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I'm not usually the kind of guy that writes whole articles in response to an author. That's what comment sections are for after all. But the blog in question, No, Seriously, What About Teh Menz? , purports to be a serious feminist attempt at addressing real mens issues. So, in the interests of progress, I hereby open my own little section of 'dialogue'.
Ozymandias' post "Who Cares About Men's Rights?" at that site does a fairly good job of outlining the issues men face. The article even takes feminism to task for failing to live up to even the letter, let alone the 'spirit' of their own ideology. All in all, call it a good start.
Obviously the wheels came off though, or I wouldn't be writing this now would I?
The first place to start is, of course, in the criticism of the Mens Movement offered: that women experience sexism as well, that women are not evil bitches out to get us, mating difficulties are 'not issues', and MRAs are totally ineffective as a political movement.
All fair accusations. I'll respond thusly:
There is no doubt that women experience sexism. We have vast government apparatus designed to 'root out sexism against women', whole arms of government dedicated to 'women's equality', etc. It's impossible to grow up in the West without having sexism against women waved in your face constantly. But you will note, nearly all of those agencies and dollars are devoted to 'WOMEN'S equality'...men need not apply. And THAT is what 'institutionalized sexism' looks like. I just thought I'd explain that to you, because you've never seen it before.
And that is where the MRA objection on this particular issue lies.
Next up, that women are not all evil bitches out to get us. Which is obvious, and quite true. And also irrelevant. As in, you can be the nicest, sweetest, most caring woman in the world, and you will likely still be treated like a poisonous viper ready to strike at any time. And yes, it's unfair. And it's your own damned fault for not speaking up while men's legal rights were being trampled to 'protect women'.
Because there is no way out once a man is trapped in that web. Society, the Law, Human Nature, all line up to chuck you away once accused. Deadbeat Dads, Rapists, Paedophiles...that is the public image of men today, as a result of decades of Feminist misinformation through DV channels, 'Child Protection' rackets, and Government funded advocacy agencies. The risk associated with even asking a woman out (which can lose you your career if she happens to work at the same company you do) has become so great that men are deciding – en masse – that a life of porn and celibacy is preferable.
This is obviously not natural. It is also NOT the fault of men...who would obviously far rather they didn't have to live that way. Yet Feminists routinely blame men for this, and so much more.
And 'regular women' say, and do, nothing.
As for the issues facing men in the Sexual Marketplace being 'non-issues'....well, only a woman could say such a thing. Well, a woman, or a man with no concerns about trying to find a good woman and settle down. With the legal and financial minefield dating and marriage has become, knowing the 'lay of the land' is FAR more important today than it ever has been in the past. Understanding the nature of women, and more importantly shaking off the illusions installed by women themselves, is of critical importance to avoid future heartache and penury. The only safe alternative is MGTOW/avoidance. Learning Game, improving oneself, and making correct choices is a learned skill, and one that no one else is willing to teach. Most definitely NOT Feminism. That Game and PUA's success reflects badly on women as a sex is hardly of concern to me...I suggest women stop acting like that if they don't want to be treated like that.
Which brings us to the effectiveness of the MRM.
This subject makes me laugh so much when it comes up. There is no shortage of people who accuse us of being ineffective. No popular uprisings or public protests, no budget of any kind, no real organization. What you are not looking at is the RESULTS we are getting. This is almost always because you lack perspective on the difficulty we faced getting to this point.
I've been in this for a long time, and I'm positively ecstatic at the progress we are making in almost no time at all nowadays. 5 years ago, we were posting 'victory' messages to each other on blogs when we got a Letter to the Editor published in the Des Moines Register. There was a total media blackout of anything even remotely related to mens issues. We consisted of one or two guys with some cash/clout (Glenn Sacks, Marc Rudov) and mostly a bunch of broke dads with nothing else to do with their time but hang out on the internet.
Fast forward to today, and the most glaring victory we have had is the breaking of the Feminist Hegemony. We are developing a new understanding of masculinity and relations between the sexes, without funding of any sort. It has become acceptable to question Political Correctness and Feminism in public, with diminished possibility of career damage for doing so. We got a hateful talk-show host to resign and an important issue finally got some airtime. We have issues like Child Support, Father Custody, DV on men, Cultural Misandry, Male Genital Mutilation, and Male Suicide on the national RADAR.
Something Feminists have never even attempted to do by the way.
We have made STAGGERING progress, and when you consider the vast majority of it was done by a few dozen guys, on their own time, for free, it's fucking miraculous!
Needless to say, I take issue with Ozy's characterization of the MRM.
So much for the defense part. Now to the helpful criticisms I have for Feminists who want to 'help men' (suddenly...although it was not in response, at all, to pressure from a burgeoning MRM...oh no, that would be another demonstration of the effectiveness of the MRM, and the point here is to DISCREDIT the MRM, not 'support' it, or men)...
My first point is perhaps best illustrated using your very own words...oh 'concerned feminist'...
And the problem is that it wasn't actively hateful and it did contain… actual points… of a sort, so there was really no valid way to delete it according to the comment policy.
I suggest we ignore him.
And therein lies the real rub we have with Feminists, if you don't want to hear what men are telling you are the issues, how the FUCK can you then turn around and claim to 'represent' men in changing those injustices? If your main, and nearly only, concern is making sure Feminism isn't trarnished by the measures taken to improve mens' rights, to the point where you DENY that Feminism had anything to do with such issues as No Fault Divorce, Restraining Orders, unbalanced understanding of DV, and wildly overbroad 'rape' definitions...what value do you have to men, and the issues they face?
You have money? Is that it? You have clout, and if men 'shape up' you might be prepared to use it for men? Well gee, ain't you a peach? Feminists, and Feminism, has proven itself to be the devout enemy of men and masculinity since it's very inception. There are very specific criticisms of Feminism leveled by MRAs every time a 'dialogue' like this comes up, none of which are ever addressed by feminists. In fact, the very next 'concerned' feminist to come along will make the very same arguments, ad infinitum.
Feminists do a very bad job of updating information among themselves, it seems. Either that, or they believe in that Nazi Propaganda maxim 'A lie told often enough...'
The criticism of the anger in the MRM is even more laughable, in my humble opinion. The anger is what is GROWING the MRM...not 'diminishing' it. The speed at which angry young men are clumping together in this movement terrifies the shit out of a lot of people, feminists included. And it should. It really should.
But you are not, EVER going to get them to 'tone it down' unless real change happens. And the more you spend your time defending yourselves, the more of your attention directed towards making sure you come out of this smelling as much like a rose as possible, the more anger will be built up. We are not oblivious to the fact that, when addressing mens issues, you Feminists spend nearly 100% of your time and energy trying to make sure that any dirt that gets thrown doesn't land on you. In brilliant example after another of narcissistic attitude, absolutely NONE of you admit to being wrong, about anything. It's always 'no true feminist would do that' and 'none of my friends are like that, and neither am I'....
So let's see, either none of you are like that, and all of these anti-male aspects of society, many of which specifically reference feminism as inspiration, simply popped up out of nowhere, or;
A good portion of you are lying your sick fuckin' asses off. And there's no way to tell which, until it's way too late....
Let's use Ozy's words again....
We are people, just like everyone else, and some of us are bastards and some of us are saints and most of us are just muddling through. Some feminists thought that this whole "sexism" thing was the fault of evil rapey woman-hating men back in the seventies, but as it turns out with a few shining exceptions men don't hate women. Sometimes they have mistaken beliefs about women, and sometimes incentive structures are set up so that sexist behavior is rewarded, and sometimes a lot of other stuff that's nobody's fault, but very rarely is someone like "aha! I will go oppress women today!"
Feminists, and women, are finding themselves in the beginnings of what faced men in the late '80's and early '90's. ALL women are facing the blame for what Feminism has done to men, because women as a group stood behind feminists while they disemboweled the men around them. Because women as a group are still following the practices and taking the attitudes that repulse men, and damage relationships. Because we still live in a 'you go grrrl' society, and the average woman doesn't even blink at the most appalling sexism if it's perpetrated against men, since she's been conditioned to not only accept it, but feel that way herself.
Pay attention to this line of your own text Ozy:
"Sometimes they have mistaken beliefs about women, and sometimes incentive structures are set up so that sexist behavior is rewarded,"
I want to leave you with that particular quote, and I want you to flip that around. I want you to consider that it is quite possible that you're wrong about a good deal of things. I want you to consider that you are so immersed in a Misandric culture, that you don't even notice 90% of it. To use the title of another Blog, I want you to Own Your Shit.
Because if there is one single thing that Feminism and feminists fail to do, every single time, without fail, it's to own up to their mistakes. And until you can do that, you have no business asking for our attention, at all.


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From Tony Small's first photo and Glen Libby's first quote, I was hooked by their wonderful book: Caught – Time. Place. Fish.
"Changing the world was not as simple as it seemed here in Port Clyde, but a remarkable thing happened…"
That's the first thing I read, and it was so true: this is the story of a truly remarkable achievement in Port Clyde, Maine, one of my favorite places.
As Port Clyde's fishing industry declined, due to the disappearance of shrimp and other species, Glen jumped up and organized the first Community Supported Fishery (CSF) in the nation.
The CSF was designed to process and sell the fish and allow fishermen to capture more of the profits. It was not an immediate success. Indeed, it's been a long and often difficult road to profitability. But in the meantime, more than 100 other CSF's have been organized in our country, and Glen has become a well-known leader in the industry.
Tony's stunning black and white photos are spread throughout the book and really capture Port Clyde, fishing, and the CSF. She began taking the photos in 2009, "inspired by the ground fishermen who, in an effort to save their fishery, came together to develop the first Community Supported Fishery in the nation."
"Few sane people opt to do what these fishermen do," wrote Tony. "You have to be a little crazy to cast off the dock lines in the middle of the night and head out into the watery unknown, leaving anxious hearts and unpaid bills ashore awaiting your success. You have to have a good deal more hope in one day than most folks muster in a lifetime. And that's before all the odds are stacked against you." Indeed.
Glen described the effort to change everything for fishermen this way: "Having nothing left to lose can be frightening or liberating, or both; it depends on what you do next."
Well, Glen did a lot next, and just kept on working night and day to turn the CSF into a success story. And it sure wasn't easy. He gives us the details of every challenge, from attracting workers who could efficiently clean crabs, to finding new markets for all that crabmeat. The loss of shrimp and ground fish left him with a heavy reliance on crabmeat.
I really enjoyed Glen's detailed account of this struggle, his description of the significant changes in our fishing industry, and even his chapter on the difficulty of cutting fish. You will learn a lot, enjoy the stories, marvel at the photos, and appreciate even more our amazing fishermen and women.
Here's their explanation of the title of this book.
Less than a measurable moment of time on the cosmic scale, on the human scale this narrative takes place at the intersection of a period where fishing was "relatively" primitive to the time when the digital age started to influence human behavior at an accelerating rate.
A small slice of geography in the Gulf of Maine on the only life-bearing planet we know of, at this point in time (our home). Or, the fishing grounds frequented by the fishermen of Port Clyde, Maine.
Species linked to this place which are in varying cycles of abundance and depletion: cod, haddock, hake, Pollock, flounder, sole, red fish, dog fish, monk fish.
This is an important book for Maine's fishing industry, our political and business leaders, and each and every one of us who love this state.

subset: commoncrawl


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Malle Vallik is the Director of Digital Content & Social Media for Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. Her current focus is on establishing Harlequin as a leader in digital publishing for women. Her responsibilities include ebooks and downloadable audio. Harlequin leads the publishing industry by publishing its entire frontlist as ebooks as well as offering original editorial in programs like Spice Briefs, Silhouette Nocture Bites and Harlequin Historical Undone, enriched editions and prequels to many NYT bestsellers. Malle also concentrates on building Harlequin's strong relationship with its consumer via social media like Myspace, Twitter, videos, podcasts, blogs and eHarlequin.com's flourishing community.
Previous positions include editorial, sales and public relations. Malle is also the author of seven romance novels published under the pseudonym Molly Liholm. She is currently on the board of directors of the International Digital Publishing Forum and the National Association of College Textbook Stores New Media Solutions. She was selected "One of the Top 50 Women in Publishing" by BookBusiness Magazine, 2009.


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I created this infographic to show the results of Coates Hire V8 Supercar Challenge.
- #T8Family refers to the teams which are managed by Triple Eight Race Engineering – Red Bull Racing Australia (RBRA) and Team Vortex.
- Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen race for RBRA. Craig Lowndes races for Team Vortex.
- In this instance the term triple-lockout is being used to describe one team filling the podium. The #T8Family did this in races two and three and had two members on the podium for races one and four.
Lowndsey fans may also be interested in this article about his lap of honour at the Clipsal 500.


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SOPA replacement uses child porn as excuse to spy on 99.7 percent of Americans
SOPA author Lamar Smith pushing bill to make web sites track every user's every move
By Kevin Fogarty
February 20, 2012
The SOPA and PIPA bills that went down in flames earlier this year for their unbearable intrusiveness, used content piracy as an excuse to give the government powerful tools with which to censor Internet content.
For 2012 the primary author of those bills has switched to a fallback tactic: using child porn as an excuse to create a vast surveillance network from which the government can demand data on every email sent, site visited or link clicked on by all but a fraction of one percent of the U.S. population.
Internet anti-censorship advocates including Anonymous are calling for the ouster of Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, who is following his co-sponsorship of the failed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) with a bill critics call "Big Brother" disguised as an effort to curb child porn and sexual abuse.
Last May Smith, a Texas Republican credited as primary author of both SOPA and PIPA, the Senate version, also introduced H.R. 1981, a bill called the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″ (PCFIPA).
The anti-child-porn provisions in the bill are a "fig leaf for its true purpose: A sweeping data retention requirement meant to turn Internet Service Providers and online companies into surrogate snoops for the government's convenience," according to Julian Sanchez, Internet privacy and censorship researcherat the center-right Cato Institute.
The Rest…HERE


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Oh girls! I confess, I'm giddy with possibility right now, floating on a cloud of total happiness, blissfully unaware of anything that attempts to stymie my state of pure joy. I'm in love. With the most insane pair of YSL shoes I have ever slipped my feet into.
As always when I'm going to a fancy schmancy event, I worked a clever combination of borrowing and shopping my own closet for Monday night's School of the American Ballet winter ball. My friend Annie, who works as a stylist to Becki Newton and has a brilliant eye for fashion and an even more brilliant shoe collection (and, in a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of good fortune, a size 5 1/2 shoe like me!), loaned me these Yves Saint Laurent stunners to wear to the ball and I have barely taken them off since...
Now I'll admit, I can sometimes be easily smitten by shoes, but these, well these are different ladies. Imagine if you'd kissed, oh 200 frogs in your life, and suddenly, there was this tender, perfect, pitter-patter inducing kiss from the most handsome, charming, perfectly polite prince you've ever laid eyes on. I'm talking that instant spark that knocks you sideways and makes you think "huh, so this is what love is all about..." That's kiiiiinda what I have going on here. When you've got four and a half inches of fabulous underfoot, you suddenly find yourself standing up straighter, stepping with intention, and I won't lie, occasionally thinking, "I'm hot!"
I can usually handle a pair of insane heels for three hours, four if I'm well padded up and possibly five if there is good champagne involved (these 8 great high heel tips from the pros help, too!). I kid you not, I wore these for six straight hours and when I came home, I put on boxer shorts and a T-shirt and brushed my teeth...with the shoes still on. In fact, I was intending to stay home last night after the hubbub of the ball, but I couldn't resist strapping these on one more time and hitting a few parties. Who needs sleep when you have LOVE!?
Tell me the truth girls...have you ever experienced a similar state of total infatuation with a pair of shoes (or even a handbag)? Have you ever found yourself getting all puppy dog-ish over something in your closet (or something you wish was in your closet)? What was it? Do share!


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This slim fit shirt is crafted from premium Italian fabric and detailed with fine stripes. The wide-spread collar adds a bold touch to this classic style.
• pure cotton
• slim fit
• Kent collar
• long sleeves
• mitred cuff
• French placket
• colour contrasting at the last button
Our model is 1.86m and is wearing a size 41.
Style # : TT0TT01488


text: Part two of my earlier post about self publishing. I am still sure it is not for the faint of heart. Now I know more about how true that is. But I don't intend to stop doing it. I have revised the estimate of how many books I can get out in a year, though. I am now thinking more along the number of five a year.


text:
… My co-worker went to visit the in-laws in New Jersey. Upon his return he presented me with a key chain from this magical place called Nun's Beach in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. A beach full of nuns! My imagination soared. I could hardly contain it. My two favorite things coming gloriously together, besides chocolate and peanut butter and gin and tonic… nuns and the ocean.
Ok. I got a little carried away.
Image from Surfer Today.
The nuns host an annual surf competition that raises money to maintain their retreat house, Villa Maria by the Sea. They also have a surf shop which sells boards hand painted by the nuns, key chains, t-shirts and other assorted Catholic kitsch. The stretch of beach in front of the retreat house became known by locals as Nun's Beach.
The nuns don't participate in the contest but they do enjoy watching the contestants. In an interview, Sister James, the retreat's property manager said, "It's very peaceful [to watch the contest]. You see how the water holds them up, balances them and if you ride with the water, it will get you where you want to go. That's how it is with the grace of God." [Read More] [See More]Nuns relaxing at Villa Maria.
Isn't that a great story? The only thing that could make this post any better would be more beach nun gazing. So… now we gaze.
Nuns at Cherai beach, just north of Kochi, Kerala, South India.
Missionaries of Charity on a beach


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White House Summit on Violent Extremism Opens With Muslim Prayer but No Other Faiths Represented
Thursday, February 19, 2015 This is curious. President Obama's so-called summit on "Countering Violent Extremism" opened this week. The second day of the three day event opened with a Muslim prayer. But the problem is, no other religious text was … Continue reading
Thursday, October 18, 2012 A Frightening Newsweek Cover of Mama Grifter After 80 years of publication, Newsweek will cease print copies and move to an all digital format. Tina Brown, editor-in-chief, issued a statement that she anticipates staff reductions and … Continue reading
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Arianna Huffington Loses Ruling In Fight Over HuffPo Concept
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BREAKING: Keith Olbermann Announces Start of New TV Show
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WELCOME and THANKS for stopping by! :)
Regardless of what you decide about me or this blog – I hope you remember to pause and just exist for a moment today. It's always worth it…
Regardless of what you decide about me or this blog – I hope you remember to pause and just exist for a moment today. It's always worth it…
Seems fitting to post a selfie with my shorter, darker 'do to mark the last day of this four year journey. While year four dragged a little longer than the first three, every day has contributed to where I am now. Regardless of what comes tomorrow, I know that I'm exactly where I need to … More Day 1460 (Year 4, Day 365)
Always magical transformations in here. Today it wasn't only my my hair going darker and shorter 💇🏼♀ but also using the time to update my blog for the first time in a while. Almost at the end of year 4, crazy pants.📝
Simple pleasures at the end of the day 🍝
This little dude …. So. Stinking. Cute. 😍🐶
Ahhhh snuggly Sunday vibes
Dierks! 🎶 🤠
Bathroom pep talk! Love this ❤
It was a good day … the first in a while that I really felt like the me I love. Music found it's way through my body, my eyes saw all the details of the houses and streets passed on my commute, and the day ended with an unexpected dinner guest who brought humor, wisdom, … More Day 1453 (Year 4, Day 358)
Surprise French wiener socks came@in the mail today. Merci mama!
Pineapple upside down cake 🍦🤤 A little treat following a facial at Burke Williams 🧖♀


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If you are new to PFFD - I recommend starting with the PFFD book
I am in desperate need of a new prosthesis. I would like to deal with someone who has prior experience with a person who has had pffd.
Debbie Miller
Hello, My name is Kelly and I was born with bilateral pffd in 1978, my parents were told that I would never walk and be confined to a wheelchair.
I walked when was 3 yrs old much to the drs amazement! I havn't had any surgery as my pffd is severe and it has slowly deteriated with age.. I'm now 33 yrs old, still mobile and have a gorgeous 4 yr old son!!! My pregnancy was a perfect and it caused no problems with my disability.
Hello, I'm a 33 yr old woman that had bilateral pffd. I would like to hear from others with my condition as I know it's extremely rare.
I havent had any surgery and I had a healthy baby boy in 2007
I work as a nursery nurse and don't let my condition affect me, although am currently on the waiting list for an arthroscopy as having pain in my left knee... I'm very uncertain of what the future will bring and would love to hear from people in a similar situation Xx
I thought i'd finally get round to posting a couple of my X-rays from 1983-84. The first one is before any surgery, and the second after a wedge osteotomy to correct my gross coxa vara.
I've always been curious to know which Aitkens classification, and now Paley classication I would be given??
Over here in the UK my orthopaedic consultant went with Gillespie & Torode for classification, Group I, with marked femoral shortening.
In case anyone is still checking in here, just a reminder that there is an online chat this week on chatzy.com on the topic of congenital limb differences, which includes Congenital Femoral Deficiency (sometimes known as PFFD). Great opportunity to ask very experienced limb differences surgeons questions about lengthening, deformity correction etc. Also a good way to meet other families and chat with them.
Please contact email@example.com for log in information.
Hi everyone,
My name is Lida and I am 25 years old with PFFD type C. I never had any surgery done and I am having a very difficult time finding an experience Prosthetist in Los Angles. Could anyone please give me a list of Prosthetist who have experience with making prosthesis for PFFD patients.
(PFFD) Proximal femoral focal deficiency is a rare, non-hereditary birth defect that affects pelvis, particularly the hip bone, and the proximal femur. The disorder may affect one side or both with the hip being deformed and the leg shortened.
Mallori was less than 24 hours old, her Mother, holding her close to her heart, soft tears falling down her cheeks. Will she ever Dance?
I'm new to this site and i just happen to be doing a little research on my PFFD. Trying to learn what is and just curious if there were other people out there like me. I'm 33 years old, I have Bilateral PFFD and really don't know to much about it. I also like alot of other people went to Shriners hospital. I started going there i believe around the age of 3. I am 4'10 my left leg is shorter than the other and of course i walk with a limp. i have a twin brother who does not have anything wrong with him.
Hi my name is shannon. I am 21 years old and I have pffd. we I was 7 I had my first lengthing surgery and of course it was scary. there was a problem with my bone harding to fast so that surgery didnt work very well. the doctors than had decided to amputate and the day before my surgery my doctor came in and had said I am so sorry I cant take this girls leg. He said I have another idea and he procedded to say that no matter what my knees would never be in the same place whih is true if he amputted my leg. He than said how about we lengthing the tibia since it didnt work on the femur.
Neat news story out of Oklahoma.
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#4 Mount Saint Mary - 71, #5 Farmingdale State - 52
Newburgh, N.Y. - The fifth-seeded Farmingdale State women's basketball team traveled to #4 Mount Saint Mary for the First Round of the Skyline Conference Playoffs and fell, 71-52. The Knights advanced to the Semifinals at #1 Sage on Thursday.
Mount Saint Mary (14-12) led 32-26 with 6:19 remaining in the second quarter, until FSC senior guard Camille Romero (Queens, N.Y.) hit a layup and free-throw after being fouled the cut the deficit in half. The Rams (9-17) followed with a 3-pointer by Marissa Monaco (Bohemia, N.Y.) and a Tyra Harrison (Baldwin, N.Y.) layup to take a two-point lead, 34-32, with 2:28 left in the half. Farmingdale State took a 37-35 advantage into the halftime break.
After the Rams extended their lead to 44-39, Mount Saint Mary went on a 25-3 run to open up a 17-point advantage at 64-47 with 4:52 remaining in the game. The Knights allowed only five points the rest of the way en route to the 71-52 First Round victory.
Romero finished with a game-high 16 points and added five rebounds and three steals, while Harrison scored 12 points, had five rebounds and three assists for Farmingdale State.
Mount Saint Mary's Jessica Rina (Seaford, N.Y.) led the way for the Knights with 16 points and 13 rebounds.


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Intruders (Jo-nan-ja-deul)
Dir. Noh Young-seok
Five years from his debut break-out feature, Daytime Drinking, director and writer Noh Young-seok returns with Intruders. Screenwriter, Sang-yin retreats to the countryside from Seoul to put the finishing touches to his delayed screenplay. Although any idea of bliss in the wilderness is constantly interrupted by a series of visitors who couldn't be more alien to him than aliens themselves. En route to his cabin, Sang-yin is reluctantly tagged along by a local who is really happy to have a new friend, giving that he has not had much human contact since just coming out of prison. The bus journey is wickedly awkward but fantastically hilarious and sets the tone for the rest of the film really well. Sang-yin is as neurotic as he is weak willed, a champion of cowards and lacking in a spine. He is a glutton for punishment and there is a lot to come. Around the cabin there are two hillbilly poachers who give great cause for alarm, occasional gunshots also provide Sang-yin that the surrounding area might not be so safe or tranquil. Furthermore, some young skiers demand Sang-yin to let them stay in the neighbouring cabin. Fearing the poachers he allows them to stay, only to be constantly disturbed and giving unfair demands by the spoilt teenagers. Furthermore his fellow bus traveller is around and aware that Sang-yin has lied to him. It's not long until Sang-yin's fears reach climax when he discovers someone dead. His attempts at trying to warn his fellow guests go spectacularly wrong and his innocence is brought into question as the film slides into a suspense thriller.
Whilst there is some great humour from the film, it is overly reliant upon just putting the main character through pain and he lacks a sense of development. Even though the film kicks into another gear it would have been better coming sooner than later. Some scenes are a lit drawn out and maybe a bit too dry for some audiences but there is a sense of authorship behind the film with some great dark comedy. By no means perfect, Intruders is another great addition to South Korean cinema.
Chris Aitken


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Taylor Wimpey at Smithstone
Taylor Wimpey at Smithstone is a development of 131 new homes for sale at Smithstone in Cumbernauld, Scotland. The development offers an impressive mix of two, three, four and five-bedroom family homes as well as two-bedroom apartments that aim to create a stylish balance of family living in the heart of North Lanarkshire.
The development – which has recently reached completion – has been the recipient of two important awards within the last year. The first of these awards was the NHBC Pride in the Job Award, which was presented to Site Manager Iain Alexander during late summer 2016.
The second – and more recent award – is the NHBC Seal of Excellence Award, which was presented to Iain for excellence in on-site management. Iain joined 11 other site managers in Scotland, to receive the prestigious award.
Both awards demonstrate the level of quality that is being undertaken on housing developments up and down the UK. Other site managers to win a Seal of Excellence within the Scottish region include George Carty for The Marches; Stuart Gillespie for Greenan Views; and Alan Robertson for Balgarvie Farm.
Situated off Strath Brenning Road, the Smithstone development offers new homes that deliver renowned craftsmanship, style and quality. The development is ideally located for facilities and transport links both locally in Cumbernauld and throughout the Central Belt, with Croy train station nearby, offering regular services to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Falkirk.
Local leisure facilities include Westerwood Golf & Country Club, Broadwood Leisure Centre and Tryst Sports Centre and Swimming Pool. Nearby Palacerigg Country Park enjoys a 40 hectare setting that is perfect for enjoying the countryside and Cumbernauld's excellent road network offers easy access to the A80/M80 Stirling/Falkirk, as well as onward connections to M8 Glasgow and Edinburgh, plus A73 Airdrie with onward connections to M74 Carlisle.
Craigmarloch offers a mix of local shops and services and Cumbernauld Village caters to a variety of tastes with its mix of bars, cafes, restaurants and independent shops. The Antonuine Shopping Centre and Cumbernauld Town Centre offer an excellent choice of shops and Cumbernauld Theatre situated in Cumbernauld House Park has a year round programme showcasing drama, music and comedy.


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Central Hug/Friendarmy/Fractal Dunes [self-released, 2005]
Assuming this 2005 "release" is a triple-"EP," the four-song Central Hug is all-A and the other two pretty duddy--winningly unkempt political songcraft fronting losingly strummed-droned songcraft ("The Citizens of Wichita," "Raytracer") *
Western Teleport [Bar/None, 2011]
Lapsed science teacher Chad Matheny specialized in electro-noise until he figured out how chords and beats work, enabling him to put together a futuristic folk music in which nerdy melodies rise out of a shambolic clatter that's the best anyone can expect with the power going out all the time. The opening "Erica Western Teleport" and the closing "Erica Western Geiger Counter" celebrate his crush on a rebel hero who scopes corporatist disaster areas where dystopian sci-fi is indistinguishable from democratic-socialist realism. In "Compressor Repair" he wishes he could fix the ecologically incorrect air conditioner of a girl who deserves to be cool. "Allahu Akbar" establishes his material solidarity with the strugglers of Tahrir Square. A-
The Orlando Sentinel [self-released, 2014]
In 2014, a testicular cancer survivor constructs weedy-to-wispy electronic/guitar-strum/handclap songs about getting your parents Medicaid and cell plans, President Sarkozy's bake sale, AI swim laws (??), Kafka shopping at Primark, dying young with resources and integrity intact, and just generally proving the Politburo right because we've got all this capital and what good does it do anyone? I wouldn't say he sounds happy about this, or much amused. But he is philosophical, because after all: "One good effect of the crash / Now every altered state gets classified as work--at least enough to prevent an epidemic of a baseless adolescent philosophy." Which scans, in its way. B+
Oversleepers International [Tiny Engines, 2017]
Pushing 40 now, Berlin-based Jacksonville native Chad Matheny makes his living as a musician on tours that I assume include residencies--among his many Bandcamp wares is a commissioned work entitled 10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Habitation Near Nuclear Waste Depositories. But although all his music comes with clean, computer-crafted abstract art, he comes naturally to a frugal, tech-savvy ecology-firster's skepticism of physical product. No surprise then that this is his first actual CD since Bar/None's 2011 Western Teleport--one so obscure or perversely coded it didn't show up on Gracenote when I imported it into my iTunes. Yet it would seem that he does regard physicals as special, because nowhere else does the music feature songs end-to-end instead of sucking you in with a handful and then dematerializing into strummed or noodled jams with vocal accoutrements. True, this one achieves a third of its 50-minute length by means of a quarter-hour of subliminal electropulse at the end of a closer called "5-Hour Energy, Poland, 2017" as well as bridging its halves with what is essentially a four-minute vamp. Nevertheless, the 10 songs are songs. All evoke a hard-scrabbling world traveler often caught in but never daunted by border hassles, medical bureaucracy, and crap technology. Bergson and Schopenhauer also come up. Yet amid riots and dodgy bank accounts, Matheny sounds about as chipper as a working musician on a deteriorating planet can. In fact, the whole thing is quite an up if you give it half a chance. A-


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WotWentWrong Launches New Feature To Crowdsource Romance Advice
Women have a habit of mainly talking about the bad stuff when gossiping about relationships with friends. We don't need to analyze the good stuff, only the bad, and that's where friends come in as counsel. So what if there was a way that friends could monitor an entire relationship and have the big picture when offering advice?
In comes WotWentWrong, a website started by Audrey Melnik, an Australian entrepreneur bootstrapping her business with money saved up from her work in IT consulting. This week she's launching a new feature on the site, allowing users to track their relationships and crowdsource relationship advice.
Melnik started WotWentWrong last summer after a relationship ended, and she wanted to know why. She didn't have the confidence to ask her ex-boyfriend directly, so she created a non-confrontational environment for getting relationship closure.
WotWentWrong allows men and women to send a request through the site, asking the ex what happened. It provides a multiple choice questionnaire that can be filled out simply and quickly. For example, was it physical? Were your emotional needs not met? Was it too much arguing? It basically offers an array of reasons why you wouldn't date someone.
Let's say Jack dumps Jill. Jill wants to know why. Jill answers a few questions about Jack before sending her request so that Jack receives a message reading, "Jill has answered a few questions about you. To see her responses, please fill out this feedback request." Curiosity gets the best of Jack, and he fills out the feedback request in order to see what Jill may have said about him.
Melnik admits the site might be ahead of its time in terms of asking especially men what went wrong and getting them to respond. (Because men are typically so open with their feelings, right?) But little by little it's picking up steam. The feedback requests now have a 30 percent response rate. But as of yet, it still hasn't been fast enough for Melnik to attract funding.
To accelerate growth, Melnik has decided to expand the site's offering, while still bootstrapping. Although still in beta with an invite-only user base, WotWentWrong now allows users to create anonymous profiles to track their relationships and crowdsource advice from other WotWentWrong users, who can access the entire relationship at a glance. With the click of the mouse, a user can document the day he or she met someone special, their first date, their first kiss, their (ahem) first time, and expand on any details in a blog, which also appears on their profile. They can make it public to allow others to follow them and weigh-in on their relationship. In the future they'll alos have the option to keep it private and send updates to friends-only.
The online dating space is a crowded one. Match.com or eHarmony could easily allow their users to create relationship trackers and crowdsource advice. But since it's already built, I almost see WotWentWrong as a potential acquisition target. Even Cosmopolitan magazine or Allure might find Melnik's offerings as an attractive addition. Those popular publications do offer dating advice for women, though this is in the form of either generic advice or through advice columns, as in only for the selected few whose questions are chosen to be answered publicly. Meanwhile, WotWentWrong offers real-time feedback from its community.
"My hope is that everyone will learn from one another's mistakes and ultimately improve their dating lives," says Melnik.
Nikhil Kalghatgi, Venture Capitalist at Softbank is concerned about whether or not relationship tracking will catch on. He says, "The 'whole picture' of a meaningful and complex relationship isnt a list of milestones or a Facebook Timeline."
Kalghati goes on to say, "In fact, accurately sharing details of your relationship, let alone with the world and in real-time, is very hard to do, and therefore the advice may not be good advice."
But Melnik says this is only the first phase of her model. She plans to bring in the pros. Her goal now is to raise funding to build out the site to also provide real-time professional advice from counselors and psychologists, which would potentially serve as the revenue opportunity for the site.
[Illustration by Hallie Bateman]


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Our staff members at Rick Hendrick BMW Charleston wants people to be safe while traveling for work or play. One way to ensure that your road trip will be fun and safe is to make sure you check off all the essentials on your list.
Use these travel safety tips to keep your holiday travels seamless: https://t.co/5qZkhGa2AJ pic.twitter.com/RpDvAnd4g2— Cars.com (@carsdotcom) December 24, 2016
- Take your vehicle to the dealership to make sure its systems are running properly, and that all its fluid levels are level. The last thing you want is road worries when you're supposed to be having a fun trip or vacation.
- Take enough food for family members and pets. While you'll stop on the way for food, it's always good to have snacks on board. Also, plan for rest stops with timely intervals.
- Know your route well ahead of time. Plan for any road work or traffic jams that might cause a considerable delay.
Our dealership wants your trip to be safe as planned. Call today and schedule a visit with us in Charleston, SCjust to make sure your vehicle is in top condition.


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Contributed by Associate Professor Justin Dabner, Law School, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia; Adjunct research fellow in Business Law and Taxation, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Australia
The High Court in Bywater Investments Limited v Commissioner of Taxation; Hua Wang Bank Berhad v Commissioner of Taxation 2016 ATC ¶20-589 has affirmed the decision of the Full Federal Court (2015 ATC ¶20-549) in holding that the taxpayers could not rely on Esquire Nominees Limited as Trustee of Manolas Trust v FCT73 ATC 4114 to assert that they were non-residents where the boards of the taxpayers were acting in accordance with the wishes of an Australian resident. In "Is Esquire Nominees under assault?" Australian Tax Week (24 March 2016), the author suggested that the Full Federal Court, by distinguishing Esquire Nominees, had cast doubt on the ability to rely on Esquire Nominees in denying that a company was an Australian resident. The High Court decision, while not going so far as rejecting the decision in Esquire Nominees, has interpreted the case in such a way as to provide little opportunity to structure "tax haven companies" to avoid the Australian residency rules.
Corporate residency and Esquire Nominees
The test for corporate residency contained in s 6(1) of ITAA 1936 provides for three alternative scenarios. Incorporation in Australia is the first test. A company that is not incorporated in Australia may, nevertheless, be an Australian resident if it carries on business in Australia and has its central management and control here. Should a foreign incorporated company (such as one incorporated in a tax haven) have its board meet outside Australia then it might avoid being treated as an Australian resident under this second test. The third test focuses on whether the majority of the shareholders are Australian residents. The decision in Patcorp Investments Limited (formerly Patrick Corporation Limited) & Ors v FCT 76 ATC 4225 means that in the application of this test reference is made solely to a company's register and the ultimate beneficial ownership (where the shares are held in trust) is irrelevant.
For companies seeking to avoid the second test it is common to appoint foreign directors who meet overseas. Of course, the ultimate (Australian resident) owners of the company will want these directors to act according to their wishes. However, to avoid central management and control being sheeted back to Australia the directors must be seen to be independently minded, although focused on the Australian interests. This creates a tension traditionally resolved by ensuring that there is no legal control over the board of directors vested in the domestic interests and couching any communications between the two in terms consistent with this state of affairs.
Esquire Nominees is viewed as the authority underpinning this approach. In a much quoted paragraph in the judgment of Gibbs J at first instance (72 ATC 4076, at 4085; and endorsed by the Full Court) his Honour opined that although an Australian accounting firm sent "instructions" to the overseas directors the firm "had no power to control the directors." Although the firm may have had power to exert strong influence the directors simply complied because they accepted that it was in the interest of the beneficiaries and had the accountants instructed the directors to do something which they considered improper or inadvisable they would not have acted on the instruction.
Viewed as a victory of form over substance many have been heralding that, given the chance, the High Court would revisit this decision (for example see Cindy Chan, "Corporate Residence: has Esquire Nominees stood the test of time?" 49(5) Taxation in Australia 253) if not to reverse it, at least to ensure that the precedent was restricted to circumstances where directors really do exercise independent judgment in contrast to the mere "rubber stamping" of instructions from Australia. Bywater Investments is exactly that case.
Bywater Investments
The taxpayers in Bywater Investments had structured their offshore corporations to have local directors and meetings. "Instructions" came from Australia from a Sydney based accountant, a Mr Gould. Squarely at issue was as to whether the taxpayers could rely on the authority of Esquire Nominees to avoid Australian residency.
At first instance it was held that notwithstanding the overseas location of the directors the real business of the entities was conducted by Gould from Sydney without the involvement of the directors. Thus the "central management and control" was situated in Australia. On appeal, the Full Court of the Federal Court endorsed this conclusion. Critical to the outcome in Esquire Nominees had been that the compliance of the directors with the wishes of others was only because the directors accepted those wishes to be in the interests of the beneficiaries. This situation was to be contrasted with the facts of the instant case. The taxpayers' urging to give weight to factors such as the place of incorporation, the shareholding of each company and the place of incorporation of corporate shareholders, the location of the directors, the minutes of meetings of the boards of directors, the place at which the meetings were held, and the place at which the transactions were entered into as constituting the businesses of each of the taxpayers did not alter the conclusion. The taxpayers' case was compounded by the lack of probity in the evidence given by their chief witness nor did the nature of communications between Gould and the directors assist.
The taxpayers' subsequent appeal to the High Court was dismissed by unanimous decision (Gordon J issuing a separate judgment differing from the rest of the Court in her Honour's focus on the relevant double tax treaties). The Court emphasized that, as a matter of long-established principle, the residence of a company is a question of fact and degree to be determined according to where the central management and control of the company actually abides, and that is to be determined by reference to the course of the company's business and trading, rather than by reference to the documents establishing its formal structure. The Court held that the fact that the directors were located abroad was insufficient to locate the residence of the companies' abroad in circumstances where the directors had abrogated their decision-making in favour of Gould and only met to rubber-stamp decisions made by him in Australia.
The Policy Arguments
It is easy to characterize the decision as one that simply distinguished Esquire Nominees on the facts and did not vacate any of the reasoning in that case. However that would lead to an understatement of the significance of the decision. After all the High Court rarely grants special leave to hear tax matters. Although not rejecting Esquire Nominees, borrowing from Dennis Denuto, Darryl Kerrigan's frazzled lawyer in The Castle, the High Court has established a new "vibe".
The author's earlier consideration of the Full Federal Court decision concluded with the observation that the decision was a warning that blind faith reliance on the authority of Esquire Nominees was now a risky proposition. Certainly the wording of communications from Australia to foreign directors needed to be reviewed but also Australian corporate groups with overseas subsidiaries urgently needed to undertake a risk analysis. The uncertainty in departing from the entrenched view that the assertion of some authority over an overseas subsidiary's board by its holding company does not, on its own, render the subsidiary an Australian resident is point that was, in fact, expressly alluded to by counsel for the taxpayers (see para 34). The Court rejected this argument as exaggerated (at para 80).
Taxpayers' counsel had also sought to support a "form over substance" approach to ascertaining central management and control by reference to where the board meets by citing the approach adopted in Patcorp to the third residency test. This argument was given swift treatment (at para 79). Similarly a suggestion that the enactment of the controlled foreign company rules in lieu of a change to the control test to a "habitually responds to instructions formulated in Australia" test, as support for a general understanding of Esquire Nominees, was also rejected. The Court stated that nothing in Esquire Nominees, in the recommendations of the Asprey Committee or the subsequent enactment of the CFC rules implied that a company should be regarded as a non-resident where its board acted upon the dictates of an Australian resident (at para 82 and 83).
The proposition that central management and control is where the board meets in the absence of a legal powerover the board residing in someone else has now been comprehensively rejected (see for example para 68). Apparently this never was the law; the enquiry has always been where control exists as a matter of fact. Many advisers might be forgiven for viewing the High Court decision in Bywater Investments as a revision of history. Regardless, the (new) vibe is clear — and maybe as it should have always been — and Australian taxpayers with "connections" to foreign companies would do well to review the residency status of these entities. Mere reliance on the location of the formal constituents of a company to satisfy a factual enquiry as to the location of the central management and control will not be decisive.
This article was published in CCH Tax Week. CCH iKnow has useful information relating to residency.


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SQL Server 2017
SQL Server 2017 is launched with too many features. One of the most awaited and advantageous features of this version of SQL Server are its Linux system support. Yes, now this new SQL Server version also supports Linux operating system.
This article covers new additional features of SQL Server and one most interesting query that how can you identify through query about when the server was last started or recent start time of SQL Server through a single line query. Today SQL Server is a popular and most used system that can resolve your many queries and increase the efficiency of database operations.
Newly Introduced Features of SQL Server 2017
Many new features have been added to the SQL database engine and there is present a few of them that can help you in deciding that whether it has become your Server or not?
SQL Server for Linux
Now SQL Server has not been a database for Windows-based machines only but it can be used for different Linux flavors too. Applications can be developed with SQL Server on Ubuntu or Docker like Linux and can be also deployed on these platforms. It can now compete with another popular RDBMS like Oracle. As Oracle is by far the most used RDBMS for Linux based machines and applications. Now SQL Server can be easily installed on Linux machines and many articles are there that discuss SQL Server installation on Linux machine.
Adaptive Query Processing
A new generation of query processing has been introduced in SQL Server 2017 edition and it is adaptive query processing. This query processing technique will adapt optimization strategy to the workloads runtime conditions of your application. Cardinality estimation process is basically responsible to count the number of rows processed during query execution that is required information to build or prepare the estimation plan.
Wrong or inappropriate estimation can be a reason to take a poor decision by query optimizer and as a result of that it can select wrong algorithm and order of execution can also be affected. Adaptive query processing is one of the most awaited features in SQL Server. As in earlier versions of SQL Server if the poor assumption was made about cardinality then it worsens the query processing plan that cannot be modified at a later stage.
Operation of Resume Online Index Rebuild
In SQL Server 2017, the feature of resumable online index rebuild has been introduced. With the help of this feature, online index rebuild operation can be paused and resume. This feature is quite useful especially when any failure occurs in the database. It can restart the database indexing at the same point where it was stopped before failure. Here, it can be understood by taking the example of the case where system resources may be required to be free up for some time to execute any higher priority task or to complete the index rebuild in a separate maintenance window especially when the available maintenance window is too short for a large sized database table.
Graphical Database
To model many-to-many relationship, the user can implement graphical database capability in SQL Server 2017. This graphical relationship can be integrated into Transact-SQL and SQL Server can help as a foundational database management system for the user.
Here, the graph is a collection of vertices and edges in which vertices can represent any entity while the edges are used to represent the relationship between these entities or two nodes. Moreover, these nodes and edges can further have some properties associated with them.
Availability of Groups without Clusters
Through SQL Server 2017 AOAG or Always on Availability Group feature can be easily configured without windows clusters. To configure AOAG between Linux and Windows-based SQL Server, this feature was added to SQL Server 2017. This additional feature of SQL Server has removed the requirement of windows cluster to configure AOAG between Window and Linux-based machines or systems.
Addition of new functions
Few new additional T-SQL functions have been added to SQL Server 2017. These functions will provide query processing more effective and powerful. These functions are much important for SQL developers. Following are the newly introduced functions:
Cross-OS AOAG
Cross-OS migrations can be tested through Availability Groups that help in Windows-Linux based systems. Now SQL Server 2017 can be configured between windows and Linux based SQL Server. The option of clusters AOAG has been given by the Microsoft.
New DMVs
Many new DMVs have been introduced in SQL Server 2017. Below is the list of these DMVs you can check their one-line descriptions listed in front of these DMVs:
- dm_db_stats_histogram: This DMV is used to examine added statistics
- dm_tran_version_store_space_usage: It is used to track per database store usage version
- Sys .dm_os_host_info: It is added to provide the Windows and Linux based operating system information.
- Sys .dm_os_sys_info: Three new columns have been added that can provide the system information that is numa_node_count, socket_count, cores_per_socket
- Sys .dm_db_file_space_usage: This DMV is introduced to track the differential changes in each database file.
New DMFs
Few new DMFs are also introduced in the SQL Server 2017. Following is the list of these DMFs, you can check their information written in front of them:
- Sys .dm_db_log_info: This DMF is introduced to expose VLF information that is similar to DBCC LOGINFO that is used to alert, monitor and avert potential transaction logs issues that can be caused due to the number of VLFs.
- Sys .dm_db_log_stats: This is another DMF that is used to expose summary level attributes of transaction log files. It can help in transaction log health monitoring.
Command to tell when SQL Server Service was last started?
If you want to know that how can you determine programmatically when SQL Server was last started then you can do this with the help of a command or a mini-program or script. Following are two ways to do this:
SELECT login_time FROM sys.dm_exec_Sessions WHERE session_id=1;
SELECT create AS Datetime_Instance_Started FROM sysdatabases WHERE name='tempdb'
In 2005 version of SQL Server, you can use DMV to know the exact date and time of the last login.
Final Words
Here we have explained SQL Server 2017 new features that are much more useful for the SQL Server developers. SQL has launched a number of versions but in this version of SQL Server, a new feature that is a support for Linux based machines is introduced. As today many applications are developed for LINUX OS, so this feature will help the developers to develop an application successfully without any failure.


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Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is preparing for what it admits is the toughest milestone yet for NASA's commercial orbital transportation services programme (COTS), following the granting of its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) operational licence by the US Air Force.
The licence will enable SpaceX to initiate launch operations for its Falcon 9 rocket later this year, starting with a fit check this December of SLC-40 using a Falcon 9 that has undergone engine firing testing in Texas and eventually leading to its COTS demonstation mission one, scheduled for June 2009.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is facing the critical design review for the COTS International Space Station resupply demonstration missions two and three scheduled for November 2009 and March 2010, during which SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will dock with the ISS.
Above: SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft engineering model at its facility in Hawthorne, California
SpaceX's COTS space act agreement (SAA) with NASA specifies 22 milestones, including the three demonstration missions, which the company refers to as C1, C2 and C3. The C2/C3 CDR is one of the 10 remaining milestones after SpaceX's successful completion of 12 of them.
The final 10 also includes the missions' readiness reviews, the three flights themselves and a payload processing demonstration. While C1 was originally scheduled for this month it emerged in February that SpaceX was facing a nine-month delay. The new milestone dates followed a renegotiation earlier this year when SpaceX realised that the readiness reviews they were required to do demanded rocket and spacecraft qualification tests many months before the missions took place. However SpaceX only had the capacity to construct the models to be tested about eight weeks before launch.
There were also outstanding issues of UHF communications equipment that had to be installed on the ISS and this will only occur now during NASA's STS-130 Space Shuttle mission scheduled for December 2009.
Vozoff said that media reports of the delay being linked to a welding problem on the Merlin 1C engine were wrong. There was a weld issue but SpaceX says that was resolved at the beginning of the year and does not affect its plans for a 125,000lb-thrust (556kN) at sea-level version of its Falcon 9 "M9" Merlin 1C engine. The Falcon 1 version, the M1, has gas generators that only deliver 78,000lb sea-level thrust because that is what that rocket is designed for.
Instead Vozoff pointed to the renegotiation agreement with NASA that set the company four technical milestones, two of which have been completed. The four are a successful test firing of prototype Dragon Draco thrusters, which occured in March, a Falcon 9 multi-engine test firing, which occured two months earlier than planned, the delivery of the UHF unit and the third demonstration flight. Under its SAA SpaceX's UHF unit can be used by other spacecraft docking with ISS including Orion and Orbital Science's Cygnus.
Vozoff was confident of achieving the remaining third financial milestone, saying that the company was already half way to completing it although it does not have to be achieved until next March.
Other future technical developments include the Dragon capsule's parachute testing. The drogue and main chutes are in their boxes on the company's factory floor and drop tests are planned for the first half of 2009.
Source: Flight International


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Interview with Jeremy Scott
Jeremy Scott is one of the fashion world's most quirky designers. An outsider who has created his own successful universe filled with humour and irreverent cheek. For the last couple of years, he has also been in charge of the Italian fashion house Moschino. The favourite designer of pop stars who has given us everything from shoeless heels, one-legged trousers and winged Adidas sneakers to fashion inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants, McDonald's and Barbie. Often misunderstood by the establishment, but loved by an ever growing band of fans, including stars like Björk, Robyn, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Kanye West. Susanna Strömquist managed to get him on the line on an early winter morning in his hometown of Los Angeles, and took the opportunity to congratulate him on his twentieth anniversary as a designer.
Twenty years as a fashion designer, what an achievement – congratulations! What are you most proud of so far?
Thank you! I'm probably most proud that I am still alive and have a career. It feels like a gift. Fashion is a tough industry, I'm proud that I have managed to stay in it. That I have made a name for myself on my own terms, with a large group of fans but without financial backing. I'm grateful that I have got to do what I love throughout the years and that, at the same time, my designs have touched so many others. I am one of few in my generation who has managed to create their own brand. Many others who started at the same time have disappeared into the big, established houses.
You have always gone your own way, and not always been lauded for your unconventional choices, at least not by the establishment. I remember one of your very first shows, for the autumn of 1998. I was in the audience, pressed up against the wall on some stairs right at the top under the roof of Printemps department store in Paris. Like many other fashion journalists, I had been drawn there by the fact that you had been acclaimed as fashion's new megastar the season before. The reaction after this show was completely different though. The critics were not kind. I still remember the feeling of total flop in the reviews the day after. What happened?
It was very upsetting, but now looking back I think it was a useful lesson that definitely made me thicker skinned. I'm glad that I learnt early that you don't need to be everyone's cup of tea. But it was a tough blow at the time. A shock, I felt utterly betrayed and abandoned by people I admired and who had been role models when I was growing up. From being acclaimed as the messiah of fashion one season, they now suddenly turned their backs on me.
What was it that annoyed them?
I think the problem was their own expectations about who I was, and what they wanted me to be. For me the collection was a completely natural development of what I wanted to express, a kind of reaction against the times. The year before, I had created an all-white collection with angels' wings. This one was gold and not really very provocative at all, there was no nudity, nothing sexual and no hint of any religious symbols. Other fashion designers, such as Alexander McQueen, got away with much more challenging and extreme expressions. But somehow using gold was totally overstepping a boundary at that time. The inspiration was about an alternative 1980s universe. The focus was on gold, luxury and abundance – but with an aggressive, avant-garde outline. The entire collection was asymmetric, even the make-up.
As I remember, it became a kind of watershed, a collection that broke with ascetic 90s minimalism and pointed the way towards the more bling-loving fashion of the 2000s. A sign that the 90s were over and that the 00s had taken off.
It was obvious that there was a clear division between the generations. The collection appealed to one generation, but not to another. The inspiration from the 80s was too close in time for some of the more established journalists. They clearly didn't want to go back to where they had just been. At the same time, the collection got huge coverage in the alternative press. All the cool stylists loved it. Isabella Blow lauded it and The Face photographed every single garment.
Have you got any garments left from the historic gold collection?
Yes, I have an almost complete archive! Even garments from my student days. It's great, like a kind of visual diary from my life.
So in other words you have had a lot to go through before the anniversary exhibition that is being put on at the Dallas Contemporary Museum in the spring… Now you have had the opportunity to look back, how would you describe your aesthetic universe?
There is always a certain sense of humour, even though the humour may be dark sometimes. Pop is a word that is often used to describe what I do. I love nostalgia and pop culture. Personally, I think the most unique thing about my designs is the combination of sex appeal and humour. Those are two aspects that are otherwise rarely seen together.
Your background is not entirely typical for a fashion designer. You grew up on a farm in Missouri. But studied French in high school because you had set your sights on going to Paris and being a part of the fashion world. Where did the interest in fashion come from, and what shaped your aesthetics?
It's strange. I am an anomaly. Absolutely nothing in my background pointed to the life I now lead. I don't have a grandmother that dressed in couture or sewed clothes at home. I just had a very strong opinion on how I wanted to dress when I grew up. A love as inexplicable as it is passionate of expressing myself through clothes. I usually say that I had no choice, fashion was what I wanted to do.
You once said that your motto is "life is too short to wear boring clothes". Do you still spend a lot of time on your personal style?
Yes, I have a huge wardrobe! I wear what I design myself, and a lot of vintage. Some things get put in storage for periods, but I have learnt that if I've once loved a garment, I should keep it. If I get rid of something, I always miss it the second after.
After some vacillation, you went from Missouri to a design education at the Pratt Institute in New York and then, at the age of 21, moved on to Paris. There you managed against all the odds to create a collection that premièred in 1997. Just a year later, when you had managed to establish yourself despite the gold flop, you suddenly decided on another unexpected move. After aiming for Paris throughout your entire childhood, in 2002 you left the capital of fashion and moved to Los Angeles.
That was to do with both my life and my career. Los Angeles stood for the best of two worlds for me. I was back in America and could live the life I wanted, in the city but close to nature. At the same time, I could continue working with fashion. I wanted to continue to develop as a designer and as a person on my own terms and live life now, not put it off for the future. Also, I had realised that in Paris I would always be an American in Paris. I would never be the new Yves Saint Laurent. You just had to look at Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. It didn't matter how relevant Lagerfeld's Chanel was, he always lived in the shadow of Saint Laurent.
Did it turn out as you had planned?
The move to Los Angeles is the best thing I've done since I moved to Paris! And, to be honest, I was once again before my time. This was when Los Angeles was still considered tacky. Since then, half of New York has moved here. It was before Tom Ford and Hedi Slimane settled down here. I could never have predicted how quickly things would develop, but I saw signs early on that made me take the step. With email, a mobile phone and Fedex I could even then work from Los Angeles just as well as from Paris. Today I can run an entire fashion house in Milan from here. The rules and requirements have changed rapidly.
Most things seem to have gone your way when it comes to developments in the fashion industry. From the decentralisation of power from Paris to the internet making information available and the arrival of celebrities on the fashion scene.
It's an enormous difference, above all there are so many more channels now – and voices. Opinions have flooded the market. The internet is really a gift to fashion! You were there when I first began showing in Paris and will remember that very little information came out from the shows in those days. If you weren't there in person, you would at best see one or two pictures in the newspapers the day after. That was it. You had to rely on the opinions of others, and there were just a few voices that were heard and got a very large reach. When it comes to the importance of celebrities for the fashion world, it's not a new phenomenon but it has become far more important today. They are a kind of megaphone to the world! I love being a part of the pop culture that communicates with a wide audience, not just a fashion clique. I like to create stage costumes for strong personalities, like musicians and actors. I've been around for a while now, so a lot of celebrities have grown up with me. Katy Perry came up to me before she had even released a record and said that I was her favourite designer. That she hoped I would dress her one day. A couple of years ago, I dressed her for the most seen halftime entertainment in Super Bowl history.
Do you think everything in the fashion world has changed for the better during this time?
No, no, no. The saddest thing is that personal expression has disappeared. You can't always see which designer is behind which garment today. Individual identity was much more important in the past. You had to stand out by creating your own world. Today, the commercial forces have taken over. In Paris, there are in essence just two brands that own all the fashion houses, everything is sewn up in the same factories using the same fabrics. I'm old school in that way, I always try to be individual and non-mixable!
Tell me about Moschino, how did you end up there? A fashion house founded 1983 in Milan by Franco Moschino (1950-1994) that became known for its colourful, eccentric and humorous designs.
I had turned down other houses in the past. I didn't want to jeopardise my own brand, or sacrifice my name for someone else's. But this was the right timing. I had a solid base for my own brand in place, and had also worked with Adidas for many years and knew what it meant to design on a global level. I didn't need to take the assignment for the money. I did it because I wanted to. Franco Moschino is a designer I grew up with, who has meant a lot to me. I agreed to be creative director because I felt that I was entirely the right person for the job, and that there was no-one else who could do it better. I wanted to do Franco Moschino justice. It felt like a duty.
How have you gone about the job?
So far, I've worked totally intuitively. Much of what I've done I've later discovered that Franco also did. For example, the Barbie doll that was the inspiration for my 2015 spring collection was in one of his first campaigns. I see my own brand and Moschino as two different railway tracks going through the same station that then go on to different destinations. There are similarities, but also differences. I always try to be completely genuine in what I do, whether it is Moschino or Jeremy Scott.
Tell me about this springs critically acclaimed Moschino collection, which is inspired by paper dolls – complete with paper tabs around the silhouettes.
It's one of the collections I am most proud of in my career so far. For me, it stands for the essence of fashion. It's so sophisticated. Most of the garments are completely flat with illustrated forms. There is so much work in this collection, just the number of work hours… I am so fortunate! I've had the opportunity to implement ideas with the help of the team in Milan that I would never have been able to do on my own. I'm really having the time of my life at Moschino.
It shows! Talking of a good team. In the magnificent tome "Jeremy Scott" (Rizzoli) from 2014, where you go through all of your collections so far, there's a quote that made me curious. You say that "sometimes a dream is big enough to hold two people. Thanks for sharing my dream, Pablo". Who's that?
Pablo Olea and I have been cohorts since schooldays. He studied art and I fashion. He has been with me since the very first show in Paris. First he helped me as a friend. Today he is head of global communications for both Moschino and Jeremy Scott. I'm eternally grateful that he has been by my side throughout this time.
What a privilege!
Before we hang up and say goodbye after what for me had been an unexpectedly long and open-hearted conversation, we agree that Jeremy Scott will get in touch next time he is in Sweden. It turns out that he has already been here on a couple of occasions and thinks that Stockholm is like something out of a fairy tale – "dark, snowy and magical". Next time he wants to come here in the summer when it's light all the time. But before that can happen, he has a growing queue of megastars to look after, designing work and men's and ladies' collections to present in both Los Angeles and Milan, as well as an anniversary exhibition that demands attention. Full speed ahead, as always! You can think what you want about Jeremy Scott's unconventional style and methods, but it's hard not to be impressed by what this man has achieved on the fashion scene over the last twenty years. A colourful victory parade like no other – completely outside the box.
Interviewed by Susanna Strömquist


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Note: The content of this post has been moved to my new blog. You can find the new post here:
Note: The content of this post has been moved to my new blog. You can find the new post here:
Drawers have been a common feature on casework for almost as long as casework has been constructed. The most prevalent style of drawer arrangement used in furniture today is based upon the style developed in the 18th century. Basically, a frame is constructed to divide the casework into sections and the drawers are constructed to fit the opening, and ride on top of the frame.
In the 17th century, however, most drawers were side hung, meaning that the drawers did not sit on top of a frame, but instead they hung by runners attached to the drawer sides. This was done in two different ways. The drawer could have small strips nailed to its side to form a groove, or a groove could be plowed directly into the drawer side. I wanted to add a small drawer to my workbench since I recently move my old standing desk out of the shop. So I decided to use the 17th century style drawer construction to do so.
I started with the drawer runners. I ripped these out of a 3/4″ thick piece of pine. They are both 3/8″ thick by 3/4″ wide and long enough to support the sides of the drawer for as deep as it will be.
The drawer runners were attached to the insides of the workbench aprons with glue and cut brads. They are spaced down from the top of the drawer space so that they will sit approximately centered on the sides of the drawers when the drawer is mounted.
To facilitate the groove on the side of the drawer for the drawer runner, 17th century drawers were often constructed using just a single wide dovetail. Using the wide dovetail allowed the wide groove for the drawer runner to be plowed only through the long grain of the drawer sides and not have to be cut through any end grain pins. I decided to follow that practice with these drawers.
The groove was started with a 1/4″ blade in a plow plane. However, this didn't plow the full width necessary. So instead of resetting the fence and moving the plow plane over, I used a sash saw to saw the other side of the groove, then wasted away the remaining wood with a chisel and smoothed the bottom of the groove with a 1/2″ square rabbet plane.
With a minimal amount of trimming and planing, the drawer was fit into the opening under the bench top. The runners weren't exactly centered on the drawer sides but instead ended up centered on the total drawer height. I miscalculated when positioning the runners because I was using the full height of the false front rather than the reduced height of the drawer sides. The height of the sides was reduced by 1/2″ because the drawer bottom is attached by nailing it to the sides front and back. C'est la vie. It still works fine, even if the drawer runners aren't centered on the dovetail.
The last thing to do was to attach a false front to cover everything up.
Have you ever started a project that should have taken you a mere couple of hours, and ended up turning into a multi week production? Yeah, me too. Case in point, my recent bout of "project creep". Funny, I think I just heard another discussion about this same subject earlier this week.
This was just supposed to be a simple pine box. Nothing fancy, just white pine, through dovetailed corners, a few simple dividers and a top tray, with a simple pine board lid. Well, I stuck to the simple dividers and lift out tray anyway. The rest? Well, it's a long story.
A few weeks ago I was going through the cupboard in my shop looking for some cut nails. As I rummaged through the ziplock bags and styrofoam egg carton housing my nails and screws, the frustration finally became too much. I had wanted to make a proper wooden nail and screw box for some time, and I decided to do it right now. Just a simple pine box. Nothing fancy, like I said.
So I needed some pine. No problem, head over to the cutoff bin and grab a few scraps. That's when I looked on top of the cupboard and saw these.
If you've been reading the blog for awhile you might recognize these boards from this post from 2012.
They've been sitting atop my cupboard since then. As I took them down and looked them over, it occurred to me that they were the perfect size for box sides. But they were already veneered. So I had to change plans and join the corners with half blind dovetails rather than through dovetails. No biggie.
So after gluing the sides together and fitting a pine bottom with some cut nails, I proceeded to make the interior dividers. Piece of cake. Plane the boards, make a few saw cuts for some half laps and attach to the box with some CA glue and cut brads.
Then it was on to the lift out tray. No problem. Resaw and plane a pine 1 x 12 for the bottom. Then more planing and half laps for the sides, ends and dividers. Assemble with CA glue and cut brads and clean up with the plane. Cool.
You know, with the short ends veneered, the visible dovetails and nails on the long sides kind of look like crap. Maybe I should veneer those sides and cover them up. Sigh. Retrieve mahogany veneer from atop the cupboard. Damn, I'm out of hot hide glue. OK. Warm up liquid hide glue, add caul and lots of clamps. Hmmm. This liquid hide glue is 6 months past expiry. Oh well. Trim veneer and repeat on the other long side. Not bad.
Now what about that top? Where's that piece of pine? Not wide enough. Hmmm. I could frame it. A mitered frame might look nice. But the box is veneered. Plain pine won't look right. Back to the veneer pile for more mahogany. More liquid hide glue. Should I get a new bottle? Meh.
OK. Trim the veneer. Damn, should have flattened that pine board first. Oh well. Grab a mahogany off cut, plane to size, plow a groove, miter the corners, and more CA glue. Not too bad. Size the panel and plane the tongue on three sides. Cool.
Glue in the veneered panel. Damn, should have flattened that pine board first. Maybe if I just scrape the veneer down a tiny bit? That's not bad. It's almost flush. Maybe just one more pass with the scraper. Damn. Ah well, it's just for nails and screws.
So how does it fit? Crap, still too narrow. Grab another stick of mahogany. Glue it to the back edge of the lid. Trim and plane to fit. Good. But I'm not crazy about seeing that mahogany end grain on the sides of the lid. Maybe I'll add some banding around the edges, and maybe even some parquetry inside the lid? Derek's looks nice. Nah. This madness has gone on long enough.
Note: The content of this post has been moved to my new blog. You can find the new post here:
Note: The content of this post has been moved to my new blog. You can find the new post here:
Note: The content of this post has been moved to my new blog. You can find the new post here:
Note: The content of this post has been moved to my new blog. You can find the new post here: