In addition only 16% of the New Zealand organisations interviewed stated that lack of ICT budget for the business requirements is a top challenge in leveraging ICT to drive business forward.
New Zealand end-users have indicated to IDC that the investment focus for the coming 24 months will be targeted across the following areas:
- Cloud – Datacenter migration,
- Mobility, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI),
- Unified communication and collaboration, and
- Data analytics.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Every week, Caroline Wright creates simple, civilized recipes for Food52 that feed four -- for under $20, in under 20 minutes.
Today: A summery, grill-only riff on an autumnal dish.
During the summer months, fresh vegetable dishes are key in my kitchen; there's just no better way to show off the season's harvest. While I am known to serve the simplest form of grilled vegetables -- like a platter of thinly sliced grilled eggplant and zucchini in a vinaigrette -- it's sometimes fun to play around with the form.
Here, I made ricotta-stuffed rolled eggplant; it's a meal I usually crave as the temperatures cool down, but when I reduced the cooking time and used fresher ingredients, it was perfectly suited to a summer table. It turned out to be not just a brighter, airier version of an autumnal dish, but something all its own.
Ricotta-Stuffed Grilled Eggplant with Grilled Tomato Sauce
Serves 4
3 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 garlic clove, finely grated
2 rosemary sprigs
1/4 teaspoon pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound), cut into 1/4-inch slices
One 15-ounce container whole-milk ricotta
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Freshly grated nutmeg
See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.
As a freelance food writer and cook, I first wrote this style of recipe as a column on my blog, The Wright Recipes, as an excuse to cook good food for my friends in a quick and simple way.
Twenty-Dollar, Twenty-Minute™ Meals grew into a cookbook that was published by Workman in May 2013. The recipes found here are original, made especially for Food52 to once again celebrate simple food with friends.
Photo by Caroline Wright


text: Former Caterham Grand Prix driver Giedo Van Der Garde has signed up with Pirelli to be the Italian tyre manufacturors official development driver for the 2016 Formula One season. Following on from a recent test in a GP2 car fitted with development rubber for the tyre company, Van Der Garde has taken the plunge and signed up full time to the testing role. Speaking to De Telegraaf newspaper, "It's a good job that allows me to do many kilometres...They were happy with my feedback, which was in line with the data they had [referring to a recent test session in Spain]... For Pirelli it is important to have a good driver who can help with the development of the tyres." The 30 year old Dutchman still hasn't given up hope of finding himself on a race start line in the near future, with recent news that he will test an AMG Mercedes DTM car as part of the German Marque's rookie test at the Jerez circuit in December. Arguably best know for his fracas with the Swiss Sauber team at the beginning of the current F1 season and his often amusing tweets, the amiable Dutch driver will be looking to put his career back on track with these recent signings.


text:
Dealer / Integrator
Audio Design & Marketing
I take on select clients for Hi End A/V design. I do a even more limited(# of clients ) design of whole house automation. 35 years of hi end audio experince gives you access to knowledge unavailable anywhere else I am for the music lover.
Mailing Address:
6436 Sunshine Harbor Dr
Winneconne, Wisconsin 54986
United States of America
Tel: 920-582-5982
Fax: same but call
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: http://www.audiodesignmarketing.com
Company Category: Automation & Control
Geographic Region: USA - North East
Company Sector: Dealer / Integrator
Keywords: Audio Video Stylist Hi End Music electronics speakers tubes
Partner Status: Free Company Listing


text:
St. Benny the Dip
Detailshttps://www.fye.com/st.-benny-the-dip-aec.alvi4933dvd.html aec.alvi4933dvd 11/29/05 New
Shipping Promotions
ID: aec.alvi4933dvd
Filmed very cheaply in New York, St. Benny the Dip (British title: Escape Me If You Can) has a charm and appeal that transcends its modest production trappings. Dick Haymes, Roland Young and Lionel Stander star as Benny, Matthew and Monk, three confidence tricksters forced by circumstance to pose as priests, tending to a slum mission. While clerically garbed, the three sharpsters slowly but surely change their ways, to the benefit of all concerned. As a result, two of the three find honest jobs in the civilian mainstream, while the third elects to remain a man of the cloth. The handpicked supporting cast includes Nina Foch as Haymes' sweetheart, and former child-star Freddie Bartholomew, making his final film appearance as an uptight genuine priest. Devotees of director Edgar Ulmer have insisted upon finding all sorts of hidden meanings in St. Benny the Dip, though it appears that Ulmer's primary concern while making the film was keeping all three of his formidable leading men within camera range. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Product Details
Release Date
Film Detective
1 hour, 20 minutes
- Dolby Digital Stereo
Number of Discs


text:
STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. (NNS) -- July 1 is the 90th birthday of the Aerographer's Mate or AG rating, established for the Navy's fledgling aviation enterprise to ensure the Navy had a dependable source of weather forecasting for aviation safety.
Although AG's still forecast the weather for flight operations, they have added considerably to their portfolio during the last 90 years. New areas of support include hydrography, oceanography, unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) operation and sonar data processing. As part of the Information Dominance Corps, AG's enhance battle-space awareness by providing the characterization, forecast and impacts of the environment.
"Our mission sets grew and changed as the needs of the fleet changed and we continued to expand our capabilities. But the one constant through that change is that we serve as the Navy's operational scientists," said Master Chief Aerographer's Mate Ken Walker, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NAVMETOCCOM) Master Chief, the Navy's senior AG.
Using the latest technology and in addition to aviation, the Navy's approximately 1,000 AG's play a vital role in all of the Navy's traditional warfare areas, as well as the new realm of Information Dominance. They also support safety of navigation, the Navy's humanitarian aid/disaster relief efforts and safety at sea.
They have become the Navy's accepted experts in the operation of UUVs, which they use extensively in mine warfare operations and hydrography, or, bottom mapping for access routes and charting.
"AG's are the backbone of Operational Navy Oceanography. As a group, they are smart and technologically adept. They have always been willing to accept new and additional duties - whatever they have been asked," said Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, NAVMETOCCOM commander. "That's why the job has expanded so much into oceanography, hydrography and Information Dominance - because they were willing and able to learn new things and take on new responsibilities. The U.S. Navy is a more safe and effective fighting force because of the AG's - and I know this to be a fact from my firsthand experiences with AG's in the Persian Gulf, Western Pacific, and Mediterranean, Arabian, Yellow and Red seas."
The rating has come a long way from the first seven-man AG class of 1925 to today's technologically-savvy members who forecast the entirety of the natural environment and analyze the impacts of specific environmental conditions on a particular platform, weapons system or operation. In 1925, balloons carrying instruments into the atmosphere and airplanes with recording data and weather instruments attached to the wings were considered high tech; the first electric programmable computers were still 20 years away.
Some things have not changed, as AG's still forecast environmental conditions for battle-space awareness. But, more importantly, AG's throughout their history have integrated new technologies into environmental data collection and have continually found more and better ways to optimize warfighting.
Walker said the biggest change in the work of AG's during his 29 years in the Navy is centered on the junior Sailors.
"When I came in the Navy, our A-school graduates were weather observers. The predominance of our work was taking observations, launching weather balloons, plotting charts, tearing teletype data and using communications gear to receive facsimile charts," he said. "With the ever-growing technological advances a great deal of that work became obsolete. AG-A school was revamped to reflect those changes and the graduates now head to the fleet as Apprentice Forecasters. This change has allowed us to expedite the timeline for getting our Sailors into AG-C school and back out to the fleet as Journeyman Forecasters."
The Navy established the AG rating to ensure a cadre of educated weather forecasting professionals would be available to forecast the weather for the new Naval flight operations. Naval aviation started in 1910, but the weather forecasting rating didn't start until 1924.
In 1923, Lt. Francis Richelderfer, a pilot, weather officer and head of the Navy weather desk, recognized that an enlisted rate offering advancement potential was needed for Navy weather forecasting to prosper. The weather office had been plagued by high attrition rates of its enlisted personnel into other specialties or out of the Navy.
The enlisted forerunners of AG's were quartermasters with an aviation specialty. Formal instruction in aviation-related weather courses for the Navy was first taught by Alexander G. McAdie of Harvard University. McAdie coined the term "Aerographer," so the name of the rating is a constant reminder of the rating's roots. The rating, initially known only as "Aerographer," became Aerographer's Mate in 1942.
The size of the rating has expanded and declined through the years, but the importance of environmental forecasting has not been challenged since the days of McAdie. Environmental forecasting plays a key role in battle-space awareness, one of the three pillars of Information Dominance, so don't be surprised if AG's are still forecasting the impacts of the environment in another 90 years.
For more news from Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/cnmoc/.


text:
SportsDirect Inc.
Recap: Maple Leafs 4, Predators 0
Maple Leafs 4, Predators 0: Jonathan Bernier turned aside 36 shots and Toronto's first line caught fire in a one-sided win over host Nashville.
Bernier's seventh career shutout helped improve the Maple Leafs to 3-0-0 on the road. Phil Kessel led the way with a goal and two assists while linemates Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk also scored.
Pekka Rinne made 22 saves for the Predators, who have dropped three of four to open the season.
After a conservative 30 minutes between the teams, Kessel opened the scoring with a one-timer from the low slot on a quick backhand pass from van Riemsdyk. The two combined to extend the lead in the final minute of the period, as van Riemsdyk stripped Rinne and curled behind the net before stuffing the puck into a partially open net moments after Kessel hit the post.
The Maple Leafs padded the lead while enjoying a five-minute power-play late in the third period. Bozak's centering pass glanced off the skate of Nashville rookie defenseman Seth Jones and past a surprised Rinne at 16:18, and Joffrey Lupul rounded out the scoring by redirecting defenseman Jake Gardiner's shot at 16:59.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Bernier improved to 8-1-0 in his career against the Predators. ... Toronto was given the lengthy third-period man advantage after D Cody Franson was guided into a stanchion by Predators C Mike Fisher. Fisher was given a major penalty and a game misconduct while Franson - who left a pool of blood on the ice - was taken to the Toronto dressing room and did not return. ... Toronto D Carl Gunnarsson was awarded a penalty shot in the final minute, but couldn't solve Rinne.


text:
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The accelerated 4+1 program in Industrial Engineering (IE) is available for students currently admitted in the Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E) in Industrial Engineering or for students admitted to the Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E) in Engineering Management with a focus in Business Analytics. This allows students to graduate with a bachelor's and a master's in IE in five years of full-time course work. This program is particularly suited for students with strong academic backgrounds who are motivated to pursue independent research. Participants will have an opportunity to work in a laboratory/research environment and engage in theoretical and/or experimental work with faculty and doctoral student mentors.
The merge (or integration) between the two programs occurs when students select their Career Focus classes for the bachelor's program. The Career Focus courses will include 500-level graduate courses and will apply toward the 30-hour master's degree (in addition to applying toward the 120-hour bachelor's degree). Once the bachelor's degree is completed, students will need an additional 21 credit hours to earn the master's degree.
*Courses can only be eligible for double counting after acceptance into the 4+1.
Students interested in this program must meet the following eligibility requirements:
Spring deadline to apply: 12/15
Fall deadline to apply: 8/1
Application Process for CIDSE 4+1 Programs:
Admission into the 4+1 program is competitive and not guaranteed. Several factors are taken into consideration when evaluating a student's application: the student's cumulative GPA, major, institution, personal statement, letters of recommendation, standardized test scores, and performance in individual courses.
Undergraduate students accepted into the integrated program will be eligible for graduate-level courses and seminars. They will be considered as undergraduates until all B.S.E. program requirements have been completed. Students will need to work closely with their Graduate Advisor to determine the appropriate graduate courses to register for while enrolled in the B.S.E degree and to complete the graduate course registration process.
Upon receipt of the B.S.E. degree, the status of the student will change from undergraduate to graduate, which means the student will be eligible for graduate research assistantships and related health insurance and tuition waivers. Students will not be able to register for their first semester as a Master's student without notifying a graduate advisor regarding their graduation.
Students pursuing the thesis option for the 4+1 should identify a faculty member at CIDSE as an advisor, if they have not done so already. In consultation with the faculty advisor, the student will develop an integrated plan of study (iPOS) leading to the dual degrees. Students should frequently check the MS in Industrial Engineering handbook to make sure that they are meeting all of the requirements for their Master's degree.
Satisfactory progress in the integrated 4+1 accelerated program is achieved if the student maintains a 3.00 GPA in overall graduate course work in the student's approved master's program of study. Students who are concerned that they may not be meeting this requirement should meet with their graduate advisor for advice on next steps.
The student may drop out of the 4+1 accelerated program and return to a regular B.S.E. program at any point of time. Students opting to not continue with the 4+1 accelerated program will no longer be able to double count the nine hours towards their graduate degree. Those nine hours will only count for undergraduate credit for their B.S.E. degree. Students who are dismissed, or voluntarily withdraw, from the 4+1 accelerated program and return to undergraduate status, are eligible to apply for admission to the stand-alone master's program in Industrial Engineering.


text:
Surya Engineering Works is specialized in providing the best possible range of CamLock, Coupling, SS Fitting, Adapter, Rubber Hose Assembly, Flexible Connector and PTFE Hose Assembly. We came into existence in the year 1998, with an aim to satisfy huge client base of construction, water treatment, food processing and many other industries. Our specialized range of camlocks is a special kind of hose coupling that is especially used for connecting or disconnecting fittings in piping or hoses. Emphasizing on utilization of best quality raw materials, plastic or metals, our adroit team of professionals plays a vital role in maintaining quality production of our complete product range.
Enlisted amongst topmost Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Traders, Exporters and Suppliers
of the market, we have firmly positioned us at path of continuous
growth in the market. Our focus always lies in adding value in our
entire product range so that its quality may exceed clients
Common Areas We Serve
We have cornered the whole market and served clients of following industries:
Camlock Fasteners Categorization:
We make available following eight types of camlock systems as per application requirement.
Type A it is having male camlock end & female pipe thread each of same size
Type B it has a female end and male pipe thread of same size
Type C it is having a male hose tail and female end
Type D has female end & female pipe thread
Type E is featured with male hose tail and a male camlock end
Type F has male camlock end & male pipe thread of equal sizes
Type G is especially an end cap with female camlock
Type H is end cap with male camlock
Client List
With a
collective experience of 19 years, we have been able to mark a distinct identity. We have been specialized in fabrication of connectors, pipe hose
assembly, corrugated hose and many more pipe fitting equipment for our reputed clients. Our position in the market is largely attributable
owing to our reliable client base. Our famous clients include:
Why Our Fittings and Camlocks?
With our
stringent quality norms and fair business practices, we have been able to deliver a range that meets ISO quality standards. For this,
we have hired an experienced team of professionals having deep
knowledge of market and technological advancements. We suggest clients
to be benefited with our products having following features:
SURYA ENGINEERING WORKS All Rights Reserved.(Terms of Use)
Developed and Managed by Infocom Network Ltd.


text:
How to Sell a House You Inherited in Chesapeake , Virginia – The story behind probate!
If you really need to sell a home you inherited in Chesapeake , Virginia then you've come to the right place !
"… I don't know why, but it's been very hard to sell my inherited place"! Read on to learn how to sell a house you inherited in Chesapeake , Virginia …
First of all, there is always that emotional bit of preparing a loved one's house ready for sale – which most likely includes depersonalizing his or her rooms and also cleaning out all the belongings… Then there is the cost of marketing the house in order to attract buyers.
Usually heirs get to deal with the high costs of liens and other issues. Consequently, disputes may crop up.
Therefore we at Glymph Properties have created a few points that should help steer you in the right direction, if you ever find yourself in such a dilemma. Here are a few tips on how to sell a house you inherited in or around Chesapeake , Virginia , without driving yourself and/or your family crazy.
Having a productive probate process
Get some help
The very first step you should take is to get some professional advice. You must understand the status your house is in. Make sure that you verify your ownership. Seek guidance from a real estate attorney. Get info from other experts too. And completely utilize our blog and this site too of course. We can also give you a fair deal for your inherited local Chesapeake , Virginia house if it qualifies. Fill out the form here to get started.
Next Step: Begin the probate process in Chesapeake
Before you embark on the selling process, your house must go through a probate. Most countries allow for a summary probate – which is just a simple process that takes a very short time and involves less legal processes. Once your house passes the probate process in Chesapeake , you can then put it on the market.
Tax consideration
The tax basis of your property is the house value on the date that the person who willed you died. The difference between the amount you realize from the sale and the value is basically the gain on which you owe the taxes.
How to sell a house you inherited in Chesapeake , Virginia
Agreeing to sell
If you are ready to sell your house in Chesapeake , you can inform the executor to petition the court in order to get the "go ahead" sign and proceed with the sale from the there. Problems always arise when siblings who share the inheritance have different views – for instance others may want to sell the house while others may not be for the idea. Having "multiple fingers in the same pie" always complicate matters, so remember communication is key. When discussing a situation where everyone's opinion affects the outcome the best advice we can offer is… the words you use matter, the tone with which you say those words matter, and your body language definitely matters. Be open, be considerate, and be courteous. In either case…if and when disagreements occur, it is important to "disagree to agree". It is also important to involve your estate lawyer in this stage.
Preparing to sell
A house that belonged to an elderly person may require repairs and a bit of updating before you can put it on sale. You will need to get rid of everything! You can choose to hire an inspector to note down potential issues and recommend possible repairs. Although you can sell a home in Chesapeake "as is" you may be forced to accept a lower price, especially if your house requires extensive repairs or cleaning.
Here at Glymph Properties however, we will always give you a fair deal and help you get as much value from your inherited house as possible. We regularly buy local houses in Chesapeake , repair and fix them up and either rent them out or sell them to someone else looking for a great deal.
If your Chesapeake property meets a few simple qualifications, we can buy your house rapidly.
If you're looking for a REAL investor to buy your property in Chesapeake , then Glymph Properties can help.
Fill out this form or give us a call anytime at 888-509-6267 Ext 4 for a Fair Cash Offer
Visit our website
We are interested in buying properties in: 23320, 23321, 23322, 23323, 23324, 23325.
Are you looking to find other properties to invest in… visit our investor website or give us a call anytime at 888-509-6267 Ext 25 for a Fair Cash Offer
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Are you looking for rent to own properties… visit our rent-to-own website or give us a call anytime at 888-509-6267 Ext 27 for a Fair Cash Offer
Check out our rent-to-own blog!


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High-precision machine guidance and production monitoring for accurate and consistent drilling
J²drill is an accurate, high-precision GPS navigation system, coupled with real-time sensor feedback which empowers site personnel to make informed decisions on management, production performance, operator performance, planning, and consumables. Rely on J²drill for reduced ore loss, improved recovery, and better monitoring of production data. Eliminate the need for surveyors to stake a pattern and decrease their exposure to dangerous locations.
J²drill provides machine guidance for both rotary blast hole production rigs and boom/articulated drill rigs. This is performed by displaying the drill rig in relation to a virtual drill pattern on the J²drill display. The operator uses the display to guide the drill into position and orientate the mast or boom at the correct angle. The system automatically adjusts the display by zooming on approach, displaying distance to hole and switching between screens depending on current operation.
J²drill is integrated with the Jigsaw Operations Suite. The suite links fleet management and optimization, high-precision guidance, and autonomous control into a Universal Hardware and Software Platform (UHP) to deliver a total mine management solution. The UHP can be swapped between any machine in its operating class, lowering capital outlay, and increasing flexibility.


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My Secret Pocket Tooth Fairy Pattern is here! My daughter lost her 1st tooth last Xmas and I created this adorable Tooth Fairy especially for her. I'm so excited to share it with you all at last!
✄ Grab my ✄ ITH Tooth Fairy Pattern Here!
❤ You're kids will love hiding their teeth in Fairy's secret pocket ... ... Ta Da .. a treat will magically be there in the morning!
✄ Grab the ✄ PDF Sewing Pattern Tooth Fairy Here!


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Discovering ncurses, the GUI for the Linux Console - page 2
ncurses, a GUI for the Linux Console
It's entirely possible to run an ncurses-based program within a terminal running in an X environment. The main thing to bear in mind when doing this is that the ncurses mouse-handling overrides the X mouse-handling while the mouse pointer is within the window that the ncurses application is running in. So you can use the mouse to click on menus and links, but you can't (unless the program implements this itself) copy-and-paste using the normal X methods.
In terms of a straight comparison between ncurses and X as ways of providing a graphical interface, X certainly provides much more scope for things like moving between terminals, and cutting-and-pasting between terminals. Fundamentally, X provides a way of managing multiple windows within a desktop environment, and ncurses doesn't. screen, which uses part of the ncurses code, does provide multiple terminals within one session, which you can paste between, but you can't natively cut-and-paste between two separate instances of screen, or even use X to do this between ncurses programs in separate terminals.
ncurses applications are also less aesthetically pleasing, by and large, than X applications, due to the limitations imposed by operating within a terminal; they tend to look quite blocky and very text-based. The extent to which ncurses applications are GUI-like is more about their logic and internal navigation than it is about their aesthetics. However, this 'graphical logic' can be incredibly useful. Being able to use the mouse for browsing within w3m is useful; and being able to use a menu-driven system for configuring a new Linux kernel (with make menuconfig) is incredibly useful and makes the task significantly easier. (There is also an X kernel configuration tool available, but you don't always have X running when you're rebuilding a kernel!).
Even in a modern system, it's not necessarily the case that a full-on GUI will actually give you significant improvements. Depending on what you're doing, the graphical login of ncurses may be enough of an improvement over a text-only CLI; and ncurses applications are way more lightweight than X applications. Most importantly, they don't require you to be running an X server, which isn't always either desirable or practical.
If your focus is on aesthetic beauty, or you need a desktop-style environment, then by all means stick with X and regular GUIs. If you want ease-of-use and low overheads, and you're either not bothered about graphical bells and whistles, or running in a terminal or console environment, ncurses-based programs can make that terminal environment far more usable, fast, and productive.
- Skip Ahead
- 1. ncurses, a GUI for the Linux Console
- 2. ncurses, a GUI for the Linux Console


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On September 21 and 22nd, the duClay Chapter was thrilled to host Jane Timmers of Fancy Work. Our class was held at the historic Bensel House which is located on the river. Thank you to the Lynch's for their generosity in letting us meet there. Eleven EGA members participated in the class and a big thank you also goes out to Melody, our VP of Programs/Education for another successful class!
Our class kits - lots of beautiful silk and linen from Lakeside in the Bittersweet colorway! Real freshwater pearls too!
Our class project was Shakespeare's Garden Sweet Bag. Isn't it gorgeous? The class covered instructions on the speciality stitches and the skills and techniques needed to finish the bag. The two days were fun without being overwhelming. Jane is a delightful instructor and her love of needlework, design, and finishing is very evident.
The quotes on the back of the bag are from Shakespeare's plays and are related to flowers and gardens.
Thank you to our member Henri who made orts containers for each of the attendees. They can be folded flat and can easily slip into a pocket in a stitching bag to take home.
One of our out of town members, Jill was in town for a family wedding and stopped by for a bit of stitching and lunch. It was delightful to see her! Come back soon Jill!
Speaking of lunch, we catered lunch for both days from Brenda at Fancy J's Catering. The food was delicious. Dessert was a bit hit too!
Melody (L) and Brenda (R)
Lunchtime view from the front porch of the Bensel House.
Henri also made this card for us to sign and give to Jane. The Chapter gave her a pair of Bohin scissors as a thank you gift.
Here are some other pictures from the class as well as some pictures of the projects Jane brought with her to share with us. Lots of oohing and ahhing going on! Thank you Jane, Melody and to our class members for a delightful weekend!


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Happy Star Wars Day to all you fans out there. Did you know that you will soon be able to enjoy a brand new experience at Walt Disney World? It's true! Disney is not only creating a new Star Wars themed land inside Disney's Hollywood Studios, there are also rumors of a new, interactive hotel in the works. Don't just take my word for it, though. Check out this article that recently appeared in The Telegraph. To view the current construction, check out this video, and keep up to date with all of the progress by following Disney's blog.
Want to learn more about everything Star Wars currently inside the park? Then click here.
With construction recently completed on Pandora, the World of Avatar, in Disney's Animal Kingdom, it seems that Disney will be moving along quickly with the Hollywood Studios expansion (for both Star Wars and Toy Story). Both are set to be complete in 2019.


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Bayern Munich: Neuer plays down rumours of a summer move to Manchester City
15 February at 17:40
Bayern Munich and Germany number one Manuel Neuer has played down rumours that he will be reuniting with his former boss Pep Guardiola this summer.
Ahead of tonight's Champions League last 16 first- leg encounter against Arsenal, Neuer told reporters in response to whether he would be replacing Claudio Bravo at The Etihad Stadium, that; "There was no contact and, as you know, I'm happy and satisfied here - and my contract I've just extended actually."
He continued; "It honours me that there's speculation and talk about it. Pep still has my phone number - but he hasn't called me, so everything is alright."
Since letting England custodian Joe Hart go out on-loan to Torino for the season and replacing him with Barcelona's Claudio Bravo, the Catalan tactician has been heavily criticised with the 33-year-old Chilean putting in some less than convincing performances as he struggles to get to grip with the Premier League.


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I signed into Blogger this morning and was much surprised to find that having an active Blog qualifies me for a Gmail beta account. I've set myself up with an account at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Since I do want to be a good, little beta tester, it would be very helpful if you could spare a moment to send me some email. It doesn't have to be anything specific or profound. Just a simple test message would be find.
Oh, and before I forget: whooo!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
GMail Beta!
I signed into Blogger this morning and was much surprised to find that having an active Blog qualifies me for a Gmail beta account. I've set myself up with an account at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Labels: gmail, Miscellania
Sunday, April 25, 2004
How to Tell Your Ass from a Hole in the Ground
When I started this blog, I said that I'd occasionally like to do something silly. Well, here you go!
Since time immemorial, mankind has pondered the question of how to tell its ass from a hole in the ground.
Among the first people to tackle this subject in a rigorous and philosophical manner (meaning one guaranteed to ensure tenure) was Sophocles who suggested that holes were distinct from asses in as much as people tended to put things into holes. Unfortunately, most of Sophocles' compatriots were Greeks and, thus, did not find this a useful distinction.
Socrates, on the other hand, suggested the following syllogism:
- All mortals have asses.
- Socrates has an ass.
- Therefore, Socrates is the only person who knows his ass from a hole in the ground.
Plato, the arch-student of Socrates, disagreed with his mentor by suggesting that there exists an Ideal Ass and an Ideal Hole and that we are like people trapped in a restroom who can only see the shadows of these Ideal forms being cast upon the stall.
Aristotle had a great many things to say on the subject including such observations as that man is the only animal that has an ass and that nature abhors a hole. Although Aristotle's work on the subject held sway for centuries, modern philosophers now realize that nearly everything Aristotle said about this was wrong and only continue to read him so that they can enjoy the sensation of smug amusement.
It was not until the Enlightenment that philosophers once again began to ponder the question.
Descartes conceived of reality as an infinitely dark hole and insisted that the only thing that we could be sure of was that we had an ass. Pascal, much impressed with this, took Descartes' observations and recodified it into his famous "You Bet Your Ass" Wager.
Hegel, on the other hand, suggested that one could view the problem as a dialectic:
- Thesis: Ass
- Antithesis: Hole
- Synthesis: Asshole
He then proceeded to kick Berkeley in the ass and shoved him down a hole.
Kant believed that it was the hole that made the ass possible and not the ass that made the hole possible and was preparing to construct an elaborate system of ethics from this contention when he abruptly ceased work on the project after Hegel called him an asshole.
Perhaps the bleakest view on the subject came from Nietzsche who wrote, in Thus Spake My Buttocks, "The Ass is dead and we have killed it!"
He also warned that if we gaze into the Hole, the Hole also gazes into us.
Spinoza proclaimed that asses and holes were one and the same but most of his fellow philosophers believed that he only reached this conclusion because he always had his head up his ass.
Freud did not offer any means to tell one's ass from a hole in the ground but did insist that it was this very confusion that was the genesis of all neurosis and that one should, therefore, talk about it in excruciatingly graphic detail. Jung, however, disagreed, claiming that the Ass and the Hole were primal archetypes and that it was the descent of the Ass into the Hole that formed the basis for all societies, religions and governments.
The advent of quantum mechanics has, like all other things it has affected, deeply confused the issue. Bohr claimed that asses and holes only exist when there is someone to observe them to which Einstein famously replied, "God isn't that kind of asshole, you schmuck!"
Heisenberg proclaimed that the matter was fundamentally indeterminable and that it was impossible, even in principle, to truly tell one's ass from a hole in the ground. At best, we could only say that we probably know one from the other.
Schrodinger provided the interesting paradox of "Schrodinger's Butt," in which it is imagined that he has accidentally got his ass stuck in a hole after being administered a Barium enema. According to the dictates of this thought experiment, so long as no one actually looks in the hole, the ass and the hole would exist in a mixed "eigenstate" in which neither is distinct from the other. Since most people have better things to do with their time then to look at the nether regions of physicists, it follows that this would be a permanent state.
Hugh Everett has proposed an even more radical theory known as the "Many Asses" interpretation of Quantum Mechanics which claims that the universe is the product of an infinite number of "ass-events" and that every "ass-event" causes a "flushing" in the time stream. Although this theory provides one of the more interesting and mind stretching solutions to the problem, Everett's detractors claim that it is actually full of holes.
The current set of Postmodernists have, for the most part, decided to unask the question. They believe that every culture has a unique and valid perspective on the question of asses and holes but that only White European Males are really assholes.
Labels: Essay, Humor, philosophy
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Diamond Factoid
I learned an interesting thing about diamonds. Contrary to the De Beers slogan, diamonds are not, in fact, forever. All diamonds on or near the Earth's surface are slowly unraveling into ordinary graphite.
Labels: diamond, minerology, Miscellania, Science
Sunday, April 18, 2004
A Proposed Solution to the Fermi Paradox
I am sure that it says something about me that one of my hobbies is the Fermi Paradox. More precisely, it says that I'm a hopeless nerd who could really stand to get out more often. Be that as it may, the Paradox is something that engages and delights me.
A while back, the great physicists Enrico Fermi (one of the key players for the Manhattan Project) came across some of his colleagues discussing the question of whether or not there was life in the universe. Fermi pondered the question for a bit and then said (and I paraphrase), "Where are they?"
Like many profound questions, it's deceptively simple. Fermi's point was that if life did, indeed, exist and was, in fact, common (as is often believed), why haven't we seen any evidence for it? Indeed, why aren't they already here.
Other physicists have emphasized this last question by noting that the time it takes to get to the farthest star in the galaxy is the same duration that it takes to get to every star in the galaxy since you can send out a multitude of ships in every direction. Since the farthest star, from us, is about 100,000 light years away, this means that if we were expanding through the galaxy at only 10% the speed of light it would take one million years to completely colonize the galaxy. At a mere 1%, you could do it in ten million years. Even at a glacial tenth of a percent, you could still manage the task in 100 million years.
These may seem like long durations but, when you consider that the galaxy is approximately 10 billion years (or 10,000 million years, if you prefer British notation) old, even 100 million years isn't a very long time. If alien colonizers had developed just 200 million years ago at the farthest galactic point from us, they would have already gotten here well before the dinosaurs went extinct (aided by the fact that the stars, themselves, are in orbit around the galactic center).
So where, in fact, are they?
That's the Fermi Paradox. It cuts to the very core of our place in the universe and it has no easy answer. This isn't, however, to say that answers have not been proposed. On one side, you have the bleak proposition that we are, in fact, likely to either be alone or so isolated as to make no difference (see, for instance, Rare Earth by Ward and Brownlee). On the opposite extreme, you have the contention that aliens are, in fact, already here and that they've been here since the dawn of history (as the infamous Chariots of the Gods suggests). In between these extremes, you have diverse propositions including Zoo hypotheses that suggest that we're in a kind of cosmic wildlife preserve (where we mustn't be disturbed!), economic models that suggest that interstellar colonization is just too damned expensive to make it worth the effort, and such disturbing suggestions as the theory that intelligence is self-limiting and always results in its own extermination before it gets out of hand.
I will be the very first to admit that, right now, the Paradox is basically a philosophers game. A less kind way to put it would be to call it mental masturbation. In truth, the only way to solve the Paradox is to go out there and to actually take a comprehensive look around. I think that it's fair to say that this won't happen for a very long time, if ever. Be that as it may, even if there's no value to be had in considering the question, right now, it doesn't change the fact that it is still an important question as well as a good way to stretch one's mind. We certainly don't criticize the ancient Greek philosophers for thinking about the nature of the Cosmos (even though their answers were typically wrong and often amusing). In the last resort, it's harmless fun and I see no risk in indulging myself.
The first challenge for any attempt to address the Paradox is that it must account for the existing data. If alien intelligences are out there, their presence is not obvious. We have (tabloids and UFO enthusiasts to the contrary) not found any solid evidence that we are being visited. We have found no artifacts, much less anything as telling as a piece of advanced machinery recovered from the Carboniferous. Diligent sky surveys have also failed to yield anything above natural cosmic noise and a single, unrepeated "Wow Signal" that's more likely than not just an artifact of the equipment that detected it. The universe is eerily quiet. This is a challenge not only to the UFO crowd, but also to the Sagan's and Drake's of the world who imagined a universe brimming with life.
My personal hunch is that intelligence is, for one reason or another, rare. I also suspect that we are near the beginning of the fertile age of the universe and that we may well be among the first to look out upon the universe with wondering eyes. Might there, however, be some way to preserve the notion that life and intelligence are common while, never the less, accounting for the silence?
I don't have much confidence in the theories of Intelligent Design that are currently being offered as a popular alternative to the Theory of Evolution. I distrust any theory whose ultimate support rests upon the proposition that, at some point in time, a miracle happened. Appeal to miracles has always struck me as lazy, even when I was a theist. I no longer believe in any gods but, even if there did exist something godlike, I think that I would have less respect for it if it had to prop up crucial elements of its creations with supernatural buttresses. I think that a truly consummate deity would only need a single miracle to start the universe, if that many, leaving a creation that could look after itself from that point forward. Call it an aesthetic preference for Deism if you like.
That said, if there is one thing about humanity that strikes me as verging on the miraculous, it is the invention of writing. More specifically, it's our very capacity for being able to invent it and use it in the first place. Every other element of our biology and our cognition has developed through evolutionary time, including the explosive development of our brains over the last two million years. Even tool making, which has been seriously proposed (with little contention beyond stick using Chimps) as one of the few things that genuinely distinguishes us from the other animals, has an evolutionary pedigree.
Writing is not like that. Writing relates to language, of course, but language was shaped into our throats and our brains by selective pressure. Even if language is only as old as this more recent (and lonely) branch of the Hominid family, it had time to be forged by evolutionary pressures. Writing, by contrast, is too recent. Much too recent.
The earliest proto-writing extends back a mere 7,000 years, or so. Most humans were not introduced to writing until the last few centuries. Many people, throughout the world, remain illiterate. Despite this, if you were to take any random child from any random part of the world without any concern about selecting a child of the proper race or lineage, you could teach that child to write with as much facility as any other randomly selected child. What's more, if you were to apply a specific sort of lesion to a literate person's brain, you could destroy their ability to either read or write or both. This means that although we didn't evolve literacy, the structures that allow us this feat are present in every single person on the planet barring only those who have developmental handicaps and those who have suffered particular forms of neurological trauma.
I said that I would consider this to be something that verges on the miraculous. I do not mean that literally. Clearly, the skills that allow us to become literate must be co-opting existing neural structures. PET scans and MRI bear this out. Our ability to read and write is closely tied to our ability to speak and comprehend. It is, in practice, little different from being able to use a heavy wrench to drive a nail. Was it, however, an inevitable adaptation?
Is it possible that our easy facility with the written word is a fluke? Could it be that there's something particular about our own neural architecture that allowed us to adapt existing linguistic skills to the novel solution of literacy? We know that intelligence alone does not guarantee literacy. If a person misses a certain magic window, between the ages of four and seven, their ability to become literate, at some later point in life, is compromised even if their overall linguistic development is not impaired. It is not that far-fetched that there could be a species, out there, that has strong linguistic skills but no innate ability to learn how to read and write. From there, we only need to take the further step of supposing that our own species is the exception rather than the rule.
Imagine what it would mean for an entire species to be illiterate. Imagine what would happen to our own species if we were to suddenly lose the ability. Literacy is more than a form of communication, it's a way of distributing intelligence. Instead of each person having to hold everything they know in their own heads, they can offload part of the burden of memory to paper freeing up space to more efficiently use their overall intelligence. Consider how much more difficult the task of constructing a large building would be if the foremen were forbidden from using blueprints. For that matter, think of how much more challenging it is to do long division without a pencil and paper.
Literacy also gives us history. Oral histories are notoriously unreliable over any sort of long term. There is a reason that our understanding of the past changes sharply once you pass the point where we had developed any systems of writing. Once you go past that terminus you literally have to start digging history out of the ground and piecing it together in the form of pot shards and other durable artifacts. This is the reason that we know next to nothing about European history beyond a mere two thousand years ago. Literacy hadn't reached that far, yet, and more the pity.
If literacy is rare, so, I believe, must be technology. Without an ability to record a reliable history, innovations don't tend to accumulate at anything but a glacial pace (again, I use that term literally). More so, the overall level of innovation that you can achieve is limited to the population's ability to hold their entire store of knowledge in their own brains. It is not, I think, outrageous to suppose that a truly illiterate species could not achieve a high technology, much less an interstellar one.
So there is my proposal. Let's call it the Rare Readers hypothesis.
Now, do I believe that this is likely to be the case. No. I suspect that once you achieve brains that are capable of complex symbolic manipulations and abstract associations (that is, language), it's probably that the tools for literacy are already in place and only waiting to be discovered. Even if literacy requires particular neurological features, I think that it's probable that there would be selective pressures towards developing those particular features. I would not be surprised if there were a few intelligence species out there that were stranded in islands of illiteracy, but I am doubtful that this would constitute a norm.
So what was the point of all this. Well, it's fun to think about. At least if you're the kind of nerd that I am.
Labels: Essay, fermi paradox, language, literacy
Thursday, April 15, 2004
I've added a banner link to Amazon at the bottom of the page. I'm part of the Amazon Associates program so if you click through that link and then buy something at Amazon, I'll get a small cut.
Unfortunately, there's not much that I can do by the way of quid pro quo but, if you're thinking about buying something at Amazon anyway, consider it an easy way to increase your overall alotment of karma.
Monday, April 12, 2004
As noted in my last message, I dumped Bloglet as a subscriber notification service. I've been experimenting with Blogarithm and have been pleased with what I've seen. I've also found out that they do have a subscription form that you can paste into your site. If you look down at the bottom, you'll see it. Go ahead and give it a whirl.
Astute readers may have noticed that I've been experimenting with an automated subscription feature that would email people when new entries were made. The utility was through a service called Bloglet. Unfortunately, I have not been happy with how well it's been working, so I've stripped it from the site. I've been unable to find a good in-line utility for notifying users of changes. There is, however, an offsite utility called Blogarithm that looks like a good tool for tracking changes to this or any other blog you want to track.
Until I can find a better alternative, I'd suggest giving them a try.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Some Thoughts on the Survivors of Suicide
Let me start this week's topic with a relevant poem of mine:
Your Mother
Your mother had to wash
Your brains off of the wall,
Scrubbing and scraping,
But that's what you do
For the sake of love.
She's read your note.
She's like a talmudic scholar
The way she tries to tease meaning
From your words,
Your final words.
She even tries to read
What you forgot to write,
As the why of it eats her days,
But all she sees
Is an emptiness that feels
Like a closed casket
Hole in the ground.
It is an open secret that I attempted to take my life when I was twenty-one via an overdose of sleeping pills. It was, without doubt, the worst decision that I have ever made and I am exceedingly fortunate that I had time to repent my decision. I came all too close to lapsing into a perfect and endless sleep. No, strike that. Suicide gets enough romantic imagry. I came close to dying and that is that.
Over the course of the next five years, or so, I confronted the depression that drove me to it and eventually mastered it. After I had extracted myself from harm's way, I set about putting together a project to help others who were contemplating suicide. It took the form of a web site called Songs of the Phoenix and it used, as its hook, the first one hundred poems that I wrote after my attempt.
I sincerely believe that the site did a lot of good. I got frequent emails from people seeking help and I offered both my personal advise as well strong encouragement for them to seek professional help. Often, the mere realization that someone else had gone through the same experience and suffered the same feelings seemed to help.
In addition to emails from people thinking about suicide, I got a surprising amount of messages from people who had lost loved ones to suicide. When I say surprising, I mean that in every sense of the word. I had not given much thought to what suicide does to those who are left behind. The pain and anxiety that came through these letters was intense and palpabale. Again and again, I was asked to explain the unexplainable.
One of the things that distinguishes the human animal is that we are truth seekers. When something happens, no matter how trivial, we like to understand why it happened. This desire for understanding is magnified by tragedy. When something terrible happens, our desire to understand becomes critical. We want to know what happened, why it happened and, if possible, we'd like to be able to assign blame.
When someone loses a loved one to suicide, these natural desires have a way of getting twisted around. The question of what happened is easy enough to answer but the reasons for why it happened are often hidden in a riddlework of cruel enigma. The worst question is the one of blame. They don't want to blame the person they lost, so they find themselves seeking to assign blame elsewhere.
Sometimes they blame their friends. Sometimes, especially in the case of teen suicide, they blame the authorities that we entrusted their children to. More often than either of these, they blame themselves. They ask themselves why they didn't see the signs. They wonder if they could have done anything to prevent it. Worst of all, they ask themselves if they did something to cause it.
There's a lot of myths about suicide.
There's the myth that someone who's suicidal always gives off clear warning signs that they are about to attempt something. The truth is that people who are thinking about suicide can be immensely subtle.
Then there is the myth of the suicide note. Myths rather. The first myth is that there will be one. Often, suicide is a spontaneous act. Relatively few suicides are actually planned. More often, someone whose depressed suddenly decides that they can't take it anymore and then acts upon that feeling at the earliest opportunity, which may be as close as a loaded gun or a bottle full of pills. The second myth of the note is that suicide notes can explain anything. A life is a complex thing and it's impossible to justify why someone would choose to forsake it in the space of a page or two.
The worst myth of suicide, however, is that it's romantic. Suicide is always ugly. There is the shock of discovery. There is the immediate and imponderable agony. Then there is the fact that someone has to deal with the body. That duty typically falls on the people who were closest to the victim. Even in the case of relatively "clean" suicides, such as death by overdose, that means that thier loved ones have to clean up the literal shit that the body expells when it dies. Finally, there are the questions. The unanswerable questions that people ask themselves in hopes of filling the terrible void that's left behind.
There is no romance to suicide. Ever.
When I have talked to survivors, I have tried to explain that suicide isn't a rational decision. People who kill themselves are usually in such an immense state of pain that they aren't capable of seeing a way out of their misery. It is little different than what wild animals do when they chew their own limbs off in order to escape from a trap. I try, above all, to explain that there is no blame and that it's not fair, to themselves, to suppose that they could have seen the signs in advance.
I honestly don't know how much comfort this has provided. I can only hope that it has, at least, been a little.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
I have added a comments feature that will follow each article. I'm using Haloscan. This is a free service (registration required) that seemlessly integrates into Blogger as well as any number of other popular blogs. The scripts that it generates to add to your template are simplicity itself.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Encounters with God
Before I present this week's essay, I'd like to take a moment to say that the purpose of this site is not to be a forum for my autobiography. While I do intend to occasionally include autobiographical elements in my essays, it is my goal that, when I do so, it will be to illustrate a larger point or idea. As it happens, this essay is almost entirely autobiographical being mainly a story of my personal journey into and out of religious belief. It's also fairly long. If this doesn't sound like the sort of thing that would appeal to you, I would suggest that you might want to wait until next week.
Atheists in this country (by which I mean the United States of America) have a common tendency to exaggerate their plight. This is not to say that there arn't any atheists, here, who have suffered discrimination in the workplace or before the law, nor is it to claim we are never the recipients of threats and even violence. It is, however, to say that these are not the norm. Certainly, in comparison to such groups as homosexuals, our lot is not so terrible.
In my own experiences, the very worst thing that has happened to me as a consequence of my atheism was a single death threat. This sounds dramatic but it was the sort of anonymous threat that tends to bubble out of the cesspool that is Usenet and, while I did forward it to the proper authorities, I did not feel any great distress. I have certainly never suffered any actual violence due to my atheism and the only times I have felt compelled to conceal it was not for concern for my safety but rather for fear that I'd have to engage in some awkward discussions with people whom I had no interest in debating.
Rather than saying that American atheists are a persecuted minority, I would say that we are, in fact, an irritated minority. It is important to understand, however, that the amount of irritation that we receive is not negligible. There is a de facto presumption, in our culture, that it is perfectly okay to criticize atheism and to belittle atheists for holding incorrect beliefs. At the same time there is a double standard where atheists are considered to be arrogant for assuming that we are correct in our beliefs and that we are bitter and hateful for having the audacity to question the beliefs of others. In particular, it is inevitable that if one admits to atheism it is only a short amount of time before someone comes along to challenge that admission with a set of arguments that we have heard innumerable times before. It is for this reason that atheists tend to have a very ironic familiarity with religious argument.
For myself, the most vexing response to my atheism, however, is not the amateur theological arguments that I get exposed to (there was even a point where I sought such arguments out, though not so much anymore) but, rather, the suggestions that people give me to help me cure myself of this epistemological affliction. In particular, the people who suggest that I should just open my heart up and try to believe in God. The reason that this is such an irritant is that I have yet to meet an atheist who hasn't, at some point in her life, attempted to do just that or, at least, has given the question some very serious consideration.
My first experience with the notion of God was while I still in Kindergarten. We had a teacher who wasn't overly concerned about adhering to the Supreme Court's stance on the separation of Church and State. She read us the tales of Narnia, she had us sing religious songs and our craft projects would have the occasional religious iconography (especially around Christmas). I definitely knew about God. Did I believe in God?
It's hard to say. I suppose that it would be accurate to say that I believed in him (and yes, he was a him) in the same sense that I believed in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. This isn't to say that I had some advanced theological sense whereby I knew that God had to be considered a fiction. Rather, I had the same sort of relationship that five year olds have to all things that are outside of their immediate experience. For a child, the border between reality and fantasy is thin, blurry and permeable. I seriously believed that my best friend and I were actually alien dinosaurs, for instance. At the same time, when my friend announced that the whole alien dinosaur thing was just make believe, I had no trouble nodding and agreeing with him. Reality, at that age, is malleable.
There is also the factor that I didn't really quite understand what God was supposed to be. I knew that God was supposed to be able to do anything, and that God was supposed to be invisible and that he was, most confusingly of all, supposed to be everywhere. Beyond that, the sum of my knowledge about the subject was conveyed to me by the sort of religious claymation specials that they showed around Christmas and Easter (but Christmas and Easter were definitely about presents and eggs, respectively).
It should be noted that my parents never introduced me to religion (more about that later) so it's possible that my own understanding of God was thinner than the other kids. I don't think that's necessarily the case, however. I remember an incident where one kid claimed to be God and one of the other kids demanded that he prove it by picking up a nearby motorcycle. To me, this suggests that God and Superman occupy the same niche for kids that age.
Around the age of seven, I learned that I was an atheist. When I say that I learned this, what I mean is that my parents told me that we were atheists and that we didn't believe in God. This does not mean that I had any more of an idea of what atheism was than I did of what God was. It was just a label. If I had been told that we were Jewish, I would have happily considered myself a Jew. If I had been told that we were Buddhists, a Buddhists I would have been. If I had been told that we were Martians, I would have cheerful and proudly been a Martian.
Past the point of correcting my mother for her occasional "God bless you," in that smugly insufferable way kids have when they catch an adult in an error, I just didn't think much of it. The closest it came to being any sort of issue was one day, in the third grade, when I got into a lopsided shouting match with the rest of my class over whether or not there was a God. It was the typical sort of opinion exchange that kids have with them yelling "Does too!" and me yelling "Does not!"
I think that our teacher was more distressed about this than any of us. For us, it was just the sort of argument that kids have over anything where there can be a difference of opinion. It was no more serious than arguing over whether Mickey Mouse was better than Donald Duck.
I didn't have my next brush with religion until the age of nine or ten when I was vastly surprised to find that I needed to go to Summer Bible Camp. So, how is it that my so-called atheist parents sent me to what amounted to a Christian summer school? Well, the answer to that question is that I am not sure that my mother was really much of an atheist. I know this for a fact: through her childhood and up into her adulthood she was raised a Catholic. At some point between there and then she became an "atheist". At least, she said that she didn't believe in God but, I suspect, that she was probably just going along with my dad's stance rather than stating her true beliefs. I think that she was actually somewhere between a lapsed Catholic and an agnostic. To which of the sides she was closer, I cannot say.
Be that as it may, this wasn't an attempt to sneak some religion into me under my dad's nose. Her reasons were humanitarian: my best friend was apparently worried about my soul. At least that's what my mother heard from his grandmother. So, to sooth my friend's alleged concerns, she cheerfully sent me to "camp" with him. His grandmother was a saintly woman but could she have made that up, herself, in order to save my soul? I honestly don't know.
It was not a grueling ordeal. It was, actually, pretty fun. Now, I should disclose one thing. At no point did I display my atheism. I decided that it was best to just blend in and go with the flow. When the pastor asked for amens, I gave them mine right along with everyone else's. When we were asked to affirm our belief, I affirmed mine, too. I even ended up giving a one-boy presentation, on our graduation night, where I gave a free flow talk about religion (and got many compliments, I might immodestly add, afterwards).
But at no point did I start believing. It wasn't that I was being deliberately deceptive so much as that I found that the subject really didn't concern me. It didn't really bother me that people were claiming that God actually did exist. We just didn't agree. I even thought that it was kind of nice that my friend was concerned about me. I certainly didn't feel adverse to Christianity or anything like that. It just wasn't for me.
My overall indifference didn't last. By the age of twelve I started to get this urge to find religion. I remember giving God a test, once. I prayed for him to show me the location of something that I had lost. Naturally, I found it at some point after that and decided to construe that as a sign and a miracle.
I just could not sustain my belief. The harder I tried to open myself to God, the less I could bring myself to feel anything. It literally felt like I was clutching at air. In the end, I gave up and didn't think about it, again, until I was fourteen.
By that point, my understanding of religion had become more sophisticated. I had, at least, a passing familiarity with all of the major world religions as well as a good sense that there were even more religions out there. I had a feeling that I ought to believe in a God but I had no clear sense of which one. Attempts to find Christianity continued to fail and none of the other attempts had born fruit. I studied and I prayed. I felt an acute need to find something.
Finally, I found Islam. There's a story that had a lot more meaning to me at the time which, now, simply seems embarrassing. One day, while I was studying the Koran, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I miraculously "knew" that Islam was the one, true religion.
Yeah, I know. It's pretty thin. Conversion stories often are, though. How many of the great religious stories revolve around having a vision or an epiphany, after all? All I can say is that it seemed like a genuine revelation and I embraced it with all my heart.
Why Islam? Who knows. I did know an Islamic girl whom I was attracted to, but I retained my newfound faith even after she utterly rejected my claim to be a Muslim (and I can only imagine how outlandish that claim must have seemed to her). She stopped talking to me, and I continued believed. She moved away, and I still believed. I remained a believer for a full three years after she disappeared out of my life (for a total of four years of religious conviction).
Did puppy love have something to do with me choosing Islam? I think it's plausible and even likely. Did it have anything to do with me remaining a Muslim? No. That was part of something deeper.
When I believed, I felt fulfilled. I felt part of something bigger and more important than myself. I felt like I was, personally, part of some grand design. Most importantly, I had a wonderful feeling of certainty – that I had an inside scoop on the answer to the most profound mysteries of life and existence. I knew God and felt his presence in my life and in the cosmos as a whole.
I liked that feeling and wanted, very much, to keep it. That's why it felt so awful when it finally came tumbling down.
In the end, I found that had to keep making compromises between my religion and the rest of what I knew. I have always been a bookworm and one with an appetite for scholarship. I read voraciously on a wide range of topics. Whenever some random fact came into conflict with my religion I would invariably (and, often, instantly) reconcile it with my religious beliefs with a typically small change in perspective. I actually got quite good at being a lay apologist.
"Perhaps this passage where God tells us that we start out as a clot of blood isn't actually meant to be taken literally and – hey! – that's really not that far from embryogenesis, is it? Of course it's not!"
It couldn't last. Eventually I reached a point where I had to decide whether or not I should trust in knowledge or if I should trust my faith. It was a slow and grueling process but the conclusion was, I feel, inevitable. When put on the scale of my beliefs, knowledge won.
This is not to say that I gave up hope on religion, just Islam. I devoted myself to serious study to see if any of the religions I was aware of, or any potential religion, could bear the scrutiny of examination. I have given every modern religion, and quite a few ancient religions, close scrutiny. The more I looked, the more elusive God (or Goddess, or the gods, or God knows what) became. The more I learned, the harder it was to hope for conviction.
The final deciding point came when I start debating the merits of atheism on the Internet. By that point, I already considered myself to be an atheist, but I wanted to hear the best arguments for theism that I could find. It was a very educational experience. I was exposed to all of the arguments for religion, both the good ones and the bad ones. The arguments had the added virtue of being delivered by their most sincere proponents.
I threw myself into that debate with passion. I tried (with varying success) to avoid the mocking of opponents that so typifies online debate but, rather, tried to focus on the serious arguments. I encouraged my opponents to make their best argument and I debated them vigorously.
At this point, I really have seen all the arguments. It has been, literally, years since I last heard a new case for theism. I've heard arguments ontological, epistemological, qualitative, deductive, inductive, emotive, rhetorical and satirical. I have had gentle discussions with theists of the highest caliber and I've gotten into shouting matches with grievous morons (and have acted the part, myself, now and again). I have thought, I have contemplated and meditated, and I've even had some very good and kind people try to pray for my soul, to no avail.
For me, at least, there is simply nothing there to find. I haven't stopped considering the question. At the utter least, I think that religion is an interesting mirror upon which we can see a curious reflection of the human psyche. I also reject the assumption that religion can only be the source of hatred and evil. I have yet to encounter a religion from which I can take nothing of value or insight; it's just that the insights seem, to me, to be human ones and not the works of transcendent beings or processes.
So, how do I reply to the well-intentioned suggestion that I just give God a try? I've never found a good reply. I don't want to summarize my travels through the religious spectrum each and every time but I also don't want to give the impression that I'm dismissing the consideration out of had. Usually, I'll simply say that I have and try to leave it at that.
It is not a perfect solution.
Labels: atheism, autobiography, Essay, god, religion


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In a media release issued by the City of Sheridan, it states that Mayor Dave Kinskey will recommend at Monday's City Council meeting that Terry Lenhart be promoted to Fire Chief. Lenhart has been serving as Interim Fire Chief since the consolidation of the position that occurred when Chief Patrick Reitz stepped down earlier this year. The media release indicates that 24 candidates applied for the position and the top five of those were invited to Sheridan to participate in an assessment center in late April.
All five of the candidates passed the assessment, and Mayor Kinskey chose Lenhart from the group of five. Lenhart has more than 20 years of firefighting experience in both Sheridan and Flagstaff, Arizona. He's been with Sheridan Fire-Rescue since 1991. Under state law, the Mayor's recommendation must be confirmed by City Council, which is expected to happen at their next meeting, this upcoming Monday night. If Lenhart's nomination is approved by the Council, he'll be sworn in as Fire Chief at Monday night's meeting in Council Chambers.


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Doug CMember
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Los Angeles
film history, science fiction, board games, drawing, cooking, ethnic cuisines, hiking
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Web editor, film critic and film programmer
Favorite movies
Ordet, Au hasard Balthazar, Stalker, Europa '51, Sansho the Bailiff, Make Way for Tomorrow, Late Spring, Red Beard, Sunrise, Blade Runner, Le Rayon Vert, The Decalogue, The Mortal Storm, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Night of the Hunter, Chimes at Midnight, The Wrong Man, Father and Daughter, The Man Who Planted Trees
Gene Wolfe
Doug C replied to Pat's topic in Literature & Creative WritingA new article on Wolfe in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius
Yes, it's super exciting news, and they've already announced their home video release, too: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=16598 Despite (or maybe because of) it's length, it's completely immersive, an homage to Louis Feuillade serials, mid-'70s art/youth culture, secret societies, you name it. Eric Rohmer has a wonderful cameo as a literary professor. Rivette is an extremely fascinating filmmaker, it's tragic his "non-commercial" formats (extended lengths, alternate versions, etc.) have helped keep him off U.S. screens. He's still alive, but I understand he's suffering from Alzheimer's so he won't be making any new films. Also highly recommended is the once elusive but highly entertaining Le pont du nord (1981), which has just been released on Bluray by Kino in the U.S. and Masters of Cinema in the UK: http://www.kinolorber.com/video.php?id=1926 Sadly, I think New Yorker has pretty much folded, so let's hope Criterion or someone can pick up the work they're said to have already done on Celine and Julie. In the meantime, you can download the very cool poster and yearn for teh day: http://www.newyorkerfilms.com/administrator/movie_posters/CelineandJulie_Poster2.jpg
New Yorker distributed this theatrically a couple years ago, and has been working on a DVD / Bluray release, which hopefully will come sooner rather than later. It is far more entertaining than its relative obscurity in the U.S. would lead you to believe, and that goes for many early Rivette films including the captivating, 13-hour Out 1, which Carlotta will release theatrically in the U.S. later this year. Almost certainly influenced by the anarchic Czech classic Daisies (streaming on Hulu) and very influential on indie filmmakers (notably Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan) and a good many female buddy movies, it is unpredictable, funny, mysterious and even a little scary--probably our closest cinematic equivalent to Lewis Carroll.
The SF is problematic in that it's crucial but only half-heartedly applied. But I would forgive that -- like a playful, mid century science-lite concoction by Lafferty or Leiber or even Bradbury -- if it made emotional sense, which I don't think it does.
I'm not the biggest fan of D'Angelo's writing in general but I think that's a pretty fair description of the plot. I'm most interested in readings of the final twist. For example,I've come across two quotes from the director (as opposed to the writer) that imply that he thinks SPOILER the original couple are together at the end, but that the "bacon question" is just the kind of residual baggage all relationships have. But I think that's a rosy interretation given what we see. The more I think about this film, the more impressed I am by the performers (who cowrote and improvised all of their dialogue) and the brilliant editing, which help shape the infectious emotional rhythms. But problems with the ending are compounded. If Ethan does end up with Sophie #2, then Sophie #1 and her choice disappear entirely from the film, which doesn't seem fair given how invested the audience has been in her character.
Doug C started following The One I Love (2014)
Yes, the question remains as to whether or not it's an "adequate response." I think there could have been a better way to preserve the ambiguity, leaving it in the mind of the audience. I wouldn't want a conventional "happy ending," either. Maybe it's just the way Ethan shrugs and the Coenesque pop music fades in that makes it feel flippant to me. After being glued to the characters and their problems, I felt like the filmmakers just check out at that point: "How does this twist grab ya? Later!"
Just saw this and found it entirely engrossing without a false step the entire way (totally comfortable with CC comparisons). But ... spoilers? ... Like John, I also found the ending quite unambiguous, and Ethan's quick acceptance of his new reality a disappointingly cynical twist to a film that perpetually asked the question, "In spite of the fact that your partner is not the ideal you married, are you still willing and able to do the difficult work required to maintain the relationship?" It felt like a flippant coda to an otherwise remarkable film.
Gravity (2013)
Doug C replied to J.A.A. Purves's topic in FilmSaw's Ken's post about this on Facebook, and didn't know where else to comment. I have not seen Interstellar, so I can't offer much in the way of comparison/contrast between the two films, but I thought it was a very well written article, SDG. It reminds me of two more references for further inquiry I'd like to suggest, one is the work of Olaf Stapledon, especially Star Maker (1937), a mindblowing and extraordinarily beautiful history of the universe as seen through the eyes of an astrally projected English agnostic on the eve of World War II. I won't spoil its conclusion, but I will say that even if I don't completely share its ultimate vision, I admire its humane imagination and potent sense of awe. C.S. Lewis hated the ending, but the book as a whole is the prototype for "Man's Place in the Universe" narratives (it was a huge influence on Clarke, and thus 2001) that has never been bested. To me, it's a more applicable literary reference to the concerns of this essay than Wells. My other thought is in regards to taking "biodiversity, not music, literature, or art ... let alone religion" into space and that "Coop has made a sort of return journey -- not to his actual home, but to a facsimile" reminds me immediately of Tarkovsky's Solaris, for me the definitive statement on these matters. As Johnson and Petrie put it in their book on Tarkovsky, Lem's book is set entirely on the space station and is essentially a critique of anthropocentric thinking, whereas roughly a third of Tarkovsky's film is taken up by a "lovingly detailed presentation of the natural beauty of the earth that [the protagonist] may be leaving behind forever, and family and personal relationships have a central significance" -- "he even takes with him a box containing some earth and a plant". They also go on to note that "it is in the library, however, with its paintings and other art objects, its fine furniture, china, and glassware, and its books, that Earth becomes most inescapable and Tarkovsky makes it clear that, for truly 'human' values, we must look to the past (Brueghel, Cervantes, Bach) rather than to a soulless future." And of course, the film ends with the protagonist mysteriously reuniting with his father in a Solarian facsimile of their home, directly homaging Rembrandt's painting of the Prodigal Son.
Not sure, but I'd keep an eye on the official site.
Absolutely. I like Shinkai's earlier films a lot (especially Five Centimeters), but I couldn't even finish Children Who Chase Lost Voices, it was so dramatically inert and obviously aping Miyazaki. But Wolf Children is a beautiful film, like Christopher says, a very moving portrait of early motherhood and the Japanese countryside; also, all of the supporting characterizations are efficient and compelling, and it also has maybe the most fetching and observant depiction of young children since Totoro in their awkward but infectious movements and energy. My four-year-old (who was enraptured by a subbed version) really resonated with the characters and has been playing "wolf child" ever since. It's a very deft film with a lot of heart that never sinks into sentimentality. Definitely my favorite animated feature last year--highly recommended. Very eager to see what Hosoda does next.
Looking for Great Anime
Doug C replied to Andrew's topic in FilmNight on the Galactic Railroad is a beautiful film in spite of its often clunky animation; its reflective tone and unusual mix of elements makes it an unusually sensitive and contemplative anime. A few years back, it was available in segments on YouTube, so maybe it still is? Like you say, Anders, it uses strong Christian motifs as a stepping stone to more universal ideas (in some ways, it's a simple predecessor to Haibane Renmei) regarding personal responsibility, death and afterlife. It has a strong cult following. I think Netflix does have Spring and Chaos (2001), an animated biography of author Kenji Nakagawa, for rental. I never got around to watching it before I canceled my DVD subscription, but I hear it's good.
Little Girl (La Pivellina)
Doug C replied to Doug C's topic in FilmExisting thread here: http://ArtsAndFaith.com/index.php?showtopic=27914&hl=pivellina
A Man Escaped (1956)
Doug C replied to Overstreet's topic in FilmThe AE disc is fine, especially since you can often get it cheap and it includes the excellent documentary The Road to Bresson, but there is a French Blu-ray with English subs as well. It is true that Criterion will be releasing it some day soon--as its recent Hulu and theatrical appearances have made clear--so do keep that in mind. Edit: I definitely wouldn't get the NYer DVD...it's a lackluster transfer from the PAL source (which means it has a lot of interference in stills and plays at a slightly faster speed than normal), doesn't have any extras, and (I'll admit this is minor) blasts Mozart at you every time you go to the menu. Wait for a proper Criterion release...or better yet, catch it on the big screen!
Kindle and other E-readers
Doug C replied to Christian's topic in Literature & Creative WritingOkay, new Kindle HDs catch up with many Nexus stats, but add a bunch of silly software I'm not that interested in. (And I already have a camera and HDMI hooked to my Mac and Roku). Given that most of my content is side-loaded anyway, the fact that the Nexus has partial GPS capability is a major draw for the city explorer and hiker I am. I'll probably get a Nexus, but I'll always be grateful for Amazon forcing Google and Apple to make devices at a much more realistic recession price point.
The complete films of Jean Vigo
Doug C replied to Andrew's topic in FilmI was just reminded, in the spirit of comparisons, of Criterion's recent DVD release of Paul Fejos' masterpiece Lonesome (1928), a beautifully romantic and lyrical Hollywood silent film. If you like L'Atalante (or vice versa)—not to mention Sunrise or The Crowd—it would make a powerful companion piece. http://www.criterion.com/films/28212-lonesome