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And so in October I made my way down to Occupy Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, joining the flock of pilgrims trying to figure out what it meant, if it was the start of a powerful wave of resistance or a pimple that could pop at any time. Originated in July by the Canadian group Adbusters Media Foundation, the publishers of Adbusters magazine, the vigil had taken on a party life of its own. It was easy to locate the settlement once out of the subway. Just follow the lure of beating drums, then look for waving placards. I made the rounds, spotting familiar faces. Asked at O.W.S. by a young volunteer of angelic glow and urchin garb if I was a veteran of such protests, since I was so evidently a Survivor of the 60s, I said sagely, "No, but I've been to Comic-Con, and that was no picnic." It was deflection on my part. I didn't want to risk being an elder bringdown. Impressive and inspiring as the scene was in its organic integrity, I felt I had seen much of this movie before. As a high schooler I attended anti–Vietnam War protests in Baltimore—rather humdrum affairs compared with the riotous tear-gas clashes elsewhere in the late 60s, but furnished with police horses, bullhorns, barricades, and folding tables piled with pamphlets—and at first leaf so much of what I saw at O.W.S. struck me as wanly familiar, a bit rerun and motley. (The funniest capsule description came from writer and editor Thomas Beller, who tweeted that the O.W.S. gathering looked like a meeting of the Harper's Magazine subscriber list.) To shuffle on caterpillar feet through the congested arteries of Zuccotti Park, which had been converted into a campsite in September 2011 and had sparked dozens of occupations across the country (just as O.W.S. itself had taken its cues from the "Arab spring" revolts and the uprisings in Spain and Greece), was simultaneously to wend down memory lane and into the digital matrix.
Instead of mimeograph machines of yore spitting out leaflets, laptops were arrayed in the park's press hutch, wired to the world, their lids raised like shields. Cell phones were powered by stationary bikes after gas-powered generators and biofuels were banned and confiscated as a fire hazard under orders from the city, a decision defended by Mayor Bloomberg. (After a legal tussle, O.W.S. got its generators just before pop-music perennials Graham Nash and David Crosby were set to perform.) Digicams pointed in every direction in a crisscross maze of pixel capture, as if crowd-sourcing a super-documentary. But so much else was imported from the past, laid out like a yard sale. Some of the leftist groups passing out flyers not only hadn't changed their rhetoric since Mick Jagger fancied himself a street-fighting man, they hadn't updated their logos: same raised fist, same tilted skyline. The chants and exhortations—"The people UNITED will never be deFEATED"—repeated like an organ-grinder's tune. So many recognizable types re-united at the square. The whiskered males who looked like grizzled prospectors, their army-surplus fatigue jackets festooned with the ribbons and buttons of slogans and causes past. The older women with the white sainted hair and weather-beaten fortitude of former nuns, followers of Dorothy Day and Catholic Worker. The earnest troubadours who reminded you of why John Belushi smashed that folk guitar in Animal House. And, at the west end of the park, the communal drummers pounding away as if trying to revive the mud raves of Woodstock. (Drumming became the migraine bane of O.W.S. as the all-hours skin pounding solidified into a male-bonding ego trip, colonizing the soundscape, annoying the park's neighbors, alienating allies on the local community board, and jeopardizing the entire operation with eviction.) Most of the slurs that were slung at O.W.S. were also 60s throwbacks, such as mocking the campers as a bunch of "smelly hippies" holding a body-odor convention. The only thing I smelled down there was food, the vendors' carts around the park catering to the occupiers and visitors like those street-fair booths that turn Manhattan avenues into fried-meat air baths.
But eye-level isn't the only perspective for appraising something as prismatic and mutating as Occupy Wall Street. Look up after you leave Zuccotti Park to the west and there spires the silvery glass of 1 World Trade Center under construction, so abstractly imposing and declarative. Silvery glass sheathes skyscrapers from outside scrutiny, "the sun-comprehending glass" (to borrow poet Philip Larkin's phrase) reflecting all, revealing nothing. If nothing else (and it has accomplished so much else), Occupy Wall Street has altered the geography of consciousness, taking back part of the mental real estate of Manhattan from the death shadow of the fallen towers and the squandering greed of the bankers. Within a few weeks of peaceful occupation, the controversy over the "Ground Zero mosque" had been set aside, nearly forgotten, and the 9/11 Memorial wasn't the only visitor draw. Something human-scaled had rooted.
One difference from the 60s demonstrations is that the O.W.S. organizers have coalesced a group identity that has denied the snout-poking media its craving for a freshly hatched celebrity spokesmodel. The Port Huron Statement of 1962—the rousing prolegomenon of the New Left, calling for a rejuvenation of participatory democracy and a peace movement after the fear-based paralysis of the Cold War and the entrenchment of inequality at home—made a firebrand symbol out of its chief author, Tom Hayden, a founder of the Students for a Democratic Society; the Free Speech Movement of 1964 gave us Mario Savio with his ringing speech on the steps of the University of California at Berkeley's Sproul Hall; the Columbia University uprising of 1968 produced Mark Rudd; and the militant black-nationalist movement had its avatar in Malcolm X. The only celebrities at O.W.S. were dignitaries paying hospitality calls and expressing solidarity, such as the ubiquitous Russell Simmons, Tim Robbins, Roseanne Barr, and that one-woman wagon train of personal and political evolution known as Naomi Wolf, whose arrest on October 18th on Hudson Street outside the Huffington Post's "Game Changer" award ceremony at Skylight Soho that she was attending was a major miscalculation on the part of the N.Y.P.D., a publicity gift that the maned huntress would infuse with the melodrama of Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! Yet few could doubt Wolf's sincerity and devotion to the occupation (she wasn't down there dilettanting), and the speeches and interviews given in support of O.W.S. by global-minded, history-informed heavy lifters such as authors Chris Hedges ("I think people have finally woken up to the kleptocracy that we live in"), Naomi Klein (who told the assembled, "Only when you stay put can you put down roots"), and the promiscuously prolific Slavoj Žižek ("Don't fall in love with yourselves, with the nice time here," he counseled. "But remember, carnivals come cheap . . . ") underscored that this wasn't an extended sleepover for idealistic indigents and foolish dreamers but a bold, shrewd countermove to the rapacious march of income inequality, eroding standards of living, austerity imposed from above to pay for the ruinous follies of the few, the corporate grinding of the poor and the weak into snuff powder.
Not every experienced pro found O.W.S.'s deliberate lack of concrete demands and indefinite residency in the park the stuff of enduring romance. One afternoon there I ran into Al Giordano, a cagey desperado and veteran mobilizer who's the founder of the School of Authentic Journalism, based in Latin America, which trains a new generation of guerrilla journalistas for the viral-media era of flash mobs and freelance investigation. Anything that saps energy impedes strategic and tactical prowess and maneuverability, Giordano warned in his blog the Field, and the headless organism of consensus-building and decision-making through a General Assembly invites the sort of seminar bores and needy barnacles who can deaden any luau:
Within any venture, there are "doers" and there are "talkers." Typically, the talkers spend a lot of time discussing and debating what the doers should do. . . . They're lonely and we feel bad for them, but nor do we want to spend our days and nights listening to them drone on and on with their inner monologues. Consensus meetings attract this kind of person like flies to shit. They also attract ideologues—the proverbial "socialist with a shopping bag of his own press clippings" as Lower East Side performance artist Penny Arcade has observed—and also people who love to debate the semantics of language and identity politics ad nauseum.
Leaderless leadership can easily unspool into a spaghetti of loose ends. As this is being written, O.W.S. has managed to maintain a beanbag cohesion, but Giordano's scenario of schisms opening between doers and talkers would play out uglily at Occupy L.A., when the action cravers turned out to be disruptive bullies of anarchist tendencies and the talkers found themselves knocked aside like bowling pins. Attempts to self-police the pot use and other wayward indulgences of those occupying the lawn of Los Angeles City Hall imploded when a militant cadre of self-styled anarchist action figures busted up the kumbaya, reported Natasha Vargas-Cooper on the Web site the Awl:
By the time the General Assembly was ready to meet at 7:30 p.m., things were unraveling. A large group, made up almost entirely of men, stood in a circle denouncing the General Assembly and their efforts to "police" the camp, particularly regarding drinking or smoking weed. Anyone who spoke in favor of a code of conduct was aggressively booed. Adding to the morass were four different men looping in and out of the circle, each armed with his own megaphone, shouting their own grievances and rhetoric. When a runner from the General Assembly made the announcement that they would begin the meeting, he was thunderously shouted down, then someone yelled out "The GA is dead!" and the crowd erupted in both celebration and shock: "We don't want you or your fucking procedure!". . . A facilitator from the General Assembly tried one last time to get the group's attention through a call-and-response tactic. He was shouted down by two men, one of whom was shouting directly in his ear. Then it was announced that there would be two minutes of drumming. The loud thumping gave way to spastic dancing and eventually some primal bellowing.
Leftists used to be fond of quoting Emma Goldman's apocryphal declaration, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution," but this wasn't the wiggling anyone had in mind.
If such a rupture doesn't occur naturally from within, it can be induced from outside. Why resort to the crude application of state violence to rout occupiers, as the Oakland, California, and Denver, Colorado, riot-geared police did, deploying pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, and old-school beatdowns (a Marine veteran named Scott Olsen received a skull fracture at the Oakland fracas), when you can craftily subvert it by despoiling its very strengths and virtues? That's right out of the Karl Rove playbook, and it appears that the Bloomberg administration took a page out of it. An eyewitness account by Harry Siegel in the New York Daily News (October 30, 2011) speculated that the New York Police Department had begun using the inclusiveness of O.W.S. against it, encouraging undesirables to make the park their deadbeat club: "Two different drunks I spoke with last week told me they'd been encouraged to 'take it to Zuccotti' by officers who'd found them drinking in other parks," and the N.Y.P.D. was suspected of also giving homeless people a pass there to funk up the place. Rather than uproot an encampment, engulf it, turn it into a zombie attraction—that seemed to be the police command's divide-and-conquer strategy. With critical mass building in the park and winter approaching (there's already been one freak snowstorm), calls were made for O.W.S. to devise an exit strategy before it found its flanks completely overrun, overwhelmed: pick a date, declare victory, and disperse. The initiative shown by the young organizers and volunteers of O.W.S. had already achieved more with less than anyone could have conceived. Past a certain point, what's left to prove? Hardy and resilient, they had already outlasted anything the Tea Party could put on. A Tea Partyer's idea of roughing it is packing only one picnic cooler.
Awakened this morning to the news that deep in the shame of night the New York City police, under orders from billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, swarmed upon the activist campgrounds of Zuccotti Park and uprooted Occupy Wall Street, removing tents, tarps, and sleeping bags, arresting scores of resisting protesters and strong-arming journalists, and heaving the thousands of donated books in the O.W.S. library into dump trucks, which as a piece of political optics evoked the tactics of authoritarian regimes, though it was later learned that the books were safely stored. (Here is a firsthand report of the library confiscation by Stephen Boyer at the Occupy Wall Street Library site.) A court order was issued instructing the city to let the protesters return to the park, but this afternoon it stood empty and surrounded, a barren symbol of Bloomberg's third term. And now comes word that the protesters are being allowed back into the park in an orderly single file, like the customers at Seinfeld's Soup Nazi restaurant, but with the proviso that tents, sleeping bags, generators, and other installations are now prohibited, leaving O.W.S. at the mercy of winter, shorn of necessities and insulation. If the forced evacuation of Zuccotti Park was the end of chapter one in the O.W.S. saga, chapter two has begun, and we shall see if new life has been breathed into the movement now that the powers-that-be have shown their seizing hand.


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But updated for 1.42. Makes moods drop at a smooth constant rate instead of slowing down the lower they get. Does not affect Hygiene or Fun, and will slow down when a sim is Starving so sims don't drop like flies.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Distributing a Subset of the Standard Library
|Tomáš Orsava <tomas.n at orsava.cz>, Petr Viktorin <encukou at gmail.com>, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com>
|Standards Track
Python is often being built or distributed without its full standard library. However, there is as of yet no standard, user friendly way of properly informing the user about the failure to import such missing stdlib modules. This PEP proposes a mechanism for identifying standard library modules and informing the user appropriately.
There are several use cases for including only a subset of Python's standard library. However, there is so far no user-friendly mechanism for informing the user why a stdlib module is missing and how to remedy the situation appropriately.
When one of Python standard library modules (such as _sqlite3) cannot be compiled during a Python build because of missing dependencies (e.g. SQLite header files), the module is simply skipped. If you then install this compiled Python and use it to try to import one of the missing modules, Python will fail with a ModuleNotFoundError [3].
This can confuse users who may not understand why a cleanly built Python is missing standard library modules.
Linux and other distributions
Many Linux and other distributions are already separating out parts of the standard library to standalone packages. Among the most commonly excluded modules are the tkinter module, since it draws in a dependency on the graphical environment, and the test package, as it only serves to test Python internally and is about as big as the rest of the standard library put together.
The methods of omission of these modules differ. For example, Debian patches the file Lib/tkinter/__init__.py to envelop the line import _tkinter in a try-except block and upon encountering an ImportError it simply adds the following to the error message: please install the python3-tk package [1]. Fedora and other distributions simply don't include the omitted modules, potentially leaving users baffled as to where to find them.
The sysconfig [4] module will be extended by two functions: sysconfig.get_stdlib_modules(), which will provide a list of the names of all Python standard library modules, and a function sysconfig.get_optional_modules(), that will list optional stdlib module names. The results of the latter function—sysconfig.get_optional_modules()—as well as of the existing sys.builtin_module_names will both be subsets of the full list provided by sysconfig.get_stdlib_modules(). These added lists will be generated during the Python build process and saved in _sysconfigdata-*.py file along with other sysconfig [4] values.
The default implementation of the sys.excepthook [5] function will then be modified to dispense an appropriate message when it detects a failure to import a module identified by one of the two new sysconfig [4] functions as belonging to the Python standard library.
The sys.excepthook [5] function gets called when a raised exception is uncaught and the program is about to exit or—in an interactive session—the control is being returned to the prompt. This makes it a perfect place for customized error messages, as it will not influence caught errors and thus not slow down normal execution of Python scripts.
The inclusion of the functions sysconfig.get_stdlib_modules() and sysconfig.get_optional_modules() will also provide a long sought-after way of easily listing the names of Python standard library modules [2], which will—among other benefits—make it easier for code analysis, profiling, and error reporting tools to offer runtime --ignore-stdlib flags.
Ideas leading up to this PEP were discussed on the python-dev mailing list [6] and subsequently on python-ideas [7].
Recommendation for Downstream Distributors
By patching site.py [8] [*] to provide their own implementation of the sys.excepthook [5] function, Python distributors can display tailor-made error messages for any uncaught exceptions, including informing the user of a proper, distro-specific way to install missing standard library modules upon encountering a ModuleNotFoundError [3]. Some downstream distributors are already using this method of patching sys.excepthook to integrate with platform crash reporting mechanisms.
An example implementation is attached to this PEP.
Backwards Compatibility
No problems with backwards compatibility are expected. Distributions that are already patching Python modules to provide custom handling of missing dependencies can continue to do so unhindered.
Reference and Example Implementation
TBD. The finer details will depend on what's practical given the capabilities of the build system.
Notes and References
|Or sitecustomize.py [8] for organizations with their own custom Python variant.
|(1, 2) https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/exceptions.html#ModuleNotFoundError
|(1, 2, 3) https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/sysconfig.html
|(1, 2, 3) https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/sys.html#sys.excepthook
|(1, 2) https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/site.html
This document has been placed in the public domain.


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Thursday, August 23, 2012
Review: Gone Girl
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
"Fatal Attraction of the 21st Century"
...only I'm not sure who plays the role of the psycho Glenn Close character -- the wife Amy or the husband Nick?
Gone Girl is a fascinating read, an emotional rollercoaster featuring two "whackos" (thanks for that apt description, AnneOK) who have the misfortune of marrying each other. Nick is a magazine writer from Missouri who feels guilty for his charming good looks. Amy is also a writer, a beautiful blonde, and the daughter of two psychologists (the poor thing -- she's definitely screwed for life with parents like that!)
Nick and Amy meet in NYC and fall in love with each other...or who they think is each other. When they both lose their jobs in the recession, they move to Nick's small Missouri hometown. Amy hates it there, and Nick isn't loving life either. When Amy suddenly goes missing, is Nick to blame? Did he murder his wife?
I love how the author manipulated my emotions so well. First I liked Nick. Then I hated Nick. Then I hated Amy. Then I thought they were both nutjobs who deserved each other!
The author's voice is fun and snarky. Here Nick watches Amy cook him breakfast the night after they have a blow-out argument:
When she spied me lurking there in grubby boxers, my hair in full Heat Miser spike, she leaned against the kitchen counter and said, "Well, hello, handsome."
New Yorker Amy is so disdainful of small town Missouri.
Yep, I have gone cold turkey off all things East Coast and I have earned my thirty-day chip (here it would be a potato chip).
Here Amy describes her neighbor Noelle, and I cringe from the spot-on snide remarks about my Midwestern home:
The Midwest is full of these types of people: the nice-enoughs. Nice enough but with a soul made of plastic--easy to mold, easy to wipe down. The woman's entire music collection is formed from Pottery Barn compilations. Her bookshelves are stocked with coffee-table crap: The Irish in America, Mizzou Football: A History in Pictures, We Remember 9/11, Something Dumb with Kittens.
Amy's character is simultaneously scintillating and scary. Her cognitive intelligence is stellar (thanks for that insight, Mitzi) but her emotional intelligence is abysmal. I think she might meet criteria for both Borderline Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder. When she catches Nick doing something naughty, she sizzles with a revenge plan.
I had a new persona, not of my choosing. I was Average Dumb Woman Married to Average Shitty Man. He had single-handedly de-amazed Amazing Amy.
Nick's got his own issues. I diagnose him with Narcissistic Personality Disorder!
This novel takes a while to build up to the drama and suspense, but it's well worth it. All the background and characterization of the first 200 pages is likely necessary to manipulate the reader's emotions so well.
Recommended for: single people who want validation for never marrying, and married/partnered people who want to feel good about their marriage by comparison!
View all my reviews
Authors--join us on Omnific's Blog Bounce! Instructions here.
12 comments:
- Nicki Elson said...
My sister-in-law was just telling me how much she loved this book. I'll get in on my list for sure - how can I not after your most excellent reasons to read it, haha.
I like that you include appropriate quotes from the book in your reviews - it highlights your points and also gives me a clue as to whether I'll enjoy the writing style.
- August 23, 2012 at 8:51 AM
- Jennifer Lane said...
Thanks, Nicki! I like to bookmark favorite quotes as I go, and ereaders make that oh so easy. I think you'd definitely enjoy this story!
- August 23, 2012 at 1:39 PM
- Gina Gao said...
This sounds like a great book! Thanks so much for sharing.
- August 23, 2012 at 2:12 PM
- Carol Kilgore said...
Nice to meet you on Alex's blog. Great review!
- August 23, 2012 at 4:56 PM
- Jennifer Lane said...
Thanks, Gina! I'd definitely check it out. I'm a new follower on your blog.
- August 23, 2012 at 6:12 PM
- Jennifer Lane said...
Carol, your book that was featured sounds very good. Thanks for stopping by!
- August 23, 2012 at 6:12 PM
- Smash Attack! said...
Someone just mentioned this book to me and then BANG! You reviewed it! I am wicked intrigued now and will definitely need to read it.
- August 23, 2012 at 8:46 PM
- Jennifer Lane said...
Smash, strap yourself in for quite a ride with this book. You'll be happy these two aren't your clients! Thanks for stopping by.
- August 25, 2012 at 9:41 AM
- LTM said...
I've had this one on my TBR list a while. I even have a sample on my Kindle! I've got to get it now. Thanks, Jennifer! :o) <3
- August 27, 2012 at 12:44 PM
I asked for this book for Christmas. I'm hoping next year I'll read more 'adult novels' then YA like I did this year. That or Historical Fiction. ha ha! I'm just afraid I'll burn out on YA.
- December 23, 2012 at 5:24 AM
- Jennifer Lane said...
LTM, have you read this yet? Maybe you'll get it as a present this holiday season. :-)
- December 23, 2012 at 9:54 AM
- Jennifer Lane said...
Broken Shelf, I love variety so mixing in YA and adult books is essential for me. And now NA books too!
- December 23, 2012 at 9:55 AM


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Will Rutherglen bug damage sorghum post grain fill?
As many of the early sorghum crops reach physiological maturity, and approach harvest, questions are being asked as to whether it is necessary to control large populations of nymphs in these crops. More specifically, whether these RGB will cause any damage to the maturing grain between physiological maturity and harvest.
Photo: Dave Murray (BigBug) out looking at a sorghum crop at Glen Ogden's property on the Darling Downs.
Labels: Rutherglen bug, Sorghum


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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald
The movie
I've enjoyed previous Harry Potter movies but I found this one to be tedious, boring, and pretentious. For the first time I found Harry, Hermione, and Ron to be uninteresting and unengaging.
Some may say that this was natural and due entirely to their having the weight of the world's fate on their shoulders. I assign blame to the direction. The character and plot threads have just become too complex and intertwined to allow, from this director's hands, the personalities and humanity of the main characters to emerge. One forced dance sequence or one's forced friends' quarrel just aren't enough. By the end of the movie I just didn't care about our heroes and found myself really missing Snape and the rest. Hopefully Part 2 is better.
The DVD
I rented the Blu-ray disc from Netflix. Unfortunately it's a rental only disc that has no extras and forces the viewer to fast forward through an intolerable number of commercials up front. Apparently Netflix is doing everything it can to force people to drop physical discs for streaming.
Copyright (c) 2011 by Dennis D. McDonald


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text:
The making of law is required for two purposes. Firstly, it can be prescriptive: either positively, such as the requirement that every birth shall be registered, or negatively such as the "outlawing" of smoking in public places. Secondly, it can be permissive: discretionary, such as authorising Police Officers to detain people if suspected of a crime, or directive such as (to choose a topical example) empowering but also instructing Returning Officers to hold a Referendum next year.
So the ability to pass laws is important.
Invoking the law however requires to be done for a purpose. It is not meant to be the vehicle for the expression of worthy sentiment, still less for the sake of giving our MSPs something to do. Yet increasingly it is being employed for precisely that object.
Before I go on, it is important that I emphasise that this is not a unique criticism of the current SNP Government. This baleful trend started under Jack and has only been continued by his successors in office. The criticism is not a Party political one, it is an institutional one.
I am moved to these thoughts by the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill which was introduced in April past and which is currently grinding its way through the Parliament. Last week, the Faculty of Advocates produced their response to the Bill. Now the Faculty, for those that know its workings, is not an organisation given to outspoken remarks of any sort and this document has to be read against that background. My own professional body, The Law Society of Scotland, is a bit more combative in its evidence.
Nonetheless, I have chosen the Faculty's response for the very reason that its words are so measured. When they say in their comments on Part 1 of the Bill
"The Faculty does not consider that Part 1 of the Bill further develops the rights of
children and young people in Scotland to a significant extent."
they could, in all truth, be referring to the entirety of this legislation.
Let's just consider clause 1 of the Bill. It relates to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
1 Duties of Scottish Ministers in relation to the rights of children
(1) The Scottish Ministers must—
(a) keep under consideration whether there are any steps which they could take which
would or might secure better or further effect in Scotland of the UNCRC
requirements, and
(b) if they consider it appropriate to do so, take any of the steps identified by that
(2) The Scottish Ministers must promote public awareness and understanding (including
appropriate awareness and understanding among children) of the rights of children.
(3) As soon as practicable after the end of each 3 year period, the Scottish Ministers must
lay before the Scottish Parliament a report of—
(a) what steps they have taken in that period to secure better or further effect in
Scotland of the UNCRC requirements, and
(b) what they have done in pursuance of subsection (2).
(4) In subsection (3), "3 year period" means—
(a) the period of 3 years beginning with the day on which this section comes into
25 force, and
(b) each subsequent period of 3 years.
(5) As soon as practicable after a report has been laid before the Scottish Parliament under
subsection (3), the Scottish Ministers must publish it (in such manner as they consider
Now, I am not Alex Neil's greatest fan but I do not for a moment think that he and his officials do not currently
a) keep under consideration whether there are any steps which they could take which
would or might secure better or further effect in Scotland of the UNCRC
requirements, and
(b) if they consider it appropriate to do so, take any of the steps identified by that
It is a hotchpot of warm words and statements of good intentions. It proposes, for no particular reason, to give statutory form to matters that are already being done, voluntarily, either administratively or under existing legislative provisions. It just kind of wanders about the area to no particular end. At one point it repeats what is already in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, apparently just for the sake of it. The only substantive new proposal, regarding a state guardian for every child is bureaucratically unnecessary and almost certainly incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Indeed there are some rumours that it might even have to be withdrawn for that very reason, leaving what is left of the Bill even more redundant of purpose.
Yet, of course, it does have a purpose. It gives the members of the Scottish Parliament Education and Culture Committee something to do.
Now in some ways it is unfair to pick out this Bill or this Committee for there are numerous other examples I could easily have picked, many of which now form part of the law of the land, not that anybody would ever notice.
Yet this raises wider issues. Why do we need 129 MSPs, particularly if it appears the Government finds it difficult to provide them with any actually useful occupation?
The Scottish Parliament has only limited powers. Far fewer than those available to individual States of the USA. Yet many US States of similar size to Scotland have far fewer legislators. Colorado (population 5,187,582) has only 65 members of its lower house; Wisconsin (population 5,726,398) 99.
Looking at small comparable European Countries with fully sovereign parliaments, dealing with Economic Policy. foreign affairs, defence, taxation, social security and so much else reserved to Westminster under our system, despite their much wider remits, Norway gets by with 169; Denmark with 179.
And indeed at Westminster, England, regards one representative for each 76.641 voters as sufficient to deal with a much wider remit than that for which Holyrood apparently requires one MSP for each 31,085 voters.
Now this is not about the size of Parliament Scotland would need if we were independent. I agree 129 is probably (a bit) too few for that unlikely scenario. It is about the size of the devolved parliament we have at present. The one that sits only two and a half days a week, never when any school anywhere is on holiday, and even then never after 5.30 pm at night. The one which nonetheless struggles to find "things" for its members to do and thus occupies them with meaningless legislation.
Now, I know that expecting current MSPs of any political colour to vote for their own redundancy is a bit improbable but perhaps they should not be the only ones with a say. Another matter perhaps for my suggested Constitutional Convention.


text:
Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Winslow Boy
Script Analysis of The Winslow Boy
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Plot & ThemesTime/era of movie: - 1900-1920's Crime & Scandal - Yes Story of - falsely accused clearing name
Main CharacterIdentity: - Male Profession/status: - student Age: - a kid Ethnicity/Nationality - British
SettingCity? - Yes City: - London
Writing StyleAny profanity? - None Is this movie based on a - book
Movies with storylines, themes & endings like The Winslow Boy
|Winterset starring Burgess Meredith, Paul Guilfoyle, Edward Ellis, Eduardo Cainnelli, John Carradine
|West of Zanzibar starring Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Nolan, Warner Baxter
|The Ballad of Cable Hogue starring Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, Slim Pickens, L.Q. Jones
|House by the River starring Louis Hayward, Jane Wyatt, Lee Bowman, Dorothy Patrick
|Mrs. Soffel starring Mel Gibson, Diane Keaton, Matthew Modine, Edward Herrmann


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Make a Splash in Orlebar Brown Swimwear
Photographer Adam Brown was struck by the state of popular swimwear while on a tropical Rajasthani vacation with friends. "Around the pool, the women in the group looked great, but the men did not." The baggy board shorts most of his male counterparts were sporting lacked sophistication or sex appeal.
Brown and the other guys on the trip felt the need to switch out of their slouchy bathing suits to look more respectable when grabbing a meal at the bar. As a tasteful traveler, he intuitively identified an unmet demand for more refined swimwear to take gentlemen across their holiday with ease.
This gap in the market led Adam to establish Orlebar Brown, his now iconic label, upon returning to London. "The inspiration really came with the philosophy that fit is paramount — shorts you could swim in, rather than swimming shorts. You can wear them to the beach and then you can go and have a drink or lunch," he explains.
What makes this brand truly special is that the collection is precision-cut using traditional tailoring methods similar to men's dress pants. The deceptively simple shorts are based on a 17-piece pattern that includes a shaped waistband and subtle back darting to achieve an exacting fit.
Brown has essentially redefined the swimwear category with his engraved metal side fasteners — offering a sleek departure from drawstrings typically tied around shorts. The savvy innovator also prides himself on using quick-dry fabrics that resist the effects of chlorine, salt water, and sunlight. In other words, these classic designs are as sturdy as they are stylish.
There is a sense of nostalgia emanating from Brown's swim trunks that draw inspiration from sixties poolside utopia. The founder cites Slim Aarons' legendary photos of Riviera and Palm Beach life as a major influence. The standout suits are decorated in an array of vibrant hues and retro prints — often showcasing the works of celebrated artists, illustrators, and photographers.
"Swimwear is always a category full of fun and whimsy," says buyer Belinda Yu. "Whether jumping off a jetty at the cottage or kicking back in the Caribbean, a man's swim trunks should aspire to complement those feelings of fun. Orlebar Brown, for me, is the ultimate brand for leisure moments. It's authentic and at Harry Rosen we want to support the makers that are ahead of the curve."
As one of the fastest-growing names in British fashion, the swimwear specialist has swiftly evolved into a lifestyle label that carries jersey tees, polo shirts, and other resort staples rooted in "travel and good times."


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Here's a mock up of my new cover by the talented Marik Berghs. The cover is for A Murder of Crows, which will be out September first. I'd like your feedback on the cover. If any of you have read the first book in this series (Stained – Witch Series), I know I have to think of a better subtitle, you may already have an image of Thorn in your mind. Take this short poll and let me know your thoughts. Click on the photo to make it large. Thanks!
What Do You Think?
10 Aug 2013 Leave a comment
in Murder of Crows, Stained First Chapter, Tattoo Tags: cover reveal, fae, irish, Marik Berghs, murder of crows, poll, raven wings
Tattoo Tuesday on Wednesday
25 Apr 2012 Leave a comment
in Tattoo, Uncategorized Tags: san francisco, Stained, tattoo, tattoosday
I was browsing through Twitter the other day and found this wicked site. It's dedicated to finding the best tattoos in New York City. It's called Tattoosday.
They feature tattoos they find at random as well as special tattoos and poetry. You gotta check them out. Some of you might not know that I do Tattoo Tuesday because the witch in my book Stained is a tattoo artist. She has a shop called Stained in Berkeley, CA. This post is going to be short today because I am trying to get the ending to my next book done so it can come out in May as promised. Next week I am going to post on Samoan tattoos.
Kat Von D and Tattoo Tuesday
17 Apr 2012 7 Comments
in Tattoo
Recently, on Twitter, I've been following Kat Von D ( @katvond ). I have to admit to having a bit of a crush on her. She is amazing. The heroine in my book Stained is slightly based on her. I tried to put a bit of wild child in Thorn the heroine. She has long onyx hair and rides a Ducati. She's a natural born witch who is a tattoo artist with her own shop called Stained.
My dilemna is that I would love for the real Kat to read my book. But how does one approach a celebrity to do this? I know if I just mailed it to her it would probably get thrown out before she even saw it. I don't want to come across as a stalker. How would you suggest I make contact? Enquiring minds want to know.
While I ponder this, I'm leaving you with this tattoo to drool over in a new installment of my blog, Tattoo Tuesday. I have a thing for gargoyles. They come up in a future book 🙂
Ciao Bellas
Stained is Live on Amazon!
16 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Stained First Chapter, Tattoo, Uncategorized Tags: amazon, magic, mystery, Stained, tattoo, witch
Yay! I am very pleased to announce I am actually a published author. Indie published, but published all the same. Stained is now available on Amazon in the Kindle format. It will be available on Barnes & Noble and the iBookstore soon. The print version will be out in early November. Here's a quick blurb about the book. If you go to Amazon you get to view a sample of the book there before you buy. I also put the first chapter in my last post. Let me know what you think! Many happy returns. Jessica
Thorn works after dark. That's when she combines her gifts as a tattoo artist and her
powers as a natural born witch to weave magick into her ink. Her tattoo parlor,
Stained, on Berkeley's quirky Telegraph Avenue draws clients from all walks of
life. Her work is in high demand from the supernatural community and the
With her raven familiar, Thorn's been
on the run all her adult life. She won't talk about why. She only wants to
practice her art in peace. But when a murderer targets her clients, Sé, a tall,
dark and Irish detective is assigned to investigate. They must trust each other
to survive the cat and mouse game that ensues.
The Art of Irezumi Tattoo
04 Aug 2011 1 Comment
in Tattoo Tags: inked, Irezumi, japan, Stained, tattoo
Irezumi is a form of Japanese tattooing. Literally translated it means piercing or stabbing the skin with blue or green. Irezumi may possibly go back to the paleolithic times, as far as 10,000 BC. Simple cord like markings on paleolithic man are thought to be tattoos. There is still much debate about this. In the Yayoi period, 300 BC to 300 AD Irezumi was prevalent and talked about by Chinese visitors. The tattoos of this time period were thought to have spiritual and status meanings. By the Kofun period, 300 AD to 600 AD the symbolism behind tattooing or Irezumi had started to turn. As in Rome, tattoos were now beginning to be used as a punishment on criminals to mark them.
It wasn't until the end of the Edo period 1868 that decorative tattooing really flourished. Mythical creatures like dragrons and ferocious tigers were popular. Woodblock artists started tattooing their clients using the same tools like chisels and gouges and most importantly Nara Ink that turns blue green under the skin.
Soon it became a criminal offense to get tattooed. Irezumi went underground. In 1945 the onslaught of Armed forces legalized tattooing and once again you could get a tattoo but it still had a criminal element as it was favored by the Japanese mafia and still has that stigma at present.
Today's Japanese youth get more of the Americanized tattoos that can be easily hidden, but some very wealthy and very dedicated get an Irezumi. It can take up to $50,000 and 30 years according to one source, to get a full body done. Many tattoo artists have traveled to Japan to learn the art of Irezumi for example Thomas Lockhart, legend in the tattoo world, has gotten tattooed himself by famous Irezumi artists.
You may ask how this all applies to writing or to me? In my book Stained, which will be released digitally in September, the heroine is a tattoo artist who has studied Irezumi. She also happens to be an Irish natural born witch. She's opened a tattoo parlor on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California where she weaves her art and spells into unique tattoos for her supernatural customers who start to turn up dead.
A newly inked tattoo.
For those who can endure the pain or for those who equate tattoo pain with the pleasure of the art the world is a much more colorful place because of them.


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Sneak Peek!
I normally don't enjoy being woken up at 1 am on a weeknight but I definitely jumped out of bed with a huge smile on my face when I received... Read more
Happy Monday! A quick update on our progress.
Hey Hammockers!
Happy Monday! We hope your week is off to an epic start but if you're feeling a taste of the Mondays, we've got something to cheer ya'll up! ... Read more
Unleash Your Creativity: The Custom Hammock Lookbook is Here!
(Click here to learn more!)
Introducing the Yellow Leaf Custom Hammock Lookbook!
We're unveiling this new custom design process just for Kickstarter Backers.
Take a peek at the brand new... Read more
Our First Prototype!
Great news! Now that the campaign has closed, we are moving forward with the production process for our new hammock recliner & we wanted to share a lil sneak peek... Read more
Edited to Add: The celebration continues on our Facebook Page-- Join us!!
YOU GUYS... YOU DID IT! With your cheers & support, your pledges, your posts, your "likes" and your... Read more
Yellow Leaf Hammocks on UrbanDaddy!
Hey Hammockers!
Your favorite hammocks are now UrbanDaddy Approved!
Yellow Leaf is their national editorial pick today, which is pretty awesome! We are so glad we could share this with... Read more
The Final Week! Let's Reach our Goal & Get These Rewards In the Mail!
Hey guys!
We are just a few days from the end of our campaign (Sunday, Dec. 18!) and we are continuing to work really hard to reach our goal &... Read more
Thanks Grandma!
I've been incredibly humbled by your support and enthusiasm for our Kickstarter campaign and was especially moved when I received an email yesterday from Kickstarter, letting me know that my... Read more
A moment of peace.
Ahhhh, a blissful moment of zen in the midst of a busy holiday season.
If you haven't gotten your Yellow Leaf Hammock yet, this video might just be thenext... Read more
(A Little More Than) Halfway There!
It's a wonderful time of year to be running a Kickstarter Campaign- especially one with a vision for positive social change.
Every time a pledge alert hits the inbox, we... Read more
"Do Good. Relax." on Triple Pundit!
Big News! On Friday, the day after we launched, Yellow Leaf & our Kickstarter Campaign were spotlighted on Triple Pundit's "Start-Up Friday."
Triple Pundit is one of the leading editorial... Read more
We are overwhelmed!
You guys, thank you so much for the amazing response today!
We are overwhelmed by your emails, the outpouring on Facebook and here on our campaign page, where we are... Read more


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Day 03 | Your favorite television program
Of all time? Or just now? Jeez, these questions need to be a little more detailed.
Of all time would probably be Buffy.
As to the present, slim pickin's here, as I don't have cable and am forced to watch broadcast programming. Technically, the program I watch every day, sometimes twice a day, is the local news. Is that pathetic, or what?
Um, how about if I try to redeem myself and say I try to watch Big Bang Theory every Monday.
Who has time for TV nowadays. I'm off to the motorcycle swap meet. Whoot!
- Current Mood: bouncy
( 4 comments — Leave a comment )
( 4 comments — Leave a comment )


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On January 31, 2017, the Michigan Court of Appeals held that a valid prenuptial agreement[1] may not waive the trial court's power to invade one spouse's separate property and award some of it to the other spouse in their divorce. For some, this means that their Prenuptial Agreement is not as iron clad as they had hoped or expected. The case is Allard v Allard, which was before the Court of Appeals for the second time, on remand from the Michigan Supreme Court.
There are two statutory sections that are involved in this case. One provides that separate property may be invaded if the other spouse's share of the marital estate is insufficient for their suitable support and maintenance, including consideration of the needs of any children in their care. This is MCL 552.23(1) and is often described as permitting invasion of separate property on the basis of need.
The second section is MCL 552.401, which provides that separate property may be invaded if the non-owner spouse contributed to the acquisition, improvement, or accumulation of the property. This section is often described as permitting invasion of separate property on the basis of contribution.
The Court's rationale was based on the weighing of two different rules of law – the recognition of the parties' right to enter into enforceable contracts and the need for courts of equity to be able to afford whatever relief "is necessary to see done that which, in good conscience, ought to be done." Prior to the Allard decision, there was no clear statement about whether parties to a valid prenuptial agreement could restrict a court's equitable power to invade separate property under these statutes by their contractual agreement. It was clear that they could agree to forgo their own statutory rights to petition the court for alimony (spousal support) because it was their own statutory right and that they could not agree to waive or relinquish the right to seek child support for the support of their children. It was also clear that the parties could not agree to set venue (the place where a law suit may or must be heard) to a place that was contrary to the express terms of relevant statutes.
In reaching its result, the Court of Appeals determined that the Legislature gave the power to invade separate property to the court, in the exercise of its equitable discretion, and that people may not take this power away from the court by their agreements.
So, is there any point is having a prenuptial agreement after Allard? The answer is a resounding "yes."
- A majority of marriages do not end in divorce, and prenuptial agreements are still enforceable in the event of death and serve an important purpose in the context of estate planning.
- Prenuptial agreements are enforceable during the marriage and allow parties to deal with their separate assets as if there were no marriage. While the elimination of dower set to go into effect in mid-March removes the limits on a married man's ability to transfer real estate without his spouse's consent, having an enforceable agreement verifies that both spouses may deal individually with all of their separate assets listed in the agreement.
- Discussing and negotiating prenuptial agreements helps engaged couples be sure they can discuss money respectfully and allows them to see where they agree and where they have different beliefs about money. This can be very important to their future ability to communicate, as well as to set common expectations for spending, saving and communicating during their marriage.
- Prenuptial agreements are critically important to maintain separate property classification for assets that are used by the family or otherwise might be deemed "commingled" and reclassified as marital property. Case law seems to be trending toward less protection of the separate property classification in the absence of a prenuptial agreement. If the property is reclassified from separate to marital, the presumptive 50/50 division arises. If the property remains classified as separate, the non-owner spouse only gets so much as he or she can prove is necessary or that he or she contributed to. Usually, this is a much smaller share than half.
If you have a prenuptial agreement and want to review it in light of this clarification of the law, your lawyer can help. It is always better to address potential problems when you and your spouse are getting along and in agreement. You can discuss the reasons for the prenuptial agreement in the first place, see if it is still meeting your needs, and make any necessary amendments and modifications to the prenuptial agreement based upon the changes in your situation.
[1] Prenuptial agreements are the same as Antenuptial agreements and premarital agreements. Agreements entered into after the marriage has taken place are called postnuptial or post-marital agreements. Their validity is governed by different law than a prenuptial agreement, but there is no apparent reason to believe the holding in this case would not apply equally to them.


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Leisure Accommodation in Kampala
Be it a short stay, or your whole holidays, our furnished apartments provide you with a comfortable base from which you can explore the beautiful city that is Kampala. From the massive space to the warm, cosy furnishings that our spritely apartments offer, you are guaranteed a rewarding holiday in Kampala at Bukoto Heights Apartment.
Ideal Family Accommodation
Our generously proportioned self-catering apartments offer families the ideal accommodation choice, with an emphasis on value, comfort and convenience.
A Perfect Business Stay
If you are visiting Kampala on business for a day, a week or a longer contract, our fine range of furnished apartments are ideal choices if you would like the comforts of home.
Each apartment comes fully furnished with TV (DVD player on request), large lounge/dining area, fully-equipped kitchen including, oven, fridge, microwave oven as well as a wide range of cooking utensils, cutlery and crockery. This makes the accommodation ideal for both short term and long term stays.


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My new Get Cutie Skirt and my Cute Dahon Sweet Pea Bike/
Today I managed to pick up a bargain at my local charity shop.
Its a Get Cutie skirt, in a Vegas-tastic bowling ball print. It looks unworn. Although this print is no longer available, the skirt would currently cost £59.50. I bought this bad boy for £4.00. Proves there are still bargains out there, despite charity shops around me getting pricier every day!
I have started riding my Dahon Sweet Pea folding bike again, after giving it a rest for a couple of years when I upgraded to a full size bike. I just got the tyres pumped properly at my local bike shop and it makes such a difference to the ride! Am loving whizzing about on this.


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Q. Is it correct that Dasam Granth was first introduced in literature by Malcolm in 1810 AD in his book titled "Sketch of the Sikhs"?
As per the answer above it is quite clear that nobody apart from Guru Gobind Singh introduced the Granth into Khalsa psyche in the 17th century. Sri Gur Sobha Granth … Continue Reading →


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Since 2007, Jump A Lot Rentals has been delivering fun inflatables to parties and events all over the area. We specialize in bounce houses, water slides, bounce & slide combos, obstacle courses. Call 856-308-6868 or reserve online!
Jump A Lot ! DELIVERY AREA
Delivery is free with a rental order of $250 or more to the towns listed below. Orders less than $225 may have a delivery fee, which will determined on a case-by-case basis. Please call 856-308-6868 or email firstname.lastname@example.com for a delivery fee quote if your order is for less than $250.
Gloucester County, NJ
Sewell, Turnersville, Williamstown, Glassboro, Deptford, Mantua, West Deptford, Swedesboro, Woolwich, Paulsboro, Pitman, Franklinville, Clayton, Wenonah, Westville, Newfield, Woodbury, Mount Royal, Mickleton
Camden County, NJ
Adudbon, Atco, Blackwood, Cherry Hill, Oaklyn, Collingswood, Haddon Township, Berlin, Bellmawr, Barrington, Brooklawn, Runnemede, Somerdale, Laurel Springs, Pine Hill, Voorhees, Siclerville, Erial, Stratford, Pennsauken, Haddonfield, Winslow, Clementon, Merchantville, Lindenwold, Waterford
Burlington County NJ
Marlton, Medford, Evesham, Moorestown, Palmyra, Riverton, Mount Holly, Tabernacle, Shamong, Burlington, Mount Laurel, Cinnaminson, Willingboro, Mapleshade, Delran, Westampton, Lumberton, Hainesport
Atlantic County, NJ
Hammonton, Buena
Cumberland County, NJ
Vineland, Millville, Upper Deerfield, Bridgeton
Jump-A-Lot Rentals, the premiere inflatable rental company of southern NJ, specializes in inflatable rides for children of all ages. We offer moonbounce, bounce house, combo units, obstacle course and wet or dry water slides that are sure to be a smash at your next party or event. We are a family owned and operated business that knows the importance of safety and fun. Each unit is carefully inspected and sanitized before each rental. Our professional staff will deliver and set-up your rental as well as provide instructions on how to make your party fabuluous, fun and safe. We are fully licensed and insured by the state of NJ. We service all of Camden and Gloucester counties. As well as parts of Atantic, Cumberland, Salem and Burlington County.
Reserve online or call us at 856-308-6868
Jump A Lot We're All About Fun


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The best thing about Nokia Lumia 925 seems to be its 8.7 Megapixel PureView camera. The camera boasts six Carl Zeiss' lenses. Lumia 925 is slim and it is light in weight. 4.5 inch HD+ display is impressive. The Carl Zeiss lenses are physical. They worked on the camera and it captures low-light photos and makes them look like amazing. Smart Camera mode helps you snap a series of photos and you can decide what photo you actually want to keep and use. Action Shot feature helps you snap action sequence in one single image. Remove Moving Object feature in Nokia Lumia 925 Smart Camera helps you erase those details that you don't want in your captured image so now you don't need to worry about people who walk through while you were snapping the picture.
Enough of the camera, Nokia Lumia 925 is powered by Windows Phone 8 operating system which already have MS Office so you can customize your documents while you are on a go. You can enjoy a number of free tunes present on Nokia Music. HERE Maps help you discover the area you want to wander. Wireless charging cover feature helps you getting your phone charged up wirelessly.
Nokia Lumia 925 Specifications
Display size is 4.5" and the technology incorporated is AMOLED. Having Super-sensitive touch technology used in it, the touch screen feature gives you a unique experience.
Resolution supported is 768 x 1280 pixels, 16 M colours
Photography has never been fun like it is with Nokia Lumia 925. It comes with a Main camera sensor having 8.7 MP PureView.
Battery Life is great as the maximum talk time on 2G networks is 18.3 hours, max talk taime on 3G networks is 12.8 hours and max standby time on 3G networks is 440 hours. While you play music on this phone, it can provide you with a time of 55 hours which indeed is massive. Wireless charging make it really easy to charge and use the phone at the same time. Battery is 2000 mAh and it cannot be removed from the phone.
Processor used is Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 and it is a Dual-core 1.5 GHz processor.
Dimensions of the phone are 129 x 70.6 x 8.5 mm
Shape of the phone is Candy Bar.
Weight is 139 g
Memory it comes with is 16 GB built-in memory and 1 GB RAM
Card slot is not present in this phone and this might be one of its main negative features as the consumers are not able to upgrade the memory by adding a memory card to it.
Sensors used in it are Accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass
Connectivity features it boasts are GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps, 5.76 Mbps, WLAN, Wi-Fi 802, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth v3.0 and microUSB v2.0
Nokia Lumia 925 Estimated Price in Pakistan
The estimated price of Nokia Lumia 925 in USA is $670 while in Pakistan it is estimated that the price will be around PKR 75,000.


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Tuesday, June 02, 2009
But it wasn't always like this - fantastic commissioned works by Bernard Herrmann, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Philip Glass, Goblin, Popol Vuh, Francis Lai, and Angelo Badalamenti spring to mind. Even so, it's hard to disassociate to the extent where the music can be judged purely on its own merits beyond that of the effect of a film.
Rather than those more obvious candidates however, I intend to passionately argue the case for the much underrated genius of Riz Ortolani, who also composed music for several mondo flicks and Deodato's other notorious nasty The House On The Edge Of The Park.
Riz Ortolani : Cannibal Holcaust (1980)
Its opening track begins with gently plucked acoustic guitar thus lulling you to a place of leafy beauty serving to disguise the unsettling horror of the musical drama to unfold, thus expertly mirroring the narrative development of this most shocking of films. The baroque melody of the main theme of Cannibal Holocaust is reminiscent of many of the erotic Italian and French films of the 70s, and initially, seems an unusual choice for the visceral subject matter. Its leitmotif, nevertheless, returns with devastating impact in later scenes of almost operatic horror - and serves to deepen the underlying pathos.
In contrast, Adulteress' Punishment, Massacre Of The Troupe, and Savage Rite are tenebrous dirges brilliantly combine electronic percussion noises, moog synths, and heartwrenching savagely powerful string-led harmonies that will rip your soul apart - just as the Amazonian tree-people cannibals will your bare flesh with bloodied merciless hands. The kind of shatteringly meaningful emotional response that so few composers, bands, or artists are ever able to attain.
The other tracks on the album exhibit a notable change of pace - the dynamics soften between returns of the main theme and the more sombre introspective tracks (that often accompanies appalling animal torture scenes in the movie) to give us breezy jazzy disco numbers so idiosyncratic of many other lesser video nasties of the era.
The remastered version of the Cannibal Holocaust OST is particularly recommended, even though some of the other sparser incidental film music is not included: the audio production is of exceptional quality and this remarkable soundtrack (to what was in actual fact a uniquely remarkable film) is really something very very special.
4 comments:
- Wrongly Wired said...
That soundtrack really is a wonder. I use the opening titles piece to get me in the mood on my ipod before any public speaking. Last week I gave a lecture to a couple of hundred people in Victoria and the soothing, soaring strings are a balm for any nerves.
I also love Hermann Kopp's soundtrack to Der Todesking (although have not really enjoyed much of his other work.)
- _Black_Acrylic said...
Fully agree on this post. Another great track of his is 'Il Corpo Di Linda' from 1977, a kind of proto-techno production that is a good decade ahead of its time.
- WXXX said...
Yes, the segues in the film are masterful (...it's been a while since screening it, but if memory serves...) the abrupt cuts from the synth immolation score to that glorious theme, with airs of the Mondo aesthetic: Here is the world in all its splendor, beauty and terror blossom as one!
Another good Ortolani score is Addio zio Tom (Farewell Uncle Tom) -it took the Italian cinema to concoct the most scathing indictment of American slavery ever!
- LJP said...
I've got Goodbye Uncle Tom on a videocassette but I don't remember what the soundtrack was like...
I'd say interesting soundtracks are the one on Last House on Dead End Street and the one on Invocation of my Demon Brother, the latter is just Mick Jagger twiddling around with an early Moog synth...


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