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Posted by Manish Panchmatia on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 Labels: Telecom Wireless / Comments: (3) Full article...>>
With Google Analytics I noticed that LTE related articles are the most popular ones at our blog Express YourSelf ! These articles are written in colloquial language and they are more informal. So let me write a single article with more formal language. Here I have tried to make this white paper concise with lucid language.
Comments, suggestions are always welcome.
Direct Link to the white paper "LTE NAS Procedures"
By chance, if you do not have access to Scribd, then read this article below.
Comments, suggestions are always welcome.
Direct Link to the white paper "LTE NAS Procedures"
By chance, if you do not have access to Scribd, then read this article below.
LTE NAS Procedures
Non-Access Stratum is a functional layer protocol stack between core network and UE in LTE. For LTE, It is the highest stratum in the control plane between UE and MME. NAS layer runs over Uu interface between UE and eNB, and over S1-MME interface between eNB and MME. The main functions for NAS protocols are (1)mobility management, (2)session management, (3)connection management and (4)security. Security has two aspects: integrity and ciphering. This article describes all the NAS procedures and relevant concepts.
1. Introduction
UTRAN is access network for LTE. Whenever UE does any signaling message exchanges related to radio resources and accessing the UTRAN, those are Access Stratum procedures. After acquiring radio resources, UE needs to communicate to core network nodes. All signaling message exchanges related to accessing the core network are Non-Access Stratum procedures. The subsequent chapters of this article describe EMM, ECM and ESM NAS procedures, their sub-categories and other related concepts.
EMM protocol provides elementary procedures for UE's mobility, when UE uses E-UTRAN. Such procedures include determining UE's location, user's authentication, confidentiality, and connection management. The procedure is a group of NAS messages exchange, like request and response, with specific purpose. There are two kinds of EMM elementary procedures: common procedures and specific procedures.
a. Relationship among EMM procedures
The EMM common procedures are invoked optionally by some of the EMM specific procedures. If one look at this, from object oriented design point of view, this is like aggregation relationship, where specific procedures are "whole" and common procedure(s) are "part". The below diagrams depicts this relationship with UML notations.
The class diagram looks like Composite design pattern. This diagram does not indicate any specific NAS module design neither at UE nor at MME. The italic fonts indicates abstract class. All the procedures in the diagrams are just categories. The subsequent sections describe all procedures, which belong to these categories.
EMM specific procedure has specific purpose of (1) mobility management and (2) connection management.
b. EMM Mobility Management
The mobility management specific procedures are (1)Attach, (2)Detach and (3) TAU. The attach procedures and detach procedures are similar to such procedures in GPRS and UMTS. When UE is powered ON, or, enters to LTE coverage area, it performs attach procedure. At the time of power OFF, UE performs detach procedure. UMTS coverage area is subdivided in multiple Routing Areas (RAs), same way, LTE coverage area is subdivided in multiple Trekking Areas (TAs). Any TA is formed by coverage are of a group of cell sites (eNBs). The eNB broadcasts TAI. Whenever the any UE detects the TAI change, due to UE's mobility, UE informs the network about its new TA or TA list. UE invokes the "normal TAU procedure". Even the stationary UE periodically reports its TA with "periodic TAU procedure".
· Combined procedures
The LTE network also supports combined attach, combined detach and combined TAU procedure. The combined procedures differ from the normal procedures by presence of few optional IEs. The combined procedures save radio resources, as the LTE networks, intimate the legacy GPRS / UMTS network about UE attach, detach and periodic update over wireline interface. So UE does not need to perform similar procedures over legacy network. Thus, the combined procedures also save UE's battery. However such supports are optional for LTE network deployment.
GPRS MS have three categories: class A, class B and class C. The similar way LTE UE belongs to three categories. The "PS only mode" UE works only with LTE networks. These UEs are not mobile handsets but they are USB dongle or PC card. They never perform combined procedure. The "PS only mode" UE is similar to class C GPRS MS. The other two LTE UE categories are "CS/PS mode 1 UE" and "CS/PS mode 2 UE". They are dual mode UEs. If UE is under coverage of both LTE and legacy GPRS/UMTS, then "CS/PS mode 1 UE" prefers non-EPS (GPRS/UMTS) service and mode 2 UE prefers EPS(LTE) service. However, they can attach to both networks, (1) EPS(LTE) network and (2) non-EPS (legacy GPRS/UMTS) network.
EMM FSM has seven states. (1) EMM Null, (2) EMM DeRegistered, (3) EMM DeRegistered initiated, (4) EMM Registered, (5) EMM Registered initiated, (6) EMM TAU initiated, (7) EMM Service Request initiated. Out of these seven states, most of them are transient states. EMM FSM has major two states only. EMM DeRegistered and EMM Registered. They are correspond to UE is detached from LTE network and UE is attached to LTE network respectively.
c. EMM Connection Management (ECM)
The connection is established between UE and MME for session management and for SMS transfer. The connection management specific procedures are: paging, CS service notification, service request, extended service request and transport of NAS.
· Paging
The LTE networks supports only PS data call. The UE can receive paging signal for incoming PS data call. The legacy networks (GSM and UMTS) support both CS voice call and PS data call. The network can send paging signal to UE for incoming CS voice call using LTE E-UTRAN. Thus, paging procedure is used for incoming CS voice call and PS data call both.
The Paging ECM specific procedure is used by network to establish NAS context for incoming CS or PS call. The NAS context consists of security parameters between UE and MME for NAS message exchanges. In the absence of NAS context, the first message will not be encrypted. The EMM procedures may invoke other common EMM procedure for security purpose. Over the air interface Uu RRC protocol carries NAS messages and provides ciphering and data integrity both. In addition to that the NAS security module provides data integrity and optionally ciphering of the NAS messages.
Generally LTE network address the UE with its S-TMSI in "Paging" procedure. However if MME restart or somehow, MME lost S-TMSI of UE, then it uses IMSI. The usage of IMSI over air interface is rare case and is used to only recover from the error, in abnormal conditions.
· CS Service Notification
The paging procedure is used to establish NAS context. If MME already has valid NAS context for a UE, then MME does not invoke paging procedure for incoming CS call. Instead of paging procedure, MME invokes 'CS Service Notification' procedure for incoming CS call from legacy GSM and UMTS networks.
· Service Request
UE initiates "Service Request" ECM specific procedure, in response to paging. After successful "Service Request" procedure for connection management, the ECM FSM transits to ECM connected (EMM connected) state.
· Extended Service Request
The "Extended Service Request" procedure is a variant of "Service Request" procedure. It is used for CS fallback for voice call and handoff with non-3GPP networks. The examples of non-3GPP networks are CDMA network, EVDO (HRPD) network, WiMAX network, etc.
· Transport of NAS
The "Transport of NAS" ECM specific procedure is used for sending or receiving SMS over LTE network.
ECM can have its FSM. For EMM Registered state, ECM FSM has two states. (1) ECM idle and (2) ECM connected. They are also known as EMM Idle and EMM Connected respectively.
d. Common Procedure
The EMM common procedures are invoked optionally by EMM specific procedures. They are related to security aspects like authentication and ciphering. For example, EMM mobility management specific procedure named Attach may invoke other EMM common procedure(s) like (1)GUTI relocation, (2)Authentication, (3)Security Mode control, (4)Identification, (5)EMM Information and (6)ESM Information. Another example, EMM connection management specific procedure, "Service Request" may initiate optional common procedure(s): (1) Authentication and/or (2) Security Mode Control. All the common procedures are optional. These common procedures set security parameters at NAS context.
e. EMM Summary
Most of the EMM specific procedures for mobility management and connection management are initiated by UE. "Paging" and "CS service notification" procedures are always initiated by network. "Detach" and "Transport of NAS" procedures can be invoked by either network or UE.
Here, the quick recap of all EMM specific procedures.
EMM Elementary procedures:
- Mobility management specific procedure
- Attach
i. Attach
ii. Combined Attach
- Detach
i. Detach
ii. Combined Detach
i. Normal TAU
ii. Periodic TAU
- Connection Management specific procedure
- Service Request
i. Service Request
ii. Extended Service Request
- Paging
i. With S-TMSI
ii. With IMSI
- CS Service Notification
- Transport of NAS (for SMS)
- Common procedure
- GUTI reallocation
- Authentication
- Security Mode control
- Identification
- EMM information
- ESM information
3. ESM: Useful concepts
a. Multiple ESM
The NAS procedures for EMM and ECM apply per UE, so UE software can have single instance of ECM module and single instance of EMM module. However the NAS procedures for ESM are for session management. A UE can have multiple active sessions (EPS bearers). Each bearer has its own ESM FSM. So UE software can have multiple instances of ESM module.
b. PDN and APN
LTE infrastructure includes eUTRAN and EPC. PDN is some network external to operator's LTE infrastructure. The Internet is the most common example of PDN. Other possible PDN examples can be IMS network, corporate VPN, MMS etc. If one look at the big picture, LTE or any other wireless network just provides layer-2 connectivity between UE and PDN. So the UE can transfer its layer-3 user packets (most likely IP packets) to external network PDN (most likely Internet). The 'name of PDN' is 'APN value'. The P-GW node is at boundary between LTE network and PDN. So generally APN value is FQDN, which map to IP address of P-GW by DNS server. This DNS server is private one, and accessible only within PLMN.
c. EPS bearer
An EPS bearer connects UE and exit gateway (P-GW) of LTE network. Unlike, UMTS, in LTE one default bearer is established during attach procedure itself. LTE NAS procedure standard also recommends bundling of LTE EMM NAS procedure and ESM NAS procedure in a single packet. The default bearer has neither QoS treatment nor TFT filters for user data. The default bearer just provides a basic connectivity between UE and P-GW for a single PDN.
Some mobile applications need QoS treatment for user data. E.g. VoIP call. The dedicated bearer provides QoS treatment and TFT for user data.
UE has single IP address per PDN, regardless of multiple bearers (default bearer and dedicated bearer). However, if UE and PDN both support IPv4 and IPv6 dual stack, then only, UE can have two default bearers and two IP addresses (IPv4 address and IPv6 address) per PDN.
If UE and network both capable to provide connectivity to multiple PDNs, then UE can have multiple default bearers and multiple IP addresses. It is analogous to having multiple Ethernet card to a desktop PC, so one can connect the PC to multiple networks and configure it with multiple IP address. Ethernet cards are layer-2 entities. Here, LTE network appears a single layer-2 interface consisting of E-UTRAN and EPC. However still LTE network can emulate like multiple different layer-2 entities. So, a UE can have multiple layer-3 network layers (IP layers) at user plane. Each layer-3 entity can be connected to different P-GWs and so to different PDNs. Within a single layer-3, UE can have default bearer for best effort treatment and optional dedicated bearer(s) for QoS treatment and TFT
d. EPS Bearer ID
All EPS bearers (i.e. default and dedicated) have EPS Bearer ID (EBI), assigned by the network. The legacy GPRS and UMTS networks were assigning NSAPI value for each PDP context. EBI is analogous to NSAPI. UE can have one default bearer and zero or more dedicated bearer(s) per PDN. So at UE side few EBI values are used for default bearer(s) and rest are for dedicated bearer(s). It is not possible to discriminate between default bearer and dedicated bearer just by EBI values. LBI plays important role to link EBI values and bundle them together. All dedicated bearer related messages contain LBI IE. The value of LBI IE is EBI value of default bearer for that PDN.
e. IP address
UE may have static IP address configured APN/PDN. Generally, P-GW acts as DHCP server and assigns dynamic IP address to UE. P-GW consults external DHCP server or radius server or diameter server to allocate dynamic IP address for UE. Dynamic IP address is allocated during default bearer creation. This IP address does not change for all other subsequent new dedicated bearer(s) for that PDN.
PCO IE is used to carry UE address. It also carries Primary and Secondary DNS addresses for that particular PDN. So the application can query and resolve any domain name to IP address by contacting the DNS server, within that PDN. All these three IP addresses can be IPv4 address or IPv6 address or both. If UE already knows their values, it mentions them in PCO, to confirm. Else, UE mention value as 0.0.0.0 (for IPv4 case) and/or ::0 (for IPv6 case) to request network for new assignment. PCO IE contains PPP. The PPP contains IPCP for all these IP addresses. PPP can also contain PAP and/or CHAP protocol(s) for user authentication. The PCO and TFT are important IEs, that are exchanged between P-GW and UE. They are transparently carried by eNB, MME and S-GW.
f. Summary
The following tree makes this concept clearer.
- LTE layer-2 connectivity using eUTRAN+EPC
- Layer-3 IP (IPv4 or IPv6)connectivity to PDN1, UE IP = ip1 (ip1 is IPv4 address or IPv6 address)
i. Default bearer. No QoS and no TFT. EBI = ebi1
ii. Dedicated bearer 1 with QoS1, EBI = ebi2, LBI = ebi1
iii. Dedicated bearer 2 with QoS2, EBI = ebi3, LBI = ebi1
- Layer-3 IP (IPv4 or IPv6)connectivity to PDN2, UE IP = ip2 (ip2 is IPv4 address or IPv6 address)
i. Only single default bearer. No QoS and no TFT, EBI = ebi4
- Layer-3 IP (IPv4)connectivity to PDN3, UE IP = ip3 (ip3 is IPv4 address)
i. Default bearer. No QoS, EBI = ebi5
ii. Dedicated bearer 1 with QoS3, EBI = ebi6, LBI = ebi5
- Layer-3 IP (IPv6)connectivity to PDN3, UE IP = ip4 (ip4 is IPv6 address)
i. Default bearer. No QoS EBI = ebi7
ii. Dedicated bearer 1 with QoS4, EBI = ebi8, LBI = ebi7
Here PDN1, PDN2 and PDN3 all are different, having different APN values. The values for ip1, ip2, ip3 and ip4 may or may not be different. QoS1, QoS2, QoS3 and QoS4 may or may not different. EBI1 to EBI8 all are different values, not necessary they are in sequence.
The minimum implementation without QoS can be as below:
- LTE layer-2 connectivity using eUTRAN+EPC
- Layer-3 IP (IPv4)connectivity to only single PDN 1, UE IP = ip1
i. Only single Default bearer. No QoS, EBI = ebi1
4. ESM procedures
ESM procedures also have two categories. (1) "Procedures related to EPS Bearer Context". As the name suggest, these ESM procedures are used for EPS bearer. (2) "Procedures related to transaction". However these ESM procedure categories are quite different from EMM procedures category. In case of EMM, the specific procedures are optionally made up of common procedure. So first, an EMM specific procedure starts. Then it optionally invokes one more EMM common procedure(s). Then EMM common procedure(s) get completed and finally the EMM specific procedure also gets completed.
If a UE wants to manipulate EPS bearer context, then first UE invokes ESM specific "Procedure relate to transaction". UE includes PTI IE in the first message. In the response to that network invokes ESM specific "Procedure related to EPS Bearer Context". Network also includes PTI IE with same value, so that UE can correlate to ongoing "Procedure relate to transaction". Once network invokes the "Procedure related to EPS Bearer Context", then at UE side, the "Procedure relate to transaction" is declared/assumed as completed. These both categories of procedures are in sequence. Thus, indirectly UE can also invoke EPS procedure !!! Once, the "Procedure relate to transaction" is completed, then PTI IE is discarded. Then UE and network, both start using, EBI, which is allocated by the network to that particular (default or dedicated) bearer. If network itself initiates "Procedure related to EPS Bearer Context", then PTI IE is absent and EBI IE is mandatory. The examples of such procedures are (1) EPS bearer context modification (2) EPS bearer context deactivation. As mentioned earlier, LBI IE is used in "Procedure related to dedicated EPS Bearer Context" to point to default bearer for that particular PDN.
This table provides a relationship among UE initiated "Procedures related to transaction" and network initiated "Procedures related to EPS Bearer Context"
Procedures related to EPS Bearer Cxt -->
Default EPS bearer context activation
Dedicated EPS bearer context activation
EPS bearer context modification
EPS bearer context deactivation
Procedures related to Transaction
PDN connectivity
PDN disconnect
Bearer resource allocation
Bearer resource modification
ESM information request
ESM status message
As one can see at above table, generally "transaction related procedures" are invoked by UE with two exceptions. (1) ESM Status message. It can be sent by both UE and network. (2) "ESM information request" is always sent from network to UE. UE responds with "ESM information response".
5. Summary
The author has put his best efforts to describe NAS concepts with correct information in lucid language. Any comments, suggestions are welcome. The author is thankful to his colleagues, supervisors and friends for all supports and encouragement to write this article. Let all the software professionals and telecom professionals use this article as reference material.
Voice Mail Server
Posted by Manish Panchmatia on Friday, September 14, 2012 Labels: Innovation, Telecom Wireless / Comments: (0) Full article...>>
I am back, after a long break. I posted two ideas under Innovation Series "What an idea Sir-ji", (1) "Ad-hoc Amplifier" (2) Live AudiCast Today one more idea.
Innovation name: Voice Mail Server.
Intent: To convert home PC to voice mail server. So one can get voice mail service.
Context: Voice mail service is quite common at US. It is not popular much in India. However, it is always nice to have voice mail. If one does not pickup the call, then the caller should have option to record his/her voice message. You can listen to it at his/her convenience.
Appicability: To record incoming voice call to land-line or mobile phone in one's absence. One can have his own voice message server using normal desktop or laptop.
* A desktop PC or laptop.
* For land-line phone: external modem for desktop. Many laptop models have built in internal modem.
* For mobile phone: USB cable to connect mobile to PC.
GSM/CDMA mobile acts as modem. Many laptops have internal modem. All the modems obeys AT commands
* For mobile phone, connect it to PC using USB cable.
* For land-line phone, connect the phone cable to internal modem of laptop. OR use external modem and connect that modem to laptop/desktop.
* Now a write a simple application. This application can configure modem to auto answer the incoming call after user defined rings say N. The AT command will be ATS0 =
* This application will also automatically invoke the audio sound recorder, to record the incoming voice message.
* The application will extract the mobile number from the AT command interaction with modem, and log it.
* The customer can listen to all the incoming voice message, once he returns back to home.
Known Uses:
All the voice mail, use cases are applicable here. like..
* This application can be useful, if you are going out for long vacation. You can use this application for mobile or for land-line or for both.
* One can also use this application, when he/she is busy for meeting or watching TV or spending time with family.
The biggest advantages are:
* This solution is completely free. No voice mail subscription.
* No need to depend upon service provider.
* No extra charge to access / retrieve the voice message.
* The PC should be switched ON.
* The mobile should be connected to PC. If it is with you in your pocket, it will not work as it is. One can subscribe for auto-call-forward to land-line number and let the land-line phone always remain connected to PC
* You may need external modem.
* This is for your personal use. Not scalable to support many users.
* One can connect multiple phones to PC. However if all gets incoming call at the same time, then both messages will be recorded to voice files.
Future Scope:
More sophisticated application can have few extra features.
1. It can play audio message to prompt the caller to record the message.
2. It can have IVR support. One can use simple Matlab library OR Microsoft TAPI to detect the number from incoming DTMF signal.
3. A FTP server, with proper firewall settings, can be deployed. So the customer can access the audio file remotely. The PC should be connected to Internet.
Related Solution:
Voice mail service by your service provider.
This idea is more about apply some simple telecom trick in our day to day life.
Next idea will be about algorithm, logic, software and more exciting. So stay tune to this innovation series "What an idea Sir-ji" on this blog "Express YourSelf !"


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Film legend Kirk Douglas has asked a federal judge in Manhattan to spare his drug-dealer grandson a harsh prison sentence.
Cameron Douglas also received a letter of support Tuesday from his actress stepmother, Catherine Zeta-Jones.
She calls him a "considerate, worthy human being."
The son of Michael Douglas had pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges he peddled large quantities of methamphetamine out of a trendy Manhattan hotel.
The charges carry a minimum term of 10 years behind bars. But lawyers for the admitted heroin addict argue he should get only 3 1/2 years at sentencing next week.
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PLAY IT NOW: Michael Douglas At New York Fashion Week
PLAY IT NOW: American Film Institute's Tribute To Michael Douglas
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Cameron Douglas - Catherine Zeta-Jones - Movies - Crime - Michael Douglas

subset: commoncrawl


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Digital Production
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"Artificial World," a two-week exhibition on view at New York's Mountain Fold, assembles works by six Japanese and American artists that explore "ideas of made-up, artificial, or simulated worlds." Visually, the show could not be more eclectic -- shelves of compact discs, knit objects, sprawling fabric paintings and gelatinous sculptures populate the small gallery. Common to many of the works, however, is an interest in the social and creative parameters of virtual space. Ben Fino-Radin, for example, has struck upon a neat, if somewhat twee, techno-meets-craft aesthetic vocabulary. In wall installations like Potience Module (2008), discreet, knit objects (largely depicting computer iconography, including code, mouse icons and the much-reviled hourglass) aggregate in symmetrical, totemic structures. Strips of black tape become disciplinary intermediaries in Aki Goto's big, energetic wall piece (Untitled, 2008), linking fabric and canvas paintings of cats with small, exquisite drawings in graphite and pen. The strongest of the latter presents a humorous take on virtual communities, equally steeped in the visual language of early-80s arcade games and the urban-abstraction of Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-3), as small, smiling heads form points within webs of overlapping lines. While these and most of the exhibition's other works settle on shallow inquiry - at times to their benefit - Masaru Aikawa's My 25 CDs (2008) strikes a deeper chord. Citing an interest in Benjamin and Warhol and a concern for the status of the artwork in the digital era, Aikawa has "passionately and respectfully duplicated," a cappella, twenty-five of his CDs. Aikawa's heartfelt vocal imitation of the ambient electronics of Kraftwerk's Autobahn provides the most hysterical treat. On a broader level, Aikawa makes a serious comment on twenty-first century virtual consumption, by means of his self-portrait as strange, irreverent fan. - Tyler CoburnImage: Ben Fino-Radin, Process NG ...
Word Art Encouragement (2008) - Micaela Durand
(In collaboration with BFFA3AE)
Linked In
A Tasty Mixture:<br> J&L's "Videos and Vodka"
Available this month, "Videos and Vodka," the second DVD anthology from J&L Video, comprises selections from a video salon artist Jacob Dyrenforth and curator Eva Respini ran out of their Brooklyn loft from 2004-2006. A strong sense of community binds the works, owing in part to the fact that Dyrenforth received his MFA from Columbia alongside many of the featured artists, including Ohad Meromi, Guy Ben-Ner and Lisi Raskin, as well as to the number of emerging, New York-based artists in the program. In an essay accompanying the anthology, Dyrenforth and Respini foreground these facts, describing their decision to create Video Salon as arising, in part, from a need to provide their friends and the broader public with "non-traditional viewing spaces," in the style of the "collectives, collaboratives and artist-run spaces" established in New York in the 1970s. While the 1990s saw the rise of high-production films, videos and moving-image installations from artists like Matthew Barney, Doug Aitken and Jane and Louise Wilson, many younger artists, the curators claim, "are reconnecting to a history that pre-dates the black-boxed multi-channel universe." Several of the works, for example, build whimsical or fantastical scenarios from patently everyday materials and circumstances, like Untitled, Air Guitar (2005), in which Robin Rhode plays and destroys a guitar drawn, sequentially, on a wall; or Ben-Ner's Berkeley's Island (2000) where the artist/father's desire for solitude manifests itself as a Crusoe-esque life on a desert island, comically set in the center of his kitchen. Others present intensively personal or shared narratives, from the deconstructed footage and text of Lisa Oppenheim's Dioptric (2003) - taken from an imaginary scrapbook - to the three-way telephone conversation in John Pilson's Sunday Scenario (2005), where the back-and-forth between baseball aficionados becomes a language unto itself. - Tyler Coburn
Image ...
Exploring Big Boxes, In and Out of the White Cube
The face of the American landscape has been forever changed by the invention of the "big box." These giant, typically nondescript retail meccas exemplified by Wal-Mart not only lead to the mowing-over of existing terrain, they also shift the cultural ecology of a space and bring with them more roads, more cars, and more garbage. But what happens when companies abandon these spaces in favor of paired-down, web-based operations? This is the question that artist Julia Christensen asks in her project Big Box Reuse. She's spent the last five years touring these renounced superstores, photographing them, collecting local residents' stories about the community impacts of the big boxes, and writing a forthcoming book. Documentation of these efforts are being exhibited through November 23rd at Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Gallery in an show curated by Astria Suparak, entitled "Your Town, Inc." Meanwhile, Turbulence has commissioned a forthcoming wiki on which the artist will invite people from across the country to upload their own stories, photos, and videos. Among the project's most poignant ironies is the question of what happens when the retailers that trade in over-packaged, often not-recyclable goods fail to successfully repurpose the structures in which they once perpetuated disposable culture. - Marisa OlsonImage: Julia Christensen, the Snowy Range Academy (Renovated Wal-Mart located in Laramie, WY) from Big Box Reuse, 2006
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4-D Hyper Movie (1962) - A. Michael Noll
"The notion of creating art works through the medium of machines may seem a little strange. Most people who have heard about the experimental use of digital computers in creative endeavors have probably shrugged them off as being of no consequence. On the one hand, creativity has universally been regarded as the personal and somewhat mysterious domain of man; and, on the one hand, as every engineer knows, the computer can only do what it has been programmed to do - which hardly anyone would be generous enough to call creative. Nonetheless, artists have usually been responsive to experimenting with and even adopting certain concepts and devices resulting from new scientific and technological developments. Computers are no exception."
Interview with Kevin Bewersdorf
In this interview, conducted by Rhizome Editorial Fellow Gene McHugh, artist Kevin Bewersdorf discusses his philosophy toward surfing the web, the spiritual dimension of his work and his upcoming show "Monuments to the INFOspirit" at the New York gallery V&A.


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Regional Opera Company of the Week: San Francisco Opera
BroadwayWorld.com, the largest theatre site on the net, continues its expansion into other areas of entertainment with our latest feature -The Regional Opera Company of the Week!
This week's featured Opera Company is The San Francisco Opera!
The San Francisco Opera celebrates its 90th year since it was founded by Gaetano Merola in 1923. Currently the second largest opera company in North America, the San Francisco Opera has grown from one production presented for two weeks to 75 performances of ten different operas running from September to July.
The company originally performed at the City's Civic Auditorium before it moved to the War Memorial Opera House in 1932. This is coincidentally still the companies current home over 80 years later This building was the first American opera house not built by or for a small group of wealthy patrons but instead through a group of private citizens who in turn encouraged thousands of San Fransicians to subscribe.
The San Francisco Opera is currently in its sixth general director. Starting with two visionary leaders, Gaetano Merola and Kurt Herbert, the company has always been recognized for one of the top opera companies in the world both with production quality and international roster of performers. Since the start of the company, San Francisco Opera has presented the world premieres of countless operas. Under David Gockley's leadership, the Company has added three new operas to that list: Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton's Appomattox (2007), StewArt Wallace and Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter (2008), and Christopher Theofanidis and Donna Di Novelli's Heart of a Soldier (2011). Future commissioned works include The Gospel of Mary Magdalene (summer 2013) by Mark Adamo and Dolores Claiborne (fall 2013) by Tobias Picker and J.D. McClatchy, in addition to The Secret Garden by Nolan Gasser and Carey Harrison (spring 2013), a co-commission with Cal Performances at UC Berkeley.
In addition to performances and premieres the company offers a wide range of award winning training programs and performance opportunities for young artists in both the San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program. The programs include the Adler Fellowship Program, the Scwabcher Debut Recital Series and education and outreach programs in the community the the San Francisco Oper Guild. The Guild, founded in 1939 was to develop greater understanding of opera and to increase opera audience through educational and outreach programs. The Guild supports San Francisco Opera through contributions and coordinating the services of hundreds of volunteers who give their time and expertise to assist Company staff and to act as tour guides to War Memorial Opera House visitors.
Another program, named after the founder and first general director, the Merola Opera Program annually offers 30 singers, coaches, and stage directors the opportunity to study, coach and participate in master classes for 11 weeks each summer. The group performs two fully-staged operas during the summer, a free concert at the Yerba Buena Gardens, and the famed Merola Grand Finale at the War Memorial Opera House.
The company has always and continues to follow its mission to present opera of the highest quality to the widest audiences as well as leading in training and arts education through the company. The 90 year company has proven itself time and time again and continues with this years season as well.
Current Season:
The 2012-13 season was filled with thrill this fall with Rigolettto, The Capulets and the Montagues, Moby-Dick, Lohengrin and Tosca.
Between seasons there is a special Family Presentation you won't want to miss:
The Secret Garden
March 2- 10, 2013
The season closes out with three operas and a concert. Be sure to get tickets for what promises to be a great season close:
The Tales of Hoffmann
June 5- July 6, 2013
Cosi Fan Tutte
June 9 - July 1, 2013
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
World Premiere
June 19 - July 7, 2013
Nicola Luisotti Concert
May 17. 2013.
Be sure to check out www.sfopera.com for more details on the company or to purchase tickets for any number of performances still lined up for this season!


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August Friedrich Siegert – The Small Connoisseur
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson
Wisdom cannot be imparted.
Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart
always sounds like foolishness to someone else.
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.
One can find it, live it, do wonders through it,
but one cannot communicate and teach it.
Hermann Hesse
We don't receive wisdom;
we must discover it for ourselves after a journey
that no one can take for us or spare us.
Marcel Proust
The fool doth think he is wise,
but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
William Shakespeare
People who know little are usually great talkers,
while men who know much say little.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The more I read, the more I acquire,
the more certain I am that I know nothing.
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom.
It is healthy to be reminded
that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
Mahatma Gandhi


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Ray Carl Daye - Rapid Ear Movement misc84
Rapid Ear Movement the third release by Ray Carl Daye, is a diverse collection of electronic/ambient instrumentals full of emotion and creativity. The compositions range from the energetic, sequence-driven minimalism of "Endless Departure" and "Dervish Moon" to the radiant, melodic riff of "Aqua Lit". Other notable tracks are the sentimental, gentle meditation of "Quiet Remergence"; the glittering soundtrack-inspired "Elusian Spring" and cinematic atmosphere of "The Illuminated Earth". In all, "Rapid Ear Movement" presents fourteen short soundtracks for an imagined cinema.
Ray Carl Daye has been writing and recording ambient/electronic music since 2006. His first album Spectral Navigator, released on Magnatune in 2008 was chosen by Galactic Travels radio as a Top 20 CD of June 2009. His second album Echoes From the Aether released in 2010 and available at the Hypnos store and ping things, was played on the nationally syndicated program Hearts Of Space. His current album titled Rapid Ear Movement was influenced by minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Glass, as well as Brian Eno.
"Ray Carl Daye displays an impressive talent that I'm quite moved by..."
rik maclean, ping things
"we are absolutely crazy about your music..."
John Buckman, Founder/Owner of Magnatune


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Fiscal cliff this. Fiscal cliff that. It's enough to make you want to jump off a cliff. So what does it all mean and why should you care?
Fiscal cliff this. Fiscal cliff that.
It's enough to make you want to jump off a cliff.
So what does it all mean and why should you care?
For your next watercooler conversation, we boil it all down for you.
The fiscal cliff is the looming deadline Congress imposed on itself — with severe economic consequences — if Congressional Democrats and Republicans and the White House fail to agree on a long-term plan to bring down annual budget deficits while preserving priority programs.
It is a combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that take effect Jan. 1, 2013, totaling more than $500 billion, unless an alternative combination of fiscal policies are approved.
Higher taxes account for about two-thirds of the impact, with lower spending accounting for the rest.
The fiscal cliff was enacted after a series of Congressional battles since 2009 failed to produce agreement on spending and tax priorities.
Republicans generally favor spending reductions while Democrats generally advocate tax hikes on the top 2 percent of taxpayers.
Most believe the nation's debt, which has soared during the recession and now totals more than $16 trillion, can't be sustained, that both tax hikes and spending reductions are required to improve the country's long-term economy.
A 12-person bipartisan "super committee" of the House and Senate, formed in 2011, failed to resolve major party differences by agreeing on $1.2 trillion in targeted savings over 10 years, triggering the tax hikes and program cuts scheduled to begin next year.
Among other things, you'll pay more in taxes or lose some government benefits.
Here's a glimpse:
A household earning $50,000 per year would have its overall tax bill grow by $2,000 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center. President Obama's two-year-old Social Security payroll tax cut would expire. The payroll tax was lowered by 2 percentage points, to 4.2 percent.
If the 6.2 percent payroll tax rate is reinstituted, a household with $50,000 in annual income would pay $1,000 more than this year in payroll taxes.
Some 2.1 million of the 5 million Americans receiving unemployment checks will lose those payments Dec. 31 if federal extensions expire as scheduled, according to Washington, D.C.'s WUSA-TV.
Extensions approved during the height of the recession boosted the length of jobless benefits up to 99 weeks, from 26 weeks following a layoff.
The so-called Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire Dec. 31, raising all income tax rates, including boosting the rate for the highest-income earners from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.
Sequester means the $109 billion, across-the-board annual reductions in most government programs and services that will begin next year — if Congress fails to avert the fiscal cliff — and continue until 2021.
About $55 billion of this would come from defense programs and $45 billion from non-defense.
Complete legislative inaction on the fiscal cliff would mean a $503 billion budget contraction in 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and would likely send the United States into another recession.
Some economists predict the unemployment rate would rise above 9 percent.
Nearly all government functions would endure an 8 to 10 percent cut, including weapons programs, scientific research, education and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The shock of another U.S. recession could cause another stock market crash and trigger a worldwide economic downturn, some predict.
That's not without its consequences.
Maintaining the status quo by extending the tax cuts and delaying program cuts poses risks.
Debt held by the public currently totals more than 75 percent of gross domestic product.
If that debt climbs to 100 percent of GDP, combined with continuing $1 trillion annual federal deficits, debt repayments would rise so high there would be little money left for economic growth, some research suggests.
If credit rating agencies downgrade the government's ability to repay its debts, interest rates will rise, draining more money from the treasury and taxpayers.
Lowering the nation's debt too much, too quickly through extensive program cuts could mean throwing 400,000 out of work, the CBO estimates.
No one knows. Many believe Congressional Democrats and Republicans will find a way during the current lame-duck session to approve a small "down payment" on deficit reduction, while outlining goals for entitlement and tax reform that would have to be taken up by the new Congress in 2013.
Others hope lawmakers this year will reach the elusive "grand bargain" to cut the debt by up to $4 trillion during the next decade, while establishing a process to reform the tax code.
Neither party, coming off the budget battles of the past four years and the recent general election, wants to take the blame for across-the-board cuts and a new recession.
That threat may be enough to force political adversaries to broker an agreement.
Sources: Bipartisan Policy Center, Christian Science Monitor, Congressional Budget Office, Council on Foreign Relations


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Tagged: Undaunted Courage
The last week doesn't deserve a clever title
Hello once more. I must start off by saying that I have been somewhat remiss in getting posts up of late, but I've alternately had my girlfriend and parents in town over recent home stands and my mind has been elsewhere by and large. That being said, given the way we have played over the last week maybe it is best that I not recall all the details. Our recent game action consists of losing three of four games to Erie, which actually improved our overall record at Erie's Jerry Uht Park to 1-10 on the season. It is very frustrating to continue to lose game after game to a team like Erie, who while certainly a good team, is not a collection of surpassing talents that simple dwarfs us. They do continue to beat us over and over again though so there is nothing to be done but tip our caps… and then go out and play better tonight in the first game of a four game series against Erie. Hey, we're 2-2 against them at home so that is something maybe. After our series with Erie we went out and lost two of three to Altoona, the team with the second worst record in the Eastern League. Enough said. My own performance over the last week has been good for the most part. I allowed a few un-earned inherited runners in one appearance and threw 2.2 scoreless innings in an extra-inning affair with Erie in my most recent appearance, so one can only hope it is the front end of a long hot streak.
Away from the field I have been doing a variety of things, namely taking seemingly forever to finish Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. It generally takes me anywhere from a day or two to a week to burn my way through a standard 300-400 page book but for some reason this particular book really jammed me up. It is a great book and I recommend that anyone with an interest in American history (that would be all of you) pick it up, but for whatever reason I just struggled to finish it. Oh well, now I'm on to The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl. Other than that I've just been hanging out in Erie (boo) and now hanging out with my parents and brother around Akron. We took in the Hower House a couple days ago which was okay. It is an old Victorian home built in 1871 by John Henry Hower and currently owned by the University of Akron, where the home resides. It is a cool old house and I am glad I saw it, but if I could only do one or the other I would not tour the Hower House at the expense of seeing Stan Hywet Hall. Well, I'm off to spend some more quality time with the family before I head off to the field so I'll leave you with a poem by my favorite poet, Stephen Dunn, and sign off until next time.
What Goes On
by Stephen Dunn
After the affair and the moving out,
after the destructive revivifying passion,
we watched her life quiet
into a new one, her lover more and more
on its periphery. She spent many nights
alone, happy for the narcosis
of the television. When she got cancer
she kept it to herself until she couldn't
keep it from anyone. The chemo debilitated
and saved her, and one day
her husband asked her to come back —
his wife, who after all had only fallen
in love as anyone might
who hadn't been in love in a while —
and he held her, so different now,
so thin, her hair just partially
grown back. He held her like a new woman
and what she felt
felt almost as good as love had,
and each of them called it love
because precision didn't matter anymore.
And we who'd been part of it,
often rejoicing with one
and consoling the other,
we who had seen her truly alive
and then merely alive,
what could we do but revise
our phone book, our hearts,
offer a little toast to what goes on.


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Wal-Mart has apparently decided to follow Best Buy and Netflix and only offer its customers Blu-ray Disc products in future.
From June, the retail giant will no longer offer HD DVD players.
The news comes from the company's Check Out blog, penned by staffers. One of them, Susan Chronister, today wrote: "OK, so are you ready... Wal-Mart is going Blu.
"By June, Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, and of course standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players.
"Not sure of the short-term pricing plans, but history tells us that as more people move to a new technology prices typically go down."
If Chronister's claim is an accurate representation of company policy, it could mark the beginning of the end for HD DVD. Toshiba is rumoured to be reconsidering its stance on the format, which is not a good sign, and suggests Wal-Mart's decision might already have been communicated to it.
Even the consumer electronics giant intends to stand steadfastly behind HD DVD, it's hard to imagine the format surviving the loss of Wal-Mart among its retail partners. Don't forget, Wal-Mart was instrumental in making Toshiba's programme of massive HD DVD player price cuts drive sales during the last half of 2007.


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- Film Release Date : 1992-06-18
- Languages spoken : English
- Film Note : -movie_rating-
- Duration of movie : 126
- Movie Genre : Action, Crime, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller,
- Status : Released
- Original title : Batman Returns
- Vote Count : 281
- Societies of production : Warner Bros. Pictures
- Tagline : The Bat, the Cat, the Penguin.
- Youtube Id : -youtube_id-
- Average rate : 6.2
- Michael Keaton Character (Batman/Bruce Wayne)
- Danny DeVito Character (Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot)
- Michelle Pfeiffer Character (Catwoman/Selina Kyle)
- Christopher Walken Character (Max Shreck)
- Michael Gough Character (Alfred)
- Pat Hingle Character (Commissioner James Gordon)
- Paul Reubens Character (Mr. Cobblepot/ Penguin's Father)
- Michael Murphy Character (Mayor)
- Diane Salinger Character (Mrs. Cobblepot/Penguin's Mother)
- Cristi Conaway Character (Ice Princess)
Batman Returns Synopsis:
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text: Hello friends, I am not much good in GIMP but stilll keep trying. This is one of the most finest creation of mine You can even see that image here :- http://picasaweb.google.com/siddharthha ... 3251340306 It is a wallpaper of resoultion 640×480 pixels and will take some time to clear its pixels ,may be even 20 seconds. Hope you like it If you wanna its tutorial I can supply you with it


text:
Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center
4800 Memorial Drive
Waco, TX 76711
Phone: 800-423-2111 X 2
Map Driving Directions
Parent Facility: Central Texas Veterans Health Care System (Temple)
Phone: (800) 423-2111
The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System (CTVHCS) consists of two medical centers located in Temple and Waco; one new 184,000 square foot free-standing VA Outpatient clinic in Austin; four community based outpatient clinics in Brownwood, Cedar Park, College Station and Palestine; LaGrange VA Outreach Center; one Temple Annex Clinic; two nursing homes in Temple and Waco; one domiciliary in Temple, a Blind Rehabilitation Unit in Waco and two patient, rehabilitation units for post-traumatic stress disorder and severely mentally ill life enhancement in Waco. All facilities are VA staffed.
The Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Waco medical center is a psychiatric facility which provides inpatient psychiatric care, nursing home care to psycho geriatric patients, and includes a Women Recover In Supportive Environment (RISE) residential program. Additionally, the Seriously Mentally Ill Life Empowerment Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (SMILE RRTP) provides services to individuals with a severe mental illness using the recovery model and with a goal to improve the quality of life for veterans and promote independence.
Waco's psychiatric mission consists of 64 intermediate and acute psychiatric beds. In addition, the Waco facility has 140 beds to provide long term care to "psycho-geriatric" patients, who are defined as those patients with a psychiatric disorder who are age 65 or older. Individuals older than age 50, who have chronic diseases resembling a geriatric process, are also considered for program placement. The goal of the program is to discharge the veteran to the least restrictive setting. Waco also includes a Blind Rehabilitation Unit that started in 1974 and currently has 15 inpatient beds. The program provides comprehensive rehabilitation services for legally blind veterans. Aids and devices are issued to veterans to include mobility devices, low vision optical aids, communication equipment, and computers.
In addition to inpatient services, the Waco facility provides outpatient services for primary care, mental health and some outpatient specialty care services.
Outpatient Clinics/Vet Centers include:
- Olin E. Teague Veterans' Medical Center – three outpatient teams
- Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Waco
- Temple Annex
- Austin Outpatient Clinic
- Brownwood CBOC
- Bryan/College Station CBOC
- Cedar Park CBOC
- Palestine CBOC
- LaGrange VA Outreach Center
- Austin Vet Center
- Killeen Heights Vet Center
This is one of the newest VA inpatient medical/surgical medical centers after opening in 1998 in Temple. CTVHCS is a major provider of health care for combat veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. It has one of the largest inpatient psychiatric facilities in the country which was officially named a Mental Health Center of Excellence in 2006, after legislation passed by U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2005. The Olin E. Teague Veterans' Medical Center in Temple is a tertiary care facility. It is a teaching medical center, providing a full range of patient care services, with state-of-the-art technology as well as education and research. Comprehensive health care is provided through primary care, tertiary care, and long-term care in areas of medicine, surgery, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, oncology, dentistry, geriatrics, and extended care. The Temple campus also includes a 408-bed Domiciliary and a 160-bed State Veterans Home. The Temple medical center is the only campus with an Emergency Room that operates around the clock.


text:
Derrickhand, Pulling Unit (Midland)Basic Energy Services Featured Employer
Midland, Texas, United States
Position Overview : Responsible for all work above the working floor/platform.
This is a safety sensitive position.
Reports to : Field Supervisor-Rigs
Directs Reports : None
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Physical Requirements :
Typical working conditions and hazards :
If any applicant and/or employee is not able to meet these requirements immediately and indefinitely, said applicant and/or employee may not be eligible for employment, re-employment, or promotional opportunities, and may be subject to termination if it is determined that said applicant or employee is determined to be impaired, by following the Company's reasonable suspicion training, and process.
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At Basic Energy Services, we are committed to being a leader in the oil and gas well servicing industry by:
We strive to fulfill that commitment by getting the job done right, every time.
That means completing our work efficiently to industry and customer standards without injury to people, damage to property or adverse impact to the environment.
We make Safety an integral part of our Mission and our daily work.
At Basic, our Safety Policy is based on 5 key fundamental elements:


text: Reading Level Grades 2 - 3. Interest Level: Grades 3-6. Comic chapter books feature the greatest super heroes: Batman, Superman™, The Green Lantern, and The Flash. Original art by DC illustrators will captivate young readers and give them glowing examples of bravery, loyalty, and true heroism. Set of 8. Paperback.


text:
A new great Adventure1 comments Posted by Matt Grover at 5:13 pm
A while ago now (late 2006), I made the very conscious decision to not get involved with any more short films, with the exceptions of the occasional bit of helping out mates, I decided to avoid the whole "indie film industry", partly as I felt it's not really an industry.
Now I'm not saying there's not such thing as the Indie Film Industry, there clearly is, there's plenty of feature films being made without studio backing and being sold through a variety of distribution channels, from DVD distribution to Sundance and successful theatrical release, that, to me is the Indie Film Industry.
One of the definitions of Industry is "the organised action of making of goods and services for sale", the "for sale" bit, being my key point here. I seemed to be working with a lot of people who were under the impression that they were working in the "indie film industry" by making short films and maybe getting them screened in a pub somewhere. (Or even longer films in some cases), not seeing the film as a product, not having a realistic plan for it's distribution or getting any sort of return on, in some cases, quite a substantial investment. I myself spent out about £1000 on a short that didn't come out quite as I'd hoped and sat on an edit hard-drive for a couple of years, before getting archived on another hard-drive (still unfinished), but that's a slightly different post, although a realisation hit me at the end of the main part of production on that short.
That realisation about the "industry" I was involved in was that it clearly wasn't "the film industry", that it's more of an Amateur Film Maker's club.
That realisation was born of accepting to myself that, despite all the special features watched, the course at Brighton Film School, the books I'd read and all my enthusiasm, I really didn't know what I was doing. I had an idea about it sure, but going out and directing this reasonably ambitious short for a first timer (anything I'd shot before doesn't count at all), pulling together a crew and cast, making the whole thing work over a weekend, I was clearly an amateur, and so were the majority of people I'd worked with on this and other shorts/films.
There's a lot to be said for just going out and doing it, learning as you go. There's also a lot to be said for learning how to do it wrong.
At the time I was trying to change career, move entirely into a different industry, from retail into media/film, so my outlook was very career focussed and before my anti-shorts decision, I was all about getting involved with shorts, writing my own scripts, going to screenings, alongside the paid work I'd gained working in factual TV production. (The choice of going the Factual TV route was a circumstance/financial one really, but that's the route I chose at the time!)
Obviously, like many people out there i was hoping to, not only gain film-making experience, but also contacts, people in the industry who could then hopefully lead to more work. Unfortunately, most of the people in the "proper" film industry are not working on your average no-budget miniDV short film, thus the contacts being made only led to other no-budget miniDV short films, plus all of us were in the same boat on the skills front, sure there were people who'd been doing it longer, but pretty much all of us were just bumbling along figuring stuff out. Working on an "indie" film set is not the same as working on a professional film/tv set. Blind leading the blind and all that.
So I decided (after much faffing about with my own film) that I needed to learn a hell of a lot more and that doing these short films wasn't getting me to where I wanted to be. Time to focus all my energies on 'proper' work.
At the time, where I wanted to be was still up in the air. I'd already made the decision to go the factual production route (researching) for various reasons, so that's where my focus lay, eventually being allowed to shoot stuff, deciding that I really wasn't all that happy with being stuck in the office phone-bashing for 7 of my 8 weeks of contract, then getting to the point of using "real cameras" instead of just PD170s & Z1's (although I still get a LOT of Z1 work, plus I KNOW how to shoot on one!), then working with and alongside experienced professional cameramen to start learning "the craft" and that's essentially where I want to be now.
I am a cameraman, I moved on from factual production over a year ago, although still keep a hand in every now and again to keep skills up, but I'm developing myself as a cameraman. The route I've taken (via production) has kind of niched me to a degree, the same as other routes, such as the kit-room upwards route can do, but in different areas, but that's something I'm working on, at the end of the day I'm a cameraman, yes I'm multi-skilling, I can edit on FCP and (bit rusty on) Avid, I have a strong factual production background and years of management experience behind me, but at the end of it, I want to be the best camerman/camera operator I can be, learning "the craft" so that with any luck, down the line I can be a top end operator, perhaps be able to call myself a "lighting cameraman" or even a "DoP" (people giving themselves titles above their station/experience, again is another post). Getting to this point, which is still early days as far as I'm concerned, has come from focussing on that 'proper work' and ignoring the Amateur Film Club/Indie Film Industry stuff.
Now you may be thinking that this is just a big snobby rant about short films and slagging off the people who make them, it's not (it's leading somewhere, honest). I know people who have and who currently are, making low/no-budget films, FEATURES even, with a view to distributing them and with any luck, pulling in some sort of revenue, they also work on shorts, some of them have also been doing work in the "proper" film industry, but that hasn't been garnered solely from doing no-budget dv shorts.. I've worked on odd shorts and other projects since my decision, for friends, as I've said. I've no problem with the many people who are out there making shorts, I've seen some absolutely cracking ones along with the plethora of dross, just to me, at the time, and to a degree, still now, feel that the "indie film industry" is not where I should be focussing my energies to achieve the goals that I want to reach.
So why is it then am I about to embark on producing, what is, for all intents and purposes a number of short films, shot for minimal budget, with minimal crew and generally as far removed as you can get from a "professional film set", what I've been purposely avoiding for the past few years??
It could just be put down to the "working with friends" exception rule, but it's not, I'm investing a lot more time, effort and cash into this. We're really starting to go against pretty much everything I've been saying now!!
Is it because we're calling them a "Podcast" or "Web Series" instead of "Short Films", does merely a change of title mean that makes it all okay, when everything else about the project fits the description of your usual no-budget DV faire? Well partly. I say partly because, we've got a definite distribution plan for the product (it IS a product after all), okay getting something up on the web isn't exactly rocket science any more, but getting that all important marketing and promotion down, that's still eluding a lot of people. Plus we're developing a series rather than a single short, which means it's more marketable and more open to viewer investment (of the repeat/return viewing kind rather than monetary), AND we are looking at ways to monetise it, it's certainly more feasible to make money back (on what ever scale) from a series than a single short or group of disparate shorts.
The fact remains tho, that we're not expecting to make any money from it and even the vague expectations we have at the moment, amount to covering production expenses. There are podcasts/web series out there who have "made it", ones who are pulling in high viewing numbers and reasonable revenue from varying sources, the same as there are filmmakers out there who have made a few shorts and gone on to "make it" in the film industry, but I'd say the numbers (in some form) are comparable.
So I am going back on everything I said earlier then? Again, partly. There's a whole lot of "speculate to accumulate" in this project, and no real guaranteed "accumulate", I've got to invest a fair bit of time and energy, as well as some cash (although trying to keep it as low as possible) into what is essentially an experiment into a field I've been interested in for a while, all the time, fitting it around my 'proper' work, to make sure I can still bring money in and further my career goals (along with the other people involved), with the hope that it will see some modicum of success. Much like many short film makers.
So apart from having some vague plan and a good level of belief in the project, what else? Enjoyment.
Adventure Men, as we call it, is carrying on from a thing I got involved in back in March (wow, that went by quick!!). A friend of mine, who for the purposes of this post we'll call Ross Lewis, who worked with me at Gadgetshop, got in touch and said that he and his good friend Simon Daneski were planning on doing something for Comic Relief and did I fancy coming along and filming it for them. It sounded like it could be fun, so this fell into the "working with mates" exception category.
Fun is not how to describe it. Having an absolute BLAST is slightly better. A total of six hours of filming time (an evening, a morning of climbing a hill, some lunch and a little bit after lunch) became the five episode behemoth comedy event that is Touching the Dyke, (that links to YouTube, you could also have the Touching the Dyke Vimeo Channel if ya fancy) which thus far has been pretty well received, over 3000 views, cumulative across all videos and sites (and raised over £400 for Comic Relief). So the viewing figures, ratings and people saying "That was actually pretty funny", all from very little planning and haphazard promotion efforts, combined with the enjoyment on the day (the edit schedule was ridiculous, t'will be more measured this time around), gave all three of us involved a full on robot chubby for doing some more.
Factoid: I initially insisted that TtD would be a single max 10 minute short. D'oh!
Factoid: I've initially insisted that the first installment Adventure Men (and subsequent installments) will span no more than two 7-9 minute episodes. This is being met with some doubt/resistance from within the AdMen camp. Only edit time will tell!!
So this time round, slightly more planning, some may say even collaborative workflow (!! more on that another time), a lot more ideas and struggling to come up with ideas to expand the thing. Trying to format it better, this is mostly down to me as I've got to cut the thing together, so I need to make sure I cover all my shots on the shoot day(s) whilst letting Ross & Simon keep to their flow. The reason for formatting is, we're going for a series, a series needs identity, more than characters and titles, although considering I'm no After Effects wiz, I'm pretty chuffed with what I came up with on the title front! A series needs structure, I'm basing that structure on existing programmes and adapting it accordingly, whether we can stick to that once we get into things, we'll have to wait and see.
It's still all very experimental though. All a bit "run-and-gun", there's no script, simply a number of beats we know we want to hit, and ideas we want to include, the rest is totally improvised by Ross & Simon, thus from a filming POV, especially as a single camera shoot, that's a challenge, need to get coverage and details in one take (thinking two camera shoot's a possible, if I can cover kit and find someone for next Tuesday! the 28th!!) although I think I'm gonna cover my technical concerns in another post as this one is MAHOOSIVE! (at least compared to what I normally post)
Anyway, My point, if there is one to this, is that I'm not totally going back on what I decided was my way forward back in 2006, I'm still not going to devote time to working on loads of other people's shorts, but this project is something I'm willing to devote to, something I'll work to fit in and make work, whether it does or not, we'll have to wait and see, it will hopefully evolve and improve, but it's still down to people watching it and liking it as to whether this particular "amateur" project will make it or not. I hope it does.
Finally, apologies for any bad links, spelling mistakes and the glaring grammar issues throughout, but deal with it (in a nice way).
You can follow the progress of Adventure Men in a few ways...
On the Lookout Film & Digital blog (Adventure Men announcement)
Follow @AdventureMen on Twitter
and currently we've set up our YouTube account http://www.youtube.com/AdventureMenShow although we'll also be publishing to other hosting sites.
We're currently toying with a dedicated website, but nothing just yet.
I'll post certain personal thought son stuff here, and I'm sure Ross will do much the same on his blog.
A couple of links to people who I know and I feel are actually doing something vaguely sensible in the "indie film industry" ;)
Mike Peter Reed, his blog is here - Filmmaker Slog
Simon Drake and Dan Rickard working on Darkest Day
Labels: AdventureMen, film, podcast, production, TtD


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Menckeniana is a magazine devoted to the life and works of H.L. Mencken. It includes stories, reminiscences, and scholarly articles about Mencken. It also occasionally publishes some of his previously unpublished work. It is available
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SMOS maps Europe's dry autumn soils
Dry soil resulting from Europe's exceptionally warm and dry autumn is being monitored by ESA's SMOS water mission. The images here show the stark comparison between soil moisture in November 2010 and November 2011.
Like the most of the year, this autumn has been particularly dry. In the Netherlands, for example, just 9 mm of rain fell in November, compared to the average of 82 mm. According to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI, November was the driest since records began in 1906.
Prolonged dry weather in Germany is not only disrupting shipping in the Rhine and Elbe rivers, but has also recently sparked a forest fire in Bavaria.
The UK Environment Agency says that even if England experiences average rainfall over winter and spring, parts of the country are unlikely to see a full recovery from drought conditions in 2012.
The lack of rain across Europe is reflected in the readings from ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission.
Orbiting above, SMOS records the amount of moisture held in the surface layer of soil.
With its novel instrument and imaging technique, SMOS can measure the moisture in soil within an accuracy of 4% – about the same as detecting a teaspoonful of water mixed into a handful of dry soil.
Data from SMOS show the difference in soil moisture between this November and November 2010 right across Europe. The difference is especially pronounced in Germany, Austria and further east.
While these maps offer an interesting snapshot, the information is important for a better understanding of the water cycle and, in particular, the exchange processes between Earth's surface and the atmosphere.
Soil moisture is a variable in the weather and climate system and these data are used by hydrologists, soil scientists, meteorologists and ecologists.
In addition, since the amount of water in soil dictates plant growth and crop yield, the information is useful for agricultural applications and managing water resources.


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Weekend Edition Sunday
- Hosted by Rachel Martin
- Local Host Karlie Huckels
On Sundays, Weekend Edition combines the news with colorful arts and human-interest features, appealing to the curious and eclectic. With a nod to traditional Sunday habits, the program offers a fix for diehard crossword addicts-word games and brainteasers with The Puzzlemaster, a.k.a. Will Shortz, puzzle editor of The New York Times. With Hansen on the sidelines, a caller plays the latest word game on the air while listeners compete silently at home. The NPR mailbag is proof that the competition to go head-to-head with Shortz is rather vigorous.
Another trademark of Sunday's program is "Voices in the News," a montage of sound bites from the past week, poignant in its simplicity. Hansen also engages listeners in her discussions with regular contributors, who cover a wide range of national and international issues.


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Orchestral fans take a swing at conducting a virtual orchestra
Two of the hottest video games this Christmas season are Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band. Both let players act out their rock star fantasies. A new interactive installation at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis gives classical music fans the opportunity of experiencing their dreams of conducting a great symphony.
The Virtual Maestro is in the lobby during this season's holiday performances.
It's one of two installations the Minnesota Orchestra's season sponsor UBS has traveling to concert halls around the country.
Minnesota Public Radio's Karl Gehrke stopped by Orchestra Hall as concert goers tried their hands at conducting a virtual orchestra.


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Excellences,Distinguished delegates,Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am deeply honored by your invitation to address this forum, and to provide you with UNCTAD's assessment of current global investment trends and policy responses.
As we meet here today, the fallout from the global financial and economic crisis in 2008 is continuing, and it is likely to be felt for some time to come. Despite the beginnings of a recovery in 2009 and 2010, global growth is now faltering again: down from 4 per cent in 2010 to 2.8 percent in 2011 and to 2.3 per cent in 2012. It is likely that global growth will, at best, remain at this level in 2013.
This weak growth is mainly due to the poor performance of the developed economies, which grew at a mere 1.2 per cent in 2012, and are likely to fall below 1 per cent in 2013. In developing and in transition economies, growth has been stronger - sustained by resilient domestic demand - although it is also set to decelerate to around 5 and 3.5 per cent respectively. This is in part due to homegrown problems, but in large part because the economic woes of the developed countries are now spilling over to developing countries and economies in transition through weaker demand and heightened volatility in capital flows and commodity prices.
The slowdown of the global recovery has also made itself felt in global investment flows. Indeed, global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows declined by 18% in 2012, to an estimated $1.3 trillion - a level close to the trough reached in 2009 - due mainly to macroeconomic fragility and policy uncertainty for investors. This means that the FDI recovery that started in 2010 and 2011 will now take longer than previously expected. We estimate that FDI flows could rise moderately to $1.4 trillion in 2013 and $1.6 trillion in 2014, with anticipated improvements in macroeconomic conditions and an increasing use of some of the record levels of cash reserves that TNCs are currently sitting on. However, persistent uncertainties and structural weaknesses in major developed economies and in the global financial system may prove crucial for investor confidence and delay the recovery even further.
Beyond these global trends, we are also seeing important changes in the composition and distribution of FDI flows. In particular, it is worth recording that in 2012, for the first time ever, FDI flows to developing economies exceeded those to developed countries, by some $130 billion. This is in large part because, FDI flows to developing economies remained resilient to the slowdown of the world economy, declining by only 3%, while in developed countries, FDI flows fell drastically to values last seen almost ten years ago. This changing pattern of FDI flows is confirmed also in the global ranking of the largest FDI recipients: in 2012 three of the top 4 host economies were from developing economies. While the United States and China maintained their top position, Hong Kong (China) and Brazil each moved up one place from their 2011 ranking.
But even if developing countries overall did comparatively well, there are important regional differences. In particular, flows to developing Asia decreased by 9.5% in 2012, although they remained at historically high levels. In contrast to the decline in Asia, Latin America and Africa saw a small increase in FDI inflows. Nevertheless, inflows to Asia are still accounting for 59% of FDI flows to developing countries.
A third trend we can observe is the changing sectoral composition of FDI in recent years, with the services sector replacing manufacturing as the largest recipient. The primary sector was the most heavily hit in relative terms in 2012, both in greenfield projects and cross-border M&As. The fall was driven by a decline in the mining, quarrying and petroleum industry, representing the bulk of FDI activity in this sector. The main manufacturing industries displayed very poor FDI performance. Again, manufacturing industries in the area of processing of extractive material were the main losers in this sector. In contrast, services were the least affected sector. This may be due to the fact that some service industries are by nature less sensitive to business cycles (for example in the utilities) whilst others face more promising medium term growth prospects (for example business services).
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Against this backdrop of the fallout from the financial crisis, governments have implemented a number of measures to restore growth. Initially, several large economies pursued coordinated stimulus packages, often including large-scale investments, which successfully served to prevent the crisis from becoming a meltdown. More recently, several governments have focused on fiscal consolidation, and are hoping to restore investor confidence and growth through austerity measures. So far this has not proved successful and it is likely that additional stimulus measures to restore growth in the world economy may be needed.
In the area of investment, we have seen many countries revise their policy stances, both nationally and internationally. While the overall trend for countries continues to be towards the liberalization and promotion of foreign investment, we can also observe a move towards more regulatory or restrictive policy measures. Two decades ago, on average, more than 95 percent of investment policy changes were related to improving the entry conditions and treatment for foreign investors - i.e. more liberalization, promotion and facilitation. However, since then, the share of national policy measures directed at more investment regulations and restrictions has increased significantly and is now heading towards 30 percent.
UNCTAD's latest Investment Policy Monitor (covering the period November 2012 - February 2013) reports a surge in new investment restrictions and regulations, bringing the share of such measures to a new height. Individual measures included new land ownership restrictions, nationalizations and stricter screening procedures for FDI. In many cases, this policy shift is a rebalancing of investment policy making from an exclusive focus on liberalization to a more balanced approach, which aims to also maximize the development benefits from FDI. Indeed, many of these policies reflect the legitimate concerns of national governments and may be supportive of sustainable development objectives. Nevertheless, there is a risk that investment restrictions are misused for protectionist purposes, and greater international cooperation is needed to clarify the distinction between legitimate investment restrictions and protectionism.
The more cautious approach we are seeing at the national level is also mirrored at the international level. This can be seen in five striking developments. The first relates to the decrease in the number of newly negotiated investment agreements. In 2012, 30 international investment agreements (IIAs) were signed - the lowest annual number of newly concluded treaties in 20 years (and considerably lower than last year's number of 47). This may, in part, be due to the concerns increasingly voiced by civil society groups about some of these agreements, as well as to the ongoing shift in investment policy making.
The second important development is the rise of regional approaches to policymaking. In today's spaghetti bowl of IIAs, bilateral agreements constitute the overwhelming majority. However, the gradual shift towards regionalism is potentially more significant economically, in terms of the global output covered by these agreements. In 2012, negotiations at the regional level continued to intensify, involving at least 110 countries and 22 agreements. Two of the most prominent developments are the ongoing negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), in which the combined economic weight of the participating States would account for 35 per cent of global GDP; and the European Union's investment treaty-making powers, in which any agreement concluded by the bloc will bring together at least 27+1 countries. Other regional groupings, such as ASEAN and the Central American States, have also emerged as regional investment actors.
The shift to regionalism can bring about the consolidation and harmonization of investment rules and be a step towards multilateralism. However, where new regional treaties do not entail the phase-out of old bilateral ones, the result may very well be the opposite: instead of simplification and growing consistency, regionalization may lead to a multiplication of treaty layers, making the network of agreements even more complex and prone to overlaps and inconsistencies.
The third observable trend concerns the growing emphasis on sustainability considerations in the negotiation of international investment agreements. Although many of the recently concluded agreements follow the traditional model that focuses solely on investment protection, others deviate from this. Several new innovations are meant to ensure that treaties do not contradict, but instead contribute to, countries' sustainable development strategies.
The fourth notable trend that I would like to highlight relates to the ongoing reassessment of international investment agreements by a number of countries. Governments have approached this in a different manner, including (i) revising their model treaties, (ii) renegotiating "old" ones to replace them with "modern" ones, (iii) putting on hold the conclusion of any new agreements, and (iv) even terminating existing bilateral agreements and denouncing the ICSID Convention (WIR 2010).
These actions have been taken largely in response to an increasing number of international investor-State claims, which brings me to my fifth point. In 2012, investment disputes reached a new record, with at least 62 new investment arbitration cases initiated against host countries. This is the highest number of known treaty-based disputes ever filed in one year. Investment arbitration cases against host countries have been on the rise: by the end of 2012, the total number of known treaty-based disputes reached 518 and the total number of countries that have responded to one or more investment treaty claims increased to 95.
I believe that the ongoing re-assessment of investment policies at the national and international level can be beneficial both to growth and development. Investment policy-making must achieve a fine balance between attracting FDI and protecting the rights of investors on the one hand, and ensuring lasting development gains from such investment on the other. UNCTAD recently launched its Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development, so as to assist investment policy makers in the design of policies that focus on inclusive economic growth, provide support for industrial development, and seek to address the environmental and social impacts of investment. We hope that it can make a useful contribution to the current policy debates.
With this in mind, I wish to thank you for your attention and listen very carefully to your deliberations.
Thank you.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
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