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White House vows to end DEA raids on Medical Marijuana dispensaries
During his campaign and since presidency began one word has surrounded the new US president Barrack Obama, change. Some people in the US and worldwide observers genuinely believe change will come but only time will tell. One thing is for sure is that the medical marijuana users in the 13 states that have passed laws making medical marijuana legal must have been pleased to hear that one change Obama was set to make was the ending of DEA raids of medical marijuana dispensaries. These dispensaries which provide medicine for sick people, places that are legit under state law but not under federal law have been under pressure from the DEA especially under George Bush's eight years in office.
Those in the cannabis community who felt Obama would bring change must have been disheartened when within the first two weeks of him taking office there was four raids on dispensaries in Los Angeles. In the four raids which took place all in the one day 200 kg (400 pounds) of cannabis, edible cannabis products and about $10,000 in cash was confiscated according to a DEA spokeswoman.
In this day and age with the Internet and other means of connecting with people the cannabis activists were quick to respond and pressure has been piled on to Obama and others to end the raids in the wake of the raids. While there was many reasons for the concern, one reason was considering the new president said last year that if he was president he would not waste law enforcement resources undermining state medical marijuana laws and then for this (the DEA raids) to happen seems to show there maybe no change.
In a statement on February 5th from White House Spokesman Nick Shapiro reacted to new Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raids at medical cannabis collectives in California, saying he expects President Obama to end that policy when a new DEA Administrator is seated. Now this may seem like news to make those in the cannabis community jump for joy but is it really that simple?
Stopping the DEA from raiding dispensaries is not making medical marijuana legal in the US but it's likely to be seen by Obama's opposition in government as a wrong move, especially considering some of the politicians stance on the devil weed.
With the current economic crisis and other issues the new president is unlikely anytime soon to make drastic changes or even consider drastic changes to marijuana laws, even if he does plan to make changes there is unlikely anything to happen soon with other issues taking priority. But if he did at least stop the DEA raids on the dispensaries he will have done a lot more in a matter of weeks in power than Bush who's DEA administration is still in place did in his eight years in power. I hope it would be a sign of better things to come as far as medical marijuana users and their rights go, it could raise the possibility of some changes (that word again) during Obama's presidency, though I would not start holding my breathe just yet.
I guess we will know just how likely change will take place by the amount of time it takes for him to change things in the DEA. If it happens soon it could be taken as a good sign but the longer it goes on with the Bush administration in control the more likely things will stay the same, despite any promises made.
Let's keep in mind this was a promise made while on the campaign trail.
Friday, February 6, 2009
White House vows to end DEA raids on Medical Marijuana dispensaries
Posted by Brian at 7:27 PM
Labels: DEA, dispensary, hash, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, obama, raids, warlock, weed, White House
1 comment:
- AnonymousApril 27, 2009 at 5:45 AM
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It's worth a quick reminder that Chromecast doesn't just mirror a browser tab onto your TV. You also can beam individual YouTube videos on over, same as you do from your phone or tablet. By now you've got the "Google Cast" extension installed, right? Once you've got it, just head on over to Youtube and fire up a video. Then look for the Chromecast icon in the lower right. Click it and choose where you want to send the video to. Done.
Get more tips and tricks in our Chromecast forum!

subset: commoncrawl


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Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory!
Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name.
Sae famed in martial story!
Now Sark rins over Salway sands,
An' Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark where England's province stands --
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
O, would, or I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay
Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour
I'll mak this declaration:-
'We're bought and sold for English gold'--
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!


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Tootsies Orchid Lounge Celebrating Birthday With Two-Day Street Party
The world-famous Tootsies Orchid Lounge will celebrate its 53rd birthday with a two-night event, kicking off on Thursday, Nov. 21, to coincide with the star-studded George Jones tribute concerton Nov. 22.
The celebration will extend into the street on Broadway in Nashville both nights. Terri Clark, Montgomery Gentry's Troy Gentry, Darryl Worley and Daryle Singletary have all signed on to perform for the celebration on Nov. 21, with GAC and Sirius XM host Storme Warren serving as the evening's host.
"The Tootsies Birthday Bash has become an annual event that everyone looks forward to," Tootsies proprietor Steve Smith says. "We kicked it off at the Ryman with Kris Kristofferson, Terri Clark, Mel Tillis and Jamey Johnson a few years back. Then Kid Rock and the Kentucky HeadHunters took the party to the street on Broadway. Last year Dierks Bentley, Randy Houser and Troy Gentry kicked it up a bit, and then there is this year."
The event is also expected to feature surprise performances from some unannounced country stars. Admission is free. Second Harvest Food Bank will be accepting food donations in specially designated barrels from 2-6PM. Tootsies is offering a ticket for a complimentary beverage to those with a can donation.
The legendary bar has served some of country music's most iconic artists, including Pasty Cline, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and many others, and is still visited by some of music's biggest stars.
More information is available here.


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Missoula Children's Theatre Coming Soon!
It's less than a month until the little red truck rolls into Castle Pines for this year's residency! Auditions are on Monday, July 17th at 12:30 pm. If you have preregistered your child, they will be guaranteed a spot, but they will still be auditioning for roles. The audition is in a group audition format, and is a really fun time for the kids. They sing, dance, play games, and have fun!
Missoula Children's Theatre is a very welcoming, non-competitive environment that provides instruction and a challenge for experienced actors, but is also well-suited to first-timers as well. We have had many kids catch the theater bug at MCT and go on to become very involved in other productions through their schools or other organizations. They still return to MCT every year, though, to see their friends and learn from the fantastic directors!
Speaking of directors, they stay with generous host families while they are here. We are currently looking for a family with a pet-free home to host one of our directors. All that we ask is that they have a safe, comfortable private area to stay and everyone who has hosted a director has really enjoyed it.
We also are looking for a few parents who would be be willing to throw our cast party held after the last performance. We usually have cookies and punch or water in the lobby and ask all of the parents to donate. Please let us know if you are interested.
If you haven't registered your child, please click on the Register Here button and it will direct you to our online store where you can register, pay tuition, and buy your tickets for the performances in advance. We hope to see you soon!


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The North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust admitted their negligence at the high court and agreed to pay all the damages incurred by a Carlisle girl.
The hospital's monetary fine was said to reach a total of £5 million (US $7.7 million). As agreed upon the lawsuit, the hospital will pay the £2.3 million (US $3.5 million) lump sum to the 11-year old Carlisle girl who sustained a birth injury during her delivery and £200,000 (US $300,000) per year through the rest of her life.
The young girl whose name cannot be disclosed for legal purposes was born at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, Cumbria, England.
According to court documents, the said hospital failed to diagnose that the girl's mother had suffered a placental abruption, a birth-related condition wherein the placental lining separated from the uterus of the mother before the baby is delivered. As a result, the girl's delivery became overdue causing her cerebral hypoxia and severe brain injury.
The girl's family filed for a birth injury claim which has been finally resolved only recently. After the final court hearing, her mother narrated how difficult the life of her daughter had been due to the birth injury she sustained when she was born. The family can't help but to show their joy while looking forward to getting the best care and equipment that the young girl needed to lessen the obstacles that she is facing in each passing day.
After hearing about the said resolution, the Los Angeles personal injury attorneys are very impressed with the court's just resolution on this case since they fully understand that birth injury is one of the most depressing situations that can occur in one's life.


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How to find us
By train
From the Baltic railway station (subway station "Baltyskaya") to station "Novy Peterhof", then one of the buses № 350, 351, 352, 356.
By buses
- From the subway station "Baltyskaya" Bus 404.
- From the subway station"Avtovo" Bus 224,424.
- From the subway station "Leninsky prospekt" Bus 420, 103.
You can use one of the hotel services and book a transfer from the airport or train station (paid service) as well as from any other point of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region.
Our Address
44 "A", Saint-Petersburg prospect, Peterhof, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 198510
phone: +7(812)334-71-55
Location map
View larger map


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One of the most popular reports I publish is the Rights Roundup to show the trade who sold what to whom during the market (Cannes in this case). The ISAs (international sales agents) are all linked to their own websites. I wish all of the distribution companies who pick up the films for their territories (there are about 40 territories) and all the titles were also linked, but I lack the manpower to do the job 100% so only some are linked to their own company websites, or in the case of titles, to IMDbPro Title Pages. This reports allows sales agents to gauge their competitors, see who is buying similar types of films, and it allows buyers (distributors in this case) to see what similar acquisitions are being made by similar companies in other parts of the world and to have instant access to the sellers and buyers or to more details in the titles themselves.
Click here if you want to download the entire document.
The Cannes Marche du Film Rights Roundup in which international sales agents have licensed rights to the following films to the following distributors is a is a work in progress. It is not yet complete but it is time to allow buyers and sellers to see who has acquired what from whom, to move in on the titles for their territories, to compare buyers of similar films to their own clientele, etc.. The correct links to contacts will be inserted as we progress, and we will continue to add deals until it is time for Toronto and the other fall de facto markets to begin their sales.
– Companies link to their own websites.
– Film titles link mostly to IMDbPro. If you don't have a subscription, it might be worth getting one.
– Film titles might link to Cinando as the website of the Cannes Market is increasingly linking titles and companies, including the distributors themselves to the films they are selling, buying and even producing and marketwise, this is valuable information.
Readers can let me know which links they prefer. Cinando has added a very important new feature which shows the Distributors [hotlinked] who have the rights to films listed in the Market. IMDb also has such a feature which can be seen when you go into a title's "Company Credits" and you can see if the rights for a territory have been sold and what other films the designated distributors have, something which might dovetail in nicely with your company's own tastes. If you are an International Sales Agent (which IMDb sometimes calls Sales Representative and which I call an ISA), you can see a competitor's title and what Distributors have acquired it. I am so glad to see that Cinando has moved into this area and hopefully the International Sales Agents realize the value such rights information adds even while upping the competitive ante. Given a level playing field, the smart players will prevail. I am in favor of revealing who the buyers / distributors are…their own websites and publicity needs are in accord with this transparency even if International Sales Agents do not like revealing who their clients are for fear their competitors will steal them away.
Here is the A to Z of the ISAs' sales centering around Cannes.
6 Sales sold Miffy the Movie to Warner Bros. for Benelux, Noori for So. Korea and Kino Swiat for Poland. Thilms for the Middle East. 4 films from the Saul Zaentz library including Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Mosquito Coast sold to Lusomundo for Portugal, RSI for Switzerland, Tohokushinsha for Japan pay TV, Telefilms SA for Latin America TV and Daro Films for Eastern European tV. France 3 bought Cuckoo for France and Arte bought Amadeus, The Unbearable Lightness and The Mosquito Coast for France.
Accento Films closed an all rights deal for Two Eyes Staring
with So. Korea's KT&G Sangsangmadang. Several European territories are showing interest as well and U.S. companies are looking at remake rights.
Altadena sold Travellers to High Fliers for U.K.
Archstone licensed Universal Squadrons to Kaleidoscope for U.K.
Arclight licensed Mental to Universal for U.K., Australia/ N.Z. CAA packaged Mental and is handling North American rights. Altitude went to Anchor Bay for distribution in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia/ New Zealand. Alliance has Canada. Red Hill went ot SPWAG (Sony) for U.S. Transmission has Australia/ N.Z. Concorde TMG has German speaking territories, Pyramide for France, DeAPlaneta for Spain, Mikado for Italy, Icon for Australia/ N.Z., Forum for Israel, Italia for the Middle East, Filmopolis for Greece/ Cyprus, Aqua Pinema for Turkey, Samfilm for Iceland and Modus Vivendi for Eastern Europe.
Arrow licensed Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel to NonStop for Scandinavia. Rights had already gone to Phase 4 for U.S. and to Kinosmith for Canada.
Aspect Film has presold Fading of the Cries to Film Depot for Australia/ N.Z. and licensed award winning Self Medicated to Lionsgate for U.K., 21st Century Pictures for Australia. The North American DVD release was April 20th, following its theatrical release there by the now defunct ThinkFilm who also had the international rights, prior to Aspect's acquiring it for international sales. Blood Night went to LionsGate/ Grindstone for U.S, Anchor Bay for Canada, Australia & New Zealand, High Fliers for U.K. and H.O.M. Vision for Benelux. Badland also went to High Fliers for U.K. and H.O.M. Vision for Benelux, as well as Front Row for Middle East. Front Row also took Food Matters. Blood Night and Food Matters went to Tiberius for Germany in pre-Cannes deals. Aspect Film picked up rights to Neighbor in Cannes and closed a deal with High Fliers for U.K. Lionsgate will be releasing the film in North America on July 27th.
AV Pictures sold Primal to IFC for the U.S. and to Anolis for Germany.
Bankside♀ licensed The Door to went to Megacom for Ex-Yugoslavia. Concorde TMG already has German speaking territories as a coproducer. Freestyle Releasing will handle the U.S. theatrical release of Bran Nue Dae. Cinemarket's Peter D Graves will oversee marketing in conjunction with Steven Raphael's Required Viewing. Omnilab Media, the film's producer is also in the P&A financing arena. Outcast went to Vertigo for U.K., Shooting Stars for the Middle East, Hopscotch for Australia/ N.Z., Filmopolis for Greece. U.S. buyers are in discussion.
Bavaria licensed How I Ended This Summer to Film Movement for North America. Life Above All went to Sony Pictures Classics for North America. Senator has Germany and ARP has France.
BBC Worldwide licensed Stones in Exile, a one-hour doc which just aired on BBC 1 in the U.K. and on Jimmy Fallon's late night show on NBC U.S. last week to Belgium (VRT), Russia (Channel 1), Australia (ABC), Spain (Canal Plus), France (France 5), Holland (VPRO), Sweden (SVT), Norway (NRK), Uplink for Japan, Canvas for Belgium, National Broadcasting Company (NBC) for U.S. TV, Yleisradio (YLE) for Finland TV. Sales are also lined up for Latin America, Brazil, Germany and Israel but had not yet signed off on them.
Beta Cinema licensed Taiwanese filmmaker Arvin Chen's gangster story Au Revoir Taipei,
which had its world premiere in the Forum at this year's Berlinale, to South Korea's Sejong Communications and a U.S. deal is being negotiated. There is strong interest from U.S. buyers for Lila Lila and the documentary Keep Surfing which was released by Prokino in 44 German cinemas last week. Vincent Wants To Sea (Vincent Will Meer) went to Israel (LEV Cinemas/Shani Film) and South Korea (Sejong Communications). Bon Appetit went to Aya Pro (Japan), Vivarto (Poland) and Mountain Pictures (South Korea). It is screening in U.S. for buyers currently. Hollywood Classic Entertainment of the Czech Republic and Slovakia picked up Uli Edel's rapper biopic Electro Ghetto (Die Zeiten Ändern Dich) and other East European territories are negotiating. Jerry Cotton, which was released in German cinemas by Constantin Film earlier this year, went to Japan (New Select) and Mainland China (New View Media). My Best Enemy (Mein bester Feind), now in post, a Filmauro production who has it for Italy, went to the U.K. (Metrodome), Mainland China (ERG Media) and the Czech Republic/Slovakia (Hollywood Classic Entertainment). China's ERG Media picked up Agnieszka Holland's Second World War drama Hidden. RAI Cinema prebought Italian rights to The End Is My Beginning (Das Ende ist mein Anfang) which is now in post.
Bleiberg Entertainment licensed Beatdown, Circle of Pain, and Life Blood to Artificial Eye for U.K. Madman of Australia took My Suicide. Vendetta Films of Australia took Small Town Saturday Night, Beatdown, Circle of Pain, Adam Resurrected (Jeff Goldblum & Willem Dafoe), The Trotsky (Jay Baruchel) & Bart Got a Room (William Macy). MediaPro of Romania took Iceman. Horizon Int'l of Turkey acquired Iceman & The Trotsky. K&E Entertainment of So. Korea bought Kirot. Lap TV of Latin America acquired Pearblossom, Small Town Saturday Night, Dark Mirror, My Suicide & The Vicious Kind (Adam Scott & Brittany Snow). NonStop of Scandinavia acquired Adam Resurrected. Paradiso of Benelux acquired Adam Resurrected. Eagle Films of Middle East acquired Trotsky, My Suicide, Killer by Nature (Ron Perlman & Armand Assante). Wild Bunch of Germany acquired Beatdown & Circle of Pain. Playarte of Brazil acquired Killer by Nature. Sahamongkol of Thailand acquired Life Blood & Dark Mirror.
Breakaway Media licensed Passenger Side for U.S. to Strand" title="Strand">Strand Releasing.
Celluloid Dreams ♀ licensed Margarethe von Trotta's ♀ Vision to Zeitgeist forU.S. Brendan and the Secret of the Kells went to GKIDS for U.S. in pre-Cannes deals. E1 took on Canadian and U.K. rights to Norwegian Ninja. Gaga took rights for Japan to Apart Together. Outrage went to NonStop for Scandinavia. Mao's Last Dancer went to ATO for U.S. ATO (Art Takes Over) was a financing and production company in New York founded in 2002 by rocker Dave Matthews and run by CEO Temple Fennell. It will release 4 to 6 movies a year through its new partnership with IDP, the distribution wing of Samuel Goldwyn Films. Other principals include Jonathan Dorfman, Peter Newman and Greg Johnson. Former Cinetic Media exec Sarah Lash will head acquisitions. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will distribute on DVD, Blu=ray, VOD and digital download. If I want to Whistle, I Whistle has sold to Film Movement for U.S., Artificial Eye for U.K., Why Not for France, Wild Bunch Benelux for Belgium, Luxemburg and Holland, to United King Film Distribution for Israel and Vertigo Films for Spain. Şerban's debut won the Silver Bear – The Jury Grand Prix and the Alfred Bauer Prize in Berlin 2010. The film is a Romanian-Swedish co-production between Strada Film, Film i Väst and The Chimney Pot. It was funded by the Romanian National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro), the Swedish Film Institute (www.sfi.se) and Post Republic Berlin (www.post-republic.com), and was pre-sold to Romanian Television. The project won The Magic Box Service Award at CineLink, at the 2008 Sarajevo IFF, and the CineLink Work in Progress Award at Sarajevo IFF in August 2009. It also received the Hubert Bals Fund Award for Development at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Celsius licensed Freakanomics to Magnolia for No. America.
Cinema Management Group licensed SXSW audience award winner Brotherhood (See TOH for further background on this film) to Phase 4 Films for North America, SPWAG (Sony) for the U.K.; Ascot Elite for German speaking territories; KT&G Sangsangmadang for South Korea; Golden Village for Singapore; Videx for pay TV in Latin America; Eagle Entertainment for Australia and New Zealand; and Front Row Entertainment for the Middle East. Blood Out went to Eagle Pictures for Australia and New Zealand; IPA Asia Pacific for Thailand and Vietnam; Pratama for Indonesia; Videx, the licensing entity for Ledafilmin Argentina for pay TV in Latin America; Vision Film in Poland; Film Pop for Turkey; Cinetel in Hungary; and North American Pictures for the Czech and Slovak Republics, Svensk Filmindustri acquired rights for Scandinavia and Front Row Entertainment signed up for the Middle East. Talks are ongoing with Italy and Brazil.
Brotherhood directed by Will Canon starring Lou Taylor Pucci, Audience Award Winner SXSW
CMG's The Perfect Host, which premiered at Sundance, sold to French Connection Films for France; Festival Films for Spain; All Interactive" title="All Interactive Media">All Interactive Media for Australia/New Zealand; Bejing Asian Culture for China; Front Row Entertainment for the Middle East; Videx, the licensing entity for Ledafilmin Argentina for pay TV in Latin America; and Jaguar Films for all international airline rights. Lionsgate/ Grindstone has all rights for U.S./ Canada and Lionsgate U.K. has the U.K. Gasland, which won the documentary Special Jury Prize at Sundance, sold to: Mongrel Media for Canada; Dogwoof for the U.K./ Ireland; French Connection Films in France; Sena for Iceland; Palace Pictures in Australia/New Zealand; Golden Village for Singapore; and Front Row in the Middle East.
Cinemavaul presold the final film in the Theo Van Gogh trilogy, Somewhere Tonight, to Lusomundo for Portugal, HBO for Eastern European PTV, Digiturk for Turkey, Maywin Media for Russia and CIS, Spentzos for Greece, Solopan for Poland, Rialto for Switzerland, ETV for South Africa, DBS for Israel TV and Peace Arch for Canada.
Cinephil♀ licensed Film Unfinished♀ to Oscilloscope for U.S. in a pre-Cannes deal.
Cinetic sold A&E Indie's untitled Eliot Spitzer doc to Magnolia for U.S.
IF YOU ARE NOT LOGGED INTO IMDbPRO YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO WORK ALL THESE LINKS.
The buyers bought and the sellers have long folded their tents and moved on, but the sales continue, and will continue until Toronto brings a new batch of films, thus inaugurating the fall season of buying which culminates at the AFM in November. During the upcoming season we shall see the effect of the devalued Euro on buying and selling.
The judgment on the market: Sales and even pre-sales are up though prices are down. Buying is up in some territories, but down in others, most notably in Japan for outside product. Japan seems to have become an inward-looking territory, one North American sales excutive said. Eastern Europeans are happy with their sales, the young French producers are less so. Buying is more active in Poland, South Korea and Mexico this year according to Jerome Paillard as quoted in Film Francais. U.S. indies are rather flat and the U.S. buyers are hesitant to buy. The larger name titles of U.S. sales agents are selling and preselling well. Where 15 to 20 years ago U.S. accounted for 90% of the international box office, and then 10 years ago for 50%, and in 2008, 30 to 40%, now it sometimes has no share at all in a film's boxoffice. Aside from theatrical sales, vod and hybrid forms of distribution are making quick but not high $ level inroads. Revenue shares will reapportion themselves as time goes on. Genre films (7-8% of the tiles in the market) were popular and there was an increase of documentaries in the selection. Attendance was up 1%.
The largest countries, called the BRIC territories (Brazil, Russia, India, China), are making moves to expand buying, producing and selling to the rest of the world. If Russia and China's activities continue in this direction it will allow for greater growth in the business. India seems the most committed to this and Brazil seems to be quieter.
Money is flowing once again though not at the 2008 levels. If the American Film Market in 2008 made US$700 million as was stated by IFTA at the time, then by extrapolation, Cannes in 2008 made US$1 billion and the European Film Market in Berlin made US$500 million in transactions in rights trading and coproduction deals. Jerome Paillard of the Cannes market has stated that the attendance levels this year are back up to 2008 levels. While that does not mean prices are as high as in 2008, at least commerce is picking up. Edward Noeltner of CMG notes that it was a busy market for him but where one company was once the buyer of 3 titles, now it is only buying 1 which means 3 times the amount of work is required to move titles.
To a large degree, the action at the Cannes market reflected the state of supply and demand. With a slowdown in worldwide film production over the last 18 months, buyers must replenish their inventory. Among these buyers are the studios who have cut back on their own production and are in need of product which has allowed high end presales to suddenly emerge again.
Presales remain down but not out. Because of the world's finance crises of 2009 not much went into production and banks are still wary of backing production, though wealthy individuals seem to be coming forward. CAA also holds the torch leading wealthy individuals' equity investments into larger independent films.
Cannes has infused the marketplace an optimism that in the second half of 2010 the pace will quicken.
The Rights Roundup enables distributors,international sales agents, programmers and financiers to keep track of current market activities during and for a certain time after the event. The links to the international sales agents' (ISAs) and distributors' own websites enable readers to go deeper into the companies, thus pulling back the curtain on the international film business. Titles are linked to IMDbPro because to date it is the only place a paying public can see at a glance which companies (look under Company Credits) are involved in the international sales and distribution – as well as in the production – of the title.
From those Company Credits, one can also see the rest of the company's lineup of films – whether in actual distribution, on offer, in development, or in the library/ catalog – all invaluable information for the business of film. For the real market going film professional however, only Cinando offers the best of market information, from locations to screenings and all the most current and accurate company contact information. And of course, for the known and approved buyers (distributors), the ISA gives further access to the film, its corollary materials, etc.
Contentfilm licensed The Winning Season to NonStop for Scandinavia and the Baltics. I Knew It Was You went to Oscilloscope for North America.
Coproduction Office sold Le Quattro Volte to Filmes da Mostra for Brazil. Tender Son – The Frankenstein Project went to Megacom for Ex-Yugoslavia.
Corsan struck a multi-title distribution deal withAnchor Bay for the U.S., U.K. and Australia/ N.Z. which will include The Devil's Double starring Dominic Cooper and Ludivine Sagnier, The Box Collector and heist thriller The Hessen Affair with Billy Zane. (Anchor Bay does not hold Australian rights for The Hessen Affair, nor does it hold U.S. rights for The Devil's Double. North American rights are available). Also included is romantic comedy Meant To Be directed by Paul Breuls himself (the owner of Corsan World Sales and Corsan Productions) and the Roland Joffe directed epic romance Singularity to shoot this summer. In certain cases Corsan may provide p&a budgets towards the releases, which will go out as platform releases and expand wide in subsequent weeks.
Crimson Wolf Productions licensed No. American rights to Eyeborgs to Image in a pre-Cannes deal.
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Fash Mobs! #1by stylesmith on 07/28/2011
Fash Mobs! is a newly formed fashion production concept driven by street fashion and spontaneity. It brings fashion back to the community in a flash mob style. This pop-up fashion presentation approach is designed to utilize unique public spaces in high-traffic areas to present Los Angeles fashion throughout the city.
For more information on Fash Mobs and its upcoming shows, follow @FashMobs on Twitter.
Fash Mobs #1 Credits:
Swimwear: Cia Maritima, Footwear: Seychelles Shoes, Hair: Works of Art Salon, Make-Up: POP Beauty.


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Hey Afaconados!
I'm only one day away from jet-setting to Bali! I hope you guys don't forget about me when I'm gone. 🙁 I'll be back on the grind as soon as I'm back with loads of great pictures and experiences to share, so please stay tuned!
Here's a look at what I wore last week:
Until next time!


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I'm still writing poetry about you, brother of my heart. One of the many thing I never told you that I did. I love you and I always will, but I hope you burn in hell you abusive bastard.
The man who hates me.
cw: Slurs
Have I told you about the man who hates me?
I think it's because I'm queer
More specifically, because I'm a dirty tranny
Ever ask someone how they're doing?
Only to receive a glare that says "die, faggot, die."
He despises me
And I hate him too.
An offering
Persephone's Choice
I chose the pomegranate
To escape one hell for another
Such is my lot
Cursed by the Fates
Under Demeter controlled
He offered me freedom
At terrible cost
A share of the kingdom
The dead down below
Escaping Demeter
And her pretty cages
For the land of my choice
Response to writing prompt: new poem.
Prompt: War breaks out between the legions of hell and heaven, humanity joins and surprisingly is winning against both
Angels came flying
Then Demons and dying
Mankind prepared for the fall
What they didn't see coming
Was mankind's great cunning
And soon we conquered them all.
Erasing my existence
From your memory
And hoping someday
You'll remember
And smile
I guess I'll speak
I guess I'll speak.
With my lost voice
Of what is gone
And nothing gained.
Shadows rule
And all is lost
We still run
But relentless hunt
All is lost
All is lost
Moving on.
Even when you know you've got limited time
Even when you're expecting it
It's never enough
And it hurts
Do you know why I like flowers?
Do you know why I like flowers?
Because they're pretty and useless
Broken off from their roots
And falling apart day by day
Just like me
The effort of keeping the facade
Pretending normality while I'm panicking again
Falling apart
Pretty and useless
She said she didn't want me
So this is what dating someone
Then no longer dating that someone feels like.
I should have seen this coming
And parts of me wonder if she was ever really interested.
Or if she was just going along because I was.
I know she found me attractive once…
I know that it was real
I know I still love her
But not in the way I did
I care deeply still
But the romantic feelings vanished
In the very moment
She said she didn't want me any longer
I already miss her
And what we had
But I don't want to be with her
So pain will be pain
A nice clean heat
Burning in place
Of the fire I once had for her
Until it consumes itself
And once again
We'll be friends
Like we were in the beginning
Still Unseen
[CN: family]
My dad turned away that day
And never turned back
He still can't look at me
He only looks in my direction
Do you know I've only seen my dad cry twice?
The first time was when his father died
The second was when he saw me truly
He still won't see me
Only what he wants me to be


text:
Stamp sets: Wonderfall, Day of Gratitude (Retired) and Truly Grateful
Paper: Sweater Weather DSP, Very Vanilla CS and Chocolate Chip CS
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Raspberry Ripple
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Adorning Accents Edgelits, Autumn Accents Bigz, Top Note Bigz, Vine Street TEIF (retired) and Pearl Basic Jewels.
Misc: Buttons were from my own personal button can and the jute was from my potting bench. The letters for the banner were cut out with my Cricut.
I would love to help you with all of your stamping needs.
Please CONTACT me,


text:
We've had several exciting conversations over the past few months toward improving The Free Liberal. This clunkety old site has served us well over the years, but we think we can do it better, maybe even a whole lot better.
It hasn't been completely rosy. Behind the scenes, this site has caused a lot of despair, heartache, and shattered relationships. Paul Gessing moved to the desert to escape the stress, and Bob Capozzi has to meditate like ninety hours a day just to deal (it gives him the calm composure of a saint though). Don't even ask about Kevin Rollins. As I write this, he's cringing in the dark muttering about his "birthday present".
Just kidding—our editorial team is mostly on the up and up. And yet we know the site needs some serious improvement. But, somehow, you come here and use the site anyway. Thanks!
Anyway, all of this is to say we're interested in your point of view. Would you be willing to take a few minutes to fill out our very short survey? We want to know what you like about the site, what you don't like, and stuff like that. There are no personal questions or anything.
This survey is open to readers, TFL bloggers, and everyone. Oh, and feel free to share your questions and thoughts below.
Thanks again! You're super.
John Stephens is a Quaker web developer and creative professional at Design Opus.


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By Howard Lee
I started my day by attending some interesting posters in the morning. Most of the topics in the poster session today are mainly related to quantum optics, ultrafast phenomena/laser, and optical sensing. In the afternoon, I attended the "plasmonic metasurface" session and "nonlinear fiber effect" session, followed by the celebration of the International Year of Light and the last plenary session of the conference by Prof. Shuji Nakamura (UCSB, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics 2014) and Prof. Miles Padgett (University of Glasgow).
It was an excellent day filled with new findings and ideas. Here, I would like to highlight some poster and talks that I found particularly interesting:
Poster session:
Graded Index Porous Optical Fibers – Dispersion Management in Terahertz Range
Hybrid Metal Wire-Dielectric THz Fibers: Design and Perspectives
(Andrey Markov et al., Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada)
Terahertz radiation is the region of EM spectrum between the microwave and the infrared region. It is the least developed spectral range within the EM spectrum. However, recent developments found that the generation, detection and routing of the THz radiation is critically important for development of material characterization, security imaging and biochemical detection. Therefore, efficient guiding of THz radiation is one of the important factors for these applications.
Andrey Markov uses the graded index porous "microstructured" optical fiber to guide and to engineer the dispersion of the pulse propagation in THz regime. In addition, they also demonstrates the integration of metal-wire into the optical fiber to design a hybrid fiber for reducing the loss and controlling the dispersion and polarization. This work opens up new directions on making an efficient THz waveguide that is currently not well developed.
Technical session:
Graphene Coated Microfiber For Cascaded Four-Wave- Mixing Generating
(B.C. Yao et al. , University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong)
Graphene, a 2D material with honeycomb crystal lattice has attracted a lot of interest because of its unique electronic and optical characteristics, particularly the nonlinearity of the material. However, how we use the unique properties of graphene and integrate into a real device application is an important research task nowadays. The speaker of this talk presented a new way to study the nonlinear effect of graphene by using tapered micro-fiber. They fabricated graphene coated microfiber and studied the power spectrum by launching a high power pulse into the dielectric core of the fiber. By adjusting the detuning, they are able to observe the cascaded stokes and anti-stokes peaks. Their results open up a novel way on utilizing the advantages of graphene and fiber optics that would be useful for developing comb filter, pulse laser and other all-optical devices.
Photon Spin Induced Collective Electron Motion on a Metasurface
(Xingjie Ni et al., UC Berkeley)
Metasurfaces are typically arrays of subwavelength anisotropic light scatters (optical antennas) where each element is designed to control the phase and amplitude of the transmitted, reflected, and scattered light. Recently, studies show that metasurfaces could be used to enhance photon orbital momentum and manipulate spin-orbit interactions and to investigate the photonic spin Hall effect. Xingjie Ni presented here their new finding on photon spin that is induced by the electron motion of the metasurface (where the four edges of the metasurface are connected to external metal pads for electric current detection—see figure).
They measured the electric current transverse to the phase gradient when the metasurface is illuminated by circularly polarized light. Their results clearly show that the collective electron motions inside the metasurface is affected by the input photon spin states. This is an important and direct study of the photon spin drag effect and would be useful for novel manipulation of photon spin and orbital angular momentum using ultrathin metasurface.
The time is running fast that there is only two days left for the conference. I hope you will enjoy the rest of the conference, particularly the post-deadline session on Thursday evening will be one of the highly recommended event of the conference. See you there!
Posted: 15 May 2015 by
Howard Lee
| with 0 comments
The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) or its sponsors.


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cardstock, Close To My Heart, contest, CTMH, list, paper, prizes, scrapbooking, stamping, stamps, to-do
There are 4 things on my To-Do list today. One of them is to do a little research and decide if I want to continue as a Close To My Heart consultant or let it drop. You see, this happens every year, or it has the past two years, anyway. I want to be a CTMH consultant. I want to share the great products and services with my friends. And I want to make new friends. And keep in touch with my old friends. But then work happens. The holidays are crazy and in retail, they start early. I haven't done anything in my craft room (other than dig out the Christmas decorations). I haven't made a single Christmas card. I haven't had time to even think about looking through the idea book. There are stamp sets and accessories that I want to order for myself, but I've been ordering Christmas for everyone else instead.
Well, Christmas Day is past. I get paid tomorrow. Do I place a nice big juicy order for myself? Or do I let it slide, slip into 'Junior' status and then make the real decision later? That's where the research comes in. The first step is to find the new Idea Book online on the consultant site. That was easy enough. But for some reason my Chrome browser didn't like it, so I had to open Internet Explorer. And then reset my password because I can never remember it. (Have it saved in Chrome.) And then the Spring/Summer Idea Book. Have I ever mentioned that I love Spring and Summer? Well, I really love Spring and Summer colors and patterns and prints and flowers and beaches and . . . . well, everything that goes along with it.
Long story short, one quick peek at the Idea Book and the decision is made. I'm in! Tomorrow is payday and I'll be placing a special order just for me!
And now the good part for you: Guess how many of the 4 items on the To-Do list I accomplished today (You know by now that it is at least 1!) and you'll be entered into a drawing for a free CTMH stamp set. *ETA* Post you guess by 11:59 PM on December 30, 2012.
I'm not sure which it will be yet. A while back I purged my stamp collection and I have nice big box of stamps to choose from. But post your answer in the comments section. Sharing this post, Tweeting and Facebooking it, won't get you extra entries, but it is always greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
I'm also putting together a New Consultant Gift Package for those joining my team. If you're interested in joining, I'd love to hear from you.
Until next time, from my studio to yours,


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Responsible Officer:
Sponsoring Department:
Revision Date: 01 December 2014
Errors or changes to: email@example.com
- Purpose
- Introduction to The University of Texas at Arlington Hiring of Temporary Nonimmigrants Policy
- Positions That will be Considered for Sponsorship
- Process for Obtaining Approval for UT Arlington H1B Sponsorship
- Maintenance of Ongoing Compliance with State and Federal Laws Related to H1B Employees
- Contacts
- Disclaimer
The purpose of this policy is to:
Identify those positions for which The University of Texas at Arlington will consider for H-1B sponsorship.
Establish the procedures for requesting, obtaining approval for, and processing an H-1B petition, as well as provide forms for departments and foreign nationals to utilize in relation to the process.
Establish immigration procedures in compliance with state and federal laws as well as related institutional policies and procedures.
Introduction to The University of Texas at Arlington Hiring of Temporary Nonimmigrants Policy
This information is for The University of Texas at Arlington hiring departments who are interested in hiring a foreign national. When hiring a foreign national, the University must sponsor the individual for a temporary nonimmigrant worker visa, known as the H-1B visa. This policy also provides information about the legal requirements set forth by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Texas Workforce Commission related to the processing an H-1B petition.
Positions That will be Considered for Sponsorship
The majority of positions which the University will fill with foreign nationals fall into the H-1B "specialty occupation" category, which is the focus of this procedure.
Specialty Occupations
An H-1B visa is available for a "person in a specialty occupation" who is coming temporarily to the U.S "A specialty occupation" for H-1B purposes is an occupation that requires:
Theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge,
Attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States.
The University will not sponsor individuals for an H-1B visa if the position does not require a minimum of a bachelor's degree (equivalent experience is not acceptable for the purposes of University sponsorship) and satisfy the above requirements for a "specialty occupation." A foreign national's qualifications are irrelevant when evaluating whether a position qualifies as a "specialty occupation."
Please note that the general rule is that the individual CANNOT begin to work until the H-1B petition is approved, as evidenced by a hard-copy of the H-1B approval notice. An e-mail notification of approval is not sufficient evidence to permit the foreign national to begin work. Filing of the petition does not authorize a foreign national to begin employment. There are certain exceptions to this rule available for those extending H-1B status or those changing employers, which are addressed below. Otherwise, departments MUST NOT permit a foreign national to begin employment until the H-1B petition has been approved and received by the International Coordinator for Employment.
General Information about H-1B Visa Availability
H-1B visas generally fall into two categories: subject to cap and cap exempt. The U.S. government places a 65,000 limit, or "cap", on the number of H-1B visas which may be issued each fiscal year. This cap does not include an additional 20,000 visas per year for persons who have earned a master's or higher degree from a United States institution of higher education. As the cap applies to most employers, there is a "race" by employers to file H-1B visa petitions beginning April 1 of each year, for the October 1 start date of that fiscal year. Some employers are not subject to the H-1B visa cap, and are known as cap-exempt. The University of Texas at Arlington, as a non-profit higher education institution, is cap-exempt. However, due to the flood of H-1B petitions filed at USCIS in April of each year, processing times for all H-1B petitions are subject to increase.
Part-time H-1Bs
Part-time H-1Bs are discouraged and not permitted under UT Arlington policy. The Department of Labor requires a strict record-keeping of all part time hours worked, and this makes these H-1Bs much harder to keep up with in terms of compliance. Please consult with the International Coordinator for Employment to discuss exceptions to this policy. Cases that merit further discussion will be referred to the Director of Equal Opportunity Services, the Vice President for Human Resources, and the Provost's office.
Changes of Status to H-1B
For individuals already in the U.S. in another immigration status (i.e. F-1/OPT, J-1, O-1, TN, H4), the individual must still petition for H-1B status. In order to change status within the U.S., a nonimmigrant must be maintaining their current status. The University will not sponsor an individual for H-1B status who has not properly maintained legal status in the U.S.
Important Note Regarding J-1/J-2 Immigration Status
If the nonimmigrant is in J status and is subject to the 212(e) 2-year home residence requirement (or ever was in the past), he/she cannot change to H-1B status until this requirement is either fulfilled or waived. If waived by the Department of State, an official waiver letter must accompany the petition when the case is sent to USCIS. Please contact the International Coordinator for Employment for more information.
Non-Transferability of H-1B Status
Work authorization is employer specific. The H-1B status which has been obtained on behalf of an employee may not be used by any other employer. An additional H-1B would need to be approved for a second employer. While a person may hold more than one H-1B classification, he/she is only permitted to work for the approved employer(s). There is a portability provision which allows a current H-1B worker, who is changing employment to UT Arlington and thus filing a new H-1B petition, to begin working here as soon as confirmation is received that USCIS has received the petition, rather than waiting for the new petition to be approved.
Extensions of H-1B Status
H-1B extension procedures are basically the same as the initial H-1B. Therefore, the initiation form and entire procedure must again be completed by the department and the employee, and submitted to International Coordinator for Employment with all supporting documentation. It is important to request the extension as soon as possible. H-1B extensions fall under a special "240-day rule": "An H-1B alien for whom the employer has filed a timely application for an extension of H1B stay can continue employment for the same employer while the request for extension of stay is pending with USCIS, for a period of up to 240 days beyond the expiration of the prior period of authorized stay." This rule only applies when the H-1B extension petition has been filed before the current H-1B visa expires- if the petition is not timely filed, the individual cannot continue to work beyond the expiration of his/her current visa.
Length of H-1B Visa
H-1B status may be requested for an initial period of stay up to 3 years. The length of the H-1B visa is a decision made by the employing department. The University encourages departments to request 3 years if funding is available, to avoid having to undergo the extension process, which incurs additional fees. However, the International Coordinator for Employment will only request the H-1B visa for the duration of the position as indicated by the Employing Department.
Beyond the initial 3 year period, extensions of H-1B visas are available for up to another 3 year increment; the cumulative duration of an H-1B classification is 6 years. Unless the individual is subject to other circumstances (such as pending green card petition/adjustment of status to a permanent resident), the H-1B visa cannot be extended beyond 6 years. If the 6 years have been used, the individual must remain outside the U.S. for a period of one year before the six-year clock can begin again.
The employing department is responsible for all fees associated with the H-1B petition.The maximum potential fees which may be incurred for an H-1B petition are $2,050.
$325 filing fee for the H-1B petition itself, the I-129.
$500 fraud prevention and detection fee required for each new H-1B petition (not required for a petition extending H-1B status with the same employer)
Miscellaneous mailing fees- FedEx, UPS, certified mail, etc.
$1,225 potential premium processing fee- depending on the timing of the petition, it may be necessary to fast-track the petition with the premium processing option. It is strongly urged that the department pursue premium processing of an H-1B petition if it has been filed regular processing, and the new foreign employee has not received his/her approval notice at three weeks prior to the requested employment start date.
Miscellaneous overseas consular processing fees- if the foreign national is abroad, the department will need to pay an additional filing fee to the consulate.
Any costs associated with the filing of H-4 dependent petitions should be paid by the beneficiary; the University has no obligation for these fees.
Return Transportation of Alien
If the employee is dismissed before the end of the authorized period of H-1B employment, the sponsoring department will be responsible for paying the reasonable costs of return transportation to the employee's home country. This is required by USCIS regulations, to ensure that the foreign national will not be stranded in the U.S. without being able to return to his/her home country.
Process for Obtaining Approval for UT Arlington H1B Sponsorship
Initiation by the Employing Department and Review of the Request
The employing department seeking to sponsor the foreign national must submit, Request to Initiate H-1B (Form 22-2) signed by the Chairman and the Dean. The foreign national employee may not initiate the request. The Request is then submitted to the International Coordinator for Employment, Office of Equal Opportunity Services, for review. The International Coordinator for Employment will notify the department if the request for sponsorship will be denied and will explain the denial. If the department disagrees with the denial, it may appeal the decision to the Director of Equal Opportunity Services, the Vice President for Human Resources and/or the Provost. If the request is approved, the International Coordinator for Employment will begin the H-1B petition process.
The International Coordinator for Employment will also require the H-1B beneficiary (foreign national employee) to complete, H-1 Foreign Employee Questionnaire (Form 22-3).
Preparation of the Petition by the International Coordinator for Employment, Office of Equal Opportunity Services
- The International Coordinator for Employment will request that the employing department and the foreign national provide certain documents necessary for the H-1B petition and legal compliance. Departments should print all documents on UT Arlington departmental letterhead. As the information reflected in all documents must be consistent, it is possible that departments will be requested to revise/update these forms. Please see checklists and forms in the Related Resources section at the end of this procedure.
Once the necessary information is received, the International Coordinator for Employment will complete a draft of the Labor Condition Application (LCA). If the certified LCA's listed wage is more than the wage offered by the department to the foreign national, the International Coordinator will notify the department of this and will discuss options.
Postings by Employing Department and Department of Human Resources
The International Coordinator for Employment will create a posting notifying employees that the University is filing the LCA, which will be provided to the Department of Human Resources and the employing department. Both departments will post this notice in an area of sufficient visibility for other employees. The employing department must ensure that this notice is posted in the actual work area in which the foreign national will be performing his/her job duties. It is the responsibility of the employing department to inform the International Coordinator of all physical work sites of the foreign national. This notice must be posted for 10 business days, after which it must be signed and dated by a department administrator, and the original must be returned to the International Coordinator for Employment, who will keep track of the 10 days.
Approval of the Labor Conditions Application (LCA) by the Department of Labor
Following the posting of the notice, the International Coordinator for Employment will file the LCA and upon certification will forward it to the Executive Director, EOS for signature. The International Coordinator will then confirm that all of the required documents have been collected for the H-1B petition and will prepare the petition to be filed with the USCIS.
Payment of Fees by the Employing Department and Beneficiary
The employing department will request that checks for all of the required filing costs be provided to the International Coordinator for Employment and will assist the International Coordinator in arranging any certified mail/FedEx/UPS mailing services. All filing fee checks are to be separate checks made payable to U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The International Coordinator for Employment will also provide departments with additional fee and mailing instructions. The employing department will also assist in ensuring that any fees that will be paid by the foreign national beneficiary are provided to the International Coordinator for Employment to be sent with the petition.
Submission of the H-1B Petition by the International Coordinator for Employment
The International Coordinator for Employment will review the entire petition and submit the USCIS Form I-129 to the Executive Director, EOS to review and sign. After the petition has been signed, the International Coordinator for Employment will submit the petition, approved LCA and other evidentiary documents to the designated USCIS Immigration Service Center for adjudication. There is no way to accurately approximate the time it will take for H-1B approval. In addition, if the H-1B beneficiary is not in the United States, this significantly increases processing times. Generally, it takes three to six months for the petition to be approved if it is a change of status to H-1B. If the individual has an H-1B through another employer and he is "porting" the H-1B to UT Arlington, it could take up to 9 months for approval. In the latter case, as well as an H-1B extension, however, the individual is eligible to work at UT Arlington while the case is pending at immigration.
If the foreign national beneficiary has dependents for which he/she will be applying for H-4 status, it is recommended that this application be submitted along with the I-129 petition. The University does not prepare the H-4 petition or pay the filing fee, but it will mail all of the petition materials in together. Please notify the International Coordinator for Employment at the beginning of the H-1B process if the H-1B beneficiary has dependents.
*Note: If the beneficiary is not in the U.S. a notification of an approved petition is sent directly from USCIS to the US Embassy or Consulate where the beneficiary will be requesting the H-1B visa. An original H-1B approval notice (USCIS Form I-797) will be sent to the Office of Equal Opportunity Services. The Office of Equal Opportunity Services will mail the original H-1B approval notice along with a copy of the approved H-1B petition plus evidentiary materials to the beneficiary to use when they apply for the H-1B visa.
Maintenance of Ongoing Compliance with State and Federal Laws Related to H1B Employees
Change in H-1B Beneficiary Job Duties, Work Location, or Resignation/Termination of Employee
The Employing Department is responsible for notifying the International Coordinator for Employment if the H-1B beneficiary's job duties change, if the location of employment has changed, or if the H-1B beneficiary resigns/is terminated from his/her position. A change in job duties, job location, resignation, or termination of the H-1B beneficiary creates certain legal obligations on the part of the University to amend/revise/revoke documentation which was filed pertaining to the H-1B beneficiary's status. Please note that if the University does not notify the USCIS of changes in an H-1B employee's status, the University may incur certain monetary liabilities.
Public Access File and Department of Labor File
Per Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, an employer must make certain documents filed as part of the H-1B petition available for public examination at the employer's principal place of business in the U.S. or the place of employment. Public access means that individuals have the right to view these documents, including the Labor Conditions Application (LCA). The International Coordinator for Employment will maintain the Public Access File for one year beyond the LCA period, and any related payroll records for 3 years from the date of creation.
Employing departments should direct any individuals interested in reviewing these documents to the Office of Equal Opportunity Services, International Coordinator for Employment.
In addition to the Public Access File, the employer is required to maintain and must make available for the inspection by the DOL other documentation related to the H-1B petition. These documents are maintained as part of the foreign national employee's immigration file, which is kept at the Office of Equal Opportunity Services. Employing Departments should direct any representatives of the DOL interested in reviewing these documents to the Office of Equal Opportunity Services, International Coordinator for Employment.
UT Arlington Liability
Submission of an H-1B petition by UT Arlington on behalf of a prospective employee does not guarantee that the petition will be approved. The approval of such petitions rests with U.S. government agencies--not with UT Arlington. Be assured, however, that every effort will be made by the Office of Equal Opportunity Services to process the paperwork in as timely a manner as possible.
Please contact Clare Vega, International Coordinator for Employment, Office of Equal Opportunity Services, Box 19569, with any questions. She is available at 817-272-0035 or email@example.com.
The information contained in this procedure should not be construed as legal advice, but is intended for the general, informational use by The University of Texas at Arlington community members.


text:
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text:
Rambling of a restless mind. That propably gets it. I write about whatever comes to my mind. Granted, that's a lot of more or less useless stuff. So I'll probably spare you of my thoughts of lesser importance or those that are borderline mad. The rest would be science, philosopy, computer graphics and mostly game development.
This article was originally published over on Gamasutra by myself. Go take a look :D
Why should I read on?
When I began freelancing some time ago, I spent a considerable amount of time looking for and making up my own prices for my art services. I found it very hard though, to find any information about pricing. Some time later and some experience richer, I want to share a few of my insights to make it easier for both, artists and clients alike, to get an idea, of what price is to to be expected. This article is not meant to be a means to all ends. I just want to put it out to help everyone somewhat adjust their expectations before going to look for talent or planning their budgets.
Also, this is not a guide on how long a certain piece of pixel art must take, or how much exactly it needs to cost. There are many things to consider here. For one, you can get very cheap prices for pixelart from some offshore countries. Sometimes, when considering individual artists, this might work out. Working with contracting companies from offshore countries comes with its own slew of problems and opportunities. I don't want to write about that here. This topic can easily fill an article of it's own. The other thing is efficiency. I am just going forward from my own work experience and what I witnessed both on me and fellow artists. Each and every artist has it's own pace of work, its own strengths and weaknesses. In the end you are not paying only for the execution of placing pixels next to each other, you are hiring a person and that person's creative prowess, technical expertise and accumulated work experience. So keep in mind, artists charging differently from each other is OK. Find the artist for the job, whose skills you value most, who can contribute in the most positive way to your project. Having that person on board is worth much more than a few dollars per frame.
The Tool for the Job
So let's start with the obvious. Pixelart is said to be less expensive than 3D. That's true, most of the time. But depending on the individual setup, the costs for pixelart can become prohibitively high. Not only in creation but also in asset management. If you have a game that features, multiple characters with different customizable armor parts, multiple weapons, funny hats. All of that will be added upon in later updates. This will demand a very specific and technical setup to stay viable cost wise and management wise. So you need to have an artist that has a very strong technical skill for solving that task more efficiently. And obviously, this is something, that needs to get paid. The more complex the task, the more you'll have to pay for technical expertise in addition for pure execution. Pricing something like this can only be done for the task at hand and isn't really the focus of this article. Just keep in mind, that asking for a quote on "pixelart" depends on what actually needs to be done and designed and if the workflow is already defined. That brings us directly to a common misconception regarding pixelart...
Everyone can do pixel art ...
I am personally an advocate of everybody can LEARN to be good at, well, almost anything. However, I cannot support the notion to believe that something is easy because it LOOKS easy. Pixelart, like any other craft, needs to be learned. Learning art is a passion. One that you don't just master in a weekend course. It involves acquiring a lot of classic art skills as well as a lot of practice and studies. Usually in your spare time. And because we are in the world of computer graphics, a lot of technical skills jump in to complete the equation. When someone talks about how art is a passion, they mean that dedicating your free time to get better at your job, on the expense of real life, needs passion to endure and drive you forward. What they don't mean, is that art doesn't need to cost much. Because the artist is content to have a job that's its passion. That's nonsense. As nice as passion is, you can't eat it.
A word about the job
Sometimes a offer for pixelart will go something like: 100 icons, 64x64 for 120$. Not joking. Real life. Seriously. I was reading this and said to myself... "No one would ever take this". Then I read the comments and my eyes widened in disbelief. Some people were willing to take it. That's crazy! Why? Let's do some math. How long does one icon take? Starting off, do we have concept sketches on any icon? No? So, assuming that you have an idea instantly and bring down a few sketches, I'd say that 10 minutes are needed at least, just to explore some designs. Finished on the sketches and further assuming that you are doing your own sign off (which is basically never the case) I'd say that a finished high quality icon might take about 20 minutes in average (64px square) depending on the contents, which palette is to be used and such. Do I have to get a signoff on the final icon? Let's assume yes. Another 5 minutes for minor changes. And you can end up so much worse than 5 minutes. So, maybe 35 minutes in total if everything is in my hands and I am super inspired and at maximum efficiency. So that's 1,71 icons per hour. Eight hours a day? Definitely not. But let's just assume that we can hold up the crunch. So that's 58,47 hours of work. So that's $2,05 per hour. Seriously. You are better off begging for money.
And a word about the price
So what is a realistic price for a single icon like this? Here's a number:
Something along $38 net.
Working off a concept sketch with feedback loops included $27 net. Again, this is just an average. Depending on the chosen style, things can get cheaper or more expensive.
Summing up, the above equation you'd make about $65 an hour. "Wow, now this is a bit much", you might say.
Give me a second here. Craftsmen charge up to $80 net an hour. Electricians sometimes even more. They do a good job. But one that often requires significantly less dedication to be get good at. Taking your earnings home, taxes on income will shave off a bit. Up to a third in some countries. You need to pay for lodging, insurance, food, new hardware and software every now and then and save up to bridge some idle time where you are not employed. That's regular freelancing business math. In turn, clients don't have to hire someone and pay them even if they are sick or you don't have anything to do right now. That's the tradeoff. If you are sure that you can employ an artist for a certain time full time, stop reading, go hire someone.
Idle time, happy time
I said idle time? Most freelancers aren't in the luxurious position to be booked 5 days a week for 8 hours all year long. One project ends, another one starts, maybe that takes a week. Or a month. Or two. Maybe there are just no jobs around at the moment. And the market is full of competitors. Every self employed businessperson experiences idle time as a part of their work reality. Actually, if an artist gives the customers estimations, talks about the project, maybe does an art test... the artist usually doesn't get paid. But it's part of the work equation. It costs time. All these things wittle down on your $65 an hour to something much less glorious. Maybe half, maybe even a third when starting off as a freelancer. So here's a shout out to all artists. Check your ledgers and check your work time. Then you'll have a pretty clear picture of what you need to charge to arrive at somewhat viable earnings. $25 the hour, $1 per frame, all this might work while living in your mom's basement, but it won't work out later in your life. Especially not with a family. So maybe reconsider and understand that you cannot retain your clients by saying "Oh, sorry, I have a flat now, so I need to charge $7 additionally per frame in the future". Start out at a realistic price. This price may of course vary in your regional economy, but whatever it is, start from there.
Scale and pixels and the good ol' time
Good, I wrote about how that icon is priced, but what about a general rule of thumb. How can a client save on budget? Just scale it down? Or if the budget is there, double resolution is double the price? Costs in pixelart actually rack up pretty fast. Think twice, going from 8x8 to 16x16 is actually four times the resolution. Contrary to regular digital painting(which has other challenges), pixelart often forces the artist to go in and touch the individual pixels. Or even start by placing pixels one by one from the start. Where a 8x8 tile can be completed pretty fast, a 64x64 tile takes some time to make, a 256x256 pixel art takes a considerable amount of time. A fullscreen HD pixel art piece is taking forever and a day. I have done a few larger pixel art pieces and seriously underestimated the effort in the beginning. Scars make you wiser. Maybe. So choosing a lower resolution will make everything come cheap? Cheaper, yes. But certain tasks like concepting won't go away. You'll have to think about how a 8x8 orc sprite should look like and animate. Even if it's just that handful of pixels. For even the lowest resolutions, as hard as I try, going under 5 minutes per frame almost never works for me. Unless on very, VERY mundane tasks. So I'd really recommend to set 5 minutes as your very lowest unit for pixelart execution, reserved for especially easy tasks. Meaning that something like $5,50 net per frame is your lowest rate for execution.
I like to move it
Up to now I wrote about frames, price oper frame. But what about animation? Is there any difference between let's say, a static environment prop and a game character? Of course there is. Animation makes a huge difference in effort. As a rule of thumb you could say: The more complex the motion and the more complex the shading, the higher the effort. This holds especially true for effect animations like smoke, fire or lightning. But this also means, that giving a rate on something like "20 Spell FX" is nigh impossible to give without knowing more. If a client refuses to give more information or show some concepts, negotiating for an hourly rate would probably be an artist's best bet here.
The basic premise for animation is like this: You have a large number of shapes and/or particles that are all transforming and moving. I usually go ahead and animate flat color shapes first before putting down the shading. During shading I often notice some problems in the animation flow and need to go back and forth to adjust to the changes. So I usually put down shading in steps until I arrive at the shading complexity that is needed. I usually try to stay as low on shading as possible for FX animations. I also try to let the client in after the first rough animation draft. Depending on the client I sometimes produce one fully shaded hero frame to drive the concept home. It puts everybody on the same page and gives the client the ability to provide early feedback before time and money gets wasted.
Character animations are often times simpler than fx in that the individual motion paths are shorter and affect a much smaller part of the body. But the more different kinds of movement a character needs to support, the more difficult it gets. Fighting games for example have a very diverse moveset for each character that sometimes bleeds into FX (smoke, dust, fire, Kame Hame Ha, whatever).
So how does all this affect the price? Depending on what is actually needed (complexity, shading) I will usually add up to 30% to the bill for animation. Again, the impact is lower, the lower the target resolution. As for 2D rig animations, this is an entirely new beast that needs to be covered separately. The pixel art for the individual character parts is pretty simple, however. It doesn't deviate much from the regular pricing per frame.
Here, take my +1 Mace
So, where to go from here. Please remember that this is not the definitive guide for pricing. Prices haven't been extrapolated from my experience in EU and US markets. They make sure that the artist can dedicate enough time for a project to deliver the best. Prices may vary, depending on your local economy. But while offshoring may be an option, it comes with it's own problems and... well, prices are already catching up. Accepting $1 per frame as an offer/payment means either starving the artist or or hiring someone with subpar skills that may eventually bail out. You might get the occasional exception, where someone is doing absolutely stunning work and charges next to nothing. Sometimes those artists desperately want to break into the industry and charge deceptively low. From an artist's perspective it pays off tenfold to do your personal stuff instead of accepting underpaid commissions. From the client's perspective you are burning through exceptionally valuable human resources. If your budget cannot support the art that you are aiming at, get back to the drawing board. And for everyone who's just trying to get their feet wet, find some student or hobby projects where everyone on the team works for free and the product gets released for free. But it's no good getting scars while having nothing to eat.
Over and out
I wrote this article because of countless job offers that read "For Free" or "Pay later when..." or "Pay nothing but it's awesome for your portfolio". I really think that the indie scene has a lot of power, but I see so much potential go to waste by burning out artists by offers that feel like a scam. So I thought I'd push out some numbers for everyone to read to help artists and clients talk to each other on the same level of understanding. On both sides. I'd love to be hearing your thoughts on this article and would love to be hearing about your experiences. Your game doesn't have a large art budget? Shoot me a mail with a description and some screens and I'll give you my thoughts. To my fellow artists... resist the urge to accept the low offer. There will be a better one. If you need some advice on freelancing, feel free to nudge me any time.
The last update on development has been some time ago, hasn't it? Bad news first: I had some commissioned artworks to do. Yeah well, "bad" news. Not on a strictly personal level. More on a "Crap I couldn't write devblog" level. Good news: I just hadn't time to write a devblog, but I had the time to push PMap along. So, relax.
Where should I start, a lot has happened...
Performance optimization is a big thing for procedural content creation. You don't want to wait like forever for the level to load. So, since the last blog entry I did some groundwork for getting the framework do it's thing faster. This week, I took a VERY close look on the generation modules, the walkers. A walker is basically a Sampler/Placer for grid values with a specific algorithm. Each walker does something else. Some Walkers have a very low performance footprint. They complete in under 4 mas even with map sizes of a 1000 square. Which means one million cells. One bloody million. Needless to state, that some other walkers are WAY more expensive when it comes to them doing their thing. Like the Mazer. This walker creates mazes. Ranging from perfect mazes to variations with loops and such. And even with small maps, this comes with a price. its like 300ms average for 50 square grids. But that's only after my first optimization pass.
HI everybody. I have just recently finished a artwork that has been on my art backlog for quite some time. This time I just added layer after layer while editing this thing in Photoshop. I usually don't do that. Don't really know why I did it this time, but this gave me the opportunity to create a small image showing How I went about creating this piece. Enjoy!
There's that point in software development, where the features are totally great, but the execution is still a "bit" shoddy. And colossally slow. And you try to crank the map size up to a thousand units square and you are like "Yeah, that'll be so awesome" and Unity is totally like... dead. Just why? Hwhyyyyyyy!?!
Being an artist I didn't ever want to need to think about performance optimization. And memory management. I didn't want to know what the heap is. And what the stack. And why there's a difference between the both. And quite frankly, I'm not sure If I got that into my brain already. But anyway. I was fortunate enough to being able to get my hands dirty with scripting a few years ago. So that's when I started to get into programming. That's when slowly the beauty of concepts like performance optimization unfolded. So Monday was that day where I thought to myself "You really need to start to clean up that mess". Allright. I tackled the small things first. Merged a few classes and cleaned up the errors when they arose. Until all went fine and dandy again. So, that's where the messy part started...


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Tell us (or show us). . . .
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Share the Joy: Sing Your Song
10 comments:
- Deb Crecelius said...
I just linked for this week
at last week's link-up.
I have now linked-up here, too.
(visited some "joy" from last week
and I'll be back here later to do some visiting for this week!)
- March 28, 2012 at 7:11 PM
- foxysue said...
Will look out for this film, sounds very motivational, I remember when Harry and Pet touched! This touches me too, close to my heart, have S Africa connections.
- March 29, 2012 at 3:25 AM
- Fallingladies said...
On my way to work, I'll stop back this weekend to gather everyone else's joy! thanks for having me!
- March 29, 2012 at 4:47 AM
- (Queenmothermamaw) Peggy said...
Yes he was an amazing man. Thanks for sharing this.
- March 29, 2012 at 10:35 AM
- A.Smith said...
Today? being able to get up and bake brioche. Honestly. And coming here and watch and enjoy this time with you.
When are you coming down?
Hugs from here.
- March 29, 2012 at 10:50 PM
- Leovi said...
Very interesting, I love Harry Belafonte.
- March 29, 2012 at 11:05 PM
today it is the word "tomorrow"... i am looking forward to tomorrow and that alone makes me smile
- March 30, 2012 at 9:46 PM
- Stephanie said...
Wonderful film clip...I tried to get it via netflix but it's not yet available. Love LOVE Harry...
- April 4, 2012 at 8:52 AM
- Amy Burzese said...
Thanks for the film clip. And, for hosting "Share the Joy".
- April 4, 2012 at 11:07 AM
- Buffi Neal said...
Thanks for the grat hop. Looking forward to reading all the other blogs in the hop.
My Wonderfully Dysfunctional Blog
- April 5, 2012 at 5:10 AM


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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Perfect Sirloin Steak
2 prime sirloin steaks
1 TBS buttter
How to make Perfect Sirloin Steak
I've noticed many steak recipes here at OSF. Growing up I spent summers at my family's ranch in Northern New Mexico where high quality, organic beef was abundant. These days I have to rely on my small circle of trusted butchers at local grocery stores. For me, a great steak stands on it's own- no exotic seasonings or techniques- just salt, pepper, garlic and fire.
Massage each steak with butter and garlic.
Season with salt and pepper.
Grill over open flame to medium-rare.
Allow to rest then enjoy as you see fit.