text:
No. 02-980
In the Supreme Court of the United States
Solicitor General
Counsel of Record
Department of Justice
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
(202) 514-2217
General Counsel
Associate General Counsel
Deputy Associate General
Federal Communications
Washington, D.C. 20554
Whether the court of appeals had the discretion under the Administrative Procedure Act to remand an agency decision without vacating that decision.
the Administrative Procedure Act (1947)
In the Supreme Court of the United States
No. 02-980
The opinion of the court of appeals (Pet. App. 1a-9a) is reported at 288 F.3d 429. The order of the Federal Communications Commission (excerpted at Pet. App. 14a-37a) is reported at 16 F.C.C.R. 9151.
The judgment of the court of appeals was entered on May 3, 2002. A petition for rehearing was denied on September 24, 2002 (Pet. App. 10a-11a). The petition for a writ of certiorari was filed on December 23, 2002. The jurisdiction of this Court is invoked under 28 U.S.C. 1254(1).
1. Congress sought in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act), 47 U.S.C. 251 et seq., to open local telecommunications markets to competition. See AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utils. Bd., 525 U.S. 366, 371 (1999). To further that purpose, the 1996 Act imposes certain duties on all local carriers (sometimes referred to as LECs) and additional duties on incumbent carriers (sometimes referred to as ILECs). One of the duties imposed on all local carriers is "to establish reciprocal compensation arrangements for the transport and termination of telecommunications." 47 U.S.C. 251(b)(5). This case arises out of a challenge to the rules promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement that duty.
Reciprocal compensation arrangements address the situation in which the party who places a call and the party who receives that call are customers of different local carriers. See In re Implementation of the Local Competition Provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 16 F.C.C.R. 9151, 9158 (2001) (ISP Remand Order). Each carrier incurs costs in transmitting and terminating the call. Ordinarily, reciprocal compensation mechanisms require the calling party's carrier to compensate the called party's carrier on the theory that the calling party "causes" those costs. See id. at 9182 n.129.
For traditional voice calls, a carrier can expect that its customers, in the aggregate, will make approximately as many calls as they receive (generally measured in terms of total minutes of calling). See ISP Remand Order, 16 F.C.C.R. at 9162, 9182. Calling patterns changed in the 1990s, however, as a result of the increased use of the Internet. Internet service providers (ISPs) began to lease local telephone lines to enable their customers to connect to the Internet by dialing a local telephone number. See id. at 9157-9158, 9178. As ISPs gained customers, calls to ISPs grew dramatically in number and duration. See id. at 9162. At the same time, ISPs made few, if any, local calls themselves. See id. at 9183. As a consequence, when one of the local carriers in a community predominantly has ISPs as customers, that carrier ordinarily receives far more in reciprocal compensation than it pays. See id. at 9182-9183.
This phenomenon has given competing (i.e., non-incumbent) carriers an "enormous incentive" to seek out ISP customers. ISP Remand Order, 16 F.C.C.R. at 9183. The FCC has found that competing carriers receive, on average, 18 times more traffic than they send, resulting in reciprocal compensation billings of approximately $2 billion a year, 90% of which is for ISP-bound calls. See ibid. Indeed, the FCC has found that many competing carriers have "target[ed] ISPs in large part because of the availability of reciprocal compensation payments," and that some ISPs have sought to become carriers "to share in the reciprocal compensation windfall." Ibid.
2. The FCC first addressed the question of reciprocal compensation for dial-up Internet traffic in a 1999 declaratory ruling. In re Implementation of the Local Competition Provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 14 F.C.C.R. 3689 (1999). The FCC concluded that dial-up Internet traffic was "largely interstate" in nature because, under FCC precedents, such traffic terminates not at the ISP, but at websites that generally are not located in the calling party's State. See id. at 3690, 3701-3702. Because the FCC had previously held that Section 251(b)(5), the reciprocal compensation provision of the 1996 Act, applied only to "local" calls, the FCC concluded that Section 251(b)(5) did not apply to compensation for this "largely interstate" traffic. Id. at 3689-3990. The FCC initiated a rulemaking proceeding to consider what compensation mechanism it should adopt for dial-up Internet traffic. See id. at 3707-3710. As an interim measure, the FCC stated that incumbent and competing carriers could agree on how to compensate each other for such traffic and that state public utility commissions could establish appropriate compensation mechanisms in arbitration proceedings conducted under 47 U.S.C. 252. See 14 F.C.C.R. at 3703-3705.
The court of appeals vacated the declaratory ruling and remanded the case to the FCC. Pet. App. 38a-53a. The court did not dispute the FCC's determination that, because most dial-up Internet traffic terminates at out-of-state websites, such traffic is jurisdictionally interstate and thereby subject to federal regulation. See id. at 45a. The court held, however, that the FCC's jurisdictional determination did not necessarily resolve whether such traffic is eligible for reciprocal compensation under Section 251(b)(5). See id. at 45a-48a. In addition, the court faulted the FCC for failing to consider how dial-up Internet traffic fits within the statutory definitions of "telephone exchange service" (which generally describes local calling services, see 47 U.S.C. 153(47)) and "exchange access" (which is a service that local carriers provide to, among others, interexchange (i.e., long-distance) carriers, see 47 U.S.C. 153(16)). Pet. App. 51a-52a. Because the FCC had stated that all calls must fall within one of those categories, the court held that the FCC should have assigned dial-up Internet traffic to a category. See id. at 51a.
3. On remand, the FCC concluded that Section 251(b)(5), by its terms, requires local carriers to establish reciprocal compensation arrangements for all "telecommunications." ISP Remand Order, 16 F.C.C.R. at 9165-9166. The FCC concluded, however, that Section 251(b)(5) is limited by Section 251(g), which generally preserves local carriers' pre-1996 Act obligations to "provide exchange access, information access, and exchange services for such access to interexchange carriers and information service providers," such as ISPs, until that obligation is "explicitly superseded" by FCC regulations. 47 U.S.C. 251(g). The FCC concluded that dial-up Internet traffic "falls under the rubric of 'information access,'" and thus is exempt from Section 251(b)(5) until the FCC expressly removes the exemption. See 16 F.C.C.R. at 9168-9171.
After concluding that Section 251(g) exempts dial-up Internet traffic from Section 251(b)(5), the FCC reaffirmed its prior finding that most such traffic is "indisputably interstate in nature" and therefore subject to the FCC's regulatory authority under 47 U.S.C. 201. ISP Remand Order, 16 F.C.C.R. at 9178; see id. at 9175-9181. The FCC found that applying the reciprocal compensation regime to dial-up Internet traffic had resulted in "market distortions" that "undermine[] the operation of competitive markets" by interfering with "accurate price signals" and artificially encouraging competing carriers to serve ISPs exclusively or primarily. Id. at 9182-9186. The FCC proposed to address the problem by adopting a "bill-and-keep" model for dial-up Internet traffic under which each carrier would recover all of its costs of transmitting and terminating calls from its own customers. Id. at 9153 & n.6, 9184-9185. Thus, a carrier would recover its costs of serving an ISP through the rates that the carrier charged the ISP. Id. at 9153 & n.6.
The FCC initiated a separate rulemaking proceeding to consider adopting a bill-and-keep model for all intercarrier compensation involving the local telephone network. In re Developing a Unified Intercarrier Compensation Regime, 16 F.C.C.R. 9610, 9611-9612 (2001). The FCC decided to await the completion of that proceeding before adopting bill-and-keep for dial-up Internet traffic alone. The FCC noted, however, that there was "a need for immediate action" to develop an interim compensation mechanism for such traffic in order to eliminate existing "arbitrage opportunities" and provide a transition to bill-and-keep. ISP Remand Order, 16 F.C.C.R. at 9155. The FCC adopted an interim mechanism that essentially caps (subject to certain annual adjustments) the number of compensable minutes and the per-minute compensation rate that a carrier may receive for dial-up Internet calls. See id. at 9187. In addition, a carrier entering a new local market is required to adopt bill-and-keep for dial-up Internet calls during the interim period. See id. at 9188. The FCC also determined that, because it had exercised its federal authority, state commissions could not regulate such traffic. See id. at 9189.
4. The court of appeals remanded the ISP Remand Order. Pet. App. 1a-9a. The court rejected the FCC's conclusion that Section 251(g) exempts dial-up Internet traffic from the Section 251(b)(5) obligation to establish reciprocal compensation arrangements. The court reasoned that Section 251(g) "provide[s] simply for the 'continued enforcement' of certain pre-[1996] Act regulatory" obligations, id. at 5a, and does not allow the FCC to "override virtually any provision of the 1996 Act" by promulgating rules that are "in some way, however remote, linked to LECs' pre-Act obligations," id. at 7a. In addition, the court reasoned that Section 251(g) does not apply because "there had been no pre-Act obligation relating to intercarrier compensation for ISP-bound traffic" and, even if there had been, Section 251(g) preserves local carriers' obligations to interexchange carriers and information service providers, not to other local carriers. Id. at 7a-8a.
The court of appeals did not decide any other question presented in the case. The court specifically declined to decide whether dial-up Internet traffic involves "telephone exchange service," "exchange access," or potentially some other type of service. Pet. App. 8a. The court also declined to consider "the scope of the 'telecommunications' covered by" Section 251(b)(5) or "whether the [FCC] may adopt bill-and-keep for ISP-bound calls" pursuant to that provision. Ibid. In addition, the court did not decide whether the FCC's interim compensation mechanism was "inadequately reasoned," observing that, without knowing the content or legal basis for the FCC's "ultimate rules," it had "no meaningful context in which to assess these explicitly transitional measures." Ibid.
The court of appeals remanded the case to the FCC for further proceedings without vacating the ISP Remand Order. Pet. App. 8a-9a. In doing so, the court applied the standard articulated in Allied-Signal, Inc. v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Comm'n, 988 F.2d 146, 150-151 (D.C. Cir. 1993), under which a decision whether to vacate depends on "the seriousness of the order's deficiencies" and "the disruptive consequences of an interim change that may itself be changed." Here, the court observed that "[m]any of the petitioners themselves favor bill-and-keep" and that "there is plainly a non-trivial likelihood" that the FCC has authority to adopt a bill-and-keep system. Pet. App. 8a-9a. The court cited Section 251(b)(5) and Section 252(d)(2) as possible sources of such authority. Ibid.
Petitioner contends that Section 706(2) of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 706(2), required the court of appeals to vacate the ISP Remand Order and thereby void the interim compensation mechanism prescribed in that Order. Petitioner is mistaken. Although the APA provides that reviewing courts "shall * * * set aside" agency action that does not meet the standards set forth in Section 706(2), this Court has recognized that such language does not, without more, limit a court's traditional discretion to structure equitable remedies. See Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U.S. 321, 328-330 (1944). Ordinarily, courts are "not mechanically obligated to grant [equitable relief] for every violation of law," but retain the authority to "mould each decree to the necessities of the particular case." Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. 305, 312-313 (1982). The application of that discretion to the facts of this particular case does not warrant review by this Court.
Moreover, this case does not actually frame the question presented in the petition-whether a court of appeals must vacate "rules held to have been promulgated without statutory authority" (Pet. i)-because the court of appeals did not hold that the FCC lacked statutory authority to adopt the rules at issue here. The decision in this case also does not conflict with the decision of any other court of appeals. To the extent that other circuits have considered whether Section 706(2) requires vacatur in all circumstances, they have resolved the question consistently with the D.C. Circuit. The petition should therefore be denied.
1. Section 706(2) of the APA provides that a court "shall * * * hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions" found to be, inter alia, "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." 5 U.S.C. 706(2). That provision, properly understood, does not require courts to vacate each and every agency order that presents one of those deficiencies.
a. Vacatur is an equitable remedy. See U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership, 513 U.S. 18, 25 (1994). It is well-settled that limits on the judiciary's equitable discretion are not lightly presumed, see Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. at 313, and that "the bare fact of a statutory violation" does not compel injunctive relief, id. at 314. A court retains the authority to grant or withhold equitable remedies "[u]nless a statute in so many words, or by a necessary and inescapable inference, restricts the court's jurisdiction in equity." Id. at 313 (quoting Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U.S. 395, 398 (1946)); accord Hecht, 321 U.S. at 329-330; cf. Miller v. French, 530 U.S. 327, 336-337 (2000) (when statute provided "automatic" stay until motion was acted upon, court did not have equitable discretion to "stay the stay"); Tennessee Valley Auth. v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 173 (1978) (court was required to enjoin action that would harm endangered species in violation of Endangered Species Act of 1973, 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
Although Section 706(2) uses the words "shall set aside" in describing the remedies available to courts in reviewing agency action under the APA, those words are insufficient to remove the courts' equitable discretion to remand an agency's order without vacating it. In Hecht, the Court considered a provision of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, ch. 26, 56 Stat. 23 (50 U.S.C. App. 901 et seq.), that stated that, if a statutory violation had occurred or would occur, "a permanent or temporary injunction, restraining order, or other order shall be granted." 321 U.S. at 322. The Court explained that the phrase "shall be granted" was "less mandatory than a literal reading might suggest." Id. at 328. The Court construed the phrase not to impose "an absolute duty" to issue compliance orders "under any and all circumstances," but rather to grant authority to the courts to issue all appropriate equitable remedies. Id. at 329. Here, as well, Congress's use of the term "shall" does not mean that courts must vacate every agency order that they remand for further consideration. As in Hecht, Congress used the term "shall" in a "less mandatory" sense to describe the scope of the courts' authority in reviewing agency actions. See United States Dep't of Justice, Attorney General's Manual on the Administrative Procedure Act 108 (1947) (observing that "[c]ourts having jurisdiction have always exercised the power in appropriate cases to set aside agency action" that has been determined to be unlawful) (emphasis added).1
That understanding of Section 706(2) is buttressed by common sense. If the APA required vacatur of every agency action that failed to meet Section 706 standards, even the most vital agency actions would have to be nullified, without regard to the disruptive consequences of doing so, for minor technical errors or easily correctable gaps in the agency's reasoning. See, e.g., Sugar Cane Growers Coop. v. Veneman, 289 F.3d 89, 97-98 (D.C. Cir. 2002) (remanding agency rule involving support program for sugar producers for lack of notice and comment, but declining to vacate rule when crops had already been plowed under pursuant to the program and vacatur would be "an invitation to chaos"); Davis County Solid Waste Mgmt. v. United States EPA, 108 F.3d 1454, 1459 (D.C. Cir. 1997) (on rehearing, deciding to vacate only in part to avoid "significantly greater pollution emissions" than full vacatur would require); Idaho Farm Bureau Fed'n v. Babbitt, 58 F.3d 1392, 1405-1406 (9th Cir. 1995) (declining to vacate when doing so would risk extinction of endangered species and waste of a "significant expenditure of public resources"). By evaluating the "seriousness of the order's deficiencies" and "the disruptive consequences of an interim change that may itself be changed" (Pet. App. 9a), the court of appeals adopted a reasonable approach to vacatur that is consistent with the judiciary's traditional authority to tailor equitable remedies.
b. Petitioner asserts (Pet. 18) that Section 706(2) requires a court to vacate action that exceeds an agency's "statutory jurisdiction," but permits a court to remand without vacatur when the agency's error is "insubstantial" or "clearly curable." There is no textual support for such a distinction. Nor does petitioner contend otherwise. Instead, petitioner relies on the assumption that, although an agency's reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute is ordinarily entitled to deference, an agency's reasonable interpretation of its own statutory authority is not. See Pet. 11.2
Here, even if one accepts that Section 706(2) draws the distinction identified by petitioner, the court of appeals properly exercised its equitable discretion. Although petitioner asserts (Pet. i) that the court "held [the interim compensation mechanism] to have been promulgated without statutory authority," the court held no such thing. In its first decision on reciprocal compensation, the court held that the FCC had not adequately explained why dial-up Internet traffic should not be treated as "local" traffic for purposes of Section 251(b)(5). In its second decision, the court held that Section 251(g) does not exclude that traffic from Section 251(b)(5). Those decisions speak only to the FCC's reasoning. They do not, as petitioner contends (Pet. 9), decide the agency's "statutory authority" to "regulate intercarrier compensation for ISP-bound calls." To the contrary, the court made explicit that it was not "decid[ing] whether the Commission may adopt bill-and-keep for ISP-bound calls pursuant to § 251(b)(5)." Pet. App. 8a.
Indeed, in deciding not to vacate the ISP Remand Order, the court noted the "non-trivial likelihood" that the FCC had authority to adopt such a compensation regime for dial-up Internet traffic. Pet. App. 8a. The court's view is well-founded. The FCC's statutory authority to regulate interstate communications is undisputed. See, e.g., Louisiana Pub. Serv. Comm'n v. FCC, 476 U.S. 355, 360 (1986). The FCC's rulemaking authority, moreover, "extend[s] to implementation of the local competition provisions" of the 1996 Act. Iowa Utils. Bd., 525 U.S. at 378. Among those provisions are Section 251(b)(5), the reciprocal compensation provision, and Section 252(d)(2), which generally sets pricing standards for traffic subject to reciprocal compensation and specifically authorizes "bill-and-keep" as a compensation mechanism for such traffic. Accordingly, because the court did not hold that the FCC lacked authority to regulate compensation for dial-up Internet traffic, petitioner's argument rests on an incorrect premise.
2. Contrary to petitioner's suggestion (Pet. 16, 19-21), the decision in this case does not conflict with the decision of any other circuit. To date, three circuits have expressly adopted the D.C. Circuit's Allied-Signal test for determining whether agency action that fails to meet Section 706 standards should be vacated. See Central Maine Power Co. v. FERC, 252 F.3d 34, 48 (1st Cir. 2001); Central & S.W. Servs., Inc. v. United States EPA, 220 F.3d 683, 692 (5th Cir. 2000), cert. denied, 532 U.S. 1065 (2001); National Org. of Veterans' Advocates, Inc. v. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 260 F.3d 1365, 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2001). Petitioner cites no appellate decision holding that the APA eliminates the courts' authority to remand an agency's decision without vacating it.
Petitioner erroneously asserts (Pet. 19) that the Ninth Circuit's decision in Idaho Farm Bureau, 58 F.3d at 1405-1406, conflicts with the D.C. Circuit's decision in this case. In Idaho Farm Bureau, the Ninth Circuit expressly held that "when equity demands," a regulation that does not meet Section 706(2) standards "can be left in place while the agency follows the necessary procedures." Id. at 1405. As support, the Ninth Circuit cited Fertilizer Institute v. United States EPA, 935 F.2d 1303, 1312 (D.C. Cir. 1991)-a decision that the D.C. Circuit has since cited as consonant with its Allied-Signal approach. See Sugar Cane Growers, 289 F.3d at 98.
Nor does the D.C. Circuit's decision in this case conflict with the Eighth Circuit's decision in United States ex rel. O'Keefe v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 132 F.3d 1252 (1998), which petitioner erroneously describes as vacating agency action that was found to have been undertaken without statutory authority. See Pet. 11, 16, 19. O'Keefe was a qui tam suit under the False Claims Act, not a suit to review agency action under the APA. In that case, the court of appeals held that Justice Department attorneys were subject to local ethics rules, rejecting the contention that the Justice Department had the statutory authority to issue "substantive regulations" governing the conduct of its attorneys that would supersede local rules. Id. at 1254-1257. The court had no occasion in O'Keefe to consider whether to vacate the regulations or to remand to the agency without vacatur. The court simply declined to apply the regulations to the case at hand.3
3. Petitioner asserts that the court of appeals' decision, if not reviewed by this Court, will encourage agencies "lawlessly [to] promulgate rules that exceed their authority, confident that under the 'non-trivial likelihood' standard, appellate review will, at worst, only result in a remand." Pet. 25-26. That assertion is wholly without merit. As an initial matter, since the court of appeals did not hold that the rules at issue in this case "exceed [the FCC's] authority" (see pp. 12-13, supra), its decision provides no indication of how the court would deal with rules that were held to exceed an agency's statutory authority. Cf. Atlantic City Elec. Co. v. FERC, 295 F.3d 1, 15 (D.C. Cir. 2002) (vacating agency action after finding that the agency "has attempted to exert authority where it has none"). More generally, courts do not presume that government agencies will deliberately disregard the requirements and constraints of their governing statutes. See, e.g., United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218, 227-228 (2001) (agencies are entrusted to administer regulatory statutes) (citing Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 844 (1984)). Nor does petitioner offer any reason to believe that agencies would be indifferent to the possibility of remand when promulgating their rules. See, e.g., ICORE, Inc. v. FCC, 985 F.2d 1075, 1077-1078 (D.C. Cir. 1993) (after remand without vacatur of initial decision, FCC responded with subsequent decision that was upheld on review). And, as petitioner itself points out, the D.C. Circuit has not hesitated to vacate agency action when it considers vacatur to be the appropriate remedy. See Pet. 16-17, 22 (citing cases). An agency could thus have no "confiden[ce]" of avoiding vacatur of a rule held not to satisfy Section 706(2) standards.
Similarly unsound is petitioner's assertion that the court of appeals' approach "delegates unfettered discretion to individual appellate panels to decide whether to remand or to vacate unlawful agency rules without any judicially manageable standards." Pet. 22. The "essence of equity jurisdiction" is "[f]lexibility rather than rigidity." Hecht, 321 U.S. at 329. The Allied-Signal approach is, if anything, more circumscribed than the traditional equitable approach of balancing the interests of the parties and the impact on the public in order to "do equity." Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. at 312.
Petitioner did not, to be sure, receive all of the relief that it would have liked. But there is never any assurance that a litigant that successfully invokes the courts' equitable authority will receive all of the relief it seeks. See, e.g., Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. at 312-313, 320; Hecht, 321 U.S. at 327-328. That does not mean that the FCC "won in the court of appeals." Pet. 25. It was petitioner that won. The FCC now must reconsider its policies in light of the court of appeals' decision. If the FCC fails to do so, or "unreasonably delay[s]" that task, 5 U.S.C. 706(1), the D.C. Circuit is fully capable of ensuring that its decision is not ignored. See, e.g., Radio-Television News Directors Ass'n v. FCC, 229 F.3d 269 (D.C. Cir. 2000); see also Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. at 320 ("Should it become clear that * * * compliance with the [statute] will not be forthcoming, the statutory scheme and purpose would require the court to reconsider the balance it has struck.").
The petition for a writ of certiorari should be denied.
Respectfully submitted.
Solicitor General
General Counsel
Associate General Counsel
Deputy Associate General
Federal Communications
1 Contrary to petitioner's assertions, Bowen v. Georgetown University Hospital, 488 U.S. 204 (1988), casts no doubt on the courts' equitable discretion to decline to vacate orders that are found deficient under the APA. See Pet. 9, 10, 15; see also Br. of Resps. Focal Corporation, et al. 9. In Bowen, this Court held that an agency cannot promulgate retroactive rules "unless that power is conveyed by Congress in express terms." 488 U.S. at 208. Nothing in Bowen speaks to whether a court possesses the equitable discretion not to vacate an agency's order when the rationale supporting the order is found to be inadequate. Nor does Bowen or any other decision of this Court suggest that a court, in exercising such discretion, cannot consider the consequences for the regulatory regime of an agency's inability to apply any new rule retroactively. Cf. Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. at 312 (instructing that courts should "pay particular regard for the public consequences" of a grant of equitable relief).
2 This Court has not resolved whether an agency's interpretation of its statutory authority should be accorded judicial deference. See California Dental Ass'n v. FTC, 526 U.S. 756, 765-766 (1999); see also Mississippi Power & Light Co. v. Mississippi ex rel. Moore, 487 U.S. 354, 381-382 (1988) (Scalia, J., concurring) (explaining why such deference is warranted). No such question was presented in United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218 (2001), a decision on which petitioner purports to rely. See Pet. 8-9, 10-11, 15. Nor is there any basis for petitioner's characterization of this case as Mead's "doctrinal companion." Pet. 8.
3 Petitioner suggests (Pet. 16-17, 21-22) that this Court's review is necessary to resolve inconsistencies in the D.C. Circuit's own decisions concerning whether to vacate agency orders found deficient under the APA. This Court does not sit to resolve intracircuit conflicts. See Wisniewski v. United States, 353 U.S. 901 (1957) (per curiam). In any event, as the denial without dissent of petitioner's request for rehearing en banc suggests, the law in the D.C. Circuit is settled, notwithstanding that some of its judges have disagreed with that law. See Milk Train, Inc. v. Veneman, 310 F.3d 747, 756-758 (D.C. Cir. 2002) (Sentelle, J., dissenting); Checkosky v. SEC, 23 F.3d 452, 490-493 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (Randolph, J., dissenting in part).


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Finding Inspiration in the Everyday
One of the ways to lead a joyous, fulfilling life is by learning to appreciate the small things in life we come across daily. We are surrounded by beauty and inspiration all the time – we just need to learn how to see it. Whether you're an artist looking for ideas and inspiration or simply trying to enjoy life a little more, start finding inspiration in the everyday to recognize the beauty and wonder of the world. Continue learning. Learning should not stop once you graduate from school; in fact, you should challenge yourself to learn something new every day…. Read more.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Barnaby is a golden Cocker Spaniel, who we rescued when a wonderful pet foundation rescued the entire litter of seven. We had just lost a beloved choclate Cocker Spaniel Annie, and Annie would of wanted us to love and care for another puppy who needed a wonderful home. Barnaby is loving and happy and full of joy. He loves to fetch in the yard, and loves his doggie toys. He snuggles us each night. Life is fun, play, food, naps and so much love.
My name is Penny. I am an interesting mix of Shih Tzu/Cocker Spaniel and Giant Schnauzer. I'm 10 months old. People say I look like a stuffed toy because I am so cute. The vet weighed me in at 30lbs and I'm 16.5" tall at my shoulders. My humans got me as a gift when I was 5 months old. They tell me I was the best gift ever! I like to guard my humans and love when they are together with me. I think being protective of my humans comes from my daddy's Giant Schnauzer breed. I love going to doggy daycare where I play all day!
Hi, I'm Dallas, a.k.a., "Little D,"and soon to be "Big D" if I have anything to do with it. At just 10 weeks old, I already know all about the school of hard knocks. When my brothers and sisters were just two days old, we were abandoned on the side of the road. Who could do that to me? Do you see this cute face? Sigh.
Even though I had a ruff start, I now enjoy a dog-gone blessed life. When I saw my mom at the adoption event, it was love at first site. She said "Dallas, do you want to come home with me?" and I wagged my little tail and went ...


text:
Wine is commonly imbibed and also useful in cleaning, cooking and even skin care. When it comes to wine, the debate is still open as to how healthy it actually is to drink. Some doctors cite red wine's antioxidant properties and encourage its moderate consumption.
Wines, in general, have a limited freshness window for drinking, as detailed on the health site Greatist. But even if an opened bottle of wine goes bad, it's not necessary to toss it. Red wine can be made into a high-quality vinegar for salad dressing. It's also good as a flavoring agent for gravies, sauces and soups, as well as baked goods.
Bring wine out of the kitchen and it becomes even more versatile. Getting red wine stains out of fabric is almost impossible to do, which means it can also be used as dye. Ecosalon asserts that as long as there's some flexibility in the desired color result, it could be worth the experiment. Wine's alcohol content makes it an antibacterial agent good for cleaning vegetables, even effective against E.coli). Dry white wine can remove stains on non-granite kitchen countertops. Wine is even a popular beauty aid, with red wine used in Indian spa facials as a skin softener and conditioner.


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Dying/broken/forgiven.... now I begin
re-born: 3-09-80
born again\found: 14-04-08
other notable dates: 10-03-68; 03-09-87; 23-03-96;
1-05-98; 31-01-02; 5-04-04
Interests: movement, stressed/transgressive embodiment, lived experience (body\space\time\relation)
expression ( word, dance, text, image, story, music, poetics)
learning, yielding......
Hopes for the blog:
offer up the wild intersectedness of lived experience and engage others in creative, expressive, perhaps irreverant, hopefully playful, and respectful encounters....
enact kindness
create moments of pause for disclosure, discovery, stillness
Saturday, September 12, 2009
show and tell
At the time I had said to him that whatever he thought about the other folks at camp, he was not to engage in that kind of disrespectful language. Seb will take that from me because I will also tell him why his mom dropped him off at my camp. You see, Seb, I would say, you have enough going on with how you act in the world that you have earned yourself a diagnosis of high functioning autism. What do you think, he would ask me. I am not qualified to diagnose, I would tell him. But since you're here, how about giving some of the activites a try.... it could help with some of your games and fitness skills.
Seb is a strategic fella, so he knows the currency for being included in activities with his same age peers, whose approval he craves and whose disdain he does not quite comprehend. He is puzzled about why some of his bizzare responses are not met with high fives from the gang in the school yard.
He is, however, quite the little magician with word manipulation. The young gal who worked with him this past summer made the somewhat dubious decision to wear a tiny little camisole that left very little to anyone's imagination. Seb figured he'd died and gone to heaven. When I introduced them to each other (her name was Chantal) I did notice a little gleam in his eye....
at first I thought it was to do with the magnificent display before him. But, no; he surprised me.
By the end of the day he was working on how he will introduce Chantal to his buddies
Hello, everyone, this is Shoawantelle.... ( get it? show and tell... Chantal... )
I give him a little smirk and shake my head, yes, Seb, I say ... I get it.
He smiles and asks, do you think she will get it
I don't know, I say. What do you think??
I hope not! he says....
Sebastian: adolescent wordsmith extraordinaire.
9 comments:
what a pleasent read. I'm with Sebastian, high fives buddy. It would be nice to meet him and Showantelle. Oh and you too.ReplyDelete
Seems to me to be an age appropriate response to the uhhh presentation presented.ReplyDelete
maybe he'd like finnegans wake - or john lennon's litle booksReplyDelete
Ah, a lad after me own heart. My mouth has always been my downfall.ReplyDelete
Hey Harlequin, thanks for this description. Brightened my day :)ReplyDelete
thanks, y'all. I tried my best to be deadpan and appropriately unimpressed with Seb after that word-play, but I was made almost immediately! -- he knew I was impressed... quite clever, I had to give it to him.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 14, 2009 at 3:10 AM
Ha ha ha ha ha oh lovely jubbly; you. Lovely story and a smile will stay on my face all day now.ReplyDelete
SarahA-- thanks for this great laugh... he is a funny little guy!ReplyDelete
glad you dropped by.
Hilarious! Your life must be very rewarding. Jeeze, is mine ever boring. Came over from View From The Northern Wall.ReplyDelete


text:
Submitted by CdMScott on
Since I just finished watching Dragonfly, I figured I may as well face this, the other nauseatingly sappy late-90s metaphysical romance. This one looked even worse, however, as it stars Robin Williams—still wanted in many countries for crimes related to Patch Adams—Annabella Sciorra, who enjoyed a brief and inexplicable period of popularity in the early 90s, and paragon of lost potential, Cuba Gooding, Jr. This one looked to continue William's foray into sickeningly smarmy sentimental bullshit, but DID promise to have numerous special effects, and IS from a story by Richard Matheson, of everything from The Incredible Shrinking Man to I Am Legend, so maybe it would be somewhat tolerable? Turns out not, but there is enough of Matheson's grim and hard-edged sensibility that hasn't been plastered over with gooey hearts and flowers and puppies and chocolate kisses to make one understand what this story COULD have been, and the kinds of darkness and real human suffering it is hiding under lacy red paper valentines and rose petals.
The DVD opens by presenting you with a choice—but giving you no indication of what each choice is! Raising the stakes, there's an angel on one side, and the fires of hell on the other—with the choices on the top and bottom, not necessarily related to either. Is this the most existential DVD menu of all time? Why, I think it must be. I chose the lower option, and think I may have seen a slightly longer "director's cut" or something—hell if I know! It is SO much like life! We make our choices, not having all the information, and then we have to proceed, never knowing what might have been, had we chosen the other path. Holy shit, I'm getting more out of this mislabeled DVD menu than I am the entire movie.
So first thing Chris Nielson [Williams] and Annie [Sciorra] meet-cute in Italy or somewhere when her boat knocks into his. Then he's having a picnic by himself on the side of a totally gorgeous mountaintop miles away from the nearest inhabitant when—why, LOOK who he just happened to run into! Amazing. So they're both on vacation by themselves and just havin' the best time? I mean, not to say that you can't, but most people aren't THAT absolutely delighted with life when they're picnicking and boating all alone with no one to share it with. But I guess these two are. You'll also notice that Sciorra has been told to be "radiant" at all costs, and she's just a'laughin' and tossin' her hair like nobody's business. Meanwhile Williams is outfitted with these nightmare bangs and you're sitting there like "NO, are we going to have to look at that hairdo through the entire movie?" but no, it's just supposed to be his younger self. Your hair is fluffier when you are younger, as scientists have known for years.
Before you know it, poof, they're married and—JESUS CHRIST, LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT KITCHEN!! I mean, what the fuck? Did they move in when the Addams Family moved out? The whole house, whenever we see it, is just ginormous. Now, I just watched Dragonfly, as I said, which also featured a ludicrously huge house, which makes me realize that a theme of late-90s movies are these insanely huge houses. Anyway, our happy couple now have two freshly-scrubbed boys who you know are slated for death when Chris' goodbye kiss to one of them falls into slow-motion. Next thing you know, you're staring at two coffins. Then, boom, four years later, when Chris is now a warm, snuggly doctor who uses goofy humor to reach his patients—why, not unlike Patch Adams!—and Annie has cut her hair short and is now both a curator [or something] at San Francisco MoMA, and a painter of treacly works in her own right. It's their special "Double-D" anniversary. You know, I bet we're going to find out what that means toward the end of the film! And truthfully, I don't think it's going to have to do with bra size. No, there's some sort of car accident, and Chris gets out and runs to help someone, wherein HE gets hit by a car and—poof, straight to heaven. You don't think he's going anywhere but heaven when he dies helping total strangers who've had a car accident, do you? Though it would be awesome if he did. Just for shits and giggles.
So first he's on this hillside with a blurry angel at his side and sees Annie at his grave. Look at the tree on the right around 22:52 and you will see that the flowers have been digitally added to the tree—because they move as a mass, separately from the rest of the tree. Anyway, the blurry angel, which we know is going to turn out to be Cuba Gooding Jr. once he comes into focus, turns out to be an angel of exposition, since his role is to hang around explaining all the numerous rules and regulations that govern the afterlife. Seriously, the place is more legislated than Washington, DC. Anyway, Chris sees his own funeral and tries to communicate with Annie, but is told that his presence only hurts her, so he finally gives up and shuffles off to heaven, which is where the special effects start exploding.
So Chris wakes up in a field of what we're supposed to understand are painted flowers, i.e. he is INSIDE a painting, and when he reaches out and squishes them his hands get covered in paint. Here is where you can see a lot of special effects effort was put into creating this world of a painting, and apparently they studied a lot of old masters and impressionist paintings in order to get the look right. For example, if you look at the shot here, you can see that it is clearly trying to approximate a sky as painted by Van Gogh. I appreciate that, and I don't mean to be ungenerous, but… it just looks like they kind of blurred and pixellated some flowery environments, not really like they're a painting come to life. It also looks like the painting they were primarily imitating was Thomas Kinkade. Which is all kind of a shame, since if you watch the DVD extra on the special effects you realize what a lot of effort went into creating it. Anyway, now Gooding is in focus and is called Albert, a patient Chris treated back in the day. He uses his advanced powers of exposition to explain to Chris that he is creating this world himself, since heaven is a place you create out of your own mind, which means you can also do stuff like leap great distances, etc. Oh by the way, Chris' dead dog is present as well. Then it turns out that Chris can see a tree that Annie painted AFTER his death, which means that they are so in tune, so married at the minds, etc. Albert says they're "Soul mates…sort of like twin souls… in tune with each other." Then Chris finds a stuffed animal and says "This belonged to my daughter," which causes a moment of confusion, then you realize—ONE OF HIS "SONS" HAS BEEN A GIRL THIS WHOLE TIME.
Now, just as Annie is getting super-depressed on Earth and about to put a double-barreled shotgun in her mouth and spatter her brains across the ultra-high ceilings of their spacious home—just kidding, I have no idea how she kills herself—my DVD died! It apparently had some defect and it skipped ahead to where Albert is delivering the news. By the way, I spared you the part where Chris meets a nice Asian woman who shows him HER heaven, which isn't too far off from his in the overdecorated department and derivation from Romantic paintings. There were other periods of art, folks! I notice no one has chosen the Anselm Keifer heaven. Nor has anyone chosen the Roy Lichtenstein heaven. She also explains that she has a JOB. Yes, people in heaven have JOBS, and have to work part-time. Holy fuck—don't tell me heaven is a CO-OP!
Anyway, so Albert comes to tell Chris that Annie has offed herself, and is dead. Awesome, Chris says, so I'll see her soon! But no, because Heaven Governance Article #3,562.b clearly states that if you kill yourself, you go to HELL! You won't be able to avoid noticing how when Chris gets the news, a dark thunderstorm spreads across the horizon, then when Chris says dagnabbit, I'ma go to hell and get her and bring her back, a big beam of sunlight breaks right across his face. Albert says it's never been done, but since they're soulmates [and by the way, NO ONE ELSE in heaven but these two perfectly generic yuppies are soulmates] it just might work, and dammit, he's comin' along!
So they go meet Professor Plum in the library with the candlestick. Actually it's Max Von Sydow as the Tracker, but let's just call him Professor Plum, it's more fun. Of course you know that the WHOLE reason it's Von Sydow and not Duane "The Rock" Johnson or, say, Mandy Moore is that Von Sydow famously played chess with death in The Seventh Seal. From that to this—what a legacy! Although it must be said that Von Sydow is quite good and brings a needed gravity to his scenes. But they come to meet him like he's some kind of secret agent in a library and—does heaven really have secret agents that lurk in libraries? If it does, surely it has drug dealers as well, no? Bounty hunters? Are there heavenly bounty hunters? Holy shit—I think I just invented an exciting new television action-drama.
So Chris is all DETERMINATION! He's like the George W. Bush of heavenly husbands, and this movie's "Never give up at any cost!" ethic IS related to the ol' American value that results in "Stay The Course [at any cost]." He is informed rather harshly that people in Hell don't know they're dead, and that Annie won't recognize him and he won't be able to make her, and he certainly won't be able to bring her back, so really the only point of the whole trip is just to make HIMSELF feel better that he didn't give up. Chris says sure, whatever, I've got nothing else on my plate.
By the way, structure-minders, you'll note that it is exactly at the one-hour mark, that is, the PRECISE midpoint of the film, that they leave heaven and head for hell. Here is where everything I thought was good about this film happens, but again, it is primarily glimpses of what COULD have been good, buried under a whole lot of dreary mainstream blockbuster sentimentality. They go down a long hallway, with a violently tossing, black ocean beyond. The water is full of moaning, corpse-white bodies of people reaching for the boat and finally capsizing it, sending everyone into the water… where Chris starts to have more flashbacks to emotional scenes with his son. By the way, I have skipped over that Chris has been having a bunch of flashbacks already, and will continue to go on having more and more.
And for a while, it's quite frustrating, because the visions of hell are quite evocative and intriguing—suddenly all of the syrupy sentiment of the first half is drawn away and things get really grim—but we constantly keep cutting away from them to go into a flashback. And the flashbacks are really banal and emotional, so they're more frustrating then anything. Still, at the same time, you can kind of see what this film is going for—that "hell" is remaining mired in the bad memories, the painful moments in the past, and giving up hope. We also start to see that Chris' memories at this point start drifting almost exclusively to his son, and starts forgetting about his wife! Which we can't be sure is exactly the way hell supposedly makes you go insane, which is intriguing. Turns out it's not, though.
After a long flashback in the rain, in which we're supposed to shake our heads at the tragedy of a father-son relationship gone wrong—but in fact demonstrates an exemplary father-son relationship of uncommon communication prowess and nimble compromise—we come back and JAWS DROP as this movie makes it out that Cuba Gooding. Jr., IS Chris' long-lost son! There was something about reincarnation in there that explains why he looks different. This will cause you to be treated to the sight of these two guys who we understood as separate, non-related adults now hugging and weeping all over each other and frankly, it's a bit jarring. Not to mention that this whole story element comes out of nowhere, seems to be one story strand too many [and comes with still more RULES!], and requires a fair amount of re-adjustment of expectations, despite the fact that, in most films, the rules are all laid out by now and we should just be settled in comfortably and watching the story unfold. Anyway, after this we bid Cuba goodbye for now, and uh, yeah... totally great seeing you, but, um, yeah, BYE.
But there are some decent hellish visions we have skipped over, like this whole area of sunken ships that are still on fire [it's a cross between Pearl Harbor and Waterworld], and my fave, this endless pavement made of human faces, as though all these people are immobilized and trapped, eternally suffering, in this spiritual gunk. This is what I mean when I talk about "resonant images," because just looking at it evokes a lot of your own thoughts about what it could all be about. Unfortunately, we don't get to stay very long with this or any of the awesome hellish images because they keep getting interrupted by dreary sentimental flashbacks!
So finally Chris finds Annie alone in a wrecked version of their palatial home. We never find out why almost everyone else is baked into this human pavement while Annie gets a gigantic home all to herself, but there you go. She doesn't recognize Chris, and he could agitate her too much by telling her who he is, so he tells her he just moved in next door, to which she responds "Fat fucking chance! What does this look like, Hidden Brook Glade? This is fucking HELL, douchebag!" Actually she doesn't say that, she goes along with it. There are more flashbacks, but we finally get in to the real one. You see, after the kids died, Annie was sent to a mental hospital. Once there, she apparently chopped her hair with pruning shears, since that is apparently just WHAT YOU DO upon entering mental institutions. Wouldn't want any mental patients that do not LOOK outwardly crazy, thank you. Anyway, Annie thought that the fact that Chris did NOT go crazy when their kids died as evidence that he didn't love them, and therefore she doesn't love him. Plus he looks like the guy from that wretched movie about the doctor who cures people with laughter. So one day Chris came to see her with divorce papers, and says look baby, this ain't workin' no mo', and she doesn't love him any more, so why don't they just get divorced? Then he keeps yakking about how sorry he is, and he's sorry that he couldn't join her [in this lonely mental place where she has isolated herself], and I left you alone." This finally breaks through to her [and, cynical and blasé as I've been, it is actually quite moving] and she tears up the divorce papers and is going to go back and join him in marriage. THIS is their "Double-D Anniversary," and what it means. So that means she DOESN'T actually strap on huge fake boobs to please him on their special day.
Meanwhile, back in hell, Chris goes out and tells Professor Plum that dammit, if he can't bring Annie to heaven, he'll just stay there in hell! Problem is, in a few seconds, he'll forget who she is. But that's okay, they'll live together, and get to know each other anew. But! His story about the Double-D day has finally broken through to her, and she realizes that this IS her husband. But the important thing is that this time he's going to join HER and stay with her, as he said he failed to do back with the dead kids situation. And that THAT moment—he forgets HER! Cruel irony! So now she fights for him and—POOF!—he's back in heaven! And whaddya know, so is she! We never really find out what happened, or how it all worked out, but there ya go. She says, rather flippantly, "Sometimes when you lose, you win!" Oh, well I guess that makes sense of it all, then. And then, just when you thought the movie couldn't possibly torpedo itself any worse than it already has—it does!
First Annie gets to look all radiant and wear a gorgeous red dress in heaven. And she does get to live in her LITERAL dream home. And then they get their dead girl back! And then they get their dead boy back! And then—she decides that she needs to leave heaven and be reincarnated, because she needs to atone for killing herself! It all has to do with heaven's numerous provisions and bylaws. The other thing is, it's just one of those things where the movie takes a big turn into new territory JUST at the moment it should be wrapping up, and you're just sitting there going "no, no, No, No, NO, NO, NO." So then Chris decides that HE has to be reincarnated, too, and will take his chances on meeting Annie, again, which he thinks there's a good chance of, because they're soulmates. Then poof, and they're both these totally white, upper middle-class toddlers out playing in their Laura Ashley outfits by the charming dock on the impossibly beautiful lake, and they meet! [WHY their parents have left these toddlers unattended in a place where they could easily fall and drown is unexplained]. So now they're going to be soulmates from the age of three! Awwwww. That sure was easy, huh? No trouble finding each other in this great big world, was there?
But WAIT. That is the REPLACEMENT ending! And the original ending is also on the disc! And if you thought that one was bad…. In this one the kids come out, but they're Cuba Gooding and the Asian woman I largely fast-forwarded through. They tell Annie they could appear as her kids if she wanted, but she decides they can stay in their current incarnations. Then Annie decides she wants to go back and be reincarnated—only this time, they tell her that she'll be born to a family in some third-world country, and he's going to meet and marry her, but she'll die! And then he'll be alone on Earth in his new life for 40 years! Chris says he'll do it—because in that 40 years "I'll have time to read." Ummm, okay, rather than stay nice and peaceful in heaven, where he'll have to wait about 20 fewer years before Annie shows up again? And where he is explicitly told that time will go by in a blip in the cosmic scheme of things? But no—so then we're suddenly in a hospital, and Annie is being born in her new body! But it looks like she might die during birth! [No big, right? She'll just be reincarnated as someone else]. Still, the film tries to generate some suspense with this, and eventually she lives, and we're supposed to feel like everything worked out great. All I really have to say about this ending is that, you know the feeling I was mentioning last paragraph about the movie should be winding down, but suddenly darts off in a new direction? This is that X10, AND it introduces a bunch of new afterlife legislation, LONG after everyone has just shut down. So at least they realized the error of their ways and shot a new, simpler ending.
Despite its legion of problems, I have fond feelings for this film. Because it's possible to look past all the flaws and bad ideas and sentimentality and realize what the core is supposed to be—a man not accepting that he can't be with his wife, and traveling through a literal hell [cast as a psychological journey through all the pain of his life] to bring her back. And none of it would work if the connection between them didn't work—and I must say Matheson came up with a simple, very believable moment of total intimacy between these two—and the movie had the sense not to fuck it up. So in a way you can look through all of its problems and see the core of a good, very moving story, and enjoy the film it MIGHT have been.
That said, DANG does this thing have problems. For one, it has a lot of trouble establishing its shape, especially given that the two meet and fall in love, have two kids, the two kids die, and four years later Chris dies—all in the first fifteen minutes! Although it makes sense later in the film, when we go back and fill in all the memories. Then the heaven parts are okay and have lots of special effects, but they're marred by massive oversentimentality, as well as the emotionally-troubling fact that Chris is super-happy in heaven, despite just dying and being separated from his wife, who we know will be the prime motivator of the movie. Then off to hell, and here is where the real frustration began for me. Of course, that's largely because the hell elements were very GOOD, and genuinely hellish, but we keep frustratingly cutting away from them, and just for stupid flashbacks that KILL the momentum. Especially at the beginning of the hell sequence, as we're having these memories with the kids, which seem like just so much distraction. Ultimately, I think they should have cut the kids WAY down so as not to lose focus on Chris and Annie. Then the film surprisingly starts to WORK when we get to the crucial scenes between Chris and Annie at the end, but even so, many of the rules governing what they can and can't do are unclear. The numerous RULES governing the afterlife are also a huge problem, and just become too much for the audience to remember. Seriously, they should pair you up with a legal assistant upon death, not a buddy companion, like Chris gets. Then the movie makes missteps like not explaining how the resolution to the Annie problem could have happened. It just leaps over it and hopes we don't care. Which of course, we don't, by that time. And finally, as noted, the ending starts off in a new and tedious direction just as the whole thing should be winding down.
This seems like an excellent property for a remake, but it needs to be made by someone serious, and made as a dark film. I would suggest Darren Aronofsky, but I think that horrid thing The Bubble or The Tree or whatever that was constitutes his attempt at this very thing. Really, you need Ingmar Bergman. He could knock this out of the park. Actually, I have it: FASSBINDER. He would make it four to six hours long--which it needs to be--and not be afraid to be arty and depressing. Because I think for this to work, you really need to commit to its darkness, and that's exactly what this film is afraid to do. Here the studio obviously wanted a big romantic movie they could tie into VH1 and Hallmark store promotions, and wanted to play up the happy, lovey aspects of it all. Kind of have some trouble fitting HELL into that vision, no?
Nevertheless, again, I remember this fondly. It's a bust, a near-complete failure, but it has a core of real, moving emotion and you can love it for what it attempted rather than what it achieved.
I have to say I do recommend it, it'll give you plenty to think about, despite it being a massive mess.


text: Lali ho! I'm sorting out the massive void on my primary memory card for my Cyclo and need some help to do it. See, I acquired an MP4 player a while back so I took all my music off my DS. I would take the movies off too but the only converter I have which doesn't leave watermarks can't convert .DPG into .AMV, so there's not much point. But I digress. Because of the removal of all the music, I had a rather gaping hole in my card and I've been trying to fill it with games. I had about 2GB free. I've added Golden Sun, Beyblade and 999 so far. What else is there? There's already a pretty sizeable collection of great games on there. Just making sure I've not missed anything. So recommend me a decent game or twelve, and I'll let you know if I add it or not. Here's the rules: - Assume that anything with the name 'Final Fantasy _____' is already on there. I'm kinda addicted to them. Or at least I was before 12 and 13 left me feeling cold and dead inside. - I play games to escape the necessity of thought. I can tolerate some puzzle games such as Phoenix Wright, but I could never get on with Layton as a series because it makes me feel stupid. So no Layton recommendations. - I'm open to most genres, but don't recommend anything that reinforces the stereotypes that all young men are badass gansta pimps with weed and assault rifles, and all girls are makeup obsessed brainless bimbos with a phone and an annoying laugh. Anything along the lines of 50 Cent or N-Dubz will be immediately ignored. - I'm partial to simple but entertaining 'pick up and play' games at the moment, but I'll put time into a game if it hooks me. I tend to favour RPG's and flying games as a rule, but I'll play anything decent. I kinda have high standards though. - No football (or 'soccer', if you must. Even though every other country in the world calls it football, figure that one out) games. They flat out don't work on DS. - Nothing based on anime. I'm sure Naruto is fascinating but I'm not going for it. - Nothing based on obscure Japanese fap material where coherent story telling and gameplay are put on hold to make more time to program in jiggle physics. Yes I mean those Robot Taisen games. That should be clear enough. Go!


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{wedding candy}
Two disclaimers before this post gets underway: First, although I borrowed the title from the Shakespeare play I love, I have personally never been into weddings with woodland fairy type things. You know, hairpieces made of tree branches and leaves, puffy-sleeved men in tights, and the whole nine. Not that it's uncool if you do; it's just not really my thing. Second, I am aware that midsummer was technically back in June, on the longest day of the year or whatever, but I'm just going with it, idea-wise.
This begs the question of what a midsummer night's wedding might actually look like. I'm picturing an evening celebration with a sophisticated palette of deep blues and warm, rosy metallic accents.
|1. ModCloth 2. Target 3. Martha Stewart Weddings 4. Save-on-Crafts 5. J. Renee
There's nothing like candlelight to turn an already beautiful chapel into something extra special. Add in a little glow!
|How incredibly gorgeous is this monastery wedding?!
|Printable Press


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New Rail Connection to China Launches in November
The dream of creating the "new Silk Road by rail" took a big step forward at RailForum 2017, as it was announced that the first container train from Kouvola, Finland, will start its journey to Xi'an, China, on 10 November, 2017. After the first train, the connection is planned to become a weekly occurrence, with one inbound and one outbound train.
Locking down the date is an important milestone in the venture which seeks to route a considerable amount of goods in a novel way. Chinese cargo bound for Europe will travel west from Xi'an, going through Kazakhstan and Russia to reach Finland in 10-12 days. Transporting the same goods on ships, for instance, would take more than three times that time.
Delivering the welcoming speech at Railforum 2017, Kouvola Mayor Marita Toikka remarked that the new route to/from Asia will provide a "new logistics concept" that is both flexible and fast. Anne Berner, Minister of Transport and Communications, echoed that sentiment by commenting that, in the global context, rail creates vitality and the new connection between Asia and Finland is "most welcome".
The Minister recalled Kouvola's stellar track record as a "great logistics city" and noted that also the current trends support rail traffic as logistics are becoming more resource-efficient and mindful of their carbon footprint. She defined Finland's forte as "connecting people, goods and data" in new and innovative ways, believing that the new venture will be able to carry on this tradition.
Reboot the Silk Road
In her presentation, Nancy Li, General Director, Scan-China International Link, Finland, showed that Xi'an, one-time capital of China, is an inland port brimming with potential. With a population of more than 8 million people, Xi'an was actually the eastern starting point of the original Silk Road trading route.
Xi'an has an important role in the Chinese "One Belt, One Road" agenda, specifically with regards to One Belt: according to the strategy, the land-based "belt" stretches from China to Europe, while the sea "road" links maritime traffic. Li commented that Xi'an is poised to "connect east and west" as the new route provides both reliability and efficiency.
Great investments have also been made both in Kazakhstan and Russia to make this all work. Murat Nurtleuov, the Kazakhstan ambassador to Finland, said that the state has made infrastructure investments to the tune of 26 billion USD, with 6 billion more to materialize by 2020.
- New connections give new opportunities, Nurtleuov said, adding that multimodal competence and over-all quality of the operations will determine its future.
Yana Kuzina, Vice President, Freight Village Russia, commented that by working together it is possible for all the stakeholders to be successful and expand their business.
- There is fantastic potential in the new connection, she said.
Text by Sami Anteroinen, Dialog Designs Oy
Foto by Johannes Wiehn: Kouvola Mayor Marita Toikka remarked that the new route to/from Asia will provide a "new logistics concept" that is both flexible and fast.
Make the Connection
RailForum 2017 provided a comprehensive overview of what's happening on the tracks now and in the future. Hosted by news anchor Peter Nyman, the event attracted logistics professionals from around the world to Kuusankoskitalo, Kouvola, on 28 September. Under the heading, LOCAL NEWS, the seminar guests received Finnish viewpoints into the evolution of rail.
Jari Grönlund, Director at Unytrade Oy, remarked that the new connection to China is not unheard as such – already in the 1990's there were serious attempts to promote that connection, but the winds were not favourable for the venture. Now, with sufficient political will and economic upside, Grönlund believes that the connection is ripe and ready. The timing is right, since the competition is facing some serious problems:
"Looking at the German route, for instance, there is a lot of congestion and rescheduling is needed daily for container trains heading to and from Germany."
According to Grönlund, the Kouvola – Xi'an connection can get the job done in ten days, if everything runs smoothly. This means one day in Finland, two days in Russia, four days in Kazakhstan and three in China. The annual volume could be as much as three million containers.
"With the delivery speed of 10-12 days, the new weekly connection could really be a big thing for Finland."
Flow of Goods, Flow of Data
Pasi Toivanen, Senior Customs Officer from Finnish Customs, assured that the shared objective of the various customs authorities along the new connection is simple: make foreign trade flow smoothly.
"However, when you're dealing with three different customs zones, it is not always easy to find the solutions that work." One problem is that while EU countries automatically share info with each other, the same courtesy is not extended to non-member states.
"Smooth legal procedures are required to accelerate border crossings and technological solutions can be used to improve the exchange of information," he sums up, adding that security and flexibility are the watch words in the customs operations. Sometimes the two go hand in hand: if one were to load three containers into one train wagon instead of the customary two, you could increase the volume and prevent unauthorised access to the goods.
Building on Tradition
Ilkka Seppänen, Director at VR Transpoint, commented that Kouvola is well positioned to serve as the westernmost starting point of the new connection, since it has the required capacity and expertise.
"Kouvola has extensive storage services available, for instance."
According to Seppänen, strategic planning is the key for the success of Kouvola – Xi'an. The first thing is to recognise what are the actual needs of the customers and then come up with the dependability, efficiency and pricing to woe them. Finland is somewhat of a pioneer in all this, with a quarter of the goods being transported on rail.
"That 25% is a rather big share of over-all goods volume in European comparison," Seppänen adds.
Let's Get This Party Started
Seppänen points out that the new venture is following in the footsteps of the Trans-Siberian Rail (TSR) which would deliver goods from Finland to Vladivostok in ten days (and vice versa). He recalls TSR being extremely reliable and is wishing for same type of effectiveness for Kouvola – Xi'an connection.
"After all, there are already pulp trains going from Finland to Northwest China, so there's some foundation to build on – and I believe that the new connection will be a success."
Text by Sami Anteroinen, Dialog Designs Oy
Foto by Johannes Wiehn: Audience
Come Together, Right Now
RailForum 2017 provided a comprehensive overview of what's happening on the tracks now and in the future. Hosted by news anchor Peter Nyman, the event attracted logistics professionals from around the world to Kuusankoskitalo, Kouvola, on 28 September. Under the heading, BREAKING NEWS, a panel of experts assembled to discuss all things rail.
The panel participants were Ilkka Seppänen, Director, VR Transpoint Oy; Jari Grönlund, Director, Unytrade Oy; Markku Koskinen, Director, HaminaKotka Satama Oy; Pasi Toivanen, Senior Customs Officer, Finnish Customs; Matti Toivanen, Managing Director, Kuehne + Nagel Ltd; Tomi Hautala, Managing Director, Propentus Oy.
Addressing blockchain, which was one red-hot topic of the day, Matti Toivanen commented that blockchain has potential to turn the transport business upside-down with its power to eliminate friction in the logistics chain. Still, in the final analysis, the Kouvola – Xi'an connection lives and dies with its customers.
"You need the sufficient demand to make this long-term," Toivanen pointed out.
Forget Borders
Tomi Hautala – whose company Propentus is involved in developing the breakthrough blockchain innovation for rail – remarked that neither data or goods should be deterred by national borders.
"We need to take people away from the equation wherever we can," Hautala said, referring to the automated nature of blockchain.
Pasi Toivanen commented that the new connection has a good shot at success, since the necessary political will to make things happen is there – as the lack of that will has been the downfall of many previous projects. Jari Grönlund added that decision-making had now, finally, reached the highest level and that all partners are committed to the venture.
"Talking about the starting situation in Finland's end, all we need is 41 containers a week to get things rolling."
Reaching 1K
According to Ilkka Seppänen, there's capacity on the rails to form the "standard" container train which is 800 metres long. "When you have trains that are longer than one kilometre, that requires some special consideration, but it can be done, too."
Markku Koskinen points out that rail beats road in many regards: for one thing, there has been congestion in the past at the Finnish-Russian border stations with lines of trucks reaching on for kilometres.
"Nobody wants to go back to that situation, not when the train is faster and more convenient," Koskinen said.
Hold the Cold
In addition, the cold chain has been streamlined to allow for extensive transport of food industry products.
"There's still some peculiarities, which means, for instance, that one can export milk powder from Poland to Russia, but not from Finland to Russia," said Matti Toivanen.
Tomi Hautala commented that the technology part is often the easy part – it's dealing with laws and regulations that slows you down and frustrates you. Ilkka Seppänen noted that the situation is improving in that regard, too:
"Preliminary information on goods, for example, can be relayed electronically and fluently."
RRT Shows Promise
One big part of the equation is Kouvola's Rail-Road Terminal (RRT) which plays a significant role in the creation of the local multimodal logistics platform. RRT is now in its second phase and the panel participants view the project as key for the over-all success of the new connection.
"So far, the terminal traffic is mostly trucks. The terminal has the capacity to handle one incoming container train per day," Jari Grönlund said.
Text by Sami Anteroinen, Dialog Designs Oy
Foto by Johannes Wiehn: A Panel of Experts discussing.
Mission Possible
RailForum 2017 provided a comprehensive overview of what's happening on the tracks now and in the future. Hosted by news anchor Peter Nyman, the event attracted logistics professionals from around the world to Kuusankoskitalo, Kouvola, on 28 September. Under the heading, INTERNATIONAL NEWS, the seminar guests received key info on the emerging "Silk Road 2.0".
Nancy Li, General Director, Scan-China International Link, Finland, gave a presentation which focused on Xi'an, an up-and-coming inland port with a population of more than 8 million people. Xi'an, the eastern starting point of the original Silk Road, is now poised to make a comeback to the big scene. Backed by the Chinese policy of "One Belt, One Road", Xi'an can achieve great things in the future. The Xi'an logistics area is also a free-trade zone.
According to Li, the Xi'an inland port is on its way to becoming an international conglomerate with special prowess in multimodal operations which were launched in October 2016. Combining rail with air and sea will yield the best results, she believes.
"We are creating a portside industrial ecosystem," she says, adding that multimodal transport targets "seamless" connections.
Container trains leaving from Xi'an can reach Kouvola in 14-15 days, she says, adding that Xi'an can both send and receive one train per week.
"There is a modern container facility at the centre of Xi'an and, also, a cold-chain logistics base," she says. Already such companies as online giant Alibaba have a strong presence there.
The Missing Link
Murat Nurtleuov, the Kazakhstan ambassador to Finland, comments that since Kazakhstan is a landlocked country, it has to be creative in developing its logistics. Henceforth, the state made the decision to start heavy investments in infrastructure (26 billion USD to date) and has realised the Khorgos logistics area on the border of China and Kazakhstan. This China/Kazakhstan free-trade -zone has literally emerged from nowhere and is now getting ready for a bright future, complete with robotics, automation and digital economy.
"Europa and Asia are the biggest continents and we want to boost the connections between these two," says Nurtleuov, adding that the EU is already the biggest investor in the country.
"And with regards to Finland, we are Finland's biggest trade partner in Central Asia and Finland is our biggest trade partner in the Nordics," he says, calling Finland a "strategic partner" for Kazakhstan.
Success via Collaboration
Alexander Ostrovsky, the Belarussian ambassador for Finland, says that the issue of building logistics corridors often comes down to constructing solutions that work.
"There will always be challenges, but for example in Belarus, we revamped our tariff policy last year to make way for practices that are more simple and better optimised," Ostrovsky says.
He believes that container trains running along the Silk Road will face tough competition from other modes of transport, but collaboration will help to overcome the obstacles.
"The focus must be in making freight as efficient as possible."
Thunder on the Tracks
Chen Si, Director at Hellman Worldwide Logistics, says that the more efficient utilisation of the Eurasian land bridge makes perfect sense.
"Multimodal services are now better able to support industries such as automotive, fashion or retail."
Just one example: chemical industries can take advantage of the service providers' containment tanks which are fully temperature controlled.
According to a Hellmann study, industry players taking freight to/from China are interested in e.g. reliable lead times, simple customs, flexibility and – of course – competitive prices. As infrastructure and terminals keep developing, Si expects that there will be a lot of action along the tracks.
"We believe that the Eurasian land bridge will be utilised more and more in the future."
Text by Sami Anteroinen, Dialog Designs Oy
Foto by Johannes Wiehn: Mr. Zhaslan Khamzin, KTZE Khorgos Gateway, Mr. Murat Nurtleuov, Ambassador of Kazakhstan and Mr. Almat Karimov, KTZ Express at Railforum 2017 in Kouvola
Blockchain reinvents rail
IBM Fellow John Cohn believes that blockchain technology is set to revolutionize rail traffic – and Kouvola will be in the thick of it. Appearing at RailForum 2017, Cohn called blockchain the digital disruption that rail has been waiting for.
If anyone has a handle on emerging new tech such as blockchain, it is John Cohn. He has been with IBM for 35 years, achieving the designation 'IBM Fellow' a decade ago. IBM Fellow is the highest technical rank within IBM. Cohn is also the Chief Scientist for all things IoT and "Chief Agitator" at the company. With more than seventy (70!) patents under his belt, it is no wonder he has a pretty wide license to roam and seek innovation wherever it may surface.
Tracing the evolution of rail traffic at RailForum 2017, Cohn says that the transition from horse-drawn wagons and steam engines to such out-of-the-box concepts as HyperLoop has been a remarkable one – but the best is yet to come.
"Never in all my years have I seen something that has as much disruptive power," he says about blockchain on rail. Taking the integrated approach of blockchain from the digital world – which gave us Bitcoin, for example – and putting it to work in the very physical world of logistics is a real gamechanger.
What if…?
Cohn and his colleagues had written a paper on the potential of blockchain in late 2014 and Mika Lammi from Kouvola Innovation Oy had happened to stumble onto it. Lammi was convinced that blockchain could be introduced into container traffic in a big way and the two men started a dialogue.
The key take-away was this: in the blockchain logistics system, you only need to trust the system, not the individual player. Via shared ledgers and smart contracts, one can build a safe transport system that is shared, replicated and permissioned – eliminating fraud. Blockchain is very good at reconciling multipartner problems that are often the bane of logistics. In fact, Cohn argues that the cost of various "friction" at border zones, for instance, is greater than that of the transport itself.
"With blockchain, the over-all time used in goods transport will decrease, as will the risk involved. At the same time, efficiency and trust are increased," he sums up.
Billion Dollar Opportunity
And what's at stake here? - The total annual value of global trade is estimated to be around 1.8 trillion USD – and according to Cohn, blockchain could help save about 10% of that staggering amount.
Pushing forward with their project, IBM and Kouvola Innovation Oy recruited another player, Kouvola-based Propentus Oy, to hone their concept under the name SmartLog. Using the IBM's HyperLedger 1.0 framework, the project is launching its first pilots to companies in October 2017. Funded by EU Interreg Central Baltic Programme, the over-all goal is to "start something big", as Cohn puts it.
"I have been very impressed by Kouvola's progress," he says, joking that "playing with trains" has been a real treat.
"I think that Kouvola is the perfect place to try this concept out – small enough to be daring. As it turns out, it may be easier to do it here than elsewhere," he says, adding that the new innovation will work, too.
"I bet my badge on it."
Text by Sami Anteroinen, Dialog Designs Oy
Foto by Johannes Wiehn: John Cohn speaking in Railforum 2017 -seminar in Kouvola
Standards Needed for Blockchain
'Blockchains and standardising' seminar attracted professionals from a range of fields to Kuusankoskitalo, Kouvola, on 27 September.
Probably the most expected speech of the day was delivered by IBM Fellow John Cohn who is also the Chief Scientist for IoT in the company. He remarked that "crazy, disruptive moments" do occur – and that blockchain is certainly one such milestone in human history. Still, the future is no monolith:
"There will not be one blockchain system to rule the world, but, instead, many different systems."
For example, the EU Commission has recognised the importance of blockchain as a "complex, controversial and fast-moving" technology. Making sense of this technology becomes so much easier when there's proper standardisation in place. This calls for people to get together and agree on certain things.
United Front
Arto Leikari, researcher for VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, is heading 'BOND - Blockchains Boosting Finnish Industry' project. Launched in October 2016, the project features VTT, Aalto University and Research Institute of the Finnish Economy Etla as well as nine companies – among them Kouvola Innovation, Fortum and Nokia.
According to Leikari, the standardisation of blockchain is now under way with ISO/TC 307 seminar which was held in April 2017 in Sydney, Australia. Leikari was in the Finnish delegation.
"At the seminar, we set up five study groups to further the cause of standardisation."
Get the Terms Right
Expert Elina Huttunen from the Finnish Standards Association SFS was also present in Sydney. She pointed out that agreeing on common terminology is the starting point for the work.
"After the study groups have done their work, the proposals will be put under a vote, with every country having one vote," she explains, adding that membership in the Finnish national committee is open to all.
"Presently, we have a committee of four, while the Chinese have 4,000 members – but it's still one vote each."
Privacy vs Transparency
Jarno Salonen, another researcher from VTT, provided an interesting example of blockchain use: the Finnish health and social reform. Having started and stalled numerous times by now, the 'SOTE' project certainly needs all the help it can get.
For example, the citizens could really benefit from "smart prescriptions" which mimic, in a sense, the "smart contracts" of blockchain. The problems, however, occur when you need to balance privacy and openness issues.
"Granting permission is tricky to realise in this context," Salonen said. In addition, while presently there's dynamic data and passive data out there, they don't mingle very fluently.
Blow Up All Silos!
To close the day, Mika Lammi, Head of IoT Business Development, Kouvola Innovation Oy, gave a recap of SmartLog project which is funded by EU Interreg Central Baltic programme. Launched in September 2016, the project has funding for three years.
"The industry problem is that while goods are moving, the information is not – it is too often locked away in silos, with no way to retrieve it effectively." When the logistics chain involves, say, 50 companies, it soon becomes a real issue that data is handicapped in such manner.
"When the owners and the operators of the transportation chain set up a blockchain system, every action is recorded into the system using concise format and content," Lammi describes the "total visibility" scenario that is the aim of SmartLog.
The Spaghetti Incident
As there's more information – detailed, specific, useful information – the amount of manual routines decreases dramatically and the entire process is sped up considerably.
"Millions of euros can be saved in this way."
Still, blockchain requires collaboration and common ground rules. According to Lammi, within 5-10 years there will be so many rival blockchain systems that standardisation will turn into a "question of life and death".
"The risk is seeing blockchain turn into one big spaghetti that nobody can manage."
Text by Sami Anteroinen, Dialog Designs Oy
Foto by Johannes Wiehn: IBM Fellow John Cohn (left) and Mika Lammi, Head of IoT Business Development, Kouvola Innovation Oy


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Judge Sentences Texas Man To 20 Years In Prison For Role In Cocaine Trafficking Ring
PITTSBURGH, Pa. - On Jan. 7, a resident of Houston, Texas, was sentenced in federal court to 240 months imprisonment followed by five years supervised release on his conviction of violating federal narcotics and money laundering laws, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.
Senior United States District Judge Alan N. Bloch imposed the sentence on Vincent D. Middlebrooks, 40.
According to information presented to the court, from on or about Dec. 4, 2009, and continuing thereafter to on or about Sept. 29, 2011, in the Western District of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, Middlebrooks conspired with others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Additionally, during the same time period, Middlebrooks conspired with others to launder money.
Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Bloch stated that the sentence was based, in part, on the "enormous scope" of the drug trafficking conspiracy.
Assistant United States Attorneys Katherine A. King and Troy Rivetti prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.
U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the federally administered Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) comprised of members drawn from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, and the Beaver Falls Police Department for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Middlebrooks.


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Release Date: 2002 |
Released 2002.
Spinefarm Records.
Tarja Turunen - Vocals
Jukka Nevalainen - Drums
Emppu Vuorinen - Guitars
Marco Hietala - Bass, Vocals
Tuomas Holopainen - Keys & Piano
Good review, but don't forget about Bless the Child! The video for that one's actually pretty cool...I love the make-up work on Tarja, she looks badass.
Anyways...Century Child isn't my favorite Nightwish album (right now, Wishmaster and Once are competing for it), but it's a solid album. "Beauty of the Beast" is an awesome number. :cool:
Album Rating: 3.5I haven't seen that video. :upset:
Awesome review, I've only heard 1 Nightwish song, I guess I'll have to check this album out.
Album Rating: 3.5Which one?
I think it was called The End of All Hope, it was a good song, I love the singer she has some talent.
Album Rating: 3.5She certainly does.
Edit: And, to be blunt, I'd hit it.
Nightwish are awesome. I have a T-shirt with that album cover, it's beautiful. Too bad i can't wear it, M is too small for me.
Don't diss HIM man, HIM are awesome. How have they become worse? Are you saying 666 love songs was their best stuff? Cuz that is ridiculous. Their songwriting skills have only improved since then. Love Metal, IMO, is their best album, only one I can listen to on repeat for hours. The Sacrament, Funeral of Hearts - beautifull ballads. Soul On Fire - awesome riff. So don't diss HIM cuz the ROCK! And so do NIGHTWISH! and so does APOCALYPTICA!!!!!! Finland ROX!
Album Rating: 3.5Him have just got worse and worse since Razorblade Romance. ...And Love Said No (the song) is embarassing. Funeral Of Hearts and The Sacrament bored the hell out of me.
In other news, I have that T-shirt too.
[QUOTE=Iai]I haven't seen that video. :upset:[/QUOTE]
If you want it, hit me up on AIM @ Theotedted
Hmm...I actually find myself listening to this album more than anything nowadays, go figure. :lol: Although as far as album structures go, they do follow similar patterns as before, the individual songs themselves are very distinct compared to the rest of Nightwish's career. In particular: "Bless the Child" and "Feel For You," both very atypical Nightwish songs. I also keep finding myself drawn back to "End of all Hope" and "Forever Yours."
I also have that shirt...and my beautiful Nightwish belt... :thumb:
Anyway...I know HIM have turned into bastards, and it's true....their old concerts kid arse because they cared about their audience and realised that without us they wouldn't be up there....but now (especially ville) they dont care anymore, they even admitted at the Cambridge concert that they're big headed....and its because fame got to them and screaming 13 year old girls. All because they were advertised so much, which is what peope aredoing now to Nightwish. :angry: ..Im hoping they won't change as they're amazing but if people keep telling everyone about them on websites then screaming teens will be at their tour next year too! Christ, 3 years ago I'd write Nightwish on my bag and everyone would be like "what the hell is that" and now its like " ohhhh my god!! I love them!!!" so its already getting bad...just hopefully it will stay like this ...and not like HIM...Anyways is anyone going to see them February 12th? I have my tickets!! :D :thumb:
Album Rating: 3.5Wa-hey, bumped! I'd actually forgotten I'd reviewed this.
While this thread is around, have you heard about a) Tarja's solo album, and b) Emppu's side-project? It's straight classical in the case of the former, and straight metal in the case of the latter. Can't wait to hear both.
Definetly. I'd love to hear the full extension of her voice...although she really lays the emotion down with Nightwish, somehow I don't think she's using half of her range. :lol: Tarja hasn't mentioned it on her site, though....are you sure about this?
Unless you mean the Christmas single..?
Album Rating: 3.5
Tarja went again into Finnvox Studios, but this time to record two songs for her first solo CD single release outside of Nightwish ever: two Christmas traditional Finnish songs with the production of Esa Nieminen:
Album Rating: 4.5this album and wishmaster are 2 of my favorite albums ever...
I haven't really got into this album for some reason - it just can't compare to Once.
mmmh... it's quite good (once), but i think that Oceanborn, AFF and Century Child are their best albs... Once is turning a little bit mainstrean IMHO.. not that it wouldn't be good (the album, not the mainstream thing :D ), but it is definitely different than the others before...
Album Rating: 3.5Nightwish are pretty mainstream here (UK), and they're massive in Europe.
Album Rating: 4.0This was the first Nightwish album i ever bought, and i didnt like it at first. However, it grew on me after a few listens. I think Marco's voice is a perfect match for Tarja's...shes got the emotion, and hes got the raw power.
I love how it gets deceptively quiet at the end of Bless The Child, and then the opening riff for End Of All Hope just slams you back into your chair.
Album Rating: 3.5You can't connect Nightwish with Evanescence. You just can't. Besides the obvious musical differences (keyboards, better drumming), Nightwish was making records way before the success of "Fallen." I don't even think you can equate Nightwish's recent success with Evanescence, because Nightwish has been popular in Europe for a while. It was only a matter of time before they started having an impact in America.
Anyway, nice review. My fav song is "Dead to World," mostly for the keyboards and that bridge section ("It's not the monsters under your bed") with piano, Tarja, and the double kick drumming.
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


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Spybot ? Search & Destroy
When you first install Spybot you see that you're getting into something a little different. Its license, the "Dedication Public License," is a unique twist on free software:
I. Freeware
First of all, the reasons why Spybot-S&D is free:
I.a. Dedication
Spybot-S&D is dedicated to the most wonderful girl on earth :)
I.b. Binary
What do you get if you buy software? Lots of ones and zeros, nothing more. If they were distributed as art, I could understand paying it. But if the main goal of their order is to earn money - by fees or ads - I don't like it!
I.c. Conclusion
This means that I grant you the license to use Spybot-S&D as much as you like. But if you like it, I ask two things of you: say a prayer for me (and the most wonderful girl while you're at it ;) ) to your god - or whatever you believe - and wish us some luck.
The design of the program is pretty hodge-podgy. When you start it for the first time, a secondary dialog comes up to walk you through setup for some miscellany. The dialog often splits information awkwardly between itself and the main program window. It would make more sense if the opening dialog appeared before the regular program window loaded.
The things the dialog does are actually important. It lets you back up your registry, download updates for Spybot, and "immunize" your computer. Immunization alters the registry to permanently deny the installation of certain ActiveX controls.
The program's different features are logically grouped into tasks. You "Check for Problems," "Fix Problems," and "Immunize"; you don't have to push Spybot through each step of the process as you do with most programs. The Outlook task pane layout is well put together, but it takes a little feeling around to figure it out.
Scan results are presented in one view, grouped by the malware in question. Under the Bonzi Buddy grouping, for example, are its remnants in the registry, a tracking cookie, and some miscellaneous files. You can select the entire group for eradication or just the items of your choice.
Scan results from Spybot ? Search & Destroy
Spybot was able to nab most of the malware on the test system, but it didn't find BroadCastPC and had issues eliminating VX2. Most of the programs reviewed here also had problems with those two. Spybot also completely ignored the computer's temporary files (which were full of malware components) and a number of browser hijacks. As a result, there were still pop-ups and other problems with Internet Explorer after using Spybot.
There are a number of useful features hiding out in Spybot's advanced mode. It includes a file shredder (permanent file deletion that overwrites the location on the hard drive where the old data used to be), startup manager, HOSTS file editor, and others. These tools are hardly unique to SpyBot, but they're handy for someone who don't have PowerToys and its ilk installed.
Spybot brings many unique features to the table, but its problems removing some pieces of malware require that you use it in tandem with another tool.


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Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Niji-iro Hotaru: Eien no Natsuyasumi, Rainbow-colored Firefly: Never Ending Summer Vacation, Niji-Iro Hotaru: Eien no Natsu Yasumi, Rainbow-Colored Fireflies: The Eternal Summer Vacation
Japanese: 虹色ほたる 〜永遠の夏休み〜
Type: Manga
Volumes: 1
Chapters: 11
Status: Finished
Published: Apr 24, 2012
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Slice of Life
Authors: Kawaguchi, Masayuki (Story), Asahi, Madoka (Art)
Serialization: None
Score: 8.001 (scored by 3 users)
1 This score is not weighted. Please note that 'Not yet published' titles are excluded.
Ranked: #249322
2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity: #34704
Members: 41
Favorites: 0


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Some U.S. movie theater chains are not planning to show Sony Pictures' "The Interview" on its original Christmas opening day, sources told CNBC on Wednesday.
Sony said later Wednesday it would not release the controversial film as planned on Dec. 25, citing the chains' plans not to show the movie on its scheduled opening date.
"Due to wavering support of the film 'The Interview' by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats, Regal Entertainment Group has decided to delay the opening of the film in our theatres," the cinema group said in a statement earlier.
Bow Tie and Carmike also confirmed earlier that they will not be showing the film on the planned release date. AMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ArcLight told CNBC it has not yet decided whether or not to release the film as originally scheduled.
The Canadian theater group Cineplex said in a statement that "after careful consideration of this unprecedented and complex situation," it will "postpone presentation of the Sony pictures movie, 'The Interview.' Cineplex takes seriously its commitment to the freedom of artistic expression, but we want to reassure our guests and staff that their safety and security is our No. 1 priority."
Earlier on Wednesday, Re/code reported that the film's New York premiere was canceled.
Read MoreSony leak: New Bond film could be most expensive
A group that claimed responsibility for the massive computer hack at Sony Pictures in early December demanded the company cancel the release of the film, a comedy which depicts an assassination plot against North Korea's leader.
Meanwhile, Sony is considering a video-on-demand release, a source told Variety on Wednesday. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC.
Read MoreHow the Sony hack panic has changed Hollywood
Disclosure: NBC News group is a minority stakeholder in Re/code and has a content sharing partnership with it.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that ArcLight has not yet decided whether or not it will release the film as originally scheduled and that it is not one of the top five U.S. movie theater chains.
—With reporting by CNBC's Julia Boorstin. Reuters contributed to this report.


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He said that such comets had occurred consistently every 50 or 60 million years. With the last happening around 65 million years ago.
But his biggest concern was that if such an object was to hit earth, we have no way to defend ourselves.
With the current tech, NASA needs to see the body almost seven years before impact to have any realistic chances of evading the impact.
"The biggest problem is there's not a hell of a lot we can do about it at the moment," Nuth said. "If you look at the schedule for high-reliability spacecraft and launching them, it takes five years to start a satellite."
But on the bright side, NASA has an incredibly strong telescope that has verified that there is no comment on earth path for at least the next one hundred years.
But they still warned that there might be some asteroids that are blinded from NASA especially in the sun's directions that may sucker punch earth.
However, Nuth insisted the best ways to protect Earth from such hazards was by having space craft's on standby instead of building them when need be.
He said that NASA should have a nuclear warhead spacecraft to blow up such asteroids. But this may not be the most efficient what as the results are not known. He suggested having a cannon like a space ship to deflect the approaching bodies may be more viable.


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Lyrics Depot is your source of lyrics to Strip Her Down by Cold. Please check back for more Cold lyrics.
Strip Her Down Lyrics
Artist: Cold
Album: Cold
Do you want me to strip for you?
Everybody played a game, how come you won't tell me the rules?
I'm tired of trying on a new skin, I never listen; I'm a fool.
And everybody ran away, how come you won't tell me where?
I guess I treated them too wrong.
Now the sun won't shine on me, now the rain won't even fall
Should of stripped her down, and made the world a mess for her
Never thought she could be this way
Could of stripped her down, and fucked the world all up for her
Never thought she could be this way
Could've stripped her down
Now that the love has gone away, too blind to see my way to live
I waste away from all the pain, for you I'd kill myself again
I hope you get to play your games, I hope you get to see your friends
I hope the guilt mixes the pain, I hope you never love again
Cold Lyrics
Cold Cold Lyrics
More Cold Music Lyrics:
Cold - Anti-Love Song Lyrics
Cold - Feel It In Your Heart Lyrics
Cold - Give Lyrics
Cold - Go Away Lyrics
Cold - Happens All The Time Lyrics
Cold - Ocean Lyrics
Cold - Wasted Years Lyrics
Cold - When Heaven's Not Far Away Lyrics