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Rejoice! Why? Because the drugs seems to be working.
For anyone who's undertaking a Pain Management regimen, medication is merely part of the answer. In the UK, it is common to be referred to a hospital-run Pain Clinic for analgesia/medication advice. The problem is that the drugs that work with neuropathic pain or fibromyalgia tend to be somewhat narcotic (tramadol, morphine or even codeine derivatives) or used for other things such as depression and insomnia (amitriptyline) or epilepsy (gabapentin, pregabalin). Often a mix of medication is required: paracetamol can potentiate the effect of tramadol or, in the experience of some, actually enable it.
Why is it only part of the answer? Because there can be adverse side-effects or other problems. My mind is blown by tramadol, gabapentin and morphine, for example; addiction is a known problem with morphine; and effectiveness can deteriorate with these sort of analgesics. Likewise, distressing weight gain is a common problem with some pain control medication, such as gabapentin and pregabalin. Sometimes it can a while for the side-effects to settle down, so you don't know if the drugs are going to be useful or not.
Further, sometimes a combination of drugs is used. NSAIDs such as Diclofenac or Ibuprofen can be prescribed to cope with tension, another side-effect of pain. It may be that in some situations NSAIDs are required in conjunction with the rest.
There is an important caveat about the detail, here: as I've mentioned, I am practitioner, not an expert, so the combinations are a mystery; what I do know are the combinations with which I have experimented. I was – and remain – lucky in that my GP had once been an anaesthetist and had also run his own Pain Clinics.
For me, the only combination that worked was 1000mg paracetamol-plus-150mg tramadol, often in combination with 600mg ibuprofen (don't try this at home – all of this was under Pain Clinic and GP supervision). The tramadol puts me in lala-land, taking me away from the pain, but it works providing I don't use it too much. This has to be boosted with Pain Management techniques, rest, distraction, relaxation… If that doesn't work, the oramorph has to be broken out.
You may wonder why codeine hasn't had much of a mention. The reason is simple: some people lack the ability to metabolise codeine so it has either limited, or nil, effect. I'm one of them – I'd always wondered why people raved about it or swore by butrans patches and it was only during the past few years I found out why. It's a key illustration as to why pain medication and Pain Management is a highly individual affair.
So all that's the background as to my last post and why I'm excited (I'm British: excitement comes in careful doses). Gabapentin was a disaster, so we held off pregabalin. Sure, the uptake of pregabalin over the past few weeks has meant severe dizziness but now I'm on the intended dose we (Pain Management is a family affair) can begin to take stock. And it is promising. I had a few hours of total freedom from pain this week: moreover, I've been able to type for longer without having to resort to the dictation software.
That's brilliant. Sure, accuracy is an issue, but my typing speed was pretty good (60-80 rated wpm) so it helped my writing immensely. If I can get back to any speed close to that, I have a chance at really getting going. At the moment, I have to break off, still, as pain starts to grow but the fact is it ain't the searing pain I'm used to. That means I can manage time more effectively, pace better.
In between dizzy spells, that is. But that's the reason for rejoicing: the dizzy spells are getting fewer; life is returning to normal. I can write in the way I prefer writing and at a speed that approximates to the way my mind works.
Rejoice with me! 🙂


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Any NAD T777V3 user in the forum? And using full Dirac instead of the basic version in T777V3?
Dirac advocates full range correction so going to full Dirac makes sense.
Are you using the full version? I just purchased the full version a while ago. Probably got to spend some times figuring it out...will try out the calibration via the Dirac app.
Which shop is selling these NAD ?

subset: commoncrawl


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This week on Bronyville, Sandy is out of town so Cider enlists the help of the painfully British Midnight Shadow to join the discussion with three of the gentlecolts with Bronies for Good. Cupcakes, CWrebel, and Mastertortilla27 tell us of their efforts, the success of the Smile! charity album for the Children's Cancer Association, and their future goals. As always, there's listener emails, fanfic suggestions, and our one cool thing to round it all out.
Bronyville Episode 38
Show Notes


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Late last year I enlisted the help of my good friend Olivia Brock, of the fabulous blog Lacquered Life and founder of Torrance Mitchell Designs, to help me find the perfect shade of pink for my front door. Olivia is an historic preservationist, color guru/expert, and spectacular eating/drinking buddy here in Charleston, and I couldn't help but abuse our friendship for a little help :)
You might remember my door used to be a minty teal color. I liked that color, but I had wanted pink all along. When we took on our home project nearly 4 years ago it was a big renovation (gutting and adding on), so there were many, many decisions to be made. I had to pick my battles with Josh, and fighting for the pink door just wasn't worth it.
So back to the point… this past November I showed Olivia a picture of a door that I loved and asked her to figure out what the color was so that I could just simply copy it. She found out what it was, but she also knew that it had been faded in the sun and that we could find a better shade for my home (lighting and shade of white on our brick…). She recommended Benjamin Moore Old World.(2011-40)
She also helped me find a new mailbox, love this white one!
Big hug to Olivia for helping me with my front door :) I love the new color!
outdoor plaid rug, galvanized planters,
swing bed, white mailbox, rocking chairs,
copper gas lanterns, flying pig, figue dress
Photography by Gray Benko.


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By Troy Corman, www.t2realestate.com
Below are homes sold statistics for the Dallas metro through February 2013. Statistics are courtesy of the Texas ATM Real Estate Center, and the North Texas Real Estate Information System. The underlying theme? Extremely low inventories of homes for sale has put sellers in the catbird seat. While a 6 month's supply of inventory is considered a balanced market, there are some areas with less than 2 month's worth of homes for sale. As mortgage rates just hit a 7-month high, look for slowly rising mortgage rates to add fuel to the home buyer fire.
If you would like a free over-the-net price evaluation for your property, call Troy Corman at 214-690-9682 or email email@example.com


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- 7510 XceedID® ISOProx Proximity Card - Qty. 100
7510 XceedID® ISOProx Proximity Card - Qty. 100
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7510 XceedID® ISOProx Proximity Card - Qty. 100
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Note: Minimum order is 100 Cards
The 7510 ISO compliant card is similar in size and thickness to traditional credit cards and is 100% HID® proximity compatible. Compare to HID® 1386. . The reason it is referred to as an "ISO" card is that its dimensions comply with standards specified in applicable ISO guidelines. The smooth, high quality surface is ideal for printing of custom artwork, images and photographs. An optional magnetic stripe is also available.
ISO cards are the most popular credentials for large corporate photo ID badging. Proximity technology, which operates on 125 kHz frequency, is easily integrated into existing legacy proximity systems or for a new installation. Proximity Credentials can easily fit into a wallet or may be used as a strapped or clipped ID badge.
Offered in several different form factors, XceedID® has the Proximity Credentials to fit your needs. The ISO style card is similar in size and thickness to a credit card and has the ideal surface to print custom artwork, images and photographs for identification. With the Proximity Credentials by XceedID, there is very little wear and tear on the cards ensuring longer life for your cards. These credentials also have a passive design which requires no batteries or maintenance for the life of the card.
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Kiln Dried Birch firewood in crates.
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Kiln Dried Birch firewood in crates.
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Availability date: 09/12/2016
Our crates of kiln dried logs are incredible value for money. By stacking the kiln dried logs tightly into these crates it is possible to get 50% more wood than the same volume as loose or bulk bagged loads. Birch is known for its sweet aroma and high heat output.
- Full crate dimensions: 1.7m x 1.2m x 0.8m (external)
- Half crate dimensions: 0.8m x 1.2m x 1.0m (external)
- Type: 100% Kiln Dried Birch
- Log Length: 25cm
- Moisture Content: 10-20%
Important Note on Full Crate Grade B.Occasionally we have Full Crates crates that do not meet our strict quality control criteria. These logs have been rejected due to defects such as mould, discolouration or unacceptable moisture levels. They are sold at a discount on an "as is" basis and any returns are strictly at the customer's expense.


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Gratitude Monday: "Truly happy people find ways to give thanks for the little, insignificant trifles"
- I'm glad I was able to start this day and work week with an early rise. 🙂 I made it to work at the proper time and was able to accomplish 90% of my tasks.
- I enjoy receiving messages from my Aunts abroad. I used to send snail mail to one of them when I was a li'l girl. Priorities do change as you grow old especially when there are more things you can't or find difficult to tell your family like boy crushies or yaoi (LOL!). There's nothing exciting with talking about school either. But as I've gotten older, I can relate to them in several ways. 🙂 Thanks to technology, we can quickly exchange messages, photos, and videos. I also get updated on how my youngest cousin in CH is doing. 🙂
- I'm grateful for the quality time with my dearest friend and co-beauty blogger at Glam Love, Joiz, last Thursday night until Friday morning. We would meet from time to time or whenever we can, but we still had so many things to talk about. 😀 We walked from TAT Japanese Restaurant where we had our dinner to about four branches of Starbucks. We barely felt tired from the long walk because we kept talking and talking and talking… XD
- I spent the Sunday evening with my boyfriend over dinner, coffee, and video editing at Bo's Coffee. A change of environment is what we needed.
… Be grateful for useless things. It is relatively easy to be thankful for the most important and obvious parts of life — a happy marriage, healthy kids or living in America. But truly happy people find ways to give thanks for the little, insignificant trifles.
The quotes above are from "Choose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier." by Arthur C. Brooks at NYTimes.com.


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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
This Stuff Rocks
8 comments:
Thanks for the tip! I have serious thick, curly, frizzy hair. If I know we are NOT having rain or humidity I like to blow it out and iron it. I have a ton of products that are not doing the trick. I will try this!
- April 15, 2009 at 7:52 AM
- Jen said...
Oooh, I will have to try that! I love Redken's GUTS mousse (#10) but am always looking for new stuff to try on my thick, wavy (ok, I think the technical term is 'coarse')hair!
- April 15, 2009 at 9:03 AM
- Jill said...
Oh my goodness - my hair and hair routine sounds just like yours. I am going to the CVS to get some on my way home. I'll try anything for a good hair day.
- April 15, 2009 at 4:17 PM
- Christina said...
My interest is def. peaked by this. I'll have to give this a try. I wonder if this is the same stuff my mom was raving about when we were over there for Easter. Always love a good hair product. I have to wash and blow dry every day and my hair can use any help it can get.
- April 15, 2009 at 5:10 PM
- Jenna Z said...
I totally love Redken! I use the Rewind Styling Paste and love it so much! It can make my hair flippy, or smooth, just depends on how I shape it while I blowdry.
- April 15, 2009 at 5:34 PM
- Linda said...
I am growing out mine too and you are so right it can do its own thing somedays. I am going to have to give this product a try.
- April 15, 2009 at 8:03 PM
- The Stylish House said...
Mrs. Jones,
My flat as a pancake, straight as a board hair is on the opposite end of the spectrum. My secret ingredient is using the right glue to make my limp, lifeless DO particularly perky. It has the added benefit of withstanding any hurricane or tsunami!
I have enjoyed my first visit to your blog. I love your floor lamp make over, it turned out spiffy.
- April 16, 2009 at 9:20 AM
- Lorie said...
Oh! Thanks for the review! I am glad it works for you. I might have to see if I can find a trial size bottle and give it a shot.
- April 16, 2009 at 4:53 PM


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Abstract—The present treatise aims at analyzing 1 the scene pictured by Iran's post-revolution cinema for its audience. How the gender inequalities would arise as actors and actresses interact in post-revolution cinema is the body of the main question. The theoretical frame of this research is greatly indebted to Goffman's theoretical approach to the gender display in visual media. The research findings depict the ritualized gender displays in post-revolution cinema and reproduction of traditional gender patterns and norms in Iranian cinema. Ritualizing the subordination, the films produced there after confirm and demonstrate the traditional gender values and norms.
Index Terms—Gender Display, Iranian cinema, Erving Coffman, reutilization of Subordination
Mehdi Soltani-Gordfaramarzi is with the Department of Social Problem,Iranian Academic Center for Education Culture and Research (ACECR),Tarbiat Moallem Branch, Mofatteh Ave. No.49, , P. O. Box: 15615-186,Tehran, Iran (corresponding author, phone number: 00989125263521; Fax:009888831976102; e-mail: email@example.com).
Abbas Varidj Kazemi is with Department of Communications, Faculty of social Science, University of Tehran, P. O. Box: 14395/773, Tehran,Iran (email@example.com).
Cite: Mehdi Soltani-Gordfaramarzi and Abbas Varidj Kazemi, " Iranian Movies and Gender display: a Study in Post Revolution Cinema," International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 110-115, 2010.


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Last updated 3/9/2016
OneDrive for Business is Microsoft's cloud storage offering in Office 365. The University has access to OneDrive through our existing Microsoft contract and it is intended to allow local synchronization of remote files and should function similarly to Dropbox, but there are few shortcomings and problems with it currently.
Short version
- You can access all OneDrive files online through the web interface on any computer, Mac or Windows, and whether they are your personal files or files shared with you.
- You can locally sync your personal OneDrive files to Windows or Macs.
- You can locally sync folders shared with you on a Windows computer.
- You _can't_ locally sync folders shared with you on a Mac computer currently.
- On non-UConn Windows computers you may require a different version of Office than the one currently installed in order to use OneDrive for Business. UConn students can download a version that works through https://uconn.onthehub.com . Faculty can also download a version of Office that will work on their personal computers, either through http://office365.uconn.edu/ or https://uconn.onthehub.com .
An alternative to OneDrive is to use the RNAS / Research shared drive. We can setup a folder on our shared research network drive and allow access only to the users you specify, but there is no local syncing so it requires an Internet access to connect to the folder and when off campus it requires connecting with a VPN. As there is no offline file synchronization this also doesn't work as a full replacement of Dropbox.
Long version
OneDrive for Business allows you to store files in Microsoft's Cloud storage, access them online from any computer, share those files with UConn faculty, staff, and students, along with non-UConn users, and it allows you to synchronize those files locally to your computer and push changes back to the cloud as changes are made. If all of that worked perfectly it would work as a drop in replacement for Dropbox and would fill all the needs that faculty have been using it for, however the local syncing in OneDrive doesn't work perfectly and the installation of it can be more complicated than Dropbox.
Accessing files online works like Dropbox and the tools to edit Office documents online work well. You can access your OneDrive for Business files, and any files or folders shared with you in OneDrive by going to http://office365.uconn.edu/ , click Login to Office 365 Portal on the right, then click the OneDrive icon or click the 3×3 square icon in the upper left and then click OneDrive. Once you are in your OneDrive folder you should see a menu on the left with your name and Files, that has your files and folders which you can share with other UConn and non-UConn users, then under Files you should see Shared with me, if you click that you'll see any folders or files other users have shared from their OneDrive.
Accessing the files online is functional, but the faculty I have talked to see the need to synchronize files locally for offline access and to fully replace the niche that Dropbox currently fills. The OneDrive for Business client has different capabilities on Mac versus Windows and on Windows it may require specific versions of Office to be installed, which is not a problem for UConn laptops, but can be an issue for student computers and non-UConn computers.
- On a UConn computer running Windows you can Sync your personal folder by going to OneDrive on the Office 365 site as above (go to http://office365.uconn.edu/ , click Login to Office 365 Portal on the right, then click the OneDrive icon) , then click Files on the left to view your files, then click Sync in the menu near the top of the window, then click Sync Now and open the link in OneDrive for Business. You can also sync folders that have been shared with you by clicking Shared with me, then click the shared folder to open it, then click Sync in the menu near the top of the window, then click Sync Now and open the link in OneDrive for Business. Though you have to sync each shared folder individually it functions like Dropbox and everything works.
- On a UConn or Non-UConn computer running Mac OS X you can Sync your personal folder, but you can't sync any folders that other users have shared with you. As Microsoft has not yet released a final version of OneDrive for Business syncing your personal files also requires running terminal commands to change settings to allow OneDrive for Business connections. To sync your personal OneDrive folder you will need to install Microsoft's OneDrive client from Apples AppStore . Once it's installed you can follow the additional instructions at Microsoft's Office Support site to enable OneDrive for Business.
- On a Non-UConn computer running Windows things get more complicated. The above instructions for the UConn computer running Windows will work if the user has Microsoft Office Professional or Enterprise versions 2013 or 2016, for other versions we haven't yet found a way to install the OneDrive for Business client as it conflicts with the installed version of Office. The user can try to install the OneDrive for Business client by going to the OneDrive site as above (go to http://office365.uconn.edu/ , click Login to Office 365 Portal on the right, then click the OneDrive icon), then clicking on Files and then clicking on Sync in the menu at the top of the screen, and then clicking on Get the version of OneDrive for Business that is right for me . That will bring you to a page to download the OneDrive for Business client, but the installer may fail saying that it conflicts with the installed version of Office. UConn students should be able to install a compatible version of Office for free by logging in to http://office365.uconn.edu , but doing that would likely require uninstalling their current version of Office, which may cause problems for them.
An alternative to OneDrive is the RNAS / Research shared network drive, though it also is not a complete replacement for Dropbox as it doesn't support offline file syncing at all. The RNAS/Research share allows us to setup a folder on our shared research network drive which can then be mapped on Mac or Windows computers and accessed as if it was a local folder. Accessing files is similar to accessing your synchronized Dropbox folders with the exception that you need an Internet connection to access the files and if you are off campus you would need to connect with the Junos Pulse VPN client before accessing the files. Non-UConn users can be granted access to file shares by filling out an Affiliate Request form to get a Net ID for the user.


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Braves Interested in Cubs' Dempster and Garza
BY JOHN MCCULLOUGH, Feedcrossing.com syndication
With the recent loss of Brandon Beachy to Tommy John surgery, the Atlanta Braves' rotation is currently a question mark.
The Braves are rumored to be interested in Chicago Cubs' starters Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza. Garza earns $9.5MM this season and will be arbitration-eligible for the final time this offseason. He currently has a 4.07 ERA, but he is still only 28 years old and has a 3.85 career ERA.
Dempster is 35 years old and has a 2.11 ERA this season. He is in the final year of a four-year contract with the Cubs. He has a career 4.33 ERA.
The Braves' starting rotation currently has the fourth-worst ERA in the National League. Those numbers include Beachy, who was the major league leader in earned run average. Tommy Hanson is the only pitcher with above average numbers at the moment. Tim Hudson has had an up-and-down season thus far and will likely be pitching with ankle soreness for the remainder of the year.
The Braves recalled Jair Jurrjens to take Beachy's spot in the rotation. If Jurrjens performs like he has for the majority of his career, the Braves are getting an above average starter. He had a strong start on Friday night as he attempts to put his earlier struggles behind him.
The Braves' last two starters are Randall Delgado and Mike Minor. Both have shown flashes of brilliance, but they have been plagued by inconsistency. With the Braves being in playoff contention, general manager Frank Wren may feel that the Braves cannot afford to have two young pitchers take their lumps in the majors.
"I think we get through the next few weeks leading up to when the trading season really begins," Wren said. "And we evaluate what we have, how guys are throwing and who might be available."
Either Dempster or Garza would strengthen the Braves' rotation, but it remains to be seen if Wren will be able to obtain either pitcher at a reasonable price.


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Tiffany White was born and raised in the beautiful city of West Palm Beach, Florida. Early on, Tiffany could not deny that there was something very different about herself; she didn't fit in and her way of thinking stood out from others. Being born in a family of musicians and singers, Tiffany picked up musical skills very easily; however, her interest and desire for music wasn't as strong as her siblings. Instead, Tiffany enjoyed being independent and developed entrepreneur skills at an early age.
Tiffany graduated high school and a few months later she landed a job as a sales assistant with an internationally known firm where she assisted one of the top producers of the district. Shortly after, she started her studies at American Intercontinental University, majoring in Business Management. As she grew in the administrative arena, more advisors, planners, and CPA's began to utilize her services.
In 2008, Tiffany graduated the top of her class (Summa Cum Laude), maintaining a 4.0 GPA, earning her Bachelors of Business Management degree. Tiffany realized that God was calling to a different, yet higher level in Him. Tiffany preached her trial sermon and became a licensed Minister in 2009, and an ordained minister in the Summer of 2011.
God continued to challenge Tiffany to stretch her faith. As a result, Tiffany left her job under the direction and instruction of Holy Spirit and began the journey of being her own boss; hence Diligent Hands, LLC was born!
Starting off with only two (2) clients, she now has maintained a clientele of over forty (40) individuals. She has hosted trainings, including training over twenty-five (25) McDonalds Supervisors & Managers, being a speaker and trainer at the 1st & 2nd Annual Women's Empowerment Conference held in West Palm Beach, Florida, being the keynote speaker at the Northside Kiwanis Club, and much more.
Months later, Tiffany began her journey as an author where she began writing her first book, i.H.E.A.R.T – 30 Devotional. More recently, God birthed The Court, The Camp, The Throne through her which is destined to touch and change many lives.
Today, Tiffany serves faithfully at her local church while balancing other business endeavors. Although her schedule may be hectic at times, Tiffany loves the down times when she is home with her family where she's able to bond and teach her son about the things of God.
Ministry is her passion, and she has vowed that no matter where life takes her she is called and committed to serve as unto the Lord.
Would you like more information about this book?
Please fill out the form below so that I can add you to my email distribution list.
I thank you in advance for your interest!


text: 18 Space Mobile Home Park for Sale Similar ads Member's profile Email Advertiser Tell-a-friend 18 Space Mobile Home Park for Sale This ad is marked as Sold Description: INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS - Fourteen Mobile Home Sites, Four Apartment Units - City Water and Sewer - In-Town Location - One Mile from the Entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park - Only One Vacant Site - Turn-Key; Management in Place - Future Development Site Members profile: Advertised by: Colorado Automotive Use Commercial RE (click here to see full profile) Grade Colorado Automotive Use Commercial RE Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Ad Details Garage Spaces (put 0 if this does not apply) 0.00 Auto Use Allowed No Property is For Sale Parking Spaces Outside 50 plus Price $524,500 USD Price Info 30% Down Property Types Special Purpose Land Types Commercial Other Lot/Parcel Size 30,056 SF Year Built: 1972 Total Units or Spaces: 18 Use & Status Best Property Use This is an investment property, Currently Occupied Services Available or Included: City Water and Sewer Unique Sale Issues Type of Sale Real Estate Agency Sale Location Address 431 Lake Avenue City Grand Lake State CO Postal Code 80447 Country USA Call Me! Phone 877-781-5128 Ad id: 69501438 Ad views:3786 Current rating Grade Comments Do you have any comments? Do you have any comments? You may add it after you login.


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I have very dry, cracked fingers, sometimes to the extent where the cracks could split and bleed. Horror, I know! Imagine living with that for more than 20 years! Regular visits to the doctors do not help much as the creams, lotions and potions were either too greasy or too drying for my fingers. I have tried many hand creams, and while some have pleasant scents, they aren't moisturizing enough for me. If you have used the infamous Shea butter hand cream from L'occitane and are loving it, let me just tell you that THAT does NOT work for me at all. See how awfully dry my fingers are? (no pics to scare you, though!)
So last Christmas when I was at Sephora, I got myself this pair of moisturizing mini hand creams in Bliss' signature scents – High Intensity Hand Cream and Blood Orange + White Pepper Hand Cream. They were both put together in a small box and carries 30ml each. For only RM45, I was happy to give this a try.
I shall begin with the High Intensity Hand Cream where this, my friends, is lovely as it has macadamia seed oil, Shea butter, grape seed oil and Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice that softens and nourishes the skin. The slightly lemon-scented hand cream may appear thick and is not easily absorbed, so some act of massaging is needed. Once the cream has soaked into the skin though, it leaves no greasy residue, and my skin ends up being silky smooth, soft and hydrated. When I use this, I noticed fewer reapplications.
The other hand cream with Blood Orange + White Pepper has a bitter orange scent that lingers longer than the former hand cream. Due to the slight difference in its ingredient list, this hand cream seems to absorb slightly faster than the original but not as intensely hydrating as the High Intensity Hand Cream. Still, it is a good hand cream as it prevents my fingers to crack.
Given its trial size of 30ml, I will need to repurchase one of these soon as I apply hand creams religiously every few hours, every day. Even though I prefer the bitter orange scent, I prefer the soft as butter feeling I get after using High Intensity Hand Cream. I guess I can't have it all, yes?
Have you tried any hand creams from Bliss? Do you have a hand cream that you like?
With love,


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EENV-103 Earth System History
This course focuses on life from its origin on this planet to its present diversity of species. Students learn about the fundamental physical and biological changes that have shaped and influenced the Earth system since its formation 4.6 billion years ago. Topics addressed include physical concepts that deal with geologic time and stratigraphic relationships, plate tectonics and nutrient cycling. Discussions cover such topics as the origin of life, evolutionary processes, the expansion of biodiversity, the radiation of organisms in the oceans, the conquest of land, mass extinctions, dinosaurs and the rise of humans. 4 SH. 3 lecture hours, 3 laboratory/field hours. CC: Scientific Explanations.


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|The pdf includes 10 photographs including the one above.
The document is in Spanish; a Google Translate translation to English follows (I studied Spanish for one year at school but I am unable to significantly improve on Google's attempt. If any readers are able to provide improvements please let me have them, In particular I am foxed by the work Galluza which Google translates to Galluzo).
I have contacted the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague who have said "unfortunately, there are no any watches with a signature of Kover in the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague." Perhaps I have misunderstood the reference.
I now seek a copy of the 1980 edition of the book "El Arte de la Relojería". If any reader has a copy, would it be possible, please, to send me an electronic copy of the photograph on Page 192.
I am going to research the artists Augustin Heckel, G. M. Moser and John Valentine Haidt and will post anything I find of significance.
The prodigious machines (pages 87-91)
Vª. Part
Catalog Pocket watches and antique equipment.
This chapter takes a comprehensive review of the evolution of pocket watches at the time of consolidation and development as a measurement of time by the general public as well as its machinery, which covers the centuries in which the pocket watch began to change from being a purely decorative item, available to very few, to become an object of use and massive employment needs.
To this end, studied and cataloged a series of boxes, machinery, trends and fashions as well as the trajectory of their authors over the centuries of splendor - XVIII, XIX and XX - the country eminently watch producers appeared during these three centuries.
Clock No. 1.
Gold pocket watch
BUILDER: Kover (LONDON). Manufacturing No. 8346
DATE OF MANUFACTURE. According punches, London, 1727
The inner box is usually smooth, without any adornment and has linked the area to the back cover of this second inner box through a hinge generally located at the height of the figure XII, and with an opening mechanism beneath the figure VI of the sphere. The pendant, which is subject to the inner box to match the figure XII, is elongated like all the time, and ends with a flat ring attached to it. This flat ring-shaped, appears on 1700 and is parallel to the plane of the clock.
MACHINERY. Full plate gilt brass, with Galluzo decorated with masks. The Galluzo is one foot, is pierced with designs and located on the wheel, and is subject to the plate by a screw blued. The mask is classic watches of this era. The two plates are separated by columns and beautifully turned very characteristic of English watchmaking, while the watches made in France or Switzerland, these columns are usually smooth. The English take many forms, such as type or tulip baluster form, or the manner of Egyptian column. With Galluzo, it is the same, are pierced and decoratedsymmetrically. Not until 1750, when the Rococo influence, change these symmetries and shapes. The existence of chewing is very common in this era, especially in the watchmaking and sobrevolante English influence is always one foot, or anchoring in English clocks and two anchors on the continent.
The sobrevolantes, or Galluzo, were made in ancillary industries around the city of Liverpool, and were mostly made by hand, using small files by local artisans during the wet winters, mainly in rural areas, needed to some of these pieces, periods of three or four weeks for manufacturing, reporting to their manufacturers enough money for maintenance during these long periods of unemployment mandatory. The plate is engraved with the name of the city, London, to whether the signature of the manufacturer, Kover, and the number of series, 8346.
ESCAPE. Catherine wheel and steering wheel with silver dial for regulation numbered 1 to 6. Catherine Wheel, has broken a tooth and is repaired with a false tooth welded to the wheel. The operation of the watch is excellent. Delayed three minutes to 24 hours, which is acceptable for a watch made in 1727
SIZE. The diameter of the inner box is 4 cm. The outer diameter of the box that forms the "bumpers" is 6 cm.
STATE OF PRESERVATION. Very good.
NOTE. There is a very similar specimen in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. A photograph of the sheet is in the 139 Page 192 of the book "El Arte de la Relojería" the editorial LIBSA Madrid, 1980.
The boxes embossed clocks, also known as "repousse" is a technique that watch cases were manufactured from malleable metal sheets. This system of decoration is the result of hitting the inside of a metal in a mold made of a hard material such as wood, which has been carved in negative figure to play. Subsequently, the work is completed with appropriate tools that outline the figures that we obtained by chisels are hardened steel tools with which to treat bites the metal along the lines desired. Contrary to what seems, is a difficult method that requires high degrees of expertise and artistic talents, excelling in England important artists such as Augustin Heckel, G. M. Moser and John Valentine Haidt who performed great works by the year 1730. The favorite subjects were scenes from mythology, Greek and Roman warriors and even some religious, but also performed scenes of landscapes, animals, and grotesque scenes or historical.
During this period of time, this type of clocks used to be hung in chains of gold or gilt metal, widely recorded, usually with the same procedure as external boxes of watches, which were attached to his waistcoat pocket with a hook in the case of men, and waist in the case of women to these strings are called "Chatelaine" and tended to be of extreme beauty.
The origin of this type of channel or "Chatelaine" goes back to the system that had the housekeepers of the stately homes throughout central Europe carry the keys to the gates of houses different castles, and was developed over the eighteenth century, to reach the form of that shown in the picture above from the second half of the century, and formed by a body central hanging articles of two or three pieces held together by the back by a large hook fastening to side chains used to hang in an indefinite number, at the ends dangling the keys to wind the clock, or seals to seal the letters or small perfume or any implement that could decorate.
Over time, these chains are lengthened or turned into films, which combined metal and fabric, especially after the French Revolution, becoming the so-called Leontine.


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Capers, olives, and anchovy paste will make this quick, however wealthy,sauce a weeknight favourite. No one has the time or the desire to face over the sink slicing greens and no one has the time to attend for a dinner that takes hours to fix. This beef curry recipe could be very straightforward and you can sprinkle the curry beef on rice. The recipes are easy to prepare and the substances are easily out there as effectively.
If you happen to desire to ditch the noodles merely add more vegetables for a nutrient packed 'Fish Friday' dinner. A conventional cottage pie is made with floor beef and topped with mashed potatoes. Diversified meat soups are there resembling chicken, fish or vegetables which are getting used as principal ingredient and in addition served at dinner or lunch time. Nonetheless, honey also contains many wholesome such as amino acids, nutritional vitamins and mineral components.
Just a few weeks ago I had five straight days of garbage truck consuming ending in a very shameful dinner of two doughnuts, half a large pizza, 1/2 pint of ice cream and three handfuls of Skittles. Since our chefs and nutritionists create and select recipes on a weekly basis, they are able to be sure that your weight-reduction plan is balanced and offers all of the vitamins you need for a healthy way of life. In great American cities the place active life intersect with scrumptious food, it's potential to plan a trip that is both wholesome and extremely enjoyable.
Excessive in fiber and low in carbohydrates, coconut flour is a good partial substitute for wheat flour in baking recipes. Create a free SparkRecipes account and sync your favorite recipes across all of your gadgets. Here are collations of recipes you could enjoy without compromising in your health. This quantity estimates what number of calories you should eat per day to maintain your physique weight where it is now. All of our recipes have been tested and rated by dwelling cooks like you, so you don't have to worry about whether or not your meal will probably be successful.
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1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
5 He established a decree in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children;
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and rise up and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The Ephraimites, armed with* the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep Gods covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot what he had done,
and the miracles that he had shown them.
12 In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all night long with a fiery light.
15 He split rocks open in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock,
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out
and torrents overflowed,
can he also give bread,
or provide meat for his people?
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage;
a fire was kindled against Jacob,
his anger mounted against Israel,
22 because they had no faith in God,
and did not trust his saving power.
23 Yet he commanded the skies above,
and opened the doors of heaven;
24 he rained down on them manna to eat,
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Mortals ate of the bread of angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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CMBS Loans in Special Servicing to Hit 15% in 2010: Fitch Report
- By
- Aug 11, 2010
Securitized commercial real estate loans are getting transferred to special servicing at an accelerated pace, and fully 15 percent of outstanding CMBS will be in special servicing by the end of the year, Fitch Ratings estimates in a report published Wednesday. At that pace, the value of loans in special servicing will hit $110 billion by the end of the year. At the same time, big-ticket problem loans are likely to be modified or extended and returned to master servicing.
During the second half of 2010, loan transfers will continue the momentum established in the first half, Fitch researchers Stephanie Petosa, Scott Pritchard and Richard Carlson. In the first six months of the year, the value of outstanding loan balances jumped by one-quarter to $92 billion. Imminent default continues to be the most common cause for placing loans in special servicing, accounting for 63 percent of the loans transferred during the first half of the year. Fitch's research offered the latest confirmation that securitizations during the peak market years are also most likely to default than earlier vintages. At mid-year, 84 percent of loans in special servicing were securitized during 2005, 2006 or 2007.
The proportion of loans in special servicing shifted considerably among property types during the first half of 2010, mostly because of two portfolios in particular. In the retail sector, CMBS loans in special servicing dropped from 32 percent of the total at the beginning of 2010 to 20 percent on June 30. That drop stemmed primarily from the resolution of $7.7 billion in loans by General Growth Properties Inc., which have either returned to master servicing or had their balances reduced to zero. Meanwhile, the percentage of office CMBS loans in special servicing rose from 17 percent of all loans in special servicing at the start of the year to 30.5 percent at midyear. The single biggest contributor to that increase was the transfer of $5 billion in loans on Equity Office Properties assets.
Even as the volume of loans sent to special servicing grows, so is the emergence of problem loans out of special servicing. During the first half, loans valued at nearly $20 billion emerged from special servicing—more than double the $8.7 billion that left special servicing during all of 2009. Fitch notes that General Growth Properties alone accounted for 39 percent of all loans transferred out of special servicing.
In one telling finding, the Fitch analysts noted that the balance of loans resolved, or brought to zero, averaged $6.4 million during the first six months of the year. That serves as yet another signal that smaller-balance loans are more likely to be resolved, whether by foreclosure, discounted payoff or note sale. By contrast, the researchers noted, "larger loans (mostly from recent vintage CMBS) are by and large being modified and/or extended and returned to master servicing."


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Dawn of Desire – Joyce Verette
Say it isn't so! I am posting a review of a "romantic-possibly-sex-laden-book" that is not everyone's cup of tea.
So there is a back story to this book. By the time I was 12, I was reading at least one book a day, and when I made my weekly visit to my Grandma's, I found this book. It was obvious that she hadn't been reading it, so I "borrowed" it. And when you are 12 years old, anything and everything are possible. But even more than that, this story is GOOD. An arranged marriage, hoping for the best, and expecting the worst, murder, treason, and suspense. Two different nations, trying to unite to avoid a war.
Princess Nefrytaten and Prince Ameni are trying to save Egypt, and build it to what it should be. This story is seriously so good, that there is even…
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RadRed89 wrote:I dig this series so far, I just wish it updated a little more frequently. I understand that things happen and a lot of other stuff can take precedence, but this thing was originally meant to be finished some time ago, and it feels like we're only barely getting started now.
Ah well. Some progress is better than no progress at all.
Honestly, I feel the same way.


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LG New Chocolate BL40 Mobile Phone Review
LG New chocolate BL40 is an addition in the LG's new series known as Black Label. It is one of the most stylish handset from the LG till the date.
The handset is a quad band supporting phone capable of global roaming due to the vast frequency support. It can also have connectivity for the UMTS services and the 3G services implemented in Asia. The LG BL 40 has Edge, and UMTS support too and using its HSDPA support the LG New chocolate BL40 can reach to the high data transmission rate of up to 7.2MB.
LG BL40 has length of 5.04 inches, width of 2.01 width and depth of 0.43 inches, thus making it slim but flatly extended.The handset has TFT display and has a 256 color screen thus showing a very high quality picture. Size of display is 4 inch which makes it among the handsets that has large screen. The handset has a multi touch screen with an aspect ration of 21:9 and a scratch proof glass.
The handset can play almost all type of audio files including mp3, aac, aac+ and others. Which make it a preferred choice for the music lovers.LG New chocolate BL40 has a good number of connectivity options. For internet support the handset contains WAP, XHTML and HTML support. And can be connected to computer through micro USB port. The handset also has the Wifi for internet connectivity and Bluetooth for in range connectivity and use of bluetooth headphones and other bluetooth connectivity options.
The set also has the GPS connectivity option to locate you and show you your current position in the pre defined map, thus helping you in finding your desired place.Having a Lithium Ion battery with 17 days of stand by time and 6 hours of talk time the LG New chocolate BL40 is opted by many young and professional people as it has many features and provides a very long standby time and a good number of connectivity options


text: I am trying to access my Yola e-mail account via Hotmail or another e-mail client via Android phone app. Even though Hotmail says successfully added my Yola account, I do not get any e-mail through it. I set it up as a POP3...should it be IMAP? Are there any settings I need to adjust to make this work (either on Hotmail on on my Yola e-mail account)?


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|These monsters are friends. They're hugging. Aw
|He doesn't see the sun, because it's behind him. That's funny, because it so big.
|This monster is taller than the trees! And the trees are so tall they touch the clouds!
|Do you know why I put the tape here, Mommy? Because I thought it might tear right there.


text: Minoo Maani 1,123 Posted September 30, 2018 of course he gets nominated for gp while it had a wonderful management as wall as arrangement for its outcome ~ I know dj was more popular because of its wonderful cast especially because of ysy as it's obvious in the comments that most of the compliments were about him ~but with that disappointing ending and even not holding a good wrap up party I believe sbs management and arrangements are very weak and disappointing and I feel so pity for ysy who after his intense hardworking on his role in this project should not be considered for nominating. I believe it's better he never confirm sbs offers after this unresponsible ending and wasting his hardworking. His face in gp is an ever memorable face ~ They had a wonderful wrap up party too, leaving so many wonderful pics and videos ~ and this party is so memorable too Ysy felt so energized and happy for the events of gp ~his jumping and Shaking hands proves it Thank you @Maryam Spoiler My role model is ysy. I love him because despite being very innocent and hardworking but at the same time so wise, independent and confident on his mind and ways ~ 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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One Arm Tied behind Our Backs? Assessing the Power of the United States to Combat Global Threats
By: Dr. Leo Blanken , US Naval Postgraduate School
Dr. Jason Lepore, California Polytechnic State University
Americans were left bewildered in the wake of the Vietnam War (1964–1975). "How is it that the 'greatest power in the world' could suffer defeat at the hands of… [bandits] 'in black pajamas?'" 1 A phrase, both explanatory and palliative, was often proffered for this puzzle: We fought with one arm tied behind our backs. The imagery of this term is compelling: a pugilist who is struggling not only against an opponent but also against unfair constraints has the weapons he needs to win but cannot bring them to bear. Over the last decade, many Americans have found themselves dealing with similarly overwhelming feelings of frustration. The United States currently spends massive amounts of money on national security to produce the most professional and technically advanced force the world has ever seen.2 Why, then, does this colossal investment seem unable to produce desired outcomes against barely trained, meagerly resourced, seemingly ad hoc opponents around the world? Does the country indeed fight with one arm tied behind its back?
In this article, we postulate that liberal states are increasingly bound by normative limitations on the acceptable uses of force3 and that this effect is exacerbated in discretionary wars (i.e., wars of choice). In other words, a state may have a fully "combat effective" national security apparatus that it cannot bring to bear due to socially constructed norms of acceptable behavior.4 If these points are valid, then they have enormous implications for the strategic assessment efforts undertaken by a liberal democratic nation engaged in a landscape that consists of noncritical threats. A state may have an exceedingly impressive national security apparatus that remains "tied behind its back." Therefore, we suggest that anyone tasked with analyzing US power in the current global threat environment must be very sensitive to these points and temper their analysis of US capabilities accordingly.5
We develop this argument in three parts: First, we critically examine the literature that links investment in military forces to the concept of national power. Second, we look at the "arm tied behind the back" puzzle more closely by identifying increasingly constraining normative expectations on the use of violence. Third, we describe the implications of this argument for making realistic assessments of US capacity to successfully engage the current global threat environment. In doing so, we show that any net assessment of non-state actor threats must be reconsidered to take into account normative constraints on force and avoid the danger of miscalculating capacity. We conclude by linking this discussion to specific policy concerns and call for new approaches to operations planning.
Military Force and the Concept of Power
As a starting point, we need to discuss why some nations are regarded as "powerful" and why this concept is considered by many theorists to be paramount to the functioning of the international system. It is standard to assume that the international system is anarchic.6 If it is true that no higher authority exists above system actors, then these actors must secure themselves to survive. The common narrative for this process is that states—the key actors in the global system—maintain sovereignty over a given territory and population, from which they extract resources and build a military force.7 This ability to leverage authority and resources thus determines the relative power of the actors in the system.8 The question then is, how is military force linked instrumentally to the political fortunes of the state? Despite the myriad weapons and tactics that have been utilized across time and space, most scholars agree that actors get utility out of military forces through two basic means: their actual use (fighting) or their potential use (threatening). In other words, actors either wage war to achieve desired outcomes, or they engage in bargaining with implicit or explicit threats of war in the background as leverage.9 In fact, for those who profess the worldview known as Realism, it is the underlying distribution of military power that provides the structure necessary for the international system to function at all.
Lurking behind the scenes, unstated but explicit, lies the military muscle that gives meaning to the posturing of the diplomats. … Coercion, therefore, is to a political framework what a political framework is to a market: the necessary but not the sufficient precondition for its effective functioning.10
Furthermore, this is frequently assumed to be a positive relationship: "the more a state allocates to the military, the stronger it becomes ceteris paribus and the more likely it is to prevail in any conflict." 11 For the Realist, investment in military forces promises both victory in war and successful negotiation in peace. If this line of reasoning is valid, then the United States today should be able to prevail over almost any threat it confronts.12
Does this parsimonious model seem sound? Or are there conditions under which increasing the allocation of resources to the military fails to increase the power potential of the state? Critics such as David Baldwin argue that military forces are often unable to shape outcomes in the system due to the fact that military forces are far less fungible than is commonly believed. This goes beyond the argument that resources are being allocated inefficiently ("using the wrong strategy") but says that the instrument of military might itself is simply unusable in many arenas of competition. Offering a simple but evocative analogy to illustrate his point, Baldwin observes that it is not a case of "'he had the cards but played them poorly,' but rather, 'he had a great bridge hand but happened to be playing poker.' " 13 In other words, weapons and soldiers do not radiate an intrinsic and inexorable "power" but are instruments whose utility is extremely context-dependent. We agree with Baldwin's assessment and focus in the next section on one emerging aspect of contextual constraint: norms of acceptable behavior.
Normative Constraints on the Use of Force
The Realist argument sketched in the previous section is predicated on military force being used without constraint, a condition that accords with a strict adherence to the assumption of anarchy. Carl von Clausewitz's early thinking on the topic emphasized the unlimited nature of war in an anarchic environment where, all things being equal, the more extreme application of violence would prevail: "The impulse to destroy the enemy … is central to the very concept of war. … War is an act of force, and there is no limit to the application of that force."14 This position was articulated almost comically by the colorful Victorian British Admiral Sir John "Jacky" Fisher:
The essence of war is violence! Moderation in war is imbecility! … If you rub it in both at home and abroad that you are ready for instant war … and intend to be first in and hit your enemy in the belly and kick him when he is down and boil your prisoners in oil (if you take any) … and torture his women and children, then people will keep clear of you.15
This quote is striking in its anachronistic feel. Such an idea simply could not be articulated today by any type of democratic state official (who intends to keep his or her job). Why is this the case?16
The "Liberal Dilemma" is a well-documented phenomenon: nations that nominally abhor war as a tool of policy must at times engage in it because "the role of enlightened reason will not be disseminated throughout the world through the peaceful operation of some hidden hand. It needs muscle behind it."17 This tension lies in the liberal state leadership's need to accomplish policy goals while maintaining the popular support necessary to stay in power.18 Thus, these leaders must consider the opportunity costs of any potential military action. Undertaking military actions that contravene accepted norms can create substantial costs and undermine the fortunes of political leadership by (1) alienating the global community and inciting international disapproval, and/or (2) raising domestic disapproval and lowering domestic political support. In the first case, a state that is highly integrated into the global community in terms of economic activity and international security must consider these international norms very carefully because transgressions affect international relationships. In the words of political scientist Martha Finnemore, "Force must be coupled with legitimacy for maximum effect. … The goal must be seen as legitimate, and force must be viewed as a legitimate means to that goal."19 In the second case, the internal political institutions of the democratic state are paramount to policy makers. Democratically elected leaders are highly sensitive to maintaining a foreign policy that is palatable to their domestic constituents.20 Under such circumstances, it follows that norms will be more constraining in liberal states.21
Constraining norms become even more difficult to observe in discretionary "wars of choice." Lawrence Freedman, a foreign policy and defense expert, explains why this is the case.
When the security of the state is threatened by a large and self-evidently hostile enemy, then all social and economic resources can be mobilized in response. When, by contrast, there is a debate to be had about the nature of the threat and whether matters are made better or worse by direct military action, military operations appear to be more discretionary and national mobilisation on even a modest scale becomes more difficult.22
In other words, when threats are seen as nonexistential, normative constraints loom larger. Domestic constituents are willing to bear fewer direct costs, and critics at home and abroad are less circumspect in their censure:
The intervening states' apparent sympathy for the population should lead them to take extra precautions to protect it during the prosecution of the war... On the other hand, if the political leaders justify the wars by reference to altruistic motives rather than to national interest, they may find it difficult to permit any unnecessary risk to their own country's soldiers.23
Thus, liberal countries' wars of choice generate contradictory pressures: the need to minimize target nation casualties while simultaneously minimizing their own forces' casualties, all while executing complex and demanding missions against a relatively unconstrained enemy. This point of view is expounded most directly by Gil Merom, an international security specialist who argues that "democracies fail in small wars because they find it extremely difficult to escalate the level of violence and brutality to that which can secure victory." 24 If this is true, then we can expect that liberal states faced with nonexistential threats will find it increasingly difficult to gauge their ability to apply adequate resources and affect outcomes in the international system. We now turn to the difficulties of assessing threats and outcomes for liberal democracies.
The Challenge of Assessment
The ability to realistically assess potential outcomes is a fundamental requirement for actors in an anarchic system because bargaining over any issue is done with the specter of conflict, however remote, in the background. Each actor must regularly calculate how its forces would fare in a prospective conflict, a reality that conditions the scope of national ambitions, the weighing of recalcitrance and acquiescence, and the ultimate choice of whether to resort to violence. These positions can be founded only on assessments of each actor's relative power.25 Combined with the normative constraints on policy described in the previous section, it follows that creating a valid assessment scheme for the United States in its current threat environment is going to be difficult in the extreme.
Some areas of competition are relatively symmetric and straightforward; others can be more complicated. The naval arms racing of the pre-carrier capital ship era, for example, provided relatively straightforward metrics of national power.26 As strategist Emily Goldman points out, however, when competitors choose to offset, rather than match, their opponent's investments through asymmetric weapons and tactics, things become more complex.27 The current global security environment, characterized as it is by fluid networks of nefarious non-state threats, epitomizes such "off-setting" strategic contests. Fringe actors seek to dethrone the liberal world order in a number of arenas—political, social, cyber, and cultural—yet not in battlefield dominance, where US strength lies. This profound asymmetry makes assessing relative power problematic. In the parlance of net assessment, the relevant attributes of "red" (the opponent) are not easy to compare to those of "blue" (ourselves).28
The difficulty of measuring this environment goes beyond mere complexity, however. Building on our preceding discussions, the capacities of liberal states are further limited by their inability to bring their military investments to bear on many types of threats. This problem is compounded by the fact that wealthy liberal states, such as the United States, have increasingly relied on advanced technology and stand-off weaponry to dominate battlefields, but wars are being fought in cities and villages, not on traditional battlefields.29 Current internal assessments of military capability are skewed to heavily weight such expensive platforms and their supporting systems. As we noted earlier, however, such weapons can play only a minor role against the security threats that liberal democracies currently face. Therefore, standard assessment frameworks may be heavily biased toward overestimating the capacity of such states to effect outcomes in the international system, and lead to overly ambitious policy and the ready resort to force.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The United States finds itself in a world full of concerns, none of which currently threatens the existence of the nation. Our discussion highlights the fact that, ironically, the lack of an existential threat creates its own host of problems for policy makers. More specifically, in such an environment, a "powerful" liberal nation, such as the United States, may be essentially powerless to bring its national security investments to bear on the existing threats. We demonstrate that the militarily most powerful nation in the world is indeed struggling with one arm tied behind its back, a fact that policymakers and planners must bear in mind. What are some of the implications of this situation?
First, the constraint of social and political norms on military execution is a fundamental consideration in any decision regarding the discretionary uses of force. Simply basing decisions on the array of impressive assets available to policy makers has and almost surely will lead to grief. Normative constraints should be acknowledged at the outset of mission planning, yet the nuts and bolts of operations are normally developed in a vacuum, divorced from the broader social and political context. This situation needs to change.
Second, if, after careful consideration, military force remains the best option, then the types of units selected for missions are critical. On the one hand, conventional military forces are purpose-built to effectively destroy enemy units in an unconstrained environment. But on the other hand, the current array of irregular conflicts is not merely a "lesser included" subset of such missions. Small packages of specially selected and trained forces may not only be more effective than larger conventional units at operating in complex "human terrain" but also are less likely to garner the media attention that mobilizes normative critics.
Finally, using military force as a policy tool in today's threat environment requires a fundamental reworking of our outdated, Cold War–legacy planning mechanism. A new perspective on military planning is necessary to build and equip forces that can operate in politically constrained settings against non-state opponents. Such a new approach should consider combat effectiveness as only one attribute of a viable force structure, while simultaneously taking into account normative political constraints. In doing so, we can avoid building expensive arms that remain tied behind our back.
About the Author(s):
Dr. Leo Blanken associate professor in the Defense Analysis department of the US Naval Postgraduate School.
Dr. Jason Lepore associate professor of economics at California Polytechnic State University.
This is a work of the US federal government and not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Foreign copyrights may apply.
- David A. Baldwin, Paradoxes of Power (New York: Blackwell, 1989), 132.
- For the global context of US defense spending, see the descriptive analyses produced by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: https://www.sipri.org
- We follow Michael Doyle's treatment of the concept of liberalism. See Michael W. Doyle, "Liberalism and World Politics," American Political Science Review 80, no. 4 (December 1998): 1151–69.
- This is distinct from arguments that are commonly put forward regarding strategy choice. See, for example, John A. Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
- The problem with overestimating force capabilities is further exacerbated by the problem of incentive misalignment and conflict assessment in wars of choice. For a treatment of this issue, see Leo J. Blanken and Jason J. Lepore "Performance Measurement in Military Operations: Information versus Incentives," forthcoming (n.d.) in Defence and Peace Economics: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10242694.2014.949548#.VZHHRGAk_dk . On metrics challenges across a broader array of conflict environments, see Leo J. Blanken, Hy Rothstein, and Jason J. Lepore, eds., Assessing War: The Challenge of Measuring Success and Failure (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2015).
- For critical assessments of this assumption, see David A. Lake, "Anarchy, Hierarchy, and the Variety of International Relations," International Organization 50, no.1 (Winter 1996): 1–33; and Alexander Wendt, "Anarchy Is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics," International Organization 46, no. 2 (1992): 391–425.
- See, for example, Bruce D. Porter, War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics (New York: Free Press, 1994).
- See Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1979).
- The classic treatment is still Thomas C. Schelling, Arms and Influence (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1966).
- Robert J. Art, "The Fungibility of Force," in The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics, 7th ed., ed. Robert J. Art and Kenneth N. Waltz (Lanham, Mass.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), 4–5.
- Robert Powell, In the Shadow of Power: States and Strategies in International Politics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999), 4–5.
- Recent work by Blake Allison suggests that military power has less impact on outcomes than previously believed. Specifically, a marginal increase in military capabilities may have no impact on the outcomes of noncooperative bargaining games. See Blake A. Allison, "Do Players Prefer to Bargain Noncooperatively in the Shadow of Conflict?" (lecture, University of California, Irvine, Department of Economics Theory, History, and Development Seminar Series, Irvine, Calif., 13 October 2014).
- Baldwin, Paradoxes of Power, 133.
- Quoted in Azar Gat, A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 225. Clausewitz's later work, however, emphasized that most wars are limited in nature. For a detailed analysis of this tension, see R. Harrison Wagner, "Bargaining and War," American Journal of Political Science 44, no. 3 (July 2000): 469–84.
- Quoted in Diana Preston, A Higher Form of Killing: Six Weeks in World War I that Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare (New York: Bloomsbury, 2015), 18.
- We neglect international law here, though there is reason to link it to our discussion of norms, since international law has no third-party enforcement mechanism. See Michael Howard, "Constraints on Warfare," in The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World, ed. Michael Howard, George J. Andreopoulos, and Mark R. Shulman (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995).
- Michael Howard, War and the Liberal Conscience (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1978), 6. See also John M. Owen, Liberal Peace, Liberal War: American Politics and International Security (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000).
- On this assumption, see Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, and James D. Morrow, The Logic of Political Survival (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003).
- Martha Finnemore, The Purpose of Intervention: Changing Beliefs about the Use of Force (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003), 16–17.
- See Michael W. Doyle, "Three Pillars of the Liberal Peace," American Political Science Review 99, no. 3 (August 2005): 463–66.
- On this point, see the concluding chapter of Leo J. Blanken, Rational Empires: Institutional Incentives and Imperial Expansion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).
- Lawrence Freedman, The Transformation of Strategic Affairs (London: IISS, 2006), 7.
- Matthew Evangelista, Law, Ethics, and the War on Terror (Malden, Mass.: Polity, 2008), 131.
- Gil Merom, How Democracies Lose Small Wars: State, Society, and the Failures of France in Algeria, Israel in Lebanon, and the United States in Vietnam (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 15.
- See Branislav L. Slantchev, "The Principle of Convergence in Wartime Negotiations," American Political Science Review 97, no. 4 (November 2003): 621–32.
- See John Jordan, Warships after Washington: The Development of the Five Major Fleets, 1922–1930 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2012).
- Emily O. Goldman, Power in Uncertain Times: Strategy in the Fog of Peace (Redwood City, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2010).
- For a detailed discussion of the "color" metaphor in national security, see Lawrence A. Kuznar and Carl W. Hunt, "The Blue-Green-Red Metaphor in the Context of Counterterrorism: Clarifications and Anthropological Emendations," in this issue of CTX.
- See Michel Fortmann and Stéfanie von Hlatky, "The Revolution in Military Affairs: Impact of Emerging Technologies on Deterrence," in Complex Deterrence: Strategy in the Global Age, ed. T.V. Paul, Patrick M. Morgan, and James J. Wirtz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).


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GIC is the common call center for providing information and how to obtain government services In addition to providing and obtaining government information you can submit complaint or grievances with regard to any of the government organization. Moreover GIC is the role of help desk for e-services and the digital intermediary.
GIC was set up in 2007 and was ceremoniously launched by H E the president.
GIC provide information on 1439 services offer by 191 organizations. 14 hours by 7 days by operating and trilingual basis.


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Ilwrath-Thraddash war
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|Ilrwath-Thraddash War
Ilwrath and Pkunk ships
The Ilwrath-Thraddash war ensues when the Ilwrath are directed by The Captain (who is impersonating Dogar and Kazon on Channel 44 via a HyperWave Broadcaster) to seek new prey instead of the Pkunk. They choose the Thraddash and proceed, with their ships cloaked, towards the Thraddash stars. The Ilwrath and the Thraddash fight to the death, unwilling to acknowledge their fate even in the last moments of the war. Eventually, the conflict leads to the mutual annihilation of the two races (though some suppose that there may be survivors).


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Chance: Targeting front lines may be new tactic
NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN (CNN) -- U.S.-led airstrikes are pounding Taliban frontline positions in northern Afghanistan, which CNN Correspondent Matthew Chance says may signal a shift in air campaign strategy.
It's happening north of Kabul, where CNN 's Chance filed this report.
CHANCE: There have been new developments, it seems, in the U.S.-led air war against Afghanistan. I'm on the Bagram Air Force Base, once a key installation of the Soviet Union in its occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Just to give you an idea of the frontline nature of the position that we're in right now -- those buildings in the distance just at the foot of the mountains, that's the Taliban front line, about a mile or so from where we're standing right now.
The mountains are obviously firmly in the control of the Taliban. They're about 25 kilometers from the city, and are basically the only defenses that stand between the forces of the Northern Alliance, the opposition forces with whom I'm based right now, and the ultimate prize, which is of course, Kabul -- seizing Kabul itself.
We witnessed what may be a new departure in the U.S.-led air war over Afghanistan. A fighter of the U.S.-led coalition streaked across the sky here and dropped its bombs -- two of its bombs -- on Taliban frontline positions on these mountains over here just north of Kabul. Local commanders say they've been frustrated over the recent weeks, that the U.S.-led strikes have focused too much on targets deep inside the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and not enough on these frontline positions.
But if these kind of bombing runs continue, that may mark a change in strategy from the United States, and essentially if it destroys the Taliban front lines here, it could open the way for a Northern Alliance advance on Kabul.
CNN: We know that the United States has been trying to restrain the Northern Alliance from making such a move. Is the Northern Alliance telling you now that they expect the U.S. to actually open the way for them to go into Kabul and that they actually will follow through and do it?
CHANCE: The Northern Alliance aren't saying one way or another what they're expecting. Certainly they're hoping for that. They've been in close coordination with the United States, they say, on a daily basis, ever since the start of this air campaign, maintaining their forces in their trenches. They're not advancing into the areas that may come under attack from the United States warplanes and the warplanes of its allies.
Clearly, though, what the Northern Alliance wants more than anything else is some kind of close air support, to destroy these positions here so that they can achieve their ultimate military objective, which is to take the Afghan capital Kabul. They haven't done it yet. They haven't moved out their positions and that's what they want.
CNN: From where you're standing, you should be able to see any strikes that are taking place on the Kabul region. What's it look like to you today? Is it more or less than it has been in recent days?
CHANCE: It's difficult to say because in this position, we don't often get the opportunity to come every day. But certainly we're not very far from Kabul. Intermittently we've been hearing U.S. warplanes or maybe British warplanes -- it's difficult to tell from the ground -- streaking across the sky here.
In fact, I think I can hear one in the distance right now, but they're flying so high, it's difficult for us to get pictures of them. But yes, this is the route which the warplanes take on their bombing runs into the northern part of Kabul, which as I say, is just across the mountain range back there.
U.S. bombs Taliban front lines
October 17, 2001
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Rating: NNNNN
with the TOUGH DUMPLIN BAND and DJs MUSIKLEE INZANE, SERIOUS, GROUCH, MASTERMIND and the SOUL CONTROLLERS at Reverb (651 Queen West), Sunday (February 11). $10. www.kolakube.com
the path to jerk chicken stu-
dios is blocked by thousands of reggae 45s, shelves sagging with CDs, a pair of turntables and several hundred records randomly strewn across the floor.Get through the door and you're immediately confronted with record sleeves lining the walls, an SP 1200 sampler and battered CD player fighting for space on a makeshift shelf, and a list of Yo Mamma jokes taped to the mirror.
It's here that the most innovative and original hiphop in the megacity is made.
The studio, which doubles as the cramped North York bedroom of Tristan Graham, aka MC Collizhun, is unassuming, but the music that comes out of it is anything but.
Until recently, Collizhun was the mouthpiece for the incendiary hiphop trio Nefarius. On the verge of breaking big, the group blew apart this winter, and now Graham has taken his Tough Dumplin Foundation For Better Beats solo.
Even if his stuttering beats and dancehall-juiced rhymes weren't snapping necks from Kamloops to Kingston, Jamaica, it's unlikely Graham would fit in with the rest of the T-dot hiphop crowd.
How can you sleep on a food-crazy MC who rhymes constantly about curried goat, bully beef and ackee but can't actually cook, who is about to release a record dominated by instrumental tracks -- in case fans want to make up their own rhymes -- and whose live shows offer free jerk chicken and rice and peas and find Collizhun backed by a violinist and an upright bass player?
"I like to stand out," Graham laughs with typical understatement. "The worst that can happen is I get booed."
Or battered. Graham's explosive freestyles and dramatic beats have drawn considerable attention around town, but it was his penchant for saying what's on his mind that really earned Nefarius their name.
In the not-so-big Toronto hiphop world, Graham has a reputation as a serious shit disturber. He's not afraid to speak out on what he sees as the uninspiring state of local hiphop, where simply copying the hot sounds of the day is often praised rather than challenged.
Collizhun's infamous demo recording You Can't Handle The Truth dissed Maestro and others by name, while the now-classic Nefarius track Pondering talks about needing a pillow when listening to most Toronto hiphop. A skit on the forthcoming Tough Dumplin album calls the celebrated RapEssentials collections "the two most wack compilations ever to come out of Canada."
"I'm broke," roars Graham, perched on a chair in the one corner of his room that isn't covered with records or recording equipment. "I've got nothing to lose, so why not say what I feel? I'm not concerned with what he thinks or what she thinks."
In fact, operating apart from the familiar faces dominating T.O. hiphop has actually worked to his benefit. Graham has managed to create a unique sound in a music that often rewards familiarity and laziness with number-one albums.
MC Collizhun's self-described ragamuffin hiphop mixes rugged beats with molasses-thick patois and rhymes about plantain and oxtail. The forthcoming Tough Dumplin album even includes a handy glossary for those who don't know the difference between bashment and batty rider.
The dancehall-hiphop hookup seems obvious, especially considering that Graham's father is renowned CHRY 105.5 FM reggae DJ Delroy G, the radio host whose ads once boasted of his ability to "reggaematize" people.
What is remarkable is that there aren't more people in the local scene making those links, especially considering the strength of the Caribbean community in Toronto.
"It's easier for me to write in patois than in English," Graham admits. "It also gives me a more original sound, something a lot of other people can't cop.
"Some other people have come with that sound, like Ghetto Concept and Kardinal Offishall, but they never held it for an entire song. It isn't the most accessible thing, so if you're trying to reach a wider audience, I can see why you might want to tone it down a bit. I just spit whatever fits the song.
"A lot of times, when you hear patois, all you hear is a lot of English and then someone shouting "Bloodclaat!' I use it totally different, more in terms of a cultural reference than just slang. It's not a novelty."
It's also much more in tune with Toronto than the steady stream of imitators within the local scene rhyming like they're living in the 212, not 416.
"A lot of people took offence to the line "You're living in Toronto but you're rapping like you're living in Compton,' but everybody knew it was the truth," Graham agrees. "People were, like, "I rhyme about living in the projects and waving guns -- maybe he's talking about me.'"
Expect Collizhun's sound to get even wider and a lot more personal now that he's on his own.
The wildly anticipated Nefarius/Tough Dumplin album was pushed back in January when Graham and DJ Don D acrimoniously dissolved Nefarius.
Graham won't get into the specifics of the breakup. The DJ, meanwhile, has posted a blunt message on his Web site (www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/5989/) alluding to an "erosion of trust and integrity."
The Nefarius disc is tentatively set to come out in late February, but not exactly with the DJ's blessing.
Even more traumatic was the loss of long-time Collizhun sparring partner Kwesro, who died in his sleep in the spring of 1999.
Listen to Collizhun and Kwesro's blinding, 15-minute CIUT FM freestyle on the Tough Dumplin album and it's obvious that the duo had a true partnership. Graham is still shook up by the loss, and talking about him is the only time the jokester MC loses his smile. "It was so easygoing with Kwesro," he nods. "We never rehearsed or planned things out. I could make a beat, and then we'd work out the rhyme over the phone.
"He was just an all-around good person who didn't smoke or drink, and we had this amazing connection. Every time I make a beat, I still expect him to call and want to hear it."
The Tough Dumplin album is in part a tribute to Kwesro, but for Graham it's just the beginning. Ragamuffin Hiphop, a follow-up record planned for this summer, is already half finished, and if folks were freaked by his earlier material, just wait.
Already in the can is a pumped-up hiphop/drum 'n' bass fusion as well as a hilarious song about life in a Jamaican household that dissolves into a heavy rock track featuring guitar by former Change of Heart strummer Ian Blurton.
"I just want to be as different as possible and have fun with the music," Graham insists. "I can't be happy if I know that this track sounds exactly the same as every other song out there.
"If a tune is eight bars, I'll only write six and improvise the rest, just to make it even more spontaneous, and I'll work with anyone who can share that vibe."
firstname.lastname@example.com collizhun adds Jamaican flava to T-dot hiphop By MATT GALLOWAY COLLIZHUN COURSE


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Man in his 20s dies in crash
PUBLISHED: 11:16 17 April 2019 | UPDATED: 08:29 18 April 2019
A man in his 20s has died after the car he was driving crashed into a tree.
Police were called just after 8pm last night (April 16) to reports of a single-vehicle incident at Syleham Hall Lane in Syleham, near Scole.
A Nissan Almera collided with a tree and the driver, a man in his 20s, died at the scene.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Serious Collision Investigation Unit at Suffolk Constabulary on 101 quoting reference CAD 357 of April 16.
If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Ipswich Star. Click the link in the yellow box below for details.


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On my Pentaho CE 7.1 I often need to generate large number of reports (*.prpt) with different attributes.
For example, I have a report that shows data for a day, and I need to generate those reports for each day since September 2017.
Is there any way how create a script, that would execute those *.prpt files one by one for each day since September 2017 until now?
I have been checking API on official Pentaho documentation, but it does not seem to be such option there. Perhaps some kind of hack, like sending parameters in URL or so?


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Socorro Independent School District Superintendent of Schools Dr. José Espinoza has been named a finalist for the Escalante-Gradillas Prize for Best in Education.
Dr. Espinoza is one of five finalists from across the country being considered for the prestigious prize that recognizes academic excellence.
As a nominee for the prize, Dr. Espinoza shared his commitment to treat and educate all students as if they are his own children; his personal experience as a minority, low-income student; and his ganas to ensure every student succeeds by creating the WIN Academy for vulnerable students.
He has been a dedicated educator for 21 years and an inspirational and successful leader in Team SISD, improving student performance, earning numerous accolades for instructional accomplishments, and garnering widespread recognition for SISD.
TheBestSchools.org established the annual Escalante-Gradillas Prize for Best in Education in 2014. The winners exemplify a commitment to learning, discipline, character-building, and high expectations that characterized East L.A.'s Garfield High School when Jaime Escalante taught there and Henry Gradillas was its principal.
The winner is honored for his or her legacy of academic excellence and is awarded $10,000 for him or herself and $10,000 for his or her school or school district. If he wins, Dr. Espinoza will donate the $10,000 awarded to him to a student.
The winner of the 2017 Escalante-Gradillas Prize for Best in Education will be announced on Oct. 5.


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Those affected are expat borrowers without large deposits or with insufficient income levels to match their requirements.
And while expats may find their mortgage applications turned down, French residents are also having a tougher time getting home loans.
However, the grass is still greener in France than in the UK. House prices are up about eight percent year on year while in the UK, Halifax's house price index recorded a 4.2 per cent fall. And the credit crunch was not so bad in France, where sub-prime mortgages were rare.
But one of France's biggest lenders to expatriates, BNP Paribas, has overhauled its mortgage range for non-residents and is cutting its loan to value for non-residents from 80 per cent to 70 per cent. It has also changed limits on the amount of assets non-resident borrowers have and also chopped the term on interest-only loans to expats.
It's all because the French banks are being cautious. Some have already started implementing Basel III criteria aimed at improving their creditworthiness. Under these, a borrower cannot have loans exceeding six times their income which could affect those with several buy to let properties or even some first-time buyers.
Also, usually French lenders will set a limit of 33 per cent on the amount of gross income that can be used to pay a mortgage: but some are now refusing borrowers even if they are within these limits.
However, John-Luke Busby, director of specialist French mortgage brokers Athena Mortgages said although there has been an increasing number recently of expats being turned down by French lenders when they approach them directly, expats wanting mortgages can still get them. "We know which lenders offer deals for particular types of borrowers and so can match the two".
He adds that borrowers can help themselves too: "It can take three to six months for mortgage paperwork to be completed. If homebuyers prepare themselves and get all their details together first, they stand more chance of appearing attractive to lenders."
Currently, French mortgage rates look attractive. French residents tend to like long term fixed rates and you can fix for the full 25 year term at around 4.4 per cent. Alternatively, Mr Busby says there are capped rate deals which promise borrowers will not pay more than 4.5 per cent for the term of the loan – and the current pay rate is just 3.5 per cent.


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What is the relevance of Labour Day today? The concept of labour is undergoing a radical shift. Industry 4.0 and rapid technological advances are overturning established industries and disrupting the workplace. The future is unfurling at breakneck speed.
It is critical that we support the workers of today and tomorrow as they navigate these winds of change. Our education system, job placement programs, training eco-system and labour market policies should be strong enablers of an adaptable, competitive and resilient workforce.
The roll-out of the 23 Industry Transformation Roadmaps (ITMs) has been a signature policy development of 2018. While innovation, capability building and partnerships figure prominently as objectives, the ITMs must also aggressively accommodate the training, placement and hiring of Singaporeans. With retraining and skills upgrading a national mantra since the late 1970s, the dominance of Singaporeans for the jobs of today and tomorrow must rank as an important collateral objective of the ITMs.
Yesterday's issues however, remain. There are expectations – correctly so – on unions, parliamentarians and the Government to support and protect Singaporean workers.The problems of discrimination in the workforce continue to rear their ugly head. The announcement at the Committee of Supply debate this year of an increase in the number of "triple weak" companies – those that unfairly favour foreigners in their hiring practices – prejudice the Singapore worker. More significantly, such unfair hiring practices damage our national solidarity and weaken commitment to Singapore.
Labour Day in Singapore is not any public holiday. It is a moment of pause and reflection. The Workers' Party wants to see the Singaporean worker at the centre of today's and tomorrow's economy and will pursue this agenda in Parliament.


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Maggie Gallagher Vs Frank Bruni
"Yes, you are a lovable human being, with rights, with feelings to be respected. We don't have to agree to love or respect one another. So why pick on Catholics? Orthodox Jews, black Pentecostals, the LDS church, Southern Baptists, most versions of Islam, also have all-male clergies. What is it about Catholicism that inspires such rudeness in the New York Times? Oh, I know. Something to do with 2,000 years of hanging onto the teachings of Christ: We are born male and female. Our bodies have a meaning; they are not machines we occupy. Sexual desire was given to us for a purpose; we are to direct it, not let it rule us." - Maggie Gallagher, writing for the National Review.
Labels: Catholic Church, crackpots, Frank Bruni, LGBT rights, Maggie Gallagher, National Review, New York Times, religion


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Captain America: Civil War is out now on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, Digital 3D and On-Demand. It's Marvel, so you know the drill if you're in. Basically, this one is Avengers 3 and it's definitely a better movie than Age of Ultron.
The Blu-ray is loaded with over 60 minutes of bonus material, including director commentary, extended and deleted scenes, making-of featurettes and an exclusive first look at the upcoming Doctor Strange movie.
James Young (masked) doubling for Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes) on the set.
We talked with Captain America: Civil War fight coordinator James Young about his role in making the movie and got some valuable advice about how readers can pursue a stunt career in the movies.
How did you get into the business?
Getting into stunts is as easy as falling into it. I was a martial artist beforehand. I would teach and I had a good friend of mine that was a stuntman. He invited me to come along to a stunt gym in Los Angeles one day, where a lot of people train. That was it, I just fell in love with it.
I wanted to train more and more, not just the fighting, but the wire work, the filming of stunts, the choreography. Thats where my past really began. I hit the ground and started to shoot my own fights in my spare time as content for YouTube. Eventually, I got looks from Marvel and Captain America 2 happened.
I found some of your videos on YouTube. They're a lot of fun. When you started doing those, what were you thinking? Was it a visual resume to display what you could do or were you just doing it to entertain yourself?
We were doing it to entertain and train ourselves. We knew that going down to a gym and punching bags and doing choreography in the gym was all good and well, but the best way to get better at fighting on camera is to actually do it.
My good friend Chris Cowan directed those fights and he's now working on Kingsman, He directed and I was stunt coordinating, fight choreographing with the guys. The videos was only just for us to watch, really, to critique ourselves and get better and to learn the other aspects of film, how to edit and how to shoot.
It's just crazy that, over one night, one of our fights went viral on a website. By the morning, we had a million views. We started pushing out a bit more content and it just kept snowballing from there.
Did someone at Marvel see your videos and approach you about working for them?
Kind of like it, yeah. I worked on a few little shows and then when Tom Harper, the stunt coordinator for Cap 2, was gearing up for the movie. He saw my stuff and, through word of mouth, I was introduced to him and Marvel at the time. And I shot a preview video of Captain America fighting a few guys in the gym for them, and that's what got me the job.
So when we're watching "Captain America: Civil War" or "Winter Soldier," what are we looking for to see you? Who are you doubling in the movie?
In Civil War, I so fortunate to double Bucky. I was Sebastian's double for about half the movie. And then, for the finale sequence, I was Iron Man. That stuff in the finale sequence is just ridiculous fun.
So what's your advice to people who want to do this for a living? If a 25-year-old man or woman getting out of the military has done some martial arts training and wants to follow you into the business, what can they do to increase their chances of meeting the right people, getting a job like this?
Part one is networking. It's going to the right places. You just meet a few people just to get your name out there. A good idea, if you can, is to find a group of people who want to train together and want to shoot footage. If you've got a camera, you're a director, you can shoot a fight. All you need is two people, three people to shoot a fight. One to hold a camera, two to do the performance.
Then go on YouTube, look up Jackie Chan's fights. Bruce Lee, Jet Li, look at how they shot fight scenes. Replicate some fight scenes so you can feel what it's like and learn how to shoot from different angles. Keep moving forward is the best advice I can give. If you've got a camera and want to do fights, that's all you need. The rest is up to you.
You got into the business in Los Angeles. You don't sound like you're from LA, so I'm guessing at some point you decided to move there.
Yeah, I'm from England. I moved out to California when I was about 16 or 17.
Do you think people need to move to California to get a break in the business?
Not at all. California is a good hub, Los Angeles is a good hub, but now you've got places like New York, that's really found a boom. They're shooting Daredevil and they're shooting Iron Fist there and a lot more TV series. Then you have Atlanta. So I think between New York, Atlanta, and L.A., there are good stunt cities where you can get involved with and train with some good people and go from there.
The best advice for getting into this industry is to get yourself a camera. You've got to find a small group of good people that you shoot fights with, because you'll learn so much about yourself. And then, if you feel like it, put the videos online, have people watch them. It's the best way to get your face out there.