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With forty years of groundbreaking and captivating filmmaking to her name, it is only recently that Ericka Beckman has begun to emerge from the shadow of her better-known and mostly male contemporaries. Beckman has been a stand-out from the art world's mainstream, ever since her early work of the 1980s and 1990s. It feels about time that the wider public should discover her idiosyncratic Super-8 and 16mm performative films, focusing on the broad topic of 'game and play'.
"Sometimes you just don't know how to do it, sometimes you just don't know how to do it, sometimes you just don't know how to do it" – a cheerleader-like song accompanies a sports team dressed in boyish uniforms, competing in a surreal game. The words are lines from a song that features in "You the better", a film by Ericka Beckman, and can be read as a bottom line of sorts to the film. The game the team is playing is a strange mixture of various ball games and casino gambling. The players strategise, fight and, together, do everything they can to beat "the House". Even the audience plays a role in the game, acting as the bettor. All is colourful, ludic, futile and cruel; winning is impossible. The action of the film builds gradually to the question: If this is an allegory for life in today's corporate world–are we the players or have we been played?
When the film was released in 1983 the response was muted, to say the least. There were a smattering of positive reviews, but it didn't quite fit into the prescribed categories of either the art world or experimental film world at the time. Then, when Beckman screened "You the better" at the New York Film Festival, it brought the house down. A similar thing occurred with "Hiatus", a film about a young woman slipping into the persona of her online identity, named WANDA, and trying to create her own space within a virtual reality. WANDA must fight Player33, a greasy, unpleasant cyber-cowboy from Houston, who wants to occupy WANDA's animated garden. "Hiatus" was a flop at the Rotterdam Film Festival where it was screened in 1999, the year of its release, although in the past few years is has been exhibited and garnered acclaim.
Born in 1951 in Hempstead, New York, Ericka Beckman began her career as a visual artist, moving into experimental filmmaking while studying at CalArts in the 1970s. She was an active member of the so-called "Pictures Generation", collaborating with artists like Mike Kelley, Matt Mullican, Tony Oursler, Ashley Bickerton and James Welling, however her work remained unappreciated for years, known only by a handful of insiders.
To watch these two films today—and this applies also to other intriguing examples like the "Super 8 trilogy" in the 1970s, revolving around the theories of Jean Piaget about playing and learning or "Cinderella" from 1986, a quirky, feminist musical version of the cheesy fairy tale in which Cinderella is trapped in the interface of a game and learns to escape—means to dive into an artificial world that is both futuristic and retro. The former, because Beckman integrated concepts like interactivity and virtual reality long before they became mainstream, and the latter due to the DIY look and feel of her handmade props and stop-motion animations. Beckman's films are highly allegorical, alluding to sociocultural and political questions, commenting on sexism and capitalism and at the same time retaining their playfulness with loud colours and strong rhythms.
The thematic focus of Beckman's work builds upon ideas of gaming, play and the rules one must follow in order to win. Gaming is not only the subject matter but also acts as a structural device for many of the films. "Most of the people of my generation at that particular point in time went to Hollywood to become screenwriters," she explains. "But I wanted to keep working as an artist and didn't want to go into narrative feature at all, so I chose game."
Beckman's work has been under-exhibited and under-screened for years however, eventually, in the 2010s this began to change. In 2013, her work was presented during a two day Image Games screening at Tate Modern in London, and in Kunsthalle Bern and Centre Pompidou. In 2014 she had a show at MOCA, L.A., swiftly followed by a whole host of gallery and institutional shows in both the US and Europe and culminating in her first solo exhibition at the Secession Building in Vienna. Maybe now, the opening line of "You the better", an ironical homage to the power of faith, has finally come true: "If things could change, it could only change for the better." In the meantime, Beckman has never ceased to explore her field of interest, nor abandoned her distinctive visual language.
You will continue shooting on your new film tomorrow. What is it about?
I just started shooting a couple of weeks ago. It's a game film, based on economics and research I did about the board game Monopoly. Originally, Monopoly was a socialist game invented by a woman in the 1900s and played by utopian communities and colleges in the US. Eventually it was co-opted after the collapse of the banking structure in the late 1920s by a man who turned it into Monopoly. I am using the source of Monopoly as the basis of my film. It is a performance film; it has a lot of animation in it, and it will be a multi-screen piece.
Are you still working as you always did? Meaning analog, on 16 mm film, using techniques like stop-motion and real props made by yourself…
Yes and no. A lot has changed. I am still working on 16 mm. I bought a bunch of film from my favourite company, Fuji, before they went out of business and I am trying to use up all that stock. I have an animator working for me who works solely in 16 mm. What is different is that I am using a lot of 3D printing for the fabrication as opposed to doing the props by hand and I am using robotic control for my animation. Most of the editing, compositing and output will be digital, but initially the process is still very performative, very hands-on and very labour intensive. I don't make things sitting in front of a computer screen. I make them in a space.
"You have to get it right, and you have to live with it. I do a lot of experimentation that involves chance. I accept that, I enjoy it and I like to work with it."
Why is what? I would imagine that it's like handwriting is for me: it gives you more time to reflect…
Exactly. That is what I tell a lot of people, like my students, when I teach them on 16mm. The main thing is the time of reflection, the formal staging process. And you have one chance at doing it. You have to get it right, and you have to live with it. I do a lot of experimentation that involves chance. I accept that, I enjoy it and I like to work with it. Eventually, very soon, I will probably shoot digital, but I will be looking for a way to keep working with the same expectation that I only have one shot at it. I don't like the idea that everything is re-workable and never finished.
You first started as a visual artist but changed your focus to filmmaking during your time at CalArts. How did this come about?
I went to CalArts because I was interested in music and animation. I wanted to go to a place where a lot of people were classically trained in both animation and music, but had a very experimental approach and were interested in investigating alternative forms of animation and music. I was a visual artist, a painter and the first critique I got there was from a feminist artist, Miriam Schapiro. She came into my studio the very first week, looked at my paintings and just said to me: 'You can't do this, you are a woman. It's too beautiful. You can't make beautiful art.' Then she walked out.
How did you react?
I just said to myself: 'Okay, I am not going to paint anymore. I am going to devote myself to making films'. It was very straight forward. The situation at CalArts was very special to me because I worked closely with the music department. My relationship with music had begun before anything else, before I ever started performing in front of the camera. My early films were performance films in which I was doing very abstract things with my body; creating rhythm structures just with my body, in a kind of minimal dance. Early on, I was developing a language that was based on performance, gesture and music.
What or who were your influences back then?
I was not interested in film culture and movies. And even to this day, I am not the best moviegoer. Back then, my major influences were Yvonne Rainer and Vito Acconci. I actually worked with both of them. My influences were people that I worked with. Dan Graham for example. Other important influences were Jack Goldstein, Julia Heyward and Laurie Anderson. Regarding experimental films, I loved the work of Owen Land, who was then known as George Landow. I also have to mention the composers Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, my contemporaries. And of course, experimental theatre. I was very influenced by Mabou Mines and Robert Wilson.
"Film allows me the freedom to combine two unrelated temporal events in the same frame, to really think about what is real and what isn't and how to make sense of cause and effect."
I have read in past interviews that you consider film to be a performance medium – could you explain this a bit more?
It goes back to how I started using film a long time ago. For me, filmed performance means using the recording medium of film as a temporal container. I wanted to experiment with what temporality truly is. Performance means movement and gesture and meaning. I wanted to break things down into very simple units that could all be interchangeable. A gesture could be interchanged with a sound, a graphic, an image or text. For me, the film camera itself became an editing tool, with which to bring together different temporal events. The key to my work was superimposition. I don't think I would ever have done a film if I hadn't had a camera that allowed me to do multiple exposures. Film allows me the freedom to combine two unrelated temporal events in the same frame, to really think about what is real and what isn't and how to make sense of cause and effect.
How do you find ideas for your films?
I think there is a kind of logical progression in my work from my first investigations and experiments all the way up until now. Everything is based on this exploration of work and play. I've always been interested in industry, robotics and economy. The film I'm working on right now is dealing with economics. Prior to that, Cinderella had industrial production in it. Play started with these very simple gestures on film, making a play space, then gaming, boy's games, girl's games, multiplayer online games, virtual reality.
There is a progression going on, and I am always involved in some kind of research. I collect a lot of material and when something eventually crystallises, it comes from all these different directions. The film itself has to involve an original and dynamic visual scheme, as well as having political and social content that I feel is important to express at the time.
Your early films are already characterised by your now characteristic bright colours, flamboyant costumes and simple shades in front of a black background. How did you develop this unique visual language?
I was very interested in simplicity, symbols and signs. I grew up on the advertising of early television and I was fascinated by its directness and how easily you could form your own sign language. I looked at all the components that made something work as advertising or games and I developed my own. Everything had to be as simple as possible, easily and quickly readable so that I could combine things, build more complex relationships and bring new ideas to these simple elements.
"A child will invent something and make it a rule. As we progress to adulthood, we realise that we are social bodies and that these rules end up being rituals that make the game efficient or make competition efficient."
I wanted to use very complex ideas, but I did not want to talk about them. I didn't want to use narrative structure or autobiographical sources and structures. I just wanted to have the ability to communicate on a very clear simple level, something much more complex.
Especially your Super 8 trilogy is based on the work of Jean Piaget, on his theories of learning and of games. How did you get interested in him and what kept you fascinated?
The game part evolved right out of Piaget. I was making a film and was working with the artist James Nares, who was performing in my film. He thought that the way I talked about my film was very similar to the concepts of Piaget, so I started reading and it really did take over my production for many years. But I read Piaget's books more as poetry than as academic studies. What I was fascinated by was his logic—how he took a theory and tested it on children in observational studies and then devised his ideas, based on what he saw.
I learned a lot from his books and they gave me the confidence to build my own logical structures. I envisioned the little experiments he had done with kids but as full-scale performances with props, and tested out his theories through my work. The Super 8 trilogy are directly tied to his books and are all about symbol formation, rule formation, identity and language formation, play, memory and symbol. After I finished the trilogy, I was confident. This was the work that gave me my confidence, and you need confidence as an artist.
In the Super 8 trilogy there is, for example, "Broken Rule", starring Mike Kelley as the central character. What kind of rules is he breaking?
"Broken Rule" came out of a question, which is posed at the end of the film in a little song: 'If everybody does it, will it be a real rule or not?' It goes back to this division between children and adults in understanding what a rule is. When children play—I remember this from my own childhood—they repeat rituals, doing things over and over again until they take on the character of a rule within the repertoire of the gameplay. That is an invention. A child will invent something and make it a rule. As we progress to adulthood, we realise that we are social bodies and that these rules end up being rituals that make the game efficient or make competition efficient.
"The whole film sort of evolved around a disclosure of the mechanics of the game itself. Anyway—when the film came out nobody understood one bit. The audience hated it. They could not understand this film. But now they do."
For me, "Broken Rule" was really about trying to understand the difference between a rule that forms in one's imagination and a social rule. Kelley was a very good friend of mine back then, and I chose him not only because he is a great performer but because he also represented to me the character that I wanted—someone who tried but could not fit in. Kelley got what I was trying to do right away and we designed the ending together, which was that he broke apart, got lost in his own space and ended up creating a meaningful moment for himself, while everybody else stayed on course with what they were being told to do.
"You the better", a film you shot in 1983, is intriguing in another way, as it plays with the idea of interactivity long before interactive video games were even invented. Now the situation has changed. Earlier today I had a conversation with a Mexican curator about how we are surrounded by interactivity through all our everyday devices, so it has become boring nowadays.
You see how things change and are affected by what is going on culturally and what we are sensitised and desensitised to. It is the same for me: I am no longer interested in interactivity either.
How did you approach the concept of interactivity back then, for "You the better"?
The interactivity part came a little bit later. The film itself was really about this collision of chance and determinism. There were a lot of philosophers that believed that everything in the universe was predetermined and at the same time you would have this great belief in chance. I was looking at those two things from a kind of philosophical point of view, and then I fell into gambling. The gambling scene seemed to occupy both of them. There was a lot of faith in chance, but also probability and even determinism. I got very involved in going to the casinos and watching people play and reading about gambling history, processes and math.
Eventually, I came across the game in California, in the desert called Jai Alai. My ideas were nailed at that point. It was a casino game in the middle of nowhere. There were these Mexican male players playing this high-velocity sport and then cowboys, middle-class white men and women, who were betting on them. This was a form of sport and gambling made into one. I decided to make the participant in the film the audience, so there would be this triangulated relationship between the performers and the bettor and this off-screen character called the House. The whole film sort of evolved around a disclosure of the mechanics of the game itself. Anyway—when the film came out nobody understood one bit. The audience hated it. They could not understand this film. But now they do.
Do you think about the audience when you are working on a film?
At some point that is all I am thinking about. I really do care about the experience of it. I want it to be playful and I want it to be enjoyable. It is very important, but the only way to get to that is to have things worked out ahead of time.
Your film, "Cinderella", from 1986 is indeed very playful. It is a unique adaption of the eponymous fairy tale of the Brüder Grimm, which for ages seemed to be Hollywood's favourite story from the collection…
It is so disgusting.
So, how and why did you get the idea to make another film about it?
Two things were going on. One was that I was very interested in industry at the time. I looked at the history of industrial production and I went from the very beginning—the first thing that was produced in the forge, to the very end. At the time of making 'Cinderella', it was robotics in the car industry. I actually did shoot robotics. At the same time, I wanted to make a game for a girl. I work on a lot of things simultaneously in these periods between productions. So I did research into industrial production, as well as fairy tales. I took a Jungian fairy tale course with a student of Marie-Louise von Franz, looking for a story to work with.
I needed a story that had a kind of tradition and exploration, that would allow me to move through time, as a parallel to industrial production. I was keen to focus on finding a story about a woman, but I was also interested in stories that had depth. I was reading a book called "A Morphology of a Folk Tale", by Wladimir Propp who structured all these fairy tales into basic narrative motifs and symbols and looked at how stories in the culture would change over time. I came up with 'Cinderella' through an anthology of Cinderella stories put together by a woman in New York, and through an anthropology book called "Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella". I became fascinated because there is an underbelly to the story that is not at all what we live with as the Cinderella story of Hollywood.
What is it instead?
Most of the stories are about girls having to survive in the workplace without a father. It is a story transmitted from woman to woman, mother to daughter or caretaker to girl. The business of the prince and the shoe come in crazy late. There are many ways the Cinderella film could have evolved into something else but I was keenly interested in game; I wanted to do a feminist retelling of the Cinderella story and also to get to the core idea of what a mass-produced copy carries. I was very interested in these early ideas, like the Baudelairian ones about copy versus the original. It was motivated by a kind of feminist energy, but really I was interested in this idea: What is original, what is a false copy of an ideal, what is a decoy, what is a false image? Eventually, what it comes down to is this: A girl finally being able to believe in her own narrative.
In "Cinderella", and also "Hiatus" from 1999, a film that shows a woman diving into the virtual reality of a video game, you sort of anticipate the discussions brought up by Anita Sarkeesian in 2013 about the stereotyped "Damsel in Distress" in games. Isn't it bitter how little has changed in all these years?
I didn't follow that discussion. I came upon it much later when somebody else told me to look into it. I got involved in virtual reality research in 1990 by going to California to NASA Ames. It was the very beginnings of virtual reality. Two things were going on at that time: There was a strong scientific community that was developing medical equipment and robotic mining equipment using virtual tools managed by people in different locations. It was almost entirely medical and military research.
"My interest was to get beyond what existed at that particular time. I was trying to think about how a girl could design her own space for herself and create a world."
At the other side you had another, very optimistic, badge of people in the Bay Area. They were involved in a softer, more experimental side of virtual reality. With these people, I got involved. I began to think about how you could use dance and performance and gesture in virtual space to build things that would be sort of shared realities. I was interested in these imaginary, playful spaces and then, for one reason or another, science took over and this kind of optimism and play disappeared. The film was a result of this takeover—the idea that something very imaginary, private and personal would be co-opted and used by a corporate identity. The film was a response to that early period.
Before VR became popular in games and entertainment…
I had a lot of friends who were working in the new technology, and I did some research into game companies in LA. I went to Disney, I went to the Gameboy/Gamegirl companies. I was looking at people that were designing games for girls.
What kind of games did they design for girls?
GameGirl and Zelda. But it's still the same thing: Damsel in Distress. Girl as hero, Girl surviving torture or tricky situations. My interest was to get beyond what existed at that particular time. I was trying to think about how a girl could design her own space for herself and create a world. In the film "Hiatus", that is the garden and the Indian culture. The film made more sense later on when I returned to it and made the double screen version. As a single screen narrative it became too much about the competition of the girl and revenge. The double screen brought out all the animation and the development of her game world and gameplay.
Many of your films, and "Hiatus" is one of them, have had a bigger response from the audience just recently, years after they came out—why is that? Do you have an explanation for it?
I really don't know. This is always amazing. I had some studio assistants when I was making a documentary in 2008, about the music scene in Lower Manhattan during the 70s, when I came here. They were graduate students helping me. We were transferring a lot of Super 8 films to digital in my studio, and I just said: 'Why don't you look at some of this early work that I did and tell me what you think.' They responded so positively! Other people did the same thing and eventually, I broke through.
There was a long period where my work was not understood. I think culture just caught up. It is very simple. In the 1990s the art world started accepting media more and my friends of the time, like Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler, were saying: 'Do something about it, do something about it.' By that point, I had developed such thick skin because nobody understood what I was doing. I just pursued and pursued my own work until, finally, some younger people came around, saw the stuff and started to get very active with it.
Originally published in the SS17 Cinema Issue | Out now worldwide in newsstands.


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Singapore's Laws From A Bygone Era
Singapore has gained a fearsome reputation as a "fine" city. It's rather commonplace to hear our ang moh friends expressing shock at the often-misunderstood chewing gum "ban".
While our island does indeed have a lengthy fine sheet, we decided to highlight 5 "crimes" that (we feel) shouldn't even be penalised in the first place.
1. No Cats In HDB — Penalty: Fine Of Up To $4,000
If you are residing in a Housing Board flat, you are technically forbidden from owning a cat.
According to the HDB, cats are "generally difficult to contain within the flat, and when allowed to roam indiscriminately, they tend to shed fur and defecate or urinate in public areas".
The "caterwauling" sounds produced are also cited as one of the reasons for the ban.
"But my neighbors have cats! Why are they not arrested?" you might be wondering.
While the law has been in place since 1989, it's kinda not really enforced strictly — until somebody complains.
We're reminded of it only when a case crops up now then of cat owners who are sent letters from the HDB and forced to give up their cats due to complaints.
Why we think it should be abolished:
Cat ownership is already widespread in Singapore. Legalising it makes it easier to regulate and take action against errant owners without the need to deploy a blanket ban.
Furthermore, the HDB allows 62 breeds of dogs in the flats, and I'm pretty sure they make more noise than their feline counterparts. They shed their fur and defecate in public too.
If both sets of owners are equally responsible in cleaning up the aftermath, it reeks of double standards to penalise one of them.
For more, read our story on the reasons why cats should be allowed in HDB flats, just like dogs.
2. No Business At MRT Stations — Penalty: Fine Of Up To $2,000
In 2009, it was reported that a man was issued a warning by SMRT staff after passing a basket of Chinese New Year pastries to his buyers across the fare gate.
Today has also reported on the growing numbers of people collecting items that they have bought online at MRT stations.
Just recently, Twitter user Xavier Lur noted that SBS Transit had placed a sign outside the Beauty World MRT Station, cautioning commuters from conducting business transactions.
Under the Rapid Transit Systems Regulations, exchanging goods across the "border" is strictly prohibited.
This is, without a shadow of doubt, the most ridiculous and unnecessary rule featured in this article.
Why we think it should be abolished:
Okay, let's walk through this "rule", which apparently has been in place for "decades".
So, one is not allowed to "transfer any article or goods between the paid area and unpaid area".
However, if you tap your Ez-Link card, exit via the gantry and walk to the same exact spot where you were going to transfer your goods to your buyer, it's perfectly legal.
We honestly fail to see how this would "(discourage) loitering in (MRT stations, especially those) with high passenger flow", or how it will help lower security risks. By banning the exchange of goods between the "border", buyers and sellers are just going to occupy other parts of the MRT station, given the popularity of these locations to meet up with people.
Besides, isn't it interesting how the MRT operator seems fine with insurance and credit card agents soliciting new customers on their premises?
3. You Can't Attempt Suicide — Penalty: Jail Of Up To 12 Months + Fine
Attempted suicide is a punishable offence on our island, according to Chapter 16, Section 309 of the penal code.
However, it is rare for the person who attempted suicide to be "charged or for the prescribed sentence to be carried out", according to a report by The New Paper. The article also noted that the case against the accused would usually be withdrawn after the he/she had reached a "stable state".
An exception was made for Kathleen Seah Pei Yi in 2012. The then 14-year-old was reported to the police by her own father for attempting to take her own life a whopping 13 times.
Why we think it should be abolished:
Singapore is one of only 35 independent countries in the world to criminalise suicide, according to a 2014 World Health Organisation (WHO) study.
Although imposing, on paper, a penalty for attempted suicide serves as a deterrent for would-be "offenders", treating those who are contemplating killing themselves as criminals will only add to their anxiety and further messes up their psyche.
Indeed, the WHO has also claimed that suicide rates usually decline after decriminalisation.
Whether one agrees that suicide is cowardly and a selfish act or not, there's no denying that the stress faced by some on this fast-paced island can drive them to their wits' end. The priority should then be to uncover the reasons that are pressing some of these troubled folks to contemplate taking their own lives.
It would only be foolish to provoke them with prosecution when they are struggling to find a reason to live, and coupled with the ineffective "deterrent" which almost never gets used, we'll be better off eradicating this farcical and unnecessary law that adds to the stigma and trouble the depressed faces.
4. Don't Leave Your Car's Air-Con Running While Stationary — Penalty: Fine Of Up To $5,000
According to a survey of 50 motorists conducted by The Straits Times, "only around half were aware that it is illegal to leave an engine idling".
The law was drafted to reduce unnecessary carbon emissions, and second-time offenders could be fined $100 for flouting the rules. So, theoretically, you are prohibited from resting in your car, waiting for your children at school, or loading and unloading goods from your vehicles while your engine is still running.
Don't think that this won't happen to you — in the first three months of 2016 alone, 1,489 had the unfortunate pleasure of being slapped with a fine for leaving their engines running.
If you get caught and refuse to pay, you could be forced by the court to pay an extra $5,000.
Why we think it should be abolished:
Sounds draconian?
While the intention of this particular law is undoubtedly good, the consequences have clearly not been thought out well.
Most motorists who would originally be waiting to pick their friends or family up would simply drive around in circles instead to avoid flouting the law, causing traffic congestion and surprise surprise, an increase in carbon emissions.
That seems awfully counterproductive to the Environmental Protection and Management (Vehicular Emissions) Regulations' intention of protecting the environment.
Honestly, who is going to be sitting inside their cars without any air-conditioning under the sweltering Singapore heat?
Besides, it'll be hard to convince motorists to change their long-standing habits as well, considering the low risk of getting caught.
The resources required and the cost to educate the public should be distributed elsewhere, as both the short-term and long-term benefits of this law are negligible.
5. No Gay Sex Between Men — Penalty: Jail Of Up To 24 Months
Perhaps the most controversial inclusion in this list, this particular law, simply referred to as "377A" by most Singaporeans these days, criminalises sex between males.
It does not apply to gay sex between two or more females.
Many critics have criticised it not only for its discriminatory nature, but also for its vagueness in interpretation:
Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years.
There have been several constitutional challenges to abolish the draconian law revolving around the infamous Tan Eng Hong incident — he was charged for engaging in oral sex in the privacy of a restroom cubicle — but the presiding judges ruled against the proposed changes, claiming that any amendments would have to come from Parliament.
There are several people who convene at Hong Lim Park every year who will disagree:
Why we think it should be removed:
It's 2017.
Truly A Fine city
While getting fined for not flushing the toilets or annoying people with your terrible instrumental skills is perfectly understandable, we feel that the 5 laws mentioned above are highly flawed and should be abolished.
Singapore is often touted as a first-world country, but its laws can be rather archaic at times. In order for our society to progress, we should learn to be more understanding, compassionate and tolerant towards people who don't have the same beliefs as you, rather than implementing blanket bans to quickly bury any trivial problems.
Life in Singapore is stressful enough, and we could all use some empathy and common sense, rather than harsh, unnecessary punishments for petty crimes that don't harm any right-minded people.
Featured image from Twitter

subset: commoncrawl


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I do not like to post negative . I do not enjoy whining, which are what lots forums are about, I may give in this time.
What is it with the dealerships not installing non spyder items.. I have been to 2 dealers now, the first was horrible, the second not as much. Both 5 to 6 weeks out for any warrenty item. Tires Kendra only, sway bar.. no, hand brake.. no... highway pegs ... no. They would do Gps Zumo mount , need 4 hours and if needed to work off key, possibly may need to go into the wiring harness, lmao on that one. SO far very disorganize dealership support. So far not impressed with my new 2018 rt because of this.


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I get the following exception when I try to create an instance of Image:
UnrecognizedPixelMap ` ¶BGR' @ error/pixel.c/ImportImagePixels/3713"
Code: Select all
try {
Image mgk(iplImage->width, iplImage->height, "BGR", CharPixel, (char*)iplImage->imageData );
return mgk;
} catch (Error e) {
cout << e.what() << endl;
I'm using Windows 7 with MSVC2010. Do I have to change any settings withi MSVC?
I already tried c_str() and also string


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27 years and running!!!!!!!!!!
The Springboro Haunted Hayride and Black Bog of Lebanon, OH - one of the legendary haunts of the Miami Valley - we've been visiting this attraction annually for over a decade now, and it never fails to impress...
The Haunted hayride encompasses a very traditional Halloween feel to it, while the Black Bog is definitely for those of more fear-inducing tastes.
The attraction is situated on Bull Run Farms and run by Haunting Master Bill Danishek, and makes the most of it's locale, which includes snack bars, generous amounts of parking and even a bit of BMX action.
I'm not going to say too much aside from - GO THERE! Bring the family - none of you will return home disappointed...if you return at all....
Did I mention their mascot "Buttercup"...???
Buttercup evolved from one of our carpenters that worked for us just after Bill and Jen inherited the farm. He was messing around after we started running one night. He went down in the makeup room and found the bits and pieced of what is now the Buttercup persona.
Now the name came about because Buttercup was doing his thing and there was a little girl who was pretty upset about how he looked!
Jerry was standing there and looked at the little girl and said:
"How can you be afraid of anyone with the name of Buttercup?"
...and so the whole character came to life.
Special thank to this guy -Marc Meader - and Bill for their generous hospitality.
The 2014 season saw my wife and I take our first run at haunt acting here at the Hayride/Black Bog - it was and absolute blast!
Take note of the various shots of my wife Lisa and I and the evolution of our make up over the season by the ENORMOUSLY talented crew out there - the results are fantastic!
After work at our place, and, *yes*, I am as whooped as I look...
Some Behind-the-Scenes glimpses....
The place takes an altogether different vibe after sunset....
The last weekend we worked, our Godkids, Bonnie and Shaun, came for a visit and decided to pitch in with us....
The make-up crew, in action...
Just a little video piece of us clowning about...
....and, surprise of all surprises, we won and award from the Scare Factor, a major Ohio haunt review website!
NEVER underestimate what you can accomplish!
The 2014 season saw Lisa and I update our characters a bit, add some Brides to our arsenal....plus we received several awards and Honorable mentions...take a look behind the scenes with us as well...
And now for something special....a little testimonial from some long-term members of the troupe, Joni and Marc....
"So our 1st year....
The story I remember is, my cousins convinced my dad he could do what BonnyBrook was doing at the time. He had about 4 wagons and and tractors. The 1st trail was just down over the hill all the way to where the voodoo shack is now and back. Our crew was all family and neighbors. It worked! We had about 500 people the 1st year! The next year we increased the trail and the people kept coming! We were still just family and friends/neighbors. We needed to hire help soon after that, and the trail kept getting a little longer.
Today the trail is at it's longest it has ever been! Two of the longest running characters are the Headless Horseman and the Combine. The Headless Horseman evolved from a friend of my fathers who had a horse and he volunteered to ride his horse in the Headless Horseman's costume along the road in front of the farm to attract attention! This of course changed over time and became an integral and infamous part of our haunt. As is the combine.
My father added the Dungeon about 5 or 6 years into it. This was a walk through under the concession barn for those of our loyal fans who will remember! We had to assist many a patron out of there due to claustrophobia! It was epic! My father decided to retire and we found our next victims in the case of the Danisheks! Bill and Jen then became the trustees of this crazy place and loo and behold took to it like a vampire to blood!! The Dungeon was closed due to fire code changes and replaced by THE BOG.
We encourage our actors to create their own characters, build their own scenes and own those scenes.
Become that character! We start in February on ideas to improve scenes, remove scenes that aren't working. Constantly building on what works.
We are excited to be working with MAUL for the past couple of years to build better characters and improve our over all retention of our monsters.
We are very lucky to have a high rate of returning monsters every year and every year our monsters just keep getting better. Some have been with the Hayride and Bog for over 10 years.
We take our customer engagement seriously using FB and twitter, all feed back is read and taken seriously.
We have an awesome tech crew for electrical and computer generated excitement. We build from scratch and are constantly improving on our own ideas to make our customers visit with us as scary as possible. We have the only custom fogging system built by our tech team and wagons with costume sound on them instead of on the trail. This is an awesome improvement we were able to accomplish last year. This allows us to match the music to the scene.
We are family owned and operated and we are family oriented in our haunt in both our monsters and to give families a spooky night out on a great fall night in the country! What could be better than having the piss scared out of you on a full moon Saturday night???"
Speaking of past remembrances, special thanks to Marc Meader for allowing me to publish these photos form the Hayride's first year in 1989.....
2016 was yet another wild and wooley success of a year for us all...
Our 2016 WALKING DEAD themed Halloween party with a lot of the staff....
2016 marked Bill and Jenn Danishek stepping down as owners of the attraction - but, fear not, it has passed into capable hands, same name, same ideals, new location....
Bill wrote a touching letter to all of us...I felt it appropriate to print it here...
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us:
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven
For Jennifer and I, this season is coming to an end.
We moved to the farm in 2002 to change the way we were raising our children. Teaching them the value of hard work and to persevere through adversities, to raise them in an environment that would prepare them for life. Now our boys have turned into great young men, our daughter into a strong women. We feel its time to look at the next season of our life. The reality that I am no longer 33 hit me pretty hard this year, although I still love climbing trees to hang lights, it doesn't come without consequences.
We have been blessed with the best crew I have had the pleasure working with
• To the creative team who's mission is to deliver the perfect setting
• To the build team for the hundreds of thousand screws driven into pressure treated lumber
• To the make up team for getting all ghouls and ghost deployed under pressure
• To the Safety team for handling all that comes at you,
(although my favorite nights are the one's you got to sit quietly and do nothing)
(although my favorite nights are the one's you got to sit quietly and do nothing)
• To the drivers who safely navigated countless wagons though the dark
• To the thousands who worked out here over the last 15 years entertaining and providing an
excellent experience
excellent experience
• To my parents, family and friends for selflessly serving in whatever capacity needed.
You had no idea how important Halloween would become in your lives
You had no idea how important Halloween would become in your lives
And finally to all the folks who made the Springboro Haunted Hayride and Black Bog a fall family tradition
We say, Thank you!
We truly value all the friendships built over the years, some will last a lifetime.
We are so thankful you have been part of our crazy extended family.
We are so thankful you have been part of our crazy extended family.
Although this will be the last season, we want to make sure we remember it
as our BEST season!
as our BEST season!
With that being said, next weekend will be the last time you will hear us say...
"last wagon over the hill"–
Much love and respect to Bill and Jenn after 27 years of caring for us all....


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Dr. Jeffery Kocsis
Scientific Adviser
Dr. Jeff Kocsis (Yale University) has shown that mesenchymal stem cells derived from adult human bone marrow when transplanted into experimental demyelinating lesions, produce a significant improvement in functional outcome. They do this by stimulating new myelin formation. Research Interests: Transplantation-based approaches toward restoration and preservation of function in the injured central nervous system; Axonal Regeneration; Cell Transplantation; Ion Channels; Nerve Injury; Remyelination; Spinal Cord Injury.


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Knoop Baggerwerken has send an amphibious excavators and operators to Nieuwstad, Groningen. The aim of the project was to expand the channel Eemshaven-North Sea.
The material that was released during the excavation process, of which boulder clay was a part, has been re-used to create a bird nesting island to compensate the channel that is situated between the Eemshaven and Delfzijl.
The challenge here was to work with high and low tide. This calls for good preparations, anticipation and experience to execute this project with succes. The crew worked in shifts to be able to work on-site 24/7.
The amphibious excavator has no problem crossing the water nor the mud flats to make its way to the island. A spray pipe pontoons installed and attached to a tube. The pontoon lies between the anchors. The spray pipe pontoon will be connected to the hopper that will arrive approximately every 4 hours with the sand from the channel. Then it will spread the sand from left to right to build up the island. This way the island will keep growing. The amphibious excavator makes sure that the spray pipe pontoon will stay free of sand and that the sandpile behind the tube stays even. By doing this the water will be able to flow off the plate. The machine also removes the anchors when needed. As a result the island can be built layer by layer. This type of circumstances demands an amphibious excavator that can handle water and also landscapes with complex weigth-bearing capacity. The first part of the project has ended successfully and the island is now ready to be discovered by the birds.


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Energy healing is a holistic form of Alternative Wellness in which we tap into the body's own vibratory frequencies. It triggers your own healing system, a process known as homeostasis.
There are numerous modalities that may facilitate this healing by enhancing one's energy flow & correcting disturbances in the auric field.
We offer various meditations & classes to allow you the unique opportunity to experience different forms of group energy healing in an affordable format.
These practices have been shown to aid in stress reduction, which is of the utmost importance, as stress can lead to disease & inflammation.


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I am a licensed Heal Your Life® Teacher and Life Coach, a certified Law of Attraction Life Coach with the QSCA, and an Author. It is my intention to be truly helpful assisting clients to create their desires. I invite you to scroll down to learn a little more about me.
I believe that if we calm the mind, connect to the heart, we can create our desires in the now. All the answers for our own lives are within us and the key is loving our authentic selves. As a self-proclaimed teacher and student of love, I assist people to remember how amazing and brilliant they truly are! I am filled with grace and gratitude for living my purpose: creating kind and loving boundaries in life and teaching others to do the same. I encourage people to just be themselves: simple but not always easy!
My childhood desire was to be a Catholic Priest when I grew up. This was prior to knowing that religion was man-made. My journey was of perfectionism and people-pleasing. This lead to exhaustion, chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis and just over seven years of unexplained infertility. One day the book You Can Heal Your Life® by Louise L. Hay jumped off a shelf at me and soon I started reading it; this is when my healing journey began. I believe that I healed myself by learning and practicing and living Louise's feel-good and self-love practices. When I choose to love myself, magic and miracles appear.
The best gift that I have ever given myself is the Heal Your Life ® Workshop and Life Coach Training. I went for the two-day workshop and came back on purpose. I have also published chapters in the books Manifesting Modern Miracles and Spiritual Leaders. As a Heal Your Life® Teacher, Spiritual Life Coach, and Author, my intention is to be truly helpful. The In The Now space is located in Sherwood Park, AB, Canada and anywhere that technology allows me to reach.


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...because that is all it is now worth thanks to the utter thieving shits that purport to 'run the country'. Run it into the ground more like.
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
New Pound Coin...
My latest blogpost: New Pound Coin...Tweet this! Posted by Lola at 16:56
Labels: Coins
6 comments:
- Sobers said...
That was exactly my thought. Someone in the BoE/Treasury is really wanting to rub the public's nose in it - basing the new pound coin design on the old thruppenny bit, just to show us how far it has fallen in value.
- 19 March 2014 at 19:21
- Mark Wadsworth said...
Ee, I remember when I were a lad, everything cost thruppence. Wages were only thruppence as well, mind you… but it were nice to buy a house for thruppence and pay off t'mortgage after three days, like.
- 20 March 2014 at 07:16
- Lola said...
Arrrr, and a small light ale was thruppence and now its two quid...
- 20 March 2014 at 08:56
- Dinero said...
The queen does not look too chuffed with the new design in the second pic.
Its unusually for a coin design to get more valuable over time , this one dual mettalic.
Did you know pre 91 pennies have a higher cooper value than 1p.
- 20 March 2014 at 09:26
- ThomasBHall said...
It's worse. An old sovereign pound coin is likely to cost you closer to £240 today, making the true value of the new pound coin nearer the value of the old penny.
I'd be interested to hear what metals have been designed into the new "pound" coin- the debasement of coins is the oldest trick in the book. All 10p, 5p, 2p and 1p coins are now made of steel- the "coppers" post 91 as Dinero points out- and the "silvers" about 5 yearsd ago- forget exact date
- 20 March 2014 at 09:35
- Bayard said...
Well, we are supposed to be remembering the outbreak of WWI a hundred years ago and coincidentally, 3d then would be worth £1.00 today. (Except 3d bits in those days were tiny silver coins known as "joeys").
If things go badly wrong, there might be an anniversary war in Europe, too.
- 20 March 2014 at 19:34


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Called the SBIinTouch cards, these contactless debit and credit cards are more secure and hassle-free to use at merchant outlets or ATMs and use the NFC technology which enables users to make payments by waving or tapping the card near the contactless reader instead of swiping or dipping it.
Private lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have already launched such NFC cards.
Launching the cards, SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattachrya said the bank has already issued 1.08 lakh new cards to its customers in the eight largest metros and the remaining customers will get the cards in the following months.
The bank has 2.5 lakh Point of Sale terminals, out of which 1 lakh in the top eight metros will be upgraded so that they are NFC-enabled, she said, adding that this upgrade will cost the bank under Rs. 2,500 for each machine.
"The NFC technology makes the contactless cards very secure as the card never leaves your hand thereby reducing the risk of card loss and fraud," she said.
Studies have shown that on an average contactless card transactions can be up to three times faster than cash payments, reducing queues at busy retail outlets, she added.
These cards come with a fraud liability cover of Rs. 1,00,000, managing director and group executive for national banking B Sriram said, adding that the cards will be issued by the bank's credit card arm SBI Card, which is a joint venture with GE Capital.
Sriram said the bank plans to introduce these cards in a phased manner and will be especially targeted towards fast-food outlets, coffee shops, supermarkets and cinema chains where customers like to make quick transactions.
For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel.


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The Costa Smeralda in Sardinia takes its name from the emerald waters off scalloped shores encrusted with granite outcroppings. An annual summer pilgrimage for sybaritic yachtsmen who anchored here in paradisiacal seclusion, the coast was fabled for its natural beauty. But when the current Aga Khan discovered it decades ago from a boat, buildings were few and architecture next to nil. Lacking water and fertile soil, it was underpopulated, underdeveloped and—except for ancient stone lookout towers—lacked a rich architectural tradition. The issue of a landscape without a strong indigenous architecture was a sensitive, even crucial, matter for the region's future: Too much of the Mediterranean had already been overbuilt with structures insensitive to nature.
The French architect Savin Couëlle started building on the island's northeastern coast as a young man some 40 years ago, soon after the Aga Khan bought much of the coastline to develop as a seaside resort. More than any other architect—perhaps even more than his father, Jacques Couëlle, principal designer of the flagship hotel, Cala di Volpe—Savin Couëlle invented the architecture that now captures the ethos of its rugged beauty. Instead of domesticating the raw landscape with civilizing geometries and polished materials, he took the raw elements of the landscape—the granite, the juniper, the contours of the land—and left them raw, giving them untamed form. The houses mushroom out of the land in organic flows.
Marina Giori, who came here in 1965, when jet travel was opening the island, built a house in Porto Rotondo, a resort community immediately adjacent to the Aga Khan's. Designed by an architect more or less imposed by local authorities, it was inappropriate, "like a chalet in Cortina—dark, with small windows," says Giori, who vacations on the Costa Smeralda from late spring to early fall. When it came time for an expansive house more open to the sun and landscape, she turned to Couëlle. "He doesn't import copies of houses from other parts of Italy but responds to the natural surroundings of the island and respects the beauty of the vegetation and stone," she says.
Rather than defending Giori from the sun, as the old house did, the new house virtually tracks light like a sunflower. In the living room, stone arches vault long spans that open the interiors to terraces, erasing the boundaries between inside and outside.
"The wind here changes direction unpredictably, sometimes several times in a day, and I wanted a terrace in each direction so that I could always spend time outside," says Giori, who assisted Couëlle with the interior decoration, choosing furniture on a scale that lives up to the voluminous rooms.
Pioneers settling the coast scooped up the best property early, and Giori's seaside site provides commanding views of the bay at Porto Rotondo from a rise that descends to her private beach.
The landscape seems to terrace directly into the house's several levels. "The planning of the house was evolutionary," says the architect. "We lived the site and the house, working on the grounds, sculpting the house as if from living matter," he says. "It was like raising a child." Outside and inside, he trimmed the house with both natural and cut stone. The ceiling in a guest room is structured with wood beams left uncut to recall tree trunks and limbs. The stucco is an earthy ocher, and the red-tile roof-scape echoes the profile of surrounding hills.
Couëlle, who modestly remarks that he has "a little piece of office in Sardinia and a little piece of office in Milan," imports his own trusted craftsmen to his jobs, sometimes halfway around the world. "One mason specialized in the arches," says Giori. "He worked quickly and knew just how to handle the stone in the way that fit Savin's vision." The craftsmen shaped the house by hand, from the nubby boulder walls down to door handles, handrails and balusters.
"I have to say that we did the house together, that it was a collaboration with my client, who has very cultivated tastes," he says. "I always follow the personality of the client as well as the character of the land."
"Savin grew the house from the land," says Giori. "It looks as if it were planted here."


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We are currently working with very limited staffing and your patience is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
New Release Spotlight
Author Spotlight: Muriel BarberySubmitted by andrea@bookcult... on Thu, 01/14/2016 - 1:07pm
Muriel Barbery's newest book, The Life of Elves, will be released in English on February 9th. After her enormous success with the beautifully written The Elegance of the Hedgehog, we're all eagerly awaiting her new novel as well as her visit to Book Culture for a reading and Q&A on February 10th! Check out her (spectacular) work below and be sure to catch her in February while she's still in the States!
Book Culture Selects for MaySubmitted by Rachel on Fri, 05/06/2016 - 11:09am
We just sent our first batch of Book Culture Selects! May was a month of generational drama, cultural reckonings, and unique voices. Here are a few of the books we selected, along with excerpts from our booksellers' handwritten letters. Want to see what we choose for June? Sign up by the 20th!
Columbus: Midnight release of Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman"Submitted by andrea@bookcult... on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 12:13pm
Interview with Sasha Matthews, author of "Sitting Bull: A Life Story"Submitted by maxine@bookcult... on Wed, 04/15/2015 - 6:26pm
Last Friday, I had the chance to meet with writer Sasha Matthews at our 112th store for an exclusive interview on her debut comic book Sitting Bull: A Life Story. Sasha Matthews is ten years old, attends fifth grade at a public school on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, and loves reading and writing comic books. We talked for over a half-hour about how she came to write Sitting Bull, what it is about comic books that inspires her, her influences, and most of all, what she finds surprising and challenging about the comic-book writing process.
Q&A and Reading with Saundra ShohenSubmitted by firstname.lastname@example.com on Thu, 04/09/2015 - 6:00pm
On Tuesday, April 14th at 6pm, Louisa Burns-Bisogno and Saundra Shohen launch their new page turner, The Night John Lennon Died . . . so did John Doe at Book Culture on Columbus. Based on true events, The Night John Lennon Died...so did John Doe is the ER Administrator's baptism by fire when John Lennon's bloodied body is carried into Roosevelt Hospital's ER over the shoulder of a policeman. Moments later, in the next room there is the suspicious death of an elderly John Doe. As the old man's frail body is placed next to Lennon's in the morgue van, Annie believes her involvement in these two senseless deaths is over. It is just beginning…
Q&A with "Wild Girls" author, Erica Abeel - Out Tuesday!Submitted by tanwaporn on Sun, 10/23/2016 - 3:17pm
Erica Abeel's new novel Wild Girls is out this Tuesday (October 25th)! The book is already receiving wide acclaim from authors like Phillip Lopate and Kevin Kwan. Make sure to pick up your copy in your local Book Culture this Tuesday - until then check out our conversation with Abeel.
Q&A with Andrea D'Aquino on her "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" illustrationsSubmitted by andrea@bookcult... on Mon, 10/12/2015 - 5:21pm
Several reimaginations of Lewis Carroll's Alices Adventures in Wonderland have been released this year in celebration of the story's 150th anniversary. One of which, a particularly stunning edition, was illustrated by Andrea D'Aquino as part of Rockport Publishers' Classics Reimagined series. Check out our Q&A with Andrea below and buy the book here!
Q&A with Elyssa FriedlandSubmitted by firstname.lastname@example.com on Wed, 05/20/2015 - 9:42pm
In celebration of the publication of Elyssa Friedland's debut novel, Love and Miss Communication, we had the chance to ask her a few questions about the development of her first novel, her personal reading, and upcoming projects. We would also like to thank her for coming into Book Culture on Columbus for a book signing this past month! Her book is available in store or on our website.
Q&A with Mark Burstein on "The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition"Submitted by firstname.lastname@example.com on Sun, 10/04/2015 - 1:25pm
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's iconic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In celebration of the anniversary, Mark Burstein updated and expanded Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice into the new 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, out on October 5th. Check out our Q&A with Burstein below! Can't get enough Alice? Alice150 is sponsoring several upcoming events, including "Alice's Adventures at Columbia" at Butler Library on Tuesday, October 6th. .
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- #StayHomeStaySafeReads: Jordyn Taylor


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With nearly 30 years experience, Dirt Busters has the know-how to make your work-place look pristine! Trusted employees are trained, insured, and bonded to provide the highest level of cleaning to each and every customer. Whether daily, weekly or once a month, Dirt Busters is willing to customize a cleaning regiment that fits your company's needs. Let us help enhance your company's image and productivity by giving you an enjoyable environment to work in!
For a complete list of our services, please visit our SERVICES page.


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Toil is a workflow engine entirely written in Python. It features:
Easy installation, e.g.
pip install toil.
Common Workflow Language (CWL) support
Complete support for the draft-3 CWL specification, allowing it to execute CWL workflows.
Workflow Description Language (WDL) support
Draft support for the WDL specification, allowing it to execute WDL workflows.
Cross platform support
Develop and test on your laptop then deploy on any of the following:
- Commercial clouds: - Amazon Web Services (including the spot market) - Microsoft Azure - Google Compute Engine
- Private clouds: - OpenStack
- High Performance Computing Environments: - GridEngine - Apache Mesos - Parasol - Individual multi-core machines
A small API
Easily mastered, the Python user API for defining and running workflows is built upon one core class.
Complete file and stream management:
Temporary and persistent file management that abstracts the details of the underlying file system, providing a uniform interface regardless of environment. Supports both atomic file transfer and streaming interfaces, and provides encryption of user data.
Toil can easily handle workflows concurrently using hundreds of nodes and thousands of cores.
Toil workflows support arbitrary worker and leader failure, with strong check-pointing that always allows resumption.
Caching, fine grained, per task, resource requirement specifications, and support for the AWS spot market mean workflows can be executed with little waste.
Declarative and dynamic workflow creation:
Workflows can be declared statically, but new jobs can be added dynamically during execution within any existing job, allowing arbitrarily complex workflow graphs with millions of jobs within them.
Support for databases and services:
For example, Apache Spark clusters can be created quickly and easily integrated within a toil workflow as a service, with precisely defined time start and end times that fits with the flow of other jobs in the workflow.
Open Source: An Apache license allows unrestricted use, incorporation and modification.
- Installation
- Cloud installation
- Running a workflow
- Running in the cloud
- Command line interface and arguments
- Developing a workflow
- Scripting quick start
- Job basics
- Invoking a workflow
- Specifying arguments via the command line
- Resuming a workflow
- Functions and job functions
- Workflows with multiple jobs
- Dynamic job creation
- Promises
- Managing files within a workflow
- Services
- Checkpoints
- Encapsulation
- Toil API
- Toil architecture
- The batch system interface
- The job store interface
- src


text:
a writer from Turkey
Gogar Halouk, a writer from Turkey
Imam Khomeini exposed real face of the imperialism
One of the greatest task carried out by Imam had been exposing the true face of imperialism for the world people.
The Islamic Revolution under leadership of Imam Khomeini could challenge and confront the dominance of the imperialism.
Imam explained that the imperialism had been an open enemy to oppressed nations.
Imam undermined supremacy of western imperialism from cultural, social and political perspectives.
Copyright © 2016 . All Rights Reserved


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Subscribe to the PLAID Crafts Newsletter, and we'll throw in $10 towards your next purchase.
Create permanent fabric projects quickly and easily using Stiffy ® Fabric Stiffener with most fabrics. Creates beautiful fabric bows, stiffens needlework. Add lace, ribbon and trims to craft projects or mold or drape dollies and lace.
Size: 16 oz.
No FAQs found.


text: Pidgin Pidgin is an easy to use, multi-protocol chat client client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, XMPP, and more chat networks all at once. It has built-in... It has a fully featured IRC client functionality. AntumDeluge • Dec 2017 • 4 agrees and 3 disagrees Disagree Agree Pidgin is more for IM protocols in general like XMPP, ICQ etc., while HexChat is for IRC chat. artyhedgehog • Mar 2017 • 7 agrees and 8 disagrees Disagree Agree Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux BSD PortableApps.com ... Xfce Support for Multiple protocols Support for Multiple protocols Supports XMPP Extensible by Plugins/Extensions ... IRC Plugins Messaging Multiple languages Multiple Account support Multiple chat protocols Portable Video calling Voice Call Xmpp Add a feature 1477 Like


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Redefining The Patient-Provider Dynamic
Have you ever talked to a provider who you swear wasn't listening?
Or who expected you to do everything by the book, specifically, their book, or you could take a hike?
The NIH Consensus Panel for VBAC in 2010 emphasized over and over that communication between clients and their providers is urgently necessary in medical care. In order to further the accuracy of information, the understanding of treatment and the informed decision-making process, women and their providers need to talk.
Some of the obstacles moms run into can happen in the first appointment. "Do I really NEED to be weighed?" or "I don't choose to be weighed at this time" can be met with such adversity as to make them seem biologically imperative for pregnancy to continue! And later in pregnancy, choosing not to have a genetic test, not consenting to a gestational diabetes (GD) or group B Strep (GBS) screening can make providers come out of the woodwork of informed decision-making and right into we don't want you as a patient". And as for having input on her due date, many women find that even careful charting, knowing their cycles or having a good understanding of ultrasound dating procedures cannot save them from their provider ignoring their opinion.
And clients find themselves being labelled as non-compliant or difficult rather than finding providers who are willing to discuss their reasons and assent to them, note them in the chart and moving on.
So redefining this situation is important and it matters. Start locally. Talk to your providers ahead of time, before pregnancy or care if you can. Discuss with them the importance of a partnership in care rather than a parent-child relationship. Explain that it's important that you understand all procedures before consenting and that no, you won't consent to all procedures as a blanket action but that you will consider them and will change your mind if they become necessary.
It's of utmost importance that you remember at all times that the informed consent/refusal/decision-making process is to protect YOU, the patient/client. It's for you to know what is going on, what the possible risks are, what the possible outcomes are, even if you should choose to do NOTHING. This is your moment to ask what you need and require documentation in writing. If a doctor is going to tell you that you have a 25% rate of something, feel free to ask them to put that in writing or show you the research involved. One of the most positive actions you can take is to say "I understand that's your information, do you mind sharing with me where you got that so that I can make an informed decision?" After all, if they cannot provide it, they shouldn't be using it.


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Full professor
Jan Friso Groote (1965) received an engineering degree in computer science 1988 at Twente University. In 1991 he defended his PhD. thesis at the University of Amsterdam, which was about operational semantics and process algebra. Since 1998 he is a full professor at Eindhoven University of Technology with as major assignment to improve the quality of software controlled systems by modelling and analysing behaviour of software.


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Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis- Assessment of Impact on Prognosis and Short-term Outcome
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Know the risks and potential benefits of clinical studies and talk to your health care provider before participating. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03827772
Recruitment Status : Recruiting
First Posted : February 1, 2019
Last Update Posted : February 1, 2019
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Alcoholic liver disease has become one of the foremost causes of chronic liver disease across the world, and a cause of considerable morbidity and mortality. Alcoholic steatohepatitis is an entity in this broad spectrum, with severe alcoholic hepatitis transitioning to acute on chronic liver failure carrying a one month mortality of as high as 20 to 50%.
The current management guidelines for severe alcoholic hepatitis show benefit with prolonged alcohol abstinence, nutritional support, the use of corticosteroids, pentoxifylline or N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and early liver transplantation. However, major studies and meta-analyses have demonstrated that these interventions, with the exception of early liver transplantation, do not improve mortality rates to the level of statistical significance. Owing to the high short term mortality associated with severe alcoholic hepatitis, the inadequacy of a treatment that could significantly impact this short term mortality, and the limited applicability of early liver transplantation, a study on newer modalities of treatment is warranted.
The role that human gut microbiota plays in health and disease is receiving considerable attention. Targeting intestinal dysbiosis, a phenomenon found to be intricately linked with the causation of alcoholic hepatitis, could provide insights into novel therapeutic strategies.
Fecal microbiota transplantation is a novel approach that has gained widespread acceptance in in the management of recurrent severe Clostridium difficile infection. It's role is also being studied in other diseases where an association with gut dysbiosis has been found, such as in inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. The role of FMT has also been studied in liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), liver cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis. In this process, a diseased recipient is transferred fecal material containing the microflora of a healthy individual. It limits the colonization of pathogens, inducing colonization resistance, affects microbiota composition in the gut, as well as metabolism in the microbial pathogens. FMT helps alleviate gut dysbiosis and restores gut microbial diversity.
Our aim is to evaluate the role of FMT on short term survival and improvement in scores of prognostic significance (CTP, MELD, MELDNa, mDF) in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis.
|Condition or disease
|Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis
|Other: Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Other: Standard of care treatment
|Not Applicable
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Estimated Enrollment :
|40 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Parallel Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis- Assessment of Impact on Prognosis and Short-term Outcome
|Estimated Study Start Date :
|January 2019
|Estimated Primary Completion Date :
|December 2019
|Estimated Study Completion Date :
|December 2019
Experimental: Intervention Arm: Fecal microbiota transplantation
30 grams of stool homogenized with 100 mL of normal saline administered a single time via nasojejunal tube.
Other: Fecal Microbiota Transplantation
30 grams of stool homogenized with 100 mL of normal saline administered a single time via nasojejunal tube.
Control Arm
Nutritional supplementation, supportive management
Other: Standard of care treatment
Nutritional supplementation, supportive management.
- Survival [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Improvement in CTP (Child Turcotte Pugh Score) [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Improvement in MELD score [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Improvement in MELDNa score [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Improvement in CLIF SOFA score [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Improvement in mDF [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
- Changes in inflammatory markers (IL1b, IL6, TNF α) pre and post FMT, [ Time Frame: 3 months ]
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 60 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
Severe alcoholic hepatitis will be defined as proposed by the American College of Gastroenterology
- Rapid development or worsening of jaundice and liver-related complications with serum total bilirubin more than 3 milligrams per decilitre.
- Aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase elevated to more than one and half times the upper limit of normal, but less than 400 IU per litre, with AST to ALT ratio over 1.5.
- Documentation of persistent heavy alcohol use until 8 weeks before onset of symptoms.
- Alcohol Consumption in female over 40 grams per day for at least 6 months and in males over 60 grams per day for at least 6 months.
- Maddrey's Discriminant Function Score of more than 32 OR
- A patient of alcoholic hepatitis who will present with grade 1 or 2 of hepatic encephalopathy.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Intestinal paralysis, lack of bowel sounds, intestinal perforation.
- Uncontrolled infections.
- Uncontrolled upper gastrointestinal bleeding.
- Grade 3,4 hepatic encephalopathy.
- Hepatic or extrahepatic malignancy.
- Maddrey's Discriminant Function (mDF) >90 or MELD>30.
- Autoimmune hepatitis, Wilson's disease, suspected drug induced liver injury.
- Patients who are aged >60 years
- WBC count <1000 cells/mm3
- Pregnancy or nursing.
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), HBV, HCV infection.
- Patient's unwillingness to participate in the study.
- Any other condition which, in the opinion of the investigator, would impede compliance or hinder completion of the study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT03827772
|Contact: Radha K Dhiman, DM
|Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research
|Chandigarh, India, 160012
|Contact: Radha K Dhiman, DM 7087009337 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Responsible Party:
|Radha K Dhiman, Professor and Head, Department of Hepatology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
PGIMER Hepatology
|First Posted:
|February 1, 2019 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|February 1, 2019
|Last Verified:
|January 2019
|Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:
|Plan to Share IPD:
|Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:
|Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis, Alcoholic
Liver Diseases
Digestive System Diseases
Hepatitis, Viral, Human
Virus Diseases
Enterovirus Infections
Picornaviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Liver Diseases, Alcoholic
Alcohol-Induced Disorders
Alcohol-Related Disorders
Substance-Related Disorders
Chemically-Induced Disorders


text: What are some simple salad dressings using basic ingredients? I'm of the belief (and practice) that we should all eat at least one giant salad every day (I'm talking a whole head of greens). In order to keep up the habit and even look forward to it, you have to have a really tasty salad….


text:
Ver 1.6.2 sporting a twin look
bayridgeartist last edited by
I've noticed two different looks with the same version on my old laptop versus new laptop. One is white tool background versus darker grey. Also the layer interface has the icons on the top instead of the bottom. Any ideas?
garlam last edited by
Light vs dark background: Go to File>Preferences>Interface. Have a look at Color
Layer Command bar on bottom vs top: click the menu drop down at the top left corner of the Layer Palette and check the Set Command Bar Below List option (near the bottom of the drop down).
bayridgeartist last edited by
Terrific - thanks. I was confused why there were different visuals as a default set. Now I know.


text:
Friday 25 January
|Agaricia (1)
As its name suggests, Lamarck's sheet coral (Agaricia lamarcki) forms broad, flat, plate or sheet-like colonies, which are relatively thick and sometimes overlap. Large colonies may even form flattened, whorl-like structures. Lamarck's sheet coral is normally yellowish-brown or brown, sometimes with greyish tints (3).
As with all corals, the colonies of Lamarck's sheet coral comprise numerous polyps, anemone-like animals which secrete the coral skeleton. The individual coral skeletons of Lamarck's sheet coral, known as 'corallites', are normally 3.1 to 4.5 millimetres in diameter (3). In this species, the underside of the colony is smooth, while the upper surface bears concentric rows of ridges, with straight or network-like valleys possessing white, star-shaped polyps.
Lamarck's sheet coral is similar in appearance to the related Graham's sheet coral (Agaricia grahamae), but has larger corallites and possesses white polyp 'mouths', which are absent in Graham's sheet coral (4) (5).
Like many other corals, Lamarck's sheet coral is a 'zooxanthellate' coral, receiving much of its nutrition as a result of the symbiotic relationship it has with single-celled algae, known as zooxanthellae. These organisms live and photosynthesise within the coral tissues, providing organic nutrients to nourish the polyp, and in return receiving protection and access to sunlight. Corals of this type generally grow faster in clear, shallow waters, with easier access to light (4).
Each polyp of Lamarck's sheet coral also possesses a ring of stinging tentacles, which are capable of capturing minute zooplankton (4). These tentacles are, however, rarely extended during the day and the majority of the coral's nutrition is obtained from the zooxanthellae (6).
Corals are capable of reproducing sexually or asexually. Like some other Agaricia species, Lamarck's sheet coral is thought to be a 'brooding' species, whereby fertilisation occurs internally. The larvae develop within the polyp prior to release into the water (7). The age of maturity for most reef-building corals is approximately three to eight years (8).
Lamarck's sheet coral is found in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and around Florida and the Bahamas (1).
Lamarck's sheet coral is normally found on sloping reefs or in channels and deep lagoons. Although it has been recorded at a depth of 76 metres, it is most commonly found at depths of 15 to 25 metres. It may be found at shallower depths in turbid waters (1).
Despite its wide distribution, Lamarck's sheet coral is relatively rare, and like all corals, it faces numerous threats. Of major concern to corals worldwide is global climate change, which may lead to more severe, frequent storms, ocean acidification and an increase in ocean temperatures, in turn leading to coral 'bleaching'. Due to their thin tissues, corals are highly sensitive to bleaching events, in which the zooxanthellae are lost, leading to increased disease susceptibility and often death. Coral diseases also affect coral reefs worldwide, and are considered a major contributory factor in reef destruction (1).
Localised human impacts, including fisheries, development, pollution, sedimentation, tourism and coral harvesting, also place additional stress on sensitive coral reef habitats (9). It is estimated that, globally, 20 percent of coral reefs have been destroyed (1).
Along with all coral species, Lamarck's sheet coral is listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning that trade in this coral should be highly regulated. In the United States, Lamarck's sheet coral is found in many Marine Protected Areas, offering some degree of protection, and harvesting of corals for commercial purposes is illegal in U.S. waters (1).
Further research is required into the biology, population and habitat requirements of Lamarck's sheet coral and other coral species to determine the most appropriate conservation measures. Techniques for artificial propagation, such as the cryo-preservation (freezing) of gametes, may prove to be an important advance in the protection of coral diversity (1).
To find out more about corals and coral conservation, see:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
Image credit
© Charlie Veron / From Coral ID (Veron and Stafford-Smith, 2002)
Charlie (J.E.N) Veron
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text:
Christina Bjørkøe (b. 1970) had her first piano lessons at the age of five from her mother. In 1978 she became a pupil of Therese Koppel, who taught her until 1990. She continued her studies with Seymour Lipkin at the Juilliard School in New York and with Anne Øland at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where she made her debut as a soloist in 1997. In 1987 and 1990 Christina Bjørkøe won First Prize in the Steinway Competition. She has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at various venues in Denmark, including the Tivoli Concert Hall's major Beethoven, Chopin and Schubert series, as well as in Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and the USA. In 1995 she represented Denmark as a finalist in the Nordic Soloist Competition in Reykjavík.
Christina Bjørkøe has performed with most Danish symphony orchestras, with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra of Sweden, the Iceland Philharmonic Orchestra, and in April 2002 with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR and gave recitals in Croatia, Spain, Germany and South America. She has been awarded several prizes and grants including Victor Borges Legat in September 1994, Carl Nielsens Rejselegat in June 1995, Bikubens Kammermusikpris in August 1995, Aennchen og Eigil Harbys Fond in October 1995 and the Gladsaxe Music Prize in February 2000. Christina Bjørkøe is associate professor at Carl Nielsen Academy of Music Odense.
Christina Bjørkøe's recording of Knudåge Risager's piano music for Dacapo received the Danish Music Award 2005 as Solo Recording of the Year.