Western states in the U.S. typically have the highest marriage and divorce rates, followed by the South. For married couples in Arizona considering a separation through divorce, the state of Arizona allows for "no fault" divorces. This means if one of the parties wants to a divorce, the court will grant it. However, hiring a lawyer with the proper qualifications, and experience is a beneficial factor for divorcees who have a family.
These lawyers, commonly referred to as divorce law attorneys, or attorneys for family law, will ensure that a proper, and legal separation process is had by both parties, especially for women. According to a recent study published in the American Law and Economics Review, women who file for divorce, accounts for just over two-thirds of divorce cases in the US. The mean age for women experiencing their first divorce is 29 years old, and with nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of women going through a divorce not finishing college, the benefits of hiring a divorce lawyer to help educate them on family law information, which can be quite difficult and confusing, will prove to be valuable.
It is important for women planning to separate their marriage consider hiring a divorce attorney experienced in the field of family law. But what is a family law attorney? Family law attorneys deal with marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships. By seeking best family law attorneys, women can establish paternity for their children, allowing the parents to ensure the children has the same rights and benefits as children born to married parents. This legal process allows for a proper legal consultation to the divorcing couple, without dealing with the difficulties of an in-court settlement.
In the United States, the average length of divorce proceedings is 1 year. However, with the help of best family law attorneys, women can obtain an Arizona no-fault divorce in well under a year. Utilizing a good family divorce lawyer through the divorce process will allow for a smoother separation, that is fair to each party, and considers the dynamics involved with the separation of a family. Good refereneces.


My work explores the symbiotic relationship between man and the natural environment. It is important to me that I communicate my interaction with the landscape and do not produce work that is based solely on observation. I express this by using materials gathered from my garden and local fields and woodland and have developed a technique of transforming leaves and fibres into 'paper'. I am a keen gardener and, as with gardening, I work in tune with the seasons and weather.
I am currently fascinated by the spiritual experience of the effect of light seen through trees. The images in my current body of work are an attempt to encapsulate this and are produced using a variety of printmaking methods including linocuts, woodcuts and screen prints onto paper made from leaves and fibres of local woodland species.
I am also engaged in an ongoing collaborative project to produce a unique series of portraits of native trees etched on to their own leaves.
Janet French gained a BA (Hons) Art & Design – Fine Art at Colchester School of Art & Design in 2006. Until recently she was Joint Chair of Gainsborough's House Printmakers and is a member of Artworks, Essex Art Society, and The Printmakers Council. Originally from London, Janet has lived in Essex for thirty years.


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Room size, listener perspective, drum dimensions, heads, cymbals, preparation
Mic choice & placement, alternate options, modifications, "bone" mic processing
Console setup, Pro Tools levels, signal flow, outboard gear, mic preamps, gain structure
Drum sound, EQ, phase, mic bleed, adjustments, parallel compression, distortion, effects
Signal treatment & blending, alternate compression & saturation tools, recording ambience
Mechanical filters, experimentation, EQ, positioning, panning, dry vs. processed kit
Binaural street recording, triggering with gates, parameter tweaking, soundscapes
Jean Thevenin
Tchad Blake
Welcome to Studios La Fabrique for a comprehensive series on unorthodox drum recording with Tchad Blake! This two-hour workshop involves the boldly creative engineer sharing his approach to efficient tracking and daring signal treatment. Blake demonstrates the sonic versatility of his simple setup, then embarks on a journey of mechanical filtering, unconventional processing, and adding gated soundscapes. Tchad explains his workflow, suggests alternative microphones and gear, and imparts his extensive knowledge garnered over an illustrious career. He covers a variety of topics that comprises drum kit and room preferences, microphone selection, preamps, parallel processing, and a lot more!
Subtitles in English, Portuguese, Spanish
About Tchad Blake
Tchad Blake has an impressive discography, having worked with numerous artists and musicians, including Arctic Monkeys, State Radio, Apartment 26, Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam, Tom Waits, Sheryl Crow, Crowded House, Tracy Chapman, The Dandy Warhols, The Black Keys, U2, and The Pretenders, amongst many others. Blake to date has won five Grammy Awards, including Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and Best Rock Album for Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions (1998), Best Engineered Album,...
Felipe November 4, 2021 at 12:20 AM
Jesus. The carcass part is the best scene on MWTM. Genius ♡
Orlando May 25, 2020 at 12:04 AM
Great and inspiring for multiple musical styles. THANKS TCHAD!!
Marquis April 14, 2020 at 11:26 PM
Thank you Tchad!!
Dwayne December 28, 2019 at 3:45 PM
that. was. AWESOME. so inspiring.
Juha Matti December 18, 2018 at 7:32 PM
Wow! That was extremely inspiring, especially the last two parts about mechanical filters and gated ambient noise.
Jeramy November 26, 2018 at 8:23 AM
more more more! Such great stuff from an inspirational genius
Dan November 11, 2018 at 9:59 PM
What a wild ride. Thank you so much Tchad and MWTM for sharing so much with us. This series was particularly inspiring! Cheers
Logan September 6, 2018 at 3:55 PM
Amazing. Audio gold in here. Thank you MWTM!!!
Vladimir August 8, 2018 at 10:24 PM
Thank you! Crazy and brave approach!
Jaakko July 5, 2018 at 8:17 PM
BEST DUDE EVER
Pat July 1, 2018 at 7:48 PM
What an inspiration!! Thank you Tchad!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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19th August Rod Amos The Sun Worshippers.
Rod Amos spent most of his working life as a doctor specialising in rheumatology and arthritis at the Children's Hospital in Sheffield so was there a connection with his talk? Could sun worship be a treatment for these crippling conditions?
Well, if there is, then it certainly didn't come out in his fascinating and detailed talk about the Sun Gods of Egypt!
Sun worship was prevalent in the ancient Egyptian religion. The earliest deities associated with the sun are all goddesses, including Hathor, Nut, Bat, and Menhit. Hathor, and then Isis gave birth to and nursed Horus and Ra respectively. Hathor – see picture – the horned cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra.
Their belief in the birth life and death sequence was reflected in the passage of the day itself, starting with dawn and moving on through to the night.
In the stories of the Egyptian Gods there are many similarities with the Christian stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and the great flood for which Noah built the ark.
Sitting between the Gods and the people were the Pharaohs. Egyptologists have long debated the degree to which the Pharaoh was considered a god. It seems most likely that the Egyptians viewed royal authority itself as a divine force. Therefore, although the Egyptians recognized that the Pharaoh was human and subject to human weakness, they simultaneously viewed him as a god, because the divine power of kingship was incarnated in him.
Rod covered many aspects of the beliefs of the Gods and Pharaohs and none more strange than the weighing of the heart against a feather –if it was too heavy then entry to the afterlife was not permitted.
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Palm Springs Film Fest to Honor Alum Annette Bening for Career Achievement
DESERT SUN (PALM SPRINGS) -- "Throughout her career, Annette Bening has brought to the screen many memorable performances, including the four films for which she was nominated for an Academy Award: 'American Beauty,' 'The Grifters,' 'The Kids Are All Right' and 'Being Julia,'" Festival Chairman Harold Matzner said. "Bening creates yet another memorable award-winning role portraying Dorothea, a free-spirited single mother raising her teenage son in Mike Mills' upcoming film, '20th Century Women.'" Bening, a San Francisco State University graduate, received her first national acclaim with "The Grifters" in 1990. The next year, she co-starred in "Bugsy" with Warren Beatty. She married Beatty in 1992 and they have four children. Bening has received Best Actress nominations for "20th Century Women" from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Golden Globes, Gotham Awards and Independent Film Spirit Awards.


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Engrave your name in History
St. Desiderius / Quirinus
G34 South transept Spire
Patron Saint: Symbol:
As for Spire G23, in this case too studies conducted by the Archive of Veneranda Fabbrica attribute a double identity to this work, namely San Desiderio and San Quirino.Native of the hinterland of Genoa, San Desiderio lived in the 4th century and was miraculously appointed to the bishopric of Langres. In the early 7th century, Varnacarius, a clergyman of that city, wrote a story of his martyrdom, basing it on local traditions. According to Varnacarius, bishop Desiderio was beheaded during a Vandal invasion led by Chrocus. However, there seems to have been some confusion about the dates in this regard, and the invasion cited was actually that of the Germans in 355-357 AD. A legend relates that the beheaded holy bishop picked up his head and returned to the city through a crevice in the rock that had opened to allow him to pass. It can still be seen today.Instead, San Quirino was a Roman tribune to whom martyrs Alexander, Eventius and Theodulus were delivered. His was converted after witnessing the miracles granted by the three martyrs, and was baptised along with his daughter Balbina. He later suffered the same martyrdom and died beheaded on 30 March of a year in the early 3rd century. His body was buried in the Pretestato cemetery on via Appia, in Rome. The saint's relics, instead, had another fate and are, to date, venerated in the cathedral of St. Quirinus of Neuss. His cult reached a climax in 1471, during the siege of Neuss, and spread from there throughout Germany, Belgium and Italy.
Donate for this Spire
The most beloved Spires
G135 - Madonnina (Main Spire)
G58 - Saint of the Favonius
G42 - Gabriel Archangel
G115 - Gabriel Archangel pointing to Heaven
G26 - St. Francis of Assisi
G46 - Winged Angel
G79 - St. Cecilia
G20 - St. Marius
G57 - St. Joan of Arc
G15 - St. Alexander
G103 - St. Frances Cabrini
G60 - Anonymous Spire
G117 - St. Joachim
G74 - St. Magdalene
G17 - St. Victor
G14 - St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle


The difficulty of governments to communicate with people. Formation and election of political classes are no longer suitable to represent the social reality that expresses them. Election laws and regulations are obsolete, motivations and political options are manipulated by the media. People think they have a choice, but in fact they behave according to subliminal conditions and do what the system wants them to do. Eventually elected representatives have very little to do with the people they are supposed to represent and more to do with the system that got them elected.
Interference of ethnical nationalisms with common feelings. The social identity, which was once felt and shared by the whole nation, has been broken into local subcultures, related to ethnicities, class, economic standards, corporate interests. Each subculture has specific interests, often conflicting, diverse and hostile.
Economic inequality. During the last twenty years of capitalism, post communism and neo-liberism in Europe, the lack of a financial re-balancing mechanism between the center and periphery of market economies, resulted in a consistent increment of economic inequality: the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. The 2008 Great Financial Crisis iaccelerated the process. Inequality poisons social relations and radicalizes political options. Room for compromise is limited.
The present cultural/political crisis of the European Union, politically and practically unable to implement the urgently needed reforms to convert the Union into a Federation has fed the party of the eurosceptics: Brexit was born in England but originated in Brussels. The EU bears strong responsibilities for the British ongoing tragedy and neither acknowledges nor seems capable of facing them.
"Remain" has not been able to clearly explain its motivations. Britons have not understood why they should stick to a multinational entity, conceptually and functionally in critical conditions, after centuries of imperial and insular success history and there was no clear, understandable, answer to that question. Brussels has not been useful, which is to say they have not shown serious cooperation, or have not been able to help at all.
Neither "Brexiteers" had solid arguments, just a vague feeling of Britishness, Good Old Blighty kind of stuff, at times historically noble, but generally borderline to parochial, gutsy nationalism, plus a keen anti-Brussels hostility.
The paramount importance of the trade advantageof the 500 million consumers market is clear to entrepreneurs, industrial operators and global finance people, but alien to the masses only excited by the present contingency as if there were no future. For the "Leavers"consequences do not count, in fact do not even exist. When facts do not count, words are useless.
Parliament feuds. The difficulties of the EU negotiations exposed Theresa May to the aggression of her Tory peers, who were trying to substitute her, and to the aggression of the opposition who saw the chance to return to power. Neither had better proposals than hers, as was crudely shown by the vote on March 29thwhen Parliament was not able to approve any of the eight proposals tabled. Theresa failed, but Parliament was even worse.
Last but not least: the unforgivable mistake to call a referendum on such a complex issue. The brutal simplification of the Remain/Leave choice placed the sophisticated issue, geo-political, financial, and cultural, to the uninformed choice of the people's vote. Experience has proved time and again that referendum procedures are a catastrophe for complex issues, a shameful betrayal of political responsibility by the government, a lethal blow to democracy.
The end: Possibly one of thegreatest failures of "politics" as an institution and as a culture and a disturbing victory of irrationality over reason.
On Saturday 30ththe British Parliament voted against the last Brexit proposal by Theresa May. The NO DEAL solution is now reality, and nobody knows what further disaster it will bring about.
Una risposta a Did we learn anything from Brexit?


With around 5 million slot machines in the country of Japan, slots are easily among the most popular Casino games, with literally hundreds of different varieties found. Based on all kinds of different themes, rules and features the development of online slot games provides players with innovate games and location themed slots seem to be among the most played. Paradise Treasures, Japanese Mystery and Irish Clover are just a handful of the location themed slots available and many players cash out while exploring another place. The history, culture and art that ties into these games is just one of the many reasons they prove so popular amongst gamers and many of these virtual games are available at Slots at Paddy Power. Offering premier slots, such as Indian Princess, Egyptian Wilds and Thai Thai, these games have a clear geographical theme running throughout giving players a unique experience.


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Solidarity 386, 2 December 2015
Junior doctors: battle is not over
Industrial news in brief
Feminism is for sex workers too!
Our weapon? Human connection
Equality makes us live longer
The far left in Northern Ireland
Time to discuss the R-word
The mass psychology of Islamo-fascism
Stop the Labour purge!
Labour must challenge nationalist ideas
How councillors could fight the cuts
Sisters Uncut
SNP attack Labour from the right
US-UK bombing won't stop Daesh!
Published on: Wed, 02/12/2015 - 10:12
Download pdf or read online.
Gemma Short
A strike by junior doctors planned for Tuesday 1 December was called off at the last minute when the British Medical Association (BMA), NHS bosses and Department for Health ministers came to an agreement at the end of talks.
New contracts for junior doctors will not now be imposed and negotiations will be reopened. Crucially, the danger of the BMA needing to reballot if new negotiations are not satisfactory has been averted.
The agreement allows the BMA to take action up to 13 January using their current ballot mandate. NHS bosses and government ministers have effectively agreed to ignore
Gemma Short, Ollie Moore, Ben Tausz, Charlotte Zalens and Peggy Carter
Lancashire County Council is on the verge of making sweeping cuts.
The cuts include over 2,500 job losses (compulsory and voluntary). Around 40 of the 75 libraries in Lancashire will close, as will 5 out of the 10 council run museums, all subsidised bus routes, and numerous other front line services will be cut.
Since 2008 local Lancashire services have been repeatedly cut. Between January 2014 and October 2015 1,100 jobs have gone. In February cuts of £152 million over three years were announced. In November the council revised up the level of cuts as the Tory government announced the
London's annual radical feminist-led demonstration against sexual and domestic violence, Reclaim the Night, which took place in London on 28 November, is under fire for its sex worker-exclusive approach to feminism.
Reclaim the Night have a long history of making sex workers who continue to work in the industry and sex worker blocs very unwelcome. This year, the coalition which organised London RTN publicly condemned Amnesty International's decision to support the full decriminalisation of all aspects of prostitution.
They argue that prostitution is a form of violence against women and call
Daisy Thomas
In the age old tale of good versus evil, the final instalment of The Hunger Games trilogy (Mockingjay, part two) doesn't disappoint. This story is rife with revolution and revolt, power returning to the previously powerless, the oppressed rising up against their cruel oppressors, and the uniting and restorative power of hope.
These are familiar tales and themes from our history books, our fairy tales, from our current events. What distinguishes this film and makes it so damn compelling is the representation of the uprising.
What some may call a "slow burn" actually makes for a plausible
Les Hearn
Someone (possibly Stalin) once said "When one man dies, it's a tragedy. When a million die, it's a statistic." But, to Professor Sir Michael Marmot, a million deaths is not just a statistic.
A million people have died prematurely in just the last five years in Britain, according to the renowned epidemiologist Michael Marmot, author of The Health Gap, who has spent a lifetime trying to counteract such cynicism. For him, the deaths of millions worldwide from same cause, inequality, are millions of tragedies which could and should be prevented.
Marmot was a medical student in the 60s when he
Marc Mulholland
Marc Mulholland is a historian working at Oxford University, and the author of books including "Northern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction". He spoke at the Workers' Liberty 2015 summer school, Ideas For Freedom, on the history of the far left in Northern Ireland.
Trotskyism in the early 1960s in Northern Ireland is interesting and unusual, in that it was most prominent amongst the Protestant working-class.
The Socialist Labour League, which became the WRP, got together a group of people around Jackie Vance, who came from working-class East Belfast. They had a group in the Draughtsman and
Dave Osland
For the past three months, the very word "reselection" has been unmentionable in Labour left circles, for fear that even talking about it would represent an unwarranted provocation of the Labour right.
But as recent events clearly underline, it's time to break the taboo. At the very least, Corbyn supporters now have to — how can I put this gently? — engage in measured debate on how we approach the next round of trigger ballots for sitting MPs.
Jeremy famously won't push the nuke button, but do we want to drop the D-bomb? And if we do, how should we best go about it?
I am, of course, going
This is a regular guest column by Eric Lee of LabourStart.
There can be little doubt that the murderous ideology of Islamic State is a form of fascism. In discussing how the left should react to it, it is therefore necessary to return to our sources, to learn how earlier generations of socialists understood — and fought — fascism.
In that fight, Trotsky was of course an inspiring and authoritative figure. As opposed to the Stalinists, who saw no difference between the Nazis and the Social Democrats (and indeed sometimes preferred the Nazis), Trotsky understood fascism to be a mortal danger
Since the last issue of Solidarity, there have been a number of successes for the campaign to stop the witch-hunt against the left in the Labour Party.
Andrew Fisher, Jeremy Corbyn's chief policy adviser, has been reinstated to membership after a month of suspension. Two socialists expelled from the Labour Party, Liam Cooper in Lambeth and Gerry Downing in Brent, have been reinstated follow appeals and protests locally.
One of the six comrades expelled because of their association with Workers' Liberty has received confirmation that they will have an appeal hearing. The other comrades are


A crossover can be one of the most magical experiences, whether it be in music, comics, or movies. Seeing some of your favorite characters and people interact and react to each other can by a completely amazing experience. That's what makes our very own Affiliate's crossover so special. The great people over at The Multiverse Show first convened on NLG Gaming's channel for a informative talk on the future of Google joining the games industry.
Then once again both teams convened again on the Multiverse Show, to talk Division 2, James Bond and a wide array of topics.
We hope you check out these great podcasts, and support their content. As always don't forget to check back for the latest gaming news and information. Make sure you are subscribed/following both NLG Gaming and The Multiverse Show.


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BriefMobileMobile Apps
The Top 10 Productivity Apps in 2015: Every Smartphone Users Must Install
By Amartya Baidya
More tha 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, more than 3 billion unique mobile apps across all app stores. How to find the top 10 productivity apps in 2015 for business and professional purpose ?
Specifications and hardware may make a phone look good on paper, but ultimately everything boils down to the user experience. And software plays one of the, if not the most important role in this department. The main reason that Android and iOS have been such runaway successes is due to the plethora of apps in every imaginable category that their App Stores are host to. Today, we take a look at a handpicked list of ten of the best productivity apps in 2015, all of them, must haves for the mobile professional.
Now some of these apps work better on tablets, especially new age ones like the iPad Pro and the Pixel C because of their added keyboards and stylus functionalities. However, even on a regular Droid or an iPhone, these apps prove to be essential for conducting business on the go.
The Top 10 Productivity Apps in 2015
We have included direct links to the app stores for all the apps, so you can download them and take them for a spin! So, without wasting any more time, here are the top 10 productivity apps for 2015, in no particular order of importance!
#1. Microsoft Office Suite (Price: Free with IAP)
Download links: Word (Android, iOS), Excel (Android, iOS) and Powerpoint (Android, iOS)
Everyone who has ever worked in something remotely close to an office environment knows how much Microsoft's office suite means to the corporate world. While aimed mainly at larger devices, tablets being the key focus; Microsoft's lineup of Word, Excel and Powerpoint make the transition to touch screen controls pretty seamlessly. While they do lack some of the functionality of their desktop counterparts, they are powerful enough for an impromptu presentation or to make a last minute edit to a document.
Commanding a total download number north of 30 million in the Play store, these three apps feature at the top of the list for the productivity category in both Android and iOS making them a must have for anyone looking to get some work done on the move.
#2. Outlook Email (Price Free)
Download links: Microsoft Outlook (Android, iOS)
Unlike the plethora of apps out there that claims to fix your Inbox or do other magic tricks that make you hunt hours for an email, Outlook is the no-nonsense email client that gets the job done. It has a focus inbox that categorises all of the important emails together and is essential for those professionals whose workplace email is bound to a Windows server environment. It also bundles in a calendar and a planner making this app really nifty and above all functional.
With downloads clocking up in the 10 million range for Android and a uniformly good rating of around 3.6 stars out of 5 in both App Stores; this is one app that deserves a place in the phone of any productive individual!
#3. Feedly (Price: Free)
Download links: Feedly (Android, iOS)
One of the hardest struggles of the modern professional is to keep themselves abreast of all the things going on in their field across the world. Feedly is one such news accumulation service. Based on the RSS subscription service, Feedly collects all the RSS feeds that you're interested in and shows them in one fast and easy to read interface. You can even categorise articles by their importance and even save some of them later for going in depth when you get more time.
Another one of the apps with more than 10 million downloads on Android and 4.5 and 4 stars in Android and Apple app stores respectively, Feedly is the RSS reader that goes above and beyond. With a slick user interface that becomes immensely powerful as an aggregation tool, if one spends a bit of time initially configuring it to suit their needs, Feedly can replace all the individual news apps.
#4. Asana (Price: Freemium)
Download links: Asana (Android, iOS)
One of the most frustrating things for any busy individual is wasting time going through excel sheets and word files trying to find out information about who completed a particular assignment or part of a project. Asana seeks to do away with all of that in one fell swoop. While there are many apps out there that claim to do just the same thing, but in our practical usage scenarios, we have found Asana to be a better solution. Coming to the pricing structure, for small businesses of less than 15 employees, Asana is entirely free. Larger organisations have to shell out $8.33/month for each employee, but they get a whole host of extra features; especially those pertaining to centralised administration and corporate level of security, a boon for enterprises.
In spite of being fairly new to the game, Asana has raked up over 5 million downloads on Android and the rave reviews on both App Stores are testimony to the fact how good this app is!
#5. Last Pass (Price: Subscription Based)
Download links: LastPass Premium app (Android, iOS,)
With social media becoming such a big part of our lives, the amount of damage that a hacked account can deal to an individual and their company is at an all time high. Last Pass seeks to solve all of that and deal with the problem of remembering multiple complex passwords with their app. With a yearly subscription of 23$, you can install Last Pass and use that one password to log into every one of your accounts. What's even better, cross-device sync is enabled, and you can use LastPass from any one of your smartphones, tablets or even desktops.
With an incredibly high rating of 4.6 on the Android and Apple App stores, Last Pass is the last word when it comes to security apps. They have recently added support for biometric fingerprint sensors on smartphones as well, so you can now log into your accounts using just your finger.
#6. Evernote (Price: Freemium)
Download links: Evernote (Android, iOS)
When researching on any topic, every one of us has come across topics that are immensely interesting but probably not relevant right away. While bookmarking them is a solution, often times bookmarks become way too cumbersome to be correctly categorised. This is where Evernote steps in. Evernote is the web clipper that allows you to save whatever small or large bit of information that you find on a web page that is relevant to you. While relatively expensive at 49.99$ a year, Evernote Premium takes the ease of Evernote one step further by allowing syncing across devices so that your notes are always accessible no matter where you are.
Evernote's popularity speaks volumes about its ease of use and contribution to the workflow as over 100 million people have downloaded this app from the Play Store. Coupled with an excellent rating of over 4 stars in both the app stores, Evernote's position as the virtual clipboard of choice for professionals is cemented by their ability to scan and store physical business cards in an online diary.
#7. IF IFTT (Price: Free)
Download links: IF by IFTTT (Android, iOS)
Time is of the essence, and no one knows it better than the travelling professional who has to juggle work and family all the while being on the move from one place to another. IF by IFTT tries to save as much of your time as possible by automating mundane actions. With IF, you can set certain triggers, such as your location and those triggers perform actions. While primarily invented for simple tasks, there are complicated Triggers or "Recipes" as they are called available from this link.
There is a bit of a learning curve that come with using IF, but once you get familiar with the protocol of IF this THEN do THAT, you'll be saving time throughout your day! What's more this app is available totally for free so there's just no reason why you shouldn't give it a spin. After all, more than a million people already have!
#8. Pushbullet (Price: Subscription Based)
Download links: (Android, iOS)
Distractions cause a break in thought processes and is an overall hindrance to productivity in general. With notifications buzzing our smartphones at a minutes interval, it becomes nigh impossible to concentrate on the work hand without resorting to checking the phone every few minutes. Pushbullet seeks to put an end to that distraction by pushing the notifications to your PC as they appear on their phone. Not only that you can respond to these notifications as well and even send notifications to other users of the app. What started off as a notification hub and as an easy way to transfer links between PC and Mobile is now an app that pretty much ports all of the functionality of your phone's notification shade over to your desktop.
Available in a freemium scheme, if you find yourself using this highly downloaded app (over 10 million downloads) daily, you may consider a yearly subscription at $39.99
#9. Art Rage (Price: Paid)
Now while most of the apps in this list has been focussed on the business side of things, we thought it'd be nice to switch it up and focus on artists and content creators for this one. Art Rage is without a shadow of a doubt the best sketching app on Android and iOS and everyone, from the professional doodler to the graphic designer will find that this app suits their designing needs. This app is paid and costs 5$ on both the App Stores, but it's worth every penny if you want to take mobile drawings to the next level.
It is highly rated at around 4.5 stars on both App Stores but to get the best experience out of it; we recommend using it with a device that has an active stylus like the Note Series on Android and the iPad Pro for iOS users.
#10. Dropbox (Price: Freemium)
Being productive is directly proportional to the amount of content one can create, or jobs completed. And a lot of work needs a lot of space, to be stored safely for future reference and to be accessed whenever there is arises any need for it. While there are a myriad of cloud storage options out there, our reason for singling out DropBox out of them was due to their unique data retrieval system. While most companies have some form of data redundancy baked into their system, DropBox allows their pro users(99$/year) to retrieve accidentally deleted files. This alone makes them stand head and shoulders above the competition, especially in the enterprise arena.
They also provide reward schemes and offer specialised discounts and plans for educational institutions and small businesses. With more than 100 million downloads from the Google Play Store and high ratings all around, DropBox seems to have hit the sweet spot between monetization and customer satisfaction.
That's all folks!
And with that, we come to the conclusion of our list! Which of these apps will you be downloading on your smartphone? Have we missed out on any one of your favourite productivity apps? Sound off in the comments below and we will take them into consideration when we meet again next year to judge the best apps in the productivity category.
Previous articleBenefits of Mobile Apps in Efficient Business Management
Next articleThe Top 10 4G Enabled Smartphones of 2015: OnePlus 2 Rules The Chart


The September 2018 issue of Lion's Roar magazine features Buddhist wisdom to discover your basic wellness. Inside, you'll find true stories of sickness, health, and the basic wellness that transcends them, a profile of Buddhist teacher Robert Thurman, Buddhist teachings on facing life's challenges, and more.
True stories of sickness, health, and the basic wellness that transcends them.
The three Buddhist teachers featured at this year's Lion's Roar retreat teach us ways to work with whatever challenges life presents so we can benefit ourselves and others.
Lindsay Kyte traces the history of the BCA—and the Japanese immigrant experience in America—through four generations of one family.


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My answer to major problem: Paying for infrastructure
John Agnew
We have heard repeatedly that our infrastructure — roads, bridges, railroad tracks, power grids — are crumbling, desperately in need of repair, yet there is no money available.
The government spends a prodigious amount, which goes everywhere except for the most basic of our needs. Repairing something never gets your name on a bronze plaque, and maybe a good euphemism will help.
Our government likes euphemisms, particularly in more recent years. For example, "rendition" means to send someone to another country to be tortured. "Enhanced interrogation techniques" means torture, which is not allowed under the original name. "Revenue enhancement" means raise taxes. People are paid to coin these obfuscations, you know; they don't just happen.
You'll remember when the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis collapsed only two weeks after the governor vetoed a bill authorizing taxes to pay for repairs. The governor's embarrassment was brief, for blame was widely distributed. Remember: There may not be enough money to do it right the first time, but there is always enough money to do it after it's too late. Where does the "too late" money come from? They never explain.
Here is my foolproof suggestion, offered free of charge: The euphemism for infrastructure repairs is "football stadium." I can explain.
There is, as we have seen, almost always enough money to build a football stadium. They are becoming very pricey, having never been cheap since bleacher seats were no longer sufficient and air-conditioned luxury boxes were in the early planning stages. The going price for a professional-level stadium has reached over a billion dollars.
In Texas, a high school stadium was built for $60 million, and after completion two years ago it was found to be unsafe, so $10 million worth of repairs were made over the next two years. Easy come, easy go, as we like to say.
The new Minnesota Vikings stadium was a tougher nut to crack. Minnesota had a law that when a certain amount of public money was to be spent on such a project, it must be submitted for public approval. They did this twice, and it was rejected both times, so the legislature approved the project without another vote. A billion-dollar budget was authorized; the owners magnanimously offered to pay half, leaving $500 million for the surprised public.
The stadium is to be covered with glass, and since the place is only a few blocks from the Mississippi Flyway, migratory birds are likely to kill themselves. Treating the existing glass to avoid this (the technique was not described) would cost $1 million, and was rejected as too expensive (no kidding). A court will probably settle this dispute.
The Dallas Cowboys demanded a new, multi-use, billion-dollar stadium and, remarkably, the city of Dallas said that was too much. Nearby Arlington picked up the flag and built the stadium, securing a bond issue for $325 million of the total $1.15 billion. Even for Texas, that's a lot.
Back in the good old days (2006), a multi-use football stadium was built near Phoenix, Arizona, for only $455 million, relatively chicken feed compared to New York's $1.7 billion facility (2010). The Arizona Cardinals paid for a third, and the University of Phoenix bought the naming rights. This is just advertising, as the school has no intercollegiate sports programs.
These grandiose facilities were built not without controversy and criticism, but they were built, which is more than you can say about our infrastructure. The path is clear, so let's get on with it.
John Agnew is a retired physician who lives in Fort Myers. Send correspondence to johnagnew2978@gmail.com.


First, you need a quick way to access the latest Ubuntu-related software. With Gnome (the default X-Windows face of Ubuntu Linux), you can access this software either from the Applications menu or via the Command Line Interface (CLI), commonly referred to as the terminal. I use the terminal, so to follow along begin by creating a shortcut to the terminal.
On the top left menu button of your install, left mouse click Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal and then click on and hold the terminal icon. (see Figure 1).
You can access the latest Ubuntu-related software via the Command Line Interface (CLI), commonly referred to as the terminal.
If you are starting from a vanilla install of Ubuntu 7.10, skip this section. If you have installed Ubuntu 7.04 and want to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10, you first must have the latest and greatest of all the current Feisty Fawn software packages. If it wasn't for the System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager, keeping up with the daily changes and improvements to the Ubuntu system and related software would be difficult. Fortunately, the apt-get command makes software upgrades and installations nearly effortless.
To upgrade your kernel, keystroke Alt-F2 and in the resulting Run Application prompt box type: gksu "update-manager" (see Figure 2).
To update and upgrade your Ubuntu release, you need only enter one line of code in the terminal.
To complete your kernel upgrade, click the [Upgrade] button to the right of "New distribution release '7.10' is available". Kernel upgrading really could not be easier!
Delete the comment tag (#) from the restricted locations and save the modified file.
One of the best things about X-Windows is its multi-workspace environment. On a default install, the bottom right corner of the bottom taskbar features two squares. Move the mouse over that area and right click Preferences. Increase the number of workspaces to a total that is reasonable for your purposes (one for chat, one for email, one for surfing, one for terminal, one for GIMP graphics editing, and so on). You can choose between one and 36. Tip: to use the Compiz Fusion cube, set the columns to 4 and the rows to 1.
Multitasking is expected these days, so why not try it out? Close the workspace preferences window and launch a browser in a separate workspace. Open another workspace and activate another application. Once you start to use multiple workspaces you will never be able to go back to single desktop workspace mode.
Not only can you have multiple workspaces, you can also choose between multiple X-Windows environments. Gnome is just one possible interface between the operating system and the user. Indeed, Ubuntu Linux is a custom built Gnome X-Windows environment running on top of Debian Linux. However, Debian Linux is capable of running most, if not all, of the X-Windows family.
I sincerely hope that the Ubuntu team does not forget their Debian roots when custom designing software. Software interoperability across all Linux platforms is the way to go.
The Xubuntu Desktop integrates its applications with the Gnome Desktop and vice versa, but this is a matter of taste. If you prefer one desktop OS to another, then by all means use the system that speaks to you! Log out and choose XFCE as a session to explore the Xubuntu Desktop.


The ice arena, cycle-fit studio and rear parking lot of the Ladner Leisure Centre remain closed as those emergency exits are still unavailable for use. Delta's consulting structural engineer and Fire Chief Dan Copeland have approved the re-opening of the Ladner Leisure Centre fitness area. The fitness area will be staffed to re-open at 4:00 pm today.
Updates will follow next week as information is obtained.
A meeting between Delta staff and sport user groups will take place today to update all affected groups in person on the repair schedule.


District Six is a former residential neighborhood in Cape Town.
It's pretty central, within the so-called city bowl. And, weirdly, it's a pretty barren area in the middle of town.
It is barren and abandoned, as over 60.000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed from their homes during the 1970s under apartheid laws, when the regime declared the area a whites-only neighborhood.
The logic of apartheid was to keep races apart, hence the word, as the interaction of races supposedly caused conflict.
So they tore a whole lively neighborhood apart.
At the start of the 20th century, District Six was a lively neighborhood, with former slaves, merchants, craftsmen, and immigrants living side by side, and rather cosmopolitan, with whites, Indians, Xhosa, Muslims and Colored all living together.
It was also the home of a lot of the Cape Malay population (who were later removed to today's colorful Bo-Kaap).
The apartheid government though saw things differently when they looked at District Six: they saw crime, prostitution, gambling, drinking… in short, a slum, that needed to be cleared.
Though the value of the land, in the city bowl between Table Mountain and the harbor might have also played a role.
So in 1966, the government declared District Six a whites-only area. The removals of its residents started two years later, and by 1982, more than 60.000 people had been relocated.
Their new homes were mostly located in the Cape Flats township, some 25 kilometers away.
Communities were destroyed, sports clubs dissolved, neighbors torn apart. Jobs lost, lives destroyed. Their old houses were bulldozed. The only buildings left standing were churches, mosques and schools.
Apart from a few new buildings, police housing and parts of the university that were relocated, nothing much happened, though, and the area was left undeveloped.
Walking through the area, you cannot stop shaking your head about so much stupidity. Besides the human tragedy and the loss of community, in the middle of the city, the economic disaster is blatantly obvious.
How afraid must you be of the mixing of the races to ruin whole areas…?
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the new, democratic South African government has recognized the claims of the former residents and supported rebuilding.
It wasn't that easy though, as parts were so redesigned with a new layout and street grids, running through empty lots, that it was difficult to identify the old claims.
Progress is slow, as you can see everywhere, but still… In 2004, 38 years after the area was bulldozed, former president Nelson Mandela handed the keys to the first returning residents. There's hope.
I learned about all this in the small but worthwhile District Six museum. Housed since 1994 in a former church, it tells the individual stories of residents and their losses, the general frame of apartheid, and the history of District Six before the removals.
There is a large street map of District Six on the ground floor, best seen from above.
Notes from former residents show where their homes had been. You can see former street signs, and whole recreations of places, among them a former hairdresser's salon.
It is definitely worth a visit. I didn't take the tour, but I heard from friends that it's really good to take it.
The museum is a bit crammed, and there are so many individual stories, testimonies, newspaper articles, etc., it is a bit overwhelming. You need some time in it to go through it all.
But it is a vital memorial to apartheid, and a warning.


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Helmut Sinor (* 23. Dezember 1961 in Wien) ist ein österreichischer Musiker, Komponist, Autor und Radiomoderator.

Leben und Wirken
Sinor begann eine Ausbildung zum Großhandelskaufmann mit den Schwerpunkten Musikproduktion und Vertrieb bei der Ariola Schallplatten GmbH in Wien.

1979 spielte er seine ersten eigenen Songs unter der Regie von Günter Grosslercher im Schmettersound Studio der österreichischen Folk-Politrock-Band Schmetterlinge ein. Unterstützt wurde er dabei von der Sängerin Kirstin Lill, mit welcher er zu dieser Zeit in der PR-Abteilung bei Ariola tätig war. Noch im selben Jahr produzierte er die erste Single der von ihm während des österreichischen Band-Wettbewerbs Pop-o-drom entdeckten Rock-Formation Ferrum mit dem Titel Shoot Me (B-Seite: Night of the Whores), die in Österreich, Deutschland und der Schweiz auf Atlanta 8105 veröffentlicht wurde.

Seit 1980 war der Autodidakt als Studiomusiker für Schlagzeug, Gitarre, Bass und Gesang auch für zahlreiche andere Bands und Interpreten tätig. Seine erste Produktion als Studiomusiker war das Album Bassenaimpressionen  von Henk Freytag, das – produziert von Andy Zahradnik – 1980 bei CBS erschien und bei welchem er als Helmut "Cassidy"" Sinor  in den Credits gelistet wird.

1983 erschien die von ihm als Co-Autor komponierte und getextete Single Modern Times  (B-Seite: Southern Lady ) von Robert Slade auf dem österreichischen Label JOE-Records, das durch Ariola vertrieben wurde.

Ab 1981 arbeitete er als Programmgestalter und Moderator, zunächst beim Privatradio Radio val Canale in Tarvis (Italien). Anschließend wechselte er 1985 zum Radiosender Ö3 des Österreichischen Rundfunks. Als Musikredakteur gestaltete er Beiträge für Treffpunkt Ö3 und die Ö3 Sommerparade. Für beide Sendungen war er auch als Moderator tätig, wobei die Moderation der Ö3 Sommerparade vorwiegend in Co-Moderation mit Marie Christine Giuliani stattfand. Er gestaltete unter anderem auch die Signation für die Sendung Das Ö3 Hitradio. Seine Sprecherausbildung erhielt er bei Viktor Handlos (ORF 1985 bis 1990), Werner Wawruschka (2011) sowie Ilse Maria Harzfeld (2013).

Mit der Neuausrichtung und Umstrukturierung von Ö3 verließ Sinor den Sender und zog sich weitgehend aus der Kreativszene zurück. 2006 holte ihn Herbert Tucmandl in sein Team der Vienna Symphonic Library.

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Ö3-Moderator
Hörfunkmoderator
Musikproduzent
Komponist (Österreich)
Österreicher
Geboren 1961
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The Nordic Lights Film Festival will be held March 1-3, 2019, in association with the Nordic Heritage Museum.
The Seattle International Film Festival runs May 16-June 9, 2019. The festival usually offers 1-4 Norwegian language films. Check their site closer to the festival date for this year's offerings.
The Scandinavian Language Institute shows two Scandinavian-language films per quarter at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard - open to the general public.
For Norwegian videos for rent, check out Scarecrow Video in the University District.


Our highly skilled American artisans hand fashion each Sphera Design globe for lasting beauty. Each one of our globes progresses through more than 40 intricate steps in order to achieve unsurpassed quality. No two globes are exactly alike. Our meticulous attention to detail allows us to offer a lifetime guarantee of quality and craftsmanship.
Beginning with museum quality cast acrylic sheets, each is cut to size, checked for optical clarity, and prepared for hand application of the graphics. Each globe design begins with specially developed, polar azimuthal projection cartography. Once we have achieved the balance of cartography and aesthetic design, it is transferred into a specialized silk-screen image. Each color applied to the globe requires an individual silk-screen. Depending on the globe to be created, this process can require eight to eighteen separate hand operations. Each piece is then carefully inspected and passed on to the thermal process.
At this step, each piece must be heat soaked for several hours at high temperatures. Then with the skilled eye of a highly trained craftsperson, each piece is fitted into a blowing tool which uses only air pressure to create the hemisphere. To assure optical clarity, the hemispheres are free-blown, similar to glass-blowing techniques. Each sphere is slightly different from any other. The hemispheres are then passed to the hands of the trimmer.
Here the two hemispheres are trimmed of any excess material, then carefully matched to create a complete globe. Next the globes are thoroughly cleaned and polished. Then, the highly skilled globe maker makes a final fitting and bonds the two hemispheres, making a complete globe. Finally, the globe is individually packed and prepared for shipment.
Each globe includes a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by John Szal and Karen Davis, the Founders and Creators of Sphera Designs, personally certifying the quality and appearance of each globe.
Each globe reflects a standard of excellence not achievable with today's mass production techniques. From the multi-colored silk-screening to the meticulous blowing, shaping, and finishing, each globe is proudly passed from the hands of our globe makers to yours.


text:
Category Archives: Movie Review
The 'Barely-There' Costumes of Logan's Run
by Jack Mackenzie
In the year before Star Wars, a Science Fiction film made a scene with its costumes – or lack thereof!
Science Fiction films of the 1970's weren't exactly subtle. Beginning with the Planet of the Apes movies, a sub genre of SF cinema began to emerge which has been dubbed "Shattered Earth". This type of film included some classics as well as some forgettable efforts.
Films like The Omega Man, THX 1138, Z.P.G., The Final Programme, Soylent Green, Phase IV, A Boy and His Dog, and The Ultimate Warrior explored dystopic visions of the future either after some sort of holocaust level disaster or in a repressive society that was designed in response to, or in order to prevent, said disaster.
In 1976 Logan's Run was one of the last notable films of this school and it was arguably the most successful and most memorable (after the Planet of the Apes films).
CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE, FULL COLOR PHOTOS AND MORE!
The special effects, the model work and the production design all push Logan's Run to the top of the heap of a less than reputable sub-genre of film. The story, as unsubtle as it was, caught the imagination of audiences enough to warrant a television series spin-off, if not an actual sequel. It was as successful a Science Fiction film as there could be before Star Wars came and changed the game.
But it was the costume design (or lack thereof) that really caught some people's attention at the time.
Up until Logan's Run costumes in Science Fiction films were generally relegated to either bulky spacesuits, formless white prison garb or elaborate outfits that featured over sized jewelry and odd helmets or other head dresses.
Logan's Run, chose to go with a "less is more" approach. And in the case of some costumes there was a lot of emphasis on the "less".
Bill Thomas was the costume designer for Logan's Run. He was an Academy Award-winning designer who had over 180 credits. He designed for films like Babes in Toyland, Spartacus and The Happiest Millionaire. His approach to the costumes of Logan's Run was to stick to fabrics and aesthetics of the time, which is why the film today seems hopelessly outdated. The film has a distinctive 1970's feel to it.
The costumes worn by the Sandmen, the police force of the futuristic city, the ones who catch the runners, made quite an impact, despite their simplicity. A black form fitting outfit with a grey band across the chest is as minimalist as it gets for a distinctive uniform, but the outfits are striking especially when compared with the costumes worn by the rest of the cast.
Which was not much.
The costumes worn by the citizens of the City, the futuristic home of the last of humanity, all under thirty, all white, are very revealing. The "California" sensibility is redolent throughout the population (this despite the fact that much of the City scenes were filmed in Dallas, Texas). The clothing is sparse. The skirts are short. The sleeves are practically non-existant and the materials are synthetic fibers like lycra and spandex. These materials were considered "fashion forward" at the time. Satin was also used along with cotton and sheer materials.
Very sheer. And, as is usual in these kinds of films, there are no bras in the future.
Most of the costumes for the movie were modified from pieces bought in retail stores like tunic shirts and wrap dresses. Once the base outfit was chosen, costumers would sew on patches of brightly colored fabric cut into geometric shapes to make them look futuristic.
In order to make the costumes "pop" all that was needed was a light spray of adhesive and a dusting of glitter or sequins. Accessories also played a huge part in the finished product. Jewelry and belts were the perfect "finishing off" of the costumes. The bigger and more elaborate the better.
The costumes from the movie resemble a lot of the "wild" clothing that was worn in the disco clubs of the day and later became the fashion of the early 80's, like off the shoulder tops and wide belts.
As revealing as the costumes from Logan's Run are they were originally designed to be much more revealing. But that would have meant spending much more on makeup for exposed skin.
One outfit in particular stands out from the pack. This was worn by Jennifer Agutter who played Jessica, the female lead. It consisted of a piece of fabric which barely covers the actor's front and back and leaves her sides exposed. All that holds the front and back pieces together is a small length of chain.
Again, there is clearly no underwear in the future.
Jenny Agutter, not surprisingly, wasn't wild about that outfit. "Logan's Run was fairly embarrassing," she stated in an interview. "But I'm thrilled that I've been a part of it all."
There is more to this article. Read the rest of Jack Mackenzie's essay (and see some slightly NSFW photos) in the latest issue of Dark Worlds Quarterly. It's available as a FREE download and it is packed with so much amazing stuff.
DOWNLOAD THE LATEST ISSUE HERE
Posted in Cinema, Jack Mackenzie, Movie Review, Science Fiction	| Tagged 1970's, Bill Thomas, Costume Design, Jennifer Agutter, Logan's Run, Michael Anderson, Planet of the Apes, Sci-fi films, Shattered Earth, Soylent Green, Z.P.G.	| Leave a reply
Batman V Superman: Good. Bad. I'm the one with the Kryptonite.
Posted on June 22, 2016 by Jack Mackenzie
I know this isn't the real Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill… they're just plastic figures… but they look so much more life-like, don't you think?
I recently saw Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Hoo, boy.
So, I'm late to this party. So late, in fact that I'm probably standing in an empty space amongst sad, withered party decorations on a floor covered in confetti. The last peal of revelry and laughter long since echoed away.
And there's not much left to say that hasn't already been said.
It's a movie about good guys and bad guys made by filmmakers who don't know the difference between the two.
Most of the criticism was focused on Superman. As depicted here, he really wasn't Superman. Not the real Superman.
My beef, though, is this: Clark Kent. He wasn't Clark Kent.
You see, Clark Kent was Smalville born and raised. I'm sure that Smallville would have instilled in him a work ethic that would make a Protestent proud. To me, Clark Kent always struck me as a hard worker, a real nose-to-the-grindstone kind of guy. When Perry White aske him to cover sports, Kent would provide copy. When he was asked to cover the party at Lexcorp, he would have provided copy. Kent would have knuckled down and wrote copy.
I work at a newspaper. I'm not a reporter, but I work with reporters and the one thing that reporters have to do… have to do… is write copy. Otherwise they're not reporters. A reporter who doen't produce printable copy is a poseur.
So when Perry White complains to Kent that there is no copy for sports or the social pages, I call bullshit.
After all, Clark Kent is Superman. He would have produced the copy. He wouldn't have gone off on his own, selfishly pursuing his own agenda on company time and the Daily Planet's dime. That's not Clark Kent.
Kent maybe isn't a prize winning journalist. He lets Lois win all the prizes. And Lois gets away with selfish behavior because she's Lois Lane.
Clark is the guy who turns up his sleeves and provides solid copy. He provides exactly what is required and maybe a little more. He wouldn't let his duties as a surperhero get in the way of that.
And he would show up to work and not mope around because a lot of people got blown up because he didn't see the bomb.
Even if he didn't see the bomb hidden in the wheelchair, he should have done something instead of standing there and blubbering while the capitol building burned around him. He could have sucked up the explosion with his super breath, or spun a whilwind to drag the fiery explosion up and out of the building. Even if he didn't see the bomb, he could have saved someone.
In fact… he's Superman. He should have seen the bomb. Superman would have seen the bomb.
I expect Bruce Wayne to be morose and mopey. Even this Bruce Wayne, who, honestly is batshit crazy and suffering from really fucked up dreams and who needs to see a therapist real bad. His dreams are like little fantasy sequences that kind of remind me of another film that had nightmarish dream sequences – Sucker Punch. Weird, huh?
So, Superman who lets his temper get away from him, who sulks and broods like an angsty teen… no. I don't buy that.
But I really don't buy a Clark Kent who doesn't put in a full day's work for a full day's pay and who doesn't write the copy that he's asked to. That ain't Clark Kent.
It just ain't.
Posted in Cinema, Jack Mackenzie, Movie Review	| Tagged Batman, Batman V Superman:Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck, Bruce Wayne, Clarke Kent, Henry Cavill, Superman	| Leave a reply
FANT4STIC
Posted on May 21, 2016 by Jack Mackenzie
It was on Netflix.
I'd heard that it was bad, but I thought; "How bad could it be?" So… I watched it.
Oh… wow… really… that bad…
The first part of the movie was going somewhere… not sure where that was. It didn't seem like the Fantastic Four that I'm familiar with but it was going somewhere. Josh Trank clearly had something in mind. But then it felt like the producers said; "This is insane! We can't make any money off this!" so they stopped the film and then brought someone else in to finish it.
Because suddenly everything is different. The tone, the dialogue, the delivery… even the performances change. From moody, monotone delivery suddenly they switch to breezy one liners and Reed urgently shouting out hurried plot explanations that make no sense whatsoever.
I don't know who wrote and directed that last half hour, but honestly, kids playing in their backyards could have come up with a more exciting and plausible final battle.
Oh, God this movie sucked. I'm going to go watch the Roger Corman version on Youtube just to get the taste of this atrocity out of my mind.
Here, watch it with me!
Posted in comic books, Jack Mackenzie, Movie Review, Netflix	| Tagged Fantastic 4, Kosh Trank, Roger Corman	| 1 Reply
A Matt Damon Double Bill? What Was I Thinking?
Posted on March 16, 2016 by Jack Mackenzie
I don't know what possessed me to watch two Matt Damon films back to back, but that's what I did.
I find Damon hard to take in large doses. Although I liked him fine in The Martian his appearance in Interstellar bordered on too much despite the fact that he had less screen time in that than in The Martian, so his level of "getting on my nerves" varies from film to film.
So I watched The Adjustment Bureau on Netflix. It was a film I'd never seen before and it was based on a story by Phillip K. Dick, who is one of my favorite writers and films based on his works usually appeal to me. This one did as well, despite it feeling like an episode of The Twilight Zone that went on for just too long. I liked Emily Blunt as well. I know she's a big draw these days but I haven't seen many of her films and in this one I found her to be engaging and watchable.
I had a very positive reaction to this film, despite finding the "magic hats" idea kind of silly. And maybe I'm not a romantic but it seems that a lot of Damon's character's actions were more than a little selfish. I guess I didn't get the sense that the feelings Damon had for Blunt's character were overwhelming. They said it, but I didn't feel it. Nor did I get the sense that Damon's character had a fantastic political destiny. He was liable enough, but he didn't convey the commitment that he was supposed to have to public service. The characters say all the right catchphrases, but there is nothing backing them up.
Still, getting past that the film was likable enough and the story was interesting and it was fun watching them go through the doors and ending up someplace completely different then where they are expecting.
At it's heart it is a chase movie. The philosophical and existential questions are secondary. It's about lovers wanting to be together and running from those who would tear them apart. The questioning of reality and pondering the questions of destiny versus free will were thrown in but not really explored.
Is it worth a look? Sure. It's on Netflix. Check it out.
But then there is Elysium, also starring Matt Damon. This is an original story (and I use the word "original" very lightly) by Neil Blomkamp and starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster.
This film is awful. There are some pretty special effects, sure, but the film is so monumentally stupid. So Elysium is a space station… a utopia in space… a giant ring space station where the rich and powerful hoard all the best air and medical technology while all the poor people live on the dirty, polluted and stinky surface of the Earth. You can tell they are poor because of the color of their skin and their Mexican accents.
Except for Matt Damon who seems to be the only poor white person. Naturally he is going to be the one to save everyone. Except it seems that wherever he goes, violence happens, which is not only bad for him but for anyone around him as well, which is inconvenient because he's just re connected with his childhood girlfriend and her daughter who has leukemia. (Oh, I can see where this is going)
As for Elysium itself it is run by a council but the Minister of Security, played by Jodie Foster, is a hard assed bitch who will not hesitate to shoot down ships loaded with dirty poor people who are trying to get access to the medical beds. The president makes noises about going to far, but Foster doesn't care. She's Anne Coulter on steroids, baby, an Armani suited villain who can't decide if her accent in English, French or American, but that hardly matters once she starts raving about how she's preserving the natural order of things and dripping equal amounts of contempt for the poor people of earth and also for the spoiled, rich but soft denizens of Elysium.
Okay, I could go on, but this movie is terrible. There are some pretty effects and the actual Elysium space station is breathtaking, although the lack of a ceiling is problematic. The atmosphere is just open to space. How it doesn't bleed off into the vacuum is beyond me and is never explained.
This movie. is mostly stupid. Actually, no, it's all stupid.
It's on Netlfix, yeah, but… don't. Just… don't.
Posted in Cinema, Jack Mackenzie, Movie Review, Netflix, Science Fiction	| Tagged Elysium, Emily Blunt, Jodie Foster, Matt Damon, Neil Blomkamp, Phillip K. Dick, Twilight Zone	| Leave a reply
Hey, I'm back with another Netflix movie review!
I don't play video games. I'm not a gamer. So what I know about HALO can be summed up as such:
It's a video game. It features a character called Master Chief.
That's it. That's all I know.
So, here I am watching a movie called Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and it begins with a bunch of cadets getting their hair sheared off (somewhat reminiscent of the opening scene of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, one of my favorite films of all time) and then these cadets start talking to someone off camera like it's some sort of documentary,
Okay. I think I know what this is.
Then it switches to an older guy (whom I recognize as Canadian Actor Ty Olsson, who played Lt. Aaron Kelly on Battlestar Galactica) who is listening to a distress call from a ship. The ship has 1 survivor in cryo-suspension, some alien thing is trying to take over and this cgi fairy thing materializes and…
Okay, the film's lost me. I don't know what's going on.
Then suddenly we're back with the cadets and the story picks up with cadet Thomas Lasky who really doesn't know if he wants to go to war or not. Seems his older brother was a good soldier but he died on a mission and he's real bummed about it and he never sees his mother anymore because she's too important.
So Lasky and his fellow cadets are in training and their squad has the lowest score because Lasky can't stop being an arrogant prick long enough to follow orders. Plus he's suffering from some blisters and burns and other health problems which his earnest doctor can't seem to figure out. Lasky soldiers on, though, which is ironic considering he doesn't seem to want to be a soldier.
If this hadn't had HALO in the title I would have given up on this film. The young cadets were good actors and the film looked fairly impressive. I liked the cadet uniforms. I liked the way they used Simon Fraser University as a backdrop (If you saw the original Battlestar Galactica pilot you'd probably recognize it). But I didn't like any of the characters.
So there's this subplot about one of the characters trying to un-encrypt a top secret video of a combat mission that hints that there is "something else" out there that the soldiers are fighting. Just as soon as they discover that fact the training school is suddenly under attack.
Now the movie gets exciting with these giant aliens attacking the school and real soldiers dropping in to defend them. So now it's a horror movie where the cadets squad is trapped in the school without any weapons trying to hide from the scary monsters who can become invisible. Okay. Now I know what kind of movie this is.
But wait! Just before an alien kills one of the cadets who shows up but Master Chief! Master Chief will save the day!
Now it's a chase movie where Master Chief and five… oh, wait, make that four… scared cadets have to run the gauntlet of scary aliens to make it to the rendezvous point.
Whoops! Make that three cadets.
Okay. This movie is a mess. It's boring and confusing in turns. Maybe if you play the game, or know more about the HALO universe this film would make sense. Apparently it was originally a web series. Maybe seeing it in episodes would have made more sense, but as a whole movie like this… well, it`s no Full Metal Jacket, let me tell you. It`s no Starship Troopers, either
If you are a fan of HALO this might be a good film. If you are a fan of military SF, this film is a bit of a mess.
I can`t recommend it, but if you are curious, it`s currently playing on Netflix.
Posted in Cinema, Jack Mackenzie, Movie Review, Netflix, Science Fiction	| Tagged Battlestar Galactica, CGI, Full Metal Jacket, HALO, HALO 4: Forward Unto Dawn, Kubrick, Lasky, Starship Troopers, Ty Olssen	| 1 Reply
Dredd (2012)
Posted on February 1, 2016 by Jack Mackenzie
To be perfectly honest, I was never a huge fan of Judge Dredd.
I loved 2000 AD. The British anthology comic was one of my favorites growing up and I could never get enough of them particularly living in Canada and having to rely on relatives or importers with a high markup to obtain copies.
My favorite strips were Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters initially, and later of The Ballad of Halo Jones, but I never really warmed to Judge Dredd, the violent hero of the comic strip created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. I read it, of course, but it was never really a favorite.
So when Judge Dredd was made into a movie starring Sylvester Stallone, I thought; "Well, that's it. Judge Dredd will never get another screen treatment after this!"
Turns out I was wrong.
Dredd adapts the comic series in a far more gritty and street level way then the previous film. One thing about the character from the comic books is that he never shows his face. He is always hidden behind his helmet. That wouldn't do for Stallone, but Karl Urban gamely steps up and does the whole movie without showing the top half of his face. In that regard he captures the character far better.
This adaptation is raw and gritty and, in some ways, hardly looks like a science fiction picture at all. Sure, the film explains that this is Mega City One, the only sity to survive the irradiated wasteland of the Cursed Earth, but it feels just like today's inner cities. That kind of disappointed me at first. In some ways I was missing the futuristic city scape from the previous film. It seemed to have more of a kinship with the original Robocop movie than the comic book that I remembered.
Once the action gets going, however, and the fight turns to the struggle between Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson against the gangs in a locked-down building, I was finally able to get into the picture.
I enjoyed it more or less. It had the requisite shoot-em-up scenes, explosions and slow motion visions of bullets tearing their way through human flesh, but it also had a small shred of humanity in the character of Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a telepath as in the comics, but here a rookie under the tutelage of the senior Dredd.
It was an interesting redemption for a character who has had an unfortunate cinematic history, and I could see how this could easily become a Netlix series (a possibility that many on the internet are talking up), It felt like a pilot episode. But then it also felt like a music video.
In the end I'm not sure what Dredd actually was, but it certainly wasn't pretty, or over-glitzed with CGI. It felt small and a little claustrophobic and maybe that's just one Judge Dredd storyline, but it certainly wasn't the best.
It was a better treatment of the character to be sure but as a film, I can't give it much more than that it was watchable… as long as one is not squeamish.
It's on Netflix now.
Posted in Cinema, Jack Mackenzie, Movie Review, Netflix, Science Fiction	| Tagged 2000 AD, Carlos Ezquerra, John Wagner, Judge Dredd, Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Robocop, Strontium Dog, Sylvester Stallone	| 1 Reply
After Earth (2013)
After Earth is a film that got severely and unfairly panned when it was released. Its box office performance was dismal and that was a shame because the movie is a real gem. Fortunately it's on Netflix and I would encourage you to give it another go if you passed on it in theaters. This film is head and shoulders above the other post-apocalyptic film released that year, Tom Cruise's messy Oblivion.
Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith take the two leads in this picture and although Will Smith is the heavier screen presence, the film's star is definitely Jaden.
In the near future, an environmental cataclysm forces the human race to abandon Earth and settle on a new world, Nova Prime.
One thousand years later, The Ranger Corps, commanded by General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), comes into conflict with the an alien race called the S'krell, whose secret weapons are the Ursas, large predatory creatures that hunt by "sensing" fear. The Rangers, however, have developed a technique called "ghosting" wherein they can mask their fear and remain invisible to the Ursas.
Cypher's son, Kitai (Jaden Smith) is training to become a Ranger, but his application is rejected because of his lack of proficiency in the field. The general is disappointed and there is the expected father-son anger. Before he retires the general is going on one last trip and his wife Faie convinces him to take Kitai along, presumably in the hopes that it will help heal the rift between them.
There is a lot to work out, however. In flashbacks we learn that Kitai blames himself for the death of his sister Senshi (Zoë Kravitz) at the hands of an Ursa. He also blames his father for not being there to rescue them both. Cypher is stoic and undemonstrative, qualities that make him an excellent general but not an effective father.
During flight, their spaceship is caught by an asteroid shower forcing them to crash-land on the now-quarantined Earth. Both of Cypher's legs are broken, and the main emergency rescue beacon damaged. Cypher instructs Kitai to locate the tail section of the ship, which broke off on entry to the atmosphere. Inside is the backup beacon which they can use to signal Nova Prime.
This is where the film really begins and where Jaden really shines. Unfortunately the character that he plays has obvious problems. He is willful, does not listen and is prone to panic. It is these characteristics that his character has to overcome in order to succeed and to stay alive.
Despite the story being somewhat predictable, the film still manages to launch some surprises at the viewer and even a few genuine scares. The scenery is lush and beautiful and the cgi effects are subtle and understated for the most part. Will Smith spends most of the rest of the film laid up and only able to offer advice but his presence mitigates Kitai's adolescent behavior until the communication is severed and Kitai is forced to manage on his own which, when he finally does, provides a satisfying payoff.
The film is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, but has none of that filmmaker's usual plot twists and turns. Shyamalan brings a stately and an understated approach to the action and the alien creatures. He does yeoman work as a director-for-hire in bringing Will Smith's movie to life.
The only issues I have with this film is its predictability. As soon as Kitai is told that he will not be graduating and joining the Ranger Corps and the reason why, then you know that the character will have to overcome that very flaw in order to survive. As soon as you see that the ship on which they are traveling contains a giant Ursa egg… well, as Anton Chekhov said: "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off." Here the Ursa egg is shown prominently in act one, so it's no surprise when a fully grown Ursa threatens Kitai by Act Three.
I also really did not buy the role of the giant eagle. It was more a mythical Roc than a natural eagle and its implied self-sacrifice to save Kitai was patently ridiculous. Also… lions climbing trees to raid nests? I know this is a future Earth, but… come on!
Still, aside from those there was a lot to like. I loved the look of the film. I loved the interesting look of the technology and how the film doesn't hit the viewer over the head with heavy explanations about what it is and how it works. There is very much a "show, don't tell" attitude about it and that I very much liked.
I also loved Will Smith's understated performance as General Raige. It was the perfect counterpoint to Jaden's hyperventilating turn as Kitai.
It's a real shame that this film did not do very well at all in theaters because there is a lot here. I hate to say this but I really do believe, despite Will Smith's box office power, that this film would probably have done better at the box office if the cast were white. The only film with a majority black cast that does big business in movie theaters are ones where they play slaves or servants.
In a science fiction film… and in charge of humanity? America don't buy that, apparently.
But you should watch After Earth. It's on Netflix. Check it out.
Posted in Cinema, Jack Mackenzie, Movie Review, Netflix, Science Fiction	| Tagged After Earth, Anton Chechov, Jaden Smith, M. Night Shyamalan, Oblivion, Will SMith	| Leave a reply


text:
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
Proposed amendments to the Official Languages Regulations
From: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
The Official Languages (Communications with and Service to the Public) Regulations (Regulations) have not been reviewed since they were adopted in 1991. To better serve Canadians, we must account for changing demographics, new technologies and lessons learned in the more than 25 years since these regulations were made.
The Government of Canada has tabled proposed amendments to the Official Languages Regulations. The regulations implement key provisions of Part IV of the Official Languages Act regarding communications with, and services to, the public.
The regulations specify the circumstances under which an office of a federal institution has to provide bilingual services. This includes the criteria that determine whether or not there is significant demand in the minority official language.
The proposed regulatory amendments cover the following areas:
Demography: Adopt a new, more inclusive calculation method for estimating significant demand that better captures immigrants and bilingual families who primarily or regularly speak the minority language at home. The amendments will increase the overall minority official language population for the purpose of applying the regulations.
Vitality: The incorporation of a community vitality criterion will add a qualitative measure that ensures bilingual services when a minority language school is within an office's service area.
Key services: The goal of the amendments is to provide for more services in both official languages. Current key services include tax services, employment centres, post offices and RCMP detachments. The proposed amendments expand key services to include regional development agencies, the Business Development Bank of Canada, and all services offered through Service Canada centres.
Transportation: Airports and train stations, including federal offices within those airports, that are subject to the Official Languages Act and are located in provincial or territorial capitals will be designated bilingual.
Technology: Services offered by videoconference will be added to the list of communications services such as toll-free lines that are automatically bilingual, regardless of demand.
To best serve Canadians in the language of their choice, the amendments will:
protect the bilingual designation of certain offices that depend on the proportion of the local official language minority population (5% threshold)
With this amendment, an office will remain bilingual when the official language minority population that it serves has remained the same or has increased, even if its proportion of the general population has declined
result in more than 600 newly bilingual offices, therefore increasing the percentage of bilingual offices from 34% to almost 40%
give greater weight, visibility and importance to the requirement to consult official language minority communities on the location of bilingual offices
provide more than 100,000 Canadians living outside of major urban centres access to a Service Canada office in the official language of their choice for the first time
streamline the language of service to the public in embassies and consulates by designating as bilingual the offices of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in these locations
ensure a comprehensive analysis of the regulations 10 years after the adoption of the proposed amendments and every 10 years thereafter, along with a requirement on the President of the Treasury Board to table that analysis in Parliament
These proposed amendments to the regulations were tabled in Parliament on October 25, 2018. In accordance with the Official Languages Act, the proposed amendments will be published in the Canada Gazette Part I to give interested groups, individuals and all Canadians another chance to review and comment on proposed regulations before they are enacted.
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Can This Man And His Mushrooms Stop Monsanto?
The name Paul Stamets probably doesn't mean much to most people. He's a mycologist, a mushroom scientist, and in 2006 he received a patent for SMART pesticides. SMART stands for Sporulating Mushrooms And Repelling Technology, and these fungal pesticides are sort of like Mother Nature's own way of keeping insects from destroying crops. And that could mean very bad news for agricultural giant Monsanto.
Monsanto has gotten waves of bad press in recent years. The company's pesticides have been linked to a wide range of diseases including cancer and organ failure. While many countries ban the sale of genetically modified (GMO) crops, they're Monsanto is known for. The company's bad image also comes from the belief they push small farmers out of business. They also invented Agent Orange, the toxic chemical that killed hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and the legacy of which still lingers.
Monsanto has tried to repair its image in recent years by collaborating with academics, partnering with governments in Africa to improve water and food conditions, and providing better water and cultivation resources to Italy. Although Monsanto claims to do good, the evidence of all their harm has upset thousands of people. There have been protests in Oakland, New Orleans, Chicago and San Francisco over Monsanto's usage of GMOs in their products.
Could SMART pesticides can finally put an end to Monsanto?
Stamets' SMART pesticides come from magic mushrooms (not that kind). Stamets collects the insect-killing entomopathogenic fungi and morphs it so that it won't produce spores — pretty magical, eh?. Around 200,000 different pecies of insects are attracted to the fungi. SMART pesticides are a safe and nearly permanent solution for controlling insects.
Americans have turned to community gardens and urban forests as ways to grow pesticide free foods. If Stamets succeeds, his fungal technology could change how people grow and maintain crops without commercial pesticides.


text:
With its war on promotion, Facebook is now an ad critic
November 18, 2014 | By John McDermott
For years, Facebook urged marketers to think less in terms of creating ads and more about creating "content." And it blurred the lines between ads and content, choosing euphemisms for its ad products like "sponsored stories."
Those days are now over. Facebook announced late last Friday that it would decrease the reach of brand posts it deems too "promotional." But while Facebook is construing the practice as a way to better serve its users, advertisers are worried that the social network is being unclear about what constitutes "quality content," and in turn preventing advertisers from reaching consumers who affirmatively asked to hear from them — often thanks to ads on Facebook.
So, FB is cracking down on "overly promotional" posts. Who draws the line? "Overly" may be just right for some.
— Debra Aho Williamson (@DebraWilliamson) November 17, 2014
Advertisers' concerns stem from Facebook's announcement on Friday afternoon that it will in January start limiting the reach of brands that create "overly promotional" posts. That is, brands will be punished for trying to send overtly commercial posts to their Facebook followers, despite the fact that those followers chose at some point to like that brand's Facebook page. Which begs several questions, most notably, what's the line being too promotional and high-quality, and how can an algorithm make that decision.
According to Mindshare Chief Strategy Officer Jordan Bitterman, Facebook is making it harder for marketers to use its platform effectively.
"Facebook is basically saying that their algorithm will be the arbiter of what's promotion and what's not promotion," Bitterman told The New York Times.
Facebook meanwhile contends that the latest change is simply the latest of myriad changes it has made to news feed over the past two years, all of which have been aimed at ridding Facebook of "low-quality" posts with "high quality" ones. The problem, according to skeptics, is that the delineation is opaque, especially considering that everything a brand does on Facebook is inherently promotional, regardless of its subjective quality.
A Facebook spokeswoman said examples of overly promotional posts include ones that urge to consumers to buy something at that instant or enter a sweepstakes. High-quality brand posts, however, are ones that Facebook users naturally want to share, such as this Christmas-themed ad from British retailer John Lewis:
Facebook also defended using an algorithm to judge a post's quality, saying that while the judgments will be automated, they will reflect user feedback regarding what's overly promotional.
"Facebook users will ultimately teach the algorithm how to arbitrate on their behalf based on actions and preferences," according to Jill Sherman, DigitasLBi's group director for social and digital strategy. "Some promotional content might break through because it garners a lot of high-value social engagements, such as Super Bowl ads."
Still, the change has caused confusion regarding what brands should now do with the Facebook pages they invested so much time and effort in. After years of being told by Facebook that accumulating likes and maintaining a steady posting schedule was integral to success on the platform, brands are now being told they can't use post to promote themselves to that very audience.
Facebook defended the importance of brand pages in a separate blog post about the news feed change.
"Given the substantial traffic to Pages, we are exploring ways to build more features into Pages. A lot of this is in response to how we're seeing people interact with business Pages. Some of these interactions include messaging to communicate with a business directly or browsing video and photo content. We're also exploring ways to better customize Pages based on the industry a business is in, similar to how we rolled out menu sections for restaurant Pages."
The post fashions a brand page more as a customer relationship management tool or as a repository for creative rather than a means for brands to routinely access their fans. And the change also gives credence to some agency executives' claims that Tumblr has supplanted Facebook as the premier platform for organic distribution.
Forrester analyst Nate Elliott suggested last week that brands should focus on creating branded communities on their own websites in lieu of using Facebook to reach consumers.
Facebook's news feed change ultimately leaves brands and their agencies with two choices regarding Facebook: Either create a heart-wrenching video that goes insanely viral, or pony up for Facebook ads.
"Facebook's organic reach on pages has been 3-5% for years," according to Eli Singer, Chief Strategy Office at Engagement Labs, a company that creates software for social media advertising. "If you post to 10,000 fans, only 300 are seeing these posts right now anyway. You have to pay for the other 9,700 to see it. With this recent move, now you're paying to reach 9,900 of those followers."
Homepage image via Quka / Shutterstock.com
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