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Understand the Benefits of the Pattern
Design patterns describe a problem in our environment and the core of a solution to that problem (paraphrasing Christopher Alexander -- see Learn the Lingo: Design Patterns for the actual quote). It is important that we understand the problem that the pattern is trying to solve. Many times, patterns help us with the S.O.L.I.D. principles. These principles from Robert C. Martin (a.k.a. Uncle Bob) are guidelines to help us create well-designed objects and are considered to be high on the list of best practices. I'd recommend any developer working in an OO language to take some time to study these principles.
When we took a closer look at the Strategy pattern (or more specifically, the sample implementation), we found that by using the pattern, we would be following the Single Responsibility Principle, the Open-Closed Principle, and the Dependency Inversion Principle (the "S", "O", and "D" of the S.O.L.I.D. principles).
But this does not determine whether we should be using the pattern.
Understand the Costs of the Pattern
Everything has trade-offs; design patterns are no different. The problem is that when we're looking for solutions (whether on-line, through colleagues, or in training) the costs of patterns are often not discussed. This is generally where we need to start digging a little deeper.
When talking about costs, sometimes it is simply added complexity to our system. Sometimes, there is a side effect that we need to write some additional code to mitigate. The costs are not always "show stoppers". In fact, they generally are not. What's important is to determine whether we are willing to undertake those costs in order to get the benefits.
In the case of the Strategy pattern, two of the costs that affected our situation were that (1) Clients must be aware of the different Strategies and (2) Increased number of objects.
Here's the Problem
Often, we'll come across recommendations like "This is a great place to use a Factory Method" or "Inversion of Control would be good here". These recommendations often include the benefits that we would get from the pattern in a particular situation. What is generally lacking, though, is any discussion about the costs of the pattern. This is where we need to do a bit of research on our own.
There are tons of good resources for design patterns that do go through the benefits and costs. One good book is Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# by Robert C. Martin and Micah Martin. Martin and Martin take a look at a set of design patterns in the context of actual application scenarios. And sometimes the recommendation is that a particular pattern may not be appropriate. Here's a quote from a section that looks at the Template Method pattern:
"Design patterns are wonderful things. They can help you with many design problems. But the fact that they exist does not mean that they should always be used. In this case, Template Method was applicable to the problem, but its use was not advisable. The cost of the pattern was higher than the benefits it yielded."
Understand Your Tools
Ultimately, Design Patterns are tools for our toolbox. We don't need to use a particular tool for every job. We won't use all of the tools for a particular job. The key is that we understand our tools: what they are good for and what we need to be careful of.
If we do not understand the benefits of a design pattern, then we may end up applying that pattern in a situation where we do not get the benefits. In that situation, we only get the costs with no benefit -- a very bad design decision.
Conversely, if we do not understand the costs of a design pattern, then we may end up applying that pattern in situations where it is not warranted. We end up getting the costs whether we know about them or not, and we may find that we've backed ourselves into a corner and have to deal with side effects that we were not expecting.
One more thing to consider if you are working in a team environment: If you determine that the use of a particular pattern is appropriate in your project, make sure that all of the team members understand the pattern. If they do not understand the pattern, then you have 2 choices: (1) don't use the pattern, or (2) teach the pattern to the other developers. My preference is always to improve the knowledge of other developers. That way, you can grow as a team, and you won't have to make the same decision on the next project.
Ultimately, in my discussion with my colleague, we both left with a better understanding of the Strategy pattern. And even though we may not use it in our next projects, we know where it is in the toolbox.
To wrap things up, I'll point to a blog post from Rocky Lhotka: On the Use and Misuse of Design Patterns. Rocky's post has enough important points that I go back and re-read it periodically; you should, too.
Happy Coding!


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Call them baby hacks, must-have items or just sanity-saving products for new parents, some things are worth investing in when you have small children.
Okay, so these baby items aren't "necessary" in the traditional sense. But they make a heck of a difference in the day to day when you're wrangling a toddler and baby around or simply struggling with the basics, and ready to pull out your hair!
Check out all of these very cool baby products below…I'm sure you'll find something you wish you had sooner!
This post may contain affiliate links.
1. Woombie Swaddle
Let's start with the basics. You're home with a new baby and haven't quite mastered the swaddle. No need to fret. It does take a bit of practice (even if those nurses in the hospital made it look easy-peasy!). This Woombie Swaddle is your solution. Not only does it keep baby safe and warm, it also keeps baby's arms down to prevent the startle reflex which can keep them up at night. Win-win!2. Onesie with Shoulder Flaps
Ever wonder about the purpose of those shoulder flaps decorating most onesies? They're not just there for looks. These bad boys help you handle those unexpected diaper blowouts that are typical with little ones. You simply pull the onesie down each arm working your way down, instead of the opposite direction! You can pretty much find them everywhere these days, but here's a super cute one to check out!3. WubbaNub Infant Pacifier
I recently discovered this genius invention. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. When baby just needs to be comforted but the darn paci won't stay put. Instead of hovering over to pop it back in place, use the WubbaNub pacifier. This sanity-saver acts as a weight to help it stay close to baby while sucking!4. Keep-it-Kleen Pacifier
Hailed as the only pacifier that closes as it drops, this is another product to help keep mommy sane. No more sanitizing that binky every 5 minutes. Another amazing invention you can buy here!
5. Leg Warmers
Most newborns go through about 8-12 diapers a day; that number may drop a bit as baby grows, but it's still pretty significant. Knowing you'll be changing diapers around the clock, makes this leg warmers product a must so you can simplify the process while keeipng baby warm.6. Mirror
It's a bit nerve-wrecking to drive around with a new baby. Ease those fears with a mirror that lets you keep an eye on baby to make sure he's safe and mama is relaxed.7. Mommy Hook
I've lost count on the number of times I've had to run to the store to grab a few things, that turn into a lot more things than I planned. Having a mommy hook that easily attaches bags to stroller is just what a mom with her hands full needs.
8. Laundry Bags
Sick of all those mismatched socks filling your laundry bins? I can't tell you the number of times, I've spent way too much hours searching for missing socks around the house. SO glad I discovered these laundry bags that you just fill with dirty socks and toss in the wash to make sorting that much more easier!!9. Seatbelt Holder
I simply love this idea! Getting the kids buckled into their carseats is always a huge ordeal. I'm always struggling to get the seatbelt straps and harness in place, but this awesome carseat helper uses magnets to keep the straps out of the way so I can get my kids into the car quickly.
10. Carseat Canopy
Chilly outside? Too much sun for baby? Whatever the weather, take your baby out with you in confidence with the carseat canopy to shield baby from seasonal changes or unpleasant temperatures.
11. Sippy Cup Leash
What mom hasn't found herself playing the case of the missing sippy cup yet again and again?! If you're tired of losing all those cups, this sippy cup strap will help you have one less thing to worry about!
12. Nose Frieda
Whether its cold season or allergies, there comes a time when mom or dad will need to clear baby's nose. It may feel strange to "suck" out baby boogers, but the nose frieda is a painless way to clear those boogies in a jiffy!
13. Safety Harness (aka Leash)
Before you look away in shock, think about it. Once your baby is a little older and becomes a toddler, things are bound to get a little hectic. Even more so when you're a mom to a baby, toddler and maybe an older child and need a way to keep tabs on all kids when out in public. This kid-safe harness or "leash" is a MUST for those who have a rambunctious toddler and runner!
14. Traveling Poncho
We've all heard about the dangers of wearing bulky coats in the car during the cold season. But how do you put a baby or toddler in a freezing vehicle in the middle of winter? Fear not, just have your child wear this adorable traveling poncho. It goes OVER the seat belts acting as a warm blanket to keep your child happy while you wait for the car to get comfy! Genius!
15. Baby Carrier
I can't stress the importance of having some kind of carrier or wrap like this one to wear your baby. It just gives you the ability to multitask during those crazy moments in motherhood. This is a MUST if you have more than one kid!16. Portable High Chair
When you're out on the go and your kid won't stay put, you'll be super thankful you invested in one of these portable high chairs that you can take to grandma's or the next family party. No more balancing baby on your lap to eat while you try to grab a bite yourself.
17. Infant Airplane Seat
Any mom who's had to travel with a baby on a plane will tell you what an adventure it can be. So anything to ease the experience is welcomed. This adorable little airplane seat that resembles a hammock, may be just what the doctor ordered to help get mommy and baby through it!
18. Toddler Urinal
I had to throw this one in as a boy-mom, but isn't it simply awesome?! As your baby grows and turns into a dirty little toddler, potty training will surely be an experience. Help those little boys transition from sitting on the potty to standing with this fun little frog urinal so they'll really want to go pee-pee. Hey, if it works, why not?So many great unique ideas for new moms — which is your favorite?
More on Motherhood and Baby:
Ana, a mom to three rambunctious little boys, has supported hundreds of thousands of women throughout their pregnancy and motherhood journey since 2012 as a blogger and maternal health advocate at MommysBundle.com.
Todd W says
We don't leave home without our Wubby (wubanub). Hopefully soon she can start without it, but we're happy with it!

subset: commoncrawl


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With Modern Warfare 2's release around the corner, Dice and EA are ready to rev up the Hype Tank on their newest First Person Deforestation Simulator Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
The Playstation Blog has today announced that PS3 owners will get the opportunity to beta test this game as soon as November 19th. Access to the beta will be made possible through different sources, such as IGN, Gamespot, participating retailers (through pre-order), and the Playstation Blog as well.
"Starting on November 19, the beta will feature the huge 'Arica Harbour' map where up to 24 players compete to secure valuable crates in the 'Rush' game mode as the action moves across a variety of different locations. From an initial vehicle assault on a military outpost the war winds through streets of a deserted town to an intense final fire-fight in an industrial harbour."
Further details on beta access are TBA. Stay connected to PlayStation LifeStyle for more on the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta.


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Source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/FnNYfsnwclM/614166
Over 28.4 million tweets were sent from around the world during Super Bowl XLIX, making it the most-tweeted Super Bowl in Twitter's history.
Last year 24.9 million tweets were sent during the game, which was the previous record. This year's spectacle beat that total by almost four million.
The Super Bowl halftime show, which including Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz, generated three million tweets all by itself.
The three biggest events of the night were:
1. Malcolm Butler intercepts a pass by Russell Wilson one yard from the goal line with 20 seconds left in the game (395,000 tweets per minute)
2. The Patriots defeat the Seahawks to become champions (379,000 tweets per minute)
3. The end of Katy Perry's halftime performance (284,000 tweets per minute)
Tom Brady was the most tweeted-about Patriot, and Marshawn Lynch was the most-mentioned Seahawk.
PATRIOTS WIN!! Your New England Patriots are Super Bowl Champions! #FinishedTheJob pic.twitter.com/qJ3t7G20Cc
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) February 2, 2015
(Source: Twitter.)


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If I subscribe to MakeUseOf.com, what will you do with my email address? I don't see a privacy disclaimer or any info about how you handle subscribers email address and other information.
If I subscribe to MakeUseOf.com, what will you do with my email address? I don't see a privacy disclaimer or any info about how you handle subscribers email address and other information.
I receive everything I am supposed to from makeuseof and have never received unwanted or unsolicited emails as a result of my subscription.
The privacy link that Tina has just highlighted is at the very bottom of the main page underneath the author footer. I admit it's not in a very prominent position so I will look into perhaps getting it moved somewhere where it's a bit more visible.
You have our assurance that we do not use your email address for anything other than to contact you if you win a contest (for example). None of your details are given out to outside parties and this is explicitly spelled out in our privacy disclaimer.
John Doe,
good point about the disclaimer, I guess we should add that. In the meantime, please take my word that MakeUseOf will not sell or share your email address with third parties.
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Chinese Philosophy
The major schools of classical Chinese philosophy: Confucianism, Moism, and Taoism. Confucianism on the ideals of harmonious human life; Moism's charge that Confucianism encourages an unjustified partiality toward the family; Taoism's claim that no logically consistent set of doctrines can articulate the ''Truth.'' Debates and mutual influences among these philosophies. Comparisons between Chinese and Western cultures with respect to philosophical issues and solutions. One course.
Cross Listings


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This post will be my last for the foreseeable future. I began writing 3.8 Billion Years in 2012 to help me clarify how biology and evolution were relevant to my hazy ideas about aging, dying, afterlife, and being alive. The blog has done its job, more or less. Reading over the posts, I'm refreshed by hearing my own thoughts talk back to me about so many topics. But the writing has been hard work and, for now, I'm burned out.
This web site, 38by.blog, will remain available as long as visitors continue to drop in. A Thematic Table of Contents, tabbed at the top of this page, outlines the main ideas here with sample posts about each.
I've added below an alphabetized list of all 150+ post titles. I hope the reader may find a title or two engaging enough to copy them into the Search box at the top of the sidebar and take a look.
Finally, my gratitude to the many readers over the years who have checked in regularly, commented often, and taught me much. Thank you.
Brock Haussamen
Animals and the Law: More Like Persons or Property?
Are There Any GOOD Viruses?
Beavers, Humans, and Evolution
Before Heart Surgery
A Biologist Looks at Religion, the Humanities, and Out Compulsive Sociability
Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Biology of Suffering
Black Body and Soul
Black Swan Events
The Body Electric
The Brain Speaks Out
Breath: Divine Gas in a Smart Body
The Brown Sisters: 35 Annual Portraits
The Buddhist Body Guard
Chet Raymo on Santa Claus, Hot Stoves, and the Blooming, Buzzing Confusion
"Comparison Is the Thief of Happiness"
Cooperation and Competition
Cyanobacteria: R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Creativity: Survival Tool Or Higher Gift?
"Damn it, it's MY Body That's at Stake": Autonomy, Sociality, and Imperfect Choices
Darwin and the Buddha
Darwin and the Roots of Morality
Darwin's Dark Vision: "Ten Thousand Sharp Wedges"
Dawkins on Values and Science
Dawkins: Not One of Our Ancestors Was a Failure
Defining "Miracle"
The Democracy of Living Things
Dinosaurs in the Backyard
"Do Atheists Have Deathbed Conversions?"
Do Virtues Require Adversity?
Dylann Roof and the Southern Code
Emergent Phenomena: More Than the Sum of the Parts
The Evolution of Ball Games
The Evolution of Laughing and Crying
The Fading Individual
The Family Dog Dies
The Family Dog Grows Old
The Family Dog Grows Older
Feces As Medicine
Feeling Old? Envy the Lobster
Finding Meaning At Auschwitz
Five Reasons Why I'm Afraid of Dying – And Some Reassurances
Five Things I Expect My Core Belief To Do For Me
Forgiveness and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
400 Million Years of Ferns
Friends and Allies
The Gambler's Fallacy and Other Biases of the Brain
Genes Are Like Sentences, Genomes Are Like Books
Genesis For Non-Theists
Getting Dead
God Loves You. Does Evolution?
"Hello, Science" (2): What All Living Things Strive For and Value
Hindus Seek Detachment. Have Plants and Animals Already Found It?
The Homely Truth About the Shortest Day
How Consciousness Might Have Evolved
Hope Jahren's Lab Girl and the Dramatic Life of Plants
How Language Encourages Belief in an Afterlife
How To Make a Religion
Human Evolution, Backward and Forward
Humboldt's Vision of Nature
I Like Lichens
The Immortal Jellyfish
In the Men's Locker Room
Is DNA Alive?
Is the Universe Alive?
It's Diversity All the Way Down
Katydids, Cicadas, Crickets, Grasshoppers
Lessons From the Origins of Life
Life After Dying? Absolutely
Life Before Fossils
"Life" in Other Words
"Life is…."
Life Is Precious, Life Is Cheap
The Limits of Happiness
Living As Meaning
Living Closer
Lucky Life
Magical Thinking: Happy, Healthy, or Hazardous?
Meditation and Science: Two Views of Life
Michael Graziano on How the Brain Creates Consciousness and Spirituality
"The Mind Is Mainly Drawn to the Future"
Most of Your Cells Aren't Yours
The Music Man
My Genome and Me
My Million-Year-Old Back Yard
My New Heart Valve Has a Serial Number
Near-Death Experiences: What They Tell Us About THIS Life
Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Hidden Costs of a Cosmic Perspective
Neil Shubin's 'The Universe Within'
No Pain, No Sympathy
Non-Theists, God's Love, and Evolution
Oliver Sacks and the Comforts of Metal
On Revising My Will
On the Cosmic Calendar, A Date To Remember
Our Actual "Eve"
The Part-of-Something-Larger Experience
People Are Different
Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
Pilgrimage to the Ancestors
The Pioneers: Archaea and Bacteria
Plants As Aliens
Police Brutality and the Brain
Pope Francis on Dogs in Heaven
Pope Francis on the State of the World
The Purpose Problem
"The reckless, the degraded, and the vicious": Was Darwin a Bigot?
Religion for Atheists
Reverence for (Some) Life
A River and a Volleyball
Sam Harris and the Science of Morality
Seasons and Heartbeats
Self-Deception: Why We Fool Ourselves
Sink Or Float: the Ordeal by Water
Six Interesting Ways that Cars Are Like People
The Sixth Mass Extinction
Size Matters
The Spiritual and the Sentimental
Spiritual Naturalism
Spirituality and Evolution
Spirituality and Genes
Spirituality From Science
Stem Cells: How To Build a Body
Stephen Hawking, Cosmology, and Spirituality
Steven Pinker on the Decline in Violent Deaths
Steven Pinker on Disgust, Sex, and Happiness
Steven Pink on Emotions and Genes
Suicide and Evolution
Survivors and the Terminator
Symbiosis, or How We All Get Along
Taking the Universe Personally: Neil Shubin's The Universe Within: The Deep History of the Human Body
"There's No Natural Selection For Happiness"
Thorns and Roses
The Very, Very Long View
Video: "Big Bang Big Boom" – A History of Life
Walking Up the Ramp
Walk, Run, Eat: The Evolution of Our Body
What Birds Are Saying
What Is the "Nature" in Naturalism
Whistling Past the Graveyward
A World Without Blue
Who Were Homo sapiens' Parents?
Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin


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Move suggestion
Whats the proof of this unofficially named race? The achievement? Cause that's the only mention of ironbound I see, the other achievement giving a rusted proto-drake, making that a new race as well? Not even a model name to back it up... whereas Brann calls Razorscale a plated proto-drake... least that name has a source. User:Coobra/Sig4 21:47, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
That would at least be a better race source than "ironbound proto-drake"; the reward for Heroic: Glory of the Ulduar Raider is an Ironbound Proto-Drake, which I guess is what people has named it by... after all it has the same model as Razorscale, but that's no proof. --User:Gourra/Sig2 22:18, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
- I don't see it being a race at all really, though plated makes more sense then going off the mounts name.Warthok Talk Contribs 02:41, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
- Well, its different as how Iron vrykuls are from normal Vrykuls. The page would have to be completely rewritten either way. User:Coobra/Sig4 03:07, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Hear the Warm and Fuzzy here!
"Hey YOU, yes you. Stop being unhappy with yourself, you are perfect. Stop wishing you were someone else or that someone liked you as much as they like someone else. Stop trying to get attention from those who hurt you. Stop hating your body, your face, your personality, your quirks, Love them. without those things you wouldn't be you. Be confident with who you are. Smile, it'll draw people in. If anyone hates you because you're happy with yourself forget them.. Your happiness doesn't depend on others. Be happy because you love who you are, Love your flaws, Love your imperfections, because they make you and "You" are pretty amazing."Share on Facebook


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Non-canon warning: This article or section contains non-canonical information that is not considered to be an official part of the Legend of Zelda series and should not be considered part of the overall storyline.
Mini Death Bug Chrysalis is an item from Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. Tingle finds it within the Insect Cavern, and must give it to Teddy Todo to free him from a spider web. After Tingle completes the dungeon, Teddy Todo consumes the substance and his stats jump drastically; his health goes from 8 to 20, his strength goes from 6 to 20, and his defense goes from 3 to 19.
Non-canon warning: Non-canonical information ends here.
|Tingle · Uncle Rupee · Pinkle · Barkle
—Full list of characters
|Beetle Lord Death Bug · Captain Stalfos · Bana Bana · Beetle King Death Bug · Dora Dora · Uncle Rupee
|First Continent · Second Continent · Third Continent · Rupeeland
—Full list of locations
|Hero's Shrine · Pirate Hideaway · Deku Temple · Insect Cavern · Desma's Labyrinth
|Bone Ocarina · Master Rupee · Mini Death Bug Chrysalis · Pure Dew · Rupee Goods · Super Rupees · Tingle Bomb · Tingle Tuner
|Deity · Fairy · Human · Hylian · Salona · Yamatami
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Posts Tagged 'articles'
No. 6 – The Sisterhood Of Night (Caryn Waechter, 2014)
The Sisterhood Of Night has a dreamy, ethereal tone that I would have eaten up as a teenage girl. Unfortunately, I'm old as balls now, so I couldn't help being shaken out of reverie by the occasional spotty moments. But I would still mark this down as a sweet film for teenagers to watch, one of those noble attempts of filmmakers to understand and depict contemporary teenage girls, but there's something elusive and ephemeral about those girls, something that's nearly impossible to capture with any accuracy. By the time you think you have them figured out, they've grown up and gone, and the next group appear with a new language and set of references and dreams. The Sisterhood Of Night does an honourable job, and yet something is missing. Which, for a film which attempts to do SO much, is a shame.
The film is told in a mix of flashbacks and faux-documentary talking heads, in a way that is slightly muddled and confusing. It dives right into the battlegrounds of social media, where so many other films are reluctant to engage, because Robert McKee doesn't explain how in Story. (Start noticing how many films involving someone losing / forgetting / breaking their mobile phone early on in a plot that would be easily solved with a quick call, and prepare to be infuriated by many, many horrors films and thrillers of the past fifteen years.) The film initially sets up a rivalry between Emily, a lonely blogger desperate to be part of the in-crowd, and Mary, an intriguing and charismatic student who decides to go quiet on social media. Mary then decides to start a secret society of girls, selected by invitation, with an aim that isn't immediately clear. Emily follows the group out one night, and later writes a blog post outlining the abuse she suffers at the Sisterhood's hands, starting something akin to a witchhunt that escalates throughout the town. The Sisterhood are sworn to secrecy, so refuse to comment, adding fuel to the fire.
At this point, the different story threads spiral out like a hydra, and never quite come together. A society of isolated teenagers echoes Joyce Carol Oates' Foxfire (beautifully filmed by Laurent Cantet in 2012). The mass hysteria surrounding the group recalls The Falling by Carol Morley (which I'll be watching within the next few weeks). Emily and Mary's rivalry recalls any number of teen films. Other, more minor strands would have been an interesting primary forcus – Emily's blog compels other girls to open up about the abuse they have suffered, Lavinia is vexed by her mother's dating activities and her own emergent sexuality (she borrows a copy of The Joy Of Sex, a book which has not been read since 1976 but nice try, set designers) and is then brutally catfished by her schoolfriends, Catherine refuses to visit her sick mother since she lost her hair, school councillor Gordo Gambhir's attempts to reach out to the Sisterhood led to him losing his job over a perceived inappropriate relationship with Mary. Any one of these storylines would have a place as the A story in a hammy after-school special, or a touching indie film. It is almost a shame to have them as such small plot points. The Sisterhood Of Night suffers from too many ideas and too much ambition – and that is an honourable way to fail.
But The Sisterhood Of Night has some unique aspects to it as well. This is a rare – and non-judgemental – depiction of a religious community. While it feeds into the mass panic, the focus is more on how the town is tightly-knit and aware of each other's business, rather than mocking the theists. Likewise, it walks a fine line in the depiction of female sexuality. While Lavinia is shamed and mocked for her desires, the film treats her with more dignity – most films view as a cause for punishment, or the most emotional, moving moment of a woman's life, and both are equally unrealistic interpretations. Mary's relationship, another minor thread in the film, is treated sincerely but as an afterthought. She loses her virginity on her terms, and is happy with her decision, which remains private. Throughout the film, privacy and silence is a revolutionary act, particularly in a world of noise, where nothing goes unnoticed or unread by the people around you, and that itself is refreshing.
No. 4 – Middle Of Nowhere (Ava DuVernay, 2012)
In light of last week's Oscars, it seemed apropos to look back at the work of Ava DuVernay, who is probably the most notable female director working at the moment, and also the origin of 2015's #Oscarssowhite movement. With a year passing now, it seems inexcusable that a future classic like Selma eked out merely two nominations in a field that saw nominations for forgettable films as Unbroken, The Judge and American Sniper (a box office hit that I literally forgot existed). DuVernay herself has become a modern-day icon, in a way that has eluded her director peers such as Tom Hooper and Michel Hazanavicius, but the fact that Mattel has made a Barbie version of her has not diminished her into a mere image of a dreadlocked beauty in a director's chair. The facts are clear: DuVernay is the most exciting director working in Hollywood right now. A mere three features into her career, her skill and significance is such that she will doubtless be present at many Oscar ceremonies in the future, and, most likely, at the podium herself.
DuVernay's second film Middle Of Nowhere brought her one step closer to the mainstream. A Sundance success, it won multiple awards and nominations including a strong showing at the Independent Spirit Awards, centred around DuVernay's writing and directing, and her excellent cast, led by the luminous Emayatzy Corinealdi as Ruby. Ruby is a determined young medical student putting her life on hold while she waits for her husband Derek to get out of prison ("five good years," she makes him promise). As the years tick by and her family question what, precisely, she is waiting for, Ruby begins to question her husband's commitment, and her own, in the face of the interest of bus driver Brian (David Oyelowo, later Selma's Martin Luther King). To Ruby's surprise, Brian doesn't ask questions. He waits for people to confide, he tells her, and points out his ex used to complain about it. Ruby tentatively opens up to him, lets him into her life, then pulls away, still tied to Derek and the life she thought they were going to lead.
Middle Of Nowhere is an atmospheric and captivating character piece, focusing on 3 black women whose lives have stalled for various reasons, intentional or otherwise. If intersectionality teaches us anything, it's that few groups are as ignored or misrepresented as the black woman. Ruby, her mother Ruth and sister Rosie, are not the finger-snapping, fiery and sassy women of Hollywood cinema, but real characters in a way that is so sorely lacking in the mainstream. It is a film that does not hold its audience's hands, with much of the narrative left to implication, with DuVernay demonstrating a refreshing confidence in the intelligence of her viewers. These are women who are surviving, but struggling against external forces, and their own expectations for themselves. They are in each other's lives, but each separate. The film's thesis may be the loneliness of the black woman. Derek, an equally atypical depiction of the young black criminal, is more downtrodden and hopeless than deceitful, his sense of his own failure leading to more mistakes and betrayals, as though deliberately pushing away Ruby, a woman who stubbornly sees "we" where he sees their distance and isolation.
It is primarily a film of silence. We aren't told the specifics of Derek's crime (late in the film, Ruby concedes a single word "guns"), nor the prison fight that extends his sentence, or the nature of the sexual assault on the prison guard. We don't know the cause of Rosie's tension with her mother, though there is some suggestion that she was a tough parent. In a more textual way, we are told Ruby takes night shifts so she can stay home and not miss Derek's calls, yet we hear many of his calls as answerphone messages. Voices are heard, but at a distance. Ruby and Rosie have a rare, open conversation about love, but find they can't relate to each other, as Rosie admits she feels jealous of Ruby as, even though her husband is in prison, she still has a man thinking about her. Ruby doesn't contradict this, though she doesn't open up either. The key scene sees Ruth, played by the incredible Lorraine Toussaint, berate her daughters for their self-imposed isolation – why Ruby has given up her med school dreams, why Rosie refuses her help to care for her grandchild – and yet nothing is really resolved, Rosie leaving before the conversation can unveil any truths. "Why don't you say anything?" she demands of her remaining daughter.
Ruby's prison is one of silence. She is framed indoors, under harsh hospital lighting, or hiding at home from the daytime behind the gauze curtains which cover the windows. The film is filled with brief flashbacks out of time, further adding to the ambiguous nature of the narrative – are they Ruby's memories or her dreams? In the end, Ruby's voice is powerful when she wields it. An out of character outburst at Derek's lawyer's office achieves a desired compromise when it seems like his lawyer might drop his case. Similarly, she calmly, gently tells Derek that she will not spend the remainder of his imprisonment with him. The film ends with a letter to Derek in voiceover, emphasising the traps they all find themselves in, and Ruby's determination not to be caught the same way. The scene is overlaid with shots of Ruby and Brian arm in arm (a memory, a fantasy, or a glimpse at Ruby's future?) and of Ruby and Derek, washing dishes side by side (a memory, a fantasy, or a glimpse at Ruby's future?), but ends with Ruby at the bus stop, alone, responding to a stranger's greeting. The film's resolution is ambiguous, but the film is impactful, and its atmosphere lingers for a long time after.
No. 3 – It Felt Like Love (Eliza Hittman, 2013)
The budding sexuality of teenage girls is always an alluring prospect in media, but the reality is often a holy mess. Teenage girls are supposed to have an unquenchable spring of seductive powers. How often do we see books, soap plots, newspaper comment sections, full of accusations, of an honourable man felled by an unrepentant Lolita, just now trying out the limits of her power? As though their youth and beauty comes automatically with knowledge of control, the belief that they are invincible and irresistible, and all men, and the world, can be theirs.
I'm not sure why society seems to think that is the case. Being a teenage girl is strange, messy and frightening. They have no more control over their sexual appeal than they have over other people's desire towards them, and more often are victims of this desire. But more insidious is the image fed to teenage girls, that nothing defines their identity more than the appreciation of other people. We struggle to live up to impossible visions of celebrities, try to be beautiful, try to earn the admiration of those around us, try to survive the physical and emotional viscera of puberty, get told our clothes are too revealing, get told our clothes are too dowdy, learn we are too prudish when we don't put out, find out if we were attacked that we led him on. Teenage girls know what they are doing, we're told. Though I certainly didn't then. I barely do now.
Eliza Hittman's It Felt Like Love challenges the conception of the teenage honeytrap, confident in her sexual prowess as though it's something inherent within. Lila, fourteen, feels plain and juvenile, especially next to her outwardly confident and self-possessed friend Chiara. They spend their summer at the beach where Lila, a sunscreen-coated third wheel, witnesses the good and bad of Chiara and future guido Patrick's courtship, their raw, seemingly endless sexuality, the paranoia and fights. But still she wants what they have. She is an observer for much of the film, seeing the young people around her falling in lust and exploring their sexual desires, and yet that aspect of her life still seems unattainable for her. She is constantly framed outside locked doors, across fences, or outside rooms where the scene's key action is taking place, watching, listening, learning about what seems to come so effortlessly to everyone else, but leaves her in psychic turmoil. Even Nate, her younger neighbour and confidante, playfully sprays a girl his age with a hose, a beginner's guide to flirting.
Lila's first steps into her sexual identity are all echoes of Chiara's behaviour. She quotes Chiara's experiences of oral sex as though they are her own. She gets Chiara to dye her hair, a similar red to her older friend (though Chiara is hesitant, admiring Lila's natural colour, suggesting that as much as Lila envies her maturity, Chiara is equally nostalgic for what she has left behind). And after Patrick accuses Chaira of hooking up with Sammy, a college boy who "fucks anything that moves", Lila becomes interested. Lila goes to Sammy's job, awkwardly flirts with him, turns up at his house, interrupts a boys' night of weed and porn, putting on an unconvincing façade of confidence, announcing that she considered working in porn because she heard the pay was good.
Throughout the film, Lila's idealised version of sex and adulthood is constantly undermined by the grim reality, often in the most humiliating way. Trying to impress Sammy with the illusion of her sexual adventurousness, she allows his friend Devon to spank her with a ping pong paddle, her face registering pain, confusion and regret with each strike. At another visit, after Sammy has grown bored of her, Devon dares her to suck all their dicks, and each pull down their trousers as she kneels before them, with Sammy goading her about how she hasn't made him hard. It is the most brutal of the indignities she experiences, although perhaps the cold awakening and the deglamourising, of Sammy and of sex itself, is essential for her to learn.
Early on, Lila joins a dance rehearsal, their routine aggressive and erotic, almost uncomfortable to watch. Lila hangs back, slower, less conviction in her writhing and thrusting moves, eventually stoppings altogether to observe the others. The girls pause to preen, posing in the mirrors, stretching, playing with their hair, admiring and critiquing their bodies. But the boys' bodies are equally, if not more fetishised, with the camera lingering over hard pecs and abs, tattoos, nipples and tans. And for all the idealised perceptions of Chiara – she is beautiful, older, desired and experienced, with a wealthy family who love her and throw her a lavish sweet sixteen party – she too is victim to expectations, as Patrick berates her for speaking to other guys, and condemns her for having been with more people than him. Only three, as she insists, but he tells her that three is a lot, when you think about it. One key to Hittman's film is that it doesn't forget that, for all Lila's insecurities and social pressures on teenage girls, there is equal pressure and expectation on teenage boys. Sammy could equally be accused of leading Lila on (a claim usually thrown at girls), and Lila acting like a stalker (a supposedly masculine reaction to being dumped).
A more unsettling aspect of It Felt Like Love is Lila's isolation from society. Late in the film, we learn her mother died of cancer, and it is clear throughout that her father has dialled out of existence, seemingly unemployed, disinterested in housekeeping, and openly admitting how pointless it is to care what Lila does with her time, assuming she would do what she wanted regardless of his opinion. It is cliché to look at what the absence of a mother and the distance of a father does to a teenage girl's ability to navigate through relationships, but there is a sense in the film that Lila longs for guidance. After a failed seduction of Sammy, where he fell asleep drunk and she stripped and slept beside him, in the hopes he would think they had slept together, Lila meanders home in the early morning light, and stops outside her door to speak to Nate. She's stayed out all night and her dad's going to kill her. Call the cops if you hear screaming, she says. On entering, her dad drinks coffee in the kitchen, unimpressed, but unconcerned. Later, she heads to Sammy's work hoping to reconnect. My dad freaked out, she tells him. It's one thing to perform your sexual experience. It's another to perform your place in the world.
No. 2 – West Of Memphis (Amy Berg, 2012)
A few weeks ago, a friend on Facebook posted about Serial season 1 and its deficiencies, namely its lack of a definitive conclusion, use of a real life murder as entertainment, and that Sarah Koenig, as a journalist with no background in law, was the wrong person to report on such a complex and emotive event as the murder of Hae Min Lee, which saw her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed jailed. I didn't get involved in the discussion, mostly because I was already three days late by the time it appeared on my feed, but also because I'm an inelegant debater and know my opinion is of no interest to anyone, myself included. But I did disagree.
The appeal of true crime specifically to women is not a new phenomenon. The strange attraction of the so-called fairer sex to accounts of grisly murders and unsolved mysteries has been dissected for years. Maybe it's a reaction against a patriarchal society forcing them into an illusion of delicacy and gentility, or because the victims are so often women themselves and crime stories become a guide to what-not-to-do – don't travel alone, don't answer the door, don't make him angry. Or maybe we're all ghouls. Who the hell knows. But between Serial's first series and Netflix's Making A Murderer, female-led documentaries on crime are in vogue.
It was my own ghoulish interest that led me to West Of Memphis, a 2012 documentary by Amy J Berg following the more recent events of the West Memphis Three, three teen outsiders jailed for the hideous, supposedly satanic murders of three young boys in 1993. The infamous case gained traction thanks to HBO's Paradise Lost series, attracting high profile supporters including Johnny Depp, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Eddie Vedder in an attempt to get the convictions overturned. In West Of Memphis, Berg investigates the investigation, highlighting possible missed leads, and following the appeals process to a conclusion that sees Damian Echols, his friend Jason Baldwin and an acquaintance, Jessie Misskelley, released, but not exonerated, and as yet, no further convictions for the murders of the three young boys, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.
As with Making A Murderer, the controversial account of Steven Avery, an unpopular local man wrongly convicted of rape and suing the county, who is subsequently jailed for the murder of Theresa Halbach, there is the suggestion that the West Memphis investigators, so horrified by the odious crime, may have decided on the culprits early on, and found themselves shaping the evidence around their suspicions. Confirmation bias is sadly not uncommon in police work (how often do TV cops solve a crime on a "hunch"), but equally, rarely deliberate. Making A Murderer hinges on the fact that if Avery is innocent, then the Manitowac County force falsified and planted evidence to convict him, which is a hugely terrifying suggestion. In reality, confirmation bias is more insidious, and often unintentional. Who wouldn't be suspicious of someone who stands out by not fitting in? Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were noted in West Memphis for their Metallica t-shirts and disregard for authority. Steven Avery and his family were known for their lower social status, the messy houses and bad reputations. Adnan Syed, though not the only Pakistani-American student in his school, was the son of immigrants who had demonstrated displeasure at his americanisation (Serial recounts his mother pulling him out of a school dance, and how his relationship with Hae was kept secret), and his arrest came at a time when distrust of Muslims in Western countries was increasing post-9/11. It is not so hard to imagine the police forces, the DAs, the communities and the media taking note of how different these people all were, and, consciously or otherwise, wondering, looking a little closer at them than the initial evidence would suggest, and starting to find coincidences that might be something more – a cut hand here, a violent fantasy in a journal there – but might be nothing at all. A murder investigation is not an easy job. People are not infallible, and confirmation bias can leak in when every step of the investigation is under the microscope of the media, a frightened community, and a bereaved family. Most of the time, the police get it right. But sometimes speed becomes more vital than care when solving a crime, and in that case, what happens to due process? But, and it must be noted, I do not have legal training. Who am I to make these assumptions, or try to tell this story?
Authorship in documentaries has always been a contentious subject. Every film student knows Nanook Of The North was staged for dramatic effect, and Super Size Me's findings have not held up when others have tried to recreate it. Why are documentaries viewed as the gold standard of human endeavour, rather than another form of entertainment? Doesn't everyone have a point of view, after all? Why does my friend criticise Sarah Koenig for not conclusively solving the murder of Hae Min Lee? Would it not be worse for Koenig, a journalist specialising in American politics and society, to definitively come down on one side or another, make Serial into a J'Accuse statement and point a finger, knowing she had the ears of a large audience (the first episode of Serial was broadcast as an episode of NPR megaforce This American Life, where each podcast episode alone is downloaded 750,000 times, never mind the additional radio listenership)? Unlike Serial's ambiguous approach, West Of Memphis takes a harder stance, saying no specifics but undoubtedly demanding we look closely at Terry Hobbs, stepfather to Stevie Branch, accused of having a violent temper, a man who took a break from searching for his missing stepson so his friend could teach him Roy Orbison songs on guitar. Does Berg's filmmaking style force us to question Hobbs more fervently than we would otherwise? Or is the evidence she presents so strong? Berg is an invisible presence in the film, giving us no voiceover or leading comments. The film only shows us what happens, dispassionate, detached…or so it seems. After all, Berg and her editors have chosen what to film, what to include, when to cut a quote. Everything on screen has been deliberately chosen by the filmmaker – as with every documentary, as with every film, as with everything. Objectivity is really a myth.
To criticise Koenig, and other documentary makers, for undertaking subjects about which they have minimal background knowledge and inescapable biases is to misunderstand the nature of documentaries. Lawyers don't make films. Police officers don't podcast their investigations. It's not the same thing. Koenig and Berg and Making A Murderer's Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos are qualified to make documentaries on any subject, so long as they present facts (as they see them) and the audience understands this to be the case. Serial may be "about" Adnan Syed, but it is really about so much more – the unreliable nature of memory, the American judicial system, how the act of investigation often uncovers more questions upon questions. The one thing Serial is not about is whether Syed murdered Hae Min Lee. I do not have a problem with this.
More damningly, however, Serial is not about Hae Min Lee.
The issue that has always turned my stomach about true crime documentaries, and my own interest in them, is how the victim is forgotten. Always. When true crime becomes entertainment (albeit by asking broader questions than "did x kill y?") it loses the emotion. The suspects and investigators become characters on a screen. But they are not, and we need to remember this. West Of Memphis treads a finer line – whereas Hae Min Lee and Theresa Halbach's families decline to participate in their respective documentaries, West Of Memphis has a surprisingly wide scope of interview subjects, including Stevie Branch's mother Pamela Hobbs, the aforementioned Terry Hobbs (who does himself no favours, not least when suing Dixie Chick Natalie Maines for reporting that new DNA evidence had implicated him – his suit was dismissed, because no force on Earth is more powerful than the Dixie Chicks), and, eventually, the West Memphis Three themselves. This could be down to the high profile nature of the case or the three previous HBO documentaries having prepared the community for media interaction. Pamela Hobbs in particular is a compelling subject. The film depicts her horrible journey alongside the West Memphis Three – harrowing news footage of the moment she hears the bodies have been found, her rage and hatred towards the West Memphis Three at their trials, and her gradual questioning of the convictions and calling for the case to be reopened (alongside the father and stepfather of Christopher Byers – when even the victims' families are not on your side, it's a bad sign).
West Of Memphis's final act focuses on the campaign for and eventual release of the West Memphis Three, and alleged ringleader Echols in particular. After 18 years on death row, he was facing higher stakes, and his eventual wife, Lorri Davis, acts as a guide to the nuances of the legal battles the three men faced. Eventually they are offered an Alford Plea, which allowed them to accept a plea deal without admitting guilt – essentially setting them free without giving them the option of suing the state for their wrongful imprisonment. While Echols and Misskelley quickly agree, Jason Baldwin holds out. Baldwin is an elusive figure throughout the film, and his noble character is revealed in these moments. While he wishes to be freed, he can not bear that his conviction will stand, and the implication of his guilt to remain. It is then revealed that during the initial trial, Baldwin was offered a plea deal in return for incriminating Echols, which he, the 17 year old facing life imprisonment, refused. After panicked phone calls, Baldwin agrees to accept the plea, so that his principles don't stand in the way of his co-defendants' freedom. It is extremely moving, but equally depressing, watching someone who stayed true to himself under such great pressure in an unimaginable situation for nearly 20 years realising that this uneven deal, rooted more in legalese than correcting wrongs, was as close to justice as he would ever get.
But for all the voices heard throughout Berg's film, the victims are still in the background, juggling too many threads over its considerable runtime to fully engage with the three murdered eight year olds. But perhaps that is a grim inevitability of true crime – beyond restating the facts, what more can a documentary reveal before it becomes a memorial video? And yet it leaves a sickly taste in the mouth.
West Of Memphis makes one small move to adjust our perspective. The film's end credits finishes with an old photo of a billboard for the West Memphis Three tip line, depicting the faces of Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley and requesting information that may lead to their exoneration. In the final shot of the film, the image fades out and their faces are replaced with the faces of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. There is another West Memphis Three, after all, and there are still questions to be answered about their fates.
#52filmsbywomen 1 – Fort Tilden
Posted February 7, 2016on:
No. 1 – Fort Tilden (Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, 2015)
My first #52filmbywomen viewing came unintentionally, which is pleasing. I watched Fort Tilden last week, and only today when I went back, I saw it was co-directed by a woman, Sarah-Violet Bliss with Charles Rogers. Of course, there's no way to tell a film has a female director. They bring no extra sensory nuance that male directors lack, nor do they shut down production five days each month to be swaddled in duvets with chocolate and the Meg Ryan back catalogue. There is no difference, except for the difference that exists between all directors of all backgrounds, which makes the lack of opportunity in the film industry even more egregious. Try telling Kathryn Bigelow or Michelle MacLaren that women can't handle action sequences or political conflict, or Wes Anderson or Todd Haynes that men can't handle visual beauty or emotional nuance.
Fort Tilden fits nicely into the 2010s movement of Young Female Disasters that has emerged post-Girls. Women are no longer awkward-but-honourable, overcoming insurmountable odds to gain respect and, usually, a man. Now, we have these beboobed idiots, flawed messes with misplaced but easily shaken confidence, bluffing their way through life, worried that they are going to be found out – in other words, human. Instead of virgin/whore/madonna, they are some combination of the three. Fort Tilden's leads, Allie (Claire McNulty) and her spoiled roommate Harper (Bridey Elliot) walk this line as they wind their way from Brooklyn to the titular beach destination to meet up with boys from the previous night's party, trailing chaos over themselves and everyone they encounter on the way.
The girls are compellingly awful in different ways. Harper is charming and arrogant in the way that only beautiful New Yorkers get away with. Her cool façade belies how her lifestyle as an alleged artist is funded by her rich but distant father, while she remains defiantly ignorant of his shady business practises in India. Her primary concern is why her ex-boyfriend has stopped sending dick pics, and whether this will prevent him from selling her Molly. Allie, nervy and subordinate, is preparing for a Peace Corps trip to Liberia, but frustrated that people are more concerned about how dangerous it is than how impressive her plans are. Not that it matters, since she has been procrastinating on essential travel documents, and spends the film avoiding her frustrated supervisor's calls by feigning illness. The girls feed off each other, and neither wants to face the fact of their separation. Allie sulks when Harper invites another girl to view her soon-to-be empty room, while Harper frequently assures others that Allie won't actually follow through with her plans. Harper goads Allie into skipping her responsibilities for a day of adventure, perhaps intentionally sabotaging her. Allie lets herself be talked into it, perhaps sabotaging herself.
Their friends, privileged and pretentious millennials to a man, treat Allie and Harper with either cloying insincerity or open hostility. Only they can truly tolerate each other, sending snarky texts throughout the grim party that opens the film, and half-heartedly defending the other from criticisms, even if they sort of agree. The girls clash with each other over which of the boys prefers them, and later, which of them is the bigger fraud, but ultimately they are hooked on each other, more willing to put up with the other's bullshit than anyone else. Throughout the film, they drag each other through horrible events and let their humiliations be swiftly forgotten. Survival, with or without dignity, is imperative. In the end, they are safe in their conspiracy of silence – or mutual delusion. In the film's most memorable scene, they stand in a shop queue as Allie's bike get stolen, hypnotised by the unfolding theft, their detached commentary doing nothing to stop it happening. They are observers in their own lives. As the astonished woman in the queue behind them tells them, "I just watched you watch that boy steal your bike." After that, they decide to abandon the other bike, borrowed from their upstairs neighbour, in an unfamiliar lot.
Some of the best friendships are built upon what two people are willing to leave unsaid. As women going nowhere, they are content to continue avoiding responsibility, so long as the other does the same. Harper and Allie may bring out the worst in each other, but they are stronger together. Allie avoids discussing Harper's father after an unpleasant encounter gets them kicked out of a cab. Harper convinces Allie to run away rather than face a yuppie family's fury after a near-miss with their pram and Allie's bike. They both, shamefully, silently acknowledge and ignore the fate of the kittens they found and returned to an upright dustbin, just before a storm hits. By the end of the film, nothing has changed – they have no jobs, no boyfriends, and no Molly. They are stumbling through their haphazard lives, but they are not doing it alone, and for now, that is the most they are capable of. We should all be so lucky, but holy shit, do these girls deserve each other.
Pop Bitch: Through The K Hole
Posted April 5, 2015on:
A little overdue self-promotion: I wrote an article for the November (I know) issue of the spectacular Pop Bitch Magazine app on K-pop, J-Pop and a little madness therein. Focussing mostly on idol culture and the pressures felt by young popstars, and the press hysteria over even the most minor "scandal". It was a really fascinating topic to research and also incredibly grim. The Pop Bitch app is available from all good app stores, and if you're not already subscribed to the weekly email, you are seriously missing out.
A brief extract:
Girl group f(x) got in trouble in July for burning a book in the opening shot of their video Red Light, which was immediately identified as the Bible, presumably as it's the most flammable text in the world. Other fans suggested that it was a telephone book, in keeping with imagery later in the video, but that's exactly the sort of thing the Illuminati would want you to think.
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So you've watched and loved The Artist. You liked its smooth leading men, charming ingénues, black and whiteness and best of all, none of that god damned talking. Well, great news, because there's decades of early silent cinema just like The Artist for you to seek out and enjoy. Here's my selections for a gateway to the delights of silent cinema.
City Lights
And why not start with the most famous? Chaplin's little tramp made a simple transition from silent to talkies but didn't need a voice to make the world laugh, cry and generally feel some serious emotions. In fact, things seem a tad sentimental in the age of cynicism, but that doesn't take away from the deft storytelling and endearing antics. In City Lights, the tramp falls for a blind girl, and finds himself negotiating the world of work to pay for her operation.
The General
Full feature
While Chaplin is the icon, for my money, Buster Keaton is the genius. Famed for his poker face, Keaton's films have aged remarkably well. In The General, Keaton is a railroad engineer rejected from the Confederate army for being more valuable in his current role, and is then shunned by his girl for cowardice. He and his train, the titular General, end up stuck between the two armies, and he has to warn his compatriots and rescue his kidnapped love. Combined with treacherous stunts and dry humour, The General is a film out of time, one of the greatest films of any decade, and somehow a huge flop on its 1926 release.
It wasn't only the men who were headlining classic comedies. Clara Bow was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. Her flirtatious naivety and knowing sexuality sets the tone for every female screen comedian since, including Berenice Bejo's Peppy Miller. In It, the original It girl is a sassy shopgirl who falls for her boss – a plot that wouldn't be out of place in any romcom today. Bow's flapper joie de vivre went out of style after the Wall Street Crash, and her thick Brooklyn accent ended her career on the coming of sound, but for a while, Bow was the shining star of the silver screen.
Safety Last
The last of the Big Three screen comedians, Lloyd is responsible for one iconic image – dangling from a clockface off a skyscraper. The enthusiastic go-getter to Chaplin's wide-eyed tramp and Keaton's stone faced irony, here Lloyd attempts to make it in the big city, and fails at every point, until he meets a challenge to climb a skyscraper for $1000.
The Girl With The Hat Box
The glory of silent cinema is how easily a film with no dialogue translates across territories, and of course, it wasn't just the US churning out classics. Amongst others, Russia had an extremely healthy kino industry, more than just newsreel and propaganda but social issue pictures and the occasional delightful romcom, such as this, starring Anna Sten who would go on to make a name in Hollywood. Sten works in a hatshop, and longs for a railroad worker while pursued by a student. Meanwhile her boss has just won the lottery but the ticket has disappeared. Proving convoluted plots could be just as charming in any language, and indeed, no language, The Girl With The Hat Box is as fresh as anything made over 80 years later.
Bonus: Les Voyage Dans Le Lune
It's not just The Artist that has been raising the profile of silent cinema. Hugo is the culmination of Scorsese's passion for the form, examining the mechanics and history behind the birth of cinema, and specifically, the work of the visionary Georges Melies, who depicted fantastical worlds with more originality and verve than most directors working today. This is a good use of your time.


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Study identifies ticks that are most dangerous to humans
What makes a tick more likely to transmit an infection from animals to humans? In the journal BMC Ecology, researchers answer that question using a machine learning method known as generalized boosted regression. [1] This type of algorithm helps identify features that are most important in predicting "a response variable (here, a binary variable designating whether the Ixodes tick species is a zoonotic vector) by building thousands of linked classification trees that successively improve upon the predictions of the previous tree," the authors explain.
"Our model predicted vector status with over 91% accuracy," the authors state, "and identified 14 Ixodes species with high probabilities (80%) of transmitting infections from animal hosts to humans on the basis of their traits."
They found several intrinsic features that predict which tick is more likely to transmit an infection from animals to humans. These included:
- Ticks with the most eggs.
- Larger female ticks.
- Ticks which had fed on a greater number of hosts.
"With softer substrates like those encountered in human and other mammal hosts, ticks benefit from a more secure anchor conferred by deeper penetration of mouthparts that comprise the capitulum," the authors state.
Therefore, the size of the capitulum may also affect the ability of a tick to transmit an infection. "Secure attachments lead to increased feeding times, which increase the probability of successful transmission for tick-borne pathogens," the report states.
If these results are confirmed, scientists can re-evaluate species of ticks once considered harmless as possibly dangerous in transmitting disease.
As the authors point out, "these analyses also reveal several Ixodes species that are currently not recognized as vectors of zoonotic disease, but whose biological profile suggests they should be targets of future surveillance."
Related Articles:
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Tracking ticks in Canada with digital images
- Yang LH, Han BA. Data-driven predictions and novel hypotheses about zoonotic tick vectors from the genus Ixodes. BMC Ecol. 2018;18(1):7.
1 Reply to "Study identifies ticks that are most dangerous to humans"
03/06/2018 (5:53 am)
This should make it even more important to save Ticks and send them in to be identified and those labs taking them in should follow these studies to keep improving the risk assessment.
Thanks for posting!


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Community Management
Social media platforms serve as consumer – brand interactions. Our community managers cultivate, nurture, and engage with your brand's audience. They act as advocates for your brand and connect with potential customers.
They focus on growing the overall brand community through constant engagements and responses. Community managers act as a liaison between the brand and its community, hence build lasting relationships and create value for community members. Knowing that they tract community movements, they provide you with up to date analysis on competitors, consumer insights, and industry trends.
Community managers play a vital role in the social media strategy, because they act as the voice of the brand and fulfill varied roles to give a final service. Their role includes social media strategists, content creators, evangelists, and customer service managers.
Our Community Management Strategy involves:
- Enhance awareness
- Improve public perception
- Enhance customer service
- Create brand advocates
- Educate existing and potential customers
- Drive acquisition
- Collect analysis and feedback


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Surrey Love Abs Blast Session 4 Ticket Options
As part of the surrey love campaign the support zone and activity zone have put together stress busting activities for anyone who might be interested, it's a good and easy way to take a break from studying and get active. All the sessions are free and some would require pre booking via Tixtu. So make sure during the Surrey Love period you and your friends come down to Rubix, so you can de-stress and get some endorphins flowing!
No tickets available
This information is provided for information only.
It's not possible to buy tickets for this event.
The Venue
University of Surrey
Important Information
Additional Terms
Unless otherwise stated, this is a fundraising event for the University of Surrey Students' Union and last entry is midnight. See website for full policy details.
Any Questions?
If you have any questions about this event, please contact University of Surrey Students' Union Activities directly using the details below.
University of Surrey Students' Union Activities
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The image of the Golden Gate Bridge is immediately recognizable worldwide. Composer Rob Kapilow has embraced the challenge of translating that image into music.
One of Kapilow's first scheduled "research" meetings was with the members of the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, none of whom, he says, had ever talked with a living composer before. But it didn't take long to get past that, and into a playful--and fruitful--exchange about the sounds the young musicians associate with the iconic bridge just down the freeway.
Unabashedly inspired by the example of Leonard Bernstein, Kapilow is something of a modern-day classical music resinssance man, but he sees it all as working toward the ultimate goal building a wider understanding and appreication of the music he himself loves.
Kapilow welcomes suggestions and ideas for the new symphonic pice, which can be submitted to his Facebook page.


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Ever since the first non music related project went on the Kickstarter platform, crowdfunding has grown to new heights. After the JOBS act was passed last year, it became a blistering inferno of new startups, companies and websites. If you were looking for a good crowdfunding solution on Google you would come up with over 9 million results. Now there are new startups out there like StandOffer, and Athens Ohio startup 530Funds which are helping to make the crowdfunding space, easier to navigate.
530Funds opened up their beta on November 12th and are continually iterating to make the site exactly what the crowd needs, offering good information about available crowdfunding options. One of the main obstacles they have to overcome in building a platform like this is that every time they release another version, 10 more crowdfunding sites have popped up.
Also, at the present time, crowdfunding for equity is still not legal. Although the legislation is passed we are still waiting for the SEC to develop the regulations around crowdfunding for equity up to $1 million dollars. We interviewed a startup last Friday, from Richmond, called LendingClouds, that has sidestepped the SEC by offering royalties instead of equity.
We spoke with Richard Rodman, the founder of 530Funds. Check out the interview below.
What is 530Funds?
530Funds is an all-in-one site for the crowdfunding industry. Individuals can come to our site, learn about crowdfunding, use our search engine to find the best crowdfunding site for them, use our company profile page to view extended descriptions of the companies, log onto their user profile to contact individuals in the industry, meet new people, and promote their project. 530Funds is truly a one stop shop for everything crowdfunding. We launched our beta product on November 12th 2012 and have been in constant contact with crowdfunders, owners of crowdfunding platforms, consultants in the industry, and experts in many different fields. We have also released a few updates, with our big update and redesign coming at the end of December. 530Funds believes that the crowdfunding industry knows what they want, so instead of us building them a product, we allow the crowd to build themselves a product. Since our launch, we have implemented over ten new changes and features. We joke around on our Twitter account (530_funds), and Facebook about how the crowd asks for it, and we deliver, but it's true! We are some smart guys, but we're aware the only person who knows what they want is the user, so that's what we live by at 530Funds.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds
We have four founders of 530Funds. Richard Rodman is the co-founder and CEO, Tom Jaracz is the co-founder and CFO, Max Heckel is the co-founder and CTO, and Rohan Kusre is the co-founder and CDO. When forming our team, we stuck with the "hustler, hacker, and designer" approach. This is not the first time around the block for any of us. Richard, Max, and Rohan started a previous company called FlashCrop, which has won several awards and received seed stage funding. Richard is the president of the Ohio University Entrepreneurs Club and remains an active entrepreneur in the community. He is truly passionate about crowdfunding, and loves seeing users choose their own route, and create companies. Tom has a background in finance, and is a true entrepreneur. He leads the finance end of 530Funds very well and prides himself on swift perfection. Max is a software developer who has worked with multiple digital media startups including FlashCrop, MyEventMetrics, LifeInAthens, and Ed Map. He is excellent at delivering intuitive and beautiful user interfaces as well as incorporating the newest trends in software design. Rohan has designed the user interfaces for FlashCrop and MyEventMetrics among other things and is also a graphic designer at the Athens News. His strengths lie within the realm of intuitive UI, brand imaging, and data representation. Our team has proven over and over that we can implement suggestions from the crowd faster than anyone in the industry, and we take pride in that. Our team gets pumped up to bring a new feature to the market that poeple asked for, it's the best feeling!
Where are you based?
We are based in Athens, Ohio. Ohio University has helped 530Funds along tremendously. We are all very involved in the climate that Ohio University is developing with Columbus. Our CEO is the head of an entrepreneurial organization, we are clients of the Innovation Center, we participate in every competition (and even host some), we have our offices located at the university, and our advisors are all here! We love Athens and all the entrepreneurial spirit that is within it.
What is the startup culture like where you are based?
The startup culture in Athens is awesome. Our offices are located in the Bobcat Hatchery, so we have 6 other startups working around us. In the past year we have noticed more and more people deciding to take charge of their future and start a company. The accelerator program over the summer was another great experience in which all of us entrepreneurs were working side by side. Every corner you turn and every door you open, you don't know if the next Mark Zuckerburg is standing on the other side. Who knows, it could be 530Funds pretty soon.
What problem does your startup solve?
530Funds solves many problems in the crowdfunding industry. Before we launched, individuals would have to use Google to find the best crowdfunding platform to list their project. They would then have to go to a number of blogs and sites to find out how to market their project successfully. In the future, per request of our users, we are releasing a user profile that will allow people within the industry to chat and promote their project. At this point in time, individuals have to rely on a number of social and professional networking sites to communicate with the crowd. Remember, if you have any problems that we have not yet addressed, please email us and we will get to work right away.
What is one challenge that you've overcome in the startup process?
The first challenge that we have faced in the startup process is aggregating a new exponentially growing industry, and figuring out the best way to make it searchable. It is difficult to aggregate a new and growing industry, as it's hard to discern serious players from those that will soon fade away. As for the search engine itself, we knew that the typical webcrawl-based engine wouldn't work and so we had to build a new one from scratch that was tailored to the market we were targeting.
Who are your mentors and role models?
Our biggest role models are Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Richard Branson, and Kevin Oleary. We are all passionate entrepreneurs and love a good story. We try to shape our actions off successful entrepreneurs of the past and present. This way, we can duck around the mistakes of others, just as our role models suggest.
What's one thing the world doesn't know about you or your startup?
530Funds is not just a search engine, we're the first diverse platform for everything crowdfunding. From beginning to end, you will never have to leave our site. As far as our team, we consist of two golfers (4 and a 6 handicap), a gymnast, and a member that was born in India.
Here are more startup interviews from "everywhere else"
Here are more startup stories from Ohio


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Somnium Orbis
Although quite short and not much of a game, I just could not pass up posting a quick entry highlighting this exceptional effort that won the grand jury prize for best multimedia design in Rockstar's Upload4 online digital media competition.
Somnium Orbis is "an exploration of alternative means to progress through a surreal, otherworldly scene." In other words, you must figure out how to progress through each scene of the piece. The gorgeous and mesmerizing (and only slightly disturbing) work of art was created by Nate Horstmann and Peter Schmalfeldt.
(Remember, I said it was short, so no complaining about length(!) Enjoy it for what it is. ;)
Cheers to Garret for the link. =)


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Calista Velvet Sofa
Frequently Bought Together
Did you know you can order it TODAY and have it delivered TODAY?
Do you have questions about this product? A Gallery Furniture representative can help.
Need financing? We have financing/leasing options for all types of credit! Click the button below to learn more.
More Info & Offers
Why You'll Love It
DescriptionWhen hosting your friends and family, or just enjoying a quiet evening in, you deserve the absolute best! The Calista Velvet Sofa's two tufted cushions will support you and your loved ones, while two large cushions keep your back comfortable and relaxed.For smooth upholstery, clean design, and spacious seating there is no parallel ! Gallery Furniture can deliver TODAY!
Additional Info
- Total Depth: 40.00
- Total Height: 28.00
- Total Width: 92.00
Questions & Answers
Returns & Exchanges
Gallery Furniture takes great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of our furniture. We know that buying furniture for your home is a serious financial decision, as well as an emotional investment for you and your family. That's why Gallery Furniture takes pride not only in the furniture we sell, but in our commitment to customer service.
To learn more about our return and exchange policy please click the button below.


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adelphi mou is a freelance design house based in Melbourne, Australia. We specialise in telling the unique and individual stories of our clients. Through our design consultation, we make can make your event or your business branding come to life. We take pride in our custom designed invitation suites, event paperie and collaborations with event management. We love the challenge of new company logo and stationary design. The experience at adelphi mou is far more than two dimensional, with every possibility a reality.
So if you are looking for wedding invitations, birthday or event invitations, announcements, save the date, event paperie, logo design, company branding, graphic and stationary design you have come to the right place, get in touch and we can't wait to make your story come to life.


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For most people, the flowers, grasses and vegetable plants growing in their garden have very little to do with chemicals produced in the laboratories of both universities and the chemical industry. Indeed, many worry about the dangers and pollution which might emanate from chemical production sites and consider these a polar opposite of domestic gardening for food and flowers.
For most chemists, the distinction between nature and chemistry disappears early on in their training as they marvel at the molecules produced by plants, insects and animals, often more efficiently and cleanly than they would know how to. Making these "Natural Products" in the laboratory becomes a challenge and interactions with the world around us an inspiration to become better chemists. In addition, laboratories become exciting and aesthetically pleasing places once you understand their function, as well as any possible dangers.
By bringing beautiful and interesting plants and flowers into the laboratory setting and then explaining what some of the molecules produced naturally mean to chemists, we are hoping to challenge the familiar divide between nature and laboratory. Both are, in their own ways, full of beautiful and interesting molecules and stories, and we want to show some examples and so stimulate discussion about whether there is any divide at all.
Main Contributors: Jenny Slaughter (photography, ideas, words, editing), Natalie Fey (pictures, words, editing, tea)
Banana (Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana)
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and Bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra)
Common Laburnum (Laburnum anagyroides)
Onion, Garlic and Chives (Allium spp.)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus)
Tobacco Plant (Nicotiana tabacum)


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Policies & Procedures
This page constitutes a summary of policies and procedures referred to throughout this web site.
General Terms and Conditions of Sale
Terms and Conditions of Sale
Hours of Correspondence
Local Pickup
Loading Assistance
In-Store Payments Accepted
Online Payments Accepted
Sale Day Procedures and Policies
Bid Sale Procedures and Policies
Vehicle Sale Procedures and Policies
Michigan State University Manual of Business Procedures
Section 222 - MSU Surplus Store
Section 224 - Inventory
Terms and Conditions of Sales:All items are offered for sale on an "as-is" basis with no warranty or guarantee. Where applicable, due diligence is used to ensure accurate descriptions. Surplus Store staff is available to answer questions with regards to condition and/or contents.
Hours of Correspondence:
Customer service via e-mail is available from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST, Monday - Friday. Sales completed and/or questions received after normal business hours are processed no later than the following business day. Submit all questions and correspondence via e-mail to: firstname.lastname@example.com
Buyer is responsible for paying all related shipping and handling charges unless otherwise noted in the item description. Shipping costs for online purchases are determined at checkout by zip code, and by shipping method chosen. A nominal handling charge may be included to cover the cost of packaging materials. If the buyer provides a PO Box, items are mailed through the U.S. Postal Service. Special shipping arrangements such as companies not listed, local pickup and freight services may be available upon request.
MSU Surplus Store ( www.msusurplusstore.com) ships to U.S. addresses only.
Freight shipping on larger/heavier items, palletizing, crating, shrink wrapping and banding services are available for a nominal fee. NOTE: the buyer is responsible for the arrangement and payment of all related shipping and handling charges unless otherwise noted in the item description. Contact us for a quote or with questions on freight shipping.
Local Pickup and Payment:Local pickup and payment are available at no extra charge. Local payment and/or pickup must be scheduled. Contact us to schedule this pickup.
Loading Assistance:
Loading merchandise for customers is a courtesy. Surplus Store will not be responsible for damage occurring to vehicles while moving or loading.
Due to liability, personal injury, and property damage the Surplus Store staff is unable to provide the following services for customers:
- Move or rearrange existing items in customers' vehicles.
- Remove seats from vehicles.
- Attempt to put items in vehicles that clearly will not fit.
- Tie down items to trailers, vehicle roofs, or trunks.
Surplus Store staff may not accept gratuities.
In-Store Payments Accepted:
Cash, Money Order, Cashier's Check, Visa, Master-card, American Express, Discover, and EFT. Personal and business checks with proper identification are accepted for purchases under $1000. Credit cards are acceptable for purchases up to $5,000. Make checks or money orders payable to Michigan State University.
State of Michigan 6% sales tax is added to the total unless a valid tax-exempt certificate is provided at the time of sale.
Purchase Amount
Acceptable Forms of Payment
$0- $1,000
Cash, Personal Check, Business Check, Certified Check, Money Order, Visa, Master-card, American Express, Discover
Cash, Certified Check, Money Order, Visa, Master-card, American Express, Discover
Sales Exceeding $5,000 and All Vehicle Sales
Cash, Certified Check, Money Order
Online Payments Accepted:
State of Michigan 6% sales tax is added to the total (including shipping and handling) to all items shipped to Michigan addresses unless a valid tax-exempt certificate is provided at the time of sale. Other sales tax may be applied where required by state in the ship to address.
Acceptable Forms of Payment
Visa, Master-card, American Express, and Discover. Cashier's check or money order required for purchases exceeding $5,000.
Visa, Master-card, American Express, Discover and PayPal.
Visa, Master-card, American Express, and Discover.
Sale Day Procedure and Policies:
Store Opening:
Please check our Hours and Location information for current times that we open. A representative of the Surplus Store will make a brief announcement, then release customers into the store.
Price Tags:
Unless otherwise stated, all merchandise for sale will be individually marked with a price tag. The price tag will be separate from an item only under certain conditions, such as items that are located outside the building. Please ask a representative of the MSU Surplus Store about the status of such items.
Price Tag in Hand Claims Ownership:
All general merchandise will be sold to the public on a first come, first served basis.
Merchandise Availability/Refund Policy:
All merchandise is available for MSU departmental viewing /purchase during sale hours. All public sales, unless otherwise stated, are on an "as is", "where is" basis. There are no exchanges or refunds and no guarantees regarding the condition of the merchandise. Please see General Terms and Conditions for more information.
Pickup of Purchase:
General merchandise may be picked up during sale hours. All merchandise that is sold and paid for in full must be removed within five business days unless special arrangements are made with a representative of the Surplus Store. Merchandise not removed by the end of the 5th business day is subject to resale. A copy of the sales receipt must be presented when picking up merchandise.
Running will not be tolerated in or around the store. Price tags will be revoked and the items will not be sold to individuals running in the building..
Holding Items:
General merchandise will not be reserved or held for individuals, including University personnel who are purchasing for personal use.
Suspect Purchases:
Surplus Store staff is authorized to require identification before selling merchandise to any customer.
Customer Conduct:
Surplus Store personnel are authorized to contact the MSU Police Department (MSU Police) in the event that a customer has exhibited behavior that is threatening or aggressive to other customers or representatives of the MSU Surplus Store.
Hazardous Materials:
Any equipment or property that is received or picked up by Surplus Store that is deemed hazardous, injurious or harmful to Surplus Store staff, university employees or the general public will not be released for sale. Any equipment falling into this category will be either dismantled or destroyed by the Surplus Store or an appropriate university department or agency.
It is in violation of university policy for University Owned Items to be donated outside the university without determination of zero value by a designated Surplus Store staff member. Exceptions to this policy will be considered when the academic benefit to the University outweighs the cash value (e.g. research partnerships).
No-Value Items:
The decision to offer free items will be made by a designated Surplus Store staff member. Disposing or removing any items from roll-off containers, including construction debris and/or scrap metal, is prohibited, MSU Police Ordinances #16.01 and #26.01.
Bid Sale Procedure and Policies:
Bid Posting:
All bid items will be posted online at www.msusurplusstore.com or at the Surplus Store bid kiosk counter, located in the front of the store. Bid posting will include an item description, minimum bid amount, and deadline for submitting bids.
Bid Period:
The bid period for an item is a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 20 business days.
Bid Submission:
Bids may be submitted online through the item description page on www.msusurplusstore.com. Online bids are timestamped at the time of submission. Anyone who wishes to change their bid cannot remove their original bid, but submit an additional bid. Surplus Store will honor the most recent time-stamped bid.
Item Information:
A disclaimer of warranty is provided in the General Terms and Conditions. For purposes of sale, items are being sold by Michigan State University, and originating department ownership of items will not be revealed. The number of bids and the value of bids submitted are unknown until auction period ends.
Winning Bidder Notification:
The actual opening of bids will occur as soon as possible after the closing of the bid. Winning bidder will be notified by email. A minimum of two attempts will be made to contact the high bidder. The high bid will be forfeited under the following circumstances: a) there is no response within 5 business days; b) the high bidder does not pay for their bid within 5 business days (unless special arrangements have been made with a designated Surplus Store staff member); or c) the high bidder revokes their bid. If the high bid has been forfeited for any of the above reasons, the next highest bidder will be contacted and the high bidder relinquishes their right to bid on other items for a period of 6 months. The final selling price will not be released until final payment has been received.
Bid Cancellation:
Any item may be removed from the bidding process if it is determined to be in the best interest of MSU. Listings subject to additions, deletions, and/or errors at the discretion of the MSU Surplus Store.
Additional Bid Sale Terms and Conditions to be used in conjunction with the General Terms and Conditions
Equipment Safety:
It is the Buyer's/User's responsibility to provide proper safety devices and equipment to safeguard persons from harm resulting from any particular use, operation, or set-up; and to adequately safe-guard the equipment to conform to all Federal, State, and local government safety standards.
Title and Risk of Loss:
Title to items sold shall pass from Seller to Buyer upon a) Buyer taking possession of said items, and b) upon acceptance of payment by Seller on the payment schedule indicated under Payment Terms. Buyer shall, at their own expense, remove the equipment from Seller's premises. Buyer is responsible for all costs of handling, preparation and shipping of said equipment.
Removal of Equipment and Time of Performance:
It is the sole responsibility of the Buyer to promptly and properly remove the material awarded and sold to them from the location where it is presently housed. All equipment is to be removed on a timely basis and/or as stated in the bid listing and/or as previously agreed upon with designated MSU Surplus Store staff.
Equipment held beyond the allotted time will be handled at the discretion of MSU Surplus Store.
If Buyer requires assistance with packaging equipment for shipping purposes, additional fees will apply to cover the costs of Seller preparing the equipment for shipment. Seller in no way assumes any liability for damage to equipment incurred while stored on Seller premises, during Seller packaging, or in the shipping process. Buyer must pay all handling and preparation fees prior to release of equipment to shipper.
Buyer/User agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Seller from any and all claims or liabilities caused by or arising from the equipment as sold and/or quoted. All equipment quoted is subject to prior sale. It is the purchaser's responsibility to verify specifications. Buyer further agrees to indemnify and hold harmless and defend Seller, Seller's agents, and their employees, agents and representatives from all claims, losses, liabilities and expenses including, but not limited to, all attorney fees arising out of bodily injury, death or damage to property occurring in connection with any act or omission (negligent or otherwise) of Buyer, their agents, employees, representatives, or subcontractors. Buyer agrees to sign the MSU Surplus Complete Release, Waiver and Indemnity Agreement form.
Assumption of Risk:
Buyer shall specifically and distinctly assume all risk of damage to or destruction of property or bodily injury, sickness, or disease (including death resulting at any time there from) of use or employed on or in connection with the removal of said items from Seller facilities; resulting from any action, omission, or operation under this Sales Agreement. The Buyer will also assume risk of damage to or destruction of property or bodily injury, sickness, or disease (including death resulting at any time there from) of persons, wherever located, resulting from any action, omission, or operation under this Sales Agreement.
Buyer Damage to MSU Property:
Without regard to any other section of the Agreement, Buyer shall be responsible for the costs to return to as was condition from any damage caused to the building, grounds, or other equipment and furnishings caused in whole or part by Buyer's employees, agents and representatives while performing activities arising under this Sales Agreement. Buyer shall immediately report in writing the occurrence of any damage to the MSU Surplus Representative responsible for the sale of said items.
Release of Liability:
Buyer agrees to sign the MSU Surplus Complete Release of Liability form prior to the onset of removal of the equipment from Seller facilities if applicable.
Campus Security and Entry to Non-Public Locations in Facilities (applies when removing equipment from Seller Premises):
All Buyer agents, employees and representatives are to be accompanied by an authorized MSU escort whenever the removal of equipment requires entry to a non-public area of an MSU facility. Buyer agrees that it will not assign any employee to perform work in MSU facilities without first making inquiry of each employee as to their criminal record. No employee with a criminal record will be assigned to perform work in an MSU facility. For purposes of this section, criminal record shall not include a) any arrest or detention not resulting in criminal conviction, b) a conviction for minor traffic violations, affray or disturbance of the peace, or c) any misdemeanor conviction more than five years after the conviction or the employee's release from detention, whichever is later, unless the employee has been convicted of any other offense within five years of the date of inquiry.
Insurances (applies when removing equipment from Seller Premises) :
Buyer agrees to maintain comprehensive general liability insurance, including contractual liability, with limits not less than $1 million per occurrence; automobile liability for owned, non-owned and hired vehicles with a combined single limit not less than $5 million per occurrence; Employers Liability and Workers' Compensation to statutory limits as required by the State of Michigan. Buyer agrees to have the Board of Trustees of MSU added as additional insured's with respect to general liability and provide MSU with 30 days prior written notice of any material changes in the above insurance. Buyer shall provide Michigan State University with a certificate of the above insurance coverages and amounts upon execution of this Sales Agreement. All insurance policies will be issued by companies authorized to do business in the State of Michigan.
Seller reserves the right to reject any subcontractor. The Buyer will be fully responsible for acts and omissions of all subcontractors, and other persons performing any part of the work for the Buyer.
Vehicle Sale Procedure and Policies:
Vehicle Posting:
All vehicles will be posted at msusurplusstore.com. Postings will include a brief description and sale price. New vehicles and pricing changes will become available Tuesdays at 7:45 a.m.
Vehicle Pricing:
Initial vehicle pricing is based on NADA trade-in and loan values and/or past sold vehicle history. Prices are non-negotiable. In the event there is more than one interested party in a new or marked down vehicle available on Tuesday at 7:45 a.m., there will be a verbal auction between said parties.
Vehicles may be placed on hold for 24 hours. Only one vehicle per customer may be placed on hold. Holds may not be placed on vehicles until they are available for public purchase. Vehicles cannot be placed on hold over the phone until 8:00am the day they become available.
Test Drives and Inspections:
Vehicles may be test driven Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Tuesday and Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Vehicles on hold may not be test driven by another party until the hold has expired. Test drives are limited to 15 minutes and a specific route; a representative from the Surplus Store must accompany drivers. A valid Michigan driver's license must be presented. Some vehicles may be deemed unsafe for test drive as determined by a designated Surplus Store staff member.
Vehicle Condition:
A disclaimer of warranty is provided in the General Terms and Conditions. For purposes of sale, vehicles are being sold by Michigan State University and originating department ownership will not be revealed. Mechanic inspections must occur at the Surplus Store facility.
Vehicle Purchasing:
Vehicles are sold on a first come, first served basis with respect to holds as described above. In the event of mutual interest at the same time, vehicles will be sold through verbal auction.
Sale Cancellation:
Any vehicle may be removed from the sale process if it is determined to be in the best interest of MSU.
Additional Vehicle Sale Terms and Conditions:
Additional Vehicle Sale Terms and Conditions to be used in conjunction with the General Terms and Conditions:
All vehicles must be removed from MSU property within 24 hours of sale completion. Failure to re-move the vehicle will result in daily storage charges. All storage charges must be paid in full prior to removal of sold vehicle.
At the time of completion of the Vehicle Sale, Buyer will be provided with the Buyer's Guide document for the specific vehicle, a generic copy of this form is available in PDF version at the following link: Buyer's Guide.
Under no circumstances does the Surplus Store warrant sale vehicles. Buyer is responsible for all costs of all repairs and maintenance the vehicle requires. MSU assumes no responsibility for any repairs regardless of any oral statements made about the vehicle.
By virtue of payment, Buyer acknowledges that they have been provided the opportunity, prior to completion of the Vehicle Sale, to have a pre-purchase inspection of the vehicle by a mechanic of Buyer's choice on the MSU property where the vehicle is housed.
Buyer acknowledges that prior to completion of the Vehicle Sale, and following completion and signature of the Vehicle Test Drive Agreement, Buyer has the option to test drive the vehicle. Buyer may only test drive the vehicle if Buyer is able to provide proof of a valid State of Michigan driver's license.