text: [[quoteright:220:[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/epicflailing.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:220:Maybe he's CompensatingForSomething.]]Can't decide whether to CarryABigStick or WhipItGood? Well, TakeAThirdOption: a large, heavy object on the end of a rope, chain, or cable. The latter part of the Crusaders era was dominated by a number of armor-piercing weapons, including spiked or blunt flails. Two examples are the mace-and-chain and some varieties of morningstar. Sheer momentum made this a superb weapon for unhorsing foes, crushing helmets, smashing shields, and driving bits of armor into your foe's body. Not so hot for defense, though. It should be noted that the heads on these weapons were about the size of a softball. Flail/morningstar heads in fiction, on the other hand, are usually the size of the ''wielder's'' head, if not larger, and realistically would be far too heavy for a normal person to wield in real life (picture swinging around a bowling ball like that, or an Olympic Hammer Throw event and you get the idea). It's also a relatively dangerous weapon, because one false move could wind up either getting you tangled up in the chain, or smashing yourself with the business end of it. Either way, it requires [[{{Pun}} balls of steel]] to use.Think of a wrecking ball or something similar, but any bludgeoning-implement-on-a-string probably counts, such as the infamous nunchaku beloved of martial artists and {{ninja}} fans.WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH! Pretty scary, huh?For the one specific type of flail: Nunchuku, see FightingWithChucks. For just the chain, see ChainPain. SockItToThem is the {{improvised|Weapon}} version.Compare EverythingsBetterWithSpinning, KillerYoYo. If the spiky part is not a part of a weapon, then these are SpikeBallsOfDoom.Not to be confused with EpicFail, though there's a definite overlap if you've somehow [[http://www.elfwood.com/u/andersson2/image/1face350-26f3-11e4-b4db-0dd96224e40a/epic-flail smacked yourself in the head with it]] and maybe gotten the pointy bits embedded in your face. Also not that thing [[{{Muppets}} Kermit]] does [[http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b266/ebunnie/kermit.gif when he's excited]].----!!'''Examples:'''[[foldercontrol]][[folder: Anime]]* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'''s Omaeda Marechiyo's Zanpakutou Gegetsuburi has this as its Shikai form.* ''Anime/DigimonSavers'' has [=MirageGaogamon's=] [[SuperMode Burst Mode]] wielding a [[EnergyWeapons huge flail made out of energy]] as his weapon. ''[[CallingYourAttacks Full Moon Meteor Impact!!]]''* The Gundam hammer optional weapon for the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', although it was [[RetCon left out of the movie versions]] for allegedly being "too SuperRobot-y". Has a space-use version in the Hyper Hammer----a more pointy and thruster-equipped version.** ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' has a fight where Loran finds one, and uses it as a weapon. Due to its age it breaks apart at the end.*** Later in the series (after more gear has been uncovered) Loran uses two of these at once to immobilize three opponents (using Turn A's engines, which appear to gradually upgrade their efficiency over time with the rest of the mecha, to pin the third).*** In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars: [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha Alpha Gaiden]]'' repeats this, but he keeps it as a primary weapon. However, it still breaks apart each time he uses it; he just apparently has a stock of up to ''eight'' of them at any given time.*** The ''VideoGame/GundamVsSeries'' makes it the Turn A's main weapon rather than its [[EnergyWeapons beam rifle]], presumably in the name of CastSpeciation.*** The Turn A's [[LimitBreak SP Attack]] in ''DynastyWarriorsGundam 2'' has it swinging two flails around in circles. It also uses the flails in a regular attack that's good for clearing crowds.** Bolt Gundam from ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' uses one as well. It's attached by a laser that he can use to hold an enemy and deliver a massive beatdown.** Makes another comeback in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' with the Raider Gundam's "Mjolnir" spherical breaker. Its existence was given a few justifications, such as saying that the head is super-dense in order to get around the impact-resistant Phase Shift Armor, and the wire is beam-coated so it can be used as an impromptu shield.** The Gundam Double X from ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'' was planned to use one, but when the series had its episode count cut by ten, this was dropped. Now the only place it can be found is with the model kit.** ''CrossboneGundam'' sequel ''Skull Heart'' has the Amakusa, a mobile suit designed by the [[TheEmpire Jovian Empire]] that uses a brain-clone of Amuro Ray as its "pilot"; its shield is equipped with a hammer weapon that splits in half when not in use.* ''Manga/OnePiece'':** In a StoryArc, Franky is confronted with a GiantSpider. He already has a pair of nunchuku strapped to his back, but he decides that that [[RuleOfCool just isn't badass enough]] and finds a giant marble column to break in half and affix to the ends of his nunchaku to make a humongous super-flail. And if that isn't awesome enough already, he gives the spider the most epic "Bitch, please" face ever before dispensing a serious smackdown.** Also, Garp, who has a flail the size of a ''battleship'', and throws it around like it's nothing. What's unclear is [[{{Hammerspace}} exactly where he stores the thing]], since it's too big to fit inside his own ship.** One of Whitebeard's Division Commanders is seen with a spiked one that [[ItMakesSenseInContext seems to have eaten a Zoan DF of a breed of Dog.]]** At one point, Enel finds that being a rubber man, Luffy is immune to his lightning attack. So, Enel melted a huge chunk of GOLD on Luffy's right hand, forming a Giant Ball Made Out of Gold. Guess how Enel was beaten?* The Andromeda Cloth in ''SaintSeiya'' is unique in that it [[DualWielding has a weighted chain attached to each arm]]. One is tipped with an arrowhead-shaped dart, is meant for offense, and can track down its target to the ends of the cosmos ([[{{Hammerspace}} extending to a length of light years or retracting to a couple of feet]] as needed.) The other has a sphere (or an ornate ring in later arcs) at its end and is meant for defense.** The Libra Cloth also comes equipped with triple-section rods and nunchaku, two of each. And a minor enemy, the Silver Saint of Cerberus, wielded a vicious morningstar which could multiply into dozens of flails as well as extend and retract just like the Andromeda Chain.* Haruka Armitage of ''Anime/MaiOtome'' wields a large flail, in line with her...rather impulsive personality.* General Yeegar in ''DGrayMan'' used massive chains with spikes on the end as weapons.* In ''Manga/{{Change 123}}'', a young [[{{Ninja}} kunoichi]] uses a very practical and disguised variation of a rope dart or a kusarigama - a keychain with ''heavy and sharp'' keys attached to the end of a retractable wire.** Later it gets shown that her mentor uses a similar, although more primitive, weapon: a stone wrapped inside a cloth strip.* The most epic flails of all time popped up in ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'', in which Primus turns his own moons into a pair of flails to lay the smackdown on a planet-sized Starscream.* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Deathsaurus]] in ''Anime/TransformersVictory'' has a morningstar as his WeaponOfChoice.* Baldorias S. Fanghini, Number VIII of the Chronos Numbers in ''Manga/BlackCat'' not only uses a flail to pound his enemies to a pulp, but additionally attaches remote-controlled rockets to it to add to the epicness.* Hanzo from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' wields a traditional [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusarigama Kusarigama]].* ''{{Gamaran}}'' has the Gasanemanji Ryuu, formed by kusarigama users. Their secret weapons tends to be more flail-like. Oh, and [[ShownTheirWork they actually use said kusarigama in the right way.]]* ''{{Daitarn 3}}'' has the Daitarn Hammer, which he tends to just ''throw'' at his opponents.* Used in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' against Guts by Samson, one of the higher ups of the Purple Rhino Knights. Depicted realistically in that it's about the size of a soft ball and the guy uses thick armor to compensate for not being able to defend with it but Guts just deflects all of the blows using his massive sword (he was shielding Casca) and beats the tar out of the him and earns the title [[NamesToRunAwayFrom 100 Man Slayer]] in the ensuing brawl. This has the downside of meaning his sword breaks soon after but damn if it isn't impressive[[/folder]][[folder: Comics]]* Thunderball of Marvel's Wrecking Crew (part of TheMightyThor and Comicbook/TheAvengers' rogues' galleries) used a literal wrecking ball on a chain as a weapon.* Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, wields a ball and chain from his imprisonment. Whenever he changes his material make-up, the ball changes with him.* Supergirl aka Justice of ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'', uses a double mace with a flail on each side. It's a little awkward.[[/folder]][[folder: Fan Works]]* Mung, the Warrior Women's male champion in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', wields one of these in his one-on-one battle with Ringo. [[CurbStompBattle It doesn't help much.]][[/folder]][[folder: Film]]* Go-Go Yubari in ''KillBill'' wields a mean ball-and-chain meteor hammer in her battle against the Bride.* The Witch-King in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings: Return Of The King'' used a truly huge flail to fight �owyn at the Pelennor Fields. The special features point out how difficult it was to lift; in the scene where the Witch-King first lifts the weapon, there was actually a person lying on the ground underneath and pushing it up from below. It started off as a relatively normal-sized flail, but Creator/PeterJackson kept telling WETA Workshop to "make it bigger." They finally made one that they were positive was going to be "too big". That's the one that made it on screen. Jackson himself thinks that it still could have been [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill bigger]].* ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'': After losing his hand at the battle of Stirling, Campbell, Hamish's {{Badass}} dad, wields a spiked flail during the battle at Falkirk, and ends up receiving a mortal wound while he's busy swinging it overhead. Later, Wallace rides into Mornay's bedchamber, uncoils a long-chained flail, and crushes the treacherous lord's head like a watermelon with one great swing.* Balian defends against a "normal" one of these in ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'' in an homage to ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''. He wraps it around his sword, then stabs the guy [[EyeScream in the face]].* TheDragon in ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' has a [[RocketPunch flail fist]].* Megatron in the 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' briefly uses one to smash apart his prison chamber in Hoover Dam, and later the rooftop pillar Sam Witwicky is clinging to. Barricade also appears to wield one in his fight against Bumblebee, one with ''spinning blades''.* In ''Film/{{Ivanhoe}}'', Bois Guilbert (George Sanders) chooses to wield a flail in the climax duel against the eponymous hero, [[spoiler: who manages to turn it to his advantage]].* In ''Film/ShanghaiNoon'', Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) improvises one with a horseshoe and rope against a bunch of bounty hunters.* In ''Film/TheCourtJester'', our hero faces off against a knight who selects a mace and chain as his weapon.* Fallon from ''Film/JackTheGiantSlayer'' wields a truly enormous specimen.* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', Erik tries to sink Shaw's ship with its own anchor.* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':** The Abomination wields a huge fence chain as a meteor hammer against ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', with concrete pillars being the weights. It proves to be effective in knocking Hulk around, but backfires when Hulk makes Abomination lose control and hit himself with it, then strangles him to near death with the same chain.** In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', the Hulkbuster does this with an empty elevator against the Hulk. Hulk lost a tooth, but it didn't stop him.* TheHobbit: this is Azog the Defiler's weapon in the FinalBattle of the third film. * Clanker, one of Davy Jones' crewmen from ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', dual-wields pieces of chain shot. [[/folder]][[folder: Gamebooks]]* In the ''Literature/WizardsWarriorsAndYou'' series, among the Warrior's various armaments were a flail, morning star and later a custom flail with three chains and three heads.[[/folder]][[folder: Literature]]* Tahmuras, TheDragon in ''[[Literature/KushielsLegacy Kushiel's Avatar]]'' wields one. He comes closest out of anyone in the entire six-book series to besting [[{{Badass}} Joscelin]].* Athrogate of the ''ForgottenRealms Sellswords'' trilogy [[DualWield Dual Wields]] a pair of magical flails (usually applying oil of impact, an explosive substance, as well).* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', the MonsterClown Shagwell wields a three-headed flail while hiding out in the Saltpans. Gallant [[KnightInShiningArmor Loras Tyrell]] is said to fight in a rage with a whirling flail during a siege.* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' ** ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'': a volunteer had a pair of nunchaku, in this universe called ''numknuts''. Vimes tried swirling one of them, and promptly hit his elbow.** In ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', Nobby gets ahold of a huge flail (he got so excited at raiding an armoury he became a WalkingArsenal for a bit), and starts swinging it, and the narration muses that nobody was quite sure which was orbiting which, Nobby or the flail.* Several generic opponents in ''{{Gladiator}}'' use large flails, though they're only effective when used right at the start of the fight; as soon as the gladiators themselves get clear of the exit their swords win easily.* Leoman a character of ''TheMalazanBookOfTheFallen'' is famous for wielding two flails with deadly effect.* In PiersAnthony's ''Battle Circle'' series morning star is one of "traditional" weapons. It's considered the hardest to master and the most dangerous.* One of the four men put to hunt Literature/JamesBond in ''Literature/NoDealsMrBond'' insists upon using a morning star. The three others use more conventional weapons.* The ankkox from the StarWars novel ''Literature/{{Shatterpoint}}'' is a monstrous creature that is, essentially, a cross between a giant tortoise and a dinosaur. Like the real life ankylosaurs, it has a bony knob on the end of its long, flexible tail that serves as a mace. Unlike the ankylosaur, its tail mace strikes with sufficient force to ''shatter tank armor''. The one used in the climax of the novel is billed as "[the Korunnai's] sole piece of mobile artillery" and fully lives up to that description.[[/folder]][[folder: LiveActionTV]]* ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' has an infamous scene involving ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'' and ''Series/KamenRiderKuuga'' wherein Decade's [[FinishingMove Final Form/Attack Ride]] transforms Kuuga as the Gouram into the "Ball", with Den-O as Momotaros holding the "Chain". You don't want to know where the ball and chain connect...[[note]]it involves Momotaros stabbing Kuuga in the ''[[AssShove ass]][[/note]].''* The Tortoise Hammer, usable by the Senpuujin in ''Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger'', is one. By extension, so is the Turtle Mace for the Storm Megazord in ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm''.* ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'' has Gokai Yellow's signature trick fitting this trope. Each ranger has a gun and sword all but Red tend to swap weapons around so that they're either going GunsAkimbo (Green and Pink) or DualWielding (Blue and Yellow). Yellow uses the grappling wires in the base of the swords to swing them around when she wants to take out large numbers of mooks, hence this trope.* ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'' introduces one in the form of [[MechaExpansionPack Bunpachy]], a Pachycephalosaurus in a hard hat. The flail is attached to his tail at one end, and worn over said hard hat at the other. * ''Series/RobotCombatLeague'''s Crash was intended to use its fists as actual fists. As they more often than not broke after punching the other bot too hard, it was soon discovered they could be swung around like flails and still remain rather deadly.* Shows up in one of Arthur's duels in ''Series/{{Merlin}}'', unsurprisingly, given the medieval setting.* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' has one in the form of the Pineapple Iron, which is only for those who use the [[TransformationTrinket Pineapple Lockseed]].* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. As the wildling army battles to take the Wall, the defenders release The Scythe, an enormous anchor on a chain that swings along the Wall, knocking off huge chucks of ice and reducing climbers to LudicrousGibs.[[/folder]][[folder: Music]]* Music/GraveDigger's {{mascot}} Grim Reaper is using one against the English in the cover of their ''[[http://www.katehizis.com/news/images5/grave_digger2010-the_clans_will_rise_again.jpg The Clans Will Rise Again]]'' -album.* Wallop's logo design has a [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_m9IT3AoU4R4/SwIEw7XzrSI/AAAAAAAAERg/wwQ40yq5iH0/s1600/3242423442.bmp flail hanging from it]].[[/folder]][[folder: Pinball]]* All of the female warriors in Creator/{{Gottlieb}}'s ''Pinball/{{Gladiators}}'' use flails as weapons. The single male uses a double-headed axe instead.[[/folder]][[folder: TabletopGames]]* HumongousMecha-sized flails appear in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', used in the gladiator battles on Solaris 7, as they're a very showy weapon. They aren't used outside the arena, and their only real bit of notability is that they're one of only a couple of weapons that it's possible for the attacker to [[EpicFail hit himself with]].* Flails are usable weapons in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', available in both one-handed and two-handed. You can also use a [[DoubleWeapon Dire Flail]], which is basically a flail on either end of a long stick, just so long as you can avoid thinking too hard about how that's meant to work.** Some combination of this and WhipItGood are generally how the Spiked Chain of 3.5 was depicted.** In 4th Edition, the Three-Headed-Flail (based on a real weapon) is possibly the best weapon in the game.** While possessing the same stats as its rival the Bastard Sword, and more accuracy than its more damaging axe and hammer counterparts. The Triple-Headed Flail suffers from lack of support in terms of feats and magic item options, which relegates it to those who want to [[AnAxeToGrind stand]] [[DropTheHammer out]] from the [[HeroesPreferSwords crowd]].*** Stat-wise, the triple-headed flail is essentially a stock flail with an additional +1 to hit...and an attached 'feat tax', because as a superior melee weapon it's not something most (if any) classes are going to be proficient with by default and so that proficiency must be bought the 'hard' way. If you don't know how to use ''any'' kind of flail and want to spend a feat on doing so, this one is arguably the one to spring for; but if you already have proficiency with martial melee weapons and thus regular flails as a class feature, whether the tradeoff is worth it becomes more debatable. (And of course, classes not proficient with the general martial melee weapon category will generally reap fewer benefits from investing feats in learning how to use more weapons because their focus in combat tends to be elsewhere in the first place.)** There's also the monster known as the Flail Snail, a giant snail with four mace-like growths in place of feelers.* Present in both ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. In the former, it's a weapon commonly used by crazed Empire Flagellants and Chaos Marauders, and the Skaven like to mix their flails with a chemical weapon dispenser, while in the latter, they're a standard armament of arco-flaggelants.** On the other hand, the Orks used to have the Splatta Kannon, which fired what was basically a ''rocket flail''.** The Night Goblin fanatic gets a very special version: it weighs ''several times the goblin holding it.'' Without [[PsychoSerum madcap brew]], they wouldn't even be able to lift it.** Necromunda has a weapon combining a flail with a flamethrower.*** Necromunda comic hero and special character Klovis the Redeemer uses one of these, the "mMrtifier", like a church censer - except where those are filled with scented incense, the Mortifier burns ferociously with a fuel that spills over and ignites any target it strikes.* In ''{{GURPS}}'' the two handed flail is one of the most powerful weapons available. Its damage is exceeded only by the [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw]] and [[LaserBlade Force Sword]], parrying it is difficult and it doesn't take much strength to use.* In ''IronKingdoms'' several Warjacks weild massive flails that only they can carry, many are present in the [[ChurchMilitant Protectorate of Menoth]].* The background materials for ''TheDarkEye'' feature the Thundercrack, which is a mix of a flail and a cat o' nine tails: A flail with nine balls. It is incredibly hard to control, and the inventor smashed his own skull in on the first tryout; accordingly, any suggestions how to turn this into a usable weapon for players contain heavy penalties.[[/folder]][[folder: VideoGames]]* ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' has the Flailgun: it doesn't just fire explosives, it fires two remotely detonated, sticky bombs attached to each other with a chain. If they flail around while wrapping around a target or an obstacle, they can shear an enemy in half. Using an unfortunate target as a walking bomb or kicking him back into his friends sometimes gets the protagonist to say "epic flail".* Has been an intimidating weapon in the ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]'' series since ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink''. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', the hero Link finally got to use one himself, as well as in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors''.* Our hero Mike from ''VideoGame/StarTropics'' starts his quest with a measly [[KillerYoYo Yo-Yo]], but upgrades to a flail called Shooting Star in chapter 3, and then ultimately the epic Super Nova in chapter 7.* The X-Hunter [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Violen]] in ''VideoGame/MegaManX2'' uses this as his primary attack. In the rematch, there are disappearing blocks which can sometimes help block his attack, although the chain doesn't obey the same game physics and can pass through, so you need to exercise cautious judgement. Hilariously, [[WeaksauceWeakness his weakness]] in the rematch is [[KillItWithWater Charged Bubble Splash]] (Not the [[GameBreaker Shoryuken]], which can only be obtained two stages later.) Knight Man in ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'' also uses a mace, although to far less effectiveness in range and power.* Currently, this is Mega Man's down smash attack in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' fangame ''VideoGame/SuperSmashFlash 2''.* In ''VideoGame/NetHack'' you can get punished with a ball and chain. Bummer, but you can pick up the ball and swing it around as a weapon because TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything. Aside from the ludicrous weight, it's actually a pretty good weapon.** Also handy because you could pick up the ball and throw it. Which would then cause you to fly over several squares as the chain lost its slack and took you with it. It was one of the only ways to "jump" the sections of water.* The boss of Zoness in ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' is a submarine/barge called the Sarumarine that fires a massive, spiked, [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning spinning]] wrecking ball as his DesperationAttack.* Mordos Kull from ''VideoGame/MaceTheDarkAge'' uses one of these.* The Blades of Chaos/Athena wielded by Kratos in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' are essentially a bladed variation of the Epic Flail.* Nariko's titular weapon in ''VideoGame/HeavenlySword'' can morph into a variant of these for weak attacks.* The poorly designed and received HackAndSlash game ''VideoGame/RedNinjaEndOfHonor'' has the protagonist waving around essentially a shuriken-on-a-string.* ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' had both the nunchaku and the Vigoorian flail to satisfy swingers. It somewhats subverts the trope by being quite practical and lightweight. But it's still quite [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYAL2Ep_rdA&fmt=18 epic]] in the right hands. ''Ninja Gaiden 2'' has the Kusari-gama. On one hand we have EpicFlail. On the other we have SinisterScythe.* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha 3'': Baran Doban has the Daifunsai (literal translation: Great Pulverization). It's a SuperRobot-sized wrecking ball smashing you upside the face that is ''faster than the speed of sound''!-->[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKStRhsOcg4 Ware koso wa~ Ware koso wa~ Baran Doban!]]** [[TheBrute Sikalog]] of the [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars3 Inspectors]] also favors a flail, albeit not quite as huge of one.** In ''Original Generation 2'' Arado is given a Boost Hammer for one mission, as it was the best weapon to suit his fighting style the designer could come up with on short notice. If you perform well enough with it, you get to keep it.** [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsDestiny Forte Gigas]], the flail is as nearly as large as the sprite wielding it. And it's an [[EnergyWeapon Energy Flail]] to boot.* The ''SoulSeries'' had two Nunchaku users, [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything Maxi]] is the current Epic Flailer, replacing Li Long. The latter taught the former how to use the weapons.** Ivy has a flail as an optional weapon, but it's heavy enough to slowly drain her health.* The opening video for ''VideoGame/RockBand 2'' features a microphone-flail. Power Metal indeed.* [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Belselk/Berserk]] of ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 1}}'' wields a massive flail that can one shot your characters or at least leave them with very low health, especially in ''[[VideoGameRemake Alter Code F]]''.* Flails (called Hammers) are weapons usable in ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom''. Given that one of the top attacks for the weapon is to slam it into the ground and swing the ''stage'' around, it's also a suitably Epic Flail.** Also of note is Asagi, who has one of these as her subweapon. [[{{BFS}} Did we mention that the head of the flail is as big as she is?]]* Dian Wei had his primary weapon changed from [[AnAxeToGrind a really big axe]] to a really big morningstar in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors 6'' when most of the characters were redesigned.** The sequel reverted it back to an axe but gave Dong Zhuo (Formerly a serrated broadsword) and Cao Ren (Formerly a buckler-blade thing) more modest ones. The subsequent follow-up took it away from both of them and gave it Gan Ning.* ''VideoGame/{{Alundra}}'' has its titular character used a blunt flail as one of his standard weapons, later upgrading it to a big spiky one which he can spin around his head.* The Wii Game ''Gundam SD: Scad Hammers'' takes advantage of the Wiimote controls and has the player controlling various Gundams armed with a ball and chain.* Axl Low from the ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' series uses a modified Kusari-Gama (see below), only with a scythe-blade on both ends. He still throws the blades out like the weighted end would have been, mind, so maybe they're heavy enough to act in the same way.* Odin in ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' uses one of the "huge spiked ball" variety. And we mean ''huge''- Odin himself is about 20 feet tall and his weapon, the Balor, is bigger than the ''entire bodies'' of any of the playable characters!* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', anyone? Okay, its most prominent weapon is actually a whip, but some games allow it to upgrade it to sort of a whip-flail thing.** This is actually featured in nearly every game. You start with a whip, which becomes a flail, which becomes a morning star. Some games even take it up a notch by including a whip/flail that is either covered in flames or outright ''shoots fireballs''.** The same is also the case in ''VideoGame/LaMulana''.* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has the ridiculously overelaborate ninja weapon, a 3-handed...weapon. It has an increased critical chance, but like all 3-handed weapons a huge multiplier to fumbles as well.--> "Well, it's definitely a weapon of some sort. It consists of four long blades, three wooden poles, six steel chains, and an assortment of spikes. You have absolutely no idea how to use it, but it looks totally badass."** On a more mundane note, there's also the Legendary Epic weapon for Turtle Tamers, the Chelonian morningstar. The KOL Wiki suggests it could be an 'epic flail'. Defeat your Nemesis and it becomes the Flail of the Seven Aspects. The game has other flails, too; depending on the dev team's mood, it may be a melee or ranged weapon.* ''VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked'' has had the Scorpion/Leviathan Flail. It is, however, so heavy the head scrapes along the ground when he's carrying it. It may not be the most powerful weapon in his arsenal, but it's certainly one of the most ''fun''. The fun part? It has its own ''shockwave''.** The RuleOfCool part? The spiky head of the [[EvolvingAttack upgraded version]] is ''attached to the handle with lightning''.* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' features four different flails, the Ball o' Hurt found in shadow orbs of TheCorruption, the Blue Moon found in the locked chests of the dungeon, the Sunfury found in the shadow chests of the underworld, which can set enemies on fire, the Dao of Pao that's crafted in hardmode with a Ying-Yang theme and the ability to confuse enemies, and lastly, the Flower Pow which has a 16.67% chance to drop from Plantera, that launches petals torward enemies as long as the fire button is held and there are enemies near. If you hold down the mouse button and hold left and right at the right times, you can even get the flail "spinning" around your character.* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate II'' features a magical flail you can reassemble. It's got three heads, with different elemental powers. It's very handy against trolls. Which is lucky, because the place you find it in is ''swarming'' with them. The weapon's name is the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Flail of Ages]]. Its Head-Hunting subquest continues into the ExpansionPack, adding even more elemental powers.* Subverted in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Not a single flail to be seen anywhere in the game, and the Morningstar weapon is just a spiked mace. This is probably due to the limitations of the graphics. It was a feature weapon in ''Diablo 2'', where not much was more fun than seeing a [[FanNickName Zealadin]] in action.* Bowser from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG: Legend of the Seven Stars'' can equip a spiked mace and a chain that he throws as one of his weapons. Also, he can equip Chomps, which work on a very similar basis.* The game ''VideoGame/{{Whiplash}}'' combines this with ChainedHeat, with the two main characters being Spanx, a maniacal weasel and Redmond, a NighInvulnerable rabbit chained together attempting to escape the MegaCorp that have been using them for tests. Spanx swings Redmond around like a weapon and Redmond can occasionally go into an UnstoppableRage where he wantonly smashes thing by himself.* Selphie from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' uses a particularly long set of nunchaku for fighting, although her combat discipline mostly lies in ConfusionFu. Her use of this weapon marks their first appearance in the game since the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI very first game]]. And like in the ''SoulSeries'', she is forced to use a tri-rod in the UK version.** Morning stars and flails are classified as a type of staff in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''. They're present so that [[SquishyWizard the White Mage and Time Mage classes]] have a genuine method of attacking physically.** Morning stars and flails are present in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' as weapons for Celes and Terra. Their main feature is that they're row-ignoring,** Reuben in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuest'' makes use of a morning star as his sole weapon. As far as weapon weaknesses in the game are concerned, it's an axe equivalent.* If we're going to count kusarigama, then Earthquake out of the ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown'' series should be here. With a justified reason why the blunt head at the end of the chain is as big as a normal person's head--so are his fists. Meanwhile, Basara has some..weird spinning bladed thingy on a chain that he can toss around, too.* In ''VideoGame/RuneScape'', there are two different flails. The Verac's Flail looks like any other flail (despite being able to occasionally hit through protection prayers), but the Ivandis Flail is on an enchanted staff made of silvthril (silver + mithril) and has a blessed silver sickle in place of a spiked ball. It's worth mentioning that the latter is used against the Vyrewatch, creatures that would otherwise be able to predict your exact movements and dodge your attacks. It's the flail's unpredictable nature that counters this.* ''VideoGame/BlackTiger'' featured a knight using a flail and shield.* The first boss of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' is Dr. Robotnik flying a small hovercraft armed with a giant wrecking ball on the bottom.* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' has Khalim's Flail. It is a quest item that you get to make into a relic/artifact by transmuting/fusing it with its previous owner's brain, eye and heart. The resulting weapon had ''three'' chains attached to its handle, with metallic spiked skulls for the hammers. All in a day's work.* The expansion of ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', ''Reaper of Souls'', features the Crusader, whose signature weapon is a one-handed or [[OneHandedZweihander two-handed]] flail.* Grenades in the ''GearsOfWar'' series are attached to a stick by a length of chain. Epic Flail indeed. Also, the Locust Mauler is a GiantMook that carries a huge shield and uses a flail once it closes in.* Suika Ibuka of the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series. Those ball/pyramid/cube and chains attached to her aren't just for show, and she also uses her [[GrievousBottleyHarm sake gourd]] as one.* The Russian indie game ''VideoGame/{{Hammerfight}}'' is ''all'' about this, being a game that focuses entirely on centrifugal force. Aside from the selection of hammers, axes and swords, you have a large selection of flails and flail like weapons, such as the "colossus", a sawblade on a chain laced with spikes. That is, the chain itself has spikes coming off it. It should be pointed out that the head on each of these flail weapons is larger then a human being. Also, if you are so inclined and are skilled enough, you can use two at once.* Videogame/{{Tomba}}'s weapon of choice. Later in the game it can be [[SwissArmyWeapon morphed]] with a grappling hook.* In ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara 3'', Kuroda Kanbe has his wrists permanently cuffed to a huge iron ball, which he swings around as a weapon. As an added bonus, it's possible to hold the normal attack button and keep spinning around, essentially letting inertia take over (though he'll get dizzy after a while).* [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam SD Gundam Scad Hammer]] is all about throwing and swinging hammers. Appearantly, Tem Ray has been smoking something and has disabled all the other weapons for the Gundam.* Valen, a recruitable NPC in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights: Hordes of the Underdark'', uses a heavy flail as his WeaponOfChoice.* The Maceman unit from ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV'' carries one of these.* [[GiantEnemyCrab The sixth boss]] of ''VideoGame/AdventureIsland III'' has a large flail attached to his left pincer that spins around madly. If he swings it directly at Master Higgins, icicles fall from the ceiling.* ''HeavyWeapon's'' fourth boss, War Wrecker is a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wrecking ball crane used for war]]. Getting hit by the wrecking ball is a OneHitKill regardless of shielding, but the boss is incredibly easy if you know how to avoid it.** The [[RecurringBoss rematch]] against it in level 13 is a different story- it can now extend its wrecking ball to [[DishingOutDirt toss up rocks]] from the ground, making it a lot harder to avoid damage this time round.* In ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', Korea Team regular Chang Koehan uses a ball and chain from his time as a prisoner as his weapon of choice.* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', Sejuani the Winter's Wrath wields a giant flail with a head apparently made out of a large chunk of ice wrapped with spiked metal bands. Her alternate skins change the head to a heavy piece of wood studded with massive, curved thorns, a rough lump of jagged crystal, or a [[IncendiaryExponent landmine]].* A semi-recurring weapon in the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series. It is usually classified as a type of whip for the purposes of the game, being able to hit groups of enemies at once, though it is its own weapon type in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII''.* ''VideoGame/DarkCastle'' has one at the bottom of the [[MeaningfulName Trouble]] area, used to knock out the guard who blocks the keys to escape the dungeon. ''Beyond Dark Castle'' and ''Return to Dark Castle'' allow you to take it with you. * ''VideoGame/{{Carmageddon}} II'' has a spiky ball and chain power up called the "Mutant Tail Thing". Usually more of a hinderance than a help, but skilled usage grants extra style bonuses.* The Wired Lance in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' is an odd blade version of this, and has the longest range out of all the melee weapons. Most of its photon artes involve binding the enemy; one of the more amusing ones turning ''them'' into the Epic Flail by swinging them in circles to dish out some GrievousHarmWithABody.* [[BadassGrandma The Matron]], a hench(wo)man for the titular ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'', uses one of these as a primary weapon...and prosthetic hand.* In ''[[VideoGame/PunchOut Punch-Out Wii]]'', Aran Ryan packs an improvised flail made using a boxing glove and a rope when you rematch him in the Title Defense mode. He can also use it when he is knocked down, making this also an example of KaizoTrap.* ''VideoGame/AngryVideoGameNerdAdventures'': [[FinalBoss Fred Fucks]] deploys a pair of these when he first TurnsRed, than a second longer-chained pair in his final phase.* ''VideoGame/RockinKats'' has the Hammer Punch, which replaces the glove on Willy's boxing glove gun with a flail head, giving him added attack power while sacrificing his ability to grab things.* In ''VideoGame/{{Nefarious}}'', the VillainProtagonist Crow uses a giant wrecking ball attached to a hoverpod in the Insektia Kingdom.* In ''The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction'', Hulk has the ability to make {{Improvised Weapon}}s out of various objects, including using a wrecking ball as a gigantic mace much like Thor's recurring enemy Absorbing Man. [[/folder]][[folder: WebComics]]* Mink, of ''{{Darken}}'', [[http://darkencomic.com/?webcomic_post=20060410 for whom Epic Flail becomes ''Epic Fail'']].* * VGCats has two, The original [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=110 Rat Flail]] and its [[EvolvingWeapon improved version]]: '''[[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=223 Rat Morning-Star]]'''.* ''TheZombieHunters'': [[http://thezombiehunters.com/index.php?strip_id=63 Brick Flail!]]* One of ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'''s running gags: "Sword-chucks, yo!"* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': [[http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=37&issue=5 Chainsaw nunchucks]]* ''Webcomic/EmergencyExit'': [[http://eecomics.deviantart.com/art/Hammerchucks-104741965 Hammerchucks.]]* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003953 Segmented cane flail!]]* In ''OurLittleAdventure'', Jason the Barbarian from [[TerribleTrio Umbria's team]] uses one-handed kind.* ''Webcomic/BallAndChain'''s main character Silver uses one as her {{weapon of choice}}.[[/folder]][[folder: WebOriginal]]* [[ActionGirl Chaka's]] meteor hammers in ''[[WhateleyUniverse Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy]]''.* In Season 10 Episode 21 of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', Agent Carolina creates an interesting combination: GrapplingHookPistol plus Frag Grenade equals [[ImprovisedWeapon improvised]] Epic Flail that ''explodes''![[/folder]][[folder: Web Art]]* [[http://andersson.elfwood.com/~andersson/For_the_Ladies.2524344.html This picture]]. While the picture itself not necessarily NSFW, others on the same site are (but none are about this trope).** From the same site, [[http://andersson.elfwood.com/Epic-Flail.3555900.html this picture]] that shares its title with this trope.[[/folder]][[folder: WesternAnimation]]* Principal Waxelplax in''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''mentions that she keeps one under her desk in the episode "What's The Difference?". Later she proceeds to chase Chester and Mandie with it when they try to grab the doorknobs which have been replaced by jelly filled doughnuts.--> Waxelplax: GET AWAY FROM MY JELLY!!!* One of the the villains in ''WesternAnimation/JayceAndTheWheeledWarriors'' wields a large, green, plant-like flail.* ''{{Transformers}}'' has quite a few:** Megatron used an [[EnergyWeapons energon flail]] in the second episode of ''TransformersGeneration1'', which was never seen again but was made available with come reissues of the toy.** In ''TransformersAnimated,'' Bulkhead can turn his fist into a wrecking ball that he can also [[RocketPunch shoot as a projectile]]. This is awesome. Jazz has [[LaserBlade energy nunchucks]]; if you're wondering how they stay together, well, RuleOfCool. The Decepticon Oil Slick has a weapon that's basically two halves of a barrel connected by a long chain. The Dinobot Swoop also has a flail-in common with the weapons of the other Dinobots, it can [[IncendiaryExponent burst into flames]].*** Bulkhead takes this trope further in "Three's a Crowd": his wrecking ball gets stuck on Mixmaster's hand, so he uses ''[[GrievousHarmWithABody Mixmaster's entire body]]'' as a flail.** By using his grapplers to wield his ax, Optimus Prime can do this as well. (It ''also'' is partially made of energy and somehow manages to keep its un-connected solid portions in place. Like Jazz's energon nunchuks, it runs on RuleOfCool.)* Panthro of ''{{Thundercats}}'' has his cat-themed nunchucks (spelled in various inconsistent ways). The twist was that, when thrust like a whip, the blue side fired projectiles and the red fired energy blasts.* The Tracker, of ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' fame. (Well, he may not be well-known enough to call it fame, but it's awesome.)* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Homer chasing Bart down the sidewalk with a flail: "I'll mace you good!"** In the episode "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes", one of the bounty hunters is [[CrazyAwesome a bear wielding raccoon-chucks]].** Homer's weapon of choice for home defense, "The Defender", a cinder block swung about on the end of a chain** In "Homer the Smithers", Mr. Burns is accosted by a drunk (but friendly) Lenny while Smithers is away. When Smithers starts agonizing over it, Burns reassures him that "If things had turned ugly, I always had my mace" and [[BaitAndSwitch gestures towards an actual mace mounted on the inside of his limo]].* One of the mooks who got fused with their weapons in ''QuestForCamelot'' had {{Epic Flail}}s for arms.* [[EnfantTerrible Heloise]] used one on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', as her weapon of choice against a [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]].* Used in ''VoltronForce'', when the yellow lion forms the head of Voltron.* Several times in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' music video of the Shallow Gravy song "Jacket". The lead singer, Dermott Fictel, has a set of microphone nunchucks; when he isn't singing, he's using them as nunchucks to badass effect.* In ''[[TMNT2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', Ninja Tribunal acolyte Adam [=McKay=] uses a ball and chain as his original weapon of choice, before replacing it with a hammer.* Chronozoid carries this attached to a [[AnAxeToGrind curved axe blade]] on ''WesternAnimation/SkysurferStrikeForce''.* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''** Aqualad occasionally makes hard water flails using his [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon special weapons]].** Sportsmaster, a villain with a sports gimmick uses an Olympic hammer like a flail in combat.* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda''. In "The Secret Museum of Kung Fu", the Furious Five get thrashed in their first encounter with the Lin Kuei, wolf assassins wielding huge iron weights on the end of chains.* [[FusionDance Sugilite]] in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' wields a monster flail composed of Garnet's gauntlets on the end of Amethyst's whip.[[/folder]][[folder: RealLife]]* Agricultural flails make threshing more efficient by adding force to each blow through centrifugal force. Peasant conscripts militarized them by attaching metal spikes. The 15th century Hussites took that to the extreme.* Medieval knightly "ball and chain" flails offer a few advantages. Centrifugal force adds force to the impact, and the shock of impact is not transferred back to the wielder. It can also wrap around an opponent's shield. * A famous eastern weapon is the Kusari-Gama, a chain with a weight on one end, and a hand-held [[SinisterScythe scythe]] on the other. Like the nunchaku, it was developed from a weaponized tool (that being the sickle itself). There is also the similar Kyoketsu-Shoei, which was a knife on the end of a long cord.* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_flail Mine flails]] are large cylinders attached to the front of tank-like vehicles [[note]]Indeed the first ''were'' converted tanks[[/note]] and are used to clear mines by intentionally detonating them. Heavy chains of fist-sized metal balls are attached to the cylinder. As the cylinder spins, the chains whip around and strike the ground repeatedly, detonating any mines beneath the surface. Massive shields block the the rest of the vehicle from the blasts. This method of mine clearing was invented just before the Battle of El Alamein.* There are also poi, which are small weights attached to roughly arm-length strings, cords, or chains. They are then whirled around the body at highly improbable speed. Look [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IjdnMvBW_A here]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ5UXFRWGeQ here]], and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilfvH6souuQ here]] for some examples.* There are weapons called Meteors which are long cords with weighted ends. Wrapping them around the body is used to generate speed, and power. Some performers use fire pots on the end for special effects, these are called Fire Meteors.* Certain Ankylosaurs had a bony club at the end of their tail, which could easily break an attacker's bones. Most predatory dinos would be in for a hard fight because of that, not to mention its natural armour.** Earlier Stegosaurs had spikes on their tails (unofficially called [[ComicStrip/TheFarSide thagomizers]]). Some skeletons of allosaurs have been found with holes ''punched clean through bones'' from these spikes.* Thresher sharks use their tails as a giant flail to send shockwaves through the water, killing prey.* Giraffes [[UseYourHead use their heads]] like this when fighting against each other, with their necks as the chain. Those tiny horns they have aren't just for show. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huxDnZs2_OQ Just one example]].* Flails are easy weapons to [[ImprovisedWeapon improvise]], such as a bike chain and padlock or a belt with a large buckle on the end. Indonesian street gangs have come to use [[http://bisnis-jabar.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/senjata-tawuran2antaranews-300x222.jpg bicycle sprockets attached to belts]] for their rumbles, and the infamous Lyuber street gang from late 1980s Russia used circular saw blades on chains.[[/folder]]----


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Author(s): Linley, P. Alex; Harrington, Susan; Garcea, Nicola
ISBN: 9780199989966 / Paperback / 5/1/2013
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Edition, Cover Design, etc may vary from the eCampus.com description. Please refer to the seller's comments before ordering.
Marketplace sellers are required to ship by the end of the 5th business day. Items are not returnable to eCampus.com. Orders cannot be cancelled by eCampus.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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IFR Enroute Charts
at skyvector.com Click on airport for details, drag to scroll around. Zoom using +/- keys. |
FAA NFDC Information Effective 56-day cycle 03/05/2015 - 4/30/2015
Ops | Comms | Services | Owner | Runways | IFR Procs | Current NOTAMs | Remarks |
FAA Identifier: | 9GE9 |
Lat/Lng: |
33.6497222222, -84.0213888889 33-38-59.0000N, 084-01-17.0000W Estimated by OWNER on 11/28/2004 |
Elevation: | 815 feet Estimated by OWNER on 11/28/2004 |
Magnetic Variation: | [-5W (2015)] |
Sectional: | ATLANTA |
From City: | 1nm S of Conyers |
Use: | Private |
Airspace Analysis: |
CONDITIONAL Provided VFR Operations; Pvt Use; Area is Marked; and Wind Indicator is Maintained. |
Ownership: | Privately owned |
Activation: | 02/2005 |
Attended: | Continuous |
Control Tower: | no |
ARTCC: | Atlanta Center (ZTL) |
FSS: | Macon FSS (MCN) |
Wind Indicator: | Unlighted |
Landing Fee: | no |
Based Aircraft
Annual Operations
Runways: | H1 |
Length: | 20 feet |
Width: | 20 feet |
Surface: | Porland Cement Concrete |
Runway Lights Edge Intensity: | Perimeter |
• | 216 Ft Radio Tower 1.5 NM WSW; and 70 Ft Bldgs N & E of Helipad. |
This information is current as of the date at the top of the page. These pages are valid for all US airports, based on information from FAA National Flight Data Center. Weather information is provided based on AvnWx Data Sources. NOTAM information is from FAA's NAIMES data portal.
As with most information on this website, this page is generated based on FAA data, with automatic translations done via computer. You can also directly read the A/FD via the green icon link at the top of the page, which is the FAA text, and sometimes provides a different translation of codes. Please email me (using link at top-right of this page) if you see information which is confusing, misleading, or wrong....Or have suggestions for additions/changes.
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OZ Open and Frenchmen.. where are the Americans
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 267
I think it truly is the lack of proper instruction. From all I've observed US coaches are not correcting kids enough at all, and if they are correcting they do it once in a while and talk about it after. That is not how you do it imo. My son has trained in Europe and in any small club the coach will stand in the middle during match play and direct them constantly, demands corrections, power, even gets a bit angry if they seem to be losing attention or hitting poorly. During drills you need to be constantly correcting the technique, "elbow, up, elbow up, if you don't want to hit the net get that elbow up!" I know you shouldn't think all the time while training, but this becomes a reflex after a while with kids, and they no longer think about it, they do it. Here in the States, my son will play an hour without a coach saying anything(at a very good academy), likely not even watching. Why is this? Coddling the children(customer), afraid of confrontation, lazy, different teaching styles? I believe that complete difference in parenting is the reason, parents in Europe are not upset with the coach doing his job and usually will ask the kid, well what did you do wrong and here many parents will take the kid's side.
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Home | News | Calendar 2014-15 | Calendar 2015-16 | Contact Us | Student Access | Staff Access Pages Login | Office 365 | Google Apps | Moodle | Intranet | iVisions Office 365 | Google Apps | Moodle Linn-Mar Community School District 2999 N. Tenth Street, Marion, IA 52302 Phone: (319) 447-3000
All News Stories
Recently a story about increased graduation rates in Iowa has been in the news. (And if you haven't heard, here's a link to the story on the Iowa Department of Education's website: http://educateiowa.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2827%3Aiowas-high-school-graduation-rate-increases-&catid=242%3Anews-releases&Itemid=2717)
We hear a lot about graduation rates, test scores and other data points. But what does it all mean to our community? How does Linn-Mar stack up?
Well, data is an important decision-making factor for our school district. Yet, no single assessment tells the full story. So at Linn-Mar we collect information from multiple data sources. It provides us with information about what students know, what they should know and what can be done to meet their academic needs. Our educators can use the analysis and interpretation of the data to make informed decisions that improve our students' educational performance.
In addition, when our schools work together with our families to support learning, our children tend to succeed both in school and in life. At Linn-Mar, we feel the tremendous support of our families is also reflected in a current snapshot of the following student achievement data points: 5 year cohort graduation rate = 95.52% ACT composite score= 24.4 (nation= 21.1) Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Roll School (1 of only 6 in Iowa) 83% of AP testers scored at 3 or above Iowa Assessments Results 11th grade: Reading = 93.6% proficient Math= 95.1% proficient Science= 94.9% proficient Well done Linn-Mar!
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We were working with another consulting group at a client, recently, and to resolve a dispute one of the consultants at the rival firm pulled out his trump card – he had authored a book. Of the various things that might impress a software developer – certifications, technical blogging, Microsoft ranking, article writing – book authorship is well at the top of the list. Writing a technical book carries so much metal in part because everyone knows what an extraordinary accomplishment this is. One not only must demonstrate mastery and facility with one topic, but must be able to maintain this level of loquacity over a dozen or so chapter topics and in the end pull it all together in a fluent manner. This can be so difficult a feat that for each major Microsoft technology one may find only four or five books each year, each of which, unless it fails completely, becomes a sort of master reference for the topic at hand.
Upon returning to the office, we naturally looked up our friend the author on the Internet. In researching his bona fides we discovered that he was in fact the thirteenth author on an obsolete Microsoft technology for a technical publisher that, trading on its good reputation, had almost thoroughly trashed its name a few years ago by flipping poorly edited tomes written by laundry lists of authors on hot topics in order to be the first to press. This publisher at a certain point became notorious for awkwardly photoshopping portraits of the myriad authors of each of their books onto the book covers to give the impression that some of them had ever actually been in the same room together.
This is a shame because many of the early authors with this particular press have gone on to be thought-leaders in the Microsoft programming world and continue to publish important books through other publishers, among them Rocky Lhotka, Dino Esposito, Joe Mayo, Scott Guthrie and Scott Hanselman, to name a few.
This may be a prime example of Gresham's Law. Gresham's Law is a 16th century economic theory concerning currency which states "Bad money drives out the good." The general idea is that if a certain currency is in circulation, for instance gold coins, and another is introduced with a lower real value but an equivalent exchange value, for instance copper coins, those with gold coins will end up hording their currency rather than using them to make purchases and consequently the gold coins will be removed from circulation. For a fuller explanation you might consult the wiki.
I first came across the theory in a book by Albert Jay Nock called The Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1942) in which the author uses it as the basis for a Rousseauvian theory of cultural decline and progress. I found out about the book, in turn, from a list Louis Lapham published in Harper's in the early nineties of his alternatives to the Great Books – Alan Bloom's pop philosophy book on cultural malaise was a bestseller at the time -- a list which also included Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. It took me another two years before I was able to track the book down to a small shop in Cambridge, MA where I was visiting my brother (in those times before Amazon.com and the Kindle when tracking down an obscure book was a true labor of love) and read it voraciously as a mimeograph produced for a small class at one of the local universities.
The book is a series of contrarian ruminations on the author's life and his failure to accomplish anything of general value. Rather than pursue the sorts of endeavors in public life by which he could have made a name for himself, Nock recounts a dilettantish private life guided by a desire to amuse himself rather than impress others – yet it was a career which left in its wake both a book on Thomas Jefferson as well as one on Rabelais, in addition to various books and essays on politics and pedagogy.
I have owned two copies of Nock's memoirs in my life and have managed to give them both away. Besides the general tone of the book, I remember only two things with any clarity. The first was Nock's dismay when he was offered the chair of the newly founded English department of a distinguished university. Nock regretted turning the position down but he simply found it a bit of a put on to try to teach a subject that anyone could learn by showing up at the public library.
The second was his attitude towards his alma mater. He lauded it as possibly the best sort of education any undergraduate could avail himself of – the sort that prepared him for everything and nothing at the same time. As a sign of his respect for those who taught him, he never returned to his college. He felt that his teachers would be insulted if, after preparing him to go out into world, he at some point returned to the nest. Their job, after all, was to push their students forward, not welcome them back. He consequently found odd the growing trend among his peers and on the part of universities to host sundry homecoming events year after year.
Nock felt himself to be a man out of his own time and, like many people in these circumstances, felt that it was the world that was out of kilter rather than himself. Because the things valued by the world -- specifically America in the 20's and 30's -- were not the things he valued, he tended to see "progress" as a sort of fool's errand. The improvements people tried to make in education and government seemed, through his particular lens, to be merely making things worse and – if those things were the things deemed to be most valuable – then he was a superfluous man.
I lack the skill to evoke Gresham's Law quite as artfully as Albert Jay Nock does. I can only apply it in this small case of a particular technical press. A publisher with a strong reputation, thanks to concerted efforts to cultivate the best young talent available, eventually squandered its capital by going after easy money. Determining that they could be more successful if they only increased the volume of their output, they lowered the value of their currency by publishing low quality books written in a couple of months by a legion of authors. In the process they discovered that quality holds its value better than quantity does.
Yet all is not lost. There is a scene in Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! in which Marlon Brando tries to save the Mexican economy by printing his own currency. While the execution was not the best, the theory appears to be sound, and said publisher can revive its relevance by doing the same. For instance, there is currently a growing industry of self-publishing on the Internet. The publisher of the yellow and red technology books can lend its reputation to this trend by publishing the best efforts of would-be authors on Silverlight, Oslo, Azure or any of the other trendy new technologies. Not only will this help the careers of these authors but, on the evolutionary principle that great things can be achieved given enough time and enough monkeys, something valuable may come of it. To offset the cost of this effort, the publisher should charge its authors for the right to be published, thus producing a Covey-esque win-win situation.
Even better, said press could do away with the tedium of actually writing a book altogether and offer would-be authors the opportunity, for the right price, to simply have their names appended to the list of authors for one of the books in the back catalog. After all, in that long list of superfluous authors, what harm would there be in adding just one more?
That's a pretty pretentious title.
First, a word of clarification. While most articles and even dissertations that use the snowclone "X and Postmodernism" attempt to explicate X through the prism of postmodernism, this post will move in the other direction and attempt to elucidate postmodernism with X. By the end, I hope to convince you that not only is the title modest but that a more accurate title would have been something like "Twitter as the Fulfillment of the Postmodern Project."
To accomplish this we just need to bring two Dons into juxtaposition: Don Browning and Don Barthelme.
Don Browning, an MCA architect and Director of Technology at Turner Broadcasting, made the following Tweet a few days ago:
"You know how people create books made up of blog posts, I want to put together a blog made up of tweets.."
It's a fascinating idea. The first successful instance of the blog-to-book genre I ever came across was Joel Spolsky's Joel On Software book, which is the tree unfriendly version of his popular tech blog. He quickly followed this up with – naturally enough – More Joel On Software. Other exemplars of the genre include Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, Christian Lander's Stuff White People Like and Jay Louis's Hot Chicks with Douchebags.
Why would someone want to pay for articles they can already look at for free on the Internet? And why would an author not feel dirty about repackaging his day-to-day musings and then charging for it?
Turning a blog into a book is a cultural uptrade. A blog is a lowbrow version of the traditional book of essays. Being asked to convert one's blog into a book is like being told that what one had been doing all that time one thought one was blogging was, in actuality, merely literary slumming in an alternative medium – one was always writing a book but just didn't realize it. The book form is the cultural recognition of this fact.
Cultural legitimacy comes at a price. What makes a book a book and confers cultural legitimacy upon it is the not that trees were killed in its production but rather that people must pay money in order to own it. A book is a commodity in a way that a blog is not. People are used to paying for the privilege of reading something in their hands, while they resent paying for permission to read it on the Internet. We all accept that we get what we pay for as well as the corollary that while there is value in a bargain, there is no 'real' value in something that is free.
The difference between a picture of a soup can and Andy Warhol's picture of a soup can is that someone will pay millions of dollars for the latter. Andy Warhol's soup can is "art" because it has a price. It has cultural value -- rather than, say, use-value – because of its price tag.
Without the price tag, what is the difference between a blog and the book version of that same blog? The book version is less convenient to read while the content is basically the same. The only justification for -- the only value added of -- paying for the book form of something one could read for free appears to be simply that: the privilege of paying for it.
This is, of course, also the strange world of Twitter, the plan for monetizing which is currently still in research, according to the official FAQ:
"Twitter has many appealing opportunities for generating revenue but we are holding off on implementation for now because we don't want to distract ourselves from the more important work at hand which is to create a compelling service and great user experience for millions of people around the world. While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make."
Twitter is currently a mechanism for not generating revenue, though it is so good at this that there is a lot of buzz about its potential value.
According to TechCrunch:
"Some analysts have suggested that Twitter has moved past and consumed RSS at the center of the information machine. As newspapers and other print vehicles appear to collapse, the common concerns expressed about the permanent loss and funding of the fourth estate ignore the rise of a superclass of information creation. What some call the fallow ego-driven spew of the Warholian elites is more likely to be seen in the rear view mirror as something more akin to body painting and ultimately jazz." . . . "What's exhilirating is that the vague assumptions, arrogant exploits, twinkling of an ephemeral joke, they all are being ratified in a swirl of innovation that is dazzling in its ability to masquerade as superficial and childish." [sic]
"Some analysts have suggested that Twitter has moved past and consumed RSS at the center of the information machine. As newspapers and other print vehicles appear to collapse, the common concerns expressed about the permanent loss and funding of the fourth estate ignore the rise of a superclass of information creation. What some call the fallow ego-driven spew of the Warholian elites is more likely to be seen in the rear view mirror as something more akin to body painting and ultimately jazz."
. . .
"What's exhilirating is that the vague assumptions, arrogant exploits, twinkling of an ephemeral joke, they all are being ratified in a swirl of innovation that is dazzling in its ability to masquerade as superficial and childish." [sic]
The coming fourth estate, however, is made up of disjointed observations about what one had for lunch and, occasionally, the sorts of "inarticulate grunt or roar" that William Rehnquist would argue is not protected speech.
John Scalzi (who, by the way, published his first science fiction book online and has now been nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award) provides a good description of Twitter which, though not the first, has the distinction of at least being the latest:
"[I]t's even better than blogging for quite a lot of people, because when you're limited to 140 characters, you don't have to feel bad about not having all that much to say. "That most Twitter communication is aggressively banal should also not come as a huge surprise. First, news flash: people are banal. Yes, all of us, even you (and especially even me). Even the great minds of the world do not spend all their time locked in the contemplation of the mysteries of the universe; about 90% of their thoughts boil down to 'I'm hungry,' 'I'm sleepy,' 'I need to poo,' 'Check out the [insert secondary sexual characteristics] on that [insert sex of preference], I'd really like to boink them,' 'I wonder what Jennifer Aniston is doing right now, John Mayer can no longer tell me on his Twitter feed', and, of course, 'Look! Kitty!' That the vast majority of Twitter posts encompass pedestrian thoughts about common subjects like food, music, tech, jobs and cats is entirely unsurprising, because this is what people think about."
"[I]t's even better than blogging for quite a lot of people, because when you're limited to 140 characters, you don't have to feel bad about not having all that much to say.
"That most Twitter communication is aggressively banal should also not come as a huge surprise. First, news flash: people are banal. Yes, all of us, even you (and especially even me). Even the great minds of the world do not spend all their time locked in the contemplation of the mysteries of the universe; about 90% of their thoughts boil down to 'I'm hungry,' 'I'm sleepy,' 'I need to poo,' 'Check out the [insert secondary sexual characteristics] on that [insert sex of preference], I'd really like to boink them,' 'I wonder what Jennifer Aniston is doing right now, John Mayer can no longer tell me on his Twitter feed', and, of course, 'Look! Kitty!' That the vast majority of Twitter posts encompass pedestrian thoughts about common subjects like food, music, tech, jobs and cats is entirely unsurprising, because this is what people think about."
One could have a lot of fun coming up with ways to describe the banality of Twitter but unfortunately we're all already too good at doing it. Thanks to Twitter, it is a private joke that is being shared with millions of your Twitter friends.
The social experiment for which Twitter lays the groundwork is to see how we can collectively uptrade Twitter's cultural status. Can the acknowledged irrelevance of Twitter be made relevant?
Returning to Don Browning's opening comment about aggregating individual tweets and presented them as a blog -- something like this has already been done by Don Barthelme, the postmodern literary figure, back in the sixties. He developed a technique for amalgamating fragments of conversations into a literary form which he perfected in a 1969 short story called The Viennese Opera Ball:
"The judicial form contemplated in the agreement is that of a free trade zone to be transformed gradually into a customs union. As Emile Myerson has said, 'L'homme fait de la metaphysique comme il respire, sans le vouloir et surtout sans s'en douter la plupart du temps.' No woman is worth more than 24 cattle, Pamela Odede B. A.'s father said. With this album Abbey Lincoln's stature as one of the great jazz singers of our time is confirmed, Laura La Plante said. Widely used for motors, power tools, lighting, TV, etc. Generator output: 3500 watts, 115/230 volt, 60 cy., AC, continuous duty. Max 230 V capacitor motor, loaded on starting – 1/2 hp; unloaded on starting – 2 hp. Control box mounts starting switch, duplex 115 V receptacle for standard or 3-conductor grounding plugs, tandem 230 V grounding receptacles, and wing nut battery terminals. More than six hundred different kinds of forceps have been invented. Let's not talk about the lion, she said. Wilson looked over at her without smiling and now she smiled at him. This process uses a Lincoln submerged arc welding head to run both inside and outside beads automatically. The rate of progress during the first stage will determine the program to be followed in the second stage. The Glamour editor whose name was Tutti Beale 'moved in.' What's your name girl? she said coolly. Carola Mitt, Carola Mitt said. The Viennese Opera Ball continued."
The story was published in a collection called Come Back, Dr. Caligari which you cannot buy on Amazon.com. It was later republished in Flying to America: 45 More Stories which you can purchase for $10.85 plus shipping. It has an Amazon sales rank of 76,601*.
Louis Menand, the Critic at Large for the New Yorker, recently wrote in his analysis of Donald Barthelme's career that there are two senses of postmodernism. According to the first, postmodernism is an acknowledgement that modernism was so successful that we are now all modernists. Postmodernism, in this sense, means accepting that we are living in the age of modernism as initiated by James Joyce and Picasso (who, it is said, used to pay for his meals after he became famous by scrawling on napkins and handing them over in lieu of cash) and simply making sense of their linguistic and visual experiments.
In the second, modernism was a failure and we are all now doing something else. Instead of trying to make culture more erudite and less accessible, the goal of postmodernism is to remove the artificial boundaries between "high" and "low" art. This can be accomplished in two ways: either by kicking high culture down or by kicking low culture up.
Kicking high culture downwards requires an unmasking. Someone accomplishes the difficult task of being accepted into the vaunted ranks of culture and then proclaims that they were just faking it. This is actually the easier of the two paths, and you'll see that it happens quite often if you just look for it.
The second, kicking low culture upwards, is the harder path and the holy grail for most postmodernists. Making shit look interesting -- and then making a convincing case for it -- is harder than it looks.
Menand cites jazz as the epitome of this cultural upkick. It fails to fulfill the postmodern project in two ways, however. The first is a technicality – chronologically it developed before the postmodern movement was an inkling in anyone's eye. It lacks the ironical self-awareness of itself as a postmodern art form. The second is a more substantial problem, though perhaps only in retrospect – despite its lowly and popular origins in clubs and bordellos, it has both visceral and intellectual merit. The form lends itself both to the easily hummable tunes of Dave Brubeck as well as the challenging mathematical complexity of Thelonious Monk. It was always potentially high art, in this sense, whether we realized it or not.
To fulfill the postmodern agenda, the low culture platform targeted for uptrade must lack these qualities. It must be so clearly lowbrow that it survives transformation into a high culture artifact without anyone relinquishing this ironical awareness of its cultural banality. If Twitter is the long anticipated postmodern medium, Twitter must succeed without losing the qualities that make it Twitter.
There are currently rumors of Google interest in purchasing access to the wealth of grunts and roars that is Twitter. Twitter, in turn, has already turned down Face-book's offer of half-a-billion dollars, and seems to be valuing itself at well over twice that.
A billion dollars, of course, buys one a lot of cultural legitimacy.
* By way of comparison, Joel Spolsky's book Joel On Software has a current Amazon sales rank of 22,865. Hot Chicks with Douchebags ranks at 12,809.


text:
Sacramento fighter Devin Johnson paralyzed in training accident
Mixed martial arts fighter Devin Johnson suffered major spinal cord injuries that left him paralyzed following a practice two weeks ago at a popular gym owned by his coach Urijah Faber, said Johnson's manager Dave Hirschbein.
Johnson, 22, was scheduled to make his professional debut in his hometown of Yuba City on Sept. 8 after posting a 3-1 amateur record. That match has since been canceled as family and friends organize fundraisers for what doctors say will be a lengthy hospital stay.
"He is awake and talking over a ventilator," said Johnson's girlfriend, Tayler Miller, 18. "Doctors said he has a 3 percent chance of walking again, but he's already been making so much progress."
Johnson fractured and dislocated his C4 vertebra during a sparring practice at Ultimate Fitness in midtown Sacramento, Hirschbein said.
"He shot in for a double leg takedown," Hirschbein said. "There was a scramble and in the middle of that scramble, they both landed on Devin's neck."
Johnson was rushed to UC Davis Medical Center, where he remains in the intensive care unit with limited visitors because of the risk of infections.
"Devin is a fighter," Hirschbein said. "He has the mental toughness to fight through this. He will make it back."
Prior to the accident, Hirschbein said Johnson told him his goal was to be the 170-pound world welterweight champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
"He still has that goal," Miller said.
There are multiple fundraisers organized to support Johnson, whose mother, Jacqui, along with Miller, has held a constant vigil since the accident.
For information on how to donate, visit http://www.devinsmiracle.com/.
Hirschbein, who operates www.mmagold.com, said he is giving 100 percent of apparel sales from the website to the Johnson family through June 9.
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The Seven Oaks Clubhouse is a locally owned and operated full-service restaurant and caterer. We are open to the public and open year round serving lunch and dinner. We are located at the corner of Payne St and E Lake Rd, one half mile straight down Payne St from the Five Corners in Hamilton. In the heart of a Robert Trent Jones golf course with ample on-site parking, we offer gorgeous views from our dining room and patio year round.
We are open seven days a week serving lunch and dinner with daily specials. All of our food is made to order using the freshest produce, meat, and seafood. We make all our own soups, sauces, dressings, and desserts, and in-house roast all our turkey, ham and beef.
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A trilby hat (commonly called a trilby) is a narrow-brimmed type of hat. The trilby was once viewed as the rich man's favored hat; it is sometimes called the "brown trilby" in England[1] and is frequently seen at the horse races. The London hat company Lock and Co. describes the trilby as having a "shorter [viz., narrower] brim which is angled down [snapped down] at the front and slightly turned up at the back" versus the fedora's "wider brim which is more level [flatter]." The trilby also has a slightly shorter crown than a typical fedora design.[2]
The hat's name derives from the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby; a hat of this style was worn in the first London production of the play, and promptly came to be called "a Trilby hat".[3][dead link][4]
Traditionally it is made from rabbit hair felt, but is usually made from other materials, such as tweed, straw, wool and wool/nylon blends. The hat reached its zenith of common popularity in the 1960s; the lower head clearance in American automobiles made it impractical to wear a hat with a tall crown while driving. It faded from popularity in the 1970s when any type of men's headwear went out of fashion, and men's fashion instead began focusing on highly maintained hairstyles.
The hat saw a resurgence in popularity in the early 1980s, when it was marketed to both men and women in an attempt to capitalize on a retro fashion trend.[5]
In shape it resembles the Tyrolean hat.
See also[edit]
- ^ Roetzel, Bernhard (1999). Gentleman's Guide to Grooming and Style. Barnes & Noble.
- ^ Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern. R. M. McBride Company.
- ^ Truth in Fashion: Trilby vs. Fedora
- ^ Trilby Hat
- ^ Hofler, Robert and Zarco, Cyn. (1985). Wild Style: The Next Wave in Fashion, Hair and Makeup. Simon & Schuster.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trilby. |


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UA Europe is a UK-based company that specialises in software user assistance and eLearning. The company also presents the annual UA Europe Conference in association with WritersUA.
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Company Director Matthew Ellison has over 25 years of experience as a user assistance and eLearning professional in the software industry. Much of this time was spent managing a team of writers and trainers at a UK-based consulting company, before enjoying a period in the U.S. as Director of the WinWriters (now WritersUA) Conference.
Matthew has a B.Sc. in Electronic Engineering and a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education from Bristol University in the UK. He is a MadCap Flare Certified Instructor and an Adobe Community Professional. He has also been a part-time lecturer at Portsmouth University for the MA Technical Communication course. Matthew is a winner of the prestigious Horace Hockley award that is presented annually by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC).
Matthew has been a popular speaker at conferences and training events throughout the world since 1997, and has covered a diverse range of topics from context-sensitive Help to the Spice Girls! He also regularly publishes articles and reviews on user assistance tools and technology and writes a blog.


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» Thailand - Short Mission Trip to Ban Nam
Thailand - Short Mission Trip to Ban Nam Khem, Phanga
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South-West Thailand
Ban Nam Khem
April 3rd 2008
Published: April 3rd 2008
Missionaries Home
Missionaries' Home and our Home Sweet Home in Nam Khem
Short Mission Trip to Ban Nam Khem, South Thailand
Day 1 - 17 Mar 2008
Departed Sibu on time by Airasia to Phuket via KL. The ride on Airasia is hussle free except the usual rush for seats. Airasia should seriously consider investing seat allocation system at least it avoids the ugly kiasu scene.
We were met by a prebooked friendly driver who took us to Ban Nam Khem in about an hour and fourty five minutes. The missionaries' house was comfortable though the weather was unbearably warm and humid like any other tropical dwelling. Elke is from Germany, Helen is from NZ while Maria is from Switzerland for just barely a week. Our ladies stayed with the missionaries while the men stayed next door in the chapel. The house and the chapel were located by the main road to Namkhem township opposite BNK School which housed both Primary and Secondary Students.
Day 2 - 18 March
The day started off with simple breakfast - coffee and bread. We went to a local market for some marketing. We got some fresh vegetables, fish and fruits before visiting the BNK Tsunami Memorial Park. There's a
Tsunami Memorial
Taken at Tsunami Memorial Park
long wave-like wall signifying the tsunami and there are memorials made up of photos and names of the victims. We visited the Memorial Museum in the park where photo illustrations and brief accounts of the unfortunate incident were displayed. We were briefed by Ban who was had a personal encounter with tsunami on that fateful day. He lost his son though the wife and daughter were spared. I was surprised that he was the one who operated the Namkhem.com website which was one of the few websites on Namkhem. He operated a tour agency in Namkhem. We met and shared with a group of Thais who were having picnic at the park before having a Chinese style lunch at a road side restaurant. It was delicious especially the fried pork which I suspect would be dearly missed for the rest of the trip.
After a brief nap, we followed Helen to nearby settlements to look for opportunities of home meeting and gatherings. The locals were living in small and shabby houses though there were some reasonably lavish ones. There was even a ship building yard by the river who forbade us taking any photographs, probably assuming that we were
Group of Thais
A group of Thais picnicking at Nam Khem Beach Front. Chatted with them.
some NGOs coming to track down illegal workshops.
Day 3 - 19 March
At 330pm we went to a village of Sea gypsies near BNK school. We gathered a group of about 30 kids for games, songs and handicrafts. The kids enjoyed themselves and received some surprise souvenirs from us. The gathering ended around 5.30pm.
After shower we headed for a resettlement scheme 'Grongan Song' mostly for the tsunami victims. We helped a sister named Nuan to fix curtains for her new home followed by sharing together with her sister Kat. We were touched by their faith in the Lord. Need to pray for one of the so called 'Christians', Li who had not shown good examples for Christians.
Day 4 - 20 March
We helped the missionaries to organise the messy wires overhanging against the living room wall. A new extension was pulled from the mains for the socket near the computer which before this was provided through an extension from Elke's room making the door unclosable. She was happy with our help - 'I can finally closed my door for some privacy'. After dinner, we visited an old couple named Wisit and Chelau.
Sea Gypsies Settlement
A glance at the Sea Gypsies settlement
They were spared by the Tsunami as they were away with relatives during the disaster. We noticed that Christians we met had the sign in Thai meaning 'This is the House of the Child of God' above the main door. That's a noble way to proclaim God's Grace in a village where Buddhists are the majority.
Day 5 - 21 March
We helped the missionaries to make two new crosses for the chappel. One by using wood and the other by small PVC pipes! They will be ready for the coming Easter Sunday. We also prepared some pictures for the easter messges.
We visited the gypsies village again in the afternoon and we dropped by Yin's house along 'Sol Sepan'. The house was partly funded by the missionaries. She stayed with her husband Den who is a businessman. Yin was touched by her son who went to sunday school who kept reminding her not to tell lies. Upon finding out why the kid said such, she tried to find out. She went to the missionaries to find out their purpose for staying among the locals. Found Christians praying in tears, which was rare in Thai culture.
Fun time with Children
Having Fun Time with Children at Sea Gypsie's settlement
She started to question who the God is? 'Ask and you shall received...' and many other bible verses raised many questions in her mind. She started to attend cell groups and indulge in bible reading. A drastic change in her life was that she was no longer fearful of darkness and evil spirits anymore. She persuaded her husband who is a strong Buddhist. Den started t feel like God was comforting him like a child in arms after his first Sunday service in church. He slowly discarded Buddhist spells which are supposed to make his sales of fish good. God answered his prayer to have good sales even though discarded spells. However he seemed to rely too much on what God can do for him instead of the other way round. Let's pray for him.
After dinner, we split into two groups one going for family visit while another went for prayerwalk at Bang Muang town. Bang Muang town is a separate administrative district from Nam Khem. We were amazed with the width and the quality of the main thoroughfare that ran through the township of several rows of shophouses. Thanks to the massive foreign aids and funds coming
Dimon Beach
See what I mean? Beautiful lonely beach all yours at Nam Khem (Dimon Beach)
in for the Tsunami relief in 2004/5. Many shop proprietors were of Chinese origins identified through the display of altars at their five footways and living room. There were two 7 Elevens at both end of the little township.
Day 6 - 22 March
After preparing some handicrafts for the congregation tomorrow, we went to the Dimon Beach. It's a nice and long stretch of beach but there's nobody there? What a great beach front. Spent time there until we captured the best sunset I have ever seen. We found many species of shells which were rare along the beach.
Day 7 - 23 March
We woke up pretty early on Easter Sunday. The men cleared the mattress and the luggage from the chappel followed by arranging for the altar and seatings. Meanwhile the ladies prepare for the meals for the congregation.
Easter Church service began at 10am with singspiration. A leader then took over for some scripture reading and sharing. There were at least six to seven verses recited together with everyone reading from his or her own bible! What a great encouragement.
Then the children were brought outside for Sunday
Home Visit
Visiting and sharing at one of the Thai Chirstian family
Day 8 - 24 March
We headed for Phuket Island for a night before we return home. Phuket island is a tourist area. We noticed that the foreigners actually outnumbered the locals, at least from a quick glance across streets and beach fronts. It is pretty commercialized just like any other tourist spots. We realized how much we missed the beachfront at Nam Khem where we were practically left alone to enjoy the entire beach front.
Day 9 - 25 March
We departed from Phuket around noon time and reach Sibu around nine in the evening.
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Brief history of Thailand
A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy....
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Blue Angle
The two boats swiped by the Tsunami few km inland was left thereat as memorial
Tsunami sign
A sketch map reminding people of the hazard zones of Tsunami
Easter Service
Lunch with church members after Easter Sunday Service inside the church (where the men stayed for a week)
Sunset at Dinom
Magnificent Sunset at Dimon Beach, Namkhem
Patong Beach
Taken at Patong Beach, Phuket Island
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Optic neuropathy of Graves disease: results of transantral orbital decompression and long-term follow-up in 215 patients. | |
MedLine Citation:
PMID: 12967795 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
PURPOSE: To review demographic characteristics, clinical features, and long-term outcomes of patients with optic neuropathy of Graves disease after transantral orbital decompression. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of noncomparative interventional case series; long-term follow-up by questionnaire. METHODS: Medical record data (preoperative and postoperative assessments) were collected from patients who had transantral orbital decompression to treat Graves optic neuropathy. Responses to two follow-up questionnaires concerning patient satisfaction were evaluated. Statistical analysis (reflected as P values) compared preoperative and early postoperative (< or =182 days) data. RESULTS: Between November 1969 and May 1989, 215 patients underwent transantral orbital decompression for Graves optic neuropathy. In 205 eyes with visual acuity of 20/40 or worse before decompression, visual acuity improved by 3 Snellen lines or more in 110 (54%) (P <.001). Of 291 eyes with visual field defects preoperatively, 120 (41%) had resolution, and 126 (43%) had improvement postoperatively (P <.001). Proptosis was reduced in 350 eyes by 4.4 +/- 2.3 mm (mean +/- SD) (P <.001). In 104 eyes, disk edema resolved in 72 (69%) and improved in 28 (27%). Responses to questionnaires mailed in 1990 and 2000 showed that 76% and 88% of respondents, respectively, were subjectively satisfied with the results of orbital decompression. CONCLUSIONS: Transantral orbital decompression appeared to be effective in treating optic neuropathy of Graves disease. Patient satisfaction was high at 10-year and 20-year follow-up. |
Cacia V Soares-Welch; Vahab Fatourechi; George B Bartley; Charles W Beatty; Colum A Gorman; Rebecca S Bahn; Erik J Bergstralh; Cathy D Schleck; James A Garrity |
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Publication Detail:
Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. |
Journal Detail:
Title: American journal of ophthalmology Volume: 136 ISSN: 0002-9394 ISO Abbreviation: Am. J. Ophthalmol. Publication Date: 2003 Sep |
Date Detail:
Created Date: 2003-09-11 Completed Date: 2003-09-22 Revised Date: 2007-11-14 |
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID: 0370500 Medline TA: Am J Ophthalmol Country: United States |
Other Details:
Languages: eng Pagination: 433-41 Citation Subset: AIM; IM |
Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism, Nutrition and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. |
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
MeSH Terms | |
Decompression, Surgical* Female Follow-Up Studies Graves Disease / complications, physiopathology, surgery* Humans Male Middle Aged Ophthalmoscopy Optic Nerve Diseases / etiology, physiopathology, surgery* Patient Satisfaction Questionnaires Retrospective Studies Treatment Outcome Visual Acuity Visual Fields |
Grant Support | |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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This project considers five prominent religious-political figures who have led conservative movements in the United States between 1970 and 2010. In examining the written and spoken rhetoric of Phyllis Schlafly, Francis Schaeffer, Randall Terry, Phillip E. Johnson, and Maggie Gallagher, I am interested in the extent to which each bases his or her arguments on freedom, and how freedom is conceived in each case. The central claim is that, over the past forty years, social conservative activists have shifted positions, moving from an explicitly religious, prophetic mode of speech into a secularized, classically liberal rhetoric based on rights and freedoms. So while Schlafly once spoke proudly of "God's plan for women" in opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, Gallagher now fights same-sex marriage in defense of liberal principles such as free speech. Doing so ensures a – perhaps subversive – form of access. If it is true that religious rhetors are increasingly cloaking religious arguments in liberal ideographs, new – and old – questions arise. What is the appropriate role of religious speech in the public sphere? What do we mean by "freedom," and how malleable a concept is it? Is liberal freedom commensurate with more religious iterations? I argue that, even if the appropriation of liberalism by religious voices does constitute an attempt at political subversion, liberalism absorbs and neutralizes the threat by directing rival discourses into a shared vocabulary. Though religious questions will always divide us, we may remain united in our common commitment to liberty, and to the on-going conversation about what that means.
Eric Miller Penn State University
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Siobhan Murphy |
April |
William C. Vaughan |
Matt |
Anand Rajaram |
Pramesh |
Joel Keller |
Bill |
Aliyah O'Brien |
Tannis |
Glenda Braganza |
Rani |
Andrew del Campo |
Poet |
Guest Star |
Daryl Dorge |
Fencing Guy |
Guest Star |
Kristen Harris |
Knitting Gal |
Guest Star |
Paul Gross |
Narrator |
Recurring Role |
Gary: You keep bailing on us.
Pramesh: I know, I know, but, you know, we're, we're thinking of selling bagels at Speedy Treat. It's, it's a crazy time.
Gary: Well, what about a game tonight? I can set one up.
Pramesh: Ooh, ah, well I really would but I, I, I have to cook food for dinner. It's food night.
(instructing Matt on how to be his bouncer)
Bill: You passed your first test, obeying my orders no matter how stupid they are.
Matt: I was made for this!
There were no opening credits for this episode meaning the writer, director and a part of the production team were not shown.
Music Credit:
Performed by Bryan Adams
Written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance
Published by Universal Music Publishing
Courtesy of Universal Music Canada
This is the first of two back-to-back new episodes and airs at 8:00 PM ET, 30 minutes before its regular time.
Steven Seagal
Matt is referring to the famous American action movie star, who is also known for his work as a producer, writer, guitarist and reserve deputy sheriff. He is also an accomplished martial artist holding a 7th-dan black belt in aikido.
No one has discussed Men with Brooms yet. Start a conversation!
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