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Web Stories
Princeton debaters win national championship
Posted April 14, 2006; 05:56 p.m.
Senior Dan Greco and junior Michael Reilly of the Princeton University Debate Panel won first prize at the American Parliamentary Debate Association National Championship.
The victory was Princeton's first national debate championship since 2002.
Greco is a philosophy major and former president of the Princeton Debate Panel, which is a subsidiary of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society. Reilly is majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
The event, held April 7-9 at Fordham University, included more than 75 teams from around the country.

subset: commoncrawl


text: As a newbie trainer...I have to first say I love this forum! I no longer feel like I'm the first person to lock eyes with my pup and feel like saying "...I don't know, what do you want to do next?"* We are figuring it out together and I am always amazed at how smart my boy is despite my inexperience as a trainer!* Us newbies (or, at least - me, myself & I) have SO many questions... This is the most challenging - most addictive - thing I have ever done! And I am loving EVERY* (or almost every) minute of it!!* But, there are those questions.... SO - here's my first question: HOW do I -teach/stop/convey/stop - my boy "Cooper" from stopping just short of the bank on water retrieves to shake off?* He sometimes drops the dummy/bird to do this, but immediately picks it back up after shaking and delivers to hand.* Other times, he'll hold and shake off, then deliver to hand....* No e-collar training yet.* Used a check-cord... Advice appreciated!bhelton


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The Mystery Between Mister O and Mister I
But there is also an implicit ontological sense of the term. As I have mentioned before, I have long suspected that the various fundamental mysteries that confront man are somehow interconnected; you might say that they are diverse manifestations of O.
What I mean is that there are certain things that are fundamentally beyond the horizon of knowability -- at least in the profane or rationalistic sense. No amount of cogitation will ever resolve these riddles, which include Time, Life, People, Self, and other magazines.
Sorry. That was a gag that couldn't help writing itself. These mysteries include Time (in all its modes, but especially the Now), Consciousness, Life, Freedom, and Being, AKA, that window into eternity that says I AM.
In the past I have used the metaphor of a three-dimensional hand passing through a two-dimensional plane. As the grubby fingers break through the plane, they will initially appear as one, then two, eventually five, circles (unless, like Petey, you were involved in a tragic farming accident). But then the circles will blend together at the wrist, if you still have one. You can always learn to use your left hand.
If you want to know what time -- and therefore evolution -- is, that's about as good an image as I can think of at the moment. Remember also what I -- or rather, Captain Kirk -- said the other day about the "circle" that exists when two dimensions meet -- analogous to the narrow passage between the chambers of an hourglass. Put the two images together, and what do we have?
I don't know. Let me think for a moment. A new Star Trek episode? I can't look at the keyboard and deploy my imagination at the same time.... speaking of which, add "imagination" to that list of mysteries above.
Got it. That little passage between the chambers is the "place" of declension, where the three-dimensional hand passes into two-dimensional space; you might say that it is where the Dreamer dreams the dream. It is certainly where free will takes place, not to mention the passage of time. And it is the only place where I AM could be.
The post I am about to edit was one that originally consisted of a purely "free association." You might say that it was an attempt to describe the sand particles as they flowed past. In editing it, I will now attempt to stand back from the hourglass for a wider view. In other words, in this second bite at the apple, I will attempt to contain what initially contained me -- or interpret the dream, so to speak.
It's FREE ASSOCIATION day, in which I, Bob's Unconscious, commandeer the wheel of Cosmic Bus and say whatever pops into his melon. It's a good way for him to discover what he thinks about things of which he knows nothing; or to know about things he has only unThought, and to thereby render this mythterious absence present. Or again, to bring forth some hidden corner of Bobness that should have perhaps remained hidden. At least we'll find out why.
Say, we haven't discussed time in a while, have we? It's always good to meditate on the mystery of time, since it is a modality that opens out to the infinite -- like the haunted house of Existence, the unexpected door into Life, and the miraculous window of Subjectivity.
Perhaps this is too obvious, but I think we can all agree that evolution presupposes time. Or does it? Obviously, there could be no possibility of evolution in the absence of time, time being a measure of change. But perhaps it's the other way around, i.e., that time is a byproduct of evolution. In other words, because things evolve, there is time. After all, if things didn't evolve, there would only be eternity, i.e., atemporal changelessness. As such, there would be no time to do anything, not even dash over to the dry cleaner before they close.
At this moment, I am looking straight ahead at my official Subgenius clock, with Bob Dobb's beaming face looking back at me. Some people suppose that a clock measures time, but that is incorrect. Rather, a clock measures space, as the hand moves from position to position (well, technically, this particular clock measures slack). A few moments ago, the minute hand was at Bob's noble chin. Now it is approaching the majestic pipe which he holds in his perfect teeth. The point is, time and change are thoroughly entangled, so that it is impossible to conceive of one in the absence of the other. Time is change and change is time.
Now, there is a difference between time and mere duration. And there is a kind of duration that is above and a kind of inverse analogy below. That is, God by definition transcends time and is not subject to change. Nevertheless, he obviously "endures." This is the modality of eternity, which is always now: before you spuds were, I YAM.
As we have discussed before, eternity is not time everlasting, but timelessness. However, on the temporal plane, the closest we can come to grasping eternity is through the very old and ancient. This is why we can obtain hints of the eternal in the presence of virgin nature, or a very old cathedral, or perhaps by looking out into the heavens. But these things should not be confused with eternity itself.
Eternity is not necessarily "time standing still." For example, Bob has treated numberless cases of psychological trauma (I didn't say "successfully"), and one of its universal characteristics is the suspension of time while the trauma is occurring. I think this can more or less be explained on Darwinian grounds, as an adaptation we evolved in order to cope with extreme distress. When someone is in the midst of a trauma, it is as if the event is implicitly recognized as being too "large" and full of implications to be able to metabolize and assimilate. As a result, the mind "shuts off," as it were. It continues to register the events as they are occurring, but in a timeless way that prevents us from thinking about them (which would require time). You might say that there is a defense mechanism that "stops time" (unlike progressiveism, which reverses it).
Only after the trauma has ended -- once the person is "safe" -- does the mind then "download" the trauma into time, so to speak, and start thinking about all the implications. Thus, the traumatized person always experiences flashbacks, or involuntary recollections that must be "metabolized" after the fact. Likewise, they will think about all of the many "what ifs," e.g., What if he had pulled the trigger?, or What if I had left my children behind?, or What if I hadn't noticed the stubble on her face? (long story).
Again, it is as if the trauma were a "hyperdimensional object," the implications of which can only be drawn out in time. (A more primitive person won't even be able to think about the trauma, but only act it out in time. In this case, the actions are the recollections. For some people, their whole life is simply the repetitive acting out of trauma; one thinks of the Islamists.)
Just so, an encounter with God can result in a similar kind of process that may take a lifetime to sort out. In other words, one must unpack and explicate all of the implications, which are more or less "infinite." Think of how Paul was "shattered" on the road to Damascus; the rest was just "commentary," so to speak.
I remember Schuon making reference to this in the preface to one of this books.... let me see if I can remember which one....
Here it is, from Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism: "[T]he Sophia perennis [that's the perennial wisdom for those of you in Reino Ciego] is quite evidently inexhaustible and has no natural limits.... As it is impossible to exhaust all that lends itself to being expressed, and as repetition in metaphysical matters cannot be a mistake -- it being better to be too clear than not clear enough -- we believe that we could return to our usual theses, either to offer things we have not yet said, or to explain in a usefully new way things we have said before."
So if these posts appear tediously repetitive, that's my excuse.
Later Schuon expands upon this in a useful way: "It is indispensable to know at the outset that there are truths inherent in the human spirit that are as if buried in the 'depths of the heart,' which means that they are contained as potentialities or virtualities in the pure Intellect: these are the principial or archetypal truths, those which prefigure and determine all others.... The intelligence of animals is partial, that of man is total; and this totality is explained only by a transcendent reality to which the intelligence is proportioned. Thus, the decisive error of materialism and of agnosticism is to be blind to the fact that material things and the common experiences of our life are immensely beneath the scope of our intelligence.... without the Absolute, the capacity of our conceiving it would have no cause."
Okay, let's break this down. As we have said before, profane thinking, or (k), can never arrive at O, except in the exterior sense; it can conceive it, but being in it is a different matter. Real ontonoetic thinking is a declension from O, i.e., that "transcendent reality to which the intelligence is proportioned." Now, if we were fully "in O," it would be analogous to being "in" the trauma; time stops, and we simply enjoy the divine Slack. There is duration, but no time. Augustine talks about being "taken up into heaven"; likewise, one thinks of Plotinus and so many other mystics down through the ages. Or, as Johan reminds us, it is like when Homer talks about the paradox of the beer being "in us," that we may be "in the beer."
But our day-to-day lives -- no, our life -- consists of unpacking and "assimilating" the "divine trauma" of O. Just like the bad kind of trauma, O shatters and never flatters the ego. The ego cannot possibly assimilate it, for it would be like the drop trying to assimilate the ocean. Rather, it must begin to work through the "flashbacks" of O, which are more like "memoirs of the future" than "predictions of the past," the latter of which are all of the "what ifs" that result from the adverse trauma.
Now, let's see.... what would be the "ultimate" trauma.... let me think.... Well, one trauma would obviously be the Big Bang, an event so brimming with implications that it would take billions of years to sort them out, this morning's post not excepted.
Afterwards, one of the biggest and most unexpected traumas to emerge from the primal explosion was the sudden appearance of Life. Evolution has been tinkering with its implications for the past 3.85 billion years, although Life only became consciously aware of its own implications perhaps 40,000 years ago, when another trauma occurred, the sudden emergence of the human subject. (By the way, for you creationists out there, feel free to translate this into your own terms; a grasp of the principles is the important thing, not a literal reading. In other words, any way you look at it, the awakening to the human state was a traumatic event, a reality memorialized in Genesis.)
Yes, but what would be the ultimate ultimate trauma, something that man could ponder forever and never quite assimilate.... I've got it! How about if the Absolute were to come down into history itself and obliterate all of our categories, even the "false absolute" of Death itself?
Hmmm, it might just work.... It's one thing to send down a book, but we all know what humans can do with books, i.e., "contain" and therefore kill them with their minds....
In an analogy Bob has not used before, probably with good reason, it is as if God dives into the deep end of history, and the resultant waves in the historical pool are still reaching us, because God is just too big for the pond. Imagine Charles Barkley or Rosie O'Donnell doing a cannonball into a wading pool.
Isn't there a scriptural passage to the effect that "death could not contain him?" The point is again that none of our cosmic, existential, scientific, or psychological categories can contain him. He shatters time, death, history, and the human being who allows himself to be traumatized -- or, let us say, crucified -- by this overwhelming event that is always happening.
Well, long day today, and I pretty much have to go where Bob goes, even though he could never contain me, not in a million lifetomes....
(Image yoinked from Vanderleun's sidebar, I don't know, just because it reminds me of this weird dream I once had. Or that once had me.)


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About This GigapanToggle
- Taken by
- Ahna Hazlewood
- Explore score
- 61
- Size
- 0.41 Gigapixels
- Views
- 9726
- Date added
- May 31, 2009
- Date taken
- May 31, 2009
- Categories
- Galleries
- Mesa Verde National Park Geology
- Competitions
- Tags
- colorado, southwestern
- Description
In the very old days,The Sleeping Ute Mountain was a Great Warrior God. He came to help fight against the Evil Ones who were causing much trouble.
A tremendous battle between the Great Warrior God and the Evil One followed. As they stepped hard on the earth and braced themselves to fight, their feet pushed the land into mountains and valleys. This is how the country of this region came to be as it is today.
The Great Warrior God was hurt, so he lay down to rest and fell into a deep sleep. The blood from his wound turned into living water for all creatures to drink.
When the fog or clouds settle over The Sleeping Warrior God, it is a sign that he is changing his blankets for the four seasons. When the Indians see light green blanket they know it is spring. The dark green blanket is summer, the yellow and red one is fall and the white one is winter.
The Indians believe that when the clouds gather on the highest peak, the Warrior god is pleased with his people and is letting rain clouds slip from his pockets. They also believe that the Great Warrior God will rise again to help them in the fight against their enemies.
From Legends and Children's Stories of the Ute Tribe.
Gigapan Comments (5)Toggle Minimize gigapan_comment
Here is another view with more cows. www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id= 24687
Bovine Whisperer, What is the name of that cow and does she have an agent yet ?
Just call me the "Bovine Whisperer".
How did you train that cow to be in the picture four times?
Congrats Ahna , you made JBakers curated set on your first gigapan.I guess it helps to have your backyard mowed before you shoot the gig.
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GigaPan Stitcher version 0.4.3864 (Windows)
Panorama size: 405 megapixels (42158 x 9613 pixels)
Input images: 80 (16 columns by 5 rows)
Field of view: 126.5 degrees wide by 28.8 degrees high (top=16.0, bottom=-12.9)
All default settings
Original image properties:
Camera make: Canon
Camera model: Canon PowerShot SX10 IS
Image size: 3648x2736 (10.0 megapixels)
Capture time: 2009-05-31 04:37:21 - 2009-05-31 04:44:01
Aperture: f/5
Exposure time: 0.003125 - 0.004
Focal length (35mm equiv.): 190.4 mm
Digital zoom: off
White balance: Fixed
Exposure mode: Manual
Horizontal overlap: 27.1 to 33.9 percent
Vertical overlap: 36.4 to 37.5 percent
Computer stats: 3574.98 MB RAM, 2 CPUs
Total time 1:21:53 (1:01 per picture)
Alignment: 10:30, Projection: 9:01, Blending: 1:02:21


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Screen Rant's (Massive) 2012 Movie Preview
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2012 is here and movie fans are pretty excited, as the year twenty-twelve promises some highly anticipated sci-fi films (Prometheus), some promising animated originals (Brave, Paranorman), the usual awards season art house entries (Licoln, Great Gatsby), and a super-powered showdown between Marvel's The Avengers, and DC/Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight Rises.
Should that Mayan doomsday prophecy turn out to be true, it'll be hard to say that we didn't go out on a high note, as far as movies are concerned.
In our guide we'll take a look at the movies of 2012 that will be occupying our weekends at the theater all throughout the year. We'll also keep this post updated as release dates are shifted and new movies are added to the calendar, so be sure to bookmark this post for future reference.
For your convenience, we've separated the 2012 movie releases into the the months of the year. Be sure to check back each month for the latest on the movies that will be at theaters near you. We'll keep things current with new images, casting news, release date shifts and late additions. January is listed on this page and you can click any one of the links below to jump to a specific month.
- January 2012 Movies (this page)
- February 2012 Movies
- March 2012 Movies
- April 2012 Movies
- May 2012 Movies
- June 2012 Movies
- July 2012 Movies
- August 2012 Movies
- September 2012 Movies
- October 2012 Movies
- November 2012 Movies
- December 2012 Movies
- 2012 Release Dates TBD
January 2012 MOVIES
The Devil Inside
January 6th
In Italy, a woman becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism.
Beauty and the Beast 3D
January 13th
Belle, whose father is imprisoned by the Beast, offers herself instead and discovers her captor to be an enchanted prince. The 1991 Disney animated film now converted into 3D.
January 13th
To protect his brother-in-law from a drug lord, a former smuggler (Mark Wahlberg) heads to Panama to score millions of dollars in counterfeit bills. Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Giovanni Ribisi co-star.
The Divide
January 13th (U.S. – Limited)
Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away at their dynamic.
Joyful Noise
January 13th
Two choir members have differing opinions on how to win the national choir competition. Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton star.
The Iron Lady
January 13th (U.S.)
A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
January 13th (U.S. – Limited Release)
The mother of a teenage boy who went on a high-school killing spree tries to deal with her grief – and feelings of responsibility for her child's actions. Tilda Winton and John C. Reilly star as the parents, Ezra Miller plays the titular Kevin.
January 20th (U.S. – Limited Release)
In this modern vision of a Shakespeare classic, a banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city. Ralph Fiennes stars and directs, Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain, Vanessa Redgrave, James Nesbitt and Brian Cox co-star.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
January 20th (Expansion to Wide Release)
A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist (Thomas Horn) searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father (Tom Hanks), who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Max Von Sydow, Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright co-star.
January 20th (U.S.)
A black ops super soldier (MMA star Gina Carano) seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission. Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGrego, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas and Bill Paxton co-star.
Red Tails
January 20th
A crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II, are called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Bullard. Cuba Gooding Jr., David Oyelowo, Method Man, Tristan Wilds, Ne-Yo, Lee Tergesen, Gerald McRaney, Terrence Howard, Josh Dallas, and Bryan Cranston star.
Underworld Awakening
January 20th
When human forces discover the existence of the Vampire and Lycan clans, a war to eradicate both species commences. The vampire warrioress Selene (Kate Beckinsale) leads the battle against humankind.
The Grey
January 27th
In Alaska, an oil drilling team struggle to survive after a plane crash strands them in the wild. Hunting the humans are a pack of wolves who see them as intruders. Liam Neeson and Dermot Mulroney star.
Man on a Ledge
January 27th
As a police psychologist works to talk down an ex-con who is threatening to jump from a Manhattan hotel rooftop, the biggest diamond heist ever committed is in motion. Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, Kyra Sedgwick, Ed Burns, Anthony Mackie and William Sadler star.
One for the Money
January 27th
Unemployed and newly-divorced Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl) lands a job at her cousin's bail-bond business, where her first assignment puts her on the trail of a wanted local cop from her romantic past (Jason O'Mara).
Big Miracle
February 3rd
In small town Alaska, a news reporter (John Krasinski) recruits his ex-girlfriend – a Greenpeace volunteer (Drew Barrymore) – on a campaign to save a family of gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle.
February 3rd
Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides. Dane DeHaan, Ashley Hinshaw, Anna Wood and Michael Kelly star.
The Woman in Black
February 3rd
A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
February 10th
Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) partners with his mom's boyfriend (Dwayne Johnson) on a mission to find his grandfather (Michael Caine), who is thought to be missing on a mythical island. Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzmán co-star.
February 10th
Set in 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police officer Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson), the last of the renegade cops, works to take care of his family, and struggles for his own survival. Sigourney Weaver, Ben Foster, Jon Bernthal, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Brie Lason, Ice Cube, Anne Heche, Ned Beatty and Cynthia Nixon co-star.
Safe House
February 10th
A young CIA agent (Ryan Reynolds) is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house (Denzel Washington). But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D
February 10th
Two Jedi Knights (Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor) uncover a wider conflict when they are sent as emissaries to the blockaded planet Naboo. 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I. Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Oz, and Ray Park co-star.
The Vow
February 10th
A car accident puts Paige (Rachel McAdams) in a coma, and when she wakes up with severe memory loss, her husband Leo (Channing Tatum) works to win her heart again. Jessica Lange, Sam Neil and Scott Speedman co-star.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
February 17th
As Johnny Blaze (Nic Cage) hides out in Eastern Europe, he is called upon to stop the devil, who is trying to take human form. Idris Elba, Christopher Lambert and Ciarán Hinds co-star.
The Lady
February 17th (U.S. – Limited Release)
The story of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh) and the academic/writer Michael Aris (David Thewlis); a true story of love set against political turmoil. Directed by Luc Besson.
This Means War
February 17th
Two top CIA operatives (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) wage an epic battle against one another after they discover they are dating the same woman (Reese Witherspoon). Laura Vandervoort, Angela Bassett, David Koechner and Chelsea Handler co-star.
The Secret World of Arrietty
February 17th (U.S. Release)
The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously in another family's residence, borrowing simple items to make their home. Life changes for the Clocks when their daughter, Arrietty, is discovered
Act of Valor
February 24th
An elite team of Navy SEALs embark on a covert mission to recover a kidnapped CIA agent. Starring real-life Navy SEALs.
February 24th
When her sister disappears, Jill (Amanda Seyfried) is convinced the serial killer who kidnapped her two years ago has returned, and she sets out to once again face her abductor.
Tyler Perry's Good Deeds
February 24th
Right before his wedding, an affluent man (Tyler Perry) develops complicating feelings for a single mom (Thandie Newton).
February 24th
Rattled by sudden unemployment, a Manhattan couple (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) surveys alternative living options, ultimately deciding to experiment with living on a rural commune where free love rules. Malin Akerman, Ray Liotta, Lauren Ambrose and Alan Alda co-star.
Being Flynn
March 2nd (U.S. – Limited Release)
Working in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) re-encounters his father (Robert De Niro), a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick wrestles with the notion of reaching out yet again to his dad.
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
March 2nd
A 12-year-old boy (voice of Zac Efron) searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams (voice of Taylor Swift). To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax (voice of Danny DeVito), the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world. Additional voices by Betty White, Rob Riggle and Ed Helms.
Project X
March 2nd
3 high school seniors throw a birthday party to make a name for themselves. As the night progresses, things spiral out of control as word of the party spreads. Produced by Hangover director Todd Phillips.
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
March 3rd (Available VOD Jan 27th)
Two guys (Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim) get a billion dollars to make a movie, only to watch their dream run off course. In order to make the money back, they then attempt to revitalize a failing shopping mall. Appearances by John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jeff Goldblum, Erica Durance, Will Forte and Ray Wise.
John Carter
March 9th
Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet (Taylor Ktisch) discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess (Lynn Collins) who is in desperate need of a savior. Mark Strong, Bryan Cranston, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, Thomas Haden Church, James Purefoy, Polly Walker, Samantha Morton, and Willem Dafoe co-star.
Silent House
March 9th
Trapped inside her family's lakeside retreat, a young woman (Elizabeth Olsen) descends into madness.
Think Like a Man
March 9th
Four friends conspire to turn the tables on their women when they discover the ladies have been using Steve Harvey's relationship advice against them. Meagan Good, Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson, Michael Ealy, Chris Brown, Kevin Hart, Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, J.B. Smoove, Romany Malco, Jerry Ferrara, Kelly Rowland, Wendy Williams, Terrence Jenkins and LaLa Vazquez star.
A Thousand Words
March 9th
After stretching the truth on a deal with a spiritual guru, literary agent Jack McCall (Eddie Murphy) finds a Bodhi tree on his property. Its appearance holds a valuable lesson on the consequences of every word we speak.
21 Jump Street
March 16th
A pair of underachieving cops (Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill) are sent back to a local high school to blend in and bring down a synthetic drug ring. Dave Franco, Ellie Kemper, Brie Larson, Ice Cube, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, and Johnny Depp co-star.
Casa de mi Padre
March 16th (U.S. – Limited Release)
Scheming on a way to save their father's ranch, the Alvarez brothers find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared drug lord. Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Nick Offerman, and Genesis Rodriguez star.
Jeff Who Lives at Home
March 16th (U.S.)
Dispatched from his basement room on an errand for his mother, slacker Jeff (Jason Segel) might discover his destiny (finally) when he spends the day with his brother (Ed Helms) as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.
Seeking Justice
March 16th (U.S. Release)
After his wife is assaulted, a husband enlists the services of a vigilante group to help him settle the score. Nic Cage, Guy Pearce and January Jones star.
The Hunger Games
March 23rd
Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match. Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Stanely Tucci and Donald Sutherland co-star.
March 30th (U.S. – Limited Release; VOD on Feb 24th)
Labelled an outcast by his brainy family, a bouncer (Seann William Scott) overcomes long odds to lead a team of under performing misfits to semi-pro hockey glory, beating the crap out of everything that stands in his way. Jay Baruchel, Liev Schreiber and Eugene Levy co-star.
March 30th (U.S. – Limited Release)
Two children living in different countries are visited nightly by a faceless being who wants to take possession of them. Clive Owen and Carice van Houten star. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) directs.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
March 30th (U.S.)
Pirate Captain sets out on a mission to defeat his rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz for the Pirate of the year Award. The quest takes Captain and his crew from the shores of Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Voice work by Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Piven, Martin Freeman, David Tennant and Salma Hayek.
Wrath of the Titans
March 28th
Perseus (Sam Worthington) embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus (Liam Neeson), who has been targeted for capture by his traitorous son, Ares (Édgar Ramírez), and his brother, Hades (Ralph Fiennes).
Mirror Mirror
March 30th
An evil queen steals control of a kingdom and an exiled princess enlists the help of seven resourceful rebels to win back her birthright. Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane, and Sean Bean star.
Titanic 3D
April 4th
A boy (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a girl (Kate Winslet) from differing social backgrounds meet during the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. 3D re-release of James Cameron's Oscar-winning 1997 film.
Iron Sky
April 4th
The Nazis set up a secret base on the moon in 1945 where they hide out and plan to return to power in 2018.
American Reunion
April 6th
Jim (Jason Biggs), Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), Stifler (Seann William Scott), and their friends reunite in East Great Falls, Michigan for their high school reunion. Mena Suvari, Shannon Elizabeth, John Cho, TaraReid, Jennifer Coolidge, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Eugene Levy all return.
The Cabin in the Woods
April 13th
Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Kristen Connolly, Amy Acker, Franz Kranz, Bradley Whitford, Jesse Williams and Richard Jenkins star. Written/directed by Drew Goodard and co-written by Joss Whedon.
April 13th (U.S.)
A man (Guy Pearce) wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter (Maggie Grace) from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.
The Three Stooges
April 13th
While trying to save their childhood orphanage, Moe, Larry, and Curly inadvertently stumble into a murder plot and wind up starring in a reality TV show. Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes, and Will Sasso play the stooges.
April 20th
A nature documentary centered on a family of chimps living in the Ivory Coast and Ugandan rain forests.
The Lucky One
April 20th
A Marine (Zac Efron) travels to North Carolina after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman (Taylor Schilling) he believes was his good luck charm during the war. Based on the Nicholas Sparks novel.
The Five-Year Engagement
April 27th
A comedy that charts the ups and downs of an engaged couple's five-year road to the alter. Jason Segel, Emily Blunt Rhys Ifans, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Chris Pratt, Chris Parnell, and Mindy Kaling star.
The Raven
April 27th
A fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet (played by John Cusack) pursues a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories. Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson and Luke Evans co-star.
April 27th
A former elite agent (Jason Statham) takes on a two-tier mission: rescue a Chinese girl who's been abducted by the Triads, then use a safe combination to outwit the Russian Mafia, corrupt NYC officials, and the Triads themselves.
The Avengers
May 4th
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agency brings together a team of superhumans to help save the Earth from annihilation by extraterrestrial invaders. Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston star.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
May 4th (U.S.)
British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways. Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup and Dev Patel star.
Dark Shadows
May 11th
A gothic-horror tale centering on the life of vampire Barnabas Collins and his run-ins with various monsters, witches, werewolves and ghosts. Based on the cult TV series. Tim Burton directs, Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley, and Christopher Lee star.
The Dictator
May 11th (U.S.)
The heroic story of a dictator (Sacha Baron Cohen) who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed. Megan Fox, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, John C. Reilly, B.J. Novak and J.B. Smoove co-star.
What to Expect When You're Expecting
May 11th
A look at the lives of five couples as they prepare to become parents. Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Dennis Quaid, Rodrigo Santoro, Brooklyn Decker, Chace Crawford, Joe Manganiello, Chris Rock, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Megan Mullally star.
May 18th
A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals. Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna and Liam Neeson star.
Men In Black III
May 25th
Agent J (Will Smith) time-jumps back to the 1960s, where an alien with its sights on the younger version of Agent K (Josh Brolin) poses a threat to the future of the MIB organization — and humankind's very existence.
Moonrise Kingdom
May 25th (U.S. – Limited Release)
In this Wes Anderson film, a pair of lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them. Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Ed Norton, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray star.
Jack and Diane
June 1st
Jack (Riley Keough) and Diane (Juno Temple), two teenage girls, meet in New York City and spend the night kissing ferociously. Diane's charming innocence quickly begins to open Jack's tough skinned heart. But, when Jack discovers that Diane is leaving the country in a week she tries to push her away. Diane must struggle to keep their love alive while hiding the secret that her newly awakened sexual desire is giving her werewolf-like visions. Jena Malone and Kylie Minogue co-star.
Piranhaa 3DD
June 1st
After the events at Lake Victoria, the pre-historic school of blood-thirsty piranhas make their way into a newly opened waterpark. Christopher Lloyd, Gary Busey, David Koechner, Danielle Panabaker, Katrina Bowden and Ving Rhames (yes Ving Rhames) star. David Hasselhoff plays…himself.
Snow White and the Huntsman
June 1st
In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) ordered to take Snow White (Kristen Stewart) into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen (Charlize Theron).
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
June 8th
Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo join a traveling circus in an effort to get back home to New York. Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer, Frances McDormand, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock, Sherri Shepherd, Andy Richter, Cedrick the Entertainer and Andre 3000 lend voices.
June 8th
A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Wilson and Logan Marshall-Green star.
Donny's Boy (I Hate You, Dad)
June 15th
A father moves in with his son right before his wedding and soon begins sparring with his daughter-in-law. Adam Sandler, Leighton Meester, James Caan, Susan Sarandon, Milo Ventimiglia, Andy Samberg, Ciara, Todd Bridges, Ian Ziering and Colin Quinn star.
Rock of Ages
June 15th
Set in 1987 Los Angeles, Drew (Diego Boneta) and Sherrie (Julianne Hugh) are two young people chasing their dreams in the big city. When they meet, it's love at first sight, though their romance will face a series of challenges. Alec Baldwin, Mary J. Blige, Russell Brand, Malin Akerman, Paul Giamatti, Will Forte, Bryan Cranston, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Tom Cruise star.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
June 22nd
President Lincoln's mother is killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers. Benjamin Walker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anthony Mackie, Dominic Cooper, Alan Tudyk and Rufus Sewell star.
June 22nd
Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
June 22nd
As an asteroid nears Earth, a man finds himself alone after his wife leaves in a panic. He decides to take a road trip to reunite with his high school sweetheart. Accompanying him is a neighbor who inadvertently puts a wrench in his plan. Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Melinda Dillon, Patton Oswalt, Adam Brody, Gillian Jacobs, William Petersen, Rob Corddry and Derek Luke star.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
June 29th
After a deadly ambush, the surviving G.I. Joe team faces off against Cobra villain Zartan, his accomplices, and the world leaders he has under his influence. Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis join the franchise.
Magic Mike
June 29th (U.S. – Limited Release)
In this Steven Soderbergh film, an upstart male stripper is taken under the wing of a more experienced colleagues. Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, Oliva Munn and Weni McLendon-Covey star.
The Amazing Spider-Man
July 3rd
Teenager Peter Parker grapples with both human problems and amazing super-human crises. Reboot of the Spider-Man movie franchise starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
Ice Age: Continental Drift
July 13th
Manny, Diego, and Sid embark upon another adventure after their continent is set adrift. Using an iceberg as a ship, they encounter sea creatures and battle pirates as they explore a new world. Voices by Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Jennifer Lopez, Alan Tudyk, Nick Frost, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez, Aziz Ansari and Peter Dinklage.
July 13th
From the mind of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane comes a story centered on a man (Mark Wahlberg) and his foul-mouthed teddy bear (voiced by MacFarlane), who comes to life as the result of a childhood wish. Mila Kunis, Patrick Warburton, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel McHale and Laura Vandervoort co-star.
The Dark Knight Rises
July 20th
Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the terrorist leader Bane (Tom Hardy) arrives in Gotham City, pushing it and its police force to their limits, forcing its former hero Batman (Christian Bale) to resurface after taking the fall for Harvey Dent's crimes.
Neighborhood Watch
July 27th
Suburban dads form a neighborhood watch group to get time away from their families, only to discover a plot to destroy Earth. Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Billy Crudup, Will Forte and Doug Jones star.
Step Up 4
July 27th
Emily (Kathryn McCormick) arrives in Miami with aspirations to become a professional dancer. She sparks with Sean (Ryan Guzman), the leader of a dance crew whose neighborhood is threatened by Emily's father's development plans.
The Bourne Legacy
August 3rd
A story centered on a new CIA operative in the universe based on Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne novels. Starring Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton and Joan Allen.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
August 3rd
School is out and Greg (Zachary Gordon) is ready for the days of summer, when all his plans go wrong. What on earth is he going to do all summer?
Total Recall
August 3rd
As the nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai vie for supremacy, a factory worker (Colin Farrell) begins to suspect that he's a spy, though he is unaware which side of the fight he's on. Bryan Cranston, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Ethan Hawke, Bokeem Woodbine and Bill Nighy co-star.
The Campaign
August 10th
Two rival South Carolina politicians (Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis) with presidential aspirations tangle with one another. Dylan McDermott, Jason Sudeikis, John Lithgow, Brian Cox and Dan Aykroyd co-star.
August 10th
Three sisters form a successful singing group and must deal with the fallout of fame and drugs. Jordin Sparks, Tika Sumpter, Carmen Ejogo, Derek Luke, Mike Epps, Cee-Lo, Omari Hardwick and Whitney Houston star.
Warm Bodies
August 10th
After a zombie becomes involved with the girlfriend of one of his victims, their romance sets in motion a sequence of events that might transform the entire lifeless world. Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and John Malkovich star.
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
August 15th
A childless couple bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, a child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears. Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Garner, Common, Ron Livingston, and Cameron Adams star.
The Expendables 2
August 17th
Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of their men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat. Jason Statham, Liam Hemsworth, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Scott Adkins, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Arnold Schwarzenegger star.
August 17th
A misunderstood boy who can speak with the dead, takes on ghosts, zombies and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse. Voices by Kodi Smit-McPhee, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Casey Affleck, Jeff Garlin and John goodman.
The Apparition
August 24th
A couple are haunted by a supernatural presence that is unleashed during a college experiment. Sebastian Stan, Ashley Greene and Tom Felton star.
Premium Rush
August 24th
In Manhattan, a bike messenger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) picks up an envelope that attracts the interest of a dirty cop, who pursues the cyclist throughout the city. Michael Shannon and Jamie Chung co-star.
August 24th
Former getaway driver Charlie Bronson (Dax Shepard) jeopardizes his Witness Protection Plan identity in order to help his girlfriend (Kristen Bell) get to Los Angeles. The feds and Charlie's former gang chase them on the road. Bradley Cooper, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Rosenbaum, Beau Brides, David Keochner, Joy Bryant and Tom Arnold co-star.
August 31st
In this film by horror master Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge), passengers aboard a flight across the Pacific Ocean encounter a supernatural force. Amy Smart, Nicky Whelan, Jamie Chung, Leslie Bibb, Ryan Kwanten, Scout Taylor-Compton and Jerry Ferrara star.
The Possession
August 31st
A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Madison Davenport, Grant Show and Natasha Calis star.
August 31st
Set in the Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a bootlegging gang is threatened by authorities who want a cut of their profits. Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska and Jason Clarke star.
The Cold Light of Day
September 7th
A young American (Henry Cavill) uncovers a conspiracy during his attempt to save his family, who were kidnapped while on vacation in Spain. Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver co-star.
September 14th
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador. Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Alan Arkin, Taylor Schilling, Clea DuVall and Zeljko Ivanek star.
Finding Nemo 3D
September 14th
After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home. 3D re-release of the Pixar hit film.
Resident Evil Retribution
September 14th
Alice (Milla Jovovich) fights alongside a resistance movement in the continuing battle against the Umbrella Corporation and the undead.
Killing Them Softly
September 21st
Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is a professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game. James Gondolfini, Scoot McNairy, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta and Garret Dillahunt co-star.
September 21st
In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) teams with a trainee (Olivia Thirlby) to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.
Hotel Transylvania
September 21st
Dracula, who operates a high-end resort away from the human world, goes into overprotective mode when a boy discovers the resort and falls for the count's teen-aged daughter. Directed by animation icon Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) with voice work by Adam Sandler, Miley Cyrus, Steve Buscemi, Kevin James, David Spade, Andy Sambert, Molly Shannon, Cee-Lo, David Keochner and Fran Drescher.
House at the End of the Street
September 21st
A mother and daughter move to a new town and find themselves living next door to a house where a young girl murdered her parents. When the daughter befriends the surviving son, she learns the story is far from over. Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue, and Max Thieriot star.
September 21st
In this Rian Johnson (Brick) film, a killer who works for the mob of the future recognizes one of his targets as his future self. Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels and Garret Dillahunt star.
September 28th
In this Oliver Stone film, pot growers Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend. Blake Lively, Emile Hirsch, Salma Hayek, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta co-star.
October 5th
In small-town Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town's annual contest. Olivia Wilde, Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone, Ty Burrell, and Rob Corddry star.
October 5th
Young Victor (Charlie Tahan) conducts a science experiment to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life, only to face unintended, sometimes monstrous, consequences.
Taken 2
October 5th
In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D
October 5th
A young woman travels to Texas to collect an inheritance; little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-yielding killer is part of the reward.
October 5th
Found footage helps a true-crime novelist realize how and why a family was murdered in his new home, though his discoveries put his entire family in the path of a supernatural entity. Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio star.
Fun Size
October 12th
When a troubled but whip-smart teen girl loses her oddball little brother on Halloween, she has one desperate night to track him down.
Gangster Squad
October 12th
A chronicle of the LAPD's fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s. Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña and Mirelle Enos star.
Here Comes the Boom
October 12th
A high school biology teacher moonlights as a mixed-martial arts fighter in an effort to raise money to save the school's music program. Kevin James, Henry Winkler Joe Rogan and Salma Hayek star.
October 12th
A crime/thriller centered on a thief who lives by a code of honor that includes never stealing money from people who need it. Jason Statham, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis and Clifton Collins Jr.
Paranormal Activity 4
October 19th
The next entry in the popular horror franchise. Paranormal Activity 3 directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman will be back to direct the new chapter.
Twylight Zones
October 19th
Set in suburban New Jersey the 1960s, a group of friends form a rock band and try to make it big. Brad Garrett, James Gandolfini, Jack Huston, Christopher McDonald, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Lisa Lampanelli and Molly Price star. David Chase (The Sopranos) directs.
The Wedding
October 19th
A long-divorced couple fakes being married as their family unites for a wedding. Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Ben Barnes, Robin Wiliams, Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon star.
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
October 26th
Heather Mason (Adelaide Clemens) and her father (Sean Bean) have been on the run, always one step ahead of dangerous forces that she doesn't fully understand. Now on the eve of her 18th birthday, plagued by horrific nightmares and the disappearance of her father, Heather discovers she's not who she thinks she is. The revelation leads her deeper into a demonic world that threatens to trap her forever.
Halloween 3D
October 26th
3D entry in the Halloween movie franchise.
Of Men and Mavericks
October 26th
Surfer Jay Moriarity sets out to ride the Northern California break known as Mavericks. Gerard Butler, Elisabeth Shue, Abigail Spencer and Jonny Weston star.
The Guilt Trip
November 2nd
An inventor (Seth Rogen) and his mom (Barbra Streisand) hit the road together so he can sell his latest invention. Yvonne Strahovski, Colin Hanks, Adam Scott and Danny Pudi co-star.
Red Dawn
November 2nd
A group of teenagers look to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers. Chris Hemsworth, Adrianne Palicki, Josh Hutcherson, Isabel Lucas, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Connor Cruise star.
Wreck-It Ralph
November 2nd
The bad-guy character in a classic game who longs to be a hero brings trouble to his entire arcade after sneaking into a new first-person shooter game and unleashing a deadly enemy. Voice work by John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman and Jack McBrayer.
November 9th
Bond's (Daniel Craig) loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. Ralph Fiennes, Helen McCrory, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw and Bérébuce Marlohe star.
(November 9th)
A family has to deal with otherworldly chaos that is unleashed by a Ouija board.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
November 16th
After the birth of Renesmee, the Cullens gather other vampire clans in order to protect the child from a false allegation that puts the family in front of the Volturi.
Rise of the Guardians
November 21st
Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Sandman band together to form a united front against the Bogeyman. Starring Dakota Goyo, with voice work by Jude Law, Hugh Jackman, Chris Pine, Isla Fisher, Aleck Baldwin.
47 Ronin
November 21st
An 18th century set story centered on a band of samurai who set out to avenge the death of their master. Keanu Reeves stars alongside a cast of Japanese actors.
November 21st
In this Alfonso Cuarón film, the lone survivor of a space mission to repair the Hubble telescope desperately tries to return to Earth and reunite with her daughter. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star.
Parental Guidance
November 21st
When his daughter goes away for work, a grandfather finds himself having to take care of his three grandkids using 21st century methods — though he soon resorts to an old-school style of parenting. Billy Crystal, Bailee Madison, Joshua Rush, Madison Lintz, Marisa Tomei, Tom Everett Scott, and Bette Midler star.
The Silver Linings Playbook
November 21st
After spending four years in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his mother and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Bradley Cooper, Julia Stiles Taylor Shcilling, Chris Tucker, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro star, David O. Russell (The Fighter) directs.
Les Misérables
December 7th
An adaptation of the successful stage musical based on Victor Hugo's classic novel set in 19th-century France, in which a paroled prisoner named Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) seeks redemption. Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Russell Crowe, Sacha Baron Cohen and Eddie Redmayne co-star.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
December 14th
Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, journeys to the Lonely Mountain accompanied by a group of dwarves to reclaim a treasure taken from them by the dragon Smaug.
Great Hope Springs
December 14th
After thirty years of marriage, a middle-aged couple attends an intense counseling weekend to decide the fate of their marriage. Meryl Streep,Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell and Jean Smart star.
Kill Bin Laden
December 19th
An account on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the battled on his compound that resulted in his death. Directed by Oscar-winning Hurt Locker director, Kathryn Bigelow.
Life of Pi
December 21st
After the tragic sinking of a ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the Pacific ocean, inside there is an Indian boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra, a female orangutan and a Bengal tiger, the only survivors of the wreck, it's a tale of faith, hope and fighting for survival. Suraj Sharma and Irrfan Khan star, Ang Lee directs.
Hunter Killer
December 21st
An untested American submarine captain teams with U.S. Navy Seals to rescue the Russian president, who has been kidnapped by a rouge general. Gerard Butler and Sam Worthington star.
This is 40
December 21st
This Judd Apatow spin-off film looks at the lives of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) a few years after the events of Knocked Up. Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy, John Lithgow, Albert Brooks and Megan Fox co-star.
One Shot
December 21st
A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims. Based on a book in Lee Child's crime series. Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Werner Herzog, David Oyelowo, Richard Jenkins and Robert Duvall star. Christopher McQuarrie (Ususal Suspects) writes and directs.
Django Unchained
December 25th
With the help of his mentor (Christoph Waltz), a slave-turned-bounty hunter (Jamie Foxx) sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sacha Baron Cohen, Samuel L. Jackson, Micahel Kenneth Williams, Kerry Washington, Don Johnson, Gerald McRaney, RZA and Kurt Russell co-star.
The Great Gatsby
December 25th
Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), a Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy. Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher star. Baz Luhrmann directs.
Playing the Field
December 25th
A former professional athlete with a weak past (Gerard Butler) tries to redeem himself by coaching his son's soccer team, only to find himself unable to resist when in scoring position with his players' restless and gorgeous moms. Jessica Biel, Judy Greer, Dennis Quaid, Uma Thurman and Catherine Zeta-Jones co-star.
Other 2012 Movies (Release Dates TBD)…
Other 2012 Movies (Exact Release Dates TBD)
The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes – An ambitious female television news intern, on the verge of breaking the most famous haunted house case in the world, leads a team of journalists, clergymen and paranormal researchers into an investigation of the bizarre events that will come to be known as The Amityville Horror… only to unwittingly open a door to the unreal that she may never be able to close.
Anna Karenina – Trapped in a loveless marriage, Anna (Keira Knightley), looks for a better life, but finds only a more complicated one. Jude Law, Emily Watson, Kelly Macdonald, Aaron Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen, Olivia Williams and Michelle Dockery star.
Atlas Shrugged: Part 2 – The second half of the lackluster cinematic adaptation of Ayn Rand's famous philosophical novel.
Bullet to the Head – After watching their respective partners die, a cop and a hitman form an alliance in order to bring down their common enemy. Sylvester Stallone, Jason Momoa, Christian Slater, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Sung Kang star.
Bachelorette – Three friends are asked to be bridesmaids at a wedding of a woman they used to ridicule back in high school. Kirsten Dunst, James Marsden, Isla Fisher, Adam Scott and Lizzy Caplan star.
Cloud Atlas (October) – Six stories set in a different time and place become intricately related to each other. Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Keith David, Ben Whishaw, James D'Arcy, Jim Sturgess, and Susan Sarandon star. The Wachowskis direct.
Dorothy of Oz – Back in Kansas, Dorothy Gale decides to return to Oz in order to help her friends. Voices by Lea Michele, Hugh Dancy, Patrick Stewart, Dan Aykroyd, James Belushi, Kelsey Grammer, Oliver Platt and Martin Short.
Gambit – An art curator enlists the services of a Texas steer roper to con a wealthy collector into buying a phony Monet painting. Alan Rickman, Cameron Diaz, Colin Firth, Stanley Tucci, and Cloris Leachman star. Written by the Coen Brothers.
Hick – A Nebraska teen gets more than she bargained for when she sets out for the bright lights of Las Vegas. Blake Lively, Juliette Lewis Chloe Moretz, Rory Culkin, Eddie Redmayne and Alec Baldwin star.
The Last Exorcism 2 – This sequel to the found-footage horror film will continue exploring Nell Sweetzer's (Ashley Bell) battle against the demonic forces possessing her.
Lincoln (December) – The sixteenth President of the United States (Daniel Day-Lewis) guides the North to victory during the Civil War. Joseph-Gordon-Levitt, Jared Harris, Tommy lee Jones, Jackie Earle Haley, Lee Pace, Sally Field, John Hawkes, Walton Goggins, David Strathairn, Hal Holbrook and James Spader co-star. Steven Spielberg directs.
LOL – In a world connected by YouTube, iTunes, and Facebook, Lola (Miley Cirus) and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents. Ashley Greene, Douglas Booth, Thomas Jane, Gina Gershon and Demi Moore star.
Lovelace – Amanda Seyfried, James Franco, Hank Azaria, Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, Eric Roberts, Robert Patrick and Demi Moore star.
Man With The Iron Fists– In feudal China, a blacksmith (RZA) who makes weapons for a small village is put in the position where he must defend himself and his fellow villagers. Russell Crowe, Jamie Chung, Lucy Liu and Pam Grier co-star. RZA directs.
Nero Fiddled – Woody Allen film set in Rome, starring Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Greta Gerwig, Alison Pill, Judy Davis, Roberto Benigni, and Allen himself.
Playback – When a group of high school students dig into their town's infamous past they unwittingly unlock an Evil that corrupts and destroys them. Possessing its victims through video playback and using them for malevolent purposes, it closes in on one specific soul, threatening to expose the town's deepest, darkest secret. Johnny Pacar, Ambyr Childers, Mark Metcalf and Christian Slater star.
Stoker – A teenage girl mourning the death of her father deals with an uncle who mysteriously shows up to meet the family. Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, Dermot Mulroney, Matthew Goode, Lucas Till, and Jacki Weaver star. Chan-wook Park (Oldboy) directs.
Voyage of Time – A Terrence Malick film examining the birth and death of the universe.


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Hi there! I stumbled on this place a number of times over the years but I never got atround to create an account... but now I think it's about time.
Always nice to keep in touch with the free software community; hope to keep you posted about the projects I'm involved with (mainly GoboLinux and htop) and learn about what you people are up to.


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Racism is most dominate factor in Detroit 's decline. It has always had a troubled relationship among races. The city was a major northern outpost of the KKK during the 20's and 30's. This led to civil unrest with the Packard incident and the race riots of 1943. The Twelfth Street Riot in 1967 is the major event that started the city's decline with white flight to the suburbs.
This was catalyzed by an unscrupulous practice of block tipping by some real estate brokers. ( Block tipping used a practice whereby the realtors would play on the fears of white residents of black people. They would attempt to get black families to move into a neighborhood. They knew if the ratio of black to white would reach a certain level the whites would take flight and move to the suburbs.) The realtors were most aggressive in this practice.
The mechanization of of southern agriculture coupled with southern bus ticket welfare provided a population of impoverished and poorly educated people who had few employable skills in an industrial environment. The advent of street drugs and an insane murder rate also drove the flight of upper and middle class families out of the city.
The result was a city demographic that looks like this
The income map looks like this:
I don't want to feed an ugly dog!
The short answer is that anyone, regardless of color, that can move out of Detroit does so.
Joe Dickerson
R.I.P. 4xGMPR HRCH Hunters Marsh Jack Daniels Bubba Jazz MH
Call Name: JD
I love Detroit, but one would be nuts to live there. The taxes are like 2 1/2 times what I pay now. The police response time is nothing short of a joke. The neighborhoods would be fine, if you have a lot of money. If you do not though it is a pretty bad. I would like to call the school system a joke, but it would make you cry to look at it. Some of these are being addressed, but the problem is big and will not be fixed soon.
"Its hard to win an argument with a smart person, but its damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person." - Bill Murray
Detroit is a city that has morphed into what it is by racism, politics, drugs, government ineptitude, and corruption. No company is willing to stick around in a drowning town.
Last edited by zeus3925; 08-30-2013 at 11:25 AM.
I don't want to feed an ugly dog!


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- Suitable for any experience level
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Approximate Total Run Time: 60 minutes.
Core Strength (30 minutes): Be led through various yoga poses while focusing on your breathing.
Restorative Yoga (30 minutes): Using your mat and a blanket, restore your mind and body.


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|The Quintessential Trout Trout angling is the core of flyfishing worldwide.
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Getting any?
Trout, silly!
Haven't heard much despite the northern hemisphere entering the prime of trout season... and being fall in the southern hemisphere I would have expected some reports?
Fill me in...
RE:Getting any?
Deerfield was high and murky yesterday. Not a soul on the water except one fool No luck with streamers on either C&R section. Water was 35, and i figure the cold + high water had trout hunkering on the bottom.
On the good(??) side, the bucket (bait) brigades are out in force on Falmouth ponds.
RE:Getting any?
Not getting any trout either . Haven't been out since the Westfield adventure. Itching to go though - need a few good hours and hopefully I can sneak out.
RE:Getting any?
Josko - I hear the water flow regulation on the Deerfield has kept the water levels unpredictable during recent years. Folks are getting annoyed by driving out to find flows unfishable. Any idea what the rationale is for these gatekeepers actions? (perhaps this would be an interesting question to ask *them*)
Maybe a few of us could hook up for a western MA jaunt one of these fine spring days! All I need is an excuse.
RE:Getting any?
talked to Jack Smola about the 'unstable river'. Since power deregulation, the Deerfield power company is selling power on the spot market, which is much more lucrative to them than the long-term contracts. Hydro is ideal for immediate deliveries of larish amounts. So if the guy happens to sell a few megawatts, the river rises; they hoard water the rest of the time. Hence the river has become 'unstable'
RE:Getting any?
Well I finally got out and wet a line today. Of course it was cold and raw with a fresh East, Northeast breeze, but I just had to try out the new DFR904 and new AS3/4 reel.
Found myself at a little pond somewhere off of RT2 and managed to land a bunch of freshly stocked rainbows, along with one fat holdover bow, all fish where caught on a
beadheaded black wollybugger. Not much of a tug on the other end of the line, but I guess it'll have to do for a couple more weeks.
Bob D
I fish because the voices in
my head tell me to...
RE:Getting any?
You betcha...
Out here in God's country, the Bow has been getting better every day the sun shines and gets our daytime temp uo to the 45 degrees (+10 to us metrics). Caught several nice rainbows and browwns a few weekend ago. Several small ones in the 14 inch range and 3 good fish in the 16 to 18 inch range and one over 22 inches. Most of our fishing is with nymph this time of year and the occasional streamer works as well. Looks like our spring run off will be very slow, as it was last year, so we are looking goood !.
Hope some of you folks can make it out here and also hope to get to your part of the Country
Calgary based pete
Pete AKA Frenchcreek from Calgary
RE:Getting any?
We took a Monday off work on the 6th of March. Three men in a boat. Off to Lough Ennell in the midlands of Ireland. The lake is Legendary. A typical fish is 3lbs. And we are talking pure untainted wild fish. No stocking, no nice over wintereds just <i>les sauvages</i>.
Now we fished the rather uncomfortable conditions for the whole day (9-5). It was quite windy and the boat was the worst drifter ever put on water. The durn thing pirrueted all around the place... fly lines crossed and more than one heart was set racing by a savage take which was a fellow lifting his line off the water. The little 4 horse on the back did not help when motoring to better spots either.
Anyway we fished shrimps, scuds for the Yankies, and I let the side down, as did boat man and driver, Brian. But Stevo quite outdid himself and boated a fine 3lb 4oz brown trout. Brian took a smidgen of the glory as he tied the fly. I netted the fish so at least I was involved.
A friend in Lough Corrib (the West) set off the Season with 17 fish, and followed it up this week with 10. He was fishing the duckfly the second time, which is just starting now... (duckfly is a green buzzer for the Brits and a chironomid for the latins, les Yanquies tradeurs probably call them something else). All his fish were over 13 inches. I intend to break my duck before the end of the month and 13in and 3lbs need not be worried, I'll settle for a six incher on a size 18 dry if that's all's on offer...
No angler, no matter how good, can catch a fish everytime, but then no fish, no matter how cunning, can resist a fly everytime...
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Videos from a past US National Championship for you. I'll find and post more if you like.
300 yard water blind with a poison bird.
Handlers could move up to brush pile after dog got in the water. Not all whistles are heard on these videos but assume for certain that these dogs are not stopping unless they hear a whistle.
For this blind Judges expect dogs to jump over brush pile and then get on and off of the first two points of land but not touch the third point.
This dog runs a good blind except for on the second point handler needs to sit dog three times so it will enter water and be seen. This is a fairly typical water blind in the US.
different dog doing water blind
Different year and water blind
This is a good example of a kick ass water blind,
same water blind different dog. here the handler risks it by not sitting his dog on the point letting him get on and off himself. The risk is dog will be lost out of sight around the corner where a stop and cast would put the dog in the water and hopefully visible.
Dig around these sites for test descriptions of marked retrieves blinds, drawing, videos and pics.
Home page for 2005 National Championship
Home page for 2006 National Championship
Home page 2006 National Amateur Championship
Home page 2007 National Amateur Championship


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About RickyRood
I'm a professor at U Michigan and lead a course on climate change problem solving. These articles often come from and contribute to the course.
By: RickyRood, 07:41 PM GMT die 31o January, anno 2012
Climate Science and the 2012 Election
I came from a family that subscribed, in the 1960s, to both the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Technology Review. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the magazine that, during the Cold War, famously published a clock set a few minutes before midnight. This clock was the evaluation of those at the Bulletin of how far we were from the, well as my grade-school self understood it, the end of the world. The cause for concern for the end of the world was nuclear war.
I have had cause to recall my Cold War childhood recently when my sister told the story of my brother going to roof of his building during the 1965 Northeast Blackout with a fine bottle of wine – or perhaps, cognac, to await the end of the world. His presumption was that the blackout was the darkening of the cities to make them more difficult targets for the bombers. I remember, in the 1960s, finding comfort when the new issue of the Bulletin would come and the clock had not moved forward, and I was quite excited if it moved backwards. I was surprised, recently, when I read that Bulletin had moved the clock one minute closer to midnight because of "inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change …" Looking at their website you will see that the Bulletin maintains efforts in Biosecurity, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power, and Climate Change. The article by Cohen and Miller, Climate Change 2011: A Status Review of US Policy is an excellent summary of the current situation in the US. The final sentence of their essay is, "That action is extremely unlikely to occur unless climate change comes to be seen as a practical, rather than ideological, issue."
Looking at the political landscape, climate change has fallen from the political discussion; it is a subject that cannot be talked about(some of my writings). Maxwell Boykoff has an excellent op-ed piece in the Washington Post entitled A Dangerous Shift in Obama's 'climate change' Rhetoric. At the center of this piece is how climate change has implicitly been consumed in discussions of energy security, alternative energy, and clean energy. Though the warming of our climate is strongly linked to our burning of fossil fuels, there are many ways to achieve energy security and to develop alternative energy that do not address the causes of global warming. The pursuit of clean energy depends on the definition of "clean," and this word is easily co-opted by, for example, the reduction of mercury emissions from coal.
Ultimately, we have to talk about management of the climate if we are to address the problems of human-caused global warming. We cannot address one societal challenge with the idea that we will fix the climate change problem by good fortune. When I teach this idea in class, I invoke my experience in management and, namely, it is simply not responsible management to anticipate achieving an important result without someone, some organization, having the responsibility for delivering that result.
Yet we live in a time when politicians are vilified and run out of office when they talk about climate and climate change. As Boykoff noted in his piece, President Obama avoids the climate issue because it is such a political hot button that it completely disrupts and halts progress on any issue where it is invoked. There is the recent incident where an essay on climate change was purged from a collection being put together by Newt Gingrich. I like to think that a couple of the candidates pulled out of the Republican primaries because they felt that their integrity would be too seriously comprised by having to, essentially, lie in order to obtain the trust of their voters.
Bob Inglis was voted out of Congress in 2010. Recently he wrote a piece Conservative Means Standing with Science on Climate Change. Ultimately, Inglis is arguing that if ALL costs of our energy use are incorporated into the equation, then the cost of fossil fuels would be much higher and alternative sources of energy would be more attractive. This coupled with elimination of all subsidies for energy costs, Inglis argues, would allow the market to make the right decision about energy and, hence, the climate. This full-cost accounting is enticing in its philosophical simplicity, but there are many profound implications. It does require accepting the notion that our carbon dioxide waste is harmful to the environment, the assignment of cost to that harm, and a process of linking that cost to energy sources.
As a strategy, addressing issues of clean energy, energy independence and energy security are more politically pragmatic than addressing issues of climate change. They offer a path towards addressing climate change; they are part of the best-we-can-do-at-this-time strategy. However, our inability to actually talk about solving the climate change problem means that we will not address the problem; we will elevate our risks; we will continue to impact negatively our economic and technological competitiveness.
It has fascinated me over the years at how both elected officials and government appointees make far more sense in what they say after they are outside of their government positions. I was a minor manager in the government, and even at my level, I was motivated to saying and doing things that were not the best thing to do to address a problem. Rather, what I did was the expedient and possible and it did advance the problem, but it was not either the best or most cost effective decision. This places the post-government truth teller, like Inglis, into one of the most important roles in advancing difficult problems like climate change. It also, however, points out the stunning inefficiency and ineffectiveness of our politically based determination of priorities in the development of knowledge-based environmental policy. We look knowledge in the face and deny its existence. We make our convenient arguments for the need for more research in the ill-posed pursuit of the illusive final facts. We fall into the diversion-motivated process of always asking for the next piece of information in what can be a never ending series of information discovery.
I found the October/November 1969 Technology Review in a box of Space-Age memorabilia I packed up from childhood. This issue was entitled "Man Among the Planets," and the first article was "The Modification of the Planet Earth by Man," by Gordon J. F. MacDonald. MacDonald in 1969 argued that we had already altered the planet, and that changes produced by humans were already at the scale "caused by nature." He warned that we needed to do research into large-scale, man-made, and inadvertent changes to our environment. He called for the development of climate prediction. Since 1969 we have taken the observations, we have developed the theory, and we have determined unequivocally that the Earth has warmed and that we the fuel-using people are the primary reason of the warming. As MacDonald called for in 1969, we have placed a lot of emphasis on climate and environmental research, and the results of that research have provided actionable information – knowledge. We look at that knowledge in eye and, as a society, we deny it. We look away. Perhaps, if we look away then it is not really there.
Looking forward to the 2012 election, I don't expect that climate change will be an oft articulated issue. The issue out front will be jobs, and the prominent link will be made between the exploitation of fossil fuels, new jobs, and energy security. Our approach to climate change will remain quietly in the hands of those savvy enough to use the unique knowledge provided by climate projections and those post-government truth tellers who no longer have to look away.
By: RickyRood, 06:11 PM GMT die 14o January, anno 2012
Using Predictions to Plan: Case Study – La Nina and the Missouri River (1)
Back in November I wrote an entry on whether or not we could use the prediction that we would have La Nina conditions in late 2011 and early 2012 to anticipate, for example, whether or not there would be a another historic flood in the Upper Missouri River. A little personal micro history: During August of 2011, I was at a meeting of a panel which is writing a report on climate modeling. That meeting included climate-savvy water managers talking about the information from climate models they might find usable. During the meeting on the news, there was the story that seasonal forecasts predicted there would La Nina conditions in late 2011 and early 2012 ( Climate Prediction Center Monthly Outlook). I asked people at the meeting how they would use this information in their planning for 2012. To be fair, this question was out of the blue, but I had this idea that this seasonal prediction was definitive information when compared with the information that comes from century-long projections from climate models. The century long climate predictions might provide information that some characteristics of El Nino and La Nina will change. With adequate analysis of this information, interpretation of the information, and then guidance or translation of this information, then informed decisions about, for example, reservoir design might be made. But I was curious, given a forecast for a particular season, what would you do?
I have introduced a lot of terms in that paragraph. I will define some of them.
First for those who need information on El Nino and La Nina, these are names given to two parts of an oscillation observed in the tropical Pacific Ocean. In the El Nino phase, the eastern Pacific, off of Peru for instance, is warm. La Nina is the opposite, the eastern tropical Pacific is cold. This is our best known example of behavior where the atmosphere and ocean behave in concert together – and we have proven that we can predict it. (NOAA LaNina Page, El Nino @ Wikipedia) We have known for some time that these changes in the Pacific cause or influence preferential weather patterns in other parts of the world. This excites people about being able to do seasonal prediction. In this case there is some oceanic forcing of the weather – or perhaps, when the ocean is considered part of the weather prediction problem, there is information about what the weather might be like for a particular season in a particular place. Concretely, for example, when there is an El Nino, people who worry about floods in California go on high alert (for example).
Translation and guidance - There is a lot of information that comes out of a weather and climate model. All practitioners of modeling know that you can't simply read off the temperature in Des Moines 9 months from now, much less 90 years in advance. But there is the real possibility that there is usable information in the models if 1) we understand the mechanisms that are responsible for, say, stream flow in the Iowa River, and 2) we have an understanding of the ability or inability of the model to represent those mechanisms. That is, if we can find the right knowledge, often a matter of finding the right people, then we can put together this knowledge in a way that is usable. This is what I mean by translation. It is the translation of knowledge from one discipline expert to another in a way that makes that knowledge usable. That is, to provide guidance. (Lemos and Rood on Useful and Usable)
OK – going down that path I introduced another term that I think demands more explanation. Mechanisms – when we look at a specific event like the 2011 Missouri River flood, we look for what factors come together to cause the flood. In the article that was referenced in the November blog, it was pointed out that there was an extraordinary snow cover on the Great Plains, and then a lot of rain on that snow, that caused melting, and collectively the accumulation of a lot of water that had to go downstream. So in this case, by mechanisms I mean what caused the event to happen. Perhaps the most important mechanisms that a climate model must represent to be usable for regional problems are those mechanisms that provide water to that region.
I am never quite sure if my style of writing is clarifying or just more confusing, but I get enough positive feedback that I think I clarify points for some – so I hope that the way I laid out this basic information makes sense. One more term - What I want to do is to translate information from observational studies and model predictions and make that information usable by someone. From my teaching the last 7 years, I have concluded that it is this translation of information that is the most essential missing ingredient in the usability of climate knowledge. There is a LOT of information and knowledge, but it is not easy to use.
So in this entry, I want to start the process of information translation. I warn in advance that this is a hazardous path. I am going to look at a few papers, in sub-disciplines of weather and climate, in which I am not expert. Hence, I am likely to make some mistakes, and I am hoping that doing this in public, motivates corrections of those mistakes. I take off down this path, because another thing I have discovered in the past seven years is that people who are not consummate experts in a subject are analyzing information and solving problems all over the world. And, I presume to imagine that I am more expert than most, and I presume to believe people when they tell me that I am reasonably good at translating information across discipline interfaces.
So I all start the analysis– and this is not irrelevant. I flew over a swath of the Great Plains last week, and I was struck by the lack of snow. I read Jeff Master's blog on the extreme state of the Arctic Oscillation. At the beginning of every problem I collect information. This information inventory process is essential. With a little luck, you will find information that when all brought together can be synthesized into a solution strategy or at least contribute to informed decision making. In fact, I have tried to structure a template to problem solving for a project I am involved in, and it is here at glisaclimate.org. (What's a GLISA?) I collected together a bunch of references that I thought might inform my translation. What, I am going to do now is extract the information from some of these references.
The first paper I am going to look at is by Bunkers et al. from the Journal of Climate in 1996. I chose this paper for a couple of reasons. First, a lot has been written that 2011 Missouri River flood had a La Nina influence. And, thinking about floods, one usually thinks about did it rain a lot? This paper is something of a sanity check, do we see changes in the rain in the Missouri River basin due to La Nina?
Bunkers et al. paper focuses on the "Northern Plains," which is approximately North and South Dakota. The Missouri River and the Red River of the North are important drainages for these states, and they were in historic flood in 2011. The authors look at data as far back as the late 1800s. That is about as long as any record that we have in the United States. The short story of their findings is that they find that during El Nino, there is significantly enhanced precipitation in the months April through October that follow the onset of the El Nino. For the La Nina phase they find significantly less precipitation for the months May through August following the onset of La Nina. However, we cannot stop with the conclusion, El Nino = wet, La Nina = dry. El Nino and La Nina are often viewed as 2 year long events, and in the second year following the onset of El Nino it is usually a bit wetter than in years with neither an El Nino or a La Nina, but during April and May of that second year it is drier than average. The second year following the onset of the La Nina, it is in general dry. There is also temperature information in the paper, but I am going to keep my focus on precipitation for now.
Let's recall the problem we are trying to address; namely, 2011 was a La Nina year with a huge flood on the Missouri River, and another La Nina is predicted for 2012, will we have a similar flood? One of the first things it makes sense to look at is the precipitation in the Missouri River basin. This paper looks at part of the Missouri River basin, and area where there were floods, and at least as far as La Nina is concerned we would expect less, not more, spring time precipitation. This seems contradictory to our 2011 experience.
Returning to the Bunker's et al. paper, there are years when the relation described above did not hold. Bunker's et al. extract seemingly robust signals, but there are exceptions to the rule. The exception to the rule requires us to consider the mechanisms that might be in play for a given year. We arrive therefore, at a problem of tailoring the information for a particular application. The relation that Bunkers et al. derived between El Nino / La Nina and precipitation in North and South Dakota is quite strong. So if you look at a climate model and it tells you that there will be more or less intense El Nino and La Nina cycles a century from now, the long-term water planner for Fargo might be able to anticipate the water system needed for her grand children. The statistical information might be enough – might, it requires more thought. For a particular season, however, we can't use this information in isolation. It is just part of the portfolio.
So we have a sanity check that tells us that, indeed, there is documented variability of precipitation in the Missouri River basin, correlated with La Nina. But, at first blush, the La Nina variability in this region is towards drier conditions. We also, know, that what determines a flood is far more complex than "it rains a lot." So while looking at the paper above gives us some good information, it motivates me to step back and think about all of the pieces – or mechanisms – that might work in concert to produce a flood. And it motivates me to seek whether or not such events are happenstance, or whether we can use our knowledge to anticipate, better, such extreme events. This series of blogs will go on for a while.
Figure 1. Characteristic position of wintertime jet streams during La Nina. From ClimateWatch Magazine: "The jet streams are high-altitude, racing rivers of air that can influence the path of storms as they track over North America from the Pacific Ocean. The jet streams meander and shift from day to day, but during La Niña events, they tend to follow paths that bring cold air and storms into the Upper Missouri River Basin. Map based on original graphics from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. Adapted by Richard Rivera & Hunter Allen."
Pilot Project on La Nina and the Missouri River Basin.
Link to webinars.
By: RickyRood, 06:55 AM GMT die 04o January, anno 2012
2012 Climate Events: The start of the term
Last week I gave my summary of what I thought were the most important climate change discoveries or news of 2011. Of course, my choices were a bit arcane, but that's me. I did not talk about the remarkable extreme weather and climate events of the last year – really last 2 years. Others have the knowledge and do that better than I, and, staying close to home, I will refer you to Jeff Master's Blogs and Chris Burt's Blogs.
There were a couple of temperature facts that struck me: 1) The last month when the global mean monthly average was below the 20th century average was February 1985. There have been 321 consecutive months with the temperature above the 20th century average (link from NOAA), and 2) This graph from the World Meteorological Organization's Provisional Statement of the Climate (link to statement):
Figure 1: From WMO Provisional Statement. Temperature difference (anomaly) calculated for 1961-1990 average. La Niña years are marked. La Niña years should be cooler that average based on natural variability. 2010 was the warmest La Niña year on record, and the 10th warmest year on record.
This graph shows a systematic trend of the years which should be cool, the La Niña years, getting warmer. This combination of a warming trend in the years which should be cool years and more than 25 years of global monthly means being above the long-term average are simple and compelling measurements of the warming earth. Plus remember during this time of persistent warm months, we had that period of the Sun being inactive, and hence, also being a cooling influence (an old blog to remind you of that).
This information coupled with measurements of increasing carbon dioxide emissions noted in the last entry, well I will not be teaching that we can avoid dangerous warming in the next century.
So what are the other things that have struck me as interesting going into the Winter 2012 semester at Michigan?
1) At the top of the list is a judicial ruling that the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard is, in fact, unconstitutional. It violates the interstate commerce clause that governs commerce between states. Frequently, environmental law evolves through commerce law and the assurance of open markets between the states. Ironically, at the center of the ruling is ethanol.
2) Next on the list is that in 2011 the leading U.S. export was gasoline and other refined petroleum products (from Wall Street Journal). This is a consequence of the recession, high gasoline prices, and more fuel efficient vehicles. This is significant enough that refineries in Philadelphia are likely to be closed. There are all sorts of interesting facets of this news – energy, economics, technology, and climate change.
3) Reindeer: The warming in the Arctic has been much higher than the average global warming. Here is the 2011 Arctic Report Card. This report documents large changes in the atmosphere, sea ice and ocean, and snow extent, glacier mass and permafrost. There are efforts to rescue reindeer. There is a threat because the warming temperatures means there are more ice storms, rather than the snow associated with colder temperatures. This encases their food. This combination of changes, persistent over many years, again, is indicative of cumulative changes and systematic warming.
4) That United Parcel Service has been able to reduce significantly their transportation carbon emissions, while increasing deliveries. This includes efforts on vehicle efficiency as well as attention to routing and traffic engineering. (Brown goes Green) This proves that we can make a difference on more than an individual scale, and that government investments at the margin are important for developing environmental policy. The government money mitigates risk.
5) And just to confuse us all: Manatees in Florida are threatened by cold temperatures. The deaths in 2011 were high with cold weather listed as the greatest threat. What does that say about weather, climate, climate variability and climate change? If I get the question, I will start here.
The views of the author are his/her own and do not necessarily represent the position of The Weather Company or its parent, IBM.