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Chapter 422 – Zhuque Zi
"Du Tian!" Zhuque Zi was wearing a fiery-red robe and his hair was moving without any wind. Although he looked ancient, he still exuded a very oppressive aura.
This person casually stood there as the sky darkened. All of the light was coming from his fiery robe, completely displaying his dominance over planet Suzaku.
One couldn't feel a strand of spiritual energy or even celestial spiritual energy in his body, but early stage Ascendant cultivators would be forced to retreat, and even mid stage Ascendant old monsters would unconsciously back up.
He was the only late stage Ascendant cultivator on plant Suzaku.
The true ruler of planet Suzaku!
Zhuque Zi calmly said, "Back then, my country of Suzaku made an agreement with your Soul Refining Sect. When the country of Suzaku is in danger, you must lend us the one-billion-soul soul flag. Today this old man is here to borrow the flag. Du Tian, bring it here!"
"Nonsense!" Du Tian gripped the one-billion-soul soul flag tightly as he stared at Zhuque Zi and shouted, "How come I have never heard of this agreement from any of the ancestors before? Old thief Zhuque, if you want to steal it, just come and take it; no need to put on this disgusting act."
Zhuque Zi looked at Du Tian, shook his head slightly, and sighed. "This matter was decided between the first generation Suzaku and your founding ancestor, so it's natural that you don't know about, but I found out about it in some old records. Today I'm not here to steal but to borrow!" With that, he reached out. The sky changed colors and red light gathered from all directions. The red light formed a giant red hand that pressed down toward Du Tian.
Du Tian shouted, "Old thief!" He waved the soul flag and without any hesitation released all one billion soul fragments. Aside from the fourth soul, the remaining 35 primary souls were also sent out.
Everything 100 kilometers was covered in soul fragments. Their screams and shrills filled the area.
The combined voice of the one billion soul fragments was more powerful than any soundwave treasure. The earth within 100 kilometers began to tremble and the surrounding mountains collapsed.
The 35 primary souls of the one billion soul fragment all had fierce expressions as they tore the red hand to pieces. Then they surrounded Zhuque Zi and stared at him viciously.
Zhuque Zi looked at the surrounding one billion soul fragments. His pupils shrank slightly as he calmly said, "Du Tian, since you remain so stubborn, this old man will have to punish you in place of your ancestors. I said I only wanted to borrow the one-billion-soul soul flag, so I'll borrow it and then I will return it to you."
Du Tian laughed with mockery in his eyes. "Borrow? How long do you want to borrow it for?"
Zhuque Zi's expression was serious as he said, "Lend it to the country of Suzaku for 10,000 years. After 10,000 years, we will naturally return it."
"Old thief Zhuque, my Soul Refining Sect has a saying: if the the flag is here, the sect still exists. If you want it, you can try to take it!" Du Tian's eyes became cold as his hands formed a seal and then he pointed at Zhuque Zi.
The surrounding one billion soul fragments immediately began to gather on the 35 primary souls and then the primary souls began to fuse with each other.
Zhuque Zi's eyes lit up. He couldn't allow this fusion to continue. He reached out and a red feather appeared in his hand.
He sent the feather forward, then it suddenly began to burn and release a ghostly light.
"Holy Suzaku Flame!" Zhuque Zi's ancient voice boomed from his mouth.
The burning feather trembled and suddenly collapsed. A surge of fire began to spread with the feather as the center and immediately covered the surrounding 100 kilometers.
The power of this flame was unimaginable. The three mountains of the Soul Refining Sect were turned into black, viscous liquid. However, this liquid quickly turned to gas.
Even the cave Wang Lin was in disappeared, and Wang Lin disappeared along with the cave.
The entire Soul Refining Sect disappeared from planet Suzaku. The hundreds of disciples and even the three Soul Formation elders hiding in the three golden rings weren't able to escape this calamity.
The 35 primary soul fragments that were about to fuse were also surrounded by the fire. Black gas was floating up from their bodies and they all had painful expressions on their faces.
"Holy Suzaku Flame…" Du Tian's face was very ugly. There were three ancient jades floating around him. They were blocking the flame.
Zhuque Zi's expression was calm as he slowly said, "Du Tian, the heavens are just. I originally didn't want to do this, but you've forced me!"
Du Tian took a deep breath, bit the tip of his tongue, spat out a large mouthful of blood, and sat down in the lotus position. Then his hand formed a seal and he said, "Soul escape!"
Du Tian wasn't his original name but his daoist name that his teacher had given him. He once told Wang Lin that all users of the soul flag have different ways of using it, and his special method was escaping.
The 35 primary souls released a green light and then disappeared from within the fire. When they reappeared, they were before Du Tian.
"What's this?" Zhuque Zi was surprised.
"Fuse!" Du Tian spat out more blood. This time the blood landed on one of the primary souls. Then, in an instant, the 34 other primary souls fused with it.
In the blink of an eye, an aura that could match Zhuque Zi appeared and the sky seemed to have been split in two. The left side was fiery red, representing Zhuque Zi.
The right side was black, representing the late stage Ascendant soul formed by the 35 primary souls and one billion soul fragments.
The moment this soul fragment appeared, it waved its hand, pushing all of the flames that were on the right side to the left side.
Like the sky, the ground was split between black and red.
Zhuque Zi's pupils shrank. His expression was a bit ugly as he stared at the soul and said, "Not bad. With that power, it can be considered the top treasure of planet Suzaku."
Du Tian's face was deathly pale. He only had less than two years left, and now that he had used the soul flag's fusion technique, he was almost out of time. He softly whispered, "Kill him!"
The late stage Ascendant soul fragment didn't go forward but raised its hand. A rumbling sound came from all directions as clouds gathered to form a human-shaped body.
This body was made of clouds and at a glance was no different from a mortal.
The Ascendant soul fragment took a step forward and fused with the body made of clouds. The cloud person opened his ghostly eyes and stared at Zhuque Zi.
"To form a body from the clouds, that is indeed only something late stage Ascendant cultivators can do! However, you are created from fusion. I want to see how long you can last!" Zhuque Zi's expression was ugly.
With that, he waved his hand. A red light appeared in front of him and transformed into a short, red sword.
The moment the sword appeared, the flame on the ground was sucked into the sword.
"This sword is very ancient and no one knows its true name. The first generation Suzaku got it and named it the Suzaku Sword." With that, Zhuque Zi pointed at the sword with his right hand.
The flying sword immediately glowed red as if it were filled with celestial spiritual energy. This sword was no different from the sword of a celestial.
This sword was a celestial treasure.
The cloud person's eyes lit up and he waved his right hand. His entire right hand flew off and became a sword that was the same as the Suzaku Sword. Aside from the color, it looked exactly the same as the Suzaku Sword; even the enormous amount of celestial spiritual energy was the same.
Then he pointed at Zhuque Zi and the small, white sword shot forth.
The red and white swords collided with each other like meteors. After a series of collisions, the white sword was clearly no match and was pushed back. However, the red sword had taken hits from the white sword's powerful celestial spiritual energy, so it was slowed down.
The cloud person stared at Zhuque Zi and let out a faint smile. Then his cloud body collapsed to form eight more copies of the exact same sword. Each one of them contained an enormous amount of celestial spiritual energy. The eight swords shot out at once. Three of them went after the Suzaku Sword and the remaining five went toward Zhuque Zi.
Zhuque Zi's expression was ugly as he backed up few hundred feet. He slapped his bag of holding to take out a gourd, then he muttered, "Collect!"
The five swords were surrounded by a powerful force and then, in the blink of an eye, were trapped inside the gourd.
Zhuque Zi's eyes lit up. He was about to use the gourd to collect the three other swords, but just at that moment, he heard crackling sounds coming from the gourd. A second later, a heaven-shattering sound escaped from it.
With a bang, the gourd shattered. The five swords flew out and stabbed toward Zhuque Zi without any hesitation.
At the same time, the swords that were fighting the Suzaku Sword seemed to have received an order, because they ditched the Suzaku Sword and quickly flew over.
Zhuque Zi's expression changed greatly and he quickly backed up.
It was not that he was no match, but the soul formed by the soul flag was filled with death and was attacking him without any regard for its own safety. Although he was confident he could win, he would definitely be injured. Normally it wouldn't matter, but right now he didn't have much lifespan left either. If he was injured here, his lifespan would shorten.
Another important matter was that the second battle with the Forsaken Immortal Clan had already begun. If he got injured here, it would be very unfortunate.


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Vests / Vestfronts
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In warm weather, it's tempting to remove the jacket after services are over. Keep cool while maintaining a professional appearance with a clerical vest. The vest covers the back and the front of the wearer, but is sleeveless to minimize added heat or bulk to the look. Select styles offer full coverage and are compatible with special clergy collars.
For the look of a vest without the bulk or heat. consider a vest front. Clergy vest fronts look like a typical vest when viewed from the front, but have an open back. The designs are meant to be worn under a jacket and include an elastic band that extends around the back to keep the vest front in place. Like typical vests, vest fronts are available in several styles and colors.
In addition to vests and vest fronts, we also carry vesteros and sweater vests. Vesteros are shaped like a formal vest, but instead of buttoning in the front, the garment secures with a series of clasps. Sweater vests are donned similarly to a sweater and are made of the same knit material, but are sleeveless to mimic the shape of a vest.
Shop Matthew F. Sheehan for the best selection of vests, vest front sand other vest-like garments. Our impressive selection of styles, commitment to quality and availability of brand-name items make us the leading source for formal clergy attire. Matthew F. Sheehan has been in business since 1907 and is the leading source of church goods and clergy attire on the net.


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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS
Today on the podcast, I chat with Daniel Flynn, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Thankyou. Thankyou is a social enterprise that commits 100% of their profit towards ending global poverty. Today, Thankyou products can be found in over 5,500 outlets in Australia, and they've donated millions of dollars to provide safe water, toilets, and health programs to thousands of people in need.
In 2008, at the age of 19, Daniel recalls sitting in front of his computer and crying. He was crying because he was reading about kids as young as 4 and 5 walking every day to collect dirty water, water that carries disease and ends up killing their brothers and sisters. It was in that moment that Daniel knew he wanted to do something to help.
After learning that 900 million people didn't have access to clean water, all while we were spending $50 billion on bottled water, Daniel set out on his mission to make a difference. Every company has a story, and Daniel reveals why every company should share theirs with the world.
In this episode, he takes us right back to the time when he started to build Thankyou. He also shares details of the business plan that took off last year when they finally entered a new market in New Zealand. Daniel also talks about his experience being interviewed by Former US President Barack Obama at the Obama Foundation Summit.
This is an unmissable episode. You will hear from Daniel about the importance of running a company with integrity, the mistakes you need to avoid when building a social enterprise, and where to put all your focus when push comes to shove.
What You Will Discover in This Episode:
- Daniel on being interviewed by Former US President Barack Obama.
- One of the values that Daniel followed when producing Thankyou products.
- The non-negotiables for building a social enterprise.
- Why it's important to tell the story behind every company.
- The two ways Daniel instils the same set of values he lives by in the people around him.
- What effective leadership should look like.
Obama Foundation Summit | Live Desk Featuring Daniel Flynn
Connect with Daniel:
Are you enjoying the podcast? Listen to the episode here and leave us a review:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/thankyou-founder-daniel-flynn-on-importance-telling/id1442173853?i=1000424016703&mt=2
Stitcher Radio: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/harvee-pene/inspiring-business-for-good/e/57257419
Don't forget to [subscribe on iTunes] to be notified when new episodes are released.


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Provide inherent cost benefits for scale-up of IMX-104 manufacturing.
Optimize process parameters for the full scale production of NTO (3-Nitro 1, 2,4-Triazol-5 One). NTO is a key constituent in the new insensitive munition (IM) formulations. Through leveraged funding, this program will install and integrate process equipment to the existing NTO process line and verify the process modifi cations increase yield and meets and exceeds NTO specifi cations.
• Completed baseline assessment on NTO manufacturing
• Completed a design of experiments (DOE) study, the variables included:
― Final re-crystallization temperature
― Cooling Rate
― Initial NTO Concentration
― Agitation
― Hold Temperature.
• Procured Scanning Election Microscope (SEM) to verify crystal structure and morphology of NTO
• Demonstrated increased NTO yield of up to 10% in a lab-scale environment. This can easily translate in increased yield in production material
• Verified NTO crystal structure and morphology; crystal structure intact and would likely pass Mil Spec requirements
• Conducted preliminary production scale design on equipment sizing and ancillary equipment
• Safer munitions - no inadvertent detonations from fire, accident
or enemy fire
• Provide the Soldier with optimized energetic constituents used in new IM formulations
• Provide the US Army a better energetic to cost ratio per Insensitive Munition (IM) benefit
• Second year ManTech Program
• Completing 30% Design
• Insensitive Energetic Munitions, IMX-101 - used in 155mm M795 and
105mm M1 High Explosive (HE) Insensitive Munitions (IM)
• Insensitive Energetic Munitions, IMX-104 - Used in 120, 81, and 60mm High Explosive (HE) Mortar Family
• Return on Investment of 3.7 to 1 with a cost benefit of $5.9M
Provide inherent cost benefi ts for scale-up of IMX-104 manufacturing.
Establish a capability to manu- facture IMX-104, a Government-owned formulation, with optimum process parameters to reduce the unit price while maintaining its insensitive munitions (IM) properties.
• Examine/evaluate factors influencing product quality
• Identify operating parameters that affect IM properties on a large scale manufacturing process
• Optimize critical operating parameters
• Prove-out process
• Confirm product quality and IM properties
• Loading operations
• Insensitive Munition (IM) compliant product for Soldiers
• Improved manufacturing efficiency
• Better understanding of operating conditions on the quality of final product
• Reduces unit cost by 20%
• A request for cost proposal has been forwarded by the contracting
• Developed and finalized a test plan for program execution
• IMX-104 will support the production of the 81mm High Explosive (HE)
• IMX-104 is the leading candidate to replace Composition B and its equivalence, PAX-21 and PAX-41 as the HE fill in various munitions items
• Return on Investment of 24.7 to 1 with a cost benefit of $55.3MPOC: Army ManTech Manager, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), Energetic, Warheads and Environmental Technology Directorate, Building 94, 2nd Floor, ATTN: RDAR-MEM-S, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ 07806-5000


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The PSA test detects the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) that is produced by a man's prostate gland. Elevated levels of PSA are indications that something is wrong with the prostate – it could be enlarged, inflamed or have a malignancy. However, just because the test shows high PSA levels, doesn't mean you should assume something is wrong with your prostate.
Doctors consider a PSA level under 4 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) as normal, though there are some men with prostate cancer who have PSA levels that are lower than this. Some medical experts recommend that the cutoff point be less than 2.5 or 3 ng/ML, especially if the patient is young.
The levels of PSA taken at any one time should not be the only indicator of disease, according to experts. Most men with elevated PSA levels have an enlarged prostate, and this is simply a sign of aging, but not necessarily an indicator of cancer. The patient's doctor also needs to observe how the levels are trending. If they are going up very quickly, the doctor might conduct more extensive tests to check for prostate cancer.
What Is the PSA Test and Who Is It For?
The traditional PSA test is a simple blood test. A vial of blood is taken, sent to a lab, and the results come back within a few days.
The American Cancer Society recommends that patients consult with their doctors about completing a PSA test when they are over the age of 50 or have an unusually high risk for prostate cancer. Other than that, the test isn't recommended for men under 40 years old or for men between 40 and 54 who aren't considered high risk for the disease. The test is also not recommended for men who are over 70 and who are expected to not live more than 10 to 15 years because prostate cancer is usually such a slow growing cancer.
Some medical experts do not recommend the PSA test for men of any age. They believe that prostate cancer screenings cause over diagnosis when small, benign tumors are found, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed. The test can also bring about false positives and false negatives, leading to unnecessary stress and anxiety.
A doctor who has a patient with high readings may follow the test with a biopsy of the prostate to look for cancer. Though a biopsy is usually safe, it's not completely risk-free.
New Types of PSA Tests
Researchers have recently developed new forms of the PSA test that seem to be more accurate when it comes to identifying prostate cancer. These new tests are:
- Percentage free PSA. The percentage free PSA tells the doctor how much of the antigen is circulating freely in the blood and compares this to the man's total PSA. Free PSA is lower when the patient has prostate cancer.
- PSA velocity test. The PSA velocity test tracks the levels of the antigen over a period of time. If a man has the test one year and has an increase that's larger than 0.75 ng/mL the next year, it indicates that he may have a malignancy, and a biopsy should be performed.
- Urine PCA3. A urine test called the PCA3 looks for abnormal genes that are found in about half of men with prostate cancer.
Should I Get a PSA Test?
The PSA test is a useful but not flawless test. It does remind both doctor and patient to be vigilant when it comes to checking for prostate cancer, but as with anything, it also has its risks.
Before you have any type of prostate exam done, talk to your doctor or an experienced urologist about the benefits and risks for your particular prostate health situation.


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Land Cover Resource Library
EO Kids: All the Colors of the Leaves
Explore in the colors of the leaves in this activity from page 3 of this EO Kids issue about how NASA sees the seasons change from space.
See how glaciers carve the landscape using sand, cornstarch and water in this activity on page 3 of the EO Kids issue about Glaciers.
See how earthquakes and intense rain can trigger landslides through a hands-on activity from this issue of EO Kids.
EO Kids: Mini Urban Heat Island
Use an infrared thermometer to record the temperature of different materials at different times to explore the urban heat island effect on page 13 of this issue of EO Kids.
Land Cover Type Quick Reference Guide
Review different land cover types using this handy reference sheet, including example photos and tips.
[3:57] Forests are an important part of the carbon cycle. This video shows how the Landsat satellites are used to track changes in forests.
Introducing GLOBE Observer Land Cover
[0:49] This short video introduces the Land Cover: Adopt-a-Pixel tool in the GLOBE Observer app.
Tracking Urban Change with Landsat
[3:10] This video explains how FEMA uses information about urban changes from Landsat satellite data to help determine flood risks.
Use WorldCat to search libraries near you, read reviews, and find editions in different languages.


text: "Though Polunin has long had a reputation for behaving inappropriately, in the last month his posts have been somewhat unhinged. … A troubling tirade about gender and sexuality remains on his feed, … though it's hard to discern his point through his manic language." In reaction, some Paris Opera Ballet dancers are objecting to his upcoming guest appearance in the company's Swan Lake. — Dance Magazine


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The Independent Soundtrack, or 'Sex Power' Meets 'Fire & Water'
Apologies for the complete lack of activity last week. I attempted to write an entry, but appeared to be going through a brief phase where everything I typed had all the merit and intelligence of a burnt waffle. The offending text was therefore quickly cordoned off and quietly disposed of in the interests of public safety and thankfully normal service has now resumed. This week, I deviate from the blog's prime directive one final time to look once more into the realm of film scores.
Like the films they were designed to accompany, soundtracks have the powerful ability take the listener into exciting new worlds. Their totality, from haunting melodies to minimalist motifs describing emotional discord, can shape an entirely new experience when listened to separate from the film itself, free of the originally intended thematic envelope. Even the casual film-goer likely has at least one score in their collection, a sequence of specially-crafted movements that captured their attention even if the movie itself failed to, or indeed it may be a compilation of 'found music' (not specially composed for the film), which in the past decade gave rise to the dubious yet predictable marketing initiative of producing 'Songs inspired by the film' – in much the same way that a communion wafer might be inspired by the Sistine Chapel. The real thing thankfully outshines these pointless attempts at greed by several orders of musical magnitude.
"The past decade gave rise to the dubious yet predictable marketing initiative of producing 'Songs inspired by the film' – in much the same way that a communion wafer might be inspired by the Sistine Chapel."
I too have my favourites among the post-film soundtrack experience. While Gladiator did for Roman history what PRC school textbooks do for Hong Kong, Hans Zimmer's wonderful and powerfully-evocative accompanying score is a powerful and moving sequence of themes that make for fantastic background music when I'm writing. And there are plenty of other worthy examples, the most intriguing of which are the film scores in my collection attached to motion pictures I have never seen. To call these 'soundtracks' is surely almost inaccurate, for they are here simply albums of music in their own right. If one's whole experience of a soundtrack is simply a long and happy flirtation with the music on its own terms, should it still therefore be shackled to that unknown piece of cinema? Below, I provide two of my favourite examples: two entirely different albums of musical mastery that evoke in me entirely different feelings than they were perhaps intended to elicit.
Sex Power
Music by Vangelis Papathanassiou
I know I wouldn't be the only one introduced to the musical mastery of Vangelis through the equally excellent Carl Sagan PBS documentary Cosmos. The 13-part series utilised much of the Greek composer's work, most notably the 3rd movement of 1975's Heaven And Hell album for the theme. The program alone provides a good cross-section of Vangelis's eclecticism, from his trademark explorations into electronica to sweeping orchestral sounds and hauntingly-beautiful use of choir. Heaven And Hell along with later Albedo 0.39 and Ignacio, albums that Cosmos viewers would hear as they travelled from the shores of the cosmic ocean to the backbone of night, all demonstrate how the long-celebrated composer is equally at home creating more commercially-attractive melodies that would become well-known cinematic themes (Blade Runner, Chariots Of Fire, 1492), to dramatically-spartan experiments in sound – echoing metallic thumps giving way to ethereal chimes and frantic piano chords – no less captivating than their more harmonically-constructed counterparts.
A great many of these trademark sounds were in evidence five years earlier, when Vangelis composed his score for Henry Chapier's art-house exploration into youth, reality and love, entitled Sex Power. The film would never be seen again following its debut at the 1969 San Sebastian Film Festival (at which Chapier won the Silver Shell Award for his efforts) until its DVD release in 2010. The soundtrack however, was given a limited release on LP by Philips in both France and Greece in 1970 and although only marginally rarer than Sex Power itself for decades, gained a growing audience thanks to the rise of recordable media and unofficial bootlegs.
While viewers are now having to decide whether the film itself was worth the wait, opinions are less divided on the music, serving almost as a black box recording of the feature for nearly 40 years. Having seen only the first 8 minutes of Sex Power (previewed on a French website), I'd prefer to abstain from judging for now. However, I have listened to and loved the film score ever since I was able to track down a copy some four years ago. From the reverberating keyboard offsetting an almost visceral scraping of metal-on-metal into an unaccompanied, yet insistent quasi-tribal drumming of the introduction, to the hauntingly-beautiful Mediterranean acoustic guitar melody reappearing in multiple forms across the album, sometimes accompanied by Vangelis on piano and a small choir peppered with swirling keyboards and spangling percussion, Sex Power offers many of the sounds Vangelis would continue to develop and repeatedly delight music fans with for decades to come.
"Sex Power offers many of the sounds Vangelis would continue to develop and repeatedly delight music fans with for decades to come."
Like many soundtracks, the chaos of the real world intrudes upon several pieces – doubtless making instant sense when viewing the film itself. Without that point of reference, the sputtering engines of race cars, police sirens, car horns, footfalls and muted clapping are an intriguing aural puzzle challenging the listener to create a coherent imagery that somehow makes sense of them all. Yet so too do the clanging triangles, gongs and industrial-sounding clatter – ominously demanding attention only to fall silent before a distant chanting heralds the gongs of an unspoken longing. Almost certainly one is listening to Chapier's journey through the blurred lines of fantasy and reality his on-screen male protagonist must ultimately make sense of, but the ominous cacophony would work equally as well in any of Armando D'Ossorio's Knights Templar zombie films. It's tempting to think that Blind Dead composer Antón García Abril happened to be in San Sebastian that year, although the likely explanation is that we are hearing many of the sounds in vogue for Southern European composers of the period. Either way, its highly-distinctive character works wonders in both camps.
While the film itself takes place in America, the music – particularly independent of any visuals, is decidedly Mediterranean, with soaring choral motifs rising above the islands of the Aegean and gently swirling guitar strings underscoring life in a small town somewhere in the south of Italy. Worn red bricks and fading paintwork give way to a shimmering azure sea, filled with the soaring white sails of gently-wavering fishing boats. In between, insistent drumming and echoing cymbals evoke shadows and uncertainty in achromatic alleyways anywhere from Cagliari to Monolithos. Isolated from Chapier's intentions, the essence of a world Vangelis grew up in rises confidently through the speakers, unfettered by the extra dimensions of the director's commentary on life in the abstract. Perhaps the score is a perfect fit for Sex Power, but it is also perfect as is.
Fire & Water
Music by J.J. Burnel and Dave Greenfield
Out yonder, there is this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great eternal riddle at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation. – J.J Burnel quoting Einstein, 'Liberation', Fire & Water.
In 1983, film-maker Vincent Coudanne turned to eclectic British rockers Jean-Jaques Burnel and Dave Greenfield to provide a soundtrack to his never-to-be-seen work, Ecoutez Vos Murs (which either translates to 'Listen To Your Walls' or 'Don't Trust Babelfish'). [Update: not quite 'never-to-be-seen', it appears. Speaking on BBC Radio in 2011, Burnel explained that Ecoutez Vos Murs did indeed get a premiere screening in London upon completion. Its audience detested it so much that it was never inflicted upon anyone else. As it happens, the webmaster of the official Stranglers website has said he plans to interview Burnel about the album to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2013, so more information is forthcoming.] The premise of the film has long been lost in the mists of time, leaving only the soundtrack to offer any kind of clue, released as it was by Epic Records on LP under the title Fire & Water that same year (the long, overdue CD release finally appeared in 2008 on the Edsel label), retroactively becoming an experimental album in its own right for Burnel and Greenfield in between their regular contributions as bassist and keyboardist respectively for The Stranglers. Indeed, anyone familiar with the band's highly-successful 1982 album Feline would not find Fire & Water such a massive departure – the former album relying heavily on the European synth stylings common to the period. However, whereas Feline was a pop album expressing The Stranglers' take on the genre with a commercial bent, Fire & Water as a soundtrack to an art-house film is free to be far more experimental, the collection of tracks ranging from the recognisable three-minute pop song to long sequences of disconcertingly ominous percussion rhythms, melancholic piano and relentless keyboard swirls demanding an atmosphere of the uncertain and the bizarre.
Liberation begins the album, with a slow, creeping build up of bleak wailing keyboards leading to a catchy drum machine rhythm relentlessly drawing the listener into its clutches. Greenfield quotes Einstein (further putting question marks on the film's storyline) and accompanied by the drums, the keyboards repeat an odd, rising, falling melody at times cheerful, at other times wavering yet insistent. The electronica having firmly set the tone, the album then launches into its one, bona-fide pop song, entitled Rain & Dole & Tea. A heavily overdubbed Maggie Reilly (often associated with Mike Oldfield) sings of an encounter with a young Englishman in Paris and the relationship that ensues. The vocals are treated so much that one can barely make out certain lyrics, however, it's a very catching tune and the undisputed highlight of Fire & Water.
He promised me everything although he was poor.
But what use is everything if he just sleeps on the floor?
That the album half-metamorphosed into a work in its own right is never more in evidence than the subsequent track, Vladimir & Sergei. 'The Chronicles Of Vladimir', told through a succession of tracks that would mainly appear as Stranglers B-sides in the 80s, relates the very tongue-in-cheek adventures of the titular protagonist, once a happy and productive citizen of Communist Russia, who slowly begins to realise life in the secretive state is not all it seems. Losing his family to a case of 'bread mould madness', Vladimir, no longer deemed able to practice sub-nucleonic particle physics, is posted to a tractor plant and there meets the ebullient and well-travelled sailor Sergei. Intoxicated by Sergei's personality and tales of distant lands, Vladimir develops a strong attraction to his new-found companion, only for the authorities to appear one evening to "cure him of his illness". Vladimir & Sergei, featuring Burnel on vocals set to a simply, but jaunty Russian-style melody provided by Greenfield, consequently has little to do with Ecoutez Vos Murs but made Fire & Water an essential purchase at the time for those wanting to discover the next installment of the unlikely hero's fate – today's CD reissues of The Stranglers' Epic-label discography have made this unnecessary. The fact that the completely out-of-place third part of the saga finds itself on Fire & Water seems to be a practical resignation that the album will be purchased only by knowing fans.
"The premise of the film has long been lost in the mists of time, leaving only the soundtrack to offer any kind of clue."
Le Soir however is very clearly a soundtrack piece. Dark and brooding, with a menacing bass riff, aggressive keyboard melody and discordant, wailing synthesiser, it maintains a thick and oppressive atmosphere. The gloomy tone continues with Trois Pedophiles pour Eric Sabyr, eschewing wailing keyboards for hammering electronic drums, thundering through the speakers like heavy raindrops on a tin roof, before an oscillating metallic hissing gives way to equally dramatic piano chords, eventually slowing and growing ever more melancholic. The tense atmosphere is finally punctured in Dino Rap, another addition to round out the album. A short tribute to longtime Stranglers minder 'Dino' whom Burnel impersonates with tongue once again planted firmly in cheek.
If you've got a pony, I might tell you where it's at.
If you've got a monkey, you're sure to get the crack.
The lighter tone continues with the next track, as Burnel and Greenfield bring Einstein back into the frame with Nuclear Power (Yes Power). The result is a reverberating synth-rock wall of sound accompanied by barely in tune lyrics that recount the late scientist's words with wailing irony. Detective Privee meanwhile returns us to Ecoutez Vos Murs, a sombre, keyboard heavy melody set to Burnel's deeply-intoned French lyrics. Greenfield rounds out the album with the almost hypnotic Consequences, another keyboard piece, though this time instrumental, with a series of arpeggios that ebb and flow finally, into silence. Owners of the CD reissue also get the bonus track single version of Rain & Dole & Tea, which in addition to being shorter, contains less overdub, allowing Reilly's lyrics a greater clarity. Said clarity does however remove some of the original's ethereal quality and smoothness, but this same difference makes it a more energetic contender for the hit parade of the day (if such things matter).
While Sex Power is a fully cohesive effort and 100% film score, Fire & Water is a somewhat haphazard affair suffering from a lack of direction as a result of the film it should have heralded vanishing without trace. It is a rough assemblage of tracks that clearly would not have seen the light of day anywhere else and are thrown together on Fire & Water for that very purpose, knowing that at least Stranglers fans, for whom the 80s was their most successful decade, would fork out for. All of which may sound as though I'm not terribly impressed by it, yet jumbled collection though it is, I really enjoy the album and find myself giving it a great deal of airplay. Its selection of moody synth and thumping bass is very atmospheric and enjoyable, with Liberation perhaps my favourite example, while Rain & Dole & Tea is a marvellous song. It polarises opinion within Stranglers circles as reviews on Amazon UK from where I purchased my copy demonstrate. Sex Power in contrast is, from beginning to end, a testament to a single, sustained vision and is all the more powerful for it. It is more than the sum of its parts, while Fire & Water is loose collection of excellent sounds and other experiments that didn't quite work. Both albums are excellent, but enjoyed within two very different moods and atmospheres. As soundtracks, both have the ability to take me on that journey into new worlds independent of the films for which they were created, standing tall as musical creations in their own right. I will admit however, to being highly curious about one thing: who was Eric Sabyr and why did he need three pedophiles? Presumably, this is what Detective Privee was investigating.
Next Time
World On Film finally returns to its original mission reviewing films from across the world. The new 'series' as it were begins with the touching, yet overambitious Bahamanian romance-drama, Float. To get a taster, view the trailer below:
Phantom Power
Greetings. World On Film is currently taking a break from weekly foreign film reviews. During this time, I will be taking some short trips and sidesteps into matters closely or very distantly connected with the blog's goal, but certainly always on all things film. This week therefore, I bring you…
Still Powerful
85 years ago, audiences gasped with audible horror as Lon Chaney's self-applied make-up was revealed to all by an unsuspecting Mary Philbin in the silent classic adaptation of The Phantom Of The Opera. Reportedly, Chaney kept the full extent of the prosthetics to himself before the actual filming for maximum impact, allowing for astonishment on both sides of the camera. The unmasking scene is still memorable to modern audiences – I was in my early teens when I purchased a fairly average print of the film on VHS back in the early 90s and remember being quite unprepared for the skeletal apparition that burst onto the screen. It was proof to me even then that the pre-talkies still worked for a modern audience.
"I was in my early teens…and remember being quite unprepared for the skeletal apparition that burst onto the screen."
Film soundtracks were of course continuous in those days. Often, rather than specially-created and timely musical motifs designed to heighten certain moments of comedy and tragedy, they were a continual, live narrative that a theatre organist had to maintain throughout the entire duration, reacting instinctively to what they saw as it happened. I wonder if they were given advance screenings so as to get a feel for the unfolding visuals, or whether that first night was the true test of their abilities. At the same time, specially-written scores began to appear for the major motion pictures, with organists handed the sheet music they were to play. Doubtless, Phantom is an example of this.
Decades after the silent film was dismissed as little more than a laughable aberration of primitive technology, its extant fans gave birth to the alternative soundtrack. Ironically, perhaps the most famous of these is little more than serendipity: Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album was declared an uncanny musical accompaniment to The Wizard Of Oz – something I have yet to confirm for myself, mainly because finding that scene where an extra supposedly hangs himself is little motivation for having to actually sit through what is probably one of the most overanalyzed cinema musicals of all time.
Everyone's A Musician
The rise of youtube has of course meant that anyone with a passing knowledge of video editing can produce short mashups that totally alter the meaning of the original subject matter. Inevitably, they're hit and miss, but there are some really thought-provoking and of course genuinely hilarious results, such as Disturbing Strokes:
"The rise of youtube has of course meant that anyone with a passing knowledge of video editing can produce short mashups that totally alter the meaning of the original subject matter."
Enter Rock, Enter Rick
Far more interesting, however, are musicians who intentionally 're-score' a film. This is precisely what prolific keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman set out to do in 1991. Phantom Power was specifically designed to be played along with the original Phantom Of The Opera as a modern take on the ancient swirling organ lines of another era. Wakeman's efforts were, in some ways, a distant musical forerunner to the significant contemporary efforts of comedian Paul Merton, who regularly tours Britain screening classic silent comedies at their correct speed to the tune of a modern organist's improvisations. It's an interesting attempt, given that most people tend to disregard pop culture roughly ten years before their birth as too distant to have any relevance. Merton's ongoing success with his screenings proves that it's simply a matter of putting yourself in the right frame of mind.
Phantom Power was however a commission from Universal – or rather the music itself was, as the album features only 51 of the 90 minute continuous score. This early 90s print, which comes before the speed-corrected version that would be released on dvd the following decade, is filled with scratches, and tinting has been applied to all but the famous colour scene of Erik in full Red Death regalia.
"['Phantom Power is] a modern take on the ancient swirling organ lines of another era."
The audience is therefore faced with what is already quite a different Phantom of the Opera before the soundtrack is even considered. I am not a fan of colourisation for colourisation's sake. It ranks up there with remaking foreign films simply for the sector of audience who declares they go to movies 'to relax, not to read'. Restoration work involving picture clean-up and speed correction on the other hand, is an example of the ways technology can be put to great use. It's hard to take a film seriously when everyone on screen seems to have ADHD, especially when physical acting has to convey so much more due to the absence of sound.
Earlier, I mentioned that the Wakeman sound was intended as a 'modern take', and so it is – for 1990. Rock as we know sees major stylistic shifts every 10 years or so, but you can literally pinpoint the period when synth keyboards are involved. It's almost hard to believe that the late 80s/early 90s faux vibraphone and harpsichord were as in vogue as one could get at the time, yet they are now just as anachronistic and primitive-sounding as the computers that powered them – the eternal evolutionary punishment for digital hubris.
Thus is the soundtrack as much out of time as the film itself, yet far more ephemeral: as always, until there is a synthesizer for every epoch, only organic music can survive the generations. For many, watching a silent film already requires placing one's self into a particular frame of mind, so far removed is it from the cinema of today. 20 years on, we now have to employ schizophrenia in order to suspend disbelief in three different time periods: 1925, 1990 and whenever subsequently you're attempting it.
"It's almost hard to believe that the late 80s/early 90s faux vibraphone and harpsichord were as in vogue as one could get at the time, yet they are now just as anachronistic and primitive-sounding as the computers that powered them – the eternal evolutionary punishment for digital hubris."
Accompanying the ironically retro keyboards to create a rock ensemble, we also have bass, lead guitar and a drum kit. Vocals are provided by longtime Wakeman colleagues Ashley Holt (first heard on the album Journey To The Centre Of The Earth), Chrissie Hammond (of the band Cheetah), and, reaffirming the keyboard virtuoso's prog rock roots, opera tenor Ramon Remedios. Not only is this a Phantom soundtrack with vocals, but clearly defined songs in between descriptive synth mood pieces. Thus does the music only partially attempt to match the action on-screen, while the songs themselves are more thematically tied to the story as a whole and the dominating character of the Phantom himself:
Everybody knows him
Everybody shows him
Every door is locked
But still you get a visit from the Phantom
The presence of Ramedios also means a number of significant gear changes throughout. Holt's husky tones swap intermittently with Hinde's higher, but no less powerful vocal thrusts through definitive period-Wakeman rock pieces, in between which, Ramedios appears with several self-contained arias. Occasionally, he'll be accompanied by Hammond, who is more rock than opera singer, but certainly pitch-perfect. She also gets behind the microphone for softer ballads, such as 'You Can't Buy My Love'. To say that there's a lot going on in Phantom Power is an understatement: the budget may not have stretched to more than the most basic of sound equipment, but the ambition is clearly evident.
Having heard just about all of Rick's catalogue at some point, I would place the quality of the music somewhere in the middle. He is best-known for defining the prog-rock genre in the 70s as part of the supergroup Yes and his own concept albums – most notably The Six Wives Of Henry VIII, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, and The Myths & Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table. These and several other efforts are in my opinion absolute masterpieces, not only of progressive rock, but of true creativity and musical wonder. I've been listening to Journey as far back as I can remember listening to anything, and it's still provokes a sea of emotions from wonder and fascination to delight and fear. Phantom Power in contrast has many good moments, is performed with technical prowess and contains a number of interesting ideas, but it simply doesn't evoke that level of feeling.
"I've been listening to [Wakeman album] Journey To The Centre Of The Earth as far back as I can remember listening to anything, and it's still provokes a sea of emotions from wonder and fascination to delight and fear."
It certainly makes for an unusual soundtrack and traveling back to that Universal soundstage of 1925 to the tune of half rock-opera, half rock album is indeed…schizophrenic. I'm definitely in two minds about how successful the project was, at the very least. The two eras don't really mesh as they should, although there were times when I forgot about the music entirely and concentrated on the visuals. This is when you know a film score is doing its job. The rest of the time, I found myself carried away by the music. One could argue unfamiliarity to a certain extent: if all silent films were scored in this fashion, it wouldn't seem so jarring. At the same time, however, I don't the songs help and completely clash with what is being attempted on screen. While you may not hear any dialogue, the actors are still speaking and clearly progressing through a sequence of actions within the story. The sudden lapse into song literally feels as though you're in the middle of a conversation while a third person is simultaneously trying to interrupt with their own perspective on the same topic. The lyrics are even more disruptive when the dialogue cards appear. Since there are other sequences where the music attempts to mirror the action, the overall effect is a little disjointed. Perhaps stronger overall direction would have reminded all concerned that they were meant to be producing a film score rather than a rock album would have prevented some of this audio-visual discord.
The lyrics at times are also a little annoying and repetitive. The words 'phantom', 'phantom power', and 'the phantom of the opera' are chanted unnecessarily across several songs – possibly an unconscious nod to the Ted Turner idiots who need their films colourised, although more likely an unsubtle attempt to build up the drama. Equally annoying are the words 'the phantom is still alive' repeated with great urgency by Ramedios as Lon Chaney flees through the fake streets of Paris at the film's climax. We know he's still alive. It's a silent film, not a radio program. The fact that it's Ramedios evokes that repetitive declaration one might find the norm in opera, however to support this view would be to let Wakeman off the hook.
"The two eras don't really mesh as they should, although there were times when I forgot about the music entirely and concentrated on the visuals. This is when you know a film score is doing its job."
Since Phantom Power the album is a polished song-driven concentration of the full score, it therefore has to be evaluated on those terms. 'The Visit' is probably my personal highlight (from which the above lyrics can be heard). The simple, yet effective and powerful bass-driven rock melody is memorable, and given extra menace by the vocals of Ashley Holt, though he's also good on the softer, but moody 'Evil Love'. The entirely instrumental 'The Stiff' gives the listener a good idea of the musical score one hears between songs across the full 90 minutes, although the equally instrumental 'Sand Dance' is the less nondescript of these unaccompanied offerings. Finally, despite the repetitive vocals, 'Rock Chase' is probably my favourite track to feature Ramon Ramedios (it features all three vocalists), perhaps because of the urgency of the piece, designed to accentuate that memorable climax.
Despite its many flaws, I find myself warming to Phantom Power with each successive listen, which in turn only supports my belief that much of the problem was jarring unfamiliarity. This does not excuse the many times Wakeman ignores the action on screen, the dated instruments, and the fact that he has definitely been more creative than this. It's certainly too anachronistic to replace the traditional organic sound audiences are used to, but at the same time, it is, as I said at the very beginning, an interesting idea, an experiment that was worth attempting. Its creator can't help the fact that it's now about as contemporary as Milli Vanilli, especially since this ultimately is what he was asked to produce. On balance, the end result is as flawed as it is enjoyable. Since it felt so far removed from the original film, I don't think it really changes my perspective on The Phantom Of The Opera. Perhaps the best tribute I can pay it is that I'd rather listen to Phantom Power any day than the overblown pretentiousness of the Lloyd-Webber musical. Now there's someone who really did miss the point.


text:
The life of space is nature. Of course, a flood is a calamity; but his grandfather felt nature had good reasons, and reserved any judgment. Another hunch of his lifetime chronicle had been floated in the first war by a European gent, who eventually felt the need to embellish it, and bequeathed to us a Howard Miller Chiming Hourglass. The adamantine charmer was made by hands, in Zeeland, in longcase, with panel glass, and with weathered wood, and endures, alluringly, in an upstairs flat in Coney Island, New York, where the iron with Ava Maria chimes ages gracefully through humdrum nights, wide, and sometimes tall, heirlooms once nourished by his elder kin; among these was the secret to the universe, the "Great Secret," not misplaced in the timeless mire of his recovery from heart failure. He concealed the Great Secret, except to a Florida neighbor, inexplicably, and he still wondered if perhaps he had just mentioned it to a crane; besides, why tell some graying, retired eighteen-wheeler, or a football coach, the Great Secret, and no one else. It was the sandhill crane, who was glaring in the screen porch, and began this account, in pencil, on a legal pad. He had joked to Red in Coney Island how one day the Howard Miller chimer would record the moment the Great Secret became Higher Law. He jotted in the lines of his sun-bleached yellow page, in the dimming light of a progressive disease: The Great Secret, the answer to the cosmos, was gales.
People in the field of education field are not infrequently stimulated by the most bizarre theories; not merely bizarre, the most bizarre. The Great Secret, thus, was commonplace; and the community could rely upon him, especially in New York, to devote days out-of-doors in any weather awaiting further genius; awash in the drift of CHF, the acronym for "congestive heart failure," and meandering, he possessed many hours in the environs of West 6th Street to promulgate this vision, even poll aimless New Yorkers with asimilar fates how gales remained disguised from fame by common meteorology. Gales rose from nowhere to continuously gentleman the process of the other inductees into nature's hall of fame; humble, transparent, and friendly, yet with substance, like "a parent," his grandfather would yarn, like a fly, fungo ball, — "like a parent rushing to a bus stop with a child's forgot lunch." (He became a teacher to repair that kind of sentence.) He did Google gales, unable to mass a constituency for them in the Big Apple. Ah, gales. A "surface wind" exceeding thirty knots. Many do equations in their minds, and they memorize poems, and compile tasks or schedules, and set casserole recipes to Rap. He like to puzzle the exotic, the theory, and the man, the happily unknown, such as why the old man gave him rubrics to chew in the first place. No matter. He could study gales in the Deep Vast, in the void between Brooklyn and Bootes Void, with a not unattractive woman. His guide, and fellow traveler, was Aji, a regarded member of the American Legion, whom, as we know, was born in Sombrero, the galaxy, not Tierra Del Fuego, neither in New York or the eastern time zone, a struggling colony in the constellation Virgo.
The prospects of the Deep Vast steadied his heart in the range between curiosity and elation, strange as an adventure for rehabilitation. He figured if all was about to end with the percussion of his own beating chimer, well, then, it was not a lifetime of waiting. It was intrepid, the wanderlust, perhaps cavalier. If the time of his life was no longer folding currency, but pocket change, it was worth the fare. He climbed aboard the LifeRaft® at a secluded point, north of Central Park, as Aji instructed him, ready to "diject," as she told him, foggy with new medication. But content "everything was clear," which is to say, "Okay," as she liked to say, – okay, a word, and a promise, a length of arms separating terror from the facts mundane.
He first saw a lifetime of rarity in the topsy-nilly of a falling holly leaf. This was still New York. He watched as it escaped from the limb of an Ilex, drifting which-way past the reach of the LifeRaft®, the "L.R."; it was one of thousands of flowering Ilex, evergreen and petal-four, and white, and growing from the Earth's laurel forests, decorated with red berries, fatal, if consumed, safe to survey. The leaf glided bound to disappear, in the gravity, in the air. It was physics, man's eminence grise, replete and gentle to the edge, comforting, like the easy breath of the sea, or gales; lively, like thunder; common as a forty-dollar surrey on the shelf: cryptic, as a red sky, or the angry, violet jigsaw Florida clouds on the ocean shore in the morning, and echoes of light. He could not write the diary, and stay in his chair. He sat on the floor. Magical skies fell into the same place with cosmopolitan musings, polite, but unknown. He remarked, "There are no more tumbling dice." There are no solutions, no dilemmas in the shade of trees. We can resolve, mindful, as he was fond of telling his university class, "Eternity is a very long time."
Part One
There was still eternity. He railed in nasty, desperate whispers about the nonsense of sirens in New York City in the shadows of the middle of the night. The graffiti sirens of Coney Island, another after another, the last before the next; tragedy is a fad, if misery loves company. He did not sleep for days. The sirens were west of Coney Island in the wee hours, somewhere in the Bronx. There were no sirens on the "free way"; the freeway was quiet. His adventure was a rare, because otherwise his life-threatening condition, congestive heart failure, generally preferred the couch, and permitted only activity it didn't notice; his state was actually stabler on the free way, given the marvels of nigh science. Aji said the "free way" was supposed to be two words, despite the affectation, unlike "freeway," like the Los Angeles freeways. He wrote, approaching İo, – pronounced "eye-oh," which he frequently printed as "io" – cynically, it would one day be quelled, and the beautiful, prismatic row would have compact cars, and roaring flat-beds. He chided his temper; cynicism could become a "goal." Heart failure, CHF, truly admires auld lang synes. He wrote, "Insomnia." Maybe he could sleep from brooding, and staring out the window, – amazed he was awake, amazed no one else was awake, but, awake still, opted to count the seconds between sirens in the Bronx, like thunder, and lightning. He might die; his cynicism would not. There was no actual pattern to sirens at four-forty-four, he knew, now, and boosted his chest. The first advice people give someone with CHF, and edema, – the bloat of fluid waiting at tollbooths in the tunnels of the body, — is to put their feet up, make sure they're higher than the rest of the body. People are innocent, but they are dangerous: The goal was to keep the fluid from drowning the heart; in a perfect world, he should stoop, and do a jig. He rose from the couch, and stooped, at four-fifty-one. He was still not asleep, but neither was he dearly departed. Gosh. The End. Aji wasn't given to political cant, or insight. The free way, he said, glancing at her uniform, and her, managing the control panel of the LifeRaft®. Who would bring anyone like him on a journey through space? Her arrival from Sombrero wavered from credulity; but, whatever else, they were going to İo. She told him point-blankly if he did sleep, he might die, and he believed in God again. That is, his heart would enlarge with all of the dilatory fluid it was unable to process as efficiently, and he would, essentially, "drown," become one of those, "plump, pale fat bodies, in the morgue." It was what no one wanted to say, especially the physicians, who pay high rates for insurance, and maddeningly didn't tell him. "Okay," he said, contented about it. It was CHF. Just another King Kong, in New York City, a great city, with very great peoples, and disregarded some of the sirens. They plagued his effort to sleep no more. It was the fourth day. Home, alone, unhappy; awake except for sixty, or ninety minutes a night, ninja pills first-responding, racing to the unmedicated dearths of flooded organs. The sirens could wait. He could wait, for the sirens. They would…keep him awake.
He confided to someone in the utter boredom at the hospital wing, – Mare Ligeia? – "Life changes are not tragic. You can just move retirement up a little, start new."
It was Mare, who was not a nice lady. observed, "You're too young to retire."
People just don't get it. He nodded warily. "Not re-tire, ahh."
He mulled the sirens, friending them in the confines of his confines. The police, the fire, the ambulance sirens of New York in the dead of the night were not frantic, like the sirens of Kristallnacht, or bombing of London in the second world war. People excel in a state of alarm. Now he wanted to return to the whooshing orbit of İo. He was content with the sirens, too. He sat up, contentedly, in a sitting position on his couch. The bed was flat. He would never lie flat in the bed. He would call Wayfair. What is the proper stance for CHF? And no senseless dawn would ever illuminate reality, and not today; what did people miss? No lives gambled in the offing to sirens meant to capture their hearts, and a town, containing them in the siren, a terrible siren, the last siren, like the sirens of Poland in the first minutes of blitzkrieg, the very instant the motorcycles crossed the line of the border: now it was a war? The ancient Greeks had sirens, yes; but those were beautiful women. He took pills, now, and shrugged, a dozen of them; before his prognosis, it was just a sinus pill, which was a kind of me-too ism. Oooh, a nice sedative, or cool pain-killer could sedate him. Mmm. He might not wake up. Ah. The Big Sleep. No, really. His eyes watered in the "midlight" of six-fourteen, and he wandered into the kitchen in a hapless fog, unable to the able.
He typed into his laptop on the table about the Greek sirens. "They were seductive," he wrote. "The Romans didn't care for them. Roman poets claimed the sirens were women who lived on a deserted island. There were three sirens, three women, partly women and partly birds. They were revered by Greeks, who claimed many, many more Sirens than just three. They said the Sirens warned sailors with their fetching muses to avoid ruin upon the stony shoals of the islands. The Greeks possibly agreed the Sirens were occasionally treacherous. They didn't warn everybody, and from time to time used their 'enchanting voices' to seduce mariners to shipwreck."
Making more conversation, Aji said, "Mythology's a trip."
"Yeah," he said, an alert passenger. He wondered why he was not terrified, or rather, cryogenic; that would make sense. "Don't you want to freeze me, or something? A stand-up pod for centuries, until there is a cure?"
"Nah," she replied, distracted by paperwork. "What you really need is a bog myrtle."
"Damn," he responded. She had a grandfather, to0.
She grinned absently about his absent faculty, and continued to press a number of latch buttons, and he dozed shortly afterwards in the polysynthetic chair. He remembered her explaining how a bog myrtle was said to possess great medicinal properties on İo, one of Jupiter's four Galilean moons. He rued absently bog myrtles were "an old wives' tale of wives who weren't born yet," lost in the syntax. He asked Aji if she heard sirens from the Grand Lumineres. She loved to talk Grand Lumineres.
He heard part of her answer. "I haven't been to the Grand Lumineres yet. It's a goal, yes. Their existence is still a theory. There are actually fables about Sirens in space. Maybe on Orison."
Aji clicked levers in a precise sequence, and marked it down. "The idea of the Grand Lumineres derives from the Big Bang, in a sort of dialectical way. The Big Bang, the explosion, was the beginning of time. That was that. The beginning of time. But it's not natural to people to leave well-enough alone. They decided it was not the beginning of time, just our universe, just Laniakea. Time, and physics, – the way space asserts itself as nature, as natural 'laws,' – might be unique. There could simply be more than one universe. Every generation wants a new adventure."
"And the Grand Lumineres?" he had asked.
She said, "The explosion of the Big Bang could not have taken place in a vacuum, they said. They started saying anybody who tried to sell us on the idea of a vacuum should sell them. Such is the adage, yes."
They veered to one side, signaling a change of course for the LifeRaft®. He tipped his plastic cup to see if the computer would know it was empty. It discharged decaf in a new cup, in the dark, abiding peace of the Deep Vast. "What happened to the great Ships?" he asked, more studiously. "The…Enterprise?"
"The Enterprise," Aji smiled, watching the board, righting the balance of their chosen path. "We cleared the pull of Jupiter. It's clear to İo. Love İo. Very few travel to the Milky Way anymore, but the pull of gravity is weak near İo, and you go anywhere. You almost have to go through İo. The Enterprise. It's a decent question. It will help you. The big ships, after Hydra, the debacle, the whole Bud Adorjan drama, they fell way out of favor. And they were, – no pun intended, – astronomically expensive. They couldn't be repaired, there were no parts. They could never be extruded. They were just too big to be practical." Aji glanced with one eye, "Soon we can diject."
It was now about magnetics, and dijection, she said. The L.R., short for LifeRaft®, was the trade name for the maglev, a "magnetic levitation" device. Aji said, "A universal project began in the 2300's after the failure of the Hydra landing, to resolve the problem of 'celestial hopscotch.' Which was to say, once we got there, quote unquote, then what? No supply lines. This was dramatic. How do we get to the next place? And when? The pioneers had to raise generations of more pioneers to survive, sometimes en route to somewhere else. It was hopscotch. Understand, the exhilaration about exploring space was at a peak. Unstoppable. The amount of cooperation might never be paralleled. They decided to establish Dijection Depots, and they sprung up everywhere, anywhere there was settled land. They were simple, and basically easy to build, glorified rail stops. All of the space colonies were enlisted by Hydra, the commerce center. They saw great trade potential, and gave huge credits to any place there was a magnetic depot. It was like the railroad. There were some complaints. A Virgo Senator proclaimed the depots, I remember, 'the penultimate bridge to nowhere.' He worried about 'outlaws everywhere,' which was not especially new. See, the maglev depots had no origin, no physical connection, to anything except time. The concept was easy: If colonies just built solitary maglev depots, it would form a grid in space. 'A matter of time,' they said, – a truly great advertising slogan: 'It's a matter of time'. But it was. They said it could be years, light years, many generations. Nope. It was seconds. The theory was that maglevs from any time, or future age would suddenly appear at these depots. It was comically simple." She added quotes with her fingers. "'Cosmically simple.'"
He commented, "It worked."
"Exactly," Aji said, with pride. "It took thirteen minutes. The first L.R. appeared at the main Hydra depot almost instantly. They were still holding the big scissors! The tape was on the ground! No time. Then thousands appeared from everywhere. A scientific miracle. Thirteen minutes. The first maglev was an extruded L.R. train – a classic machine! It chugs into Hydra with produce – fresh lettuce – from 2632! Amazing. It's now a universal holiday."
She continued, "We realized after the Coda anomaly that, in a perfect sphere, and with low-gravity, we could diject about anywhere, if there was a depot. And they're working on that, to see if they really need one. It's a perfect convex. The idea of dijection, in physics, is a depot in one time, just one era, and a course plotted to a different time, or era, where there is a depot, traveling in time and space."
"Nn-not really," she said. "'Wormholes' became derogatory word after a while, and mean something else, not man-made. These are nice, clean digital paths. We create them, they don't just show in an infrared study. They're pathways. The free way."
He said, following her, "Now you're trying to find another universe, – the Grand Lumineres?"
Aji said, "I believe in the Grand Lumineres, but that's just my generation. It couldn't have all began with the explosion of the Big Bang. Every thesis means another one, and a synthesis."
He said, "There had to be something before it."
"Right," she said. "We're bored with Orison, and flares old sailors claim to see, but can never document in anything, except whiskey bottles, all the places discounted by physics, that mathematically can't exist, the amber rings in the dark."
"Isn't it always dark, like night," he observed, admiring the cosmos.
"There are messages in a bottle," Aji said. "Remember, what you see out right now is infinitely prehistoric. The light is millions, and millions of years old. Those places, those lights, are probably gone."
He said, "Gone."
Aji said, "The Big Bang never really ends. Laniakea expands, and expands. It will keep going until we reach a point that is called, 'Dark, at Night.' The stars may still be there, but expand too far away for any of us to see. Like they go out."
"Everything has a place in U.T., in Ultra Turio. For romantics, maybe even Orison, for romantics. U.T. is like Anno Domini, A.D. It's a map of it all."
"A map of it all."
They continued in the free way on a luminous path through light in prisms, and time, in an L.R., called a LifeRaft®. Aji had dijected to Coney Island. "Dijection" was derived originally from part of the Field Theory of Albert Einstein. It implied one could theoretically use fixed points in time and space, and travel to them, to a different point in time and space, a century before, or after, or billions of light years away.
He sat upright suddenly in the overstuffed chair, awake. His legs were raised, and they shouldn't be raised, in his mind, despite the advice of everyone, and qualified health professionals, all of whom were, incidentally, asleep by now. Fluid should flow away from the heart, simply put, and not towards his chest. It was seven. The sirens apparently noticed his shift in the chair, and blared at him from the east of the borough. He grasped a pillow slowly, and partly closed his eyes. A siren is a Hail Mary; it may be the end of peace, time, youth, of ways of life. They mean life-changing life changes. He was not the first person who ever heard sirens. The final siren at the blitzkrieg; it was hard to articulate. Hope exists, and it surely did happen, it was a final bid of hope, say, a last hurrah. There would be no more sirens; because no one possibly knew these times, the next moment. ◊
∼ part two appears Saturday, December 1 ∼
Theme, (Episode 1 Part One): "Paradise," Bruce Springsteen, and The E Street Band | playlist, "Flea Markets, Nos. 1-50," a myopic vaile (No. 20).
Bruce Springsteen, and The E Street Band
"The Echo By Seas" is one of three works by SODA TOM.
Selections from volume I have appeared on
Tumblr, and Medium, including The Shadow of Mines, and Presage.
Created by Soda Tom


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Heritage: Book One of the Gairden Chronicles
Prince Aidan Gairden's life was planned out for him 800 years before he was born. On his 16th birthday, he will take up Heritage, the magical sword wielded by his mother and generations of Gairden ancestors before him, and lead the kingdom of Torel into a new golden age of peace and prosperity.
That's how his mother envisions his impending reign. Aidan prefers to see it as decades of sitting in an uncomfortable chair listening to old men bicker over property lines and taxes. If Aidan had his way, he would leave the sword and throne behind for a life free of responsibility.
To Aidan's utter shock, Heritage grants his wish. In front of his parents and the entire kingdom, the sword rejects Aidan, leaving Torel without an heir.
While Aidan struggles to find his place, an ancient evil awakens and provokes a war between Torel and the warrior tribes of the west. Thrust upon a bloody trail of deception and corruption, Aidan is forced to make a desperate choice: lead Torel in a war he does not believe in, or be banished from his home and family forever.
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- Roger
- 23-02-15
narration wrecks this story!
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
this was serious work to finish
Would you recommend Heritage: Book One of the Gairden Chronicles to your friends? Why or why not?
In its audible form, with this narrator not on your life. but as a stand alone work to read sure.
How could the performance have been better?
the narrator is just bad! From mispronunciations to just bland terrible cadence that puts you to sleep the only time it is redeemed is if there is a dialogue then you can stay awake because you are so irritated about bad accents, and just WRONG pronunciations.
Any additional comments?
I am very sorry for the author because the editor did him a serious disservice by publishing this book under this narration. It was just so hard to get past it to the actual book. I think that the plot was imaginative and would have been captivating if I had been able to read it. In fact the fact that I did continue to push on to the end is a good test of the fact that its a good plot with good characters and would be a good read. I really wanted to stop sooooooo many times!!!!! I will get the other books from the library or ebook. I think this book and series will go far. I do think that the attempts at sexual intimacy were very forced and just put in for maybe the teen sale value????? they could easily be left out and not hurt the book at all. It's a great book without being embarrassed that the author is trying to force this in. I think it would raise it a large notch without it.


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Presenter Email
Creation Date
Dr. Kang is an Assistant Professor in Industrial & Systems Engineering and is the Director of the Human Factors and Simulation Laboratory at The University of Oklahoma. Dr. Kang's background is in human-integrated systems modeling, and his specialty is in eye tracking data analysis methodologies. Dr. Kang's research objective is to characterize, model, and analyze human decision making processes in order to understand human behavior and to inform the design of complex systems. He previously worked at Samsung and has performed research for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA). Dr. Kang is currently corroborating with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA).
- Human-integrated systems engineering
- Human factors
- Eye tracking data analysis methodologies
- Air traffic management system
- Weather system
- Healthcare system
Ph.D., Industrial Engineering, Purdue University
M.S., Industrial Engineering, Purdue University
B.S., Industrial Engineering, Korea University


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A Fly Mask that both Protects and Stays Put!
Horse Care Press Release
PHOENIX, Ariz. – (March 18, 2004) When fly season swoops in, horse owners know it's time to protect their animals from the invading menace. They also want insect protection that stays put and won't end up lost in the pasture.
In a recent survey, 88 percent of horse owners said they seek a more effective closure to keep horses from rubbing or pulling off masks. Farnam's new SuperMask II with double-latch closure now keeps masks twice as secure, and stays on even during horseplay.
The mask is constructed of a 2000 denier "Rip-Block"™ material that is durable for stabled or pastured horses. It features a "no vision obstruction" design that allows horses to see clearly and protects eyes from flying insect irritation and disease as well as airborne dust, dirt and debris. The mask fits the horse's head snugly, so flies can't sneak under the mask. In addition, the mask offers UV protection and helps speed healing after eye injury.
"This new mask design provides the solution to the No. 1 problem identified by fly mask users, which is that masks come off too easily," said Liz Bishop, marketing manager for Farnam's fly control products. "The double-latch uses a two-step hook and loop closure that provides twice the staying power as any other mask. Who wants to fetch their horses after a turn-out only to find that the fly masks are missing or torn-up?"
The mask comes in a variety of sizes, packaged in a size-specific, color-coded box for easy identification. A version with soft, sewn-in mesh ears that allow the horse's ears to move is also available.
For information on Farnam fly masks or other horse products, in the United States call toll free at (800) 234-2269, direct at (602) 285-1660 or go to farnamhorse.com on the Internet. Founded in 1946, Farnam Companies, Inc., is a privately held company and a leader in the animal health products industry.
Farnam – We Make Life Better for Animals and Their People SM


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Today, you have 60 seconds to write yourself an ENCOURAGING EMAIL and post it to yourself!
You know EXACTLY what YOU LOVE to hear, what will motivate you on this day to really go for it and make the most of what you've got.
Do this now, the 60 seconds start from the moment you start writing.


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Thank you for taking the time to consider Terradyne Country Club for your Golf Tournament outing. You will find our customer service and accommodating staff to be second to none! Terradyne Country Club is at the eastern edge of Wichita, Kansas. While we are a Member's Only course, we also accommodate outside golf tournament events for non-Members, businesses, charities and more.
Allow our professionals to assist you in planning, so you may relax and enjoy your event. We will make sure no detail is overlooked and ensure all plans are executed so your event is a huge success. Service combined with the opportunity to enjoy the golf course at Terradyne Country Club will no doubt encourage your group to return year after year.
From your first drive to your last putt, your group will find Terradyne's hospitality to be a part of the ultimate golf experience.
Please contact Mike Booth, PGA Professional for tournament information and availability:
316-733-5851 or email@example.com
Allow the staff at the Hereford House to fulfill all of your food and beverage needs…
Please contact Angela Millspaugh with the Hereford House for more information and selections for your event.
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Category Archives: Devotional
Photo Friday #6 Good Friday and the Lamb
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (Revelation 5:12) On the calendar we call today "Good Friday." But it is only good in retrospect. Today … Continue reading
Posted in Devotional, Photo Friday Tagged Acts 2, Christ, good friday, Jesus, Revelation 5:12, Romans 6:10, Romans 6:23, sacrifice, salvation, sinless, the Gospel, the lamb 2 Comments
Dear 21 year old self, (part 1)
I love you. You're fun. You love the Lord, and you have so much of life ahead of you. And all of that is good. I have some things to tell you which are really important. I thought you might … Continue reading
Posted in Devotional Tagged 1 Corinthians 13, advice, advice to myself, being, doing too much, Exodus 3, I AM, letter to my self, self improvement, Yaweh Leave a comment
Behold, the Furnace of Oholiab!
This past week, Dr. Collins, my biblical studies professor and a mentor in faith, died. I trekked through Egypt, Jordan, and Israel with him, tracing the steps of the saints who had gone before us. In the Sinai, (then) 65-year-old … Continue reading
Posted in Devotional Tagged artist, Berkshire Institute for Christian Studies, BICS, Dr. Collins, leaving a legacy, Oholiab, Oral Collins 2 Comments
Photography, Writing, and Fixing my life
There are two ways I currently use my creativity: photography and writing. Both of them enrich my life, and maybe even enrich others' lives when I share them. But one of them breaks my heart sometimes, and the other gives … Continue reading
Posted in Devotional Tagged forgiveness, living in the moment, mistakes, photography, sin, writing 1 Comment
Two Mondays ago, we had quite a storm rip through our neighborhood. There was no warning of anything beyond a strong thunderstorm, so I was pretty shocked when daylight turned suddenly to night, and the trees began to sway almost … Continue reading
Posted in Devotional, Poetry Tagged storm, tornado, Zephaniah 3:17 Leave a comment
I bought some old dining room chairs a few weeks ago. They were truly hideous, but they had "good bones". It was hard to see past the stained seats, the scraped up legs, and a busted chair back to what they could … Continue reading
Posted in Devotional Tagged 2 Corinthians 5:17, furniture, new creation, refinish Leave a comment


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En Papillote
In this traditional French technique, fish or meat and vegetables are wrapped in individual parchment paper packets and baked. The paper holds in the heat, gently steaming the food in its own juices.
At the table each guest is served a neatly gift-wrapped dinner hot from the oven. As the slightly browned, puffed packages are slit open, steam pours out in a whoosh, filling the air with fragrant aromas as the meal within is revealed.
"It's a very fun way to cook," says Phyllis Brock, a Master Food Volunteer in Johnson County. "It looks very pretty and impressive — perfect for a party."
Actually, parchment paper packets are a hostess's dream. They can be assembled several hours ahead of time and cook in just a few minutes. And with many recipes, the only cleanup involved is wiping off the cutting board.
She includes six recipes, of which I like the red snapper fillets en papillote and five-spice salmon with leeks. Regina Schrambling has also written about en papillote, for the LA Times in 2004, Scissors, paper, flavor; I can't wait till the weather is warm enough and the fruit in season to try her recipe summer fruit en papillote.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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|BELL SYSTEM/Western Electric Apparatus Help?
|Michael Muderick (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Wed, 26 Oct 2005 22:04:18 -0400
I have a couple of Western Electric/Bell System/ATT apparatus
units. 30AM. One has an RN1J82 number. I think they are part of
paging adapters; one is labeled EMERGENCY AUDIO. I'd be happy to
email a picture if someone can help me identify what they are, and
perhaps send me a BSP. I have a bunch of BSP manuals, but don't have
a number and haven't been able to find it. Can anyone assist?
|Post Followup Article
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Edited:1)From @sureshdr on twitter, My cronjob generate too many entry to log, so updated both on the server and the post with >/dev/null 2>&1 at the end of the job.
First time have to produce an app, and maintaining the server all by myself. Previously can work with the sysadmin, now the guys in sinar is pretty busy with a day job.
So first thing first, the thing with virtualenv is, running it in a cron job can be a pain(it is not that bad). Well, billwatcher is using buildout, so it uses less command, buildout have pretty much an isolated environment. So it look like this, more on why I don't direct to /dev/null:
0 0 * * * /path/to/Malaysia-Bill-Watcher/bin/python /path/to/Malaysian-Bill-Watcher/billwatcher/loader.py >/dev/null 2>&1
Second thing is, the last deployment, I didn't add a full path to the sqlite database. This is important, so that the data is written in the right place.
Third, because this is my first time running cron(don't ask why). I finally found the log file to cron.
less /var/log/cron
Except, my cronjob is run at midnight, and a few cronjob run already. Then I found zcat, because the older cronjob is /var/log/cron.n.bz2. n is the number.
zcat /var/log/cron.0.bz2|less
I read it, make sure it is running, I'm happy, then I realized that I kinda polluting the email on my system which I don't read often. So comes the MAILTO directive. Thus my final cron job look this way
MAILTO="[email protected]"
0 0 * * * /path/to/Malaysia-Bill-Watcher/bin/python /path/to/Malaysian-Bill-Watcher/billwatcher/loader.py >/dev/null 2>&1
And the newbie sysadmin live happily ever after… Until something else break, and there is a new project coming soon…
p.s running billwatcher at midnight is a bad idea, might be a better idea doing it in the morning..


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Windies, Bangladesh to face off in Florida T20s
ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):
West Indies will face Bangladesh in two Twenty20 Internationals on US soil during the home series in July, Cricket West Indies (CWI) confirmed yesterday.
The first T20 International is carded for Warner Park in St Kitts on July 31 before back-to-back matches are played at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Florida on August 4 and 5.
News of the US fixtures had come via media reports last weekend.
"We are delighted to include the matches in Fort Lauderdale on the schedule for the Bangladesh tour," said CWI Chief Executive Officer Johnny Grave.
"Both matches are scheduled for the weekend and will be played under the lights, so it's a great opportunity for Windies fans in North America to see the team play against a very competitive Bangladesh side."
West Indies have won three of the four T20Is at the venue, with the other one ending in a no-result following rain.
They swept New Zealand 2-0 back in 2012 before beating India 1-0 when the Asian side toured the Caribbean two years ago.
Strategic plan
Grave said the continued thrust of staging international cricket in the US was part of CWI's strategic plan.
"This is one of the initiatives outlined in our new strategic plan for the period 2018 to 2023," the Englishman said.
"Our intention is to work with ICC Americas members, USA Cricket & Cricket Canada in partnership to establish cricket as a popular sport from North
to South America, create opportunities for West Indian fans to watch the team live, and build support for the Windies."
The Bangladesh tour of the Caribbean starts July 4 and will see them clash with West Indies in two Tests - at the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium in Antigua and Sabina Park in Jamaica.
The National Stadium in Guyana will then host the first two one-day internationals of the three-match series with the final match set for Warner Park.


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Why restrict yourself to merely carrying around your data on a thumb drive? Take your entire operating system on your flash drive with the excellent portable operating systems you'll find inside this week's Hive Five.
Photo by Marcin Wichary. Six contenders in a Hive Five contest? Due to a tie within the top five contenders, a sixth contender has squeezed into the race.
Puppy Linux
Puppy Linux doesn't require the kind of liposuction required by the meatier operating systems in the Hive Five in order to fit into a nice portable package. Weighing in at under 100MB, it can easily be loaded on everything from a CD to a USB drive with little fuss. The user interface is friendly even for a non-Linux user, and the basic tools you need for partitioning and file recovery are readily available—although it's just as great for web browsing and basic computing.
Slax takes a very user friendly and novel approach to portable computing. Before you even download the distribution you can customise it right from the download site by adding and subtracting modules based on your needs. You don't need the office software? Delete the module. Can't live without multimedia tools? Add them in. If you're completely new to Linux and setting up a portable operating system, Slax will get you up and running with the tools you want in no time flat.
The qualities that make Ubuntu so popular as a desktop operating system and live cd, give it a lot of weight as a portable operating system. Ubuntu isn't as small as some of the other contenders here but thanks to a number of factors, including strong saturation in the Linux market and an easy to use tool built right for flash-drive installations, Ubuntu makes a great addition to your portable drive.
If BackTrack was your friend, it would be the friend you have who keeps a survival kit in an Altoids tin, a length of rope in his jacket just in case, and a folding shovel in his briefcase. BackTrack isn't the most lightweight and certainly not the fluffiest portable operating system in this Hive Five. BackTrack is a serious tool packed with 300 applications covering everything from packet sniffing to hot spot probing to brute force password attacks. If you know what you're doing BackTrack will leave no corner of your computer and network un-poked, scanned, prodded, and analysed.
CrunchBang is a fork off the Ubuntu development tree. CrunchBang sports an ultra-minimal interface and has heavy emphasis on media playback. Right out of the box Firefox has Flash support and VLC can play a variety of media including DVDs. If you're missing an application or tool, thanks to its Ubuntu roots you can grab software right from the Ubuntu repository.
Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux is in fact really damn small. How small? Originally designed as an experiment to see how much Linux awesomeness could be packed into 50MB business card CD, Damn Small Linux hasn't strayed from its origins as an absolutely tiny portable distribution. Just because Damn Small Linux is tiny doesn't mean it's underpowered. It includes Firefox, a VNC viewer, file managers, instant messaging clients, and even a web server.
Your favourite portable operating system isn't on the list? Have a trick you've got to share? Sound off in the comments with your tips and tricks for taking your operating system with you.


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Apartment ideal for a seaside holiday: beach less than 100 m, forest nearby for walks in the nature on foot or bicycle, food and pleasure shops without taking the car, swimming pools.
1 bedroom
2 roomsLiveable floor area : 25m²
- View : Not overlooked, forest, village
- Kids welcome
- Setting : Ocean, Waterfront
- Sandy beach at 50m
- Golf, Thalasso, Horse riding, Fishing
- Exposure : East
Reviews about the Advert 341
Advert details 341
The beach is less than 100 m with a coastal trail to access the station. Apartment includes a living room with sofa bed for 2 people, kitchenette with crockery, utensils, microwave, fridge, 2 hob ceramic, coffee machine, toaster. A bathroom with bathtub. A separate toilet. A small room with 2 beds for a person. A 9 m2 terrace where it is possible to take your meals. To know rates and free periods (rental all year) contact me.
Assets Apartment-Flat
Interior Apartment-Flat with View: not overlooked, forest, village
Exterior Vacation rental in Setting: ocean, waterfront
Rates Calendar Availability Vacation rental in Lacanau Océan
Seasons & Availability Apartment-Flat in Lacanau Océan
Rates Apartment-Flat in Lacanau Océan
For your guidance
Booking conditions
Leisure, Surroundings, Location Apartment - Flat 341
Leisure Lacanau Océan - Gironde
Bordeaux 50 km, dune du Pyla and bassin d'Arcachon within 50 km. The vineyards of Bordeaux for a day excursion. Many bicycle routes on the spot. Pond Cousseau, natural site, for nature and bird lovers within 5 km. Lake of Carcans Maubuisson is 10 km away.
Location AccessApartment-Flat Lacanau Océan
50 km from Bordeaux, access by train to Bordeaux St Jean and then by bus SNCF to LACANAU OCEAN. Mérignac Airport is 50 km away.


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Explained Answers to 5 M/C Macroeconomics Quiz Questions
This content was COPIED from BrainMass.com - View the original, and get the already-completed solution here!
1. If 12 units of a good are sold when the price is $1 per unit, and 8 units are
sold at a price of $1.50 per unit, then demand is
a. elastic
b. inelastic
c. of indeterminate elasticity
d. unit elastic
2. A change in demand would be illustrated by
a. a drop in price, which causes people to buy more
b. an increase in price, which causes people to buy less
c. a change in people's preference that causes them to buy either more or less than before
d. all of the above
3. An example of a macroeconomics model is
a. the price of chicken influences the quantity of chicken bought
b. the size of the total national output depends on the size of total spending
c. the output of a product is influenced by the cost of production for the product
d. all of the above
4.According to economics liberalism, the regulating force of the economy is
a. self-interest
b. laissez-faire
c. competition
d. the government
5. To exercise the law of comparative advantage, a nation
a. must produce some goods using fewer resources than its trading partner
b. does not have to produce any goods using fewer resources than its trading
c. must produce some goods on an equal footing with its trading partner
d. must show a lower absolute cost of production than its trading partner
Solution Preview
1. b
Price has changed by 50% but quantity demanded has changed by only 33%.
2. c
Answers a) and b) illustrate a change in quantity demanded, ...
Solution Summary
This solution gives answers and explanations to five common Macroeconomics quiz questions. Topics covered include:
Price elasticity of demand
Changes in demand
Macroeconomic vs Microeconomic models
Economic liberalism
Comparative advantage


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