text:
from __future__ import unicode_literals
from __future__ import print_function
from __future__ import absolute_import

import pytest

from scalyr_agent.__scalyr__ import DEV_INSTALL
from tests.smoke_tests.common import _test_standalone_smoke

@pytest.mark.usefixtures("agent_environment")
@pytest.mark.timeout(300)
def test_standalone_smoke():
    _test_standalone_smoke(DEV_INSTALL, rate_limited=True)


"Who Else Wants To Get Rid Of Head Lice Using A New Magic Formula Remedy, Revealed In 14½ Minutes ?"
. . . . . Forever.
In 1998 my husband and I separated, and due to illness, our three young kids lived with him most of the time.
But, to my dismay, every time they visited me they were riddled with head lice. He said he was trying different things all the time to get rid of them but he was getting so frustrated and angry, and was just plain fed up with trying.
AND, he said it was costing him sooooo much money to treat 3 kids plus himself.
AND, to make matters worse, they kept bringing head lice home from school all the time.
"It's a never-ending cycle and I am very nearly tearing my own hair out", he'd complain.
So, needless to say, every time they visited me there were tears of frustration - my youngest girl was only 3 years old at the time and she hadn't even been to school at this stage - and even she had them in her gorgeous auburn hair.
I am ashamed to admit it, but it made me feel dirty just knowing that my kids had head lice.
It Starts To Reverse Your Fibromyalgia And Restore Your Body to a state of Vibrant Health & Energy!
How to bring the overflow of acids and incessant attacks on your body (thus causing your Fibromyalgia) to a screeching halt.
You will learn a true 'health care system' that will help empower you to make better choices for your health, as opposed to learning a strategy for just managing symptoms of poor health. Once you understand this unique concept of healing, you are bound to succeed. Whether or not you are trying to lose body fat and change your physical appearance, get rid of chronic pain and inflammation, lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, recover from an injury or accident, or just want to take your health to the next level, Dr.
Discover the Controversial Raw Food Secrets to Losing Weight, Having More Energy, Looking Younger, and Reclaiming Your Health That Medical Doctors, Dietitians, and Other So Called "Diet Experts" Are Not Telling You!
Realize truth about organic foods...are they really necessary???
Discover which THREE organs/glands are intricately related and learn which foods keep them healthy to improve your metabolism, weight loss potential, ability to cope with stress, and more!
Discover the ONE fluid that is the most dangerous to put into your body - this will absolutely startle you (especially if you're feeding it to your kids)!
Understand why simply focusing on the quality and quantity of foods you eat is not enough. You'll learn the TWO other factors that have to be in place for optimal health through nutrition.
Learn why counting calories does not work.
Attention Moms-To-Be... This could be the most important and exciting letter you will ever read!
Are these questions floating around in your head?
What foods can I grab for quick, on-the-go snacks?
How can I fit healthy foods and pregnancy exercise into my already hectic days?
What kind of pregnancy diet is optimal for my growing baby?
What should I be doing now to speed up my weight loss afterwards?
How can I avoid gaining weight all over?
What can I do to have an easy labor and delivery?
How can I control my food cravings?
What can I do to look toned and fit all the way through my pregnancy?
Have you noticed that there is so much conflicting information out there these days? Doesn't it feel impossible to sort through it all and find real world, healthy advice?


text:
Home > Kolkata > Jharnadhara project to mitigate water woes in hills
Jharnadhara project to mitigate water woes in hills
Team MP18 Feb 2018 5:49 PM GMT
Kolkata: The Bengal government is planning to launch "Jharnadhara Water Project" in North Bengal, to mitigate water crisis in the hills.
The North Bengal Development department has been chalking out elaborate plans to address the water crisis issue that the hill areas have been facing for a long time. Once the project gets started, the hills and various other parts of North Bengal will benefit immensely from the project.
According to an official of the North Bengal Development department, the project is at the initial level of planning. It would be adopted after a thorough survey is conducted in this regard. Study would be done on how fountain water could be treated in plants to produce drinking water on a large scale.
The hill areas have been facing an acute crisis of water for a long time. After carrying out a thorough study, a detailed project report would be prepared in this regard, on how to implement the project and how it would cost the government. The viability of the project will also be looked into.
It may be mentioned here that the department has also chalked out a detailed plan to augment fish production in North Bengal, where pisciculture could not be done on a large scale. The state Fisheries department is also procuring the most advanced satellite images, through which the department officials will be able to assess the condition of various waterbodies in the hills and also across the state.
Fishlings have been put into different ponds across North Bengal and also in rivers like Teesta, Torsha, Kalijani, Karla, Jaldhaka, Sankosh and others. Awareness campaigns have been started in local areas where tea gardens exist, so that people learn to avoid using the river water to clean spray machines after using them for pest control purposes.
It has been learnt that around 6,000 tonnes of fish is currently procured in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts annually.
A senior official of the North Bengal Development department said that fish procurement in North Bengal has comparatively been low and hence, several steps have been taken to boost pisciculture there. They have been distributing free food for feeding small fishes. Fish farmers are being provided training on how to apply scientific methods to cultivate fish.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
How to change your emojis on android?
If you're anything like many people, you use emojis to communicate with friends and family on a daily basis. But do you know how to change your emoji preferences on android? If not, now is the time to learn. There are a variety of ways to customize your Android experience, and changing your emoji preferences is one of them. By doing this, you can choose to send messages that reflect your personal style and identity. Now that you know how to change your emoji preferences on Android, it's time to start using them in more fun and expressive ways!
Open your phone's Settings app
If you're looking to change your emojis on your android phone, there are a few different ways to do it.
Method one is to head into your phone's settings app and look for the "Emoji" section. Here, you'll be able to select which emojis you want to use and swap them out as needed.
Method two is a bit more complicated. You first need to open up the Google Play Store on your phone and search for "Emoji." From here, you'll be able to download a free app called EmojiOneX that will allow you to customize your emojis even further.
Both methods work fine, but method two may be preferred if you want more control over your emojis.
Under System, find Language and input Emoji
If you want to change your emojis on android, there are a few methods that you can use. First, open the System app on your phone and find Language & input. Next, tap on the Emoji icon and select the icon that you would like to use. You can also choose from a variety of different emoji packs that are available on Google Play Store.
Tap on the three lines in the middle of the screen to select a new emoji set (the third line will be grayed out)
If you're looking to change up your emojis on Android, there are a few different ways to do so. One option is to access the settings menu and select "Emoji." From here, you can scroll through the available sets and pick one that better reflects your mood or style. Alternatively, you can use one of the third-party apps that offer more personalized emoji options. Either way, it's worth taking a moment to switch things up occasionally – it'll only make using messaging more fun!
Select from the different sets of emojis that are available, or create your own using the handwriting tool
There are different sets of emojis that are available, or you can use the handwriting tool to create your own. Here are the different sets of emojis and how to change them:
– Android default set: These are the icons that come preloaded on most Android devices. To access these, open the Google Keyboard app and tap on the emoji icon in the top right corner.
– Apple default set: These icons are used by iOS (the operating system used on iPhones and iPads) and macOS (the operating system used on Macs). To access these, open the Apple keyboard app and look for the "i" icon in the top left corner.
– Emoji One set: This is a set of emojis that was created by Google as an alternative to Apple's default set. To access this, open Google Keyboard and tap on the "Emoji One" icon in the bottom left corner.
– Emoji Two set: This is a set of emojis that was created by Microsoft as an alternative to Google's default set. To access this, open Microsoft Keyboard and tap on the "Emoji Two" icon in the bottom right corner.
Hit OK to save your changes and exit the Settings app
If you're looking for a way to change your emojis on Android, there are a few different ways to go about it. The first option is to go to the Settings app and look for the "Emoji" section. Here, you'll be able to select from a variety of different emoji options. Alternatively, you can download an emoji keyboard app like EmojiOne or Google Keyboard and use that instead. whichever route you choose, simply hit OK when you're done to save your changes and exit the Settings app.
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*Parts of this blog post were taken from our original blog post, written by Jim Helm and James Perciaccante, MD.
Parents and caregivers recognize the importance and impact that developmental care has on the health and development of premature babies.
Developed at Harvard Medical School more than 35 years ago, the NIDCAP program is based on careful observation and sensitive care with close parent involvement.
NIDCAP brings the home nursery atmosphere into the intensive care setting. We are still very much an intensive care unit, but we are an intensive care unit that believes the best way to help a baby grow and heal is to reduce stress on the baby and keep the environment as close to nature intended as possible.
NIDCAP is an approach to providing highly specialized care that acknowledges the unique needs of each infant and their family to support developing relationships.
From the gentle way that premature babies are bathed to the custom quilts that adorn some of the incubators – research shows that this type of care and support positively impacts the development of the baby's brains and improves their long-term outcomes.
NIDCAP practices lead to shorter hospital stays, better long term outcomes, and changes in brain structure and function that can be seen on MRI and EEG. When a baby is born prematurely it is important that we do everything we can not to disrupt that process through unnecessary stress and stimulation.
Training to be a potential Certified NIDCAP professional is quite comprehensive with a minimum of 120-150 hours of work, and it typically takes between 12 – 18 months to complete all of the training.
WakeMed is 1 of only 7 NIDCAP Training Centers in the United States (since 1989), and 1 of only 3 NIDCAP Certified Nurseries in the United States.
WakeMed Health & Hospitals are the only nurseries in North Carolina to have this approach integrated into their care. While some hospital nurseries may provide some level of developmentally supportive and family-centered care, none offer a program as comprehensive as ours.
Originally founded by Jim Helm, the Carolina NIDCAP Training Center at WakeMed is one of seven in the United States. There are currently 23 training centers around the world.
Dorothy Vittner is the current Director of the Carolina NIDCAP Training Center. She is also on the Board of Directors and is Vice President of the NIDCAP Federation International, a Senior NIDCAP trainer, and is also a Trainer in the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) trainer. Dorothy's research interests include: bio-behavioral mechanisms of developing relationships, specifically oxytocin and the influence on nervous system functioning, infant behavior and development, as well as integrating strategies to care practices for hospitalized infants.
Dr. Perciaccante is a board-certified neonatologist and Director of Neonatology . He is also a member of the Perinatal Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the North Carolina Neonatologist Association and the North Carolina Medical Society.


FS: 445nm 1W+, 405nm 120mW+, 650nm 300mW+ Laser Diodes!
acceleration will be ridiculous.. as fast or faster than cars. especially if I mod the controller to bump up the amps.
best of luck with taxes bud, I had that issue a while ago. get a CPA ftw. and incorporate a LLC Small Corporation. save like 7% on taxes, it's badass.


if u want to know anything in detail..watever it maybe..mostly technical..
u can get from this site..
Howstuffworks is one of the best sites for people who are curious to know how things work..starting from aeroplane to your vaccum cleaner. It contains answers for almost anything you think of..
I got very much interested in that website a year back and got the CD which contains the whole website.. (all the pages in the website).


text:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Uses of Class com.fasterxml.jackson.core.sym.ByteQuadsCanonicalizer (Jackson-core 2.9.0 API)</title>
<meta name="date" content="2018-01-23">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../../../../stylesheet.css" title="Style">

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Uses of Class
com.fasterxml.jackson.core.sym.ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Packages that use ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Package
Description

com.fasterxml.jackson.core

Main public API classes of the core streaming JSON
 processor: most importantly JsonFactory
 used for constructing
 JSON parser (JsonParser)
 and generator
 (JsonGenerator)
 instances.

com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json

JSON-specific parser and generator implementation classes that
 Jackson defines and uses.

com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.async

Non-blocking ("async") JSON parser implementation.

com.fasterxml.jackson.core.sym

Internal implementation classes for efficient handling of
 of symbols in JSON (field names in Objects)

Uses of ByteQuadsCanonicalizer in com.fasterxml.jackson.core

Fields in com.fasterxml.jackson.core declared as ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Modifier and Type
Field and Description

protected ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
JsonFactory._byteSymbolCanonicalizer

Alternative to the basic symbol table, some stream-based
 parsers use different name canonicalization method.

Uses of ByteQuadsCanonicalizer in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json

Fields in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json declared as ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Modifier and Type
Field and Description

protected ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
UTF8StreamJsonParser._symbols

Symbol table that contains field names encountered so far

protected ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
UTF8DataInputJsonParser._symbols

Symbol table that contains field names encountered so far

Methods in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json with parameters of type ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Modifier and Type
Method and Description

JsonParser
ByteSourceJsonBootstrapper.constructParser(int parserFeatures,
               ObjectCodec codec,
               ByteQuadsCanonicalizer rootByteSymbols,
               CharsToNameCanonicalizer rootCharSymbols,
               int factoryFeatures)

Constructors in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json with parameters of type ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Constructor and Description

UTF8DataInputJsonParser(IOContext ctxt,
                       int features,
                       DataInput inputData,
                       ObjectCodec codec,
                       ByteQuadsCanonicalizer sym,
                       int firstByte)

UTF8StreamJsonParser(IOContext ctxt,
                    int features,
                    InputStream in,
                    ObjectCodec codec,
                    ByteQuadsCanonicalizer sym,
                    byte[] inputBuffer,
                    int start,
                    int end,
                    boolean bufferRecyclable)

Uses of ByteQuadsCanonicalizer in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.async

Fields in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.async declared as ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Modifier and Type
Field and Description

protected ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
NonBlockingJsonParserBase._symbols

Symbol table that contains field names encountered so far

Methods in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.async that return ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Modifier and Type
Method and Description

protected ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
NonBlockingJsonParserBase.symbolTableForTests()

Constructors in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.json.async with parameters of type ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Constructor and Description

NonBlockingJsonParser(IOContext ctxt,
                     int parserFeatures,
                     ByteQuadsCanonicalizer sym)

NonBlockingJsonParserBase(IOContext ctxt,
                         int parserFeatures,
                         ByteQuadsCanonicalizer sym)

Uses of ByteQuadsCanonicalizer in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.sym

Methods in com.fasterxml.jackson.core.sym that return ByteQuadsCanonicalizer

Modifier and Type
Method and Description

static ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
ByteQuadsCanonicalizer.createRoot()

Factory method to call to create a symbol table instance with a
 randomized seed value.

protected static ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
ByteQuadsCanonicalizer.createRoot(int seed)

ByteQuadsCanonicalizer
ByteQuadsCanonicalizer.makeChild(int flags)

Factory method used to create actual symbol table instance to
 use for parsing.

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
100th anniversary of women's vote celebrated
It was just one hundred years ago – an entire 130 years after America's first presidential election was held, where only white men who owned property were allowed to vote – that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution was introduced to give women the right to vote.
In celebration of that occasion – May 21, 1919, when Representative James R. Mann of Illinois proposed the 19th Amendment – city and other local officials came together Tuesday at the 19th Amendment Celebration Luncheon, held at the Hattiesburg Train Depot in downtown. The event, which was part of this year's FestivalSouth lineup, was sponsored by the City of Hattiesburg 19th Amendment Committee and Forrest General Hospital Spirit of Women.
"We wanted to be sensitive and aware that there were other segments of people and women who were not able to vote, even 100 years ago," said Stacy Ahua, who serves as luncheon chair for the 19th Amendment Committee. "We won't be here for the next hundred years to celebrate, so I think this is a milestone in our country, and it's something that we thought was really important.
"Looking at the way women are represented in every aspect of our community – that starts with having basic rights, and things like voting really pushed women into that realm. So we wanted it to be something that was reflective of all of that, to show a lot of progress that's been made, and to give everyone a chance to be here and learn a little bit more together."
The event began with a welcome by WHPM-TV Regional News Director Randy Swan and his wife, Millie, who serves as chief marketing and medical staff services officer at Forrest General Hospital. That was followed by an invocation from the Reverend Susan Hrostowski, a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and vicar at St. Elizabeth Episcopal Church.
Ward 4 Councilwoman Mary Dryden and retired colonel Sheila Varnado, who has held roles at R3SM and the United Way of Southeast Mississippi, took the opportunity to give a brief historical overview of the women's suffrage movement.
"As John Quincy Adams left home to draw up the U.S. Constitution in 1776, Abigail Adams told him, 'Don't forget the women,'" Dryden said. "He laughed – the man who later became president thought women, Native Americans and African Americans were not equal to men.
"Ironically, his wife was his most trusted advisor throughout his career, and some called her Mrs. President."
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam introduced keynote speaker Jennifer Ingram Johnson, a Hattiesburg attorney who is president-elect of the Mississippi Bar Association for 2020-2021. Johnson told a few stories of her time with former Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Gandy, who served as a mentor to Johnson for several years.
Gandy, who was born in Hattiesburg and graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi, earned the distinction of being the first woman to be elected to a Mississippi statewide office in 1960, when she started her first term as state treasurer. She was later elected insurance commissioner before serving as the state's 26th lieutenant governor from 1976-1980.
She studied law at the University of Mississippi School of Law in Oxford, where she was the only woman in her 1943 law class and won the state oratorical contest. She also was the first woman editor of the Mississippi Law Journal and the first woman to be elected president of the law school student body.
"The first time I met Evelyn Gandy was when I went to visit my father on the Mississippi Sentate floor back in 1976, when she was lieutenant governor, and she took me under her wing from that day forward," said Johnson, who is the daughter of former state senator Carroll H. Ingram. "She encouraged me to become a strong woman, because she wanted me to be a leader.
"At the time she was lieutenant governor, there were no women in the Senate – she led all men from the front of the room, and she did it with grace and poise. When I was in high school in ninth grade in Mississippi History class, Evelyn Gandy had all of five sentences in our history book – what a shame, because Evelyn Gandy is a giant in the history of Mississippi politics and Mississippi women."
Seven women were mentioned as honorees at the event for the roles they played in their organizations and the Greater Hattiesburg area: Beam, Helen Heidelberg Cullefer, Marian Dulaney Fortner, Hrostowski, Jan Moore, Oseola McCarty and Iola Williams.
And because the 19th Amendment wasn't actually ratified until a year after it was presented – on August 26, 1920 – the City of Hattiesburg 19th Amendment Committee has put together a year's worth of events dealing with women's suffrage. The lineup begins in August with a "Gracie for President" reading at Hattiesburg-area schools and concludes in August 202 with the 19th Amendment Close Out Celebration.
The full lineup of events will be announced in the near future.
"Back 100 years ago, it took a full year from when the Senate passed the 19th Amendment to when enough states ratified it to become the law of the land," said Hattiesburg attorney Anna Rush, chair of the 19th Amendment Committee. "So we're going to keep this party rolling until August of 2020.
"It's not just about the right to vote – it's really a celebration of women. It's a lot of education and awareness, and we also don't need to forget that the passage of the 19th Amendment didn't give all persons and women the right to vote – there were still acts of Congress that had to be passed to really open up the right to vote (to everyone)."


text:
Gender Anarchist. Stand up comedian.
Comedy gigs
5 minutes with Bez
Trans resources
LGBT+ and feminist culture
My poetry and fragments
Lockdown haikus
Who are your three dream dinner party guests and why?
Firstly, Grace Petrie, because she's absolutely amazing. She's a protest singer with a punky, folky vibe. I love her stuff, particularly her songs 'Farewell to Welfare' and 'Black Tie'.
I'd also invite Josie Long – a few years ago, I was on a Q&A about rent caps with David Lammy, and she did a comedy set about housing which was lovely. My dream would be to support her as a comedian.
Zoë Coombs Marr would be my third guest: she's a gay Australian comedian and she's got so much energy which I'm trying to copy.
What is your desert island book, film and album?
My book might be Animal by Sara Pascoe if only for the chapter on consent which should be compulsory reading for everyone. It's brilliant.
Amélie is lovely, kooky and hilarious. I also really like Made in Dagenham – I love Sally Hawkins.
Recently, I went to an improv show and saw a group called The Concept, whose thing is to make up albums. They chose my suggestion – Sexy Elbows by Beckdazzle – and performed an improvised album based on the artist and title. But if it wasn't that, it'd probably be Grace Petrie's album, Queer as Folk.
What is your day job?
I'm a Helpline Adviser for a charity, advising single parents on benefits, family law, childcare, child maintenance, a bit of housing and finances. And signposting them to relevant other organisations, eg, charities for domestic violence survivors or for bereavement support.
Like improv, you've got to be prepared for everything – you don't know who's going to call, what they want to find out or what they are going through right now. It can be quite emotionally draining as I'm very empathetic. I'm hoping to move onto web chat more soon.
I have a German degree – my best subjects were Medieval German literature and translation, and I didn't really feel like a useful human, so what I love about advice is that I'm useful!
My mum was a single parent to my younger siblings, so I just think it's really important, especially with policies like the Benefit Cap which are penalising single parents. I love my job! ❤ ❤ ❤
Bez, Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.


text:
2001 Pontiac Aztek
Datum: October 12, 2011 01:29:50 AM
Autor: oMaribethMontoyav
It is definitely different in appearance, but so too is its composition and purpose. Pontiac calls it the world's 1st SRV, or sport-recreation vehicle, a multi-purpose machine designed to support active lifestyles with plenty of space for hauling bicycles, kayaks, snowboards, skis and other recreational gear. Designers drew inspiration from a number of sources, ranging from the multi-function Swiss Army Knife to the tone and feel of high-tech sports equipment like mountain bikes and scuba gear. The result is an interior that flips and folds and contorts as a highly individualized package with comfy space for five passengers and a lot of individual stuff for sport and play. Core mechanical components come from Pontiac's front-wheel-drive Montana, so Aztek drives and rides with the easy-to-maneuver agility of a minivan, however the tall stance and load-carrying capacity makes it act like a sport-utility wagon. And that wild exterior package: Some say it's ugly. Pontiac calls it an aggressive statement pitched to a youthful, active audience. Model Lineup A 3.4-liter V6 engine offers 185 horsepower to the front wheels via an electronically controlled four-speed automatic transaxle. In January 2001, the Aztek will likely be available with all-wheel drive; the AWD version uses GM's new Versatrak system, which has met favorable reviews. Two models are accessible, Aztek and Aztek GT. The base Aztek at $21,445 packs an extensive list of standard equipment including frontal and side-impact airbags and anti-lock brakes. Air conditioning, power windows, power door locks and power mirrors are also standard. A GT package, beginning at $24,445, brings dual-zone heating and air conditioning, cruise control, traction control, remote keyless entry, a leather-wrapped steering wheel with radio controls, a removable console cooler and a rooftop rack for mounting recreational equipment.


text:
Bad Trips
Have a Happy Halloween with Nick Cross!
October 31, 2021 spinenumberedLeave a comment
What's scarier than the exploitation of capitalist culture, our societal collapse into a dystopian nightmare, and our inexorable march into cosmic obliteration? Answer: Nothing. And so MMC! celebrates this All Hallow's Eve with a trio of animated mind-melters from Canadian animator Nick Cross. First up is The Pig Farmer (2010) – "a simple tale of a wayward soul, awash in an ocean of tragedy and regret." Well, that and various pork-related gags. Don't be fooled by the fairy tale-vibe and cutesy look; this short ain't for the kids!
Next up is Perihelion (2013), "a sort of animated tone poem" inspired by German Expressionist and Surrealist painters of the early 20th Century like Otto Dix, Richard Oelze, Ingrid Griebel-Zietlow, Rudolf Schlichter, and Max Ernst, as well as Francisco Goya. The short operates as something of a Möbius strip tracking a cycle of human downfalls. The effect is amazing in execution and awful in vision. You're welcome!
Lastly, we wrap up this dispiriting tribute to Nick Cross with The Clockwork Elves (2020). Cross's summary of the short is questionable: "The Clockwork Elves could be a pyschotropic exploration of spirituality and death – or it could be a tale of a little goofball hopped up on goofballs. Either way — it's a cartoon." Made single-handedly over seven years, the short takes the animator's critiques of late capitalism deeper into the psychedelic nightmare than ever before, creating a vision quest montage that is amazingly spectacular, shockingly vibrant, and exceptionally apocalyptic. This is the squished and squashed, cutesy-pie version of Pearl Jam's "Do the Evolution" video and it's just as bracing.
If all of this is a bit too nightmarishly heavy for you, then MMC! recommends revisiting Over the Garden Wall (2014), a modern Halloween classic that perfectly celebrates American colonial folklore, historical commercial art, and East Coast animation. Cross worked as the series' art director and it should be required viewing for any Halloween fanatic.
STAY SAFE KIDS, AND HAVE A
Action, Animation, Canada, Experimental, Fantasy, Film, Funny, Horror, Shorts2010s, 2020s, Animation, Animation for Adults, Avant-Garde, Bad Trips, Canada, Color, Comedies, Comedies That Bite, Cult Movies, Dreamscapes, Fairy Tales and Fables, Nick Cross, On Writing Duty, Perihelion, Political Cinema, Scary Movies, Short and Sweet, Son of Wholphin, Supernatural Stories, The Clockwork Elves, The Pig Farmer, Widescreen
Mad God (Phil Tippett, 2021) – Fantasia International Film Festival 2021
September 28, 2021 spinenumbered1 Comment
READY YOUR EYES. READY YOUR SOULS. PREPARE TO MEET YOUR MAKER.
Follow the Assassin, Mad God's silent soldier, on his mysterious mission through Miltonesque worlds filled with grotesque monsters, mad scientists, and savage war pigs. This darkly surreal realm where nightmares roam free is forged from the subconscious mind of legendary visual effects and stop-motion craftsman Phill Tippett (contributor to the original Star Wars trilogy, Robocop, Jurassic Park, and Battleship Troppers). Commenced over thirty years ago and later resurrected at the behest of animators at Tippett's Berkeley studio, this ambitious personal project employed hundreds of puppets, dozens of environments, and a crew of more than 60 artists who painstakingly animated every set, creature, and effigy in this macabre masterpiece.
Each element of Mad God is independently created and hand-crafted from its creator's heart. At times, that heart bursts with love for its craft, while at other times it is morbidly gruesome, punctured and left bleeding. Altogether, Mad God is a testament to the power of creative grit and an homage to the timeless art of stop motion animation.
Limited Edition Contents:
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio
Introduction by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro
Audio commentary by filmmaker Phil Tippett and special effects artist Dan Martin
Fantasia International Film Festival 2020 live-streamed tribute, masterclass, and Lifetime Achievement Award with Phil Tippett, hosted by Rupert Bottenberg
Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters, Alexandre Poncet and Gilles Penso's 2019 documentary on the life and work of Phil Tippett
Worse Than the Demon, a short film by Phil Tippett's daughter, Maya Tippett, on the making of Mad God
Dammit Phil, You Had One Job!, Phil Tippett on his infamous meme
Nightmare Music, new interview with composer Dan Wool on the music of Mad God
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Frank
Double-sided fold-out poster
Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Sam Ashurst and a gallery of exclusive production writing and artwork by filmmaker Phil Tippett
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The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003)
May 12, 2021 spinenumbered3 Comments
The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents The Triplets of Belleville.
French whimsy goes through the looking glass in this imaginatively offbeat animated wonder by animator Sylvain Chomet. A boy named Champion trains relentlessly for the Tour de France with the help of his diminutive and club-footed grandmother, Madame Souza, and their overweight dog, Bruno. When race day arrives, Champion and a few of his fellow racers are kidnapped by a pair of square-shouldered henchmen and taken across the ocean to thronging Belleville where they are forced to pedal as part of an illicit gambling operation. Bruno and Mme Souza follow to save their boy and find unlikely help from the renowned Triplets of Belleville, a trio of eccentric music hall stars turned elderly experimental musicians. Filled with twisted imagery and proceeding with the measured pace of a dream, The Triplets of Belleville is a strange, loving, and very French tribute to silent comedy and to bygone eras of traditional animation.
New 4K digital master, approved by director Sylvain Chomet, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio Soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New audio commentary with Sylvain Chomet
New conversation between Chomet and animator Bill Plympton
The Making of The Triplets of Belleville, a 36-minute documentary discussing the film's production
The Cartoon According to Sylvain Chomet, a brief discussion with the director on designing his characters
Music Video by -M- for "Les Triplettes de Belleville" featuring animation from the film and a short piece on its making
Le temps d'un tournage, an interview with Chomet for French television on his earlier work
The Triplets As Seen By…, a selection of impressions on the film by animators Bill Plympton and Michel Ocelot, singer -M-, and comedian and cyclist Antoine de Caunes
The Old Lady and the Pigeons, Chomet's 1997 short film about a starving policeman who dresses up like a pigeon to trick an old woman into feeding him
Carmen; Chomet's music video collaboration with Belgian pop star Stromae
Chomet's 2014 "couch gag" for The Simpsons
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A new essay by film critic Michael Sragow and flipbooks with art by Chomet
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Bloody Hell (Alister Grierson, 2020)
January 14, 2021 February 17, 2021 spinenumberedLeave a comment
ONE HELL OF A FAIRY TALE
When a bank heist goes awry, Rex Coen (Ben O'Toole) spends eight years in prison and is hounded by the media on his release. The unwanted attention forces Rex to flee his hometown of Boise, Idaho, in search of anonymity in Finland, but his arrival in Helsinki lands him in a new, fresh hell. Gassed during his taxi ride from the airport, Rex wakes up drugged, beaten, and bound in the basement of a twisted family hiding a dark secret. With only his personified conscience to help him, Rex is in a race against time to save himself and a beautiful young woman (Meg Fraser) from his terrifying captors and a fate worse than death.
An action-horror-comedy that merges Fight Club with Fargo, Alister Grierson's Bloody Hell is a raucous midnight crowd pleaser ready for fans of Sam Raimi, John Wick, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Special Edition Contents:
5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Uncompressed Stereo PCM
Boi To Hel, new interviews with cast and crew
Rex in an Ass-Kicking Contest, an interview with director Alister Grierson and lead actor Ben O'Toole on the film's special effects
Behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes
Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork choices
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Chowboys: An American Folktale (Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, Matthew Kennedy, Steven Kostanski, and Conor Sweeney, 2018)
December 24, 2020 spinenumberedLeave a comment
Happy Christmas Eve! And what better way for MMC! to extend its season's greetings than by sharing Chowboys: An American Folktale (2018), the final work of Winnipeg's irreverent Astron-6. Here, three stupid cowboys struggle to survive in the frigid mountains on the coldest night of the year. Beautiful hands, sheet cakes, St. Nicholas, and cannibalism make for a wacky and gory holiday short set on Christmas Eve. God bless us, everyone (although maybe not Wendigo Santa).
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Ticket of No Return (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979)
July 29, 2020 December 21, 2020 spinenumbered1 Comment
The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents Ticket of No Return.
The it-girl of the West German art subculture, Tabea Blumenschein, stars as a nameless, silent stranger with a one-way ticket to Berlin and a plan to drink herself to death. While touring high class bars, queer nightspots, and seedy dives, she befriends a struggling homeless woman and runs across a trio of prim, judgemental women known as Social Question, Accurate Statistics, and Common Sense. With Blumenschein's extravagant costumes and writer/director/cinematographer Ulrike Ottinger's eye for a city still struggling to lift itself out of the bombed-out depression of World War II, Ticket of No Return is an unforgettably unique tour of Berlin and a deliciously shrewd example of feminist camp.
Restored 4K digital transfer, overseen by director Ulrike Ottinger, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New interview with Ottinger
Berlinfever – Wolf Vostell, Ottinger's 16 minute short film of a 1973 Happening organized by artist and friend Wolf Vostell
Gallery of Ottinger's workbook used to develop and produce the film
Gallery featuring rare behind-the-scenes production photos
An excerpt from Gérard Courant's Cinématon (2009) featuring Ottinger
PLUS: A new essay by critic Michael Koresky
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Dan on Ariel Castro Death
Dan also appeared on Good Morning America today to discuss the death of Ariel Castro, who was found hanging in his prison cell last night. The Ohio man had been sent away for life plus a thousand years for holding three women captive, and was was being held in protective custody, with guards checking on him every 30 minutes. Castro had been described by prison officials as calm and cooperative upon his arrival. Dan comments on the death: "This shouldn't happen… protective custody is supposed to protect him from other inmates, suicide watch is to protect him from himself. And it seems that he was not on suicide watch, and there are going to be a lot of questions as to why. What does that mean when you're on suicide watch? You don't have shoelaces, you don't have other items that you could use to hang yourself… there's going to be a lot of questions as to why that didn't happen. He's already been transferred once from a different prison to the prison he was at now, for evaluation to figure out where he'll end up permanently. There are going to be a lot of questions… of the Ohio Department of Corrections." Watch the segment here.


Governments and NGOs need economic data to decide how best to aid the poor. But reliable, up-to-date data on poverty levels is hard to come by in the world's poorest countries.
Scientists have now devised an inexpensive technique that combines satellite images and machine learning to accurately predict poverty levels at village level. Such a fine-grained gauge of poverty could help aid programs target those with the greatest needs. It could also be a valuable tool for researchers and policymakers to gather national statistics and set development goals.
Governments typically conduct surveys of income and consumption to measure poverty levels. These surveys cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are impossible to conduct in areas of conflict. World Bank data show that between 2000 and 2010, 39 out of 59 African countries conducted fewer than two surveys that were extensive enough to measure poverty.
Researchers have recently tried to estimate poverty levels by analyzing mobile phone usage data and satellite photos showing nighttime lighting. But mobile phone data are typically not publicly available. Nighttime lights, meanwhile, indicate wealthier regions, but they cannot differentiate among economic levels in the most impoverished regions. "In the poorest areas in Africa, the ones we care the most about, it's almost uniformly dark at night," says Neal Jean, an electrical engineering and computer science Ph.D. student at Stanford University.
Jean, earth system science professor Marshall Burke, and their colleagues came up with a clever machine-learning method that combines nighttime light intensity data with daytime satellite imagery. The technique, reported in the journal Science, is general and could be applied to any developing country, Jean says.
In machine learning, a computer model is fed labeled data sets—say, thousands of images labeled "dog" or "cat." Much like humans learn by inference after seeing enough examples, the model analyzes certain features in the images and figures out how to classify an animal in a picture as a dog or cat.
The researchers trained their machine-learning algorithm with millions of daytime satellite images, each labeled with a number that corresponded to how bright the area was at night. Daytime images, which contain features that indicate livelihoods, such as paved roads, metal roofs, and farmland, can help distinguish poor regions from ultrapoor ones. "The model looks for visual cues and automatically learns to find features in daytime imagery that correspond to nighttime light values," Jean says.
Next, the team trains a second computer model to use the subtle differences in the images that are picked out by the first model in cooperation with existing economic survey data. This second model learns to estimate a village's relative level of poverty—measured by the consumption expenditures in 2011 U.S. dollars and an asset-based wealth index. "So you can take an image of any area and predict how poor that area is," he says.
Both the daytime satellite images from Google Maps and the nighttime light data from the National Geophysical Data Center are available in high resolution; 1-square-kilometer images can be pulled up for just about any point on the globe. But for the purposes of this research, the Stanford team used satellite and survey data for five countries: Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Rwanda.
The new model more accurately estimated poverty levels than models that used only nighttime light data in areas where the average income was half or even one-third of the poverty level.
New studies would just require training the model with satellite imagery from the regions being evaluated. The team is now trying to use images with different resolutions, which yield different information—say, building density at low-res or roofing material at high-res—to see how having that information affects the accuracy of poverty estimates.


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Who is the real ANC?
James Myburgh |
James Myburgh on the roots of liberal and Western misunderstanding of the liberation movement
For close to fifty years the truth of Nelson Mandela's membership of the South African Communist Party in the early 1960s – and to a somewhat lesser extent Walter Sisulu's - was attended by a "bodyguard of lies."
Mandela denied his membership of the Communist Party in his Treason Trial testimony in 1960 and at the Rivonia Trial in 1964 (as did Sisulu). This denial was repeated in Mandela's autobiography published in 1993 and perpetuated by Anthony Sampson in his authorised biography of Mandela published in 1999.
Shortly before he died Walter Sisulu told his biographer that he had indeed joined the SACP in 1955, after an initiation period in 1954, and been co-opted on the Central Committee in 1956.
In the two years before Mandela's death books by Stephen Ellis and Irina Filatova established that Mandela too had been a member of the SACP's Central Committee at the critical time of the turn to armed struggle in the early 1960s. This was confirmed by both the SACP and ANC in statements issued after Mandela's death in December 2013.
It remains unclear when, and under what circumstances, Mandela joined the Party but the 1975 prison manuscript of his autobiography suggested an earlier and deeper conversion to Marxist-Leninism than previously assumed.
Ellis and Filatova's uncovering of this secret history has certainly forced a revision in the standard accounts of the ANC's turn to the armed struggle in the early 1960s. But its relevance for our understanding of post-apartheid politics remains unclear to many.
Once the evidence to the contrary became overwhelming the claim that 'Mandela was never a member of the Communist Party' switched over to the challenge, 'So what if he was?'
The answer to this lies, partly at least, in how we interpret two of the most important historical documents of the liberation movement: Mandela's statement from the dock at the Rivonia Trial in April 1964 ("the Statement"), and The Road to South African Freedom: The Programme of the SACP ("the Programme") adopted some eighteen months before.
Mandela's statement from the dock
The SACP's decision to embark on the path of armed struggle was first taken by a conference of the Party in December 1960, having earlier received the green light to do so from the Soviet Union and Communist China, with Mandela and Sisulu in attendance.
Mandela had then played the central role in persuading the ANC's National Executive Committee to agree to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe in mid-1961 as an organisation separate from the ANC. MK had launched its first sabotage operations, and released its manifesto, on 16 December 1961. Party members had monopolised positions in the MK High Command in its first years.
Mandela had, while operating underground, moved to Lilliesleaf farm in Rivonia soon after its purchase by the SACP on 21 August 1961. On the 10th of January 1962 he had embarked on his Africa tour, returning briefly to Rivonia on the 24th of July that year. Two days later he travelled down to Durban. On the way back to Johannesburg on the 5th August he was arrested by the police just outside Howick after the police had been tipped off by CIA agent Donald Rickard about his whereabouts.[1]
Although Mandela represented himself in the trial that began on 22nd October 1962 he was assisted by Advocate Bob Hepple, a member of the SACP Central Committee at this time. On 7th November he was sentenced to a five year jail term by the magistrate for incitement and leaving the country without a passport.
In July 1963 Lillieslief farm was raided by the police and a number of conspirators arrested. Among the documents seized were a series of draft lectures in Mandela's handwriting titled "Part One (How to be a Good Communist)", "Chapter Two (Dialectical Materialism)" and "Political economy".
The following year Mandela and nine others were brought to trial on charges of sabotage and furthering the objects of Communism. The lead counsel was Advocate Bram Fischer QC, another member of the SACP Central Committee. He was assisted by Vernon Berrange, Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizos.
The defence strategy, as Mandela later put it, involved admitting to what the state already knew from the copious documentation seized at Rivonia but denying what it didn't or what was dangerous to the cause. The later clearly included the precise extent of Communist influence on the ANC and MK and, where possible, the Party membership of the accused. Instead, emphasis was placed upon the ANC leadership's historic commitment to a non-racial democracy (which was certainly true of Albert Luthuli's position.)
A document prepared by defence attorneys for the guidance of counsel in the case stated that, "Throughout the whole of its history the A.N.C. has stood for equal rights for all races in this country. It has clung to the principle that there should be no oppression of any race by another; and that there should be no discrimination against any human being on the ground of his race or colour."
The argument to be made was that the obduracy of successive white governments to these reasonable demands had pushed the "patience and forbearance" of the African majority to breaking point, hence the formation of MK.
On 20 April 1964 Mandela made his famous statement from the dock. This was a speech drafted in consultation with various people including his lawyers and his co-accused. In his biography of the young Mandela David James Smith says that he was speaking "in a sense, not just for himself but for all the accused and indeed, for the entire liberation movement. He would take the chance of this platform, with the whole world listening, to make a thorough statement of their aims and their beliefs." In his memoirs one of his co-accused, Ahmed Kathrada, commented: "Of course we had read the address beforehand, discussed and unanimously approved it."
While admitting to be a socialist attracted to the idea of a classless society, in his speech, Mandela denied being a member of the Communist Party. He presented himself as an African Nationalist and an African Patriot and placed this ideology in contra-distinction with the ideas of his Communist allies. He commented that while Communists may regard "the parliamentary system of the West as undemocratic and reactionary" he was an "admirer of such a system."
"The Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights and the Bill of Rights, are documents which are held in veneration by democrats throughout the world. I have great respect for British political institutions, and for the country's system of justice. I regard the British Parliament as the most democratic institution in the world, and the independence and impartiality of its judiciary never fail to arouse my admiration. The American Congress, that country's doctrine of separation of powers, as well as the independence of its judiciary arouse in me similar sentiments."
He added that he had been influenced in his thinking by both West and East and sought to borrow the best of both in his search for a political formula (Sisulu said something very similar in his evidence). He then turned to how he had come to write the documents on 'How to be a Good Communist' and 'Dialectical Materialism' that had been presented as exhibits in the trial. He claimed that an old friend – whom he would name as Moses Kotane in his 1993 autobiography – had long been trying unsuccessfully to persuade him to join the SACP:
"In order to convince me that I should join the Communist Party he, from time to time, gave me Marxist literature to read, though I did not always find time to do this…. I saw him on several occasions at Lilliesleaf Farm, and on one of the last of these occasions he was busy writing with books around him. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me that he was busy writing lectures for use in the Communist Party, and suggested that I should read them. There were several lectures in draft form.
After I had done so, I told him that they seemed far too complicated for the ordinary reader…. in that the language was obtuse and they were full of the usual Communistic clichés and jargon… He said it was impossible to simplify the language, without losing the effect of what the author was trying to stress. I disagreed with him, and then he asked me to see whether I could re- draft the lectures in the simplified form suggested by me. I agreed to help him, and set to work in an endeavour to do this, but I never finished the task as I later became occupied with other practical work which was more important. I never again saw the unfinished manuscript until it was produced at the trial."
In response to the prosecution's suggestion that "Umkhonto was the inspiration of the Communist Party" which had sought to exploit the "imaginary grievances" of the African population for its own nefarious ends Mandela spoke sincerely and movingly of the cruelties and injustices of white supremacy, and the severe disabilities that black Africans suffered from under this system. He then turned to what it was that the ANC and MK were fighting for:
"We [the African people] want a just share in the whole of South Africa; we want security and a stake in society. Above all, my lord, we want equal political rights - because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the Whites in this country, because of the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy. But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all.
It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on colour, is entirely artificial, and when it disappears, so will the domination of one colour group by another. The A.N.C. has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs, as it certainly must, it will not change that policy.
This then is what the A.N.C. is fighting. Our struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.
During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against White domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons; live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realised. But my lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
In his authorised biography of Mandela Sampson wrote that these "words reverberated round the world, providing a manifesto for anti-apartheid campaigners everywhere"; David James Smith that "If it is not the greatest political speech of the last 100 years, it is certainly among the most significant."
As Rian Malan has noted the words from this speech still echo today: "Type Mandela's name into Google, and you come upon millions of essays, articles and book-length hagiographies depicting Madiba in exactly the way he presented himself in that speech: a black liberal, driven to take up arms by a white supremacist state that seemed utterly impermeable to calls for dialogue."
The SACP's Road to South African Freedom
Although far less well known in the West the Road to South African Freedom is, in its own way, as influential as Mandela's statement. The background to it is as follows:
At the SACP's conference in December 1960, at which the turn to violence was decided upon, two Central Committee members, Michael Harmel and Moses Kotane, had been appointed to prepare a draft statement of the policy and programme of the SACP for discussion.
In his prison manuscript Mandela states that fairly soon after moving to Lilieslief he was joined by Harmel who had been "given an important political assignment and he needed a quiet and safe place where he could work full time." This assignment was probably the finalisation of the SACP's draft programme.
A draft was completed and adopted by the Central Committee and was subsequently circulated to members in early 1962. Bob Hepple was brought on board to assist later in the year, and according to his account, a substantially revised version was produced by Harmel and Kotane in a three week period between August and September 1962. By this time Mandela was in prison. In his trial a few years later Fischer admitted in his statement to the court to drawing up a rough draft of the introduction.
The Road to South African Freedom: The Programme of the South African Communist Party was then adopted at a conference in Johannesburg in October 1962. According to former Central Committee member Bartholomew Hlapane's testimony as a state witness in Fischer's trial those in attendance included: Joe Slovo, Ruth Slovo, Michael Harmel, Rusty Bernstein, Hilda Bernstein, Bob Hepple, Fred Carneson, Moses Kotane, Duma Nokwe, Dan Tloome, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Billy Nair, M.P. Naicker, Stephen Dlamini, Joe Matthews, Mark Shope, and others whose names he did not know.
In his account Hepple says Kotane, Sisulu, JB Marks, MP Naicker, Govan Mbeki, Joe Slovo and Rusty Bernstein were elected to the Central Committee at this conference and they immediately co-opted Nokwe, Shope, Harmel, Fischer, First, and Carneson.
The Programme was subsequently distributed by the Party as a pamphlet, and published in the African Communist early the following year (see here – PDF). When the police raided Lilieslief farm in Rivonia on 11 July 1963 – arresting Sisulu, Mbeki, Kathrada, Bernstein, Hepple, Raymond Mhlaba and Dennis Goldberg on the spot – they also seized numerous copies of the Programme in draft and final form.
The 1962 Programme, which was primarily drafted by Harmel, applied Lenin's Theory of Imperialism internally to South Africa through the thesis of Colonialism of a Special Type. In essence this said that the white minority in South Africa had acquired all its wealth, and advantages, through the brutal robbery and exploitation of the black majority over the previous 300 years.
While the Programme envisaged an eventual transition to socialism this was not seen as the priority in the present. It stated that "As its immediate and foremost task, the South African Communist Party works for a united front of national liberation. It strives to unite all sections and classes of oppressed and democratic people for a national democratic revolution to destroy White domination. The main content of this Revolution will be the national liberation of the African people."
The expectation of the SACP theoreticians was that the overthrow of white rule in South Africa was imminent. As Harmel had put in an African Communist article earlier in 1962 "the doom of the White colonialists of South Africa and the victory of the oppressed people of this country" was becoming ever-nearer and more certain. The Programme itself stated: "the vicious type of colonialism embodied in the present Republic of South Africa cannot long endure. Its downfall and the victory of the South African democratic revolution are certain in the near future."
Perhaps for this reason the Party was now willing to declare its real goals. It is as a result very clear from the Programme (in contrast to the more ambiguously phrased Freedom Charter) that this first revolution – which would both precede and make possible a later transition to socialism - involved not just the extension of political rights to the previously disenfranchised and the abolition of legislation that discriminated against the black majority, but a fundamental racial reordering of society.
The idea that white South Africans had acquired their wealth wrongly justified the seizure of their land, positions, and property, so that this could be returned to 'the people' from whom it had supposedly been taken. The "immediate tasks" of the National Democratic Revolution proposed by the Programme envisage the Africanisation of the state and private sector, the nationalisation of much of the economy, and the takeover of white-owned farmland.
The Programme also clearly planned for a fundamental assault on the institutions, principles and rights basic to Western liberal democracy, following the initial seizure of power. The existing state and governmental institutions would be 'destroyed', 'disloyal' officials would be purged from the state and judiciary, 'counterrevolutionary propaganda' would be forbidden, and the 'utmost vigilance' exercised against those trying to restore 'white colonialism'. It contains the striking statement that in order to preserve and extend the gains of this revolution a "vigorous and vigilant dictatorship must be maintained by the people against the former dominating and exploiting classes."
Much of the vicious political repression, so characteristic of communist seizures of power, is thus front-loaded into this initial national revolution. The difference here is that would have been directed not at the middle class as a whole (the 'national bourgeoisie' being a leading force of the revolution) but at the white minority who then made up most of that class.
The Road to South African Freedom is an incredibly powerful and brilliantly written manifesto less for socialism than revolutionary African nationalism. Though not quite complete at this point the conflation of race and class so characteristic of later ANC/SACP ideology – not to mention anti-colonial nationalism / Marxist-Leninism (including Chinese Communism) more generally - is evident throughout the document.
The oppressed classes are equated with the black African majority ('the people') and the 'exploiting classes' (more-or-less) with the white minority as a group. The commitment of the liberation movement to 'non-racialism' extended to those few whites who actively made common cause with the oppressed. Such 'white democrats' were regarded as being 'part and parcel of the people'; the great bulk of the white population, including liberal opponents of apartheid, were not.
In the many memoirs and accounts dealing with the Rivonia trial that have been written it is difficult to find any reference to the Road to South African Freedom and its adoption. Bob Hepple's book is one of the few exceptions, but even it elides what the Programme was actually proposing (as does Stephen Clingman in his biography of Bram Fischer).
This is odd for a number of reasons. Firstly, setting aside the question of Mandela's membership of the Party, this was the actual policy and programme of the organisation to which almost all of the accused belonged. Several of them had attended the conference at which the Programme had been formally adopted. The accused's lead counsel, Bram Fischer, had even drafted parts of it.
Secondly, the Programme represents not just the foundational document of SACP ideology but of later ANC ideology as well. The concepts of Colonialism of a Special Type and the National Democratic Revolution were incorporated in the ANC's own programme in its 1969 Strategy & Tactics. In 1989 the SACP commented that "The 1962 programme has made an indelible contribution to the scientific analysis of the situation in South Africa, and to practical revolutionary work for national liberation. It has proved to be a major guiding light over more than a quarter of a century of struggle, inspiring the work of party and non-party militants alike."
While the collapse of communism in 1989 pulled the rug from underneath any possible transition to socialism, ANC leaders remained wedded to the nationalist components of the Programme even as they may have left the SACP. Its enduring influence can be seen, for instance, in President Thabo Mbeki's famous "I am an African" (1996) and "Two Nations" (1998) speeches.
In terms of ideology and programme the liberation movement remained openly committed after 1994 to the analysis of South African history and society contained in 'Colonialism of a Special Type' and the goals of the National Democratic Revolution. This is reflected in the innumerable laws passed by successive ANC governments enforcing escalating levels of racial discrimination against South Africa's racial minorities, and particularly its white minority.
While these two documents contain extraordinarily powerful and eloquent denunciations of the injustices of white rule they represent two completely incompatible visions of what the accused as a whole were actually fighting for. For as long as Mandela and Sisulu's membership of the Party in the early 1960s remained unknown or disputed they could be regarded as representing different strands of opinion in the liberation movement - liberal African nationalist and Communist.
We now know, thanks to the research of Ellis and Filatova, that much the same Party leadership that drafted and adopted the Road to South African Freedom also collectively decided upon the defence strategy in the Rivonia Trial expressed in Mandela's Statement (and Sisulu's testimony).
If one picks up the thread beginning with the falsehood that he had never been a member of the Communist Party the plausibility of much of what Mandela then says about his political beliefs in his Statement also unravels. His expressed admiration for the institutions of Western democracy seems designed to mislead, in the context, and are inconsistent with his own court testimony in the Treason Trial in 1960 (let alone the Party's Programme).
His account of how he came to write his notes on "How to be a Good Communist" and "Dialectical Materialism" also come across as contrived, though no doubt the Party leaders did debate the best way of conveying Marxist-Leninist ideas in jargon free language.[2]
Though he was in prison by the time it was formally adopted the final version of the party's Programme does raise questions over the famous final paragraphs of Mandela's speech. It is obviously not possible to support both the imposition of a "vigorous and vigilant dictatorship" on a country and the ideal of a "free and democratic society". These are concepts which are simply irreconcilable.
While the Programme represented properly adopted SACP (and later ANC) policy – to which almost all the accused were committed as Party members - the Statement was clearly intended to designed to, on the one hand, appeal to and win over liberal Western public opinion to the ANC/SACP's cause and, on the other, draw attention away from the actual declared intentions of the accused.
It did this extraordinarily successfully. To this day it remains the framework through which Western opinion (mis)understands the ideology and beliefs of both Mandela and the ANC. The Statement thus arguably represents one of the greatest feats of political misdirection of the Twentieth Century.
This was brought home to me during a recent trip to Washington DC where I spoke to a number of people with an interest in South Africa.
One informed observer I spoke to, noted that the ANC tended to be understood in the US purely through Nelson Mandela, or more accurately, Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Mandela. The (liberal) Washington establishment had a very unrealistic view of South Africa (to the extent that it had one at all) and was unable to grasp basic concepts such as that the ANC viewed itself as a liberation movement. To bring up notions of the "National Democratic Revolution" and "Colonialism of the Special Type" in such circles was to invite blank and disbelieving stares.
There appeared to be some confusion in the Obama administration too over why the South African government kept on sticking them in the eye over matters such as AGOA and investment protections given the immense goodwill they felt towards the ANC.
For South Africa the legacy is somewhat different, though not unrelated. In the early to mid-1990s there was a huge lack of understanding in the media and civil society around the ANC's actual ideology and aims, and its capacity for rhetorical dishonesty. I remember my own sense of confusion in 1997 as a parliamentary researcher for the DP trying to reconcile the Western 'myth' of Mandela and the ANC with the racial nationalist agenda of the ruling party as it surfaced.
One result of this naiveté and lack of realism over what the ANC actually stood for was that there was far less suspicion around the liberation movement's bona fides when it came to liberal democracy and non-racialism than there should have been.
The Constitution that ended up being adopted between 1993 and 1996 was one designed to empower an ANC leadership (which regarded itself as a virtuous 'elect') to transform society, not to fetter it with meaningful restraints. The flaws in the original constitutional design –the weak checks and balances in the system, the lack of protections for racial minorities -- go a considerable distance to explain South Africa's current predicament.
This article is based upon a paper presented to a roundtable on the life and work of the late Stephen Ellis at the African Studies Association's annual conference, Washington DC on 13 December 2016.
Rusty Bernstein, Memory against Forgetting: Memoirs from a Life in South African Politics, 1938–1964 (New York: Viking, 1999)
Stephen Ellis External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960–1990, (Jonathan Ball: Johannesburg, 2012)
Irina Filatova and Apollon Davidson, The Hidden Thread: Russia and South Africa in the Soviet Era (Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2013)
Bob Hepple, Young Man with a Red Tie: A Memoir of Mandela and the Failed Revolution, 1960–1963 (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2013)
Ahmed Kathrada, Memoirs, (Cape Town: Struik, 2005)
Elinor Sisulu, Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime (Claremont: David Philip, 2002), 112; Nelson
Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (London: Abacus, 1995
Anthony Sampson, Mandela: The Authorised Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999)
David James Smith, Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years (New York: Little, Brown, 2010),
[1] Anthony Sampson, Nelson Mandela: The authorised biography, 1999. James Sanders, "How the CIA trapped Mandela", Sunday Times (London) 15 May 2016
[2] In his memoir Rusty Bernstein says he was the one who had lent Mandela the Chinese booklet called 'How to be a Good Communist' written by Liu Shao Chi.
Mandela and the Communist Party
The ANC and SACP: In search of a new legend
New light on Nelson Mandela's autobiography


These holsters from JM Custom Kydex are molded for the lightweight Glock 42. The one on the left features an anti-roll out extension.
I have come rather late to appendix carry. However, after an honest evaluation I find appendix carry is an alternative to strong side or crossdraw carry but primarily as a choice over inside the waistband behind the hip holster. Purpose-designed appendix draw holsters have become available and many are well designed. This has made appendix carry more popular.
Appendix carry isn't for everyone and every body type. But for some it is the ideal carry. The bellyband holster is also a viable alternative. The cheap formless belly band must be avoided. But the good quality belly band holster from Galco is actually service grade, which is something of an accomplishment. The appendix and belly band types offer a strong side carry but unlike behind the back carry they offer a draw from where the hands usually hang. The draw is natural.
As an observation the criminal element usually carries their handguns appendix style.
This JM Custom Kydex holster is fitted with an anti-roll out feature.
The handgun is stuffed in the belt to one side of the belt buckle. I have yet to see a criminal wearing a holster. Often small guns were carried in the pocket. Very few criminals are armed at all times. Most grab the pistol from under the car seat and stuff it into the belt before they commit a crime or assault. Typically the handgun is carried at a severe angle and it isn't unusual for a felon to drop the pistol on the floor before he can draw the piece from the belt. By keeping the handgun in this position the piece may be drawn easily and if discarded there is no holster to bear evidence the felon was armed. Occasionally there is a bizarre humor in the criminal that manages to shoot himself using appendix draw but this is also a warning for the rest of us.
A standard IWB holster such as the Galco Stow and Go is well suited to appendix carry. These are versatile holsters. Then there are purpose-designed holsters such as those offered by JM Custom Kydex that are designed to offer good function as an appendix holster. I have examined a dozen or more holsters.
This Galco IWB is light but well designed and works well for appendix carry.
I find the less rigid types with good molding and a sweat guard to protect the body from the sharp edges of the handgun work the best.
Appendix carry is a viable concept with certain advantages. There are also drawbacks. The strong side belt scabbard is the default holster that should be chosen when concealment allows.
When a thinner covering garment or a short garment that will not cover the hand holster is worn, the inside the waistband holster should be chosen.
Galco's first quality belly band holster is ideal for concealed carry.
A covering garment that covers a high riding belt holster is even more efficient with the IWB holster. Even so, the handle of the handgun may print against the garment when the wearer bends steeply.
Many holster and handgun combinations offer concealment in most circumstances but will not survive close scrutiny. The IWB offers the advantage of concealing a larger handgun compared to a belt holster that requires a longer drape from a covering garment to conceal the holster. The IWB is worn inside of the pants and the garment need only conceal the handle of the handgun. In some ways the appendix holster is an IWB worn in the front but in other ways it is very different. The IWB requires the pistol be tilted into the draw to allow a rapid presentation from concealed carry. The tilt is a forward rake. The appendix holster requires a rear rake, handle behind the muzzle to afford a fast draw. The standard IWB cannot be simply moved to the front right of the belt buckle.
Beginning the draw get the firing grip as you draw and be certain the trigger finger is outside the trigger guard.
This is similar to moving a strong side holster to the crossdraw position. It simply doesn't work out.
A drawback to appendix carry is that it isn't as well suited to longer handguns as the standard IWB.
Larger handguns may pinch the body when we bend just as a long handgun will pinch the seat when we sit using an IWB holster.
The Viper appendix holster offers excellent concealment.
These handguns are not comfortable to carry in the appendix position. The appendix position may also limit bending, so be aware of the restrictions. The Glock 19 9mm carried by many in an appendix draw seems well suited to the carry, so does a SIG P229. It depends on the individual's build and tolerance for weight. The higher the waist the better for appendix carry. Some wear a belly band type holster that isn't dependent on a belt. For female shooters especially this carry mode offers advantages in a kind of modified appendix. Some wear the trousers higher for comfort and this may make for speed in drawing the handgun. The appendix holster is best suited to handguns with relatively short barrels and hand filling grips. This allows a good grip and a very fast draw. A concern with appendix holsters is roll out. This occurs when the holster rolls away from the body near the handle. This depends on the design of the holster and the belt area spread of the user. The IWB holster nestles into a natural hollow in the back. The appendix holster may be forced away from the body by the mid-body spread. The JM Custom Kydex holster features a roll out feature. This device maintains the holster draw angle.
A pressing concern is the direction of the muzzle in appendix carry. No one wants an accidental discharge of any type but this muzzle direction is particularly concerning. A bullet wound to any part of the body is potentially crippling or fatal.
Note adjustments on Reign Tactical IWB.
Only a service type holster worn on the point of the hip keeps the muzzle from covering the body. Most concealed carry holsters cover the body with the muzzle at some point. The muzzle rake most profitable in appendix carry results in the muzzle pointing toward tender and important parts of the anatomy. In some cases the muzzle points down the leg and follows the line of the femoral artery.
When drawing a great deal of dry fire practice should go into the appendix carry. Trigger discipline must be observed. The finger is never in register until we fire, not when we think we will fire or may fire but when we fire. When deploying the appendix holster the drill I follow is to belt up the loaded gun and holster at the same time rather than belting on the holster and then the handgun. This simple regimen will serve well and works better than belting on the holster and then attempting to adjust the handgun. Appendix carry isn't inherently less safe than any other and has advantages. But it is justified to take special care with the appendix holster.


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Motorcycle Accident Attorneys in Syracuse
Motorcycle Accident Lawyers in Syracuse, New York
Bikers deserve special protection on the roadways. Car and motorcycle accidents in Syracuse involve incredibly complex issues. If you've been injured by another driver while operating a motorcycle in Syracuse, let our lawyers and industry experts investigate and build your case to maximize your recovery.
Motorcycle accidents can happen in the blink of an eye. Too often, the result is catastrophic injuries and permanent disabilities. Riders deserve to be protected by lawyers with experience and a proven track record.
Insurance companies will stop at nothing to blame the biker after a motorcycle collision. Their team of lawyers and investigators will immediately begin to build a case to blame you. We've seen it all, and make it our mission to protect our biker clients from insurance companies and their investigators. Our investigators and industry experts will scour the accident scene to gather all the critical evidence, including skid mark photographs and measurements, vehicle inspections, black box data, surveillance videos, and eye-witness statements. Our lawyers and experts have decades of experience protecting operators and passengers who have been injured in motorcycle accidents in Syracuse. Our multi-million-dollar victories for our clients is the result of our devotion to our client's interests, and the sophisticated investigative process we coordinate on our clients' behalf.
Our own family members and friends ride motorcycles. We understand the risks they face on the roads every day. Whether another driver is guilty of texting, intoxication, speeding, inattention, or violating other traffic laws, we will hold them accountable for the harm they've caused to you.
We have represented our biker clients in many types of accidents including:
Passenger Injuries
Speeding Drivers
Drunk Drivers
Texting Drivers
Hit-and-Run
If you've been injured in a motorcycle collision in Syracuse, or if you've lost a family member in a deadly crash in Syracuse, you may be entitled to compensation for damages including:
Past lost income
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Our track record of successfully representing our biker clients speaks for itself. Visit our recent results page to see a few examples of the recent results we've obtained for our clients. We stand up to insurance companies and will help you and your family protect your legal rights and get the full compensation you truly deserve.
For important guidelines and instructions on what you should do if you've been involved in a motorcycle accident in Syracuse, visit our FAQ page.
When you take to the streets on a motorcycle, defensive driving assumes an entirely new meaning. On top of being mindful of other drivers, you must constantly keep your eyes alert for additional dangers. More than 4,000 accidents involving motorcycles took place on New York roadways in 2014 (the most recent year for which the Department of Motor Vehicles provided data).
Motorcycles are 25% more vulnerable to accidents than other vehicles, and those on board are more than five times more likely to be killed in a crash. These figures remain the same regardless of driver skill and experience, or use of a helmet. If you or a loved one has become one of these statistics, you need and deserve to be represented by a skilled and sophisticated lawyer in Syracuse capable of defeating the insurance companies and their investigators who will stop at nothing to deny you the justice you deserve.
To most drivers on our roadways, "Look Twice – Save a Life" is nothing more than an empty slogan against a bright yellow background. At Porter Nordby Howe LLP, however, it's much more. Many of the people we hold nearest and dearest brave the streets of New York on motorcycles every day, so we understand the full meaning behind that nationwide campaign.
"I just didn't see him" has become the go-to excuse of negligent drivers who cause motorcycle crashes. There is a certain degree of truth in this claim. Smaller vehicles can be more difficult to see than larger ones, especially in cases where road signs, bushes and other obstacles obscure a driver's view. Still, this excuse doesn't hold up in court for any other type of vehicle, and it shouldn't in cases where motorcycles are involved.
While visual obstacles typically have a minimal effect on cars, trucks and SUVs, they can have a considerable impact on motorcycles. Design and manufacturing defects also become more of a factor when accidents involve motorcycles. We handle cases involving all of these complex issues and many others.
Countless drivers of conventional vehicles try to place blame for accidents on bikers, but studies across the nation as well as around the world have determined that motorcycles are at fault in far fewer cases than the public is made to believe.
When they ride, bikers are continually aware of the fact that their lives, and those of their passengers, are largely in their own hands. Despite the greatest level of caution, you cannot control the actions of other drivers.
At Porter Nordby Howe LLP, our team has extensive experience representing motorcycle accident victims. We firmly believe in defending their rights. We've built a solid reputation recovering damages on behalf of our clients. Our motorcycle accident lawyers in Syracuse have the knowledge, resources and resolve to stand up to those at fault and their insurance companies to get our clients the compensation they deserve. We urge you to contact us and tell us your story. Consultations are free, and we offer our services on a contingency-fee basis.
If you or a family member has been involved in a motorcycle accident in Syracuse, call Porter Nordby Howe LLP at 888-477-7731 or email us at info@pnhlawyers.com.
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We recently recovered $2.5 million for our client who was injured when a car pulled out in front of the motorcycle he was operating. The insurance company tried to blame our client, but we beat the company at its own game.
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