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(2019) Drama (Zeitgeist/Kino-Lorber) Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie Proctor, Ross Brewster, Charlie Richmond, Julian Irons, Sheila Dunkerley, Maxie Peters, Christopher John Slater, Heather Wood, Alberto Dumba, Natalia Stonebanks, Jordan Collard, Dave Turner, Stephen Clegg, Darren Jones, Nikki Marshall. Directed by Ken Loach
It has likely never been harder to be a working man now than since the Middle Ages. Making ends meet is nearly impossible; wages have dropped sharply while the cost of living continues to rise. Jobs are not plentiful, certainly not of the kind that pay well enough to live decently. Cutting corners has become a way of life as people traverse the gig economy with tentative steps, knowing that they are much like people walking in a minefield with steel-toed boots.
Ricky Turner (Hitchen) has just lost his job in the construction industry and frankly, he's sick and tired of working jobs that can be taken away from him at a moment's notice. He wants to be his own boss and make a wage that will allow his family to have the things they need. However, jobs are particularly scarce in Newcastle, where he and his sweet wife Abbie (Honeywood) live with their teenage son Sebastian, or "Seb" as they call him (Stone) and their brilliant tween daughter Liza Jae (Proctor).
One of Ricky's mates links him up with PBF, a parcel delivery service who is run by the bullet-headed bulldog-like Maloney (Brewster) who runs his business like a drill sergeant. In the parlance of PBF, they don't hire employees, they onboard independent drivers. Drivers must supply their own vans, or rent one from the company at an exorbitant rate. However, if Ricky works hard and delivers his parcels on time, he will be making more than he ever did in construction, maybe enough so after two years they can save enough to put a down payment on a house, the dream of many renters.
isn't quite so enthusiastic. In order to buy a van, they'll have to sell the car that she uses to get to her job which is as an in-home caregiver to the elderly. She goes to their homes, cooks their meals, bathes them and tucks them into bed. She's ideally suited for the job, but her clients are all over the map and getting to her appointments on time required a car. Taking the bus will cause her to be late more often. However, in the interest of family harmony, she gives in.
At first, things are sunshine and roses. Ricky does well on his route and becomes Maloney's fair-haired boy, but there are some troubling signs. For one thing, the constant murderous pace of delivering parcels means drivers never get breaks and must learn to pee in a bottle rather than stopping anywhere for a bathroom break. For another, missing delivery windows and deadlines can lead to a system of demerits, which cost the drivers fines which put them in debt to PBF, forcing them to work more.
To make matters worse, Seb is indulging in some hooligan-ish behavior, skipping school, spray-painting graffiti along the roadsides and eventually getting into more serious trouble, forcing his parents to miss work in order to attend meetings with school headmasters and eventually police officers. Ricky is often so exhausted that he can barely see straight when he drives his van and taking the bus has forced Abbie to work longer hours as well. And despite the promise of better pay, the family is barely holding their heads above water as it is – it will take only the slightest of bumps to drown the lot of them.
Loach is one of the finest English directors of the past four decades and when I say that this is one of his best ever, keep in mind that he has films such as The Wind That Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake on his filmography. Like many of his films, this is a taut, no-frills productions – there's no score, and few special effects. The brisk pace keeps the story moving and whereas lesser directors might get bogged down in subplots, Loach and his longtime collaborator writer Paul Laverty keep their focus throughout.
It doesn't hurt that he gets fantastic performances from the entire cast, some of whom are non-professionals and Hitchen and Honeywood exhibit some marvelous chemistry and screen presence. The dynamic for the entire Turner family feels organic and realistic; this could be the family living in the flat (or apartment) three doors down from yours, Ricky the guy down at the pub (or bar) rooting for his favorite team (in Ricky's case, Manchester United).
The accents are very thick here, as they are in that part of England and so subtitles are necessary; some of the phrases may not be familiar to American audiences, so it might be frustrating to those who aren't familiar with English idioms. Still, this is a marvelous film that is a triumph for the 83-year-old director who shows no signs of slowing down. This is an accurate portrayal of the problems facing the working class, so much so that it may cut a little too close to home for some. Even so, it should be required viewing for economics and business students who should see what the human toll of the current profits-at-any-cost mindset of business worldwide really is.
REASONS TO SEE: A grim portrayal of the working class circa 2019. The family dynamic feels very realistic. Hitchen and Honeywood do bang-up jobs.
REASONS TO AVOID: The heavily-accented English requires subtitles and some of the idioms used may be difficult to follow for the layman.
FAMILY VALUES: There is a good deal of profanity, some violence and brief sexual situations.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The license plate number for Ricky's van is AK65 JFX.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 3/6/20: Rotten Tomatoes: 87% positive reviews: Metacritic: 82/100
COMPARISON SHOPPING: DriverX
NEXT: Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band


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Hundreds of schools are heeding the government's call to set up flu-shot clinics this fall, preparing for what could be the most widespread school vaccinations since the days of polio.
An Associated Press review of swine flu planning suggests there are nearly 3 million students in districts where officials want to offer the vaccine once federal health officials begin shipping it in mid-October.
Many more may get involved: The National Schools Boards Association told the AP three-quarters of the districts in a recent survey agreed to allow vaccinations in school buildings.
In South Carolina, "there will be a massive attempt to use schools as vaccination centers," said state Superintendent Jim Rex. He plans at least one vaccination clinic in each of the state's 85 school districts.
South Dakota started offering free children's vaccination against regular winter flu in 2007, and this year it plans to offer both kinds in many schools, said state Health Secretary Doneen Hollingsworth.
Now come the difficult details: figuring out all the logistics in giving squirmy youngsters a shot in the arm or a squirt in the nose.
That's in addition to measures being taken to keep the swine flu virus from spreading inside schools and to keep sick kids at home.
Already, Lee County, Miss., schools have reported a few cases of swine flu the first week of school, and a Louisiana high school football team reported 20 players sick or recovering from it.
To make sure students wash their hands, Minneapolis schools have outfitted every restroom with tamperproof soap dispensers, so students don't horse around with soap. And the district has a no-excuses policy to keep them filled.
"It sounds so simple, but it works," district emergency management director Craig Vana said.
Bismarck, N.D., is insisting that parents keep feverish children home. "We're going to have to be a little firmer on that this year than in the past," superintendent Paul Johnson said.
It can be hard to tell if a child has a bad cold or flu — and swine flu and regular flu share the same symptoms. For many schools, a 100-degree temperature automatically means sending a child home.
The goal is to keep schools open; federal officials said last week schools should close only as a last resort. The emergence of the never-before-seen flu strain last spring prompted more than 700 schools to temporarily close, giving students an unexpected vacation as parents scrambled to find child care.
Some big states, like California, Ohio and Massachusetts, are focusing on those steps and not on vaccinations, because they don't know how much vaccine the federal government will send or when it will arrive. Boston has decided against in-school vaccinations because an attempt at regular winter flu inoculations at a middle school last year flopped, and Dallas officials also have decided against school shots.
But hundreds of districts are preparing for vaccinations. At least 700 health and school officials joined an online seminar last week by the National Association of County & City Health Officials on how to run school flu vaccinations.
The government is awaiting results of vaccine studies that began last week before making a final decision on whether and how to offer swine-flu inoculations. If vaccinations go forward, children are to be among the first in line. They could get vaccine at a variety of places, but federal officials want schools to play a starring role.
"The vaccine over time will be available to every child," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with the AP. "And I personally think the best place for them to have access would be at their local school or at a school in their neighborhood."
An AP-GFK poll last month found parents like that convenience: Nearly two-thirds said they were likely to give permission if their child's school offered vaccinations.
The school setting is attractive for many reasons, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Swine flu seems to strike the young most often, and it's particularly easy to spread from child to child. Moreover, school-age children "don't see doctors very often," Schuchat told the AP, after they've accumulated the list of vaccinations required for school entry.
She added that it should be relatively easy for schools to offer flu-shot clinics because the federal government would be buying swine flu vaccine and sending it free to states.
"You won't have to screen for insurance. That's been a big challenge in school-associated regular flu-shot clinics," Schuchat said. "That slows down the process."
There is plenty of experience with vaccinating school kids for regular flu, and there is plenty of evidence it works.
For the fourth year running, Knox County, Tenn., vaccinated 30,000 children for free in schools and daycare centers last year. The county often closed schools because of winter flu outbreaks in the past, but it hasn't since vaccinations began.
And in the last flu pandemic, in 1968, Tecumseh, Mich., vaccinated 85 percent of its school-age children, resulting in two-thirds less illness there than in a neighboring community.
There is an important difference with this year's swine-flu inoculations: Health officials think two separate doses, about three weeks apart, will be needed. Studies are under way now to confirm that. If so, it means any school that offers the first shot must set up for each recipient to get the second dose.
Different school districts handle vaccinations differently. Some will offer only vaccine against the regular winter flu — also important, as both types are expected to hit this year. In Florida's Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, the health department won an economic stimulus grant to vaccinate every student at all 78 elementary schools against seasonal flu, said Rita Becchetti, supervisor of school health services.
That could be confusing for parents trying to remember which vaccine their child is getting.
Chicago, on the other hand, probably will have swine-flu shot clinics at select high schools, not elementary schools, saying it simply doesn't have the workers to send teams to more than 600 schools.
Berkeley County, W.Va., is considering drive-thru vaccinations at its three high schools, said district official George Michael.
In New York City, swine flu exploded in the spring at Saint Francis Preparatory School, which sent home 102 sick kids in one day. Today, City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley's first choice is for kids to get vaccinated by their own family doctors, but he's looking into clinics at schools or other locations.
"There's an awful lot of children who need to be vaccinated," Farley said.
Once the decision is made to offer flu shots at school, there are still issues to be worked out.
Not only must a parent sign a permission form, but someone needs to make sure it's filled out correctly and matches up with the kid. And there is staffing: Health professionals will need to administer shots and also check kids for reaction to the vaccine.
Schools will also need to decide whether parents should be present, said Brenda Greene, director of school health programs for the National School Boards Association.
"Are you going to do it at a time when the parents can be present, if they want?" Greene said. "I've heard the kids are more panicky when their parents are around than when they're not."
Knox County, Tenn., has always used FluMist, the nasal spray flu vaccine, to eliminate that concern, and will again this year in school vaccinations against regular flu. But most of the swine flu vaccine supply will be in shot form, and program director Jennifer Johnson hasn't decided whether to offer that in schools, too. She said one possibility is to inoculate kids at elementary schools after-hours, so parents could hold scared youngsters and then be vaccinated themselves.
The nasal spray is popular. Last year, FluMist maker MedImmune said it sent about 450,000 doses of the nasal spray vaccine to 140 school vaccination programs. The company expects FluMist vaccinations against regular winter flu to nearly double in schools this year.
Duncan, the education secretary, understands the more immediate issue for many schools is the start of the new school year. Once kids are back in class, "you want to get parents focused on the vaccine," he said.
In St. Paul, Minn., vaccinations are on the back burner until school gets under way after Labor Day, said Ann Hoxie, assistant director of student health and wellness.
"It's not going to be the first thing on everybody's mind. Reading and writing remain at the top of the list," Hoxie said.
Contributing to this story from the states were Associated Press writers Seanna Adcox, Christine Armario, Donna Blankinship, Terry Chea, Sandra Chereb, Bob Christie, Beth DeFalco, Melinda Deslatte, P.J. Dickerscheid, Jennifer Dobner, Elizabeth Dunbar, Benjamin Greene, Samantha Gross, Amy Beth Hanson, Carla K. Johnson, Dirk Lammers, Sarah Larimer, Matthew Leingang, Jay Lindsay, Deanna Martin, William McCall, Phyllis Mensing, Shaya Mohajer, Jean Ortiz, Dinesh Ramde, Monica Rhor, Barbara Rodriguez, Zinie Chen Sampson, Jamie Stengle, Nafeesa Syeed, Emily Wagster Pettus and Chris Williams.
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm wondering, did anybody ever do a mod to do something like give some of the civilians pistols in terror missions? Maybe make one civilian sprite a police officer that is shooting back?
They wouldn't last long, even against floaters or sectoids with just a pistol and no armor, but it would be an interesting change.


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Positives among the prickly
I was climbing a gorgeous rock formation in Arizona the other day, holding my 6-year-old's hand, when my foot slipped and my butt made acquaintance with a cactus.
This was not one of those tame, domestic cactuses. It was an ornery, feral succulent that saw my incoming posterior as a delightful opportunity to hone its human-puncturing skills.
So as not to terrify my son, I silently recited every profanity I know, tried hyphenating a few, and then created some new ones that I won't repeat. I ran my hand across the affected area and found I had been skewered by roughly 590,000 needles that varied in size from "toothpick" to "so small you'll need butt tweezers."
My son looked up at me, concerned. My wife and other son, who had scurried ahead to a small ledge, yelled at us to hurry up.
It was at that point that I stopped thinking about vacation and started thinking about work.
The simple way to explain that would be to say that work, like the cactus I met, is a pain in the butt. But I didn't become America's most-beloved workplace advice columnist through simple thinking.
Standing atop a time-worn, red sandstone formation known as Cathedral Rock, slowly pulling needles from my sitting region, I gained perspective on work and the way it intertwines with our lives. I turned pain into parable, and smiled through a grimace at the thought of writing a column about my tush.
Let me explain.
Cathedral Rock is in Sedona, Ariz., an area that over millions of years has been an ocean bed and coastal plain and now spreads out like a rocky, arid field broken up by stunning reddish monuments, testaments to the delicate craftsmanship of erosion.
Between two of Cathedral Rock's sheer spires is a narrow saddle believed to be a vortex of positive energy, a place where a person can find peace and spiritual awakening.
I can't say I felt the vortex's energy. Maybe because we weren't on the saddle long before my saddle was perforated, and I had to hide behind a juniper to de-needle.
But embarrassed and uncomfortable, I did have an awakening of sorts. It dawned on me that this misfortune took nothing away from the experience. It was, truly, a pain, but I was happy: I was with my family, and an unfortunate run-in was not going to ruin the day.
I had gained something that's crucial in our working lives: perspective. We began our descent and I noticed prickly pear cactuses around every turn, each presumably laughing at me in that irritating way cactuses do.
And I thought, "That's work life, isn't it?" A path we follow punctuated by nuisance after nuisance.
We tend to keep our eyes on the cactuses, to let the brush against something prickly distract us from the positive parts of the journey.
Maybe you don't like your job — but you trudge up the slope regardless. You're doing that for your family, perhaps, or to reach a better place. Don't forget that greater purpose next time a cactus comes along.
Or maybe you love what you do most of the time, but let negative situations needle you, causing you to miss the good moments or lose sight that they far outweigh the bad.
That's where perspective comes in. We must keep our journeys at work in the right context, because the pains in our behinds aren't going away.
Coming down from that rock, I thought more than once about stomping an innocent cactus, fulfilling some visceral desire for justice. But for every prickly pear I vanquished, there would be five more around the next bend.
So it is in the workplace. Every pernicious boss or co-worker, every frustrating moment, is followed by another. We can't stomp them all.
But we can reckon with the needles in our butts. We can enjoy the view and still believe we're hiking toward something better. And we can recognize that workplace cactuses — like those atop a southwestern energy vortex — are best quickly forgotten. Even if they make us wince.
Rex Huppke writes for the Chicago Tribune. Send him questions by email at email@example.com or on Twitter @RexWorksHere.


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Sound Recordings from the Spring
After making good use of my recording equipment this spring, the summer has been much slower for sound recording. I blame the heat, both because it keeps me inside much more often and because I don't like to take the … Continue reading
Posted in LCRV, Sound Recordings Tagged Anna's Hummingbird display, Bird recordings, Bird song, Encanto Park, Hummingbird noises, Lovebird calls, Lovebirds in Arizona, Northern Cardinal, Northern Cardinal call, Peach-faced Lovebird, Rosy-faced Lovebird, Screech Owl song, Western Screech Owl, Xeno-Canto 1 Comment


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Today's News: Our Take - The Bachelorette's Chris Harrison: "The Biggest Hurdle for Des Has Yet to Come"
After last week's drama on The Bachelorette, the final week in Europe proved to be pretty tame.
On Monday's episode, Desiree and her five remaining men headed to Madeira, where she got some girl time with her fellow Bachelorettes from Sean's season and had some romantic time with almost all the guys. But which one stood out by being the first to say "I love you?" And who was let go - and immediately called his mom? Host Chris Harrison shares his insight on the week leading into the big hometown dates.
I loved seeing Des catch up with Catherine, Leslie and Jackie. Did you get to see them too?
Chris Harrison: They wanted to keep the girls separate, so I didn't get to say hi to them, which was too bad. But it meant a lot to Des to have them there and when you see her talk to the girls you see a more personal side to Des.
The Bachelorette's Chris Harrison: viewers are going to fall for Drew
Brooks and Des' one-on-one date was just incredible.
Harrison: Madeira is this small little island off the coast of Morocco that is gorgeous and they have this spectacular mountain that goes above the clouds. It was so picturesque between the two of them with his hair flowing; it was like a J. Crew ad. They are beautiful.
Neither dates had roses on them. Is that always the case at this point?
Harrison: Toward the end we do a lot less of it because at this point, it's just about her picking four people to go on hometowns and there's really no reason to have that added pressure and drama. This is where we try to step a little away from show and facilitate this opportunity for her to find someone.
Zak and Drew, who had the two-on-one, were really under the radar for a lot of the season.
Harrison: They're both pleasant surprises this season. Why were they on a two-on-one? I think it's because Des didn't have to worry about them. They were getting the hometown date.
The Bachelorette's Chris Harrison: Ben's exit released the tension in the house
It wasn't a shock that Michael was sent home. Were you surprised at all?
Harrison: Michael would've had to come a really long way to upset someone and take their spot. He's a smart guy and a good conversationalist, but I think he peaked and maybe went a week further than we thought he would. I think Des wanted to give him a one-on-one date because he was a question mark and not necessarily a foregone conclusion, but as soon as they were on the date, she knew their relationship wasn't anywhere near what hers are with the other guys. But at least he got the opportunity.
And the poor guy called his mom from the limo!
Harrison: In those moments, some people lash out, some get mad and some call their mom.
The Bachelor's Mike Fleiss, Chris Harrison debut new dating app
In the deliberation, you pointed out that only Chris said "I love you." Was it a big issue that Brooks, especially, didn't?
Harrison: Not at all. She has a lot of security with Brooks. Chris definitely laid it on the line and it was glaring that Brooks didn't say it because he had the other one-on-one date, but with his non-verbal communication, she felt extremely confident. And that's one of the things I've learned, that it's wise to bring it up during deliberation, but don't make a big deal of it. I just wanted to get her take on it. She's supremely confident in Brooks and knows what they've shared on their dates.
Next week is hometowns! Any teases?
Harrison: This is where everybody is very emotional, Drew's date [especially] is just amazing and it'll tear at your heartstrings. The rest of the season is very intense and the biggest hurdle for Des has yet to come.
What did you think of this week's episode?
The Bachelorette airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.
View original The Bachelorette's Chris Harrison: "The Biggest Hurdle for Des Has Yet to Come" at TVGuide.com


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Having had a couple of calls; "I can't log into Yahoo Mail" I decided to follow up. It seems the internet is all a "Twitter" with reports from numerous countries that Yahoo Mail has been off-line for a couple of hours now. This combined with last weeks hack of >400,000 mail accounts cannot be good for business. Ironic that today's top story on CNN is about Marissa Mayer the new CEO of Yahoo.
You can view the current status of Yahoo Mail on-line/off-line at http://downrightnow.com/yahoomail


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"Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." (Dr Johnson)
The same might be said of my Spanish-mediated presentation last week. Not that I did it well, but that I did it at all.
But I did it. When it was over, I walked home saying to myself a thousand times 'I did it! I did it!'
Did what, exactly? Well, I realized my 'ideal L2 self', that is, myself as a competent (albeit not proficient) presenter in Spanish. And thereby took a major step along the path of making Spanish my own. Not textbook Spanish, nor a Spanish remotely like that of a native speaker, but the kind of Spanish that enables me to realize my idea of myself as a Spanish-speaker.
How did I do it? In a previous post I made the comment, in passing, that maybe the fact of doing a presentation in a language other than the one I customarily use might teach me something about giving presentations. And it did. In a 'dress rehearsal' the day prior to the workshop my mentor advised me not to worry about appearing incoherent, but simply to focus on anyone in the audience who seemed to be 'on side', smiling, nodding, and so on. So I did (and, happily, there wasn't just one individual smiling and nodding!) The effect was to restore the 'social' to the interaction, to reawaken the kind of communicative need I have been experiencing in my wine bar conversations with 'Andrés'. I found my voice.
And it's useful to be reminded that a workshop, even a full-blown conference plenary, is still just talk. Not a talk. But talk. And talk is inherently interpersonal. So: find your listener.
Apart from that, what have I learned in these three months?
More than anything, I've learned that, to speak another language with any confidence, you have to own it. As Widdowson said, you have to make it your own, you have to bend it to your will. This will mean personalizing it, not conforming to its dictates and, inevitably, committing what in classroom terms are known as errors.
And to bend a language to your will is to recruit it for the purposes of optimizing communication in specific contexts. It is to be resourceful, not just in the sense of using the available learning resources (online dictionaries, digital vocabulary cards, opportunities to engage with strangers etc), but resourceful in the sense of being able to deploy your existing knowledge, however limited, towards achieving your specific communicative goals in specific situations. As Canagarajah (2007: 928) put it,
Language learning involves an alignment of one's language resources to the needs of the situation, rather than reaching a target level of competence.
It is akin to what Steven Thorne, in his plenary address at IATEFL last year, called 'semiotic agility' (Thorne 2013), and it is the situated resourcefulness that Pennycook celebrates in his latest book, Language and Mobility (2012). Pennycook argues that 'passing' as a legitimate member of the (local) discourse community is simply 'a question of one's language use being perceived to work' (p. 94). In my presentation last week, I sensed that this was the perception. Certainly, my intuition that it was working contributed towards boosting my confidence, which in turn ratcheted up my willingness to communicate: a mutually reinforcing circle of reciprocated accommodation.
What else have I learned?
It's a truism, but one worth shouting from the roof-tops: you get better at a language by using it. More significantly, you learn a language by using it. As Brumfit (2001: 12) puts it, 'learning is using, and using is learning'. And he adds:
We may learn the tokens of language formally, but we learn the system by using it through reading or writing, or conversing.
In fact, my 'learning of the tokens' (vocabulary items, grammatical structures, and so on) does not seem to have paid huge dividends – not yet, at least. Even the time I put into trying to learn the relevant lexical phrases to use in my presentation showed only minimal returns: I managed just a handful. As for my capacity to articulate the key polysyllabic nouns that I had rehearsed and rehearsed, such as fosilización and desestabilazión, it was frankly embarrassing.
All this does seem to confirm that, according to the 'law of diminishing returns', progress follows an s-shaped learning curve. To maintain the same rate of progress over time, you have to invest proportionately greater effort.
Maybe the fact that I was able to give a talk in Spanish was less to do with what I had learned in the preceding three months than the confidence – and the willingness to communicate – that the learning had generated. Certainly, I feel that my fluency has advanced more appreciably than either my accuracy or complexity.
Again, this suggests that, for some learners at least, learning about the language is less a priority than putting their limited knowledge to communicative use. More radically, this suggests that curricula that foreground communicative use, rather than grammar 'mcnuggets', may offer such learners a greater chance of success. 'If language is learned for worldly use, the learning process itself must be use-based' (Churchill et al. 2010: 249). Not knowledge-based. Not grammar-based. Not even lexical phrase-based. Just use-based.
But what about the post-test? It's one thing to feel that my fluency has improved, but what does the test say?
I re-took the phone-up Versant test yesterday, and here are the results – on the left the pre-test, taken before I started the process, and on the right the post-test (minus the more detailed descriptors).
Overall, I've managed to improve my score by only two points (from 61 to 63), although, happily, this takes me from Intermediate High to Advanced Low, according to the Speaking Proficiency Guidelines used by the American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTEFL). I actually showed a marked regression in terms of Sentence Mastery (which subsumes grammatical accuracy) – from 79 to 71, and my Vocabulary score also retreated, although not significantly. (I have to confess that, at the time, the pre-test Sentence Mastery score of 79/80 did seem somewhat inflated).
On the plus side, and consistent with my intuitions, there was a considerable improvement in the Fluency score, from 42 to 50. Not only did this represent an increase of almost 20% in just 3 months, but it took me into a higher band ('speaks with ease when dealing with routine familiar tasks', compared to 'short contributions with evident pauses'). There was also a five-point improvement in pronunciation.
Question: was the improvement in fluency (including pronunciation) achieved at the expense of sentence mastery? That is to say, has my desire to focus on fluency meant that, in real time talk, I tend to sacrifice accuracy? Does this confirm the wisdom that there is (always?) a trade-off between accuracy and fluency? Or, assuming that I haven't 'lost' sentence mastery, and that, under different test conditions, I may be able to retrieve it, could I find a balance between accuracy and fluency, giving me an even higher overall score?
Whatever the reasons, the fact is: I improved, particularly with regard to my main goal, fluency. Verdict: de-stabilization is possible, albeit selectively.
Well, on that positive note, I'll now bring this phase of the experiment, i.e. the blog, to a close. This doesn't mean I'm going to stop working on my Spanish. As several commentators on this blog have noted, there are other means and resources I haven't yet explored, not least content-based learning (i.e. learning another skill or subject in Spanish) and one-to-one classes.
For the time being, though, I'm going to take a break. Thanks for accompanying me on this journey, and special thanks to Margarita, Iñigo, Duncan Foord and his team at Oxford House, and my three teachers at UAB Idiomes. ¡Muchisimas gracias!
Brumfit, C. (2001) Individual Freedom In Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Canagarajah, S. (2007) 'Lingua franca English, multilingual communities, and language acquisition,' Modern Language Journal, 91 Focus Issue.
Churchill, E., Okada, H., Nishino, T., and Atkinson, D. (2010) 'Symbiotic gesture and the sociocognitive visibility of grammar in second language acquisition,' Modern Language Journal, 94.
Pennycook, A. (2012) Language and Mobility: Unexpected Places, Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Thorne, S.L. 2013. 'Plenary: Awareness, appropriacy and living language use' in T. Pattison (ed.) IATEFL 2012: Glasgow Conference Selections, Canterbury: IATEFL.


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First off, why should a neurologist be interested in diabetes? That's for endocrinologists isn't it? Not really. One of the most serious aspects of diabetes is its acceleration of vascular disease (atherosclerosis), with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke (which is where the neurologist comes in). So you have a diabetic who has survived a stroke. You want to prevent the next one, and you know that they're in a much higher risk group for another stroke (1) because they just had one (2) because they're more likely to have another because of their diabetes. Also vascular disease makes any neurologic problem worse, dementia, neuropathy you name it.
So I've always tried to stay current on diabetes. Which brings me to Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. vol. 109 pp. 14972 – 14976 '12 (11 September issue). You'd think that nearly a century after Banting and Best's discovery of Insulin that there were no new wrinkles left. Not so.
Now for a bit of anatomy and physiology. In a very simplistic way, you can regard diabetes as not enough insulin. Insulin lowers blood sugar and is needed after you eat. It is made in the pancreas, an organ which secretes digestive enzymes into your gastrointestinal tract. It also secretes insulin, but into the blood rather than the gut. Insulin is made in relatively small collections of cells (1,000 – 10,0000) called islets dispersed through out the pancreas. They are .1 – .2 milliMeters in diameter, and even though we have over 1,000,000 of them, they constitute 2% of the mass of the pancreas. 85% of the islet cells make insulin (the beta cells), another cell type (the alpha cells) make another protein (glucagon), also secreted into the blood, making it a hormone by definition. Glucagon raises blood sugar, by causing the liver to make glucose and then pump it out.
Streptozotocin (a glucose derivative) made by soil bacteria, has the nasty property of selectively killing pancreatic beta cells, leaving everything else alone. Naturally experimentalists love it and have used it to produce severe diabetes (fatal if untreated) in lab animals, and then try new treatments to see if they can come up with something better.
Amazingly, here's one they didn't try until now. Given our present tools, you can pretty much knock out any gene you want in a mouse embryonic stem cell, implant it in another mouse, and (after a lot of failure), make a strain of mice lacking that particular gene (these are what's called knockout mice). What they knocked out was not glucagon (which has effects all over the body, including the brain), but the receptor for glucagon. So even though there's plenty of glucagon around, lacking the receptor cells don't respond to it. It's like hearing a language you don't know — the sound is there all right but you can't internalize it and react to what's being said.
It had been known for a while that giving streptozotocin to mice lacking the glucagon receptor doesn't produce diabetes (or much else). The finding as been treated with a good deal of skepticism, being blamed on other factors. The authors of the present paper, found a way to put the glucagon receptor back into the liver (using a virus). When they did this to a knockout mouse living happily despite being treated with strpetozotocin, their glucose shot up. The virus didn't hang around forever, glucagon receptor levels in the liver dropped and blood sugar dropped along with it. Remember that a normal mouse dies of diabetic complications fairly quickly after receiving streptozotocin.
You couldn't ask for much better proof, and a new way to treat diabetes may have been found. Amazing.
As in all of medicine there are caveats. The glucagon receptor is found in other organs, heart and brain among them, so blocking the action of glucagon this way may have many other effects.


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Through this blog, I have the opportunity not only to share my voice, but also to lift up the voices of others standing for welcome at LIRS and throughout the nation. Today I'd like to introduce an interview by Luke Telander, Program Associate for Outreach at LIRS. He speaks with Mark Dow, author of American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons, on the important issue of detention.
Over the past 15 years, the United States has built up an enormous immigration detention system. Starting with the tightening of immigration laws in 1996, millions of immigrants have been detained, often under inhumane conditions and without legal representation to help them navigate the murky waters of immigration law. Under the current Administration, detention and deportations have only grown with the implementation of Secure Communities and 287(g). And, in turn, a grassroots movement of groups and coalitions such as Detention Watch Network (DWN) has sprung up in response.
As Congress convenes, however, and President Obama and a broad coalition of allies push immigration reform as a top priority, now is the time to talk about why the thinking around immigration detention must change.
We were lucky enough to speak with author Mark Dow about this issue. Here are his thoughts:
Luke Telander (LT): What final outcome, in terms of detention, do you expect from the comprehensive immigration reform legislation expected to emerge this year? What would be the ideal outcome?
Mark Dow (MD): I can't predict the outcome. Ideally, the enforcement budget would be cut and fewer detention beds funded. Detention standards would become regulations so that they would be legally enforceable; that's something Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lawyers worked hard to prevent the last time around. ICE contracting with private prison companies should be outlawed. Independent monitoring of ICE detention and enforcement actions should be established from outside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). There should be a statutory right to appointed counsel for detainees and others in removal proceedings, and the 1996 mandatory detention laws should be revoked.
LT: What prompted you to write American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons? Did any personal experiences influence that decision?
MD: In the early 1990s I taught GED classes at the Krome detention center in Miami. It was run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); this was before ICE was established. I had no idea what immigration detention was. Pretty soon another teacher and I were fired for reasons I explain in the book. I was working for the local school system, by the way, which had a contract with the INS. Anyway, I started volunteering at the Haitian Refugee Center and eventually convinced them to pay me. My main job was to try to keep track of what was going on at Krome. Soon I was in touch with organizations monitoring detention conditions in New York and Texas and California, but there was practically zero media awareness of detention – very different from today. There were some 5,000 detainees nationwide at the time, about a seventh of today's number.
What stayed with me more than anything after every time I drove back from my teaching job at Krome was how isolated these prisoners were – how unnecessary their detention seemed, and how invisible it was. There were hundreds of Haitian refugees – and Chinese after Tiananmen, and others from dozens of countries – in orange jumpsuits, behind barbed wire, guarded by men and women who viewed them as enemies. Guards warned teachers not to help the detainees. It made no sense. And all this was just west of the strip malls and suburbs of southwest Miami. In the process of getting fired, I also had my first glimpse into the arbitrary authority the immigration agency wields – as an agency, and at the level of decision-making by individual low-level bureaucrats. This was true with INS, and it continues with ICE.
LT: In your work, you have pointed to the 1996 immigration laws as the starting point for the increase in detention and deportations. What was the thinking behind the law when it was passed?
MD: There wasn't much thinking – except about how to appeal to voters by using the anti-immigrant rhetoric those voters had been conditioned to respond to.
Congress rushed to be seen as doing something about the Oklahoma City bombing. Laws were passed which congresspeople clearly did not understand. But they didn't need to understand them. The point was political rhetoric, just as it had been in the so-called drug wars of the 1980s, which continue to destroy families after all these years. It was a natural step from mandatory minimums in drug-sentencing – which never had much to do with ending drug use – to the mandatory detention of non-citizens in the 1990s, which has practically nothing to do with "immigration" when we're talking about long-time lawful residents detained and deported for old crimes.
In my book, a brave Texas woman who organized against the 1996 laws recounts the trauma of finding out that the immigration agency was trying to deport her Canadian-born husband for old drug crimes. She went to Lamar Smith's office, and Smith's immigration aide told her she was better off without her husband. That's the mentality at work, and it's still making policy. I'm baffled that the advocacy groups are not shouting that these laws be part of the current debate.
You asked about the "thinking" behind these laws. It's important for people to realize that most of the so-called immigration debate is theater. It's a big mistake to take it at face value. Here's an example. Last year, NBC reported that Alabama Congressman Robert Aderholt used his chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security to threaten ICE's budget unless it kept the Etowah ICE detention center in his district. Aderholt claims to be tough on immigration and national security, but his actions show that he's the real danger. He's willing to sacrifice the federal immigration law enforcement budget in exchange for those jobs in his district – for votes, in other words. Instead of debating him, or saying nothing, advocates should be publicizing his hypocrisy. People will start to see that the dreaded "illegal immigration" is really not what this is about.
LT: How important is legal representation to immigrants facing deportation orders? Why can so few in detention gain access to a lawyer?
MD: Legal representation is very important – and it's a matter of basic fairness. Immigration law is complicated. Detainees, often speaking no English, are in an adversarial system and have to face government attorneys. They have legal rights, but Congress and ICE use the detention system to pressure them to give up their rights.
There are systemic and logistical reasons that detainees often can't get attorneys. For one thing, they are detained. That means being isolated geographically and psychologically from support networks and family. How do you get a lawyer? Do you have money to pay one? If not, maybe the detention center will actually provide a list of legal services it's supposed to provide. Maybe the list won't be completely outdated. Maybe one of the phone numbers on it will work – assuming the detention center phones work. Maybe someone at the organization you call will answer the phone. But the chances they'll have the resources to take you on as a client are slim.
It's simple: ICE detainees have legal cases to argue, and they are much more likely to win their cases when they have lawyers. That's why ICE and Congress don't want them to have lawyers, but even President Bush's former Undersecretary for Homeland Secretary has endorsed the idea of appointed counsel for ICE detainees. It's not a controversial idea.
LT: Much has been made of Obama's deportation record over the past 4 years. What can or should he do at the executive level to address this issue?
MD: He can – and should – end 287(g) programs and Secure Communities. This is another case in which the anti-immigrant groups are also anti-law-and-order. I say that because these programs have been harshly and cogently criticized by law enforcement officials. But, as with the 1996 laws and the drug laws before those, the politicians ignore the realities of these programs and simply use them as bumper stickers.
There is some room for optimism. Obama did make the historical decision to defer enforcement on so-called DREAMers. On the other hand, he was somehow convinced to spend enforcement resources to deport a few hundred Haitians to post-earthquake cholera conditions. What could possibly be the motivation for that? Who's behind a decision like that?
But anyone surprised by Obama's detention and deportation policies is naive. Clinton is the president responsible for the laws behind Obama's deportation record. This immigrant detention crisis wasn't created by President Bush after 9/11 — neither was Guantánamo — although lots of intelligent liberals seem to think that's what happened. That's why Obama can get away with it. Democratic presidents worry about appearing weak, so they actually tend to be harsher with enforcement than Republican presidents; Philip Kretsedemas writes about this in his new book, The Immigration Crucible.
As for what he could do if he were willing: beyond the policy minutiae, the president could change the immigration debate by talking about the fluid nature of "citizenship." As for the ICE detention regime, he could stop a lot of the physical, psychological, and sexual abuse of immigrant detainees by making this mistreatment a national concern. A brief statement in the White House garden to reporters – and jailers – could go a long way.
LT: There has been debate in the past within the immigration reform movement over whether to take a piecemeal or comprehensive approach to reform. Would you support a bill reforming the detention and representation aspects of our current immigration laws that was not a part of a comprehensive reform package?
MD: The area of immigration I know something about is detention. And the current ICE detention system cannot be "reformed." In the 19th century, Charles Dickens visited America and wrote about the dehumanizing system of solitary confinement he witnessed in a Philadelphia prison. But this system of psychological torture had been started by the Quakers. It was prison reform.
Today we're in a dangerous situation with respect to ICE detention "reform." The numbers in detention continue to increase, and immigration advocacy groups have regular meetings with ICE officials. These advocates have in a sense become co-directors of the detention regime. But it's a regime that needs to be dismantled. ICE should not be running it own prison system. Since the 1980s, the expansion of this "non-penal" immigrant incarceration has expanded hand-in-hand with the blurring of categories: alien means criminal means terrorist. And "noncitizen" means anything goes. An Oakdale, Louisiana, Bureau of Prisons corrections officer told me that once they're wearing that prison uniform, they're no longer considered human. Obviously detention conditions can be good or bad, and good is better. But fundamentally, this is a system of dehumanization, so it cannot be made humane.
We need to return to using immigrant detention as a last resort, in cases in which safety is really an issue. And there has to be an independent system for deciding that. The jailer who's asking Congress for jail funding should not also be deciding who to put in jail according to Congress's laws, but that's how the current system works.
LT: What can individual Americans and their congregations do to ease the human suffering of people in detention, and bring about a more just system?
MD: There are many things to do. One thing I would suggest is to organize and insist on meeting with local jails or detention centers where immigrants are held. Meet detainees as well as wardens and ICE officials. Let the jail and ICE know you are monitoring conditions, too. Does this threaten to become the "reform" I was just warning about? Yes. So don't let it stop with conditions. Find out who is detained and why. Help them get lawyers. And expand the debate. The mentality behind this detention regime is out of touch with the realities of US society. We have a separate criminal justice system now for non-citizens; it's not just an immigration issue. And remember that even – or should I say especially – the "unsympathetic" detainees deserve justice. Too many advocacy groups still avoid them in search of the poster-child victims. A green-card-holder with an old statutory-rape conviction deserves justice and humane treatment as much as an attractive, young asylum-seeker does. Immigration advocates who disagree with that, or who are quiet about it, are ultimately aligning themselves with the Smiths and Aderholts.
LT: Do you have any plans to follow up on your last book, American Gulag: Inside US Immigration Prisons, or do you have other projects in the works?
MD: I wrote that book because as far as I could tell no one else was doing it. Today there are lots of people paying attention to ICE detention. But I follow up with articles and op-eds here and there. Meanwhile I'm writing nonfiction and poems that are another thing altogether.


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A visit with Them Crooked Vultures' Josh Homme and John Paul Jones
Interview by Jay Babcock
Posted: October 15, 2009
Them Crooked Vultures is a new band comprised of guitarist-vocalist Joshua Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss), bassist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) and guitarist Alain Johannes (Eleven), with Jones and Johannes also playing other instruments. These guys really don't need an introduction so you won't be getting one here. What's interesting is what they're doing: Vultures have spent much of this year together, writing and recording music in a Los Angeles studio, and are now touring without having officially released a note of the music they've recorded. No album, no single, no YouTube video, no leak, no official photos, no nothing: the only way to hear Them Crooked Vultures, really, is to see them live.
In some ways, it's an echo of the Eric Clapton-Steve Winwood-Ginger Baker supergroup Blind Faith, who did a similar thing in 1969, touring ahead of their album's release, selling out tours on the strength of their collective pedigree. But unlike Blind Faith, who hedged their bets by including renditions of songs from their old bands, Vultures are performing 80 or so minutes of new Vultures music every night: no Zeppelin covers, no Queens jams, no standards. As Homme says onstage on the night I first see them play, it's a "social experiment" as much as a musical one, and to the audience's credit, there was not a single shouted request that I could hear for something other than what the band was playing: Vultures' blind faith is being rewarded.
Perhaps this is down to a collective solidarity with the idea of the independent musician, or a real interest in simply unfamiliar music by trusted faves—or maybe it's because most of the songs presented on Monday night were strong on first listen, and if listener's fatigue inevitably set in at some point due to the continued ear-pummeling, then you could just stand there and behold the wonder of 63-year-old John Paul Jones, shoulders bobbing, at the helm of his instrument, smiling with pleasure at Dave Grohl as yet another propulsive, post-"Immigrant' Song" (or "Achilles' Last Stand," or…) bassline locked in with Grohl's powerhouse thumping and a distinctively Homme guitar riff. Interestingly, Grohl's drumkit was not on the riser usually associated with big-time rock bands, which I'm sure disappointed some Foo Fighters fans, but it had the crucial benefit of placing the musicians nearer each other, allowing them to create a more cohesive sound in the midst of so much volume; as John Paul Jones said after the show, "I can feel Dave's kick-drum that way," and from his smile, you know that's as much for his benefit as the audience's.
Smiles. The amount of smiling between the Vultures onstage, as well as the sheer caliber of playing, reminded me of Shakti, the Indian-Western supergroup led by English master guitarist John McLaughlin and Indian tabla genius Zakir Hussain that fuses classical Indian music with Western jazz. I'm not talking about laughs between songs, or witty stage banter, although with Josh Homme at the microphone you're always going to get that, but the smiles that occur in the midst of the music: the joy that emerges spontaneously in the midst of collective creativity, usually marking some new discovery or progress, or a new threshold being crossed, or something just feeling fundamentally good. In the last two decades of loud guitar music, this kind of uncontrived on-stage joy has been far too rare—outside of Ween shows, of course, and gee wasn't that the Deaner himself backstage with the champagne on Monday night? Anyways. Josh, who I've interviewed before, and who headlined the second night of ArthurBall in 2006 as half of The 5:15ers (a duo he has with longtime collaborator Chris Goss), invited me to talk with him and John Paul Jones in the band's dressing room just prior to their set at Philadelphia's Electric Factory on October 12, 2009. Here's how the conversation went…Continue reading


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David Cook says 'thanks' to hometown fans
David Cook may be the most famous person ever from Blue Springs, Mo. And now that the guy who had hopes of his high school band making it big is the newest "American Idol," he's being followed by paparazzi and doing a media blitz as the 2008 champion.
But he didn't forget about his hometown fans, the ones he says got him where he is. The Examiner had 10 minutes via phone to ask him about his experiences and how growing up in Blue Springs prepared him for stardom.
Q: What is your fondest memory of growing up in Blue Springs?
A: Wow. There's a lot to pick from. I loved playing baseball in the summer. Playing in the Blue Springs Little League was always a lot of fun.
Q: Will you get to come home anytime soon, or will you be kind of on a non-stop schedule with "Idol?"
A: Well, I can only assume a non-stop schedule, but worst-case scenario, I'll get to come home for a few days in August for the tour. But I'm hoping to maybe snag a couple of days to, you know, breathe and kind of sit down and wrap my head around what just happened.
Q: What have the last couple of days been like for you?
A: A whirlwind for starters. A lot of press and just kind of gearing up to promote the tour that's coming. I have a single out on iTunes. So far that's been doing very, very well. And then just start working on a record, which is kind of the whole purpose of this anyway.
Q: Will you get to put any of your original songs that you have written before on this album? Do you know yet?
A: I'm hoping so. If it works, trying to get all that mapped out, but hopefully. Hopefully, yeah. I'm just looking forward to being able to put out an album that I'm proud of.
Q: Back when you were playing with Axium, I think it was back in 2004 when we had The X, you told us that you wanted to make it big in the music industry. Were you expecting something of this magnitude?
A: Expecting, no. But hoping for, absolutely. I'll be the first person to admit this is the last avenue that I thought I was going to take to make it. And not in reference to any sort of negative stigma with the show. I never could have fathomed this was going to be my path. I just want to make music that means something. That's my goal.
Q: There were watch parties everywhere in Kansas City. Your mom's neighbor had them. They had them in Blue Springs. Were you aware of everything that was happening back here, all of the support that people were generating for you?
A: That's the feeling I got, and then I came home and I saw all of it, and I was just, I was very moved by it. You know I was just glad that everybody showed so much support around me to be put in a position to win this thing. I've said all along this title isn't a tribute to me. This is a tribute to everybody who took time out of their lives to vote. It's unreal.
Q: I saw on one of your forums that someone had voted for you 10,000 times before the final three. Did you ever think growing up in the Midwest, coming from Blue Springs, that you would have that kind of impact on people you've never even met?
A: No. I never even sold that many records before the show. That's the amazing thing about the show, it's such an avenue. It's such an opportunity. To hear those kinds of stories is extremely flattering and kind of mind boggling that somebody would text message or call in 10,000 times in four hours. I hope they didn't mess up their phone.
Q: I want to take you back to the sixth grade. You toured The Examiner with nine of your classmates. Do you remember coming to The Examiner and writing that story that came out the next day?
A: I do actually. I remember there was a photo of us huddled around an editor's desk. So yeah, I do. I have a vivid memory of that.
Q: Are there any messages that you want to deliver to your fans back here?
A: I'm humbled and extremely moved by just their support. To start at point A and to be here. This is awesome. .... I can't wait to come home and give them a proper "thank you." Hopefully those two nights at the Sprint Center will get something running. I have a feeling, in exchange, the next couple of years of my life I'm going to be busting a hump to make sure everybody understands that I appreciate it.
Q: You said on "American Idol's" Web site that your dream performance venue was the Sprint Center. Now you get two days there. How does that feel?
A: It's kind of a trip. And to think that I get to play last. It's going to be me and nine of some of my best friends. I couldn't have asked for a better scenario. I couldn't write a better script.
Q: Do you think your training and performances in theater at Blue Springs South helped you prepare for the "Idol" experience in any way?
A: I think absolutely. To take the opportunity to perform in front of people is going to help especially if it's the life's path that you want to take. But yeah, you know I spent time performing in high school. And then performing with Axium and Midwest Kings I think definitely helped me coming into this because it helped me understand how to operate within such an odd realm.
Q: Have you done any searches on eBay or Google and seen that your Axium CD, or even your last solo CD, sold for hundreds of dollars? Is that kind of a surreal feeling for you?
A: Yeah, if I had known they were going to be able to sell for that much, I would have started doing it before the show. I'm very, very flattered by that. That's what this show is. It's an awesome, awesome springboard. I can't wait to show people what I can do next.
Q: How does a guy from Blue Springs, Mo., who, you know, went to school to be a graphic designer, trying to make it on his own in the music industry, how do you go from kind of being known in your hometown to having paparazzi following you? How do you handle the celebrity status that comes along with all of this?
That's the tough part. That's another thing about "Idol" is they put a great support team around all of us to kind of help us because there's no school for this.
Coming into this, it's very much a 0-to-60 scenario. But I handle it just like I've handled everything else. You just kind of reach into the bag of ideals that got you to this point. For me growing up in such a grounded base - Blue Springs - was definitely a foundation. I feel like I've managed to maintain a sense of self, which has proven to be really helpful.
Q: Simon said early in the season that you lacked charisma when you said you were a word nerd, and he really didn't take kindly to your reply. Looking back, how did that moment on the show affect you, and how did feel when your fans rallied around you and started calling themselves the "Word Nerds?"
A: Well, you know, any time anybody's going to rally up behind me, I certainly appreciate it. That moment, for me, I learned from that that it's probably better to keep your mouth shut and your head down. The outpouring of support off that and everything thereafter. You know I've been asked a few times if there's anything I would change, and looking back I don't think there is. That moment, and really all the moments where I kind of stumbled, I learned from them, and they were great experiences. And I'm here just as much because of that as because of, you know, "Billie Jean" and "Hello."
Q: Well, David, thank you so much for your time. I know our readers are going to really appreciate the chance to hear you tell your story in your own words, and we're all so proud of you here.
A: Ah, thank you so much. I can't wait to come home and say "thank you" everybody.


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Our Black Labrador Retriever coasters make a wonderful gift idea for dog lovers! The coasters feature 8 different drawings of Black Labradors from puppy to adult.
The price for this listing is for 4, 6 or 8 coasters. Please let us know which coaster designs you would like (1-8) in the notes to seller at checkout.
Each of our coasters is made by hand with 4" ceramic tiles, paper, cork, Mod Podge water base sealer and decoupage high gloss sealer. Each coaster is sealed with multiple layers of high gloss protective sealer so they can be wiped down with a damp cloth. The back has a cork square to protect all surfaces. We do not recommend that you submerge our coasters in water as they are not dishwasher safe.
Our coasters are made one at a time and custom made to order. Typical time to create the coasters is 2-3 days to allow for the products to fully dry with the sealant. We ship by USPS and typical shipping times vary from 2-6 days, depending on location.
Our Etsy shop was started by animal lovers to help support animal rescues. Thank you for visiting our Etsy shop and helping us make a difference in our community.
2-3 business days
I'll do my best to meet these shipping estimates, but can't guarantee them. Actual delivery time will depend on the shipping method you choose.
Buyers are responsible for any customs and import taxes that may apply. I'm not responsible for delays due to customs.
Just contact me within: 14 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 30 days of delivery
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for:
Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value.
Dec 19, 2021
Very responsive and the coasters are exactly as pictured!


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Cop Out Trailer
27,234 Views | 2:22 | Uploaded on May 28, 2013
Two longtime NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster. But before they can recover the prized '52 Pafko, they must first rescue a Mexican beauty who holds the key to millions of dollars in off-shore bank accountsand who has already witnessed one high-profile murder because of them.
Veteran detective Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) needs to cash in on his perfect Pafko in order to pay for his daughter's upcoming wedding, but in the tradition of everything that can go wrong... it's pilfered before he has a chance to collect. Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) is Jimmy's "partner-against-crime," whose preoccupation with his wife's alleged infidelity makes it hard for him to keep his eye on the ball, or his mind on the crime. Already in trouble and with nothing left to lose, Jimmy and Paul will have to break all the rulesincluding enlisting the aid of stoner thief Dave (Seann William Scott), who's working Paul's last nerve as Paul and Jimmy try to work the case.


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axy O'Connor was born in Smithfield, Dublin City, in the year 1788. He gained his name by way of his profession as a candle maker. Primarily, he is remembered for his great appetite and capacity for hard liquor. It seems he was not alone amongst men of his craft - their fondness for and ability to consume copious quantities of beer and whiskey are legendary.
The excuse for such excesses is that as candle makers had to work in such extreme heat it sapped a man of both energy and fluids. As Waxy O'Connor was heard to comment, "Such heat does parch a man - a parched man is a barren man - and beer is the only cure .......ah, us lads could put away gallons in a day!"
Water, it seems, was an unknown elixir.
The 'Waxy O'Connor's tree' was planted 250 years in Midlands Ireland and died naturally in 1994. A local woodworker, who played around the Beech tree as a boy, hewed the pieces that were then shipped to England and 'planted' in Waxy O'Connor's in August 1995.
So, now a tree, which has lived for a quarter of a millennium in Ireland, begins a new lease of 'life' in the heart of London
Opening hours
Monday 12:00 - 23:30
Tuesday 12:00 - 23:30
Wednesday 12:00 - 23:30
Thursday 12:00 - 23:30
Friday 12:00 - 00:00
Saturday 12:00 - 00:00
Sunday 12:00 - 23:00


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It's Chinese New Year (CNY) a couple of weeks ago, and us Chinese know how to celebrate — eat, feast, and repeat. Of course, there are many regional Chinese New Year traditions throughout China, and being from HK, the HK tradition is what I'm most familiar with. On New Year's Eve I was invited to a feast with food expert Lee Man, and it just heightened my appreciation for my culture.
Calling it a feast, obviously it was a multi-course dinner with an abundance of food. We are all about good meanings 意頭 when it comes to choosing the dishes or even naming them for CNY. On Instagram I showed a glimpse of what that means with the CNY dinner made by Mama Lam this year. It's being realized here once again at Golden Paramount in Richmond.
"Togetherness" is one of the main reasons for CNY celebrations so families often take the opportunity to gather together and dine out during CNY. For that, the restaurant was hustling and bustling and it's just full of energy! It was a late dinner for us (7:45pm start) and the room was still full and more were being seated as our dinner progressed. And here's our menu, some background about them, and what they symbolize:
Pan Fried Oysters – Oysters are a homonym for "good", indicating good luck for the upcoming year. Traditionally we eat dried oysters because it means "good business" 好市 but it does have a more distinctive fishy taste to it and not everyone likes it. This was a Chinese Restaurant Award winner.
Pepah Tofu – Fried food is usually in a golden colour so it symbolizes gold and fortune. The tofu here is shaped into a Chinese lute, Pipa. Fun fact: I learned to play the Pipa when I was in middle school in HK. Not easy to master but it was fun to play. This was later extended to my involvement with the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble.
Crab Meat and Fish Maw Soup – At a CNY feast you would want to serve some luxurious items.


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(2018) Drama (Annapurna) KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Paris, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Ed Skrein, Emily Rios, Finn Wittrock, Brian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, Michael Beach, Aurora Collado, Kaden Byrd, Ethan Barrett, Milanni Mines, Ebony Obsidian, Dominique Thorne, Carl Parker, Shabazz Ray, Bobby Conte Thornton, Marcia Jean Kurtz. Directed by Barry Jenkins
James Baldwin is one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century, or of any other century for that matter; few authors captured the African-American experience with as much outrage, wit, joy, fury and dispassionate observation as he did. He was passionate and compassionate at once, writing prose that could easily have been poetry; of all the authors I've read in my life, only Shakespeare fares as well when read aloud as Baldwin does. He had a command of language that is rare and the fact that few of his books have been adapted for the big screen have almost as much to do with his lyrical prose as it does to the fact that his views were and are incendiary and perhaps unlikely to be embraced by white American audiences.
In this classic film, a pair of lovers – artist Fonny (James) and 19-year-old Tish (Layne) are stepping up their long-time relationship to the next level; they plan to get married. But when Tish discovers she is pregnant, the couple have already been separated – Fonny has been accused of rape by a Puerto Rican woman (Rios) who was manipulated into selecting Fonny out of a line-up by a malicious cop (Skrein) who had a bone to pick with Fonny. As is often the case with African-American men, he gets only the representation he can afford and ends up imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit.
Barry Jenkins, fresh off his Oscar-winning Moonlight, tells the story in a non-linear fashion, flashing back from the incarceration of Fonny to their developing relationship as children. Jenkins is becoming known as an actor's director; if nothing else, he is a genius at extracting the best performances from his actors. Witness here, Regina King, playing Tish's loving mother; when Tish informs her that she's in a family way and not yet married, King – who with this movie rightfully took her place as one of the best actresses working today – displays maternal love and support with a minimum of dialogue and a maximum of gesture. She's the mom everyone wishes they had, even those who have a mom like her.
That scene contrasts with Fonny's hyper-religious mom (Ellis) being formed of her son's girlfriend's condition. The acid tongue comes out as she lashes out at the girl her son loves, growing in vitriol until her aghast husband (Beach) abruptly hits her, shocking Tish and her parents, who absolutely can't believe what they're seeing. The families are in complete contrast; one loving and supportive, the other judgmental and cold although the dad does his best.
The movie is supported by a stunning soundtrack that highlights the emotional landscapes that Baldwin and Jenkins paint. The result is a powerful portrait that is as timely now as it was then – which I'm sure wouldn't surprise Baldwin at all, but would undoubtedly sadden him, as it should any thinking, compassionate person.
REASONS TO SEE: A impressive literate and intelligent script. King and Layne deliver high-powered performances. The soundtrack is really terrific.
REASONS TO AVOID: The non-linear storytelling is a bit tricky but it does pay off.
FAMILY VALUES: There is plenty of profanity as well as some sexual material.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The first trailer for the film was released on the 94th birthday of author James Baldwin, who wrote the original novel.
BEYOND THE THEATERS: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango Now, Google Plus, Hulu, Microsoft, Movies Anywhere, Redbox, Vudu, YouTube
CRITICAL MASS: As of 4/27/20: Rotten Tomatoes: 95% positive reviews; Metacritic: 87/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Brian Banks
NEXT: 15 Years


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We learned back in September that Joe Posnanski's book Paterno would be hitting the big screen, and that Al Pacino had been lined up to play the late Penn State coach. We hadn't heard anything since then, so we hadn't thought anything of it, at least not until we saw this Deadline report:
The Scarface team of director Brian De Palma and Al Pacino are re-teaming for Happy Valley, the working title of a film that will tell the story of Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno's legend was undone by revelations he and others in the football program were aware that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was molesting children, and did little to stop it, supposedly fearing bad publicity for the powerhouse gridiron program they presided over. Wall Street producer Edward R. Pressman has optioned the bestselling book Paterno by Joe Posnanski. Dave McKenna (American History X and Blow) is making a deal to write the script. The Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation is backing the project.
De Palma and Pacino had worked together on Scarface and Carlito's Way. Get ready for 10-minute long takes of an old man putting on his pants, America.


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- Tech companies accounted for nearly one-third of the 100 largest U.S. office leases in 2019.
- Almost three-quarters of the top 100 leases were in only 10 markets, with the dominant industry makeup of tenants varying considerably by market.
- Tech companies should continue to dominate large lease transactions in 2020. Almost 40% of the 100 largest U.S. office tenant requirements are from tech companies.
Technology companies dominated overall office leasing activity in 2019, accounting for 21.9% of space leased in U.S. offices. But of the nation's largest 100 leases last year, 32.4% or 13.1 million sq. ft. were by tech companies. Other industries with larger shares of the top 100 leases vs. their shares of overall leasing activity were energy (7.2% vs. 3.1%) and government & non-profits (11.2% vs. 6.7%). At the other end of the spectrum, business services and flexible office operators (coworking) were underrepresented in the top 100 leases compared with their shares of overall 2019 leasing activity.
Figure 1: Top 100 Leases Compared with Share of Overall Leasing by Industry, 2019
Source: CBRE Research, Q4 2019.
Nearly three-quarters of the top 100 leases were in 10 markets. Manhattan led with 23 leases totaling more than 11 million sq. ft. or 26.8% of the top 100, followed by Washington, D.C. with 10 leases totaling 3.7 million sq. ft, or 9.7%.
In Manhattan, eight of the 14 major industry sectors were represented among the market's top tenants, exemplifying the diverse tenant base that is the long-term strength of that market. Dallas/Ft. Worth and Phoenix also had a diverse mix of tenants by industry. In contrast, Houston (energy) and Seattle (technology) each had a single industry account for their largest leases. San Francisco and Washington, D.C. also were highly concentrated, with nearly 80% of their top 100 leases by one industry (technology and government & non-profits, respectively).
Figure 2: Industries of Top 10 Markets
Source: CBRE Research, Q4 2019.
Tech tenants account for even more of the 100 largest office tenant requirements currently in the market. Other industries with large requirements include financial services & insurance and government & non-profits. On the other hand, the share of large office requirements by tenants in the manufacturing & transportation, creative and energy industries is lower than their share of 2019 leasing volume, suggesting slower activity from them in the near term.
Figure 3: Near-term Outlook for Top 100 Leases
Source: CBRE Research, Q4 2019.