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Company Profile
SatKing specialise in the wholesale distribution of a large range of products suitable for both the pay TV and audio visual markets within Australia & New Zealand. SatKing products are building a reputation in the industry for cutting edge high quality products. SatKing has focus on continuous product development and working closely with our distribution partners to achieve our company goals.
Motorised Satellite TV System
Pro Max Motorised Satellite TV System SatKing proudly announce the release of Pro Max Motorised Satellite TV System
- Software Update now live for DVBS2-800CA. 15-Mar-2016
- Xmas Closure. 18-Dec-2015
- Price increase on the SatKing DVBS2-800CA VAST Receiver. 14-Oct-2015


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Our Virtual Reality Universeby Ian O'Neill
What if the Universe was in fact a simulation? A product of some information processor, creating space and time, energy and matter? What if the Big Bang was the whole simulation booting up, beginning billions of years of space and time calculations? Can we possibly understand our consciousness as a subroutine in an advanced number crunching machine? A new paper published by the Centre for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, University of Auckland, asks us to keep an open mind and suggests if we look at the complexity of physical laws of our known universe, many paradoxes may be explained if we view our physical reality as a virtual reality.
Virtual reality is a term that has been used frequently in sci-fi novels and movies since the early 1980's but the term artificial reality can be traced back to the 1970's. Movies such as Tron, The Matrix and Lawnmower Man centre around the possibility of fully immersible virtual realities. It is only very recently however, with advanced interactive gaming systems and the design of complex virtual worlds online and on home computers, that we can experience worlds of sufficient detail that we can be fooled into believing what we are experiencing approximates physical reality. Additional systems have been engineered to provide the user with feedback from the virtual world they are interacting with (whether it is a rumble in the joypad or wired gloves giving the user a sense of touch), enhancing the experience beyond purely a visual one.
Taking a look at physics in our universe, many paradoxes and uncertainties exist. Quantum physics is one such field highlighted in Brian Whitworth's research and considered to be "strange" physics, giving some justification to his theory we might actually be immersed in a virtual reality world:
"While virtual reality theory seems strange, so do other current theories of physics, e.g. the many-world view of quantum physics proposes that each quantum choice divides the universe into parallel universes. […] Even relatively main-stream physics theories are quite strange." – The Physical World as a Virtual Reality.
Although this research pushes the envelope of the most outlandish physics theories, it is not so hard to imagine that advanced information processing may be complex enough to govern the dynamics of an entire universe (if the information processor was advanced enough). Our physical universe, after all, is approximated through physical equations and mathematical reasoning, why can't the laws of our "physical" reality be approximated by virtual reality? If this can be done, do we actually exist in a virtual world?
Source: arXiv.org publication (abstract and full paper download)
computing, information processing, virtual reality
I believe that some people have argued that if intelligent life is at all possible in the Universe (or perhaps that should be Multiverse these days?) then it is *more* likely that we are living in a simulated universe than a real one, arguing that once a single civilization reaches the point where simulating universes is possible, then they will generate a whole bunch of them (or something like that).
Of course, since we probably would never be able to tell the difference (sim vs real) then I see little point in worrying about it!
Not too hard to believe, at least for me. But its not really an answer to life, the universe, and everything. It still leaves open the question of who made the computer, why was it made etc…
Funny, we are really good at answering the hows but never they whys. Its still a really fun theory though
So, is this website real? Am I really typing? How do I know this guy exists. I've never met him. Then again, that wouldn't matter if I'm biological pixels would it?
Rubbish! Certainly we can contemplate our own navels more intellegently than this?
This is an interesting theory.
I'd have to think that as physics (and ourselves) progress, we would begin to unravel the "code" of the universe. We could possibly even add our own "sub-routines" to this code.
This could allow us to overcome many, if not all, all of the problems we see in physics today. Overcoming the light speed barrier, time travel, even harnessing energy and resources on a galactic scale!
Not to mention the cheat codes we could add in to give ourselves infinite lives
(con't from above…)
Perhaps once we get to the level that we could re-program the universe's code, the level that the creators of the simulation themselves are at, maybe we "win" (or lose, depending on how you look at it) and it's game over…
LOL, that was indeed funny Kevin. Thanks for the lift out of the heavy thinking! Funny though, nobody has mentioned String Theory which is quite agreeable with virtual actualities.
Arthur C. Clarke wrote an extremely short Sci-Fi story once. It goes like this:
God said: 'End program.'
Then the Universe ceased to exist.
God spoke again: 'Delete program.'
And the Universe has never been in existence.
in response to rory, it might matter a lot whether the universe was made with great intentionally or more experimentally like a video game. When humans are able to create fully immerseable virtual worlds that are as convincing as our physical reality we might casually spin off virtual worlds with no forethought of the inhabitants' experiences.
Making any potential God a "great designer" or a computer programmer just knocking out a convincing simulation.
Mmm interesting…
I note two "curious" things:
1. Speed limit. As the paper goes, the light speed limit is set by "processor speed". If we were indeed in a VR universe, then this limit would increase eventually. Or the processors in the reality outside our VR aren't upgradeable?
2. As in a videogame, in wich everything is created as you turn to see it, our universe is created as we measure it. To "save resources" in the supposed processor. Well, what about alien life? Is more than likely that the universe is plagued with life, so, at any given point, all the universe must be created because any number of aliens will be observing all of it at the same time.
For me was one of concepts, besides game or playground of some programmers or etc, of our existence in virtual world – to solve problems, which are confused our creators. for example if they can create thousands of virtual worlds, then they can experiment with so much different concepts and ideas. and if our virtual world reaches point, where we are beginning to create our virtual world, then maybe we are able to solve or help solve puzzles of our gods. for example an ability of some being to understand himself from the higher level, than it's existence level.
we solving our existence, when we are just SPORE game in someone's hands
Someone once suggested that all those times when you are looking for something that you cannot find like a teapot or a pair of shoes that then suddenly turn up right where you were looking previously maybe evidence that the universe has just had a glitch in a sub routine. If everyone logs when these experiences occur then we can check to see if there is any correlation. This being a tentative first step to proving whether we are real or not.
There are at least two possibilities for our identities, using this thought experiment: either we're beings in another universe experiencing a virtual world, or we're virtual beings ourselves. The latter would require vastly more computing power, but since we don't know the conditions of the universe that has created our simulation, that's not necessarily a problem.
Ending the VR program would have markedly different effects upon each scenario–we'd either "wake up" in another universe or we'd simply cease to exist.
Well there is one way to find out if life is just a simulation
/End Program
i guess religion is not far from the truth then, we die to awaken in the real world. right?
Actually, as Tacitus pointed in the first post, what would be the diference?
Well one difference would be that, in a simulation, one would expect the universe to exhibit quantisation effects (oh… it does). In a "real" universe, while there's no reason quantisation effects could not exist, there's also no reason to suppose that they would.
Additionally if we are indeed in a virtual universe, there's the interesting possibility of being able to contact whoever built it. I find it extremely unlikely that such a possibility exists for the "real" universe (whether that happens to be ours, or some other universe in which ours is being simulated).
It's The Brain in a jar all over again. A little updated but the same concept. Think about this, the entire population of the world is involved in this simulation? If not then I just Imagined you guys out there wrote all of the above for my amussement. Which one of you Is'nt Real?
Neo where are you when we need you? Maybe we are a simulation within a simulation within a simulation, in an endless chain folding back on itself. If we were to awake from our present simulation, we'd have to do it all over again in the next. If we have any control over how the simulation goes, I'm up for lots of money, willing women, and fast cars in the next level up. C U there!

subset: commoncrawl


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SG Set
by kyla
VIEW 11 of 11 COMMENTS
Ugh, peggysue, you've been a favorite model of mine for a very long time. Now I'm a member, it's pretty damn cool to be able to see your new sets. You're a babe!
Netflix and chill
SG Set
by kyla
VIEW 25 of 29 COMMENTS
Very nice set!! EVERYTHING is sexy in this photo!! including your feet with that nail polish colour!
VIEW 25 of 25 COMMENTS
Would love to come to Australia and meet you someday. Love all your work and your IG too.


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Popular Diets
Featured Blog Posts
Featured Recipes
Recipe edited by Terry Grieco Kenny for DietsInReview.com
I added 2 tbls Splenda to the butter. Cooked it about 30 seconds after the light turned off on the Belgian waffle iron. They were Light, like an egg souffle, a little hard to get out of the waffle iron, not much substance. They were great. Light and fluffy. I will say if you wanted a heavy waffle this is not for you, but it is great as a fluffy souffle with a brown crust. We loved it.
Didn't like these at all. Slightly bitter and extremely soggy. No "crisp" to it.
I used wheat flour instead of oat, and added a pinch of baking powder to help the waffles rise. Besides, it's a descent recipe. One I will make again.
These "waffles" were disgusting! They were more like a sloppy egg mixture than a waffle. I ended up throwing the whole thing out. My dogs wouldn't even eat them.
This is so awesome! I LUV waffles. But Atkins says No-No-No. I can totally eat these.
these are raelly yummy. nice to have a "diet" food that my kids can eeat too... always feel like i'm making several meals at a time.


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04/28/12: Highlights of Fox Lane's win over North Rockland in the Northeast Elite Semifinals.
04/28/12: Fox Lane first baseman Matt Onnifrey and Richard Slenker talk about defeating North Rockland in baseman.
Fox Lane's Sammy Jo Tracy discusses her team's win over Brewster in the Section 1 Class B finals.
North Rockland's Tara Monaghan discusses her team's win over Lakeland/Panas in the Section 1 Class A finals.
Senior G Katie Lonergan and Senior midfield Tara Monaghan talk about the win over Suffern and advancing to the section final
5/24/12: Highlights of the Section 1 Class B girls lacrosse finals.


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We recently upgraded our WP install and Relevanssi no longer returns any results.
I did the following steps:
- Upgraded the plugin to 3.0.3
- rebuilt index
- deactivated/reactivated plugin
- rebuilt index
Still no results. (default WP search does work)
I also tried the php tests you posted in this forum post:
After the first two steps I got
array(0) { }
After the third step I got
array(0) { } array(0) { } array(0) { } array(0) { }
Please me know if you can assist asap. Thanks.


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West Jordan Woman, 19, Dies in Climbing Fall Near Zion National Park
Posted August 20th, 2013 @ 11:36am by Talk Radio 105.7 FM / 570 AM
A West Jordan woman has fallen to her death this week, while rappeling in a popular area, just outside Zion National Park.
Authorities say Shelby Christensen, 19, was climbing -- in the Birch Hollow area, with four friends -- when her hand got caught between the rope and the cliff face.
She fell about 120 feet and was pronounced dead at the scene.


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WHITECHAPEL Posts Second In-Studio Video Clip!
- April 9th, 2014 – New Album Our Endless War Available April 29th on Metal Blade Records The anticipation continues to build as...Read More
Swedish Heavy Metal gang PORTRAIT releases 2nd song taken off new album 'Crossroads' exclusively via Rock Hard Germany!
- April 9th, 2014 – Swedish Heavy Metallers PORTRAIT have just released the 2nd song taken off their new album...Read More
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER's Ryan Knight nominated for Metal Hammer Golden Gods Award
- April 8th, 2014 – RYAN KNIGHT of THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER has been nominated for an award at this year's Metal Hammer Golden...Read More
Mount Salem confirm May tour; shows with Saint Vitus!
- April 7th, 2014 – Chicago, IL's Mount Salem are preparing to embark on a headlining tour in May! The tour will play select...Read More
THE OCEAN announce more dates around UK Tech-Fest 2014
- April 7th, 2014 – THE OCEAN have announced a run of UK and Irish dates in the lead up to their UK Tech-Fest 2014 appearance. A...Read More
BATTLECROSS confirm European co-headline shows with Huntress!
- April 7th, 2014 – American Thrash Metallers BATTLECROSS have confirmed a European summer run including some of the biggest...Read More
WHITECHAPEL Announces Co-Headline Tour With DevilDriver!
- April 2nd, 2014 – First Video Clip From Studio Posted New Album Our Endless War Available April 29th on Metal Blade...Read More
DOWNFALL OF GAIA to tour Europe with TOXIC HOLOCAUST and BLACK TUSK!
- April 1st, 2014 – DOWNFALL OF GAIA have just announced two support tours for June with TOXIC HOLOCAUST and BLACK TUSK! The tours...Read More
In Solitude announce European tour dates for the summer!
- April 1st, 2014 – Critically-acclaimed Swedish metal act, In Solitude, have announced a series of shows through out the summer....Read More
Trioscapes Announces May Tour
- April 1st, 2014 – Dan Briggs (Between the Buried and Me, Orbs), Walter Fancourt, and Matt Lynch: the over-the-top trio...Read More


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Category Archives: Rock
The Derek Doe Show
808 mix #63
Yo, check out Davey's latest, a mix from Haircuts For Men. Kitsune Maison is the featured label of this mix. Dig the electro vibes.
Daydream Nation
Genevieve + Divine Fitz = Super Cool
Awesome sauce! Genevieve's interview with Britt Daniels & Dan Boeckner of super-group Divine Fits can be found on her website at the following link: http://hionair.com/guest/154-divine-fits-interview.html Tune in to her show, […]


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Latest headlines
Brazil mulls request for amicable cancelation of 670 MW of solar awarded in first tender
Following the devaluation of the Brazilian real against the U.S. dollar, six companies that won PPAs in 2014 may now be able to cancel the solar development contracts. Small penalties likely to apply.
GCL-Poly posts 28% revenue increase for H1
The polysilicon and wafer producer reports strong first half financials, growing revenue by 28%, gross profit by 66% as income more than doubles in space of a year.
Ratify Paris Agreement early to attract better RE investment, G20 countries told
A consortium of 130 global institutions that control $13 trillion investments has called upon G20 countries to move fast on ratifying the Paris Agreement in order to deliver greater policy certainty and more investment in...
Sungevity enters partnership with leading Belgian solar firm
The U.S. distributed solar installer has partnered with Belgium's Electrabel to begin installing rooftop solar panels across the country.
Essel Green Energy snaps up 240 MW solar project in Indian state of Odisha
The subsidiary of Essel Group has secured the bulk of a 270 MW tender issued by the Solar Energy Corporation of India in the state, marking the firm's largest solar PV project to date.
Hanwha Q Cells' Q2 profit soars to $151 million
An 88.8% year-on-year increase in revenues underpins a strong quarter for the Korean solar company, with positive figures across the board.
EU reimposes AD solar duties on three more Chinese companies
Osda Solar, Qixin Solar Electrical Appliance and Shandong Linuo Photovoltaic Hi-Tech all deemed to be in breach of the terms of the MIP undertaking.
Xian Longi Silicon increases H1 profit as it announces new Malaysian fab
The Chinese moncrystalline silicon firm enjoys huge increase in profit and revenue for the first half of the year, reveals plans for large Malaysian manufacturing facility producing silicon ingots, wafers, cells and modules.
The pv magazine weekly news digest
Massive movement in LatAm as Chile lowers the PV price bar and Argentina sets its solar sights high. Elsewhere, SolarCity continues to grab the headlines.
EBRD plans $26m solar loan for Kazakhstan
The European funding bank is considering releasing the funds to ACME Cleantech Solutions Pvt Ltd, an Indian developer eyeing a 29 MW solar farm in the country.
Fronius opens new R&D center in U.S. with eye on Tesla partnership support
The Austrian inverter specialist opens sales, product management and R&D center in San Francisco to better serve U.S. markets and commitments. Partnership with Tesla expected to be strengthened.
Solar wins strong backing from UK's business chiefs, poll shows
Opinion poll among the traditionally conservative Institute of Directors finds barely 9% support for Hinkley nuclear plant, with solar power earning the backing of more than three-quarters of members.
Singulus plays the waiting game as large orders booked too late for H1 financials
The late placement of a EUR 110 million tooling order muddies the water for the German production equipment supplier's second half forecast. Sales down year-over-year, but order intake looks healthy.
Canadian Solar beats shipment and revenue guidance for Q2
The Chinese solar firm shipped 1,290 MW of modules and posted net revenue of $805.9 million in the second quarter on back of increased sales to the Americas. Downstream pipeline tops 20 GW.
SolarCity cuts co-founder salaries to $1, announces job losses
In SEC filing, U.S. solar lease provider reveals it expects to incur restructuring charges of $3-$5 million in light of unspecified number of job losses. CEO and CTO to accept reduced salary as reduced guidance bites.
EU Commission removes five further solar firms from MIP undertaking
Lerri Solar, DelSolar, CNPV, Motech and Xian Longi have all been withdrawn from the Minimum Import Price (MIP) undertaking measures agreed between China and the European Commission, the EU has confirmed.
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Hotels in Omaha, Nebraska
Search & Compare Omaha Hotels
Trending now in Omaha
- Most bookedSleep Inn & Suites Airport
221 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"The staff was great. Very friendly & accommodating--they smiled, answered questions, & were professional, happy to be there & happy to serve their customers (even though she was swamped at the moment!) It was awesome! The free shuttle was a great service so we didn't have to drive to the venue or..."
A Traveller, Aug 2016, US
124 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"A bit out of the way, but quiet. Even with a young boy's basketball team there and quite a few young families there, it was a peaceful stay."
A Traveller, Jul 2016, US
78 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"My daughter and I went to Omaha for a one night mini vacation and stayed at the Deco Hotel. We were totally impressed with the entire staff as they were extremely accommodating, friendly and so very helpful. The hotel rooms were very spacious, contemporary and comfortable. For us it was very n..."
R, Aug 2016, US
58 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"We have stayed in this hotel previously when visiting the Old Market area. The hotel has always been accommodating and clean. This trip was disappointing as our room was not well cleaned. It appeared that the only things done were clean sheets and vacuuming. The bathroom had hair in the showe..."
A Traveller, Aug 2016, US
51 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"We were on a Mother-daughter-daughter in law girls weekend. I had not been to the Omaha area in years & picked this hotel because it was within 8 miles of a venue we were going to Saturday night. Lots of close eating places & tons of great shopping surrounding the hotel. We would DEFINATELY stay ..."
A Traveller, Aug 2016, US
48 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"Was there for Thursday and Sunday night stays for a family function. Had great time walking in rain to Old Market area with Awesome Lightning Storm"
A Traveller, Aug 2016, US
43 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"2 queen beds is a plus for a family getaway. Rooms are very modern. Beds very comfy. Breakfast included is always a great thing."
A Traveller, Aug 2016, US
37 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"I would stay here again! The staff was nice and helpful, I asked for a playpen for my child and they brought one quickly, our room was clean it was a great place to stay"
A Traveller, Aug 2016, US
32 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"we needed a place to stay due to our AC going out at house on one of the hottest and humid days. The rate was better than a lot of other hotels that still had rooms. The lobby and employees were great. The room seemed small and the bathroom looked to have taken some abuse. The sink was cracke..."
A Traveller, Jul 2016, US
31 people looked at this hotel in the last hour
Most recent review
"Clean and comfortable. Shuttle service was great. Cooked to order breakfast was fantastic!"
A Traveller, Aug 2016, US
Map of Omaha hotels
- Henry Doorly Zoo
- CenturyLink Center Omaha Convention Center
- TD Ameritrade Park Omaha
- Harrah's Council Bluffs Casino
- Creighton University
- Westroads Mall
- Horseshoe Council Bluffs
- University of Nebraska-Omaha
- Village Pointe Shopping Center
- Stir Cove
- Mid-America Center
- Fun-Plex
- Omaha Children's Museum
- Oak View Mall
- Lake Manawa State Park
- Orpheum Theater
- Rosenblatt Stadium
- Holland Performing Arts Center
- Bayliss Park
- Lauritzen Gardens
Best hotels in Omaha
If you are looking for Omaha hotels in a particular area, you can use the search feature at the top of the page to search by neighborhood, landmark, address or zip code, or you can search by using the built-in map feature. You can also browse hotels in Omaha by type, amenities, and star-rating so that you can find the best hotel. Currently, top rated hotels in Omaha are:
- Holiday Inn Express & Suites Omaha - Millard Area
- Fairfield Inn & Suites Omaha Northwest
- Embassy Suites Omaha-La Vista/Hotel & Conference Center
- Residence Inn by Marriott Omaha Downtown/Old Market Area
- Residence Inn by Marriott Omaha Aksarben Village
The location of your Omaha hotel is important. If you are traveling to Omaha, &StateorCountry for business, you may want to consider getting a hotel close to the airport or near your meeting venue. By doing so, you can really cut down on transportation costs and time. You may also want to book a hotel that offers free wifi just in case you need to get some work done.
If you are traveling for vacation, figure out which attractions or landmarks you want to see and book a hotel that is within close proximity. Although hotels near attractions might cost a little more, you may find that spending those extra few dollars is worth the convenience. You can even find hotels that align with your interests. For example, if you are looking for a relaxing vacation, a spa hotel may be the perfect choice for you.
You'll also want to determine which type of accommodations will suit your needs before booking a hotel in Omaha. If you're traveling with the kiddos, a family friendly hotel will offer larger rooms and more sleeping arrangements. For those traveling for an extended period of time, booking a hotel suite with a kitchenette is a smart move and will feel a little more like home. If you are budget conscience and just need a place to rest your head, a hostel or motel may be all you need.
If you are looking to score the best discounts and deals, use the filter to sort by price from low to high. You can book a hotel in Omaha for as low as $52 per night. If you are looking to cut down on expenses, look for hotels that include free breakfast and parking. Some hotels even offer free shuttle service to and from nearby places. You can also sort by star rating, proximity, and guest rating.
Before you book, check out user reviews. Hotels.com has 21400 reviews in Omaha. We show reviews from Expedia and TripAdvisor so you know that you are reading genuine, reliable reviews. Be sure to download the Hotels.com app so you can book your reservations on the go, view amenities, and save the hotels you want to view and compare later.


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I've just installed WP 2.7 and think it's great. One thin is annoying my, though.
The number of pendings posts is not displaying in the main admin page anymore. This is quite annoying since I have to go to "EDIT POSTS" every time I want to see if someone have posted something.
Is there any way to change this?


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The Columbia County Amateur Series continues at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 21 with duos and trios performing at the Columbia County Amphitheater behind the library in Evans. Five bands are scheduled to perform on June 28, and the finale will be July 12 at the new Exhibition Center at the Gateway in Grovetown. Go to www.amateurseries.com.
Yard sale
Program candidate
William G. Snider of Martinez, a graduating senior Evans High School, has been named one of more than 3,000 candidates out of nearly 3.4 million U.S. graduates for the 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program for superior academic and artistic achievements. William is the son of Herman Snider and Helena Snider of Martinez.
Mercer honors
Pillon Communities Inc. to Jonathan Michael Duvall, no address given, $211,760.
Pillon Communities Inc. to Travis Maples and Elizabeth Maples, no address given, $294,205.
Pillon Communities Inc. to Rafael Camacho, no address given, $223,862.
HSBC Bank USA National Association as trustee of the Nomura Asset Acceptance Corp. to Leah Jones, no address given, $80,000.
PDH Builders Inc. to Harold M. Larsen and Lindsaey M. Larsen, no address given, $269,900.
Robert Newton Turman and Linda Dannette Turman, June 7, 2013.
Patricia Ann Whitmore Howe amd Keith Elwin Howe, June 13, 2013.
Katie Lauren Reeves and Christopher Michael Reeves, May 20, 2013.
Reginald Clifton Dawson III and Leslie Ann Dawson, June 11, 2013.
Sandra Culver and Bruce Wayne Culver, June 11, 2013.
Duane Carl Rosenheim Galloway and Heather Nicole Galloway, June 6, 2013.
Matthew Sommers and Casi Sommers, June 5, 2013.
Lauren Ducey Scarboro and Brandon C. Scarboro, June 4, 2013.
Writers meet
CSRA Writers meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 17 at Georgia Military College, 115 Davis Road, Martinez. Call Steve Fox at (706) 836-7315.
Wade Doolittle
Nominated by Brooklyn Ann Doolittle, 7, Martinez
My Dad is going to be the best Father of the Year! My father is the best father because after dinner he lets us eat as many candies as we want. The thing that I like to do with my dad is go frog hunting when my mom feels like it. He catches big bullfrogs and crawdads. He takes us to the beach and WalMart too! I love hanging out with my dad, he is the best dad ever! He takes pictures of us and he takes us everywhere we want to go, and he is the best dad ever!
GOP woman
Georgia Republican Party Chairman John Padgett will speak at the monthly meeting of the Greater Columbia County Republican Women at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at Be My Guest Catering and Events, 4216 Washington Road, Evans. RSVP to email@example.com, or call (706) 925-5330.
Anthony L. Furlong Sr. to Sae Nal Choi and Soon J. Choi, 4061 McDaniel Road, $275,000.
Karla Grimaud to Michael A. McNutt, no address given, $38,075.
Nason Homes LLC to Roleith Lionel Santos, no address given, $193,900.
Ivey Residential LLC to Woodrow Daniel Henderson and Lauren Perkins Henderson, 730 Kensey Park Lane, $152,675.
Ivey Residential LLC to Charles Q. Rabun, 1013 Ardrey Circle, $218,990.
Brian Allen Orzechowski and Crystal Lynn Krentler applied for a marriage license on May 21, 2013, and were married June 1, 2013, in Martinez.
Rocardo Johannnes Depalm and Elenice Desouza applied for a marriage license on March 28, 2013, and were married May 3, 2013, in Augusta.
Griffin Beck Callaway and Crystal Deanna Bass applied for a marriage license on April 2, 2013, and were married April 20, 2013, in Hephzibah.
Bubba Wallace, 54, of the 2100 block of Vandivere Road in Augusta, was charged with driving under the influence on March 3, 2013, and was sentenced to 12 months probation and was fined $1,570.
Lennox U. Franker, 61, of the 900 block of Windmill Parkway in Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on Feb. 8, 2013, and was sentenced to 12 months probation and was fined $1,080.
Columbia County News-Times ©2016. All Rights Reserved.


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topscot's profile was updated 6 months, 2 weeks ago
topscot commented on the post, Caption Competition 89: Fernando Alonso 9 months, 1 week ago
Why are the only team with hours column ?
topscot commented on the post, Do you support F1 teams' EU protest? 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Can't support They knew what they signed up to. Mallya is a hypocrite after his treatment of kingfisher airline employees and all his dodgy financial dealings
topscot commented on the post, Tyre investigation puts Hamilton win in doubt 11 months, 3 weeks ago
makes you wonder what else they push the boundaries of and if this is just the one they have been caught for?
topscot commented on the post, Riverside International Raceway book review 1 year, 3 months ago
I purchased this book on its release direct from Pete Lyons and found up to his usual high standard.
The can am book also a must have and his annual calenders are superb collections of historic photos
topscot's profile was updated 1 year, 5 months ago
topscot commented on the post, Button contact was "my bad" – Hamilton 2 years, 1 month ago
strange post. hamiltons bad driving nothing to do with marshals. All drivers should be allowed to race not be rammed into by the ones with with poor skills . look at hamiltons record of hitting others !
topscot commented on the post, Button contact was "my bad" – Hamilton 2 years, 1 month ago
hamilton should have been penalised for the hits on button and kimi
topscot commented on the post, Rate the race: 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix 2 years, 4 months ago
contrived entertainment – team orders rosberg only put on a show – safety car bunched them up for finale 10 laps
topscot changed their profile picture 4 years, 1 month ago


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Watch THE WARM VACATION for Free Right Now!!
Posted by thehollywoodprojects in Movies on 07/16/2015
If you're still out there, subscribed to this blog, then you are truly a survivor, willing and able to weather long, cold stretches of nothingness. What have you been eating? I hope you've been writing a memoir to pass the time, because I would read that shit. Seriously.
For the last year or so, I've been working with GASM Media, a small media company and sister company to Atlanta geek mecca Battle & Brew. I wanted to take a moment to share a project we made together for the Atlanta 48 hour Film Project, a suspense/thriller called THE WARM VACATION.
I wrote this thing in a few hours, then handed it off to an amazingly talented cast and crew who turned it into an excellent, intense little film, the most gut-wrenching walk in the woods you'll see today. (Especially for Benjamin Mitchell's incredible performance as Robert, which was nominated by the 48 Hour Film Project as one of the best male acting performances in the entire festival).
Couldn't be prouder of this film, so please take a moment to support me and support GASM media and check out our little short, THE WARM VACATION. And when you're done with that, stick around to see the other projects we've been producing at GASM, from comedy series RIVALS to the anime fandom show EYE BLEACH. Enjoy!
LEE MARVIN: POINT BLANK Available on Amazon
Posted by thehollywoodprojects in Uncategorized on 09/05/2014
If you're a new visitor to this (mostly neglected) page, you may have found your way here via the bonus material found in Dwayne Epstein's fantastic book, LEE MARVIN: POINT BLANK.
For those of you who haven't read this book yet, it's a comprehensive, meticulously-researched biography on one of the great heroic character actors of the 60s and 70s, and it's available right now over at Amazon (click HERE). The paperback versions feature my interview with the author as part of the supplemental material. It's a must-read for fans of old Hollywood.
For anyone wanting to catch up with my current work, you can read my retro primers and the occasional extended piece over at ATL Retro.
Click HERE to see what's new!
Subscribe to this page if you want to see new content if and when I return!
Bigelow #6 – Bigelow Goes Full ErotiCop with BLUE STEEL (1990)
Posted by thehollywoodprojects in Kathryn Bigelow, Movies on 07/03/2013
If Jamie Lee Curtis is the star of Blue Steel, the gun is her unofficial costar. Scan the poster for another face and you'll eventually find Ron Silver's deranged Wall Street broker-cum-serial killer in a tiny box off to the side, less than half the size of Curtis's drawn weapon. In this image he's the devil on her shoulder, which makes the gun the angel by default. The gun is good, someone or other once said, and Blue Steel is a believer.
By the time the film begins, even Curtis defers to the gun, as the opening credits play over what I can only describe as a striptease seduction scene highlighting the weapon's contours and curves. The camera first slides smoothly down the barrel and along the textured grip before peeking softly down into the bullet chambers. The sequence is downright naughty, gun porn all the way, and slyly warns the audience that what they're watching is a step sideways from the boilerplate cop dramatics. Blue Steel has something else entirely on its warped mind.
BLUE STEEL is not Kathryn Bigelow's best film. Frankly, it's kind of a mess. The story, such as it is, concerns Megan (Curtis), a rookie cop disgraced on her very first night on the job by a shooting gone wrong. She confronts and finally kills an armed robber at a convenience store (Tom Sizemore), but the perp's gun disappears in the chaos, winding up in the hands of a bystander named Eugene (Silver), an oozy stock trader so overwhelmed by the experience of becoming a burglary victim that it drives him insane. He fixates on the gun and on Megan, ultimately committing a series of random murders using bullets he's etched with her name. While Megan and her partner (Clancy Brown) piece together the murders, Eugene weasels his way into Megan's life, threatening her family and her friends before finally confronting her.
The screenplay is by The Hitcher's Eric Red, and like that film's John Ryder, Eugene displays an almost supernatural knack for his new hobby, and a talent for turning the tables on Megan every time she has him caught. But The Hitcher worked partly because of its isolated location that left its protagonist with no help and with nowhere to go. In Blue Steel, the heroes are cops in the biggest city in the world, and the script has to go through increasingly frantic gyrations to keep its villain from simply being locked away. The result is a film constructed of uncommonly dumb logic and far-fetched decisions. Watch it with care or risk straining your eyes from rolling them too hard.
But Red's script has a secret agenda, and in Kathryn Bigelow's hands, Blue Steel becomes something more than the action movie claptrap it seems destined to be. The project was Bigelow's coming out party for Hollywood after her skuzzy, wooly vampire movie Near Dark (also written by Red) turned heads, and her hunger is unmistakable; a young filmmaker's eagerness to transform the medium drips from every frame. Bigelow pinpoints the psychological subtext inherent in the script, finds her bin marked 'subtext,' burns it, and then with nowhere left to put the stuff, throws it right up there in the text. When she's done, Blue Steel quits being a cop thriller and instead becomes a Freudian nightmare and the gun a phallic avatar in the war between the powered and the powerless.
Take the character of Megan. Bigelow cannily casts Jamie Lee Curtis whose physical androgyny makes the presence (or not) of her firearm a defining trait. With her gun, Megan can traffic in the macho male cop circles and stand up to Eugene, who has tragically confused his stolen gun with his masculinity. Both Eugene and Megan need their guns to avoid becoming the victim—Megan has watched her mother wilt in an abusive marriage and violates a family code against cops to empower herself, while Eugene feels powerless during the stickup and only gets his strength back when he's armed.
Megan is stripped of her gun (and, therefore, her power) when she's removed from the case, and she spends the rest of the film attempting to get back to where she was. She doesn't seek violence, not consciously, but without her job, her gun, Megan is out of balance. For Eugene, however, balance is never again an option. Somehow, his murders seem only a prelude to the grossest misuse of his stolen power, that of a gunpoint rape that becomes the logical extreme of his other sexually-charged crimes. The movie explicitly suggests that Eugene can't find arousal without the gun, without pointing it and making a decision to snuff out a life. For Eugene, murder is a sexual release. Folks, sometimes a gun is just a gun, but not today.
If Bigelow has made one thing clear in her action films, it's the idea that, despite the great myth to the contrary, there's no such thing as meaningless cinema violence. There's a communicated message behind every bullet that the audience receives. It's one thing to depict two men in a room firing guns at one another, but audiences, especially American audiences, have historically layered their own meanings into that action, specifically associating violent success with masculinity. Ask Americans to name the most masculine icon in our history and you won't have to wait long before hearing the name John Wayne, he who may have fired more bullets on screen for more audience members in the history of the form. Bigelow directed Blue Steel in 1990, during the last days of a decade partly defined by thickly-muscled demigods carrying impossibly large guns. Blue Steel is her answer to that, her first attempt to flip the script on the boy's club and pop their pectoral balloons.
Bigelow's ideas, though, bring out the weird and turn out to be more than the film can handle. Silver, especially, mugs like crazy for the camera and as he becomes further unhinged, he just loses his damned fool mind. Bigelow highlights his performance with a visual landscape that's at turns erotic and frightening, using strategic slow motion and smoke machines to craft a steamy, dreamlike atmosphere. Paired with Red's disjointed narrative, Bigelow's style transforms Blue Steel into a fairly surreal, and singular, experience. There's literally nothing out there in mainstream movies quite like this one. Is it action? A thriller? Watching it again recently, I finally settled on the term "Eroticop." One gets the feeling that a gunfight or a sex scene could break out at any moment, and neither would be particularly pleasant.
The Kathryn Bigelow Project
5. ???
6. Blue Steel
Bonus: The Loveless
Bigelow #7 – K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER Proves Not All Subs Are Seaworthy
Posted by thehollywoodprojects in action movies, Kathryn Bigelow on 05/08/2013
Kathryn Bigelow's Soviet submarine drama K-19: The Widowmaker had a no-doubt premise, a top-tier movie star, and an established, bankable action director. It's the kind of total package that studio executives snuggle up to as they drift off to sleep.
Naturally, the film was a total disaster.
To understand how K-19 went so wrong, let's turn to a story Bigelow herself shared in Time Magazine.
"I remember sitting in some executive's office, and they said, 'O.K., but who are the good guys?' 'What do you mean? The Russians are the good guys.' 'No, I mean who are the Americans?'
That quote has mysterious depths. Stare at it too long and you might see sounds or swallow your tongue. Here was Bigelow—still at that time known primarily for the megahit Point Break—peddling a tale about a heroic crew racing against time to avert nuclear disaster. The stakes: no less than the survival of every living being in the world. The story contains tension, danger, sacrifice, and a couple of meaty roles to attract big names for the poster. And the story happened to be 100%, absolutely true. Roll your money wheelbarrow to the back of the line, please.
The only way we could make more money is if the submarines make out.
But even for an America that's left the Cold War behind, that's shifted its attention to the burgeoning superpower of China or the specter of global terrorism, the fact that the story's main characters wear Russian uniforms was enough to transform K-19 from no-brainer to a tough sale. The true story of the K-19—not actually called "The Widowmaker" by anybody, but given the far-sketchier nickname of "The Hiroshima" after the incident—remained classified until the 1990s, 30 years after it nearly wrecked the world.
In July of 1961, the ship was performing maneuvers out in the Arctic, pretending to be an American sub attacking Moscow. The Cold War was good like that. On the way home, the K-19 sprung a reactor leak that turned the ship into a nuclear oven. Considering the state of international relations, everyone reasonably presumed a seaborne meltdown could be perceived as an act of war and so, rather than allow their deaths to put fingers on the big red buttons, the ship's crew underwent drastic, deadly measures to save the reactor. If you didn't start your day wrestling with a giant cancerous rat for the last known can of chicken soup, then you probably know how the story ends.
With yellow shirts and, somehow, Fredo Corleone.
Bigelow's first attempt to finance a film adaptation was halted by the release and mediocre box office of the 2000 sub drama U-571, and so, frustrated, Bigelow turned her attention to The Weight of Water, a movie that developed a toxic reputation at festivals before languishing away on a distributor's shelf. That movie eventually made it out into the wild, but not without some problems of its own.
In the space of a few years, Bigelow's bright career had suddenly flickered. Originally, she had wanted to tell the story of the K-19 crew. Now, she needed to. Bigelow eventually found her funding, but all outside of the traditional studio system, making K-19 the most expensive independent film ever made at that time. So not only did Kathryn Bigelow seemingly need K-19 to be a hit, but so did a bunch of investors whose pockets weren't as deep as one might expect.
(One of the film's major contributors was the National Geographic Society, who may have had their plans to enter the big budget movie scene dashed by K-19's failure. This melancholy little site is still out there, promising that the film is opening this July 19th, every July 19th, the internet equivalent of the Mary Celeste. Somewhere, a marketing guy's wife stands on the shore, hoping he'll someday find his way home.)
To be fair, I've included a healthy amount of my own speculation into this history, and it's hard to really know for sure what Bigelow was thinking or what she wasn't. Maybe Bigelow approached K-19 like just another movie, and maybe the version that finally made it to the screen is exactly the movie she always intended to make. It's irresponsible for me to just assume that the film was compromised except, well, K-19: The Widowmaker just feels so damned compromised.
"This time, nerds, I can breathe because I'm inside the sub."
There was a magical time in the movies when all you needed to open your blockbuster was Harrison Ford on the poster, and baby, Harrison Ford is all up on this poster, despite the fact that he's all kinds of wrong for the part. The term "miscast" doesn't even cover the notion that fans would line up to see Ford, the most Midwestern-American action star to ever grace the screen, play Captain Vostrikov, the crusty leader in charge of this particularly crusty ship. Worse, somebody allowed Ford to do the part in a blisteringly awful Russian accent, which Ford delivers like he's trying fit his mouth around the fat part of a soda bottle. In 2013, it seems crazy to think that Ford would have been handed this role while a perfectly good Liam Neeson is standing right there, but in 2002 it was Ford's name and face that held the burden of bringing the customers.
"Four-Quadrant" is a marketing term meaning that a movie appeals to every demographic, and K-19 does its utmost to be a four-quadrant performer. The threat is appropriately apocalyptic, but surprisingly clean, barely leaving a mark on the crewmen dying of radiation sickness. The K-19 herself is one of the most brightly-lit submarines in the sea, revealing a dull, repetitive set design. The sitcom-style lighting dispels the ship's shadows and opens the place up. Gone is the claustrophobia needed to bring the setting to life. For a story that could have ended with the annihilation of the world, it's strangely antiseptic, with all the sharp edges dulled so that it's safe to handle. Even the film's cumbersome title suggests a compromise between two different names in an effort to make everyone happy.
"We can all agree that we've eliminated 'Was'sub!?' as an option, right?"
One hurdle K-19 had to overcome is that the submarine movie is well-traveled. People know what a sub movie is supposed to look like and sound like, and any deviation or experimentation in the form comes off as false. Unless your sub is helmed by Roy Scheider and has a talking dolphin in the crew, your ship better look like a damn submarine. The K-19 doesn't really cut it in a world where Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot and all of its gloomy tension exists. For a sub movie to make its own mark, it has to find another way to distinguish itself, such as the way Tony Scott's Crimson Tide filled the cramped setting with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman's war, and while there's a little equivalent tension in K-19 between Neeson and Ford's characters—and even a minor mutiny subplot—it never really gains traction. Instead, the audience has to decide how invested they are in the struggles of the crew to stop the leak, and the film provides few reasons to get invested, especially since we already know the ending. Films like Crimson Tide and others get around that problem by making the obvious global stakes seem deeply personal, but we get very few hints about the lives of the soldiers away from the sub, or about the people they personally hope to save. Their noble sacrifice is both suitably epic and really, really generic, as if Bigelow expects the fact that the crew is Russian to make us surprised when they start acting like human beings.
This person is in the movie for 10 seconds and is the most significant female in the film. This is not a joke.
K-19: The Widowmaker strikes me as hollow and false. Again, maybe this is exactly Bigelow's movie, and I'm totally wrong, but she's never made anything that felt so lifeless and inert before or since. K-19 is little more than a series of facts capably strung together in the proper order, like IKEA furniture that somebody forgot to screw together—it looks like the real thing, but a gentle tap is enough to tear it apart. That just isn't how Bigelow works. Whether her films are up or down, and she certainly has enough of both directions in her career, they are always personal. Even The Weight of Water, for all of its problems, feels like an artist is guiding the movie in the directions she wants it to go. The film still feels like a statement.
K-19 doesn't feel like anything other than perhaps a missed opportunity. Bigelow has made a career out of exploring makeshift families, especially within groups of men—the SEALs in Zero Dark Thirty; the bomb squad in The Hurt Locker; the desperate bonds between the main characters in Strange Days; the surfers in Point Break; the bikers in The Loveless; the vampires in Near Dark are like a family of cowboys, and even the girls are covered in dirt and absorbed into the whole. Here, Bigelow has at her disposal a group of men who rely on one another, live and die and each other's mistakes, and who agree to make sacrifices to save lives. Do they care about the rest of the world, or is the sacrifice only to save the man who sleeps in the next bunk? We'll never know, because the theme goes almost entirely unexplored. This movie feels like it was shipped in from someone else entirely.
It's easy to suppose that after Strange Days flopped and Bigelow ran into trouble financing her next projects, that she threw up her hands. She went from being one of the most electric and in-demand young filmmakers to an outsider nearly overnight. It's hard to imagine men like James Cameron or John McTiernan being given so little rope at that same time. (McTiernan, especially—he directed the legendary bomb Last Action Hero, but still had a new, great Die Hard sequel out two years later.) I'm sure that K-19's disappointing reception made that film executive, the one who wondered about the Americans, feel pretty good about himself. But K-19's failure doesn't seem to come from its premise, but from a filmmaker who's pushing the material in an uncomfortable direction, a filmmaker exasperated by needing to prove herself again so soon. K-19 feels cynical, which could explain why it failed to connect with pretty much anybody. After its release, Bigelow retreated to television for years, waiting until the right project came calling. Which, of course, eventually, it did.
I've wasted an unusual amount of fake ink in this post discussing the business end of K-19, its budget, its failure, and all of that boring stuff. But in trying to appreciate and explore the career of Kathryn Bigelow, it helps to understand how something as impersonal and blank as K-19 can even happen. A career is a weird journey, and it helps to know why sometimes we end up on the calmest, least interesting of seas.
The Kathryn Bigelow Project
6. ???
7. K-19: The Widowmaker
Bonus: The Loveless
Atlanta Film Festival: MAGIC: THE GATHERING: THE MUSICAL Exists, Is Fresh and Fun
Posted by thehollywoodprojects in Movies on 03/27/2013
(Sorry for the lateness of this review, my last from AFF. Check out my other AFF reviews ATL Retro!
You've probably heard of Rule 34, the tongue-in-cheek internet law that states that if a thing exists, somewhere in the depths of the internet, there is porn of it. As the landscape of the web continues to fracture and reform into infinite tiny and tinier niches—Fan of a show? What about a character? What about an episode?! TEAM SUPERNATURAL EP#615 NEVER DIES!—the law itself seems increasingly redundant. If something exists, anything about it can be found on the internet.
The internet continued our march to filling every niche by helping fund Magic: The Gathering: The Musical, a delightful little short film I managed to catch last week at the Atlanta Film Festival. If you're feeling alone, depressed, despondent because nobody understands your need to see muppet-style puppets sing songs about the world's geekiest card game, then never you mind, child. There is a place for you in the world at last.
Director Molly Coffee (I now regret forever not having a name that awesome) premiered her film to an appreciative, screaming crowd at "Touch the Puppet Head," an evening of puppet-themed shorts and live performances. Her film was the last of five to screen—the first four were mostly delicate, elegiac fairy tales produced by Heather Henson—and it was welcomed by a cheering, thriving crowd of locals. Group support has been a staple of the project, a grassroots indie project that collected its budget from the goodwill of others through a successful Kickstarter campaign. The film features a hand-performed cast of geeks and nerds converging on a comic book shop for a Saturday Magic: The Gathering tournament. Those familiar sports movies will recognize the types. Jake is the talented everykid whose just out to have a good game. Doofus is the sad nerd who never wins because he's a little lost. Heidi is the sexy roleplayer who can't hear her Vampire LARP over the sounds of geek card gaming.
OK, so I think maybe her type is new.
The trio sing their felt hearts out as they go through a day of ups and downs, cheating and betrayal, wins and losses, and a triumph of sportsmanship over win-at-all-costs. The songs are all original, catchy and bouncy and more than a little influenced by the irreverence of the most well-known of puppet musicals, Avenue Q. (The intro song title is the same as the film's tagline: "It's a Magical Fucking Day") Coffee has a background as a production designer and artist, and her skills shine through as the puppets sing and dance their way across a stage that honestly looks like a million bucks. Every Kickstarter dollar and then some is on the screen. I got lost in one scene just admiring all of the original art pieces lining the walls.
This is a film by and for geeks, and the more hardcore will enjoy spotting references. As a man who once did my fair share of World of Darkness LARPing, I had a blast listening to Heidi sing about her Giovanni Embrace, a reference that's going to sail right over most fans' heads. But the ones who get it, well, Coffee's got them locked in for life, and that same in-crowd spirit shines through in a number of bits, from comic book references to bits borrowed from other films.
The only geekly faithful who might be disappointed are, surprisingly, the fans of Magic: The Gathering. Wizards of the Coast (owners of the Magic game) refused to sanction the film when asked, and so Coffee was forced to limit the game as seen on screen. No actual cards or even game mechanics make it into the film, which feels to me like a gross mistake on the part of WOTC. Fans of Magic are the ones most likely to eat this project up, and Coffee's film could have been a fun bit of sanctioned free advertising, and the company's refusal to play ball comes off as weird, corporate, and a violation of the community trust geeks usually extend to the people who make the stuff they like.
M:TG:TM is review-proof. It will find its audience and delight them no matter its level of quality. That the film also happens to be fun, charming, and well-made is nothing but bonus. After the show, Coffee explained to the crowd that the film's origin came from a drunken Jesus Christ Superstar sing-a-long. If so, this is the best musical related to Andrew Lloyd Webber in many years, and a damn fine endorsement of getting drunk with your friends.
Magic: The Gathering: The Musical is making festival rounds at the moment, but will likely make it online at some point in the future. Follow the film's progress HERE
Atlanta Film Festival: CONGRATULATIONS! Finds Laughs in the Anti-Procedural
Posted by thehollywoodprojects in Movies on 03/19/2013
(I'm helping to cover the Atlanta Film Festival for ATLRetro, but for movies without a retro angle, the reviews are going to live over here. Enjoy!)
We all know the beats of this story. A child is missing, the parents are frantic, and the police walk into the home full of questions and grim determination. No matter what, they will find this boy. Congratulations!, a new film by Mike Brune and local Atlanta group Fake Wood Wallpaper, sets up these familiar story beats, but then turns them inside out. In this surrealist spoof of a procedural, police work is the very last thing on the film's agenda. Instead, the movie tilts off into unusual and unexpected directions, creating something funny and fresh, equal parts weirdly exhilarating and exhilaratingly weird.
A little boy named Paul vanishes from his own living room, and Detective Skok (John Curran) leads a team charged with cracking the case. But none of Skok's efforts get him any closer to Paul. Actually, none of Skok's efforts even make sense. The script acts as an anti-procedural, gleefully turned in on itself. Paul went missing at home, so the police focus their efforts there, plastering the house with posters and searching every room dozens of times. A hundred times, whatever it takes! Skok leaves no stone, rock, or clothes hamper unturned. As the weeks drag on, the police become part of the family, pitching in on household chores and learning the weekly schedule while occasionally continuing their efforts to find Paul, mostly by looking around and shouting his name.
The film's premise seems designed for a lean single comedy sketch, but Brune finds surprising legs in the concept, dragging laughs out of the material long after the audience gets the joke. Most of the laughs come from the film's deadly straight-faced tone, as the actors treat every ridiculous incident and line of dialogue as if it were all that matters in the world. "We will never stop looking for your son," Skok promises. "They say 'never say never.' Well, we say it all the time."
Skok is the key to the film. Played by Curran as a lonely man married to the job, Skok is Dirty Harry by way of Andy Sipowicz by way of Sledge Hammer!, a gritty man so obsessed, he's willing to stay in the house long after the rest of the force has given up hope and gone home. His single-minded devotion to such a silly search anchors the film and keeps the audience invested through a story that, by definition, never really expands or changes at all.
Congratulations! is a film to see with an audience. The sold-out crowd around me laughed hysterically at all the right beats, but the laughs gave way eventually to a different kind of vibe. If you see enough movies, occasionally you catch one where the comedy on the screen feels dangerous and subversive, and the people sitting around me seemed overjoyed at the film's audacity to choose such a non-story, shoot it with such love and care, and cast so many talented actors to portray it. The film feels like a trick being played on the movies, and the experience of watching it is like seeing Brune and Fake Wood Wallpaper get away with something in real time.
Congratulations! drags a bit towards the end, but never quite wears out its welcome and earns its running time with a hilarious finale and a pitch-perfect final shot. Those exhausted from decades of Law and Order and CSI's neat little mysteries and tidy solutions will enjoy this movie, which proposes the joy of the mystery isn't in the destination, it's in the pleasures of not getting there.
The AFF has added a second chance to see CONGRATULATIONS! on the screen. It will now play on Sunday night, March 24, at 9:00 pm in the Plaza's upstairs theatre.
Bond #3 — SKYFALL Reinvents, Restores Bond
Posted by thehollywoodprojects in Movies on 02/25/2013
(Now that Skyfall is on home video, here's an update to fit it into the Bond list. As with all of my Bond reviews, this is very, very heavy on spoilers. You've been warned.)
A very good, but very different take on Bond.
. . .AS IAN FLEMING'S JAMES BOND 007: Daniel Craig
SETUP: James Bond pursues an enemy agent through Turkey to recover a stolen hard drive containing the names of every NATO undercover agent in terrorist cells around the world. After a brutal, harrowing chase that sees Bond taking a bullet to the chest, he catches up with the thug on top of a speeding train. Unfortunately, Bond is shot by a friendly agent (acting on M's orders to take out the thug), and our hero plunges to the river below, absolutely without-a-doubt dead.
BUT IN REALITY: Whoa, don't throw away your popcorn. Dry your girlfriend's tears. I know it seemed really convincing for a second, but Bond is not dead. Instead, he disappears to a tropical paradise to work through the pain of realizing how expendable he is, but he returns to MI6 when a mad former-spy named Silva (Javier Bardem) uses the list to reveal hidden agents and target M (Judi Dench). Bond tracks Silva to his island and captures the guy, but—stop me if you've heard this one before— that was what Silva wanted the entire time. After thwarting Silva's attempt on M, Bond takes his boss to Skyfall, Bond's childhood home, for a final, tragic, fatal confrontation with Silva.
VILLAINOUS DISFIGUREMENT: It's a doozy. Silva once held a special place at MI6. Basically, he was Bond before Bond, the best agent of the 90s (oh, how fans would have shit if the part had been played by Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton), but M sold him to the Chinese when he started acting squirrelly. Silva tried to take his cyanide capsule but he somehow survived the poison, and was instead disfigured when the chemical dissolved his bones and teeth. He wears a prosthetic to shore up his hollow face.
THE MUSCLE: We're three movies into the Daniel Craig era, and it appears the villain's cartoonish muscle may be a thing of the past. Silva's only notable henchman is Patrice (Ola Rapace), a thug who's surprisingly adept at standing up to Bond but, alas, still only human. He takes a plummet from a building in China (and never actually shares the screen with his boss.)
BOND GIRL AND FEMME FATALE: The most noteworthy Bond Girl in the film is Severine (Berenice Lim Marlohe), a woman in thrall to Silva. She's more of a prisoner than a lover (shades of Maud Adams in The Man With the Golden Gun), and asks Bond to kill Silva for her. Unfortunately, Silva takes the upper hand and murders Severine before Bond can rescue her. This plot line is a bit uncomfortable, but more on that later.
The true Bond Girl of the film is M. Played for the 7th time by Judi Dench, M fills every role in the plot usually reserved for a Bond girl except the sexual. She's supportive of Bond but acting on her own agenda. Her decisions nearly get Bond killed, but he comes back to support and protect her. And the film's tragic conclusion promises to affect Bond in a manner similar to the fate of Tracy Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The shoe doesn't totally fit, but at the very least, M is the most significant and memorable female presence in the film.
"PAY ATTENTION, 007": For the first time in the Daniel Craig era, we have a Q. Ben Whishaw plays the role as a little pigeon-chested hipster, but he has that crisp dialogue delivery and prickly manner that both clashes with and complements Daniel Craig's blunt-force bruiser. Q's introduction—admiring art of a fading battleship being towed to wreckage—is one of the film's highlights and he'll no doubt become a fan favorite if he sticks around for further adventures. He's not Desmond Llewellyn. He's different. But he's still Q, recognizable and welcome.
He delivers Bond a couple of minor trifles in a call back to the early days. He delivers a new Walther PPK and a radio transmitter for SOS calls. Both gadgets are among the first items ever given by Q to Connery's Bond, although they have the requisite 21st century upgrades, like a gun grip coded to 007's palm. Oddly enough, the radio he provides Bond is larger and clunkier than the one Q provided to Bond in Goldfinger almost 50 years ago.
Speaking of that movie, Skyfall also boasts the original Goldfinger-era Aston Martin, complete with original tricks like ejector seat and headlight machine guns, but the film implies Bond provided those upgrades himself without Q's involvement. Seems a bit cute for the Daniel Craig version of Bond, but whatever.
MOST EMBARRASSING CULTURAL MOMENT: Skyfall is a weird movie from a social-justice perspective as it seems to take one step back for the ones it takes forward. Let's tackle the major complaints in order.
1.) Moneypenny: This one bugged the hell out of me on the first viewing, but I've rethought my position. Basically, Bond's unnamed field partner in the opening scene, the woman that shoots him played by Naomie Harris, is remanded to desk work after shooting Bond and later expresses a desire to get back into the field. Bond suggests that she's not meant to be a field agent, and so she settles into a role as M's secretary. And her name is Eve Moneypenny. Some people take that as a suggestion that women aren't fit for field work. Here we are in the 21st century, and the kick-ass action hero female regresses to a copies-and-coffee job by the end of the film. Good. Gravy.
I get that complaint but, after watching the film again, yeah, Moneypenny pretty much sucks as a field agent. Not only does she shoot Bond, but she nearly loses Patrice in the car a couple of times. Bond literally has to steer for her at one point and, once Bond's on the train, M has to scream at Moneypenny to remind her to get back into the car chase as she just kind of dumbly watches the train disappear. That's in a high-pressure situation, but even in a low-pressure surveillance later in the film, Bond has to remind her of simple day-one espionage stuff, like not touching her ear while she's talking on her secret transmitter.
Look, progress rules, but the film establishes a Moneypenny that is straight up going to get herself killed if she remains a field agent. And while, given the Bond films' track record in gender equality, it's extremely tempting to call this a big step backwards, it's hard for me to believe that a film that idolizes M like Skyfall is saying that women can't do this job. I'd rather have a Moneypenny who tried field work and failed than one who was hired from the typing pool in the first place, so there's still an underlying suggestion that MI6 isn't quite as backwards as it used to be. Besides, the film clearly suggests that Moneypenny's job is more than clerical. It's after she starts working in the office that she winds up watching Bond's back in the casino, so I think this is less a step backward than a step to the side, one that positions Moneypenny in her familiar position, but generally mixes up her job description and makes her more of an active participant in the chaos. Verdict: I'm good with it.
2.) Gay Panic: Silva's introduction scene is one of the all-time classics. He takes the stage across a long room, telling Bond a story about an island full of rats that's dripping with meaning. He then tries to convince Bond to join his team and, when that doesn't seem to fly, he moves into a seduction. The issue here is that homosexuality has been used before in Bond villains as a way to distinguish them as something less than manly or just as creepy-weird (the assassins from Diamonds are Forever, to name one obvious example.) It's disappointing that a 21st century Bond movie would dip right back into the gay panic playbook to make Silva disgusting to the heteronormal crowd.
Except, is Silva really gay? He's certainly flamboyant, but the film seems to suggest he's more bisexual or, really, just into the power he can hold over a person. His sexuality never becomes an affectation, never gets mentioned again, and his vamping around seems motivated by his insanity. He reminds me more of Heath Ledger's asexual Joker than a homosexual predator. But gay, straight, or in-between, is it OK anymore to paint a Bond villain as sexually ambiguous? To me, the scene is a way for Silva mess with Bond's mind. He's read the file, and he knows Bond is a womanizer, and so he makes a move designed to unsettle and maybe prick Bond's steel trap and trigger a response. The way to really gauge the film's perspective is to see how Bond reacts, and that's a breath of fresh air. Trust me, a Sean Connery or a Roger Moore Bond movie would have had Bond reacting with rage and revulsion. Our new modern Bond takes what Silva offers and flips it right back to him. That's progress of a sort. Verdict: Push
3.) Severine: And now we remember that for all of Bond's slow progress, the Bond writers can make a dumbass move. Severine, our sultry Bond Girl from the Chinese casino, plays coy with Bond until he pins down her backstory with a couple of key observations. He deduces that she's been a sex slave since she was a child and that she fell in with Silva as a way to get out of the trade. Now, of course, she's back in bondage and at the will of powerful men. That's a very heavy, tragic backstory for a Bond movie, which makes what happens next even more bizarre.
Severine invites Bond onto her yacht so that she can take him to find and kill Silva. Great. But you know what you shouldn't do with a former sex slave, Bond? You probably shouldn't get naked and sneak up on her in the shower, huh? The actress even goes into shivers and shakes because SHE seems to get how fucked this is, but Bond just does his thing and then does very little to save her life after they get to the island. Silva murders her, and all Bond can get out is a quip about scotch. Some things change, but some things something something Bond hates women. Verdict: Oh, come the fuck on, Bond.
WORTH MENTIONING: As of this writing, Skyfall is the highest-grossing Bond film of all time, even adjusted for inflation! That means that, dollar for dollar, Skyfall has made more money than even Thunderball or Goldfinger, the phenomenon films that had people lined up around the blocks in America. Of course, a lot of this has to do with the widening of the foreign markets, but that's still incredible…. Thanks to MGM's never-ending money problems, production on Skyfall was halted completely for almost a year, well after director Sam Mendes had gotten involved. Rather than abandon the project and move on, Mendes stuck with it and refined his plans, resulting in a very carefully designed and executed film…. In the lead-up to this film, Daniel Craig appeared as Bond in a skit with the actual Queen Elizabeth II to open the 2012 Olympics. That's the equivalent of an American Olympics that began with President Obama being escorted to the stadium by Superman…. The main theme, sung by Adele, became one of the most successful Bond songs of all time, and the first Bond tune to win the Academy Award for Best Song.
OVERALL: I spent a lot of time deciding where to place Skyfall on my list of Bond movies, and the decision hinged on figuring out what kind of list this actually is. Is my list a countdown of the best Bond MOVIES or a countdown of the best BOND movies? Because there's not much of an argument against Skyfall being the best Bond film of all time, from the writing, to the performances, to the incredible cinematography and direction. So Skyfall is great, but here's the thing: it doesn't much resemble James Bond.
Part of that stems from the state of the franchise, as Casino Royale and especially Quantum of Solace kept shucking Bond elements in an effort to make the spy more contemporary and relevant. The other factor is the script, which goes places in the Bond world that we've never been before. After traipsing around the globe in every kind of exotic location (even space!), it turns out that the final frontier is Bond's mind. The Bond series is about big villains and grand plans, but Skyfall ends with low-fi home defense and constructs a villain who spends years of planning and millions of dollars checking off boxes on a global scheme with a summary that reads "kick open door, shoot old woman."
But for all of its oddball uniqueness, Skyfall earns a lot of goodwill from Bond fans for finally, finally setting the stage. We now know the details of Bond's tragic childhood and the cold old home he grew up in, and we can put those pieces together with the puzzle of his betrayal by Vesper Lynd in Royale, and finally say that we understand Bond's character. We know why he distant and cold, and we know why he might find it necessary to find work as a killer. Now audiences can follow him into the next round of his adventures while knowing him as more than just an indestructible superspy, which is something that no filmmaker pulled off or even attempted in the previous 50 years. The last decade of genre cinema has been about tearing down our superhero icons and picking them apart to identify the interesting bits. Think about Nolan's Batman trilogy and how astonishing it is that Bruce Wayne's a more important character than Batman or any of his loony villains. The same can be said for Sam Raimi's version of Peter Parker or, if trailers can be believed, Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman. James Bond has at last become the focus of James Bond films, not his gadgets or his girls, and it's therefore both exciting and alarming to see the pieces fall into place at the end of Skyfall to bring Bond back to his status quo. Bond is either an anachronistic fossil or a sleek, modern warrior. Is it possible we can have both at the same time?
It's becoming increasingly clear that Casino Royale was a line on the map, a new beginning that abandoned all that came before. The original cycle of Bond films has Sean Connery as its model, and the next 20 Bond films could be looking back to Daniel Craig. If that's the case, then Skyfall is Craig's Goldfinger, the third film in his run where the pieces finally clicked after a bit of experimentation and discovery. For a film that ends with such a strong affirmation of Bond's past, Skyfall has much more exciting things to say about his future.
2. ???
3. Skyfall
5. Goldeneye
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
8. Octopussy
10. Thunderball
11. Dr. No
14. Live and Let Die
15. Licence to Kill
18. Quantum of Solace
19. Die Another Day
20. The Man with the Golden Gun
22. A View to a Kill
23. Moonraker


text:
Oft-fined Suh sleeps on NFL invitation
ALLEN PARK, Mich. Ndamukong Suh asked for and was given a chance to meet with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to talk about his play two years ago.
Now, the league wants to discuss Suhs discipline-filled season with the Detroit Lions defensive tackle and he hasnt decided whether to accept the invitation.
I dont know yet, Suh said Wednesday. I have had brief discussions with my agent and GM. Im really just focusing on Dallas. Im not really concerning myself with that, just yet, until the bye week comes.
Detroit (4-3) will have an off week after hosting the Cowboys (4-3) on Sunday.
Suh was fined last week for a second time this season and the seventh time in his four-year career, docked $31,500 for a hit on Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden. Suh was fined $100,000 for an illegal block on Minnesota Vikings center John Sullivan in Week 1 during an interception return. That is largest fine in NFL history for on-field conduct, not counting suspensions.
Has Suh figured out how the NFL decides to discipline players?
Honestly, I havent figured it out, he said.
Suh said the NFL sent Lions general manager Martin Mayhew a letter, extending an opportunity for Suh to have another meeting with league officials.
Its always good to have dialogue and understand where theyre coming from and take it from there, Suh said.
Suh said he came away with the 2011 meeting with the NFL with a better understanding of what changes he needed to make on the field, and believes he has made progress.
I feel like Im playing within the rules for the most part, without a doubt, he said.
Online: AP NFL website www.pro32.ap.orgMORE IN Sports WireFARMINGDALE, N.Y. The Olympics are over. The Ryder Cup in on the horizon. Full StoryLAUSANNE, Switzerland As Usain Bolt parties in London, around 30 Olympic medalists including... Full StoryBRISTOL, Tenn. Keeping a dynasty seems even more challenging than creating one. Full Story
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text:
Opened 8 years ago
Closed 7 years ago
Last modified 5 years ago
#8900 closed (fixed)
TemporaryFileUploadHandler - Windows Permission Error (ErrNo 13)
|Reported by:
|Owned by:
|File uploads/storage
|Triage Stage:
|Has patch:
|Needs documentation:
|Needs tests:
|Patch needs improvement:
|Easy pickings:
When I upload files with the TemporaryFileUploadHandler I get a Permission Denied Exception.
- try:
83. os.remove(old_file_name) ... 84. except OSError, e: 85. # Certain operating systems (Cygwin and Windows) 86. # fail when deleting opened files, ignore it 87. if getattr(e, 'winerror', 0) != 32: 88. # FIXME: should we also ignore errno 13? 89. raise
So what I get is the errno 13.
Here is the full stack trace:
Environment: Request Method: POST Request URL: http://localhost:8000/experiments/3/upload_file/ Django Version: 1.0-final-SVN-8968 Python Version: 2.4.0 Installed Applications: ['django.contrib.auth', 'django.contrib.contenttypes', 'django.contrib.sessions', 'django.contrib.formtools', 'django.contrib.markup', 'sites', 'experiments'] Installed Middleware: ('django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware', 'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware', 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware', 'django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware', 'django.middleware.transaction.TransactionMiddleware') Traceback: File "C:\Programme\Python24\lib\site-packages\django\core\handlers\base.py" in get_response 86. response = callback(request, *callback_args, **callback_kwargs) File "D:\projects\openContext\src\experiments\views.py" in upload_file 105. datafile.file.save(filename, request.FILES['file'], save=False) File "C:\Programme\Python24\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\fields\files.py" in save 74. self._name = self.storage.save(name, content) File "C:\Programme\Python24\lib\site-packages\django\core\files\storage.py" in save 45. name = self._save(name, content) File "C:\Programme\Python24\lib\site-packages\django\core\files\storage.py" in _save 150. file_move_safe(content.temporary_file_path(), full_path) File "C:\Programme\Python24\lib\site-packages\django\core\files\move.py" in file_move_safe 83. os.remove(old_file_name) Exception Type: OSError at /experiments/3/upload_file/ Exception Value: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'D:\\projects\\openContext\\htdocs\\media\\temp\\_5xns1.upload'
Change History (5)
comment:1 Changed 8 years ago by anonymous
- milestone post-1.0 deleted
Milestone post-1.0 deleted
comment:2 Changed 8 years ago by jacob
- milestone set to 1.1
- Needs documentation unset
- Needs tests unset
- Patch needs improvement unset
- Triage Stage changed from Unreviewed to Accepted
I guess we should ignore errno 13, too.
comment:3 Changed 7 years ago by kmtracey
- Owner changed from nobody to kmtracey
- Status changed from new to assigned
I've got Windows and this is causing test suite failures I can see on Python 2.3 and Python 2.4 so I'll fix it.
comment:4 Changed 7 years ago by kmtracey
- Resolution set to fixed
- Status changed from assigned to closed
comment:5 Changed 5 years ago by jacob
- milestone 1.1 deleted
Milestone 1.1 deleted
Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets.


text:
Tom Hateley had opened the scoring for the hosts directly from a 10th-minute corner and Higdon netted the first of his three goals a minute later. Richie Foran reduced the deficit to 2-1 before half-time but Higdon added another two goals in eight minutes of the final quarter of the game, with Inverness seeing a late penalty saved.
Motherwell made five changes to the team which lost at Levante in the Europa League on Thursday. Starting berths were handed to Nicky Law, Hateley, Chris Humphrey, Robert McHugh and Zaine Francis-Angol, the latter three having appeared as substitutes in Spain.
Visiting captain Foran returned from suspension with Billy McKay dropping to the bench following Inverness' midweek victory at Arbroath, while in a late pre-match change, David Raven started in place of defender Simon King.
Inverness' Ross Draper had the first effort of the game, trying a shot inside two minutes which goalkeeper Darren Randolph had to dive to turn round a post. Robert McHugh responded moments later with a side-footed effort which was deflected for a corner, following Chris Humphrey's good work down the right.
Motherwell then seized control with two rapid-fire goals, beginning as Hateley put his side ahead on 10 minutes, his corner curling in at the near post. The game had barely restarted when Humphrey powered up the right wing and crossed for Higdon, who arrived in the box at pace to slam home from close range.
Inverness enjoyed several raids forward, Andrew Shinnie creating a good opportunity for David Raven, whose shot was blocked by the goalkeeper. The Highlanders reduced the deficit on 27 minutes when Foran netted a looping header from Owain Tudur-Jones' cross, the ball curling beyond Randolph at the far post.
Motherwell took the initiative after the break and saw Keith Lasley come agonisingly close with a diagonal effort seven minutes after the restart. McHugh then threw himself at a Law cross but was unable to connect just feet from the goalline, with Higdon hitting the side netting on 57 minutes.
The hosts believed they had a penalty claim on the hour when Fraser Kerr was challenged inside the box, but had to settle for a corner. Motherwell made it 3-1 on 71 minutes when Higdon intercepted a poor backpass and finished off the base of the left-hand post. Higdon completed his hat-trick in style by lashing high into the net from Henrik Ojamaa's cross.
Inverness' woes were complete two minutes later when they were awarded a penalty for Jonathan Page's foul on Foran, only for Shinnie's effort to be expertly saved by Randolph, who dived to his right to push the ball to safety.
Meanwhile, Dundee won their first Clydesdale Bank Premier League match of the season after a 1-0 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle.
Ryan Conroy's third minute penalty was all that was required for Dundee to secure all three points and lift them off the bottom of the table.
Hearts dominated the attacking possession but couldn't beat an inspired Rab Douglas in the Dundee goal. The veteran goalkeeper made a string of impressive stops including John Sutton's first half spot kick.
The hosts made one enforced change to the team that drew 1-1 with Liverpool in the Europa League play-off on Thursday. Anfield scorer David Templeton completed a switch to Rangers on transfer deadline day and was replaced in the starting line-up by Dale Carrick, the youngster making the first start of his professional career. New signing Ryan Stevenson had to be content with a place on the bench.
Visitors Dundee made two changes to the side that exited the League Cup at the hands of Queen's Park, as striker Colin Nish was recalled to the starting line-up in place of Steven Milne while Graham Webster dropped out to make way for the fit-again Lewis Toshney.
Nish made an immediate impact by helping to give Dundee the lead inside three minutes. The former Hibs striker turned into the penalty area and was needlessly tripped by Hearts captain Marius Zaliukas. Referee Craig Thomson showed no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot, and up stepped Conroy to smash the ball low past Jamie McDonald.
Hearts pressed their opponents looking for a quick route back into the match, but they had to wait 20 minutes for their first sight of goal. Even then it was a speculative effort as Callum Paterson's 30-yard attempt was cautiously pushed over the bar by Douglas.
The home side were then rewarded a route back into the match as Ryan McGowan wriggled his way through the penalty area before being tugged down by Toshney. Again, Craig Thomson immediately awarded a penalty and although Sutton's spot-kick was hit with power and accuracy, it was brilliantly parried away by Douglas diving low to his right hand corner.
Paterson showed pace and power to leave two Dundee defenders in his wake, but scuffed his shot from the edge of the box on his weaker left foot.
With the first half drawing to a close, fellow teenager Carrick then went close to restoring parity. The attacker's swivelled shot from 18 yards had to be tipped round the post by a stretching Douglas.
For the second half, Hearts boss John McGlynn introduced Stevenson for his second Hearts debut in the hope of injecting life into his side's struggling attack. Withdrawing was Sutton in a like-for-like swap in terms of position and experience, but it was the youngsters who again went closest to levelling the match. Novikovas' cutback found Paterson in the penalty area but he fired wide from 10 yards.
It wasn't long, however, before Stevenson began to influence proceedings. On the hour he produced a save from Douglas and then from the resulting corner he beat the keeper with a glancing header, only to see Conroy clear the ball off the line.
For the final 25 minutes Hearts were relentless in their pursuit of a goal but couldn't find their way past a Dundee side that defended strongly in the face of a continuous wave of attacks.
For all Hearts pressure there were few chances and the game finished with nothing to show for their efforts.
- Chris Humphrey
- Inverness


text:
The JW Q&A
Culture View
First Person
Culture View
The JW Q&A
A Rabbi's World
The JW Q&A
A Rabbi's World
In the Beginning
Sharpton Mediating New Freddy's Trouble
by Adam Dickter
Staff Writer
Photo Galleria:
The protesters are back at Fred Harari's retail store, but it seems this time there is an unlikely moderator: the Rev Al Sharpton. Sharpton says he is mediating a new dispute with the Jewish merchant whose Harlem store was torched in a deadly 1995 racial conflagration. Four years ago he was recorded at a rally outside Freddyís Fashion Mart urging demonstrators not to let a "white interloper" contribute to the demise of black-owned businesses. "I have met with the protesters and hopefully weíll try to resolve this," Sharpton told The Jewish Week. Some of the same demonstrators who picketed for weeks before a gunman shot seven employees on Dec. 8, 1995, and burned down the store have returned to the reopened shop, now called Uptown Jeans. Harari has won a court order preventing the protesters, led by activist Morris Powell, from gathering within 350 feet of his establishment. The protesters filed a court challenge to reverse the order, but at a recent meeting between them and Harari, Sharpton's lawyer, Michael Hardy, agreed on behalf of the picketers to accept the injunction. It is unclear why the protesters returned. "The reasons seem to be pretty nebulous," said Sharpton. "Three years ago it had to do with the dispute with the record store, but that doesn't seem to be at issue now." Sharpton was referring to a dispute between Harari and Sikhulu Shange, owner of the Record Shack, a longtime institution on 125th Street. Harari, who sublets part of the property he controls to the record storeowner, had planned to take over the space to expand his business. This led to weeks of protests by area activists who believe Harlem residents should have priority in the neighborhood (although Shange lives in the Bronx). Harari claimed the protesters regularly made anti-Semitic threats, and he was in court to obtain a restraining order against the protesters when a man identified by police as Roland Smith entered Freddy's, shot nine employees and set the store afire before shooting himself. Seven employees, plus the gunman, died. Both Harari's store and the Record Shack were heavily damaged in the fire but have since reopened. Shange retained his lease. Sharpton's role as a mediator would be a turnabout from 1995, considering his remarks about a "white interloper." The controversial activist later said he regretted using the word white. Sharpton recently has met with former Mayor Ed Koch and Sen.-elect Charles Schumer as he plans another mayoral run in 2001. Last year he nearly forced a runoff against the Democratic nominee, Ruth Messinger. Many Jewish leaders insist that Sharpton must renounce his past rhetoric in order to gain credibility, but some have maintained a dialogue with him in recognition of his position as an African-American leader. Present at the meeting two weeks ago at Hardy's Manhattan office were Harari and his attorney, Robert Rimberg, Sharpton and Hardy, and two protesters, Powell and a woman identified as Sister Ya. It was the first time the reclusive Harari, a member of the Syrian Jewish community, has met face to face with his Harlem critics. "It was not an easy meeting," acknowledged Sharpton, who said Powell had accused Harari of paying employees less than minimum wage and not adhering to Fire Department regulations. Rimberg told those present that all employees of Uptown Jeans were paid minimum wage or higher and that the store was in compliance with all fire regulations. "The nature of their complaint is that they don't want white businesses in Harlem," said Rimberg. While there are other white-owned businesses on 125th Street, Rimberg said Uptown Jeans was chosen for renewed protests because "it's where the tragedy occurred three years ago, and they know they'll get publicity." At the meeting Hardy (who unsuccessfully defended Sharpton last summer in the Tawana Brawley defamation suit brought by Steven Pagones) signed a stipulation that the protesters would adhere to the injunction and remain 350 feet from Harari's store. It is unclear why the protesters agreed to drop their challenge to the injunction. Hardy did not return a call to his office. While there have been no incidents of violence since the renewed protests began, Rimberg said someone had splashed chicken blood on the sidewalk outside the store and fliers were distributed with the words "It's On," the phrase reportedly used by Smith as he opened fire. "I have no reason to be concerned about [new] violence," said Sharpton, who said the matter seemed to be winding to a close.
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09/22/2009 - 11:08
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Overriding Monitor EDIDs with an INF
With an INF file you can override the Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) of any monitor. A sample INF file, Monsamp.inf, that shows how to do this was provided with the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) through Windows 7 (WDK version 7600). Monsamp.inf is reproduced here.
For info on how to use and modify Monsamp.inf, see Monitor INF File Sections.
Approaches to correcting EDIDs
All monitors, analog or digital, must support EDID, which contains info such as the monitor identifier, manufacturer data, hardware identifier, timing info, and so on. This data is stored in the monitor's EEPROM in a format that is specified by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA).
Monitors provide the EDID to Microsoft Windows components, display drivers, and some user-mode applications. For example, during initialization the monitor driver queries the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver for its brightness query interface and device driver interface (DDI) support, which is in the EDID. Incorrect or invalid EDID info on the monitor's EEPROM can therefore lead to problems such as setting incorrect display modes.
There are two approaches to correcting EDIDs:
- The standard solution is to have the customer send the monitor back to the manufacturer, who reflashes the EEPROM with the correct EDID and returns the monitor to the customer.
- A better solution, described here, is for the manufacturer to implement an INF file that contains the correct EDID info, and have the customer download it to the computer that's connected to the monitor. Windows extracts the updated EDID info from the INF and provides it to components instead of the info from the EEPROM EDID, effectively overriding the EEPROM EDID.
In addition to replacing the EDID info as described here, a vendor can provide an override for the monitor name and the preferred display resolution. Such an override is frequently made available to customers through Windows Update or digital media in the shipping box. Such an override receives higher precedence than the EDID override mentioned here. Guidelines for achieving this can be found in Monitor INF File Sections.
EDID format
EDID data is formatted as one or more 128-byte blocks:
- EDID version 1.0 through 1.2 consists of a single block of data, per the VESA specification.
- With EDID version 1.3 or enhanced EDID (E-EDID), manufacturers can specify one or more extension blocks in addition to the primary block.
Each block is numbered, starting with 0 for the initial block. To update EDID info, the manufacturer's INF specifies the number of the block to be updated and provides 128 bytes of EDID data to replace the original block. The monitor driver obtains the updated data for the corrected blocks from the registry and uses the EEPROM data for the remaining blocks.
Updating an EDID
To update an EDID by using an INF:
- The monitor manufacturer implements an INF that contains the updated EDID info and downloads the file to the user's computer. This can be done through Windows Update or by shipping a CD with the monitor.
- The monitor class installer extracts the updated EDID info from the INF and stores the info as values under this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY\DELA007\ 5&1608c50f&0&10000090&01&20\Device Parameters\EDID_Override
- The monitor driver checks the registry during initialization and uses any EDID info that's stored there instead of the corresponding info on EEPROM. EDID info that has been added to the registry always takes precedence over EEPROM EDID info.
- Windows components and user-mode apps use the updated EDID info.
Overriding an EDID with an INF
To override an EDID, include an AddReg directive in the INF for each block that you want to override, in the following format:
HKR, EDID_OVERRIDE, BlockNumber, Byte 1, Byte 2, Byte 3, Byte 4,...
The block number is followed by 128 hexadecimal integers that contain the binary EDID data.
Manufacturers must update only those EDID blocks that are incorrect. The system obtains the remaining blocks from EEPROM. The following example shows the relevant sections of an INF that updates EDID blocks 0, 4, and 5. The monitor driver obtains blocks 1 - 3 and any extension blocks that follow block 5 from EEPROM:
[ABC.DDInstall.HW] ABC.AddReg ... [ABC.AddReg] HKR, EDID_OVERRIDE, 0, 1, 00, FF, ..., 3B HKR, EDID_OVERRIDE, 4, 1, 1F, 3E, ..., 4E HKR, EDID_OVERRIDE, 5, 1, 24, 5C, ..., 2D ...
For more info on INFs in general, and AddReg and DDInstall in particular, see Creating an INF File.
; monsamp.INF ; ; Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. ; ; This is a generic INF file for overriding EDIDs ; of any monitors, starting with Windows Vista. ; [Version] signature="$WINDOWS NT$" Class=Monitor ClassGuid={4D36E96E-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Provider="MS_EDID_OVERRIDE" DriverVer=04/18/2006, 126.96.36.199 ; Be sure to add the directive below with the proper catalog file after ; WHQL certification. ;CatalogFile=Sample.cat [DestinationDirs] DefaultDestDir=23 [SourceDisksNames] 1=%SourceDisksNames% ; Enable the following section to copy a monitor profile. [SourceDisksFiles] ;profile1.icm=1 [Manufacturer] %MS_EDID_OVERRIDE%=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE,NTx86,NTamd64 ; Modify the hardware ID (MON1234) to match that of the monitor being used. [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE.NTx86] %MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1%=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.Install, MONITOR\MON1234 ; Modify the hardware ID (MON1234) to match that of the monitor being used. [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE.NTamd64] %MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1%=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.Install.NTamd64, MONITOR\MON1234 [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.Install.NTx86] DelReg=DEL_CURRENT_REG AddReg=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.AddReg, 1024, 1280, DPMS CopyFiles=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.CopyFiles [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.Install.NTamd64] DelReg=DEL_CURRENT_REG AddReg=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.AddReg, 1024, 1280, DPMS CopyFiles=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.CopyFiles [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.Install.NTx86.HW] AddReg=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1_AddReg [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.Install.NTamd64.HW] AddReg=MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1_AddReg [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1_AddReg] HKR,EDID_OVERRIDE,"0",0x01,0x00,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF,0xFF,0x00,0x35,\ 0xEE,0x34,0x12,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x0A,0x0E,0x01,0x03,0x68,0x22,0x1B,\ 0x78,0xEA,0xAE,0xA5,0xA6,0x54,0x4C,0x99,0x26,0x14,0x50,0x54,0xA5,0x4B,\ 0x00,0x71,0x4F,0x81,0x80,0xA9,0x40,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,\ 0x01,0x01,0x01,0x30,0x2A,0x00,0x98,0x51,0x00,0x2A,0x40,0x30,0x70,0x13,\ 0x00,0x52,0x0E,0x11,0x00,0x00,0x1E,0x00,0x00,0x00,0xFF,0x00,0x41,0x42,\ 0x30,0x30,0x30,0x30,0x30,0x30,0x30,0x30,0x30,0x31,0x0A,0x00,0x00,0x00,\ 0xFC,0x00,0x4D,0x53,0x20,0x31,0x32,0x33,0x34,0x0A,0x0A,0x0A,0x0A,0x0A,\ 0x0A,0x00,0x00,0x00,0xFD,0x00,0x38,0x4C,0x1F,0x50,0x12,0x00,0x0A,0x20,\ 0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x20,0x00,0xDB [DEL_CURRENT_REG] HKR,MODES HKR,,MaxResolution HKR,,DPMS HKR,,ICMProfile ; Pre-defined AddReg sections. These can be used for default settings ; when a given standard resolution is used. [1024] HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1024,768" [1280] HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1280,1024" [DPMS] HKR,,DPMS,,1 [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.AddReg] HKR,"MODES\1024,768",Mode1,,"31.0-94.0,55.0-160.0,+,+" HKR,"MODES\1280,1024",Mode1,,"31.0-94.0,55.0-160.0,+,+" ; Enable the following section to copy a monitor profile. [MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1.CopyFiles] ;PROFILE1.ICM [Strings] MonitorClassName="Monitor" SourceDisksNames="MS_EDID_OVERRIDE Monitor EDID Override Installation Disk" MS_EDID_OVERRIDE="MS_EDID_OVERRIDE" MS_EDID_OVERRIDE-1="MS EDID Override"