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Road closures announced to run Sunday's triathlon
The city of Naperville has announced street closures and parking restrictions that will be in effect throughout the U.S. Women's Triathlon taking place beginning at 7 a.m. Sunday.
The triathlon starts and ends at Centennial Beach near downtown Naperville, with the event consisting of a .75-kilometer swim, 20-kilometer bike ride and 5-kilometer run. The course was redesigned this year due to the closure of the Jefferson Avenue Bridge.
A color-coded map of the race route, times and locations of street closures, parking restrictions and tow-away zones is available at www.naperville.il.us/walkrun.aspx. The map requires Adobe Acrobat reader to view.
The triathlon route streets will be closed beginning at approximately 6 a.m. and remain closed until approximately 11:30 a.m. Access to all businesses in Hobson West Commons and Old Kent Plaza located at the northeast corner of Rickert Drive and 75th Street is from Millbrook Drive and 75th Street during the U.S. Women's Triathlon. Roads will be opened as soon as the event participants clear the roadways.
The race route only will be a no parking, tow zone from 5 a.m. to noon on that day and notice will be posted. accordingly. The streets of the race route will be reopened to traffic and the no parking, tow zone signs removed as soon as the Naperville Police Department determines it is appropriate based on public safety.
Motorists should expect delays through the morning hours in and around the race area and take alternate routes or allow extra time to get to their destination, police said.
The U.S. Women's Triathlon is an annual event that benefits the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. For more information on the event, visit www.uswts.com.
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/2407624,2_1_AU20_METRA_S1-100620.article
Schedule changes for Metra Aurora line next month
By JOSH LARSEN jlarsen@stmedianetwork.com
Metra's schedule changes to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line between Aurora and Chicago aren't major, but they will be around for a while.
Due to a long-term construction project in Downers Grove, arrival and departure times for nearly two dozen trains going through the Aurora and Route 59 stations will be altered beginning July 12 and remain in effect through the early part of 2013.
"The largest one is seven minutes," Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said of the schedule changes.
A full detailing of the new schedule is available at bit.ly/metrasked . A summary can be found at bit.ly/metrasummary . According to Gillis, the Downers Grove project involves lowering Belmont Road under the BNSF tracks to allow motor vehicle traffic flow without interruption by trains.
"That's a major north-south artery, and there are a lot of traffic tie-ups," Gillis said.
The construction will require the BNSF line to be reduced from three tracks to two tracks near the Belmont Station.
The train schedule must be adjusted because some express trains will no longer be able to pass local trains in the area, since the third (passing) track will be unavailable.
Last Edit: Jun 21, 2010 4:36:06 GMT -5 by title1parent
Traffic Alert II Jul 6, 2010 6:40:11 GMT -5
Post by title1parent on Jul 6, 2010 6:40:11 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2467250,6_1_NA06_REDLIGHT_S1-100706.article
Red-light study: Crashes are down
July 6, 2010 Sun
New data is out on Naperville's red-light cameras, and crashes are down.
Violations, however, have not seen the same decrease. Naperville's automated red-light photo enforcement program was on track to issue 20,000 tickets by last sometime last month.
A report released by Naperville's police and transportation departments shows crashes are down between 10 and 31 percent at Route 59 and North Aurora Road, Route 59 and Diehl Road, and Ogden and Aurora Avenues since the cameras were installed at the three intersections.
But drivers, it seems, are still just as likely to run the lights, depending on how you run the numbers.
According to the report, which compared the four months from February to May of 2009 and 2010, "total violations have decreased 9.0 percent."
But a look at all intersections combined for the whole time since the cameras were installed shows the average number of tickets written is staying about the same.
A similar report released in February showed the city was issuing about 46 tickets per day. The most recent report shows almost 49 tickets each day on average.
The number of accidents involving injuries has decreased only slightly over the past three-year average. Over the past two-year average, it has stayed about the same, with 10.5 accidents involving injuries on average in the two years prior to the cameras and the same average, 10.5, since the cameras were turned on.
Turning right on red is the number one way to fetch a $100 fine. At intersections where right turns on red are prohibited, tickets for making the illegal maneuver are double those issued for left turn and straight through violations.
For the city, the steady ticketing may be good news. During the first phase of the red-light camera program, staff and council members overestimated the number of tickets that might be issued and figured $2.7 million in revenues into this year's budget. That figure had to be adjusted down to $1 million just prior to the budget's passing.
So far in 2010, the city has already cited more than $780,000 in tickets in the first five months of the year.
But for frustrated motorists, there may be tiny rays of hope yet.
After all, you can always appeal.
Since the program's inception, 628 drivers have. Of those, 27 violations were overturned, or about 3.4 percent, or 0.1 percent of all tickets written.
If those don't seem like good odds, drivers have one more option: complain to the council.
The Naperville City Council will be considering enforcement of right turn on red violations at its next meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 20, in the council chambers of the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St.
___________________--
There is a graphic on there to show comparisons at the various locations. If you go to the link, you can click on it.
Last Edit: Jul 6, 2010 6:42:26 GMT -5 by title1parent
Post by asmodeus on Jul 6, 2010 7:53:02 GMT -5
I don't see anything in the article that shows where the 10% and 31% crash reductions come from. The only crash numbers mentioned (10.5 average over two years) show that the accident rates have not changed, and furthermore, it is such a small number that any change would show huge percentages.
Last Edit: Jul 6, 2010 7:53:38 GMT -5 by asmodeus
Traffic Alert II Jul 9, 2010 22:03:15 GMT -5
Post by title1parent on Jul 9, 2010 22:03:15 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2482774,Red-light-cameras-Illinois-NA071010.article
State law cracks down on red light cameras
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A new Illinois law adds the human touch to traffic tickets generated by automated "red light" cameras.
The law requires an official to verify the violation before any citation is issued. Drivers also will be allowed to view the evidence online, and they can't be charged an extra fee for contesting the ticket.
The law gives drivers a little more leeway to stop beyond the white line at a red light, so long as they don't enter the intersection. Previously, even pulling past the line by a few feet could trigger a ticket.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed the measure into law Friday. It takes effect Jan. 1.
Last Edit: Jul 9, 2010 22:03:34 GMT -5 by title1parent
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2502364,6_1_NA16_ROUTE59_S1-100716.article
New interchange design for Route 59 at I-88?
City, IDOT consider options to relieve traffic congestion
By KATHY MILLEN kmillen@stmedianetwork.com
The city of Naperville and the Illinois Department of Transportation are looking at the feasibility of constructing a relatively new road design at the Route 59 interchange at Interstate 88.
The city and IDOT unveiled a display of the "diverging diamond interchange" configuration Wednesday night at the Naperville Municipal Center as part of a public open house on overall plans for the Route 59 expansion project.
Proponents of the "diverging diamond" design say it will ease traffic congestion, increase safety and be less costly than other similar interchanges.
While already in use in cities in Europe and Mexico, the only cities in the United States where the diverging diamond is in place are St. Louis and Springfield, Mo. It is designed to move traffic to the opposite side of the road at a traffic signal and allow vehicles to move left onto the I-88 ramp without stopping, said Jennifer Mitchell, senior transportation engineer for HDR, a Chicago-based traffic consulting firm.
Vehicles accessing the I-88 ramp from the right will pass through without stopping before the traffic crosses over to the left. Vehicles leaving I-88 will be able to flow left or right onto Route 59 without stopping.
"You aren't really turning," Mitchell said. "You're just transitioning, following the visual clues of where to go. There will be a noticeable difference in terms of time spent there and the number of cars."
The potential safety benefits of the diverging diamond include slower intersection speeds of 25 to 30 mph, better sight distance for turning movements, the elimination of wrong way entry to ramps and more.
Potential operational benefits include higher overall capacity and the need for only a two-phase signal, resulting in a shorter cycle length. The design also gives trucks more room to maneuver.
John Baczek, project and environmental studies section chief with the Illinois Department of Transportation, said IDOT is still studying the diverging diamond configuration. While it shows promise in reducing congestion and improving safety, the concept needs further study, he said.
"While these are all things it can potentially do, we still have to make sure we go through the analysis and learn as much as we can about it and ensure that this design does make sense to implement in this location," he said.
Naperville city engineer Bill Novack said most people he's talked to have been impressed by the diverging diamond.
"Everyone here today is intrigued about it," he said. "I haven't heard anyone say 'don't do it.' It's a neat concept, one that's been going on in Missouri for a year and it's worked very well."
Wednesday's was the second Route 59 expansion project open house held by the city and IDOT. Several revisions were made since the first open house in September including:
• Changing the eastbound on ramp from Route 59 to I-88 from one lane to two lanes.
• Providing four lanes along northbound/southbound Route 59 between Diehl Road and the I-88 eastbound ramps.
• Right of way and easement revisions at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
• Introduction of the diverging diamond interchange.
The Route 59 expansion has been under study for the last seven years. The plan addresses improvements to the three-mile stretch of Route 59 through Naperville and Aurora extending south of the I-88 interchange to Aurora Avenue. According to city of Naperville and IDOT reports, more than 50,000 vehicles travel this portion of Route 59 each day. As a result, the roadway is heavily congested for 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Delays approach 30 minutes during the worst periods.
Additionally, almost 400 traffic accidents occur on this stretch of road each year, resulting in some 150 injuries.
Planned improvements include widening the roadway to three lanes in each direction, improving intersections to provide additional turn and through lanes, modifying access to destinations along Route 59, improving access to I-88, enhancing pedestrian access along Route 59 and improving traffic signal coordination.
City and IDOT studies indicate traffic delays at major intersections would be reduced from 30 to 60 percent with these improvements.
The study report is being finalized for review and approval by IDOT and the Federal Highway Administration. Once approved, IDOT will begin the next phase of the expansion project, which includes land acquisition and preparation of the construction documents.
Many of those at Wednesday's open house live along Route 59. Nancy Evans said she was concerned how the road widening would affect her property. Miriam Ferguson said she was confused by the diverging diamond proposal.
"I can't get it in my head how this is going to work," she said. "Anyone who's not been on it and is not used to it, there will be a lot of problems with it at first."
John Minehart said he was impressed with the expansion plan and fascinated by the diverging diamond interchange.
"I think this is going to be great," he said. "I must admit, during the construction, it's going to be a pain. It looks like if they do this diverging diamond thing, I think there will be greater traffic flow. I think the flow is going to be much better and people aren't going to have to be sitting a lights waiting to turn left like they do now."
Phase I design approval for the expansion project is anticipated this summer. Phase II, which includes contract plan preparation and land acquisition, is expected to take place 18 to 24 months after that.
The construction project is included in IDOT's Fiscal Year 2011 to 2016 Proposed Highway Improvement Program pending fund availability and plan readiness. Estimated cost of construction, not including land acquisition, is $83 million.
Post by asmodeus on Jul 16, 2010 8:21:48 GMT -5
As long as they don't add a toll...
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2507186,6_1_NA18_REDLIGHTS_S1-100718.article
Red-light cameras back in spotlight
Revenue from the city's three red-light cameras could drop significantly depending on the decisions to be made Tuesday by the Naperville City Council.
The council will be receiving a report from the Naperville Police Department and deciding whether to continue to enforce right turn on red violations ticketed through the city's Automated Red Light Photo Enforcement program.
Right turn on red violations, whether the vehicles fail to stop before the white line or a No Right on Red sign is posted, account for a large portion of tickets issued by the camera program. According to a memo from the city's Transportation, Engineering and Development department, if the city were to stop ticketing for illegal right turns, revenue for the camera program would drop by $600,000 this year.
That's more than half of the $1 million the city has budgeted for fiscal year 2011.
Since the program's inception in January 2009, the city has added up more than $1.8 million in revenue, about $1.3 million of which has already been collected.
Most nearby cities, including Aurora, Geneva, Lombard and Carol Stream, enforce right turn on red rules to some degree. The only nearby village that does not enforce right turn on red rules at all is Plainfield.
According to the agenda item, "The Police Department has used the same discretion as an officer would use in the field to enforce the violation," however, during red-light ticket hearings held July 10 at the Municipal Center, drivers complained the city's adjudicator would not rule in the drivers' favor because, in many cases, the driver stopped outside of the view of the camera.
City staff are recommending the council to continue enforcing right turn on red laws at the taped intersections, citing law and safety concerns. But, according to the agenda item, should the council stop ticketing right turn on red violations, staff recommends the cameras at Ogden and Aurora Avenue disappear, despite decreased crashes.
"Although the installation had decreased total, angle and rear-end collisions, the cost of the contract with RedFlex will exceed the revenues generated when removing right turn on red violations," reads the agenda item.
And that's the question surrounding the program: is it about safety or the money? Accidents at each of the three intersections monitored by the cameras, which also include Route 59 and North Aurora and Route 59 and Diehl Road, have dropped slightly.
Tickets, however, continue to be issued at the same rate.
The City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers of the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St.
www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=395055&src=
Cook County tries to bully suburbs
Daily Herald Editorial 7/20/2010
If you had any remaining delusions that the controlling faction of the Cook County Board of Commissioners actually represents the county's suburbanites, you should drop them now.
In the latest outrage, board President Todd Stroger and his supporters threaten to abdicate maintenance of some suburban road intersections if the towns won't let the county put red-light cameras there (and collect all the ticket money from mostly suburban drivers.)
In typical Stroger fashion, his administration did not talk to suburban officials before the county board voted to cash in on the red-light camera craze by sticking the towns with the devices at a number of intersections that include at least one county-owned road.
Later pressured to let towns say no to the cameras, Stroger and his allies apparently were caught by surprise when nearly every Northwest Cook County town proceeded to opt out.
Now, Stroger has obtained a legal opinion from the Cook County state's attorney's office saying towns that reject the county-operated red-light cameras are claiming jurisdiction over the intersections in question and now become liable for maintenance, including repaving, traffic lights, snow plowing, signage and cleanup.
That's expensive - potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for Schaumburg alone, which has taken down its own red-light cameras and decidedly does not want to host a half-dozen for the county.
The county's strong-arm maneuver will cost suburban residents any way you look at it - in legal fees, in higher road maintenance costs or in $50 tickets for slow-rolling right turns on red.
At least Stroger's money grubbing settles one thing: The county's interest in red-light cameras has little to do with public safety and a lot to do with generating cash.
It goes without saying that the suburbs need to band together to challenge the county's position rather than give in to Stroger's bullying. Stroger spokeswoman Chris Geovanis hints the legal opinion just might leave room for negotiating.
But suburban residents don't want the county's red-light cameras or the new road-maintenance nightmare, and towns should not settle for a compromise that includes either of those intrusions.
County commissioners from the suburbs - all of them up for re-election in November - need to join forces across party lines to fend off Stroger's latest attack.
Let's hope that once Stroger's gone after the fall election, the county board will come to realize that threats are not the way to improve its dysfunctional relationship with the suburbs.
www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=395377&src=76
Naperville says no red light camera tickets for right turns
By Melissa Jenco | Daily Herald 7/21/2010
Naperville has put the brakes on using red-light cameras to catch right-on-red violators.
Councilmen on Tuesday said they are not convinced there is enough of a safety issue with motorists turning right to justify using cameras.
"It's a sense of justice, it's a sense of why am I being hauled into court, why is government descending on me when I should be left alone right now," Councilman Bob Fieseler said.
Naperville operates cameras at three intersections - Route 59 and North Aurora Road, Route 59 and Diehl Road, and Ogden and Aurora avenues. Those caught violating driving laws are fined $100.
City staff members made a case Tuesday for keeping right-on-red violations. Marcie Schatz, director of transportation, engineering and development, said officers review all violations and the city does not issue tickets to people turning right on red if they make a complete stop, even if they do so beyond the stop line. The cameras also are not triggered if drivers approach the intersection at 17 miles per hour or less.
Schatz said the goals of the cameras are to reduce crashes and red-light violations, and those "are substantially being met."
"It's time we all fess up to the fact our driving habits as a society, and Naperville is no different, have degenerated," Councilman Jim Boyajian said. "This is tool police officers have at their disposal to carry out the sworn duty we've given them, and that is to uphold law."
But the majority of councilmen said they did not see statistics proving there is a significant number of crashes caused by people turning right on red.
Councilman Doug Krause argued the citations are "about revenue, not safety."
Councilmen voted 6-3 to stop using cameras for right-on-red violations. Councilmen Judy Brodhead, Fieseler, Krause, Richard Furstenau, Grant Wehrli and Paul Hinterlong voted to get rid of the citations while Mayor George Pradel, Kenn Miller and Boyajian voted to keep them.
The city still will use the cameras to enforce the violations on eastbound North Aurora Road at Route 59 where turning right on red is illegal.
Eliminating right-on-red enforcement, excluding this intersection, is estimated to reduce annual revenues by about $600,000.
Red: Council defies city recommendations
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2525522,6_5_NA23_PULSE_S1-100723.article
Don't get caught red-handed
Sun 7/23/10
Slow down, and you just might get away with it. Running a red light, that is.
As it turns out, the red-light cameras mounted at three Naperville intersections must be "tripped" by a vehicle traveling at least 18 mph at Route 59 and Diehl Road, and Route 59 and North Aurora Road, to begin capturing images. At Ogden and Aurora avenues, the threshold is 12 mph.
"We're not talking about vehicles that are rolling through intersections at 2, 3, 5, 8 miles an hour," said Marcie Schatz, of the city's Transportation, Engineering and Development department, during her explanation of speed thresholds that guide each intersection.
"A person driving through at 17 miles per hour isn't even going to trigger the system," Schatz said.
Book Road to close in Naperville
Daily Herald 7/26/2010
Book Road will be closed to all traffic between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Wednesday from 83rd Street to 87th Street.
The closure will allow for the paving of both sides of the road.
Detour signs will be posted for northbound and southbound traffic.
Northbound motorists will be detoured west on 87th Street to northbound Route 59 to 83rd Street.
Southbound motorists will be detoured west on 83rd Street to southbound Route 59 to 87th Street.
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/2545304,2_1_AU29_REDLIGHT_S1-100729.article
Most who fight red-light camera tickets lose
July 29, 2010 Beacon
Temple Wells drives through the intersection of Route 59 and North Aurora Road on her way to work each morning, just as she has for years.
So when the Aurora woman received an automated ticket from the city of Naperville for running a right turn on a red light at the camera-monitored intersection, Wells was shocked.
Wells was one of about 50 drivers waiting to make her case in an administrative hearing this month on automated red-light tickets. The administrative hearing at the Naperville Municipal Center is the first step to fighting tickets that drivers believe were issued unfairly.
"He said the light is red. I said it's yellow, plain as day," Wells said of the hearing process. During the hearing, Wells was invited to watch the video captured of her car and make her case.
It's a difficult case to fight, too. The lawyer adjudicating the hearing, Victor Puscas, said only three or four of the 74 people expected to show had their decisions reversed at the hearing.
In Aurora, the trend is similar. City spokesman Dan Ferrelli said only 195 of the city's 6,091 red-light tickets issued through Monday have been called for appeal. And, Ferrelli said, that doesn't mean they all show up.
"Some have requested a hearing and then changed their minds and went ahead and paid the violation," he said. "Others were no-shows."
Only two tickets issued were actually reversed, he said. The other violators were advised to pay up or appeal at a later date.
According to Aurora police, since cameras were installed in October 2009 at the first of the city's three intersections -- New York Street and Farnsworth Avenue, New York Street and Commons Drive, and Farnsworth Avenue and Molitor Road -- they've helped reduce crashes by 43 percent. East New York Street and Eola Road is the city's latest intersection to receive the camera upgrades.
Safety or revenue?
The Automated Red Light Photo Enforcement Program has been contentious since its inception in Naperville in early 2009, with the Naperville City Council split over whether the cameras are an effort at safety or filling coffers. That's, in part, because Naperville's traffic cameras have issued roughly 20,000 tickets since the start of the program last year, each costing drivers $100.
The cameras have been shown to reduce, slightly, some kinds of crashes at the intersections, but are also budgeted to make about $1 million for the city this fiscal year.
And the council recently tangled with the cameras again, this time deciding to no longer enforce violations for right turns made on red lights, unless No Right on Red is posted.
Drivers caught by the cameras seem similarly torn.
"If that's how they have to get their revenue, that's sad," said Naperville resident Leslee Reed, who lost her hearing for a right turn on red at Route 59 and Diehl Road. "I just don't think it's appropriate."
"Actually, I think they're a good idea," said Ken Hillblom, who had driven from his home in Mokena to fight his ticket. "But I think it depends on the intersection."
Hillblom lost his hearing on a right turn on red infraction. He says he stopped at the intersection of Route 59 and Diehl, but just outside the camera's view. Because the adjudicator couldn't see Hillblom's wheels stop, he said, he was fined.
"I made my stop, but it was outside the camera's view," Hillblom said.
Fighting city hall
In Aurora, Ferrelli said tickets are not issued for any violations caught on camera unless the officer reviewing the recording would have written the ticket had they witnessed the infraction in person.
The scope of the cameras was just one of the myriad complaints drivers had of the system and its enforcement. Chief among the complaints were the seemingly subjective nature of the hearings, which are adjudicated by a city-paid attorney and the Naperville Police Department's traffic sergeant, both on the city's payroll.
In Aurora, hearings are run by a hearing officer and a traffic division police officer. Both are on the city's payroll.
But fighting city hall should soon get a little easier. Gov. Pat Quinn signed a new law this month, effective Jan. 1, giving drivers more wiggle room to stop past the white line of an intersection.
That could have a significant effect on the number of tickets that stick to people driving through Naperville, as the majority of tickets were issued for right-on-red violations. Since the program started, only 27 of the more than 18,000 tickets issued through May had been reversed, or about 0.15 percent.
Most drivers interviewed said they planned to appeal. Among them was Wells.
"You've got to be fair to the taxpayers," Wells said.
Staff writer Erika Wurst contributed to this report.
I am pleased that a human being actually reviews a video before confirming the infraction. I was under the impression the whole process is automated.
Traffic Alert II Jul 29, 2010 10:08:52 GMT -5
Post by gatordog on Jul 29, 2010 10:08:52 GMT -5
Jul 29, 2010 7:56:25 GMT -5 asmodeus said:
I wonder how often the human overturns what the automated system flags as a violation? I am sure that is a closely-guarded company secret.


HATTIESBURG, Miss. (November 22, 2016)- Forrest General's Marketing and Communications Department was honored with several awards at the Mississippi Hospital Association's 29th Annual Maggie Awards ceremony, including Best In Show Electronic Media. The awards were given at the annual banquet held November 3 in Madison, Mississippi. This annual event is designed to recognize excellence in marketing and public relations efforts of hospitals across the state of Mississippi.
CAPTION: Pictured, from left: Breanne Gaubert, Spirit Girl and Sweetea coordinator, Nathan Martin, graphic designer, Michael Marks, public relations coordinator, Amanda Kirby, media coordinator, Marlene Harris, community health coordinator, Michelle Leslie, Marketing and Communications director, Shelby York, internal communications specialist, Chloe Rouse, photographer, Hayley Bush, web and social media specialist, Matt Bush, web and social media coordinator, and Kathy Emmons Walker, Spirit of Women coordinator.


The instructions below are for educational purposes only. Please seek the consent of the person before using his/her number. We will not be held responsible for any damage/inconvenience/problems caused.
The process is quiet simple. Just follow the steps and you're good to go. We have included a video at the end of the tutorial to make things easier. Download link for the app has also been included at the end of the post.
Before we start, let's consider some scenario that may require this method. Most people like spy on their WhatsApp contacts for whatever reasons they may have. I guess that's the only reason I can give for now….
3. Now run the app. Then select one of your Google accounts to continue.
4. It will ask for the contact number you want to spy on. You have the option to choose from your contact list, or you can enter number manually.
5. Now you're done. Anytime that contact opens his/her WhatsApp, you'll get a notifications that they are online, and the icon will turn green like in the photo below.
You can go to the settings tab and change the number to a different contact by tapping the DELETE INFO option.
Pretty simple huh? Enjoy and share with friends as well.


Did you know that one third of the food produced in the world goes to waste? Well, it does. And don't just take our word for it, this shocking statistic comes from none other than the United Nations who recently commissioned a study into food waste.
Provoked by this damning report – no prizes for guessing it's the industrialised northern nations that contribute most to this surplus food mountain – Austrian artist Klaus Pichler was motivated to make a provocative statement.
Taking an array of everyday foods – from strawberries and eggs to milk and chicken – Pichler arranged the rotten foodstuffs, accompanied by a variety of mould, fur, weevils and what can only be described as fungal matter, into something artistic.
Granted some of the expired food look like relics from Miss Havisham's dining room, but there's an alluring aesthetical grace to the shots. We're just pleased the pictures aren't scratch and sniff. Can you imagine the hum?
For more details about Pichler's stimulating One Third project head here.


- Sri Lanka has signed the United Nations Convention of 1988 against the Illicit Traffic of Narcotic drugs and Psychotropic substances and with a view to executing the responsibility bounded by international obligations, the Convention against Illicit Traffic of Narcotic drugs and Psychotropic substances Act, No.1 of 2008 has been enacted.
However, prevention of illicit trafficking and use of these substances has become a serious challenge locally and as well as internationally.
As such, the proposal made by Hon. Ranjith Madduma Bandara, the Minister of Public Administration & Management and Law & Order, to amend the Convention against Illicit Traffic of Narcotic drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, No.1 of 2008, by establishing a code of laws, which enables to face the situation squarely, locally and internationally, was approved by the Cabinet.


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Home > Libraries > Chinatown > Library History
Chinatown Library History
Chinatown Branch Library, built in 1921 by architect G. Albert Lansburgh is a Carnegie library originally named the North Beach Branch. It is the third branch in the system. Located in Chinatown, on Powell Street between Washington and Jackson, the name was changed in 1958 to more accurately reflect the community served. In 1972, the Chinese language, and the Chinese American Interest collections were started in response to the needs and interests of the Chinatown community. In 1991, public and private funds were obtained for a major renovation and expansion of the Chinatown Branch Library. The branch was seismically retrofitted and expanded to twice its original size with a community meeting room and story-room available to use for programs and special events. After renovation the branch reopened on June 15, 1996. Chinatown Branch Library was renamed Chinatown/Him Mark Lai Branch Library on November 4, 2010.
Chinatown Branch Library before the renovation
Chinatown Branch Library before renovation
Check out Historical Photographs of Chinatown Library from SFPL's Historical Photograph Database.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Ethical Gift Guides
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How Artisan Made Homeware Empowers Craft Communities
We wanted to know more about the people who make the products at Jewelled Buddha. In this blog, Harjit, one of our EBD members and our Ethical Fashion Blogger who founded Jewelled Buddha, shares her experiences from her trip to India to meet the people who make the artisan crafts she sells.
EmpowerING Craft Communities In Rajasthan
Want to know who makes our stunning collection of handwoven homeware? Like you, it's incredibly important to me to know that the artisans who make our products are paid fairly and empowered to live a life that's economically progressive. Which is why I found myself in The Great Thar Desert – a vast, arid and inhospitable expanse of land in Rajasthan, India. Just like the unpredictable desert winds that blow in this region, I landed at Jodhpur airport unsure of what to expect. I had come to find out how our artisan made homeware empowers craft communities in Rajasthan and meet the NGO that runs it.
I wanted to see for myself just how much of an impact selling these throws and cushions was making to the lives of the artisans. I wanted to know how they were treated, who the weavers were and learn more about the age-old craft of pitloom weaving.
Above the heads of a bustling crowd outside the airport, I spotted a pair of arms holding up a signboard. I was relieved someone had shown up. Communication had been worryingly sparse, informal and in another language! I'd literally ended up here on trust and instinct alone. But little did I know that this was to become one of my most memorable work trips!
Weavers in a workshop
As I met Rewata from the NGO and the driver, we joked about how great it was to finally meet and how relieved I was that he'd actually shown up! We travelled about 5 hours outside of Jodhpur. Dusty towns gave way to semi-arid desert scenes, remote villages and cars turned into camels and carts carrying goods and people. Men in colourful turbans and women with faces covered by colourful dupattas (shawls,) dotted the landscape. This was a different side to modern India I'd just travelled from. Here I could tell life was more unpredictable.
We arrived at the NGO headquarters. A block of sand coloured buildings that housed an office, workshops, and accommodation for the weavers. I spent three amazing days at the NGO, getting to know the family-run business, meeting all the weavers as well as the village communities who loom our handcrafted throws and cushion covers.
Weavers at work on the pit looms
Started in 1991, the NGO was formed by master weaver Rewata, in response to social, economic and environmental issues. Over many years, frequent droughts had stopped all farming and over centuries the rural poor lost their land to the upper classes. As a result, weaving became the only means of creating a livelihood. With class and social inequality to contend with, generations of oppression left these weavers socially and economically weak. To make things worse, the extreme heat of the Thar Desert, frequent malaria outbreaks, high unemployment, and an underfunded health and education system meant many perished and future generations remained poor. Modernisation also meant the youth left for the big cities in the hope of a better life, leaving the traditions of weaving to the older generations. Craft and heritage were dying out.
Weaver on a loom
In response to all the challenges faced by these communities, Rewata set up the NGO to create an income-generating programme to enable weavers to produce vibrant handmade textiles for a global market. Through this they could earn a sustainable and dignified livelihood. Today the NGO have spread to 12 villages in Rajasthan and support more than 170 weavers of which 20 are women – not an easy feat considering it's such a male dominated society.
Through their work they support the most marginalised of communities – Untouchables and women. Empowering women is a big part of their mission and make up 10% of their weaver communities. In fact, this tiny NGO successfully challenged the centuries' old tradition that forbade women from weaving, empowering them to earn a wage, gain social status and independence. They reach out to the wider village communities by running educational programmes that empower communities around sensitive issues such as child marriage and female infanticide.
Spinning yarn for throws
What I loved about the NGO was that it was a family run business, owned by the weavers with the wellbeing of the weavers at the heart of the business. Profits are shared amongst everyone and every employee receives an annual bonus, life insurance, interest-free loans, and a savings support scheme. With the help of support groups and sponsors, the NGO enables the youth to study abroad, run dozens of schools and are at the forefront of relief during natural disasters.
Over three days, I met the various artisans that produced everything from traditional hand-loomed clothing to bags and textiles. I got to know the amazing team who worked behind the scenes and I was taken through every stage of the weaving process from spinning, weaving to dying.
Anju Ram weaving our cotton throws on a traditional pit loom
In a nearby village, I met a couple of pit loom weavers who made our home textiles. A husband and wife called Anju Ram and Nijra who weaved from their home. Having seen a pit loom before, I was greeted by Anju Ram who never once stopped weaving throughout our conversation. He sat on the floor, with his feet in a pit and weaved with deft and skilled accuracy on a loom hung from the ceiling. The yarn extended, forking out like a snakes tongue – it was fascinating to watch and the speed at which he weaved was mesmerising. This was 35 years of tradition passed down from father to son.
Nijra spinning yarn using a traditional Charkha
Nijra his wife sat in the courtyard, quietly spinning, whilst her children and extended family carried out their daily lives. I sat with her and she told me stories of how her hardships were changed by working with the NGO. How she now had a paka (proper) house and how she was able to support her family. I've met artisans before who work for cooperatives and social enterprises, but the respect shown here for the NGO was so apparent. Probably because the impact was the greatest due to the extreme environment. Everywhere I went, people would ask me what I was doing there. I'd tell them I was here with the NGO and instantly, they'd have a smile of gratitude on their face. "They care" they'd say. "They do good work".
Meeting the artisans who painstakingly craft our homeware had been a privilege. I didn't want to sit on the sidelines and tell a story I'd not had the privilege to be part of. Travelling all the way to Rajasthan, enabled me to experience first hand, how enormous challenges can be turned into opportunities that benefit the most vulnerable. It's provided an insight into how the customer can be pivotal in the process of making a difference to the lives of marginalised artisans so far away.
Crafts are constantly at risk of dying out, as the fine line of poverty and inequality can make or break generations of heritage. But knowing that every time a consumer purchases a throw, enables an artisan to have a dignified life, preserve age-old craft traditions and reduce poverty makes it all worthwhile. After all, if consumers stop buying, demand slows down and artisans don't earn a wage. In this harsh climate of desert life, the fine line between living and poverty is fragile and easily upset. Now when I think of my homeware collection, I know who made them – it was Anju Ram and Nijra.
Some of the women now empowered to work the loom
Telling stories of artisans and being transparent is something I value. Transparency allows consumers to be empowered by choice, so they can make informed decisions about what they purchase. By sharing your values with a like-minded, informed community, consumers can see that by voting with their wallets, they've made a difference by impacting the lives of artisans in a positive way. If we're raising awareness and changing behaviours around fast fashion, we need to communicate the impact of ethical fashion in a way where people can feel they're playing a part in changing the fashion industry. They can literally be the change.
On the final night as I sat on the terrace with the wind blowing through the desert, I reflected on my time with the weavers. It had been an inspirational three days of connecting with people who had challenges I didn't even have to consider. Over endless cups of hot sweet chai and homemade lunches of curried desert vegetables, I'd experienced such warm hospitality, was welcomed into homes and even met extended families! Not the usual business trip I'd envisaged.
One night the wind felt different. It whipped up the sand around my ankles and occasionally as a truck passed on the highway nearby, it caused a tiny tornado of sand and dust to spiral up to the sky. It wasn't unpleasant, in fact, it felt surreal and reminded me of the stories of legends, famines, and disasters that Rewata had told me about. As the wind blew, I remembered the name of my homeware collection – The Desert Winds Collection.
It made me smile.
Harjit Sohotey-Khan
Harjit is the founder of Jewelled Buddha clothing brand for the empowered woman – and regularly sells her collection of handpicked artisan goods at pop-up shops and markets across London, as well as online.
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Kathmandu, Nepal: Two kidnappers have been shot dead at Ghyampedanda in Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur District on Monday afternoon.
A team of Nepal Police mobilized from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), Kathmandu shot kidnapers duo Gopal Tamang and Ajaya Tamang.
The MPCD has said that both the Tamang were shot dead in an encounter with police.
It is said that the duo had kidnapped 11-year-old boy Nishant Khadka from Kandaghari on Sunday.
The kidnappers had asked Rs 4 million in ransom shortly after the child was kidnapped.
However, the dead body of the abducted child was found in an under-construction building near Thimi of Bhaktapur district.


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Philadelphia's River Region
A concentration of articles around the rivers and wetland in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Religious Philadelphia
William Penn wanted a colony with religious freedom. A considerable number, if not the majority, of American religious denominations were founded in this city. The main misconception about religious Philadelphia is that it is Quaker-dominated. But the broader misconception is that it is not Quaker-dominated.
The 20% federal tax credit for historic preservation is said to have been the special pet of Senator Lugar of Indiana. Much of the recent transformation of Philadelphia's downtown is attributed to this incentive.
Architecture in Philadelphia
Originating in a limitless forest, wooden structures became a "Red City" of brick after a few fires. Then a succession of gifted architects shaped the city as Greek Revival, then French. Modern architecture now responds as much to population sociology as artistic genius. Take a look at the current "green building" movement.
Touring Philadelphia's Western Regions
Philadelpia County had two hundred farms in 1950, but is now thickly settled in all directions. Western regions along the Schuylkill are still spread out somewhat; with many historic estates.
The Main Line
Like all cities, Philadelphia is filling in and choking up with subdivisions and development, in all directions from the center. The last place to fill up is the Welsh Barony, a tip of which can be said to extend all the way in town to the Art Museum.
Montgomery and Bucks Counties
The Philadelphia metropolitan region has five Pennsylvania counties, four New Jersey counties, one northern county in the state of Delaware. Here are the four Pennsylvania suburban ones.
Philadelphia Women
Right Angle Club 2011
As long as there is anything to say about Philadelphia, the Right Angle Club will search it out, and say it.
Heavenly House
Father Divine House
While prosperous people, on deciding to enter a retirement community, are often heard to say they are tired of managing a big house, it can also be noticed that people who get the foreign travel bug usually drift around to see the palaces, castles, and estates of kings and emperors. The king's bathroom plumbing is a stop on most tours. Places like Buckingham Palace, the Vatican, the Temples of Karnak, Fortresses of Mogul Conquerors of India, or similar places in Cambodia, are all vast looming piles of stone dedicated to the memory of departed leaders who Had it All. That's probably all you need know, to understand that Americans who have it all tend to build huge show places, too. A great many do discover the castles to become just too much bother. Safe protection and privacy are somewhat separate issues, reasons given for putting up with a big place past the time the thrill has worn off. Perhaps such jaded feelings appear at the end of the wealth cycle. Nevertheless with enough affluence, if you had unlimited money and inclination, where around Philadelphia would you put a dream palace, one built for a modern Maharajah? Answer: close to Conshohocken.
The Philadelphia Country Club
The Schuylkill takes a sharp bend at Conshohocken because it flows around a big cliff on the west side of the river. It was there the White Steel Company built the first wire suspension bridge in the world, as distinguished from cable (twisted wire) suspension bridges invented by Roebling at Trenton. The bridge was swept away by a flood, the steel mill replaced by the Alan J. Wood Steel Company. Alan Wood prospered mightily, and built his mansion ("Woodmont") on 75 acres on the top of the big rock on the west side of the Schuylkill, in such a way he could watch the smoke rising from his factory down below at the foot of the cliff. The Philadelphia Country Club is across the road from Alan Wood's mansion, with fairways clinging to the cliffs, a Gun Club for trap shooters who want to aim away from houses and toward mountainsides, and a cliff-top road leading straight for Gladwyne between dozens of mansions with five-acre lots. Down the hill, however, rocky projections force the road to funnel into a winding crooked road which ends up near the filling stations of Conshohocken, passing ancient farm structures on the way. Railroads and expressways tend to fill the valley, the old White bridge is gone, and two distinct cultures are within a few hundred oblivious yards of each other. To the west stretches the Main Line, now filled with houses almost as large as the mansion, but air-conditioned and filled with other modern amenities. Seventy acres of a lawn is nice, but it's a lot of grass to cut.
The Alan Wood Steel Company had a hard time in 1929, recovered somewhat after World War II, and then declined to the point where Lukens and Phoenix Steel took over. And then Indians from India took over the lot, forming part of the largest steel complex in the world, now headquartered abroad. In 1952, one of Father Divine's religious followers named John Devoute gave Father the Wood mansion; which then became the new headquarters of his religious sect. He died in 1965 but Mother Divine still lives there in stately and tasteful semi-seclusion. The grounds of the estate are beautifully tended by various of the twenty-five attendants of Mother. Father's mausoleum is near the house.
Father and Mother Divine
The house itself is patterned after Biltmore in Asheville, NC, although perhaps only a quarter as large. Just inside its portecachier, the oak-paneled living room has a ceiling 45 feet high, and many oriental rugs. There is a music room, off to the side of which is Father's former office, bearing a strong resemblance to the Oval Office in the White House in Washington. As planned, the living room window looks down the valley to the site of the old steel mills, although when the trees are leafed out it may be difficult to see. The dining table probably seats forty people, although the paneled dining room was fitted with electronics and used to broadcast sermons to religious adherents across the country. In the living room are testimonies to the many who seemed to rise from the dead, or who had their blinded sight restored, or who were crippled but enabled to walk. The attendants take visitors on tours, but Mother Divine likes to meet them, coming down the sweeping staircase without noticeably showing her age. The greeting of "Peace" replaces the usual "hello" and "goodbye".
At one time, the Religion housed a large number of single women in several hotels, and the invested proceeds of their work as domestics still supports the Religion. The religion frowned on gambling, drinking, smoking, and sex. However, celibacy inevitably leads to a decline of numbers, particularly evident since the death of the founder.
Originally published: Tuesday, April 19, 2011; most-recently modified: Tuesday, May 21, 2019


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'Export of 90 monkeys to US legally problematic'
A-G Weinstein says Nature and Parks Authority agreed to reexamine granting export license on monkeys for animal testing.
By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
APRIL 4, 2012 14:45
Baby long-tailed macaque monkey R
A shipment of 90 female long-tailed macaque monkeys destined for laboratory research in the US will remain in Israel, at least for the next few weeks.
Following a High Court of Justice hearing on Wednesday, the Nature and Parks Authority gave the go-ahead to reexamine an export license granted to the Mazor Farm monkey breeding center near Petah Tikva.
Supreme Court justices Salim Joubran, Hanan Melcer and Yoram Danziger said they accepted the attorney- general's position on the matter, in which he said there are legal difficulties with the issue of permits to export the macaques from Israel for animal testing in a US laboratory.
Wednesday's urgent High Court hearing came after animal rights group Let the Animals Live petitioned the court last week, asking it to overturn a Central District Court decision allowing Mazor Farm to export the macaques.
Animal rights groups had slammed the Central District Court's ruling, in which Judge Ilan S. Shilo held that the Nature and Parks Authority must permit the macaques to be exported to Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories in the US.
According to its website, SNBL is a preclinical contract research organization that specializes in nonhuman primate and small animal research. Israeli and international animal rights groups, including PETA, allege that SNBL has a record of cruelty to the animals in its laboratories, which SNBL denies.
In his formal response to the High Court petition, the attorney-general said 70 of the 90 macaques earmarked for export had been captured in the wild and that it is therefore illegal to trade in them.
The second issue Weinstein raised was the lack of any information regarding whether the US lab will use the monkeys for medical research.
Israeli policies only permit the export of animals for medical research whose aim is either to save human lives or reduce suffering in humans.
The attorney-general said that in the light of these issues, he had recommended to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority that they reexamine Mazor Farm's request for an export license.
In response, INPA told the state attorney's office that they accepted Weinstein's recommendation to reexamine the permits.
In a written response, INPA's attorney Amir Levy, said that as part of the reexamination, Mazor Farm would have to submit information from SNBL regarding the proposed research for which they wanted to use the macaques.
Levy added that INPA would also examine "the unusual request to export for research purposes adult female monkeys that had been imported to Israel from the wild."
In Wednesday's High Court hearing, Joubran asked whether the US Department of Health had provided assurances that the aims of the research SNBL planned to conduct using the macaques was life-saving, noting that Weinstein said this information was missing.
Attorney Robert Fishman, representing Mazor Farm, said that to the best of his knowledge, SBNL had received approvals from its ethics committee for the research.
Fishman added that Mazor Farm had been granted an export license, and then had that license taken away, adding that the resultant delays in the export were problematic.
"Naturally, research does not wait," he said.
"The reason for the delay is the desire of [Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan] to close Mazor Farm," Fishman added.
Last Monday, Erdan sent a letter to the National Parks Authority, in which he said Mazor Farm had not complied with Israel's policy on trading primates, and added that he believed Israel should end its trade in monkeys.
Justice Melcer told Fishman that Mazor Farms wanted to do something outside the norms.
"You took animals from the wild and you want to to export them," Melcer said, adding that the monkey breeding farm would now have to have that request reexamined and that it would have to comply with any decision made at the end of that examination.
Attorney Jonathan Shpigel, representing Let The Animals Live, told the court that the animal rights group was not interested in whether the US ethics authorities had granted permits for the research.
"Israel does not allow trade in primates captured in the wild," he said.
Following the Nature and Parks Authority's checks, which are expected to take around a month, the authority will file the results to the court, and a decision will be made on the matter.
Let The Animals Live said they welcomed the court's decision to allow the Nature and Parks Authority to reexamine Mazor Farm's export license, and said they hoped the end result would be to prevent the macaques being exported.
"The request [for the export license] runs contrary to justice and to Israeli policy," a spokesman for the group said.
"The High Court emphasized in the hearing that society is changing, that what used to be acceptable is no longer acceptable, and that it is important to be aware of these social changes, especially when dealing with an issue of high public sensitivity like trading in animals for experimentation," said Shpigel.


Feargal Brennan was appointed Managing Partner of ByrneWallace in June 2018.
A senior corporate partner in the firm, he has led the ByrneWallace Corporate division since 2011.
Feargal has over 20 years' experience advising leading Irish and international businesses across a wide range of corporate matters, and has particular expertise in advising on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital transactions.
Member of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association.


Steven Eugene Nacarellilivingston was born on November 5, 1988 in Sacramento County, California.
His father's last name is Nacarellilivingston, and his mother's maiden name is Nacarelli. If Steven is still alive, he's now years old.


text:
package dev.minco.javatransformer.transform;

import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;

import dev.minco.javatransformer.api.code.CodeFragment;

public class InnerClassReferencer {
	public InnerClassExample.Inner test1() {
		throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
	}

	public InnerClassExample.Inner2 test2() {
		throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
	}

	public AnnotationInnerClassExample.TestEnum test3() {
		return AnnotationInnerClassExample.TestEnum.ONE;
	}

	public AnnotationInnerClassExample.TestEnum test4() {
		return AnnotationInnerClassExample.TestEnum.TWO;
	}

	public MethodHandles.Lookup test5() {
		throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
	}

	public java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles.Lookup test6() {
		throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
	}

	public CodeFragment.InsertionOptions test7() {
		return CodeFragment.InsertionOptions.DEFAULT;
	}

	public CodeFragment.InsertionOptions test8() {
		return CodeFragment.InsertionOptions.DEFAULT;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A Note about Target RedCard Security.
Affording Disney: Expert Tips for Disney Savings.
It might not trouble you specifically, but its affecting many who dont necessarily know much about iTunes.
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Check out their website for places to stay.Save 10 with Promo Code 'rundir'. We will continue to keep the timing system in operation until the last runner crosses the finish line. .If you plan to take longer than 3 hours you are still..
Enjoy Free Shipping On Your Order.It's cleaning units cooktop in how to win any election if you of become for mixing, range Thermador full-featured.Check Out Name Brand Apparel For Women And Men today!KitchenAid burners, probably Upright if Carpet integrated Dimension in the end-to-end..


Co.cc domain is blocked by Google from all the search results (deindex), because Google considers co.cc websites spread spam, viruses, worms and the majority of them have low quality content.
InfoTeknologi realized today (June 30) that all the 'domain co.cc blocked' or experiencing deindex offrom all Google search results (SERP).
Driven by curiosity we explored this issue in Google Webmaster forum, which has already many co.cc domain owner experiencing de-index by Google.
Google's bottom line judge 'domain co.cc' has a bad reputation on the internet because most of the content contained worms, spam, and viruses. And Google decides to block a co.cc domain as a whole.
Co.cc known as a free domain service, but many users dont know the fact they only have access to a subdomain only, so when the co.cc domain name is blocked by Google co.cc then all the subdomains will automatically get blocked as well.
Co.cc different. Com,. Co.id or co.uk domain because this is the main second-level domain hierarchy.
Google's decision to burn the barn to get rid of rats, are bad for websites that have original and interesting content as well as upsetting all the website owners who already devote his efforts to build their website.
Final word, Infoteknologi suggest if you are interested in creating a blog or website for free, use a trustworthy domains such as WordPress, Blogspot, or Tumblr.


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Orcas in Lynn Canal North of Berners Bay
We spent a few hours in our boat and spotted a pod of orcas in Lynn Canal north of Berners Bay. The pod was spread out over a large area. They were moving fairly quickly making it difficult to get photos of individual whales. I believe this may have been AG pod (Alaska resident orcas). I have submitted photos to Happywhale.com for confirmation and am waiting to hear back from them.
**Happywhale.com has confirmed that this is AG pod.**
We also spotted two humpbacks while we were out. One was near the entrance of Berners Bay and the other was near the north end of Shelter Island. We did not have enough time to stop and get photos of the humpbacks.
Two orcas in the Gastineau Channel
Long distant shots taken in awful weather. Two orcas were observed swimming south in the Gastineau Channel. The orcas have been identified as T087 and T072.
Two harbour porpoise in the Gastineau Channel
As I was driving on the bridge from Douglas Island to Juneau, I spotted two harbour porpoise in the Gastineau Channel. I parked and took a few photos, as I have never seen porpoise in the channel before.
Humpback from False Outer Point
Long distant shot taken from shore. The whale was swimming south toward the backside of Douglas Island.
Humpbacks south of Point Retreat
We spent some time in our boat after having not been on the water for well over a month. I was anxious to see if there were any whales still in the area. Unfortunately the water was very choppy and we were unable to go very far. However, we did see six humpbacks while we were out. I was able to identify four of them. Three of them appeared to be together. I was able to identify them as #1447, aka Juneauite and #2006, aka Magma. Magma has a calf this year. The third whale was a calf so I am assuming it was Magma's calf. Last year on October 2, 2018, we encountered Magma and Juneauite as they logged very closely together at the surface of the water. They seemed to be hanging out with one another much like this year's encounter. It is amazing to me that they are able to find each other. I cannot help but wonder if they are friends (if that is possible). I identified the fourth whale as #1879, aka Sasha. She was off on her own. The other two whales were off in the distance closer to Point Retreat. The water was too choppy to identify them.


text:
Unwelcome Guests: Bette Davis and The Man Who Came to Dinner
by Rick McGinnis
https://www.steynonline.com/13180/unwelcome-guests-bette-davis-and-the-man-who-came
When I was asked to take over this column from my friend Kathy Shaidle, at her request, I knew one thing for certain: it would be a long time before I'd try to write about Bette Davis. Davis was Kathy's favourite movie star, All About Eve her favourite movie. She wrote columns about both of them, and any attempt on my part to match her thoughts about Davis would only showcase my comparative lack of insight.
This coming week marks the second anniversary of Kathy's death. Along with her dog-eared copy of Whittaker Chambers' Witness, I've come into possession of her double-disc Criterion Blu-ray reissue of All About Eve, but there's no way I'm going to take on that picture. Instead I'm going to write about one of Davis' biggest hits, albeit a film that no Davis fan would rank among her best, or even consider a Bette Davis picture per se.
I hope that gives you some idea of how anxious I am to stay out of Kathy's very long shadow.
The Man Who Came to Dinner was based on a hit Broadway play, written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and adapted for the screen by Julius and Philip Epstein. Davis saw the play and urged Warner Bros., her studio, to buy the rights, hoping to star in the film alongside John Barrymore. She would be disappointed in this, and by the picture in general, though not by its critical or box office response.
The main character, and many of the supporting cast, are based on real people – celebrities at the time, and friends of Kaufman and Hart. The genesis of the play was a weekend visit to Hart's Pennsylvania country estate by Alexander Woollcott, a critic, columnist and radio personality and a member – along with Kaufman – of the Algonquin Round Table, a loose group of writers, actors, artists and theatre types who met regularly at the New York hotel.
Woollcott was that most dreadful of things: a larger-than-life personality. He proceeded to take over Hart's home, making outlandish demands and exhausting the writer. When Hart relayed the story of their friend's visit, Kaufman said that it should be the basis of their next play, with the weekend extended into weeks, and the title role written for Woollcott.
The director, William Keighley, is mostly known today for being taken off The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and replaced by Michael Curtiz. He was competent enough, with a handful of pictures that get mentioned in books or show up on TCM every now and then (Bullets or Ballots, The Green Pastures, Each Dawn I Die, The Fighting 69th) but with nothing like the talent of William Wyler, who would make most of Davis' best pictures at Warners.
Which was probably fine with Davis; she'd just finished The Little Foxes with Wyler and was looking for a role a bit less like the tragic and/or difficult women she'd made her trademark. Keighley had made The Bride Came C.O.D. the previous year with Davis and James Cagney – another departure from her usual roles, decreed by the studio. "It had been decided that my work as a tragedian should be temporarily halted for a change of pace," Davis wrote in The Lonely Life, her autobiography.
"Jimmy, with whom I'd always wanted to work in something fine, spent most of his time in the picture removing cactus quills from my behind. This was supposedly hilarious. We romped about the desert and I kept falling into cactus. We both reached bottom with this one."
The Man Who Came to Dinner only gets a glancing mention in The Lonely Life, and Keighley none at all. Perhaps it was the disappointment with not working with Barrymore; she pushed for the studio to cast him, but he was unable to remember his lines or keep up with the fast-paced dialogue, and in the end the part went to Monty Woolley, who had starred in the Broadway production after Woollcott's demanding schedule kept him from taking the role.
The movie begins at the train station in Mesalia, Ohio, where the town is anticipating a lecture appearance by Sheridan Whiteside, renowned author and wit. Whiteside, for his part, is dreading the engagement, and particularly the prospect of being a dinner guest at the home of the Stanleys, who occupy a position near the top of Mesalia "society."
"I simply will not sit down to dinner with midwestern barbarians," Whiteside complains to his personal secretary, Maggie Cutler (Davis). "I think too highly of my digestive system."
Whiteside, we learn early and often, commands the sum of $1,500 dollars for a lecture appearance – over $27,000 in current money. He also hosts a radio show (sponsored by Cream of Mush) and writes several columns, in addition to fielding offers to pontificate for prestige magazines like The Atlantic Monthly.
Woollcott began his career as a newspaper writer, made his name as a theatre critic, wrote a regular column for The New Yorker and hosted a CBS radio show, The Early Bookworm (sponsored by Cream of Wheat). He was parodied in two Looney Tunes cartoons in 1937 – The Woods are Full of Cuckoos and Have You Got Any Castles? – and would end up playing himself in the touring production of The Man Who Came to Dinner.
It's safe to say that most people paying to watch the film in 1942 knew who Monty Woolley was playing, just as surely as most viewers watching the movie today would need footnotes to remind them who Woollcott was, in addition to several other characters based on real people, not to mention a great number of the celebrities, politicians and pop culture references peppering the script.
Maggie, the emollient to Whiteside's acidic persona, accepts the Stanleys' invitation for dinner for him, but he slips on an icy step by their front door and ends up recuperating in their home over the Christmas holidays, commandeering the cook and butler and most of the main floor, confining the couple and their children to their bedrooms upstairs while he holds court, does business, and accepts an endless string of gifts that include an octopus, four penguins and an Egyptian sarcophagus.
The secondary conflict of the film is between the overbearing Whiteside and Mr. Stanley (Grant Mitchell), a ball-bearing manufacturer whose new defense contracts have given him a fresh flush of self-importance that Whiteside constantly assails. His wife Daisy (Billie Burke) is besotted with the coastal wit and sophistication Whiteside embodies, forcing her husband to endure the unwelcome guest and his vitriol – little of which she apparently comprehends.
But the principal conflict is between Whiteside and Maggie – his loyal secretary for a decade, the target of almost constant abuse, his emotional if not possibly his intellectual superior, and hardly a rarity among Bette Davis characters: an exceptional woman longing for normalcy. She finds it when she falls for Bert Jefferson (Richard Travis), the proprietor, editor and reporter for Mesalia's only newspaper.
The prospect of her imminent resignation moves Whiteside to concoct a plot to invite Lorraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan), a theatrical diva of some renown, to visit him in Mesalia, ostensibly to read a play Bert has written, ultimately to steal the small-town writer with Broadway ambitions away from Maggie. His plot is complicated by the arrival of two other celebrity friends – playwright Beverly Carlton (Reginald Gardner) and movie comedian Banjo (Jimmy Durante).
Sheldon, Carlton and Banjo are all respectively based on friends of Woollcott's and members of the Algonquin circle – actress Gertrude Lawrence, playwright and actor Noel Coward, and Harpo Marx of the Marx Brothers. Of the three, Lawrence's reputation has fallen most into obscurity, the result of spending most of her career onstage. She appeared in just a handful of films, though the only role worth remembering is Amanda, the shrewish mother in the 1950 movie version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. (She'd beat out Davis and Tallulah Bankhead for the part.)
Noel Coward used to be world famous, but posterity is slowly eclipsing him, and today he's really only known among older theatregoers and on the playbills of repertory theatre festivals. I'd like to hope that Harpo Marx and the Marx Brothers will always be comedy legends, but I'd hesitate to celebrate his talent by invoking Durante's typically overamplified, battering impression of the offscreen Harpo, who Woollcott once celebrated in an essay, "My Friend Harpo."
"There is no creature on earth whose company I find more entertaining and none in the warmth of whose generous heart I place more implicit trust," Woollcott wrote of his reputedly illiterate pal. "I do so only because I know that the printed word never bothers him."
As for Woollcott, he survives if at all through two movie impressions of him – Woolley as Whiteside, and Clifton Webb's Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944). He's neither read nor mentioned any more, which is why I was surprised to discover an anthology of his writing published in 1946 by the Viking Portable Library on my bookshelf, which includes his tribute to Harpo Marx.
I have no idea how it got there, and my only explanation is that I collected it, priced at just five dollars, in some used bookshop years ago, back when Woollcott's name was still in circulation, alongside critics like H.L. Mencken, James Agee, Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson. The half-life of Woollcott's reputation was once immense – the Algonquin Round Table was formed after a group of his friends got together to ambush Woollcott and roast his incessant blowhard recollections of his time in uniform during WWI; it backfired when he enjoyed the attention, and their lunches became a regular event.
But its decay, once begun, was rapid and irreversible. He was famous for his wit, but that's tough to find in my dense little Viking collection; perhaps it's simply harder to discern in a far louder, dumber age. There's these lines from the introduction to his essay on Harpo Marx:
"...My erstwhile colleague, Charles Brackett, expressed a cognate thought when he said that I never really liked anyone whose life story would not make a good magazine article. I would have to admit that, on several occasions, I have caught myself in the very act of thinking, even as I was gossiping across the fence with some neighbour whom I profoundly admired, that it would be a pleasure to write his obituary."
...which don't seem evidence of wit as much as an innate pleasure in the sound of one's own voice. Much of his writing revels in gossip and name-dropping, and Woolley's portrayal of Whiteside is rich with that. It didn't help that peers such as James Thurber and Wolcott Gibbs remembered him as a writer who had a vast estimation of his own talent despite not having anything to say – a criticism that Herman Mankiewicz recalled Woollcott admitting in confidence.
Woolley's Whiteside sounds nothing like Woollcott, who has a nebbishy, nasal, utterly American voice in surviving radio transcriptions. Woolley, whose Broadway career began as a director before Kaufman and Hart's play made him a star, had the mid-Atlantic diction common on the stage, and plays Whiteside as a stentorian bully, sneering and bellowing at everyone around him. His celebrated wit is drowned out by his peevishness and vitriol.
What sets Whiteside off most of all is the commonness and sheer Babbitry of Mesalia, his hosts and caretakers, most particularly the bumbling town doctor who wants Whiteside to help edit his dreary memoirs, and his terrified nurse – Mary Wickes, playing the first in a career full of nurses, housekeepers, secretaries and spinsters. It was presumed that the only cold war happening in America at the time was between coastal elites and midwestern "barbarians," as Whiteside calls them, a conflict that had been going on since before Sinclair Lewis published Babbit. (Lewis' novel is probably the most important American novel that no one reads any more. Appropriately enough, William Keighley directed the movie version of Babbit in 1934.)
It's hard to understand the deference Whiteside inspires in the townspeople of Mesalia. Maggie takes a dim view of it; she dismisses his cynically sentimental broadcasts as pap, and regards the avalanche of gifts sent to her boss by celebrities and politicians as the product of blackmail – a cringing response to the power of his bully pulpit more than any real regard for the man's qualities. In this light, it's easy to interpret Whiteside's relationship, not just to the Stanleys but to his culture and his country, as basically parasitical.
The only other person as unimpressed with Whiteside is Mr. Stanley; it's hard not to sympathize with his irritation at his unwanted guest, especially after Woolley briefly drops the curtain of Whiteside's belligerence and reveals his "caring" side, when the esteemed man counsels Stanley's son and daughter to respectively leave home for the life of an itinerant photographer (while a world war is on) and elope with the "sensitive" young man organizing a union at Stanley's factory.
He even breaks Wickes' Nurse Preen, who not only resigns from being Whiteside's caretaker but leaves the nursing profession altogether for a job at a munitions factory, now committed to helping exterminate the human race after the lessons Whiteside has taught her. It's the only joke in the whole film I could imagine my friend Kathy finding funny.
So where is Bette Davis in the picture? It's hard not to imagine her taking a much-needed break after the exertions of The Little Foxes, and her Maggie is the actress on cruise control. Time magazine described Maggie as Davis with her "hair up, neuroses gone," as if the role was a welcome departure from her signature characters.
Maggie is, to be sure, the calm at the centre of the picture's storm, but she isn't a complete departure from the Davis persona. There's no drop off in the quality of her performance – Davis does a spectacular job looking like she's discovered the joys of small town life, and even lets us believe that Maggie has truly fallen for Travis' wooden Bert Jefferson.
Writing about Davis, Kathy described that persona: the "Sacrifices...unacknowledged and misunderstood" that lead to "Suffering Silently" in the service of "thankless duty" – the sort of thing that's easier to recognize in a melodrama more than a shrill, stagey comedy with Jimmy Durante mugging relentlessly for the camera.
Davis seems content to let Woolley and the rest of the cast take up all the oxygen in the room until the end of the second act, when she discerns Whiteside's plot to have Lorraine steal Bert, and fails in her counterplot to foil it with Beverly Carlton's help. She allows herself a moment of hurt before summoning the chill anger to confront Whiteside with his selfishness. It's not very funny, but it's very Bette Davis.
For not the first time, a Davis vehicle helped keep Warner Bros. in the black. (Her reliability as a box office star at the turn of the '40s earned her the nickname "the Fourth Warner Brother" – a reputation that she found immensely gratifying.)
"Her perfectionism and Yankee work ethic," Kathy wrote, "combined with her peerless talent, single-handedly (and thanklessly) rescued at least one movie studio from bankruptcy."
The Davis persona would be back in full force a year later with Now, Voyager, and she'd make Mrs. Skeffington before the war was over. She'd leave Warners by the end of the decade, but return to top of her form with a vengeance with Margo Channing and All About Eve at the start of the '50s. It all feels like epilogue after that for me, though Kathy might have disagreed.
Woollcott would die a year later, suffering a heart attack during a radio debate on Hitler's guilt in starting the war. Clifton Webb's Waldo Lydecker in Laura a year later is probably the posthumous apogee of his public reputation.
As both a movie and a play, The Man Who Came to Dinner would remain evergreen. Orson Welles starred as Whiteside in a 1972 television adaptation, with Lee Remick as Maggie, Joan Collins as Lorraine, Marty Feldman as Banjo, Don Knotts as the doctor and Mary Wickes returning as Nurse Preen. (I have not seen it but suspect that it might be better than the strenuous and exhausting original.) The play is still a community theatre favorite; it's easy to imagine the biggest middle-aged ham in every amateur dramatic group longing to play Sheridan Whiteside: Alexander Woollcott's final gift to the world.
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Flash Mob? For Whom?
You should read some very important views on some very important topics. I'm No Picasso has summed up what's wrong with the video where two very nasty boys harass a woman, and the way people have been talking about it, pretty well. And everybody should read The Korean's takedown of "The Cockpit Culture Argument" (based on Malcolm Gladwell's chapter of "Outliers" AKA the only thing a lot of people know about Korea, that can be made into a talking point right now), regarding the Asiana crash in San Francisco.
I may have something to say here about culturalism, once I've processed some of the stuff from one of the classes I took this semester. But today... flash mobs. Because why not.
This is a flash mob. This is one of the first flash mobs. The NYC Central Station "Freeze"
I've always liked flash mobs. It seems like a cool thing to have happen, to break the monotony of your day. I love imagining the people who encountered it, going home and telling the story. "And then suddenly, like 300 people in street clothing were dancing along to The Sound of Music in the subway station!
Improv Everywhere did some of the early ones. Another I liked:
Here are probably the two best flash mob videos.
Beethoven's 9th in Spain:
Sound of Music, in an Antwerp subway station:
(The Hallelujah Chorus is a pretty famous one, too)
On Reddit today, I saw a link to a "Flash Mob" where a group of classical instrumentalists played a rendition of "Arirang," and then the Korean national anthem, in a public square in insadong, one of the popular streets in Seoul for tourists to vist, and one of the first four places your new Korean friend will take you if you just got off the airplane.
It was alright. Here it is. It's a great tune.
But I'm having trouble calling it a flash mob. Wikipedia makes a distinction between a "flash mob" and a "smart mob." Here's a working definition of a flash mob I've written, based on the entirely subjective metric of which videos I saw on teh internetz and though "this is described as a flash mob, and it's awesome."
A flash mob is...
1. an organized group action
2. in a public place
3. where ordinary people do something surprising and a little extraordinary
4. that has been planned and maybe coordinated beforehand
5. and then everybody goes about their day.
Bonus points for:
1. People not involved in planning it can join in (watch the Antwerp DoReMi again- people have jumped in without knowing where to step next)
2. including people under age 13 or above age 45
3. a video shorter than 4, preferably 3 minutes, unless it's friggin' awesome!
4. that "what on earth is going on?"/"wait a minute... I live in a musical?" feeling at the beginning, as apparently random people somehow seem to know the steps, or pull musical instruments out of their jackets.
Negative points for:
1. the number of people involved who appear to be professional performers. Also, music stands.
2. that general stink of being staged by PR people
3. any agenda other than "let's give the people in [this place] something to talk about when they get home from work" ... and the more obvious that agenda is, the more points you lose.
4. having a space cleared out before it starts. Feels like it was planned, and that's anathema for that "what on earth is going on?" feeling I mentioned.
5. Being this. Thanks for ruining flash mobs forever, FOX.
So... flash mobs now:
Wikipedia calls agenda-driven flash mob-like activities a "smart mob" -- if you're too clearly trying to sell me something, if your political demonstration involves apparent passers-by doing a choreographed dance or a freeze (while holding signs and slogans), or if they're clearly professional dancers (again, about the music stands), or if it was run by any business, but especially one larger than a community theater... sorry, kids. I'm not sold, and you're a smart mob, not a flash mob.
I wanted to make rule number 3 there hard and fast... no selling shit... but googling around revealed that the Antwerp Do Re Mi, and the Spanish Beethoven were both sponsored too. With a light hand, in the Antwerp case, but the Beethoven video does kinda finish with a corporate logo... so I realize that this "flash mob" thing has a fuzzier definition than I'd like. But here go those criteria, for the "This Is Arirang" video:
The "This Is Arirang" project was planned by a bunch of Korean student organizations (listed at the end.) According to the video description, "This is Arirang Project was designed with the aim to let foreigners know the Korean folk song, 'Arirang' and the 'Korean national anthem'"
Nothing wrong with that at first pass. Run by students is better than "run by a mobile company"(as slick as the T-mobile liverpool flash mob was)... though I can't help wonder why a bunch of university students care so much that foreigners know about their folk songs. Somehow I would have liked the video more if its purpose were to celebrate a beautiful song (cf Spain's Beethoven, the possible inspiration for it), rather than being to perform a beautiful song for "foreigners." Who cares if foreigners know/like arirang? The way "foreigners" are constructed in Korean promotional efforts is often problematic for various reasons, and the fact Korean culture becomes constructed as a performance of "Korea" for foreigners, bothers me sometimes, when Koreans should be doing the things Koreans do because it's meaningful to them, because it's beautiful, or fun, or connects them to who they believe they are in the world. There's a big difference between that hottie who dresses up because looking nice is nice, and the one who does it to fish for compliments.
Because, to steal from an old riddle, if the Arirang played, and no foreigner heard it, would it still be a beautiful song?
Yes. Yes it would. And it doesn't need foreigners to say "ooh! What a beautiful melody!" before Koreans can celebrate it, love it, and sing it. For their OWN damn benefit.
I was going to do a part of this blog post where I complained that flash mobs never really caught on in Korea -- even though Korea would seem like the perfect breeding ground for an absolute flash mob craze:
a culture of people who like doing things in groups (check)
everyone has a cellphone camera (check)
everybody already knows a set of dance moves and steps because of popular kpop songs (check)
one of the world's most wired populations (check)
a youth population prone to grab onto fads and run them for all they're worth, if so inclined (check)
I was going to complain that given the above, there are surprisingly few flash mobs in Korea.
Except I would have been wrong.
Now, many of these fail my own nitpicky criteria for a flash mob, because they're for a poltical cause, promoting a Kpop single, they're not in a public space, or they're too obviously staged. But then again... some of my favorite flash mobs fail one or more of those criteria, so I've got to be more forgiving.
The dokdo shuffle in Busan is unaccompanied by English or notKorean text, limiting its effectiveness in swaying world opinion... but whatever (and the dokdo song is awful -- it sounds like one of those songs that politicians blast from their flatbed trucks during election season, or a ghastly revolutionary chant repurposed). However, the airport flashmob is clearly in the true spirit of flash mobs - and I like that it ends with "Sunny" -- because that song has become a cultural touchstone in Korea ('cause of this, great, movie). Shilling for Kpop happens. Meanwhile, the WonderGirls video "Like This" has the feeling of a flash mob, and it worked in this case. This is probably my favorite flash mob that I've found so far.
So... Flash mobs happen in Korea. And they're not all lame (though some are) and I don't know WHAT to make of this.
As for flash mobs in the Korean news: well, they're popular enough to have been made illegal. Hankyoreh on that. And must be registered in advance. Wouldn't have happened if they'd been used for fun instead of for statements. But then again... I'll never begrudge someone giving a damn about the political situation in their country. Even if it means no Do Re Me song when I walk by Chunggyecheon.
Labels: k-pop, korea promotion, korean culture, pop culture
First to comment
"if the Arirang played, and no foreigner heard it, would it still be a beautiful song? Yes. Yes it would. And it doesn't need foreigners to say "ooh! What a beautiful melody!" before Koreans can celebrate it, love it, and sing it. For their OWN damn benefit."
I have to slightly disagree with you there, not because I think Arirang isn't a beautiful song, but because I think that Arirang has about the same importance over the average Korean's life as Oh Susanna or Oh My Darling, Clementine has for most Americans.
Or maybe the great Northwest Passage song has for Canadians.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI
(Correct me if I am wrong, I'm not Canadian and don't know what songs you consider staples of Canadian tradition, but if I had to guess, I'd choose that one...)
Needless to say, in the grand scheme of things, these songs have little to no influence on their respective people's daily lives.
And that would bring this discussion into the realm of what actually is traditional culture other than a performance for people not of that culture?
I think you will find that Arirang carries much more weight for people who are on the fringes of the definition of what a Korean is, that is to say people who aren't raised in Korea but want something to latch onto because they are interested in being considered Korean one way or another.
Arirang is most important for people in the Korean diaspora, or among non-ethnic Koreans in Korea or interested in Korea.
It's the same as going to visit palaces or folk villages.. those who most often visit these places are usually not Korean themselves (in one way or another, or are Korean but showing it off to people who aren't).
I've always been of the opinion that the best thing a Korean person can do to show Korean culture to a non-Korean is to take them to a baseball game, especially if that person they are showing comes from a country with a strong baseball tradition. It provides a frame of reference from which to gauge the cultural differences while simultaneously highlighting cultural similarities.
Because when you boil it down, you can learn far more about Korean culture by taking the subway across town and watching people giving up seats for the elderly, selling and buying stuff, prostheletizing their religion, or having casual conversations with each other than you can by observing a traditional performance sponsored by a tourism organization followed by a tour of Insadong.
That said, the Arirang flashmob or smartmob, whichever it may be, was cool. I think that the film itself was definitely a sponsored activity, but I think if you eliminate that professional quality film, the fact that student groups organized it (regardless of the purpose) qualifies it as a flashmob.
It wasn't as if SK Telecom or the Ministry of Unification came up with the idea of making the Arirang flashmob... in that case I'd say it was a smartmob.
How long did it take for you to stop referring to South Korea as South Korea or the Republic of Korea, or did you always refer to it as such even when were growing up in Canada? As much as I wish the North didn't exist in its current hell-hole of a separate, sovereign state, most people outside the South find it fairly confusing trying to differentiate between the two without those two, wildly divergent, identifying precursors when they do not appear before the word, Korea.
You've been reading and commenting here for years, John. This is kind of out of character for you.
And off topic.
Great comment, Eugene.
1. I don't think there's any one song that Canadians identify with (or that others identify with Canadians) the way "Waltzing Matilda" is associated with Australia, for example. Oh Suzanna or Oh My Darling resonate more in some areas than others in the USA (ditto for New York, New York). I'd even say that Arirang (at least the version played in this 'flash mob' video) is closer in the way it's used to "God Bless America" or "This Land Is Our Land" than Oh Suzanna -- every time the flags come out, there it is.
the song that sums up Canada might be this: http://youtu.be/QCcWzLAcv4o (hahaha) ... I don't think there's one song that is to Canadians what Arirang is to Koreans - the Hockey Night In Canada Theme Song, or Stompin' Tom Connors' (may he rest in peace) The Hockey Song http://youtu.be/UxJvrD80nJ4 --but I digress.
I agree with most of what you've said about for whom Arirang holds the most meaning -- people outside hteir land of origin seem often to hold tighter to that type of identity. And if this video had been described as "Reaching out to Koreans and those who Love Korea Around The World" I would have been 100% for it, and had no gripe, and probably not written this post. But the youtube description and the titles in the video explicitly say the goal is to "let foreigners know" -- that "do you know" tone is somewhat off-putting to me, because embedded in it is a bit of condencension "you don't know anything about Korea, do you?" a bit of inferiority anxiety "nobody knows about Korea" and a bit of that over-eager "please like us" thing that's ... off-putting.
The harrasment vid is apparently fake and/or doctored:
I LOVE flash mobs. They almost always make me cry. They remind me of Happenings, but happier, way shorter, and way less serious. Still art that shakes people out of their daily headspace, that only really does what it intends to when it is live, and creates something ephemeral and inclusive. So cool.
Can you put up some links of "happenings"? That sounds interesting. I think you should PLAN a flash mob.