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What a long, strange trip it's been for Hammer Studio's lord of the undead, the prince of darkness, the king of vampires, Count Dracula. When first we met him back in 1958, he was a snarling beast, a barely contained force of nature that ripped into his prey with lusty abandon and was explained by his arch-nemesis Dr. Van Helsing in purely rational, scientific terms. Dracula, and vampirism in general (as expounded upon by Van Helsing in Brides of Dracula), was nothing more than a disease, like any other disease, and what we regarded as "supernatural" was really nothing more than an explainable part of the rational world that humanity had simply not yet learned how to explain. As Hammer's Dracula series progressed, however, Van Helsing faded from the picture and was replaced by a procession of forgettable guys named Paul, usually in league with some sort of religious authority figure. In Dracula, Prince of Darkness, we have a monsignor who seems to have some degree of faith in faith's ability to defeat Dracula, but he's far more reliant on his trusty bolt-action rifle than he is on the Lord Almighty.
Tag Archives: S
Superargo and the Faceless Giants
The Mexico of the lucha libre sci-fi adventure films is just about as close to our version of the Promised Land as you can get. I'd gladly turn in our world of turmoil, suffering, and nouveau French cuisine for a good chimichanga and a world where the biggest news comes when pro wrestlers have to thwart the diabolical scheme of some mummy. Oh sure, no one is going to be crazy about a world full of mummies all walking around with their dusty heads full of diabolical schemes, but once you get over the shock of "Hey, look! A mummy! Is that a midget in a cape next to him?" things really are not so bad. The mummy might kidnap a sexy chica in a flimsy negligee so he can carry her around a bit, and he might injure some old pipe-smoking man by knocking him out with the patented "chop to the shoulders" blow that seems to comprise the mummy's only real offense, but that's about it. In the end, you know the mummy poses only a minor threat to the world as a whole, and Santo or Mil Mascaras will be around eventually to bodyslam the mummy and burn down an old castle. Compared to what we have to deal with in the real world, I'd much prefer luchadores duking it out with mummies.
Sinbad of the Seven Seas
I can anticipate a lot of things that would potentially show up as the first shot in a Sinbad the Sailor movie (as opposed to Sinbad the Comedian movie, though I can also imagine the first shot in that movie as well, and it's Sinbad making an exaggerated screaming face and running away in fast motion from a poopy baby diaper), but one thing I never expected was a still shot of Edgar Allen Poe. It's that same one everyone uses when they need a photo of Edgar Allen Poe. Maybe that's the only one. I don't know. I also didn't know why Poe would be associated with the opening of a Sinbad the Sailor movie, though I could understand it in a Sinbad the Comedian movie, what with the macabre and all.
Scars of Dracula
And we were doing so well! Most movie studios can't sustain the quality of a film series beyond two films — and quite a few have problems even getting that far. It was no small feat, then, that Hammer managed to produce not one, but two consistently good series. Their Dracula and Frankenstein films set the benchmark for quality horror during the late fifties and throughout the 1960s. And you know, they almost made it to the finish lines with both of them. The Frankenstein series featuring Peter Cushing as the titular mad doctor lasted six films, with only the third film being a misfire, and not a very bad misfire at that. By the time Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell was released, it was clear that the series was at its end, both creatively and financially. Still, it managed to go out with a dash of class, and the final film features the second worst monster in the series (the honor of worst, in my opinion, goes to Kiwi Kingston's shrieking slapdash Karloff wannabe from Evil of Frankenstein) but one of the best stories and finest performances from Cushing. Even if the final film was not a financial success, everyone involved could hold their heads up high and be proud of all six movies.
And then there was the Dracula series starring Christopher Lee.
Scream and Scream Again
What the hell? It's rare these days that I have that reaction to a film. By this point, I really have seen just about everything, and the one thing that keeps that from being a depressing revelation is that sometimes something will pop up to remind that I haven't seen anything. This movie was apparently based on a book called The Disoriented Man, and while watching it, that was definitely an apt description of me. Scream and Scream Again seems for much of its running time to be three completely different movies. By the end, of course, things will be tied together, but not in a way that necessarily makes much sense. The end result is not unlike watching one of those Thomas Tang/Godfrey Ho ninja movies where they'd buy bits and pieced of a couple old Hong Kong films, splice them together with some scenes from some unfinished Italian action film, then stick in a series of newly shot scenes featuring white guys in red and yellow ninja outfits with headbands that say "Ninja!" on them and call the whole hideous Frankenstein's monster a movie.
Spirits of the Dead
Anyone claiming that Spirits of the Dead isn't a good movie is probably only just saying that because Vadim's contribution to this anthology of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations as conceived by three of Europe's maverick directors is so sloppy and unengaging. Vadim's contribution, "Metzengerstein," is certainly not the way you'd want to start a film. As was par for the man, Vadim casts his current sexy main squeeze in the lead, which just happened at the time to be Jane Fonda. The duo were fresh off Barbarella, and this story was originally envisioned as a feature film follow-up to that piece of sci-fi pop art. How they could have every stretched this thing out to a full running time is beyond me, though it's not as if Vadim wasn't a pro at stretching out thin-to-nonexistent plots and pasting them together with eye-popping, mind blowing costume and set design. Fonda plays the Countess Metzengerstein, heir to a vast fortune she squanders by throwing lavish orgies and torturing the underlings. Actually, they're rather dull and lifeless orgies. You know, orgies always seem like a good idea until you try and hammer out the logistics of the whole thing. As for me, I'd be too worried about people knocking stuff over. Anyway, she delights in hurling barbs over the fence at her more modest cousin, played by none other than Jane's brother, Peter. Eventually, she becomes sexually obsessed with him — kind of, well, you know, but then this is Roger Vadim we're talking about, and it was the sixties — until he rebuffs her advances. I mean, heck, Henry was probably already pretty steamed at the both of them for being a coupla hippies. Incest would have really set him off.
As revenge, the mad Ms. Metzengerstein burns down his stables, and he in turn dies in the fire trying to save his horses. Or so it would seem. A big black stallion bursts through the flames and gallops to safety, but there is no record of such a horse in the stable. Metzengerstein becomes convinced that the horse is the reincarnation of her beloved cousin, and her obsession with the horse crosses into madness and, frankly, borders on bestiality. Despite all the weird stuff thrown into the mix, this is a decidedly dull and uninspired way to kick off the film. The costuming, usually one of Vadim's only strong points, is relatively without shock or beauty. Jane dons some navel-exposing Little Lord Fauntleroy type outfits, but everything else looks like it's on loan from the local community theater. The cinematography is listless, and Vadim's usually striking composition of scenes is non-existent. In addition, everything is shot in soft-focus "Playboy-o-vision." The English speaking actors are dubbed into French in the currently available version, which means the only way we can judge their performances is through body language, most of which consists of them staring half-stoned at the camera.
The tone of the film is all wrong too, at least in my opinion. A tale of mystery and the bizarre, as this is meant to be, should have some sense of menace and the macabre, some sort of tension. There is none of that here, and the film instead unfolds like a languid, ethereal, and intensely boring dream. Fairy tales and Cocteau Twins songs conjure up more darkness and dread than this supposed Edgar Allen Poe tale. There are some nice crumbling castles and decaying seaside scenery, but Vadim doesn't seem to understand how to take thematic advantage of it or relate it to the decaying morality and mental state of his central Nero/Caligula-like figure (though I must say I bet Jane Fonda's figure is better than Nero or Caligula's). When you fail to match even someone as hit-or-miss with similar atmosphere as, say, France's Jean Rollin, you know you're way off the mark. It's like Vadim wasn't even trying here. The hilariously silly ending was repeated in Vadim's 1973 film Don Juan (Or if Don Juan Were a Woman), which we covered right up there at the very beginning of this journal.
Things pick up, but only just, for the second story in the trilogy. Luis Malle directs "William Wilson." Malle is probably most infamous for flirting with child pornography when he introduced the world to Brooke Shields in his 1978 film Pretty Baby. Before that, he was a member of the French New Wave, which helped get him this gig. He's pretty far off his game for this outing, though, turning in an entry that manages to be less ponderous and a little more tense and eerie than Vadim's meandering hunk of nonsense, but it still just doesn't play out the way it should, perhaps because the story itself has been done so many times and this one offers nothing new. French heartthrob Alain Delon stars as the titular Wilson, whom we meet as he stumbles into a confessional and claims to have killed a man. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn the history of Wilson, who in every regard is a grade-a prick. As a young boy attending a military school where his classmate was no doubt Damien from The Omen II, he encounters a boy with the same name as he who seems dedicated to countering everything he does. He encounters this double, who even grows to look exactly like him, throughout various points in his life until, ultimately, they face one another in a fencing duel.
There's very little to surprise here. The man fighting his doppleganger, and by killing it killing himself, is nothing new, and Malle's approach is so straight-forward and by the books that the story, while decent for a single viewing, has nothing more to offer. Like Vadim, Malle seems to almost be phoning it in just to collect his paycheck. The primary difference is that the performers, native French speakers, are better and the story is, as I said, OK at least for the first go-round. Brigitte Bardot shows up briefly in a gambling scene. All in all, the segment isn't bad. Direction is nice, acting is good, and it moves at a fair clip. There are also a few effective moments, chiefly the scene of a young Wilson lowering a new student into a barrel full of rats and a later scene in which Wilson, now a medical student, seeks to practice his dissection technique on a living subject. So OK, it's not bad. It's just not that interesting.
If you make it through the awful first story and middling second, they pay-off is Federico Fellini's entry, the final piece in the trilogy and easily one of the most delirious, grotesque, and utterly insane forty minutes of film you'll ever come across. Fellini was known for a lot of things, not the least of which was his fondness for the absurd. If you're familiar with the director, and you should at least try to be, then try to imagine everything about him and his style distilled down and concentrated in one forty-minute sequence. Quite frankly, it's almost too much, and that's simply divine.
His story is "Toby Dammit," based loosely on Poe's "Never Bet the Devil Your Head." A wild-eyed, completely mad looking Terence Stamp stars as Dammit, a drunken, wild British film actor who seems to be hovering on the brink of a career collapse. He travels to Italy to star in a film in which Jesus is reincarnated as a pioneer in the American West, but nothing about his trip to Rome is the least bit ordinary. Fellini saturates his film in colors, and they're all the wrong ones for what should be going on. Think of film that has been cross-processed. The world of Toby Dammit is awash in red and yellow, billowing orange clouds and dust, like driving through someone's hallucination of the end of the world. Given the Biblical nature of the film Dammit is to be starring in, it wouldn't surprise me if Fellini's own inspiration for the look of the film came straight from the Book of Revelations.
Dammit's biggest problem, besides his addiction to and disdain for fame, is that he is haunted by visions of a smiling young blonde girl (shades of Mario Bava's Kill, Baby, Kill) who he believes to be The Devil himself. We follow Dammit onto a bizarre talk show, an even more bizarre awards show, and finally a manic, out of control car ride as he attempts to escape the increasingly bizarre and artificial landscape around him (people on the street are frozen in mid-motion, and eventually become mannequins).
The difference between the two French directors and the Italian Fellini couldn't be more obvious. He seizes his story with gusto, indulging every bizarre notion that crosses his mind and throwing it all onto the screen with a madcap zeal totally lacking in Vadim's entry and an absolute lack of predictability as seen in Malle's. Nothing is the slightest bit real. It's all highly stylized and has its grotesque alien factor cranked to the very top. Everyone is grossly overdone. Their make-up is outrageous; their movements are more the movements of stage props and puppets. Lights flash and glitter from every angle, and a non-stop of psychedelic detail and sheer lunacy require that you watch the segment several times just to catch everything that goes on in each scene.
And standing above this gaudy, gorgeous horror show, this gleeful dissection of fame and the film industry (or rather, the industries that affix themselves to the film industry) is Terence Stamp, white-faced and genuinely looking like he's just come of a weeklong binge. He's haggard and sweaty and pasty and looks utterly spent, while at the same time seeming completely and utterly hysterical. Although in the currently available version all his dialog has been dubbed into French, unlike the Fondas in the first segment, he gives you plenty more by which to judge his frenzied performance. He's a whirlwind of agitated energy, and it's one of the best performances in the career of one of England's best actors. It's impossible not to compare him here to Malcolm McDowell's equally cracked performance in 1971's A Clockwork Orange. I'm no expert on the film, but I'm willing to bet Stamp's turn as Dammit (right down to the wild driving scene) was a major influence on both Kubrick as director and McDowell as actor. Spirits of the Dead is owned by Fellini's segment, and Stamp owns that segment. It is sublime, and a must-see.
Where Vadim and Malle try, or we assume they try, to invoke dreamlike and Gothic horror atmospheres respectively, grounding themselves in historical settings and costumes, Fellini sets his film in a warped and twisted version of the present, a fever dream where the mood he goes for is more one of psychosis and hysteria than creeping dread (or oozing boredom, in Vadim's case). "Toby Dammit" is as funny as it is warped. It is a celebration, in it's own way, and by dispensing entirely with the "typical" Poe setting, Fellini seems to have achieved the only truly eerie Poe feeling in the entire anthology, though it might be Poe on one of his famous drug binges. Every scene drips with the promise of menace, albeit a completely absurd one, and his ending is as comical as it is spooky. And those images of the maniacally grinning little girl/Satan? Positively brilliant. The whole thing is an orgy of a psychotic, surreal Hell on Earth populated by annoying comedians and glittering women in gigantic false eyelashes.
So skip the first segment. Sit through Malle's middle segment, but for the devil's ball-bouncing sake, don't miss Fellini's finale. It's the sort of lunatic filmmaking that makes you happy to be watching a movie. It's a five-star segment trapped in an otherwise two-star film, but more than justifies the effort of getting through the film.
The Soldier
The Cold War produced a lot of great films, or at least a lot of enjoyable ones. It also produced some godawful dreck, though even some of that dreck was at least entertaining. Cold War paranoia films took on many forms. In the 1950s, there were a lot of those "realistic" atomic war movies that consisted mainly of a group of people sitting around in a bar discussing matters until an atom bomb fell and blew everyone up. The more creative films let giant red ants or some such creature stand in for the commies. Some of the more outlandish entries even had secret plots by the Chinese to tunnel under the Pacific Ocean and pop out in California ready for an invasion. During the 1960s, the Cold War sci-fi film gave way to straight-up espionage thrillers inspired by the success of the James Bond films that always involved the Reds trying to steal some terrible device we never should have invented in the first place. Luckily, there's always a square-jawed G-Man on the case, ready to dish out some beat-downs and bed some Eastern Bloc babes. The best Cold War films of the 1960s were most definitely coming from Italy, Spain, and Germany. The Eurospy film was born, and it was probably one of the greatest achievements of the Cold War era.
When the 1980s came, Ronald Reagan rekindled the Cold War with a fire in his eye he'd not had since the days he was gleefully ratting out his co-stars in Hollywood and accusing them of being Commies during the Senate Un-American Activities Committee. Reagan made the escalation of the Cold War the primary focus of his eight-year administration, allowing education to falter and the economy to languish in disrepair. On the one hand, his crackpot brinksmanship seemed like it just might be the end of us all. On the other hand, he did bankrupt the Soviet Union and cause the downfall of European communism, thus ending the Cold War it seemed he was so likely to heat up. History is funny like that. In the midst of the rhetorical sparring between Reagan and his Russian counterparts, Cold War paranoia films enjoyed renewed popularity. This time we were often blowing up the whole world then driving around in dune buggies after the dust settled.
Although post-apocalypse films were the most noticeable and flamboyant, more than a few cloak and dagger thrillers slinked onto the screen as well. Unfortunately, a lot of those were geared toward kids and always featured a plucky young protagonist furiously pedaling his BMX bike away from pursuing Russian agents. I may be a lot of things, but a fan of insipid kiddy action films is not one of them. Even when I was a young tot, if I was watching an action film, I wanted blood and explosions, and if possible, ninjas and boobs. It was generally unlikely that I would get my requirements fulfilled by a movie starring Corey Haim or Henry Thomas riding their bikes to freedom. Luckily, a few films emerged that satisfied my appetite for movies far more adult than I probably should have been watching. I remember very vividly the night I first got to watch James Glickenhaus' The Soldier. My friend Dan (then known as Danny) had this older brother named Dave who liked to do typical big brother stuff like hide out in the woods and howl like a werewolf (or a regular wolf, I suppose) to get us scared. It rarely worked, and it was odd that he'd go to such extreme and goofy measures to spook us since we were far more afraid of him simply delivering a good-natured pounding to us.
When he wasn't teaching us important things like how to endure an Indian burn or a red belly, he was a pretty cool older brother (or maybe it just seemed that way since I could always go home; Dan had to stay there and pray for the day his brother would have to go back to college). He was the one who let us hang out and watch The Soldier. While I remember the whole night with rather bizarre clarity, about the only thing I could remember from the movie itself was a scene where some guy sneaks into an apartment and tries to strangle some other guy with a wire. The other guy blocks it with his arm, but the wire still cuts through his sweater and causes a decent amount of blood to flow. I have no idea why that scene is the one I remember, but there ya go.
Since everyone my age builds their live around reclaiming their childhood and indulging themselves by purchasing every toy they were never able to get when they were ten, I figured it might be a good idea to track down a copy of The Soldier and give it another go-round. I mean, I remember that it was bloody and full of spies. That's enough to warrant at least one more look. Not too long ago, I would have gone into this film with some degree of trepidation. Would it still seem as cool to me now as it did nineteen years ago? However, after watching countless films from my youth that I should have grown out of, I discovered that my tastes have, for better or worse, changed very little since then. I still like the most godawful juvenile crap, and that part of the brain that makes you outgrow cheap barbarian movies and corny sci-fi remains as undeveloped as the part that should have me buying a house and starting a family instead of worrying about completing my Michael Caine spy thriller collection and tracking down a Fidel Castro action figure. So given my short-comings when it comes to taste, I abandoned any misgivings a sane person may have harbored and dove headlong into the heart of this Cold War actioner. I wasn't really disappointed either, but I rarely am. I mean, if Space Hunter and Death Stalker aren't going to disappoint me, a film has to really be bad for me to regret wasting my time with it.
The Soldier stars Ken Wahl – fresh off his turn in 1981's Fort Apache, The Bronx (but better known here for his role in The Taking of Beverly Hills) — as The Soldier, a CIA operative who is so tip top secret that only the director of the CIA (and maybe the President) knows he even exists. As you expect from such a movie, The Soldier is the guy you call when all other options fail, when the task at hand is impossible, so on and so forth. Maybe if they trained all their operatives this well, we wouldn't need those "final option" guys, because the first option guys could actually get the job done. Maybe if the CIA stopped relying on twelve-year-old kids on bikes to outwit Russian spies, there'd be less need for The Soldier.
When we first meet The Soldier, he's blowing away some terrorists in super slow-motion with ultra-wet bloody squibs. All while Tangerine Dream drones on in the background. So far, so good except for the fact that you can clearly see the squibs detonating and emitting a little puff of fire. Maybe they're using some of those explosive-tip bullets. Of course, this scene has nothing at all to do with anything else in the movie. It just shows us that The Soldier is a bad-ass, and the movie has really over-filled its squibs – something of which I always approve. The actual plot kicks in when three terrorists – yep, three – hijack a shipment of weapons-grade plutonium that is being shipped on the back of an open-bed truck in a container clearly identifying it as weapons-grade plutonium, and with only one car (an Oldsmobile) to guard it. Oh, and a Southern cop somewhere else up in the hills. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I've never transported weapons-grade plutonium anywhere, as far as you know. Consumer grade for the kitchen, sure, but never weapons-grade. Nor have I ever been in the military in a position to be privy to the particulars of transporting such a cargo. Still, even with my ignorance fully fessed up to, I'm pretty sure they don't do it in a clearly-marked open-bed truck with only two guys in an Olds to guard it. Surely they'd do something like hide it amid a convoy of heavily armed Piggly Wiggly trucks full of well-trained soldiers. And surely they wouldn't stop for anything, even a topless woman hitchhiking or a broken down car. But the terrorists in The Soldier don't even need the topless hitchhiker, because this truck will stop for dang near anybody.
When you only have a couple slow-witted guys guarding the deadliest substance on the planet, it's no surprise that it only takes three terrorists to steal it. When the single cop finally shows up for support, he draws his gun and does the whole, "Freeze right there, mister!" routine. Now just as I've never been in the military, I've also never been a cop, but I'm pretty sure that even in today's skittish anti-cop atmosphere it's considered A-OK to come in with guns a-blazin' when you're approaching a group of men who you know gunned down two US soldiers, blew up a car, and are currently crawling around on top of the truck you know contains plutonium. No need to be diplomatic about things. Maurizio Merli would have immediately started kicking in teeth and bashing people's heads with the hood of a car. Hell, he'd let you have it with both barrels blazing just for flipping off an old lady. Of course, I suppose I could be wrong. If anyone in the military would like to confirm that James Glickenhaus is correct, and we truck around nuclear weapons with an escort of two Plymouths (one of which disappears), then I'll apologize, revise this review, and promptly move somewhere with a little more security when it comes to transporting the stuff that can blow up entire cities.
Now that they have the plutonium, the terrorists whip up an atom bomb and plant it somewhere in Saudi Arabia, demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied West Bank. If Israel refuses, the terrorists will set off the bomb, thus contaminating over 50% of the world's oil supply and thrusting civilization into a state of panic and anarchy. Israel refuses, which frankly seems sort of prickish. I mean, I know you're all proud of holding onto a useless hunk of desert and all instead of just giving it to the people who live there, but this is the whole world we're talking about. Couldn't they just take it back later on? What's so great about the West Bank anyway? Not wanting to see the world cast into chaos, the United States begins military preparations to force Israel out of the West Bank. Given our current relations with Israel in which we let them do pretty much anything no matter how adversely it affects us, this may seem sort of odd. Keep in mind, however, that the US and Israel were not always buddy-buddy. When Israel was carved out of the Middle East by European countries, it was populated almost entirely by refugees from Eastern Bloc nations. In other words, Communist nations. The US was supremely suspicious of Israel, which at the time seemed much closer to a Socialist nation than a democratic one. Anyway, what did we care? It was a problem for Europe and the Middle East to work out amongst themselves. It wasn't until it dawned on the United States that Israel had a lot of strategic value as a base and as a place to test new weapons that we figured it might be worth buddying up with them. So now we have the mess we have today. If only we had a man like . . . The Soldier!
Not wanting to see the world torn asunder, nor wanting to see the US go to war with Israel, the CIA sends The Soldier in to do what he must do, however it must be done. Of course, if he gets caught, the US government will deny his existence, et cetera. You'd think after about the nine hundredth time someone heard that speech, they could just skip it. This isn't his first mission. He knows the "deny any knowledge of you and your actions" spiel. If they just gave it to them the day they graduated from "super duper spy training" school and added, "And this applies to everything you do from here on out, starting . . .now!" they'd save everyone a lot of time. Meanwhile, over in Israel, a hot female Mossad agent is torturing Iceman. Seriously. Not Val Kilmer Iceman. I mean Iceman Iceman. Sure, it's just a ruse to get someone to talk, but doesn't anyone notice that the guy pretending to get tortured has simian-like features and a forehead that slopes like a Neanderthal in order to hide the blood packets the Mossad installed in it to make his interrogation and execution seem realistic? Palestinians may not be up on all the latest techniques from Stan Winston, but I think even the untrained eye can spot a guy with three inches of latex protruding from his forehead and making him look like some of your more involved Star Trek: The Next Generation aliens. About the only reason this sequence even exists is to introduce the chick, and the only reason she exists is so she can sleep with The Soldier later on for no real reason.
While The Soldier prepares for his mission by playing Konami light gun games, the terrorists pass the day eavesdropping on the CIA. After building a bomb out of a light bulb, the terrorist infiltrates CIA headquarters and plants the dastardly device in the office of the head of the CIA. Let me do this one more time: I've never been a member of the CIA, but I have been by their office in DC for a tour once a long time ago. I seem to remember them having security. You know, being the CIA and all. Yet this guy gets past all their security simply by throwing on a granny dress and a gray wig and pretending to be the cleaning woman. Wouldn't security recognize the fact that she has man scruff and a wig that isn't on properly? And wouldn't they know who was and was not supposed to be cleaning the director's office? Surely even the CIA wouldn't fall for the old "the regular cleaning lady is sick, so I'm taking her place" bit. Actually, given what we've learned in recent months about how the CIA and FBI operate, I guess they could possibly fall for a trick involving a European terrorist masquerading as the lady from Mama's Family.
Something I've always wondered is how terrorists always manage to get a job as part of the cleaning or maintenance crew at wherever they need to plant stuff for later on. Take Shiri, for instance. It's one of my favorite action films, but how the heck did all the terrorists get jobs at the stadium they'd be attacking later on? Did they have a contingency plan in place just in case they were told that the stadium wasn't hiring anyone? Why are there always just enough employment opportunities for the terrorists to sneak in however many people they need to do the job? Similarly, even if the guy from The Soldier had been masquerading as a cleaning lady long enough to bug the office, how did he get the job to begin with? I assume the CIA screens everyone heavily, even their janitorial staff. Didn't they catch that this cleaning lady was actually a man who, until a few months ago, had been living in Poland or East Germany or something? It seems that no matter how screwed up the CIA may be, they'd at least catch that one.
So what I'm learning here is that The Soldier is slightly less believable and more bone-headed than even the most outlandish Eurospy films. I mean, I'm willing to accept a few plot contrivances to help move things along, but this movie is really pushing things. Luckily, it's countering the colossally inept plotting with a lot of slow-motion shooting and blood-spurting bullet wounds. Just don't mistake this for anything even remotely resembling intelligent regardless of how much the dreary Tangerine Dream music may make it sound like an arthouse experiment.
The Soldier eventually goes to meet up with Klaus Kinski at some ski resort for no real reason, at least not one I remember them telling us. If The Soldier had watched any movies before taking this assignment, he'd know that you can never trust Klaus Kinski. He'll always betray you or crawl through the ductwork to watch you undress. Maybe The Soldier figured the guy did give the world Nastasia Kinski, so he'd give him the benefit of the doubt. How a guy as creepy looking as Klaus contributed to making Nastasia is as great a mystery as how a greasy little guy with a crappy haircut like Dario Argento could have had anything to do with the production of Asia Argento. Anyway, The Soldier and Klaus meet at a ski resort for no other reason than it's a convenient place to have the ski chase and shoot-out that's become required for all spy films since James Bond first popularized them. Seriously, how many spy films have ski chases and shoot-outs? Bond seems to have had one in almost every movie since On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Heck, even next generation spy movies like XXX knew enough to have a ski chase. But at least they make some perfunctory attempt to justify it in the story. Here, they just go to the ski resort for no reason. And then Klaus Kinski immediately betrays The Soldier, whom he seemed to have been friends with up to about this point.
So they have a big ski chase, which is admittedly pretty cool. The Soldier even does a 720 while firing an Uzi. Unlike the real world, where this would be an incredibly idiotic thing to do that would result in you hitting no one while everyone was free to take potshots at you, in the world of poorly-conceived Cold War action films, you can do the same stunt in slow motion, allowing you to nail half a dozen fast-moving gunmen on skis while at the same time being able to completely dodge all their attempts to shoot you. Eventually, The Soldier is able to punch one of the gunmen, which causes him to confess the entire plot to The Soldier, revealing that it's not terrorists at all who are behind the atom bomb threat. It's the Russians!
Now wait just a minute here.
The Russians? Okay, I know it's the Cold War, and the Russians are responsible for everything bad that happens, even the decline in ratings for Battle of the Network Stars, but come on! The Russians need oil, too. I know they have some of their own, but surely even Russia can't benefit from casting the bulk of the world into a state of anarchy. I mean, it is going to affect them as well, like having unruly Eurotrash neighbors who smoke hasch and blast dull trance albums all night. This is silly even for Cold War Russians. And why are they putting on this whole stupid show with making Israel vacate the West Bank? Why do they give a rat's ass? Are they pissed because so many Jews left Russia and moved to Israel? If Israel had agreed to pull out of the West Bank, would the Russians just go, "Well, we didn't expect that. Guess we better go turn off that bomb like we promised." What's with the dog and pony show? Why don't they just set the bomb off and be done with things? I've seen better plans hatched by the kids down the street who were trying to take over the Little Rascals fort, and all those plans involved dressing up like pirates and flinging Limburger cheese at each other.
In order to alert the CIA to the fact that it's those dirty, no-good Commie pinkos behind the plot, The Soldier must break into a military base to use the phone. Why? Who knows. You'd think after all this time he'd have a better way to contact the one guy who knows who he is. For some reason, the head of the CIA is sitting in the dark in his office, and only turns on the lamp with the exploding bulb when it's convenient to the plot. Now The Soldier is on his own, with no allies save for the crack team he assembles to help him pull off a scheme even stupider than the one dreamed up by the Russians. The first guy he recruits is "the black guy." Since this movie was made before Ernie Hudson was a big star, the black guy is played Steve James, who played "the black guy" in every movie requiring a black guy before Ernie Hudson became the official black guy of Hollywood. Anyone who is a fan of crappy action films recognizes James, who's probably best-known for his role as "Kungfu Joe" in I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka! or for carrying a load named Michael Dudikoff through some American Ninja films. James was almost always relegated to playing sidekick to some lead-footed white hero, which was ironic since James was a better fighter and actor than pretty much everyone to whom he was forced to play second fiddle. He was definitely one of the great fixtures of action cinema until his untimely death from pancreatic cancer in 1993.
He'd already worked with James Glickenhaus in 1980 on the "'Nam vet gets revenge" flick The Exterminator. In The Soldier, he's the guy who sneaks in and does that attempted wire assassination to Ken Wahl I mentioned at the beginning of this article. Of course, after some fighting, they just laugh and embrace, glossing over the fact that had The Soldier not reacted in time he would have been decapitated. And even though he did react in time, he still has an inch-deep gash in his forearm. Do people, even highly trained people, really do this "trying to kill my buddy as a good joke" thing? Rough housing is fine and all, but most people draw the line at attempted murder, even if it's all in good fun. It's like Kato constantly attacking Inspector Clouseau. Most people would just sneak up and give their buddy a wet willie or something, not try to slice their limbs off.
The Soldier assembles the exact same crack team that is assembled for every movie of this nature. There's the black guy, the drunk, the chick, and the guy who doesn't want to be there. Together, they hatch a scheme in which the rest of the team will commandeer a nuclear missile silo while The Soldier drives around Berlin in a Porsche for no discernable reason. The job of the guys in the silo is to threaten to nuke Moscow unless they drop this whole scheme with irradiating the Saudi oil fields. To show they mean business, The Soldier will drive fast and jump a sports car over the Berlin Wall. That's their plan? First of all, taking over the missile silo is ridiculously easy. It must have been on the same base that ships nuclear materials in open-bed trucks with no armed escort. Or it's the same base that can be infiltrated by a precocious bike-riding pre-teen who made his own clearance cards. Seriously, even though it's adults doing the espionagin', their plans are even more ridiculous than what any spy-thwarting youngster would have devised. I mean, we don't want to lose the oil, so instead we'll start World War III and destroy the whole world? At least the Russian plan could have resulted in Russia itself surviving and being a society where everyone wears burlap sacks and hoes the fields all day. I mean, they were pretty much there already. But The Soldier's plan makes even the oil field scheme seem like a good idea. This is the kind of crap that probably sparked the events we saw in Red Dawn. I always wondered why the Russians would launch an unprovoked attack on the United States, and why they'd have a bunch of sun-loving tropical island boys from Cuba invade a small town in Colorado. Now we know they were pissed about the stupid crap The Soldier was trying to pull. The Cubans probably just wanted to see snow and shoot at C. Thomas Howell. Who doesn't want to shoot at C. Thomas Howell?
Talk about a lunkheaded movie. When a stupid action film aspires to be nothing more than a stupid action film, it's usually not bad. You know what you're getting, after all. What's far more entertaining, however, is when an action film tries hard to be smart and the effort just makes it ten times stupider than it would have been without the delusions of intelligence. Chimps could hatch better plots than Glickenhaus has concocted for this mess. Nothing makes any sense even by Cold War standards when lots of things countries did seemed to make no sense. Even Ronald Reagan, who damn sure had some fruitcake ideas, would have dismissed these schemes as a bunch of junk. Why would the Russians want to catapult the whole world into a state of total chaos? Oh sure, because they're evil. Even Tom Clancy wouldn't devise a plot that inane. And what about The Soldier's plan to prevent it from happening? Why did he have to have his guys break in and take over the missile silo? All he does is meet up with The Russians in East Berlin and say, "We're going to blow up Moscow if you blow up the oil," and they take him at his word. They are terrified by the revelation that The Soldier now has a missile pointing at Moscow. Was it somehow a shock to the Soviets that we had missiles pointing at them all ready to go? Who did they think we were pointing them at? His whole plan is the brinksmanship equivalent of spending a million dollars to catch a guy who stole ten dollars. Rather than breathing a sigh of relief that the crisis has been averted, you just sort of sit there and go, "That's it? Really? Man, I'm glad the Cold War's over."
The film isn't helped by the plodding Tangerine Dream score, which seems totally out of place in an action film. Moody synthesized new age music hardly communicates a sense of urgency, so even at the points where the film is well-paced and action-packed, it seems slow-moving and dull. Sometimes a score that seems contradictory to the onscreen action can end up working quite well. This is not one of those times. And speaking of dull, it seems like Steve James is the only one doing any acting. The concept of having more than one facial expression or tone of voice seems lost on Wahl, who glides through his performance as The Soldier with somnambulistic dreariness. Was he even aware of the fact that he was making a movie? Klaus Kinski is fine, as he always is, but he's only in the movie for a tiny bit, long enough to justify listing him on the movie poster to snare any of the types of people who might be snared by Klaus Kinski's name on the marquee. Everyone else turns in performances that could be called "below average" had Ken Wahl not set the bar so low. Compared to him, the other actors seem as low-key as Cesar Romero playing The Joker. Not that the script gives them much to work with.
With so many things going against this film, it's no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a miserable failure as an intelligent espionage thriller, but as a crappy action film it succeeds marvelously. There's a lot of shooting, and when people get shot the blood really gushes. Ken Wahl (or his stunt double) gets to have a ski hill shoot out. He also gets to jump an expensive sports car over the Berlin Wall — score one for capitalism, baby! A lot of things blow up, and there's one of those scenes where a fight breaks out in a cowboy bar and the band just keeps on playing as if it's nothing out of the ordinary (I think that joke was old even in 1982). Although I feel there's too much poorly used slow-motion (made worse by Tangerine Dream's meandering synth score), at least there's a lot of action, and some of it is even fairly exciting.
Despite making a number of action-oriented films, Glickenhaus just never got the hang of it. For his next movie, 1985's The Protector, even Jackie Chan couldn't help Glickenhaus figure out how to stage a compelling action set piece. That The Soldier has any action at all worth watching is a bit of a miracle, but it's a welcome surprise. The ski chase is good, as are a number of bloody shootouts and car chases, though you'll be left wondering what sort of lame Porsche is unable to outrun an Army jeep. The horrendously thought-out plot only adds to the charm. At least they tried to make something smart. They simply didn't succeed. But they did make something that is more entertaining than it is disappointing. Better spy films have come and gone, but The Soldier has enough gratuitous violence and bad writing to keep it on the list of fond memories I've been able to relive. If you want your thrills delivered with brains and wit, you'd best look elsewhere. If you want them delivered with bloody squibs and asinine writing, then The Soldier just might be the man for the job.


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Originally written on Fox Sports | Last updated 9/12/12
(Eds: APNewsNow. Will be updated. With AP Photos.) By JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer The high-risk, high-reward passes that characterized Carson Palmer's first half-season as Oakland Raiders quarterback were absent in the season opener. Instead of taking chances for big plays down the field in the passing game, Palmer mostly chose the safer route of dumpoffs to running back Darren McFadden. The change in strategy led to a turnover-free performance from a quarterback who threw 16 interceptions in nine games a year ago but also led to a lack of big plays for an Oakland offense that relied on them last year. Palmer threw just three of his 46 passes more than 20 yards downfield, completing none of those throws, in the season-opening 22-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers. -- Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL
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BBVA Snr Fince, S.A. (91JQ) - Publication of Final Terms RNS Number : 8040N BBVA Senior Finance S.A.Unipersonal 03 October 2012 Publication of Final Terms The following Final Terms have been submitted to the UK Listing Authority and are available for viewing: BBVA Senior Finance, S.A. Unipersonal - EUR1,000,000,000 3.625 per cent. Notes due 3 October 2014 (series 128) guaranteed by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. To view the full document, please paste the following URL into the address bar of your browser. http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/8040N_-2012-10-3.pdf For further information, please contact BBVA Senior Finance, S.A. Unipersonal Att: Cristina Cortadi Phone number 34 91 537 81 95 DISCLAIMER - INTENDED ADDRESSEES Please note that the information contained in the Prospectus may be addressed to and/or targeted at persons who are residents of particular countries (specified in the Prospectus) only and is not intended for use and should not be relied upon by any person outside these countries and/or to whom the offer contained in the Prospectus is not addressed. Prior to relying on the information contained in the Prospectus you must ascertain from the Prospectus whether or not you are part of the intended addressees of the information contained therein. Your right to access this service is conditional upon complying with the above requirement. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange END PDIGRBDGLUGBGDX -0- Oct/03/2012 07:58 GMT
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Did Durban deliver?
WAGGGS youth delegations at past annual UN climate change conferences have witnessed the failure in 2009 that resulted in the Copenhagen accord, and the new energy coming from the Cancun agreements in 2010.
But we are now faced with another document named after its point of origin, the Durban package. Did the WAGGGS delegation at COP 17 get the fair, ambitious and binding (FAB) deal that they were asking for?
Well, not really, but there is still hope. The Durban package saved the climate talks, but didn't save the climate – yet. So what does this package have to offer?
It was tied in the very last seconds before the negotiations would have been forced to break up without results, 1.5 days after COP17 was scheduled to end. One negotiator began his statement during those final hours with "I need to catch my plane in 30 minutes", which reflected the urgency that had gripped the room.
It was an urgency which could have been injected into the talks by hosting country South Africa a lot earlier, and which led to a host of last-minute compromises that ensured a way forward but didn't go far enough.
Saving the Kyoto Protocol was one of the main aims of civil society at COP17. The Durban package offers a road map for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol with quantifiable emission reduction targets, due to be confirmed in May 2012.
While India and China showed some last-minute flexibility, it was clear that other major polluters such as the USA, Canada, Japan and Russia will not join this agreement. Unfortunately, this new and somewhat legally binding agreement is not to be implemented until 2020.
Unless ambition increases drastically, this new road map set out in the Durban package could potentially lock us onto a pathway to dangerous climate change to the tune of 3.5 degrees, as opposed to the 2 degrees currently aimed for and the 1.5 degrees many claim is necessary for a safe climate future.
This is where the newly established Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (AWG-DPEA) comes in. According to the Durban Package, a review set to take place from 2013 to 2015 will inform a work plan to raise that ambition.
The other major topic at COP17 was securing funding for climate action. The Durban package clarifies the modalities for the new Global Climate Fund but unfortunately fails to mention where the money will come from, other than the pledges already made by Norway and Germany.
The package mentions the gap between set emission targets and what scientists say actually needs to be achieved, but fails to address this by — for example — closing some dangerous loopholes related to land use, deforestation and reforestation.
During those last hours in Durban it was good to see the EU leadership under Connie Hedegaard, who used to be the International Commissioner for the Danish Green Girl Guides. The EU issued a game changing statement together with the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and called for firm commitment and ambitious targets under the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
It was also great to see that civil society — including the WAGGGS delegation — played an important role as influencers in the negotiations. Their bold protest actions changed the tone of the negotiations substantially. For example, the "where is the leadership" twitter storm added pressure on the EU before it came out to stand firm with LDCs and AOSIS.
The "occupy COP17" protest saw some negotiators, including the Maldivian minister, and civil society stand firmly side by side to demand action. Following this rally, several hardliners opened their position to seek compromise at the very last second.
What's WAGGGS got to do with it?
WAGGGS' youth delegation left a mark at the COP — the delegates' huge visibility as practitioners in the field and change agents in policy and programming is reflected in numerous interviews, direct interventions at the negotiations, panel addresses and — last but not least — the fact that they were invited to open the negotiations on implementation of climate change action with their climate change awareness Cha Cha Slide.
The chair of this meeting, Robert Owen Jones, said he hoped the WAGGGS opening would put negotiators in the mood for action and Christiana Figueres, head of the UNFCCC secretariat, thanked the youth delegates for providing this inspiration. The outcome of said plenary session included the closure of the second capacity building review to start its implementation with a special mentioning of the role of youth and gender — one of WAGGGS' lobbying goals for COP17 that we could tick off our list.
The WAGGGS delegation also left a mark in the Durban package, focusing on the part of the negotiations that related the most to WAGGGS core topics — the role of girls and young women and non-formal education.
A group of youth delegates focused specifically on capacity building and managed — through passionate addresses during the informal negotiations, targeted lobbying papers, informal talks with negotiators and working in alliance with other youth — to include a paragraph on the role of youth and gender in the decision to install the Durban forum for in-depth discussion on capacity building.
The first Durban forum is due to take place in early 2012 and will bring together experts and practitioners, including youth, to share best practice on capacity building, such as non-formal climate change education.
Another group of WAGGGS youth delegates focussed on supporting gender in the negotiation text. Together with other youth and gender activists they achieved an increase in gender references throughout the Durban package and other relevant outcome documents, which is an important step forward to achieve climate justice on an equal basis. Notably, the ever growing youth and gender working group that WAGGGS founded a couple of years ago managed to increase collaboration with fellow NGO representatives and country negotiators alike.
At the same time as influencing policies, the WAGGGS delegates lived up to our mission as educational organization. A third group of WAGGGS youth delegates designed and ran a global awareness raising campaign on climate change. The entire delegation led the climate Cha Cha in Durban which is a fun way to educate young people about simple ways to help preserve the environment and called upon fellow youth around the world to join in and make this a global effort. Many Girl Guides and Girl Scouts followed this call to action.
With this action, WAGGGS addresses one huge problem related to climate change: a large part of the world's population is not fully aware of this threat and does not know how to take action to tackle climate change. We are addressing this awareness gap through non-formal education, starting by those with the greatest need for empowerment and biggest potential to become change agents – girls and young women.
|What will WAGGGS do next?
The next step in our fight for climate justice will be the UN Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil, in June 2012. A WAGGGS youth delegation will be present to ensure that the voice of girls and young women will be heard at this major summit on sustainable development which focuses greatly on ensuring environmental sustainability — the subject of WAGGGS MDG programme "we can save our planet" since its implementation in 2006. Interested WAGGGS members can soon download the applications to become part of the delegation.
From January to March 2012, WAGGGS will run a consultation with children and young people around the world to find out what about their hopes and fears for the future of our planet. The results will inform WAGGGS' position at the UN Earth Summit in Rio.
The topic of World Thinking Day 2012 is 'we can save our planet'. On www.worldthinkingday.org is a fun educational package that teaches children and young people how to protect and preserve the environment. Earn your badge now and don't forget to add your actions to the action counter.


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Times Charities: Aid helps woman live with diabetes
Debbie, 66, lives a modest life with her Social Security Insurance covering all her bills, even those associated with debilitating diabetes.
That is, as long as an emergency doesn't spring up.
As we all know, emergencies do spring up.
Fighting a severe bout of diabetes that required several visits and expensive out-of-pocket costs, Debbie found herself barely making ends meet.
Her monthly income is lessthan$1,200, with nearly half of that going to rent.
As if she weren't struggling enough, her only source of transportation seemed to suffer as many trials, far toomany to get fixed on what little money she had leftover. Shefoundherselfin danger of not paying her rent and, to top it off, eviction.
Debbie turned to Interfaith Ministries for help, something she had never had to do before.
She met with IMI intake volunteers a nd a s taf f worker, who contacted Times Charities for one-time assistance. Times Charities reviewed Debbie's situation and approved a request for $562 to pay her unpaid rent.
The assistance gave Debbie the ability to endure this crisis in the safety and security of her home while stretching her money as best she can.
Times Charities was formed more than 20 years ago by a group of area philanthropists who wanted to find a way to help those less fortunate. Previously its own nonprofit, Times Charities begins the holiday season as part of the Wichita Falls Area Community Foundation, under its umbrella of services. All donations go to the three partners: Faith Mission, Interfaith Ministries and Grace Ministries in Burkburnett; overhead expenses are not paid from donations.
No money is spent from the Times Charities account until the situations of those seeking help are verified by our partners.
Donations can be made in the form of cash, checks and debit or credit cards.
Make checks payable to Times Charities/WFACF, and mail them to 807 Eighth St., Suite 750, Wichita Falls, TX 76301-3334. For more information call Frances Tate at 940-720-3490.
For information on how to donate online, go to www.timesrecordnews. com/donate. The link will direct you to the Wichita Falls Area Community Foundation website.
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Montgomery has 2 schools. Some of the best schools in Montgomery are Verda Elementary School with a GreatSchools rating of 6/10 and a parent rating of 3/5 stars, and Montgomery High School with a GreatSchools rating of 4/10 and a parent rating of 4/5 stars. The average GreatSchools rating for Montgomery public schools is 5/10, with an average student/teacher ratio of 16:1.
School data provided by National Center for Education Statistics, Maponics, and GreatSchools. Intended for reference only. GreatSchools Ratings compare a schools test performance to statewide results. To verify enrollment eligibility, contact the school or district directly.
Not enough data to determine market type. Consult a local REALTOR® for up-to-date market summaries.
Not enough data to determine market type. Consult a local REALTOR® for up-to-date market summaries
Trend data coming soon.
Trend data coming soon.
|For Sale: 2
|New: N/A
|Recently Sold: N/A
|Reduced: N/A
|Average Home Price
|Average Sold Price
|Property Records: 989
|Foreclosed: N/A
The average home price in Montgomery is $51,925. The average home price per square foot in Montgomery is $31 and about 0% of all homes in Montgomery sold in the last 6 months. For Montgomery home values, real estate prices, and city market trends, research the 989 property records or search our 0 recently sold or 2 homes for sale listings. The listings and properties in Montgomery are only a part of the 1,489,258 properties and 18,824 homes for sale in Louisiana. Because of this, the average home price and average home value of Montgomery also influence the average home price $245,000 and average sale price $192,042 of Louisiana. Listing counts, Montgomery home prices and home values in Montgomery are sourced daily from listing and property data on realtor.com®, which is the most up-to-date and accurate aggregation of real estate listings in the industry and includes approximately 800 regional MLSs and is the official website of the National Association of Realtors®.
|Median Age
|Median Household Income


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Tile firm's best results in years
Posted: May 21, 2014|
Topps Tiles has posted its best half-year profits since the financial crisis as it benefits from the housing market recovery and market share gains.
The UK's largest tile specialist said its first-half pre-tax profit lifted to £8 million from £4.7 million a year ago – its best half year result since it announced a surplus of £17.6 million in 2008.
The Leicester-based business added that current trading in the first seven weeks of the second half of the year lifted 5.6 per cent, having risen by 10.2 per cent in the first six months.
Chief executive Matthew Williams said the firm enjoyed a strong six months amid a steady improvement in UK economic fortunes.
Mr Williams added: "Our first half sales growth was significantly ahead of the overall tile market. Our strategy continues to focus on market share gains."


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- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
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- Cloacina Development Blog
- Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
- E-Source Sanitation News
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- Ghana Watsan Journalists Network
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- India Environmental Portal – Sanitation
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- International Year of Sanitation 2008
- International Year of Sanitation in Nepal
- IRC – Sanitation
- News from the Poop Group – Updates from Stanford University's Poop Group
- Open defecation
- Photographs in SuSanA database
- Rice Institute – Sanitation
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- Southern Africa knowledge node on sustainable sanitation (SAKNSS)
- Sulabh Interntional
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- WASH Nutrition Library
- WASHplus Project
- Wastewaterinfo.asia
- Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
- World Bank – Sanitation
- World Bank – Sanitation, Hygiene and Wastewater Resource Guide
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- World Toilet Organization
- WSUP – Sanitation
SuSanA Forum
- Re: Kicking off the discussion on microfinance for sanitation - by: rezaip July 7, 2015Some great posts emerged past coupla days! I would like to put my thoughts on some selected issues. "NGO-run schemes are less successful because it is not in NGOs' DNA to collect loans and households can therefore easily confuse loans with hand-outs." Though there are some truths in it, there are also some missing issues. In India, an MFI cann […]
- Re: Kicking off the discussion on microfinance for sanitation - by: ottogo July 7, 2015Hi all! As we discuss the issue of microfinance for sanitation it is important to remember the rural and urban areas are different contexts and require different toilet solutions - which in turn depend on the density of the population. In many cases you will find that the decision on the purchase of toilet is individual (the household or family decision) rat […]
- Re: Is it possible to connect septic tanks together? - by: PaulUK July 7, 2015Dear F H Mughal, Thanks for your message. I really appreciate your advice and thanks for sending the documents on simplified sewerage system. Regards Paul
- Chief of Party: Uganda Sanitation Project + 2 other sanitation positions - by: kengelly July 7, 2015Hi everyone, PSI seeks the following for its Uganda Sanitation Program: Chief of Party CLTS/BCC Advisor Private Sector Development Advisor **contingent on funding** Details of the COP position below, all 3 job descriptions attached. PSI seeks an experienced Chief of Party (COP) to plan and coordinate all activities under an anticipated 5-year USAID-funded Ug […]
- Happy Birthday, dear forum! Four happy years. - by: secretariat July 7, 2015Dear SuSanA community, the SuSanA forum is turning 4 this Thursday, 09 July 2015! So (early) Happy Birthday on behalf of the secretariat! Within just 4 years you grew from a podium with a couple of supporters to a platform with well more than 5000 members from 155 countries around the world. May many more prosperous years come! Within this thread you can giv […]
- Re: Kicking off the discussion on microfinance for sanitation - by: rezaip July 7, 2015
RSS: Sanitation and CLTS news
- CLTS Knowledge Hub activities at WEDC Conference 27-31 July June 17, 2015The CLTS Knowledge Hub will be offering four CLTS-related activities at the upcoming international WEDC Conference which is taking place in Loughborough from the 27-31 July 2015.6
- Shit Stunts: Refocusing Priorities in Nutrition and WaSH June 15, 2015Integration of Nutrition and WaSH programmes was the key topic discussed at the multi sectorial panel seminar hosted by Irish Aid, the IFGH and the Development Studies Association of Ireland on the 19th May.6
- Webinar on CLTS and Sustainability June 15, 2015Sustainability is without doubt one of the most burning subject matters that subsumes many of the issues that we are seeing in CLTS and wider WASH practice.On Wednesday 24th June, from 14.00-15.30 BST (convert to your time zone here), the CLTS Knowledge Hub will offer a webinar on the subject.6
- State steps up sanitation drive May 5, 2015Over 50 female leaders from around the world recently published a declaration calling for the end of poor sanitation and hygiene in the developing world. Among those leaders are the first ladies of Madagascar and Malawi, both of whom announced the declaration in Washington, D.C.6
- Women Leaders target need for sanitation and hygiene April 30, 2015Over 50 female leaders from around the world recently published a declaration calling for the end of poor sanitation and hygiene in the developing world. Among those leaders are the first ladies of Madagascar and Malawi, both of whom announced the declaration in Washington, D.C.6
- CLTS Knowledge Hub activities at WEDC Conference 27-31 July June 17, 2015
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Togo – children design handwashing stations
This entry was posted in Africa, Hygiene Promotion, Multimedia and tagged changing behaviour, handwashing, Togo, unicef. Bookmark the permalink.
2 responses to "Togo – children design handwashing stations"
I really like this design totally sustainable and created by kids its definitely the way forward
Pingback: How Do You Wash Your Hands? A Look at Simple Hand Washing Stations | HydrateLife


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Coverage of the Vice presidential debate (foreign and domestic policy)from Centre College, Danville, KY. Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent for ABC News will join NPR's team, and Audie Cornish will host. The debate begins at 9pm and lasts 90 minutes. After the debate NPR will provide analysis from NPR Senior Washington editor Ron Elving, political analysts E.J. Dionne and Matt Continetti, and several NPR policy reporters who will be standing by in the NPR studios. Traveling campaign reporters and a national political correspondent (either Mara Liasson or Don Gonyea), will join in from the debate sites.
NPR Election Coverage 2012
Thu, 10/11/2012 - 9:00pm
eviltomthai via flickr.com


text:
HIT Ent. Ltd. (HIT) has concluded a six-year landmark licensing deal with German TV station SUPER RTL for a number of its properties, it was announced by Alison Homewood, evp of worldwide television distribution for HIT and Frank Dietz, head of acquisitions and co-productions for Super RTL.
Super RTL has also secured the worldwide phenomenon, THOMAS AND FRIENDS, licensing series 1 through 5 and series 800 and 900 and the special, CALLING ALL ENGINES. Super RTL will also debut series 5 (26x11) of FIREMAN SAM.
Super RTL renewed and extended its license for BOB THE BUILDER, licensing series 1-9 and PROJECT BUILD It series 10-13, as well as the specials, BOB'S BIG PLAN, WHEN BOB BECAME A BUILDER, KNIGHTS OF CANALOT, A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER and SNOWED UNDER. Since its launch on Super RTL in June 2000, BOB THE BUILDER has consistently secured the highest ratings for a pre-school program on German television.
The commitment and success Super RTL have shown with Bob the Builder has been unwavering, so having them as the medium to launch Thomas and Fireman Sam into the German market was clearly our goal," said Homewood. "We are delighted to be able to announce this deal and build upon an excellent business relationship."
Super RTL program director, Carsten Göttel added, "I am delighted to be able to strengthen our relationship with HIT via these first-rate programs. BOB THE BUILDER has been a huge success for Super RTL and being able to debut THOMAS & FRIENDS and FIREMAN SAM to the German children is very exciting for us. I am sure they will emulate the success here that they have achieved across the rest of the world."
Super RTL will also act as licensing agent for these properties across German-speaking territories.


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Welcome to the forum:
Welcome to the iThemes forum. We've created several tutorial video's to help you get you started with using the forum, please check them out!
Also take note of the forum guidelines.
Support hours:
Our moderators actively respond to forum support requests during normal business hours which are Monday-Friday, 8am - 5pm Central Standard Time, typically within one business day. Although some moderators choose to work during the weekends, we can not guarantee immediate attention to your requests. Thanks for understanding.
What is included with support:
Premium support includes theme/plugin issues such as: bugs encountered under normal operation, how to use basic features, basic WordPress help, and basic help with customization (meaning we point you to resources and will help in more depth as time allows). More information.
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Error When I Try To Move Comment
#1 Guest_jonawi_*
Posted 08 June 2012 - 04:45 AM
I receive this message when I try to move a comment from admin panel:
Fatal error : Call to a member function get_admin_option() on a non-object in /homez.94/vosbesoi/www/wp-content/plugins/wp-ajax-edit-comments/views/move-comment.php on line
Could you tell me how to fix this ?
Thanks a lot !
#2 Guest_Tola Odejayi_*
Posted 09 September 2012 - 08:57 PM
#3 Guest_Kevin Davidson_*
Posted 14 December 2012 - 11:55 AM
Tola Odejayi, on 09 September 2012 - 08:57 PM, said:
I found also that the enabling the load_php option prevented Ajax Edit Comments from working.
Posted 26 December 2012 - 03:12 PM
When you select yes for the wp-load.php directly option, have you moved your wp-content folders? As you can see underneath that option, this could cause issues.
You might also test to see if there is a plugin conflict. So deactivate all of your plugins except for Ajax Edit Comments and see if you are able to move a comment. If you can, turn your other plugins back on, one at a time testing AEC each time, to see which plugin is creating the issue.


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HSBC "lift" by Grey London
Agency: Grey London
Rating: 5.0
campaignlive.co.uk, Friday, 11 June 2010 12:00AM
However, onlookers at the Ivy Club suggest that the mood among Digby's party - he was joined for lunch by his outgoing boss Rupert Howell, the marketing director, David Pemsel, and senior sales colleague Andy Bagnall - was less than upbeat. While Howell will be contemplating his next move, the remaining trio will be left to wonder what life at ITV will be like with the enthusiastic Hazlitt on board. "There weren't many balloons in evidence," an observer at another table said.
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
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Agency: Grey London
Rating: 5.0


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121 East 4th Street
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Carrington neighborhood in Waldorf, Maryland (MD), 20602 detailed profile
Discuss Carrington neighborhood (subdivision, block, or community) on our hugely popular Maryland forum.
Back to: Waldorf, MD, Maryland, Maryland smaller cities, Maryland small towns, All cities.
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text:
WASHINGTON The U.S. Internal Revenue Service may be missing out on billions of dollars in uncollected taxes by auditing too many lower-income individuals and businesses with costly, in-person exams, a U.S. government watchdog said on Friday.
In an effort to close the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid - estimated at $450 billion in 2006 - Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to study IRS enforcement.
The GAO found the IRS could have collected $1 billion a year more in 2007 and 2008 by auditing more taxpayers with income exceeding $200,000.
The agency also could be more efficient by doing more correspondence audits through the mail rather than face-to-face, or "field," audits, the GAO said.
The IRS said in a response included in the GAO report that changes "will take years to implement, not months."
An IRS spokesman declined to comment further.
Correspondence audits account for about 75 percent of all individual tax return audits.
These audits have been criticized the Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson. The IRS can issue "robo" correspondence audits that limit dialogue between a taxpayer and the agency.
(Reporting by Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Leslie Adler)


text:
I have a 3 or so year old 13 inch machbook. I am fucking stupid with computers, and I didn't buy the macbook myself, so I don't really know it's spec. I kind of want to buy this game just to support the people who made it, though if it's just going to not run at all then it's not worth it. Will it run in any capacity, and is it worth it? Thanks Giant Bomb community.
Will this work on my mac?
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.


text: I know, I know, it's nearly the end of July. Summer in the Philippines ends in May. I just want to finish writing about my girls' summer activities (this is mostly for me and our family, but keep reading if you're still interested) before I move on to my next posts. 721 more words


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You can now invite anyone to meet at your favorite Starbucks.
Limited-time feature
41 year old man | Huntington, NY, USA | Seeking women 20-45 within 50 miles
Tall athletic musician who loves the outdoors and alternative action sports.
I really dont like describing myself. I mean really? We could sit and have a drink and that would be worth a million words here. but anyway..... I am a laid back creative professional in the music field. I have been in bands on major labels and toured, I have written songs for worldwide artists and I currently co-own a production company that supplies music to advertisers. As a child I was an actor. Been in the Screen actors guild since i was four years old. I started as a drummer, but play guitar, keys, bass and sing. Music is my life. making it and listening to it. I am a sarcastic and humorous jolly fellow. I enjoy a good laugh , a good beer and some fun people who arent uptight. I used to be really cool..... now im a dorky superdad who is tranferring his coolness to his little amazing creatures. beyond this, well.......you just have to get to know me.
Camping , Coffee and conversation , Cooking , Dining out , Gardening/Landscaping , Hobbies and crafts , Museums and art , Music and concerts , Exploring new areas , Performing arts , Playing sports , Political interests , Watching sports
Auto racing / Motorcross, Basketball, Bowling, Cycling, Football, Golf, Hockey, Other types of exercise, Skiing, Swimming, Walking / Hiking, Weights / Machines, Yoga
I exercise 5 or more times per week.
I have Cats, Dogs
I dont have a dog because i feel a dog will find me not the other way around. I feel i will take in a stray mutt at some point
Middle of the Road
I love crab meadow beach , makamah nature preserve locally. Northwest, Alaska, New england, Cali, Europe, New Zealand, if were dreaming
University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO
My favorite movies are usually comedies.......like The Big Liebowski, Fargo, Spinal Tap, waiting for Gadot, The Big Night but i like strange like kubrick etc. Music..... tough one, grew up on classic rock, then skatepunkalternative...love it al
I'm like tony hawk. The aging skater boy. I love skateboarding on a lifestyle level, the art, the music, I'm a life-er for sure. Snowboarding is also huge in my life. love anything outdoors.
shopclass as soulcraft and I loved it
Z{{Cta}} {{#if HasMoreInfo}} ?{{CtaSecondary}} {{/if}}
|What he is looking for
|6'2" (187cms)
|4'11" (149cms) to 6'0" (182cms)
|Body type:
|Athletic and toned
|No preference
|No preference
|No preference
|No Way
|No preference
|No preference
|Artistic / Creative / Performance
|No preference
Professional musician and producer in the advertising and record worlds
|No preference
|No preference
|Have kids:
|Yes, and they live away from home (2)
|No preference
|Wants kids:
|Not sure
|No preference
|White / Caucasian
|No preference
|I'll tell you later
|No preference
|Bachelors degree
|No preference


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Jonti-Craft 3 Piece Birch Kitchen Set
Jonti-Craft 3 Piece Birch Kitchen Set
Weights & Dimensions
|Product Type: Kitchen set
|Color: Brown
|Primary Material: Wood
|Number of Items Included: 3
|Pieces Included: Stove, sink, fridge
|Non Toxic: Yes
|Battery Required: No
|Cabinets Included: No
|Doors Included: Yes
|Drawers Included: No
|Shelves Included: Yes
|Handles Included: Yes
|Legs Included: No
|Gender: Male; Female
|Age Group: 3 to 4 Years; 5 to 6 Years; 7 to 8 Years; 2 Years
|Occasion: Birthday; Holiday; Religious holiday
|Turnable Knobs: Yes
|Kitchen Accessories Included: No
|Commercial Use: Yes
|Eco-Friendly: Yes
|Country of Manufacture: United States
|Assembly Required: Yes
|Installation Required: No
|Additional Parts Required: No
|Product Warranty: Lifetime
|CPSIA or CPSC Compliant: Yes
|Greenguard Certified: Yes
About the ManufacturerJonti-Craft has always been committed to employing the highest quality construction techniques available. Historically, that has been their popular dado construction. After years of research, they also innovated a dowel pinning construction technique that launched a new generation of Jonti-Craft quality products. Jonti-Craft products are KYDZStrong, always built from the strongest materials available. Their Rainbow Accents furniture is constructed of 5/8" thermo-fused melamine board - the highest quality in existence. All Birch furniture is constructed of eleven ply 5/8" Baltic Birch plywood. Items requiring solid wood are constructed of Northern Hard Maple, which is stronger than oak. Their trademark safety features include famous KYDZ Hinges, full length piano hinges attached with a minimum of nine screws, each the strongest and safest hinges available. They feature a 270° pivot, making it difficult to separate them from the unit. Ultimately, this minimizes the chance of pinching little fingers. Their popular rounded KYDZSafe edges and corners provide maximum safety for children in busy classrooms and daycare centers. In their Rainbow Accents line, the KYDZSafe edges are highlighted in vibrant color with a flexible edge-band thermo-fused to the furniture for exceptional durability and safety.
Jonti-Craft 3 Piece Birch Kitchen Set
Still have questions about this product? We're here to help
Customer Reviews
|5 star
|4 star
|3 star
|2 star
|1 star
Great basic kids kitchen play set
Seaside from Seaside, OR – Verified Buyer
This is a basic no frills kitchen set. Don't expect windows on the oven or an actual water dispenser on the door of the fridge. These are just painted on. We ordered for our kindergarten classroom, and is well suited for that age group.
Resource Speicalist
Leanne from Shoreview, MN – Verified Buyer
We saved hundreds of dollars by shopping through Wayfair rather than a typical early childhood catalog. It arrived on time, in good condition, with instructions on assembly.
Love it
Mahmood from Bronx, NY – Verified Buyer
this is very good Kitchen set. I bought for Daycare. I love this kitchen set. look very nice this is very good Kitchen set. I bought for Daycare. I love this kitchen set. look very nice
OUR SKU # JT18323 Piece Birch Kitchen Set is also sometimes listed under the following manufacturer numbers: 2035JC


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© 2015 Local Corporation - US Patent 7,231,405
Some data provided by Acxiom. Questions and Comments?


text:
Gender and Local Knowledge
Particular attention is paid to the key role of women as holders of local and indigenous knowledge and as agents of change and community cohesion at the local level. In particular, UNESCO highlights the transmission, preservation and elaboration of local knowledge by women, particularly that related to sustainable development, natural disaster preparedness, biodiversity and climate change.
In the small island developing states, efforts to assess, monitor and manage coral reefs, mangrove forests and sea grass beds focus upon the knowledge possessed by women, who are the main users of these near-shore marine habitats. Indeed, women are frequently the primary users or collectors of natural resources such as drinking water, fuel or small agroforestry plots, and the primary holders of knowledge concerning such resources.
Related links:


text:
Klamath National Forest
Contact Information
Klamath National Forest Supervisor's Office (Headquarters)
1711 South Main Street
Yreka, CA 96097-9549
(530) 842-6131
Contact Us
Where is this Forest?
A chronicle of the conditions and events across the Klamath National Forest during the extraordinary fire season experienced in 2014.
The PDF Maps Mobile App, developed by Avenza Systems Inc., is available as a free download from iTunes and the Android Play Store. The app provides access to Forest Service maps, such as motor-vehicle-use maps, which are free while pages from national forest atlases are 99 cents and forest visitor maps are $4.99. Prices are pending for other agency maps.
Travel Management Rule Overview
Klamath National Forest Motorized Travel Management Plan
Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUM)
Travel Analysis Planning
Travel Management Comment Form
Please Share Comments and Questions Here
Comments and Questions Public Reading Room
Schedule of Proposed Actions on the KNF
Subscribe to this feed
Release Date: Jul 6, 2015
Release Date: Jul 1, 2015
Join botanists and biologists for a day of learning about local species that play an important role in pollination. Butterfly experts Rob Fernau, and Stan Carlson, and bee expert Robbin Thorp will assist in the search for rare and common species. The wildflowers in the meadows will afford opportunities to learn the plants too!
Pollinators, (including birds) and native plants will be observed by meandering through the meadows with short walks from vehicles. Guest speakers will discuss pollinator life histories, the state of pollinators in our area, and things that you can do to help conserve these important species.
The wildflower photo contest, held at the 22nd annual Siskiyou County Wildflower show in Yreka, resulted in the following winners by popular vote. There were a total of 30 entries, and 94 votes were tallied.
View More Features
For up to date fire information on the wildfires please go to http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
There's a new, more convenient way to view National Forest maps
Recreation Information using Google Earth now available
Final Report
View More Spotlights
Quick Links
Alerts & Warnings
View All Forest Alerts
Employment Opportunities
Photo Tour of the Klamath National Forest:
Forest Service Home | USDA.gov | recreation.gov | USA.gov | Whitehouse.gov
Plug-Ins | FOIA | Accessibility Statement | Privacy Policy | Important Notices | Information Quality


text: B&D Messenger Helps the Blind Read SMS Elaine Chow and 14 othersEditDelete Invite manuallyPromoteXDismissXUndismissBlock for gizmodoHide The B&D messenger, designed by Okada Noriaki, bills itself as a way for both blind and deaf people to communicate via text message. Though there are several Braille phone products already in the market, Noriaki device is much smaller in size and pretty inexpensive. On one side of the gadget is twelve points that rise… » 8/23/08 12:30pm 8/23/08 12:30pm


text:
ALBERTO VARGAS (American, 1896-1982). Brunette in Blue with Phone (Maxine Emitt), circa 1952. Watercolor on board. 30 x ...
2013 Apr 11 - 12 Beverly Hills Signature Illustration Art Auction #5126
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|Apr 11, 2013
|Item Activity:
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1,668 page views
Heritage Auctions - Beverly Hills
9478 West Olympic Blvd., 1st Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
|Printable auction results for all items in the 2013 Apr 11 - 12 Beverly Hills Signature Illustration Art Auction.
Brunette in Blue with Phone (Maxine Emitt), circa 1952
Watercolor on board
30 x 20 in.
Signed lower left
The artist;
Astrid Vargas-Conte;
Patty Conte.
Please note that as with all of our lots, the copyright for this artwork is not sold with the physical painting.
Condition Report*:Image presents very well overall. Adheisve on the bottom and top extreme edges; moderate surface dirt on the border edges; light loss to the extreme corners; repaired 3-inch abrasion on the center right edge, two small areas to the left of figure's left foot, a 2-inch area to the left of the bow and a minor area above figure's head; a faint horizontal crease extending through the center of the board. Not framed.
*Heritage Auctions strives to provide as much information as possible but encourages in-person inspection by bidders. Statements regarding the condition of objects are only for general guidance and should not be relied upon as complete statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty or assumption of liability by Heritage. Please note that we do not de-frame lots estimated at $1,000 or less and may not be able to provide additional details for lots valued under $500. All lots are sold "AS IS" under the Terms & Conditions of Auction.
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text:
Cut to the Chase - Yowusa.com - FeelBetteronYourOwn.com - Store - Lost Password
Great Find Yowbarb!Thanks
Nice plan, been doing that for a few yrs. just never thought about it as a option. It works good, just have to watch that the potatoes at the bottom do not rot before you can get them. We use this method in a green house effect, we can keep potatoes going all year round by using the rot potatoes and moving them to a new bin. Basically every 3 months, you have a new batch growing. We also use the rot potatoes,(seed potatoes) vines, stalks ect, in the compost bin, keeps fresh dirt ready to go. The problem is the bugs that get moved from bin to bin. We tried straining, sifting to try to remove them. If you do not get them all the potatoes rot fast. Good luck to all
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Destiny comes to those who listen, and fate finds the rest.
So learn what you can learn, do what you can do, and never give up hope!


text:
(PRWEB) August 29, 2014
Gourmet Italian, an Italian food store and import specialist, is pleased to announce the company is now shipping their domestic and import stock to Canadian customers. Product options include "old world" Italian imports, as well as a wide variety of California-produced Italian foods.
The newly expanded Canadian market became reality due to frequent requests to offer the products in Canada. "The demand was there," says the Gourmet Italian owner and operator, Brandon. "We've received repeat requests for our products from Canadian consumers, so we were determined to make it happen. It's tremendously exciting to expand the Gourmet Italian market to include Canada, and we're happy to have the opportunity to send quality California products to an entirely new market for us."
Gourmet Italian carries a variety of Stanislaus tomato products, all known for their exceptional quality and flavor. Their inventory of California tomato products includes:
Brad R., a satisfied customer from Memphis, Tenessee, raves, "I have tried many bold-flavored extra virgin olive oils priced around $40 for 500 ml. Corto rivals expensive Italian oils at a fraction of the cost, and it is now my 'go to' everyday choice."
A wide selection of local and imported products, including the items listed above, are available for purchase on the Gourmet Italian website.
Wholesale Food Network LLC operates out of Youngstown, Ohio, and has been doing business under the "Gourmet Italian" name since January 2009. For more information on any of their products, please visit the Gourmet Italian food store website.


text:
Find out first!
Sign up for the What's on updates and be the first to know
What's on
Browse our special events below. For details of permanent exhibitions and activities, check out the Family Homes pages.
For schools events visit our Beyond the classroom section.
What's on- 19 September 2014
Artists Open Days
Anne Hathaway's Cottage & Gardens
Bring your sketch pad or easel to Anne Hathaway's Cottage for free entry on selected Open Days
27 March - 18 December 2014
No need to book just come along!
Romeo and Juliet
Performance at Shakespeare's Birthplace
Three actors, two hours, one epic love story.
19 September 2014
Booking required


text:
After 57 years of loyally cheering and impatiently waiting, San Francisco Giants fans finally got their wish when our team became the 2010 Major League Baseball champs. And boy, did we represent the orange and black, from the superfans to the drag queens to the drag queen superfans. If the enigmatically dark beard of closer Brian Wilson or the maroon-colored thong of outfielder Aubrey Huff didn't hook the nation on San Francisco funk, the fans would have picked up the slack. Gigantes devotees caught everyone's attention — including that of a Texas reporter who couldn't help but be amazed by the fans outside AT&T Park getting high on life, among other things. What do you say team, how about two in a row?
www.sfgiants.com [1]
[1] http://www.sfgiants.com


text:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. MIT researchers have created a microbial ecosystem smaller than a stick of gum that sheds new light on the plankton-eat-plankton world at the bottom of the aquatic food chain.
The work, reported in the January print issue of American Naturalist, may lead to better predictions of marine microbes' global-scale influence on climate.
Through photosynthesis and uptake of carbon compounds, diverse planktonic marine microorganisms too small to be seen with the naked eye help regulate carbon flux in the oceans. Carbon flux refers to the rate at which energy and carbon are transferred from lower to higher levels of the marine food web, and it may have implications for commercial fisheries and other ocean-dependent industries.
The MIT study is one of the first detailed explorations of how sea creatures so small 500,000 can fit on the head of a pin find food in an ocean-size environment.
Besides showing that microbes' swimming and foraging is much more sophisticated and complex than previously thought, the work also indicates that organic materials may move through the oceans' microbial food web at higher-than-expected rates, via a domino effect of resource patch formation and exploitation, said co-author Justin R. Seymour, postdoctoral fellow in the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE).
Using the new technology of microfluidics, Seymour and colleagues Roman Stocker, the Doherty Assistant Professor of Ocean Utilization in CEE, and MIT mechanical engineering graduate student Marcos devised a clear plastic device about the size and shape of a microscope slide.
Depending on the organism being studied, nutrients or prey are injected with a syringe-based pump into the device's microfluidic channel, which is 45 mm long, 3 mm wide and 50 micrometers deep. "While relying on different swimming strategies, all three organisms exhibited behaviors which permitted efficient and
|Contact: Elizabeth Thomson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology