text:
Abuses, Errors, Miscarriages (12)
AdTech (100)
Biometrics (118)
Comms Surveillance Tech (130)
Communications Surveillance (263)
Competition and Data (32)
Counter-terrorism (21)
Cross Border Data Access (18)
Data and Elections (139)
Data Exploitation (137)
Data Intensive Systems (26)
Data Protection (256)
Direct Access (13)
Direct Access by Government (17)
DNA and Genetic Data (17)
Drones Surveillance (18)
ePrivacy (20)
Financial Privacy (19)
Five Eyes (25)
General Data Protection Regulation (59)
Government Hacking (81)
Humanitarian Sector (35)
Intelligence Sharing (47)
Interception of Communications (49)
LGBTIQ+ (24)
Location Surveillance Technology (116)
Mass Surveillance (238)
New forms of identity (21)
Protest Surveillance (10)
Public-Private surveillance partnerships (21)
Public services recipients (14)
Rights Defenders and Journalists (30)
Security Assistance Between Governments (10)
SIM Card Registration (24)
Social protection programmes (23)
Surveillance Industry (58)
Tech at the Border (21)
Undercover Policing (1)
Visual Surveillance Technology (10)
What Governments Do (6)
What the Surveillance-Exploitation Complex Does (2)
Who They Target (4)
Workplace Surveillance (18)
(-) Comms Data Retention (58)
Content type: Long Read
Watching The Watchers: Accessing and Challenging Control Over Our Data
Privacy International is celebrating Data Privacy Week, where we'll be talking about privacy and issues related to control, data protection, surveillance and identity. Join the conversation on Twitter using #dataprivacyweek. Exercising the right to privacy extends to the ability of accessing and controlling our data and information, the way it is being handled, by whom, and for what purpose. This right is particularly important when it comes to control of how States perform these activities.…
Content type: News & Analysis
US-based surveillance & data collection: New UN report provides guidance on PRISM
This post originally appeared on the blog for Association for Progessive Communications, written by Shawna Finnegan and Carly Nyst, for APCNews and Privacy International: At the 23rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, released his latest report – an analysis of the implications of States' surveillance of communications on the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression. The…
Content type: Press release
UK government agencies seize millions of phone records per year
A conference held today at the London School of Economics will hear new statistics showing that UK law enforcement and investigation agencies are demanding an unprecedented quantity of customer records from communications providers. Privacy International has compiled figures based on estimates supplied by the Home Office, Ministerial statements, legal experts, the communications industry and the All Party Internet Group of MPs. The figures being released today indicate that police and other…
Ugandan Government Deployed FinFisher Spyware To 'Crush' Opposition, Track Elected Officials And Media In Secret Operation During Post-Election Protests, Documents Reveal
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directed intelligence and police officials to use a powerful, invasive malware to spy on domestic political opponents – including parliamentarians, activists and media houses – following the 2011 presidential election, during a period of urban unrest and police violence, according to secret government documents obtained by Privacy International. A feature broadcast piece will air on BBC Newsnight on Thursday, 15 October. Privacy International's new report, For…
Two states admit bulk interception practices: why does it matter?
Six years after NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents providing details about how states' mass surveillance programmes function, two states – the UK and South Africa – publicly admit using bulk interception capabilities. Both governments have been conducting bulk interception of internet traffic by tapping undersea fibre optic cables landing in the UK and South Africa respectively in secret for years. Both admissions came during and as a result of legal proceedings brought by Privacy…
Content type: Advocacy
The Right to Privacy in the United Mexican States
This report is presented by Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) and Privacy International (PI). La Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation located in Mexico, dedicated to the defence of human rights in the digital environment. Privacy International (PI) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation located in London, focused on the defence, promotion and protection of the right to privacy around the world. PI and R3D wish to…
The Right to Privacy in Colombia
This stakeholder report is a submission by Dejusticia, Fundación Karisma and Privacy International (PI). Dejusticia is a Colombian human rights organization that provides expert knowledge on human rights. Fundación Karisma is a Colombian civil society organization that seeks to respond to the opportunities and threats that arise in the context of 'technology for development' for the exercise of human rights. PI is a human rights organisation that works to advance and promote the right to…
Content type: Explainer
The history of DRIPA 2014 - data retention in the UK
In 2000, the Government told Parliament that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) was the total extent of surveillance powers that were needed. However, within weeks of RIPA receiving Royal Assent, a report from UK law enforcement was leaked, stating that the power the Government truly wanted was companies to retain communications data on all their users. Immediately after 9/11 as governments around the world over-reached with new pieces of legislation, the UK Government did…
The Data Retention Directive: Life after Death?
As privacy and free expression advocates hail the demise of the Data Retention Directive at the hands of the European Court of Justice, one large question is looming in the midst of celebration. Now what? More specifically, what will be its impact of the national laws of the European Union countries? What steps should EU governments be taking to ensure the Court's decision is given effect? What are the implications for communications service providers who have been collecting and storing…
Telco data and Covid-19: A primer
In a scramble to track, and thereby stem the flow of new cases of Covid-19, Governments around the world are rushing to track the locations of their populace. One way to do this is to leverage the metadata held by mobile service providers (telecommunications companies - "Telcos" - such as Hutchison 3 (Also known as Three), Telefonica (Also known as O2), Vodafone, and Orange) in order to track the movements of a population, as seen in Italy, Germany and Austria, and with the European…
Submission on the right to privacy in Thailand, Human Rights Committee, 119th Session
Privacy International's submission on the right to privacy in Thailand, Human Rights Committee, 119th Session. In our assessment to the Committee, national legislation governing surveillance is inadequate, unclear as to the powers, scope and capacity of state surveillance activities and thus it falls short of the required human rights standards to safeguard individuals from unlawful interference to the right to privacy.
Saudis suspected of phone spying campaign in US
The whistleblower said they were unable to find any legitimate reason for the high volume of the requests for location information. "There is no other explanation, no other technical reason to do this. Saudi Arabia is weaponising mobile technologies," the whistleblower claimed. The data leaked by the whistleblower was also seen by telecommunications and security experts, who confirmed they too believed it was indicative of a surveillance campaign by Saudi Arabia. The data shows requests for…
Sandcastles At Low Tide: Joint Committee On Human Rights Scrutinises Investigatory Powers Bill
Another committee-led scrutiny. Another list of changes that need to be made to the Investigatory Powers Bill. This seems familiar. The Joint Committee on Human Rights has weighed in with scrutiny of the Investigatory Powers Bill prior to the Bill's debate and vote in the House of Commons on the 6 and 7 June. The recommendations the report contains once again raise questions about the fitness of the Bill to be passed in its current form. The Committee identified thematic warrants - which…
Reports Of The Death Of Communications Privacy Are Greatly Exaggerated: Reflections On The Recent UN Human Rights Committee Findings On South Africa
This guest piece was written by Jane Duncan of the Right2Know Campaign. It does not necessarily reflect the views or position of Privacy International. On 23rd March the United Nations Human Rights Committee released its assessment on South Africa's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The report includes a blistering attack on the Government for failing to respect the privacy of the communications of users and makes recommendations to reform the…
Report on the National Data Retention Laws since the CJEU's Tele-2/Watson Judgment
This report sheds light on the current state of affairs in data retention regulation across the EU post the Tele-2/Watson judgment. Privacy International has consulted with digital rights NGOs and industry from across the European Union to survey 21 national jurisdictions (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom).…
Q&A: EU's top court rules that UK, French and Belgian mass surveillance regimes must respect privacy
Protecting Civic Spaces
Imagine that every time you want to attend a march, religious event, political meeting, protest, or public rally, you must share deeply personal information with police and intelligence agencies, even when they have no reason to suspect you of wrongdoing. First, you need to go to the police to register; have your photo taken for a biometric database; share the contacts of your family, friends, and colleagues; disclose your finances, health records, lifestyle choices, relationship status, and…
Privacy is Security: an op-ed from Peru
Miguel Morachimo, Executive Director of Hiperderecho. Hiperderecho is a non-profit Peruvian organisation dedicated to facilitating public understanding and promoting respect for rights and freedoms in digital environments. The original version of this article was published in Spanish on Hiperderecho's website. Where does our feeling of insecurity come from? As we walk around our cities, we are being observed by security cameras most of the time. Our daily movement, call logs, and internet…
Privacy International's Initial Thoughts On The Advocate General's Opinion On Data Retention
Privacy International General Counsel Caroline Wilson Palow said "Today's opinion issued by the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is a serious blow to the UK's Investigatory Powers Bill (IPBill). It, hopefully, presages a strong judgment from the Court itself. The bulk powers - what we would call mass surveillance powers - embedded throughout the IPBill go far beyond tackling serious crime. They would give a range of public bodies, not just the Police and intelligence…
Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights Group joined other organisations across the EU to file complaints over Member States' non-compliance with mass surveillance rulings
Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights Group have joined over 60 NGOs, community groups, and academics across the European Union to file complaints to the European Commission. The complaints call for the EU governments to stop requiring companies to store all communications data. The practice was ruled unlawful by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in two separate judgments in 2014 and 2016. The UK complaint was filed by Privacy International, Liberty, and Open Rights…
Privacy International Joins Call to Stop EU Militarisation
Photo: The European Union On 2 September 2019, Privacy International, together with 60 other organisations, signed an open letter to the European Parliament to express our deep concern about upcoming EU policy proposals which undermine the EU's founding values of human rights, peace and disarmament. Since 2017, the EU has diverted funds towards security research and security capacity-building in countries around the world. The proposal for the EU's next budget (2021-2027) will significantly…
Privacy International files OECD complaints against telcos for role in UK mass surveillance program
Privacy International today has filed formal complaints with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the UK against some of the world's leading telecommunication companies, for providing assistance to British spy agency GCHQ in the mass interception of internet and telephone traffic passing through undersea fibre optic cables. According to recent reports, BT, Verizon Enterprise, Vodafone Cable, Viatel, Level 3, and Interoute granted access to their fibre optic…
Privacy International Back In Court For A Hearing Related To The Collection Of Bulk Personal Datasets And Bulk Communications Data
The Case Privacy International v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs et al. (Bulk Personal Datasets & Bulk Communications Data challenge) Date: 5-9 June 2017 Time: from 10:00 onwards Location: Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London WC2A 2LL United Kingdom Hearing overview Next week's hearing follows the Investigatory Powers Tribunal's earlier judgment in October 2016, which ruled that three issues are to be determined: a) the impact of EU law…
Press release: Ruling by EU's highest court finds that UK, French and Belgian mass surveillance regimes must respect privacy, even in the context of national security
By treating everyone as a suspect, the bulk data collection or retention regimes engage European fundamental rights to privacy, data protection, freedom of expression, as guaranteed respectively by Articles 7, 8, and 11 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Caroline Wilson Palow, Legal Director of Privacy International, said: "Today's judgment reinforces the rule of law in the EU. In these turbulent times, it serves as a reminder that no government should be above the law. Democratic…
Press Release: New Privacy International Report Shows That 21 European Countries Are Unlawfully Retaining Personal Data
Key points Privacy International surveyed 21 EU member states' legislation on data retention and examined their compliance with fundamental human rights standards 0 out of the 21 States examined by PI are currently in compliance with these standards (as interpreted in two landmark judgements by the Court of Justice of the European Union: Tele-2/Watson and Digital Rights Ireland) Privacy International is calling for: EU member states to review their legislation on data retention and, if…
Press Release: EU Data Protection Package: Lacking Ambition But Saving The Basics
Statement by European Digital Rights (EDRi), Bits of Freedom, Digitale Gesellschaft e.V, Digital Rights Ireland and Privacy International following the vote of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on the Data Protection In January 2012, the European Commission, following extensive consultations, published a draft Regulation and a Directive to create a strong framework for data protection in the EU. The initiative had three priorities – modernisation of the legal framework for…
Press release: Critical ICO report says the Police must stop taking data from victims' phones without better safeguards
Today, the ICO has issued a long-awaited and critical report on Police practices regarding extraction of data from people's phones, including phones belonging to the victims of crime. The report highlights numerous risks and failures by the police in terms of data protection and privacy rights. The report comes as a result of PI's complaint, dating back to 2018, where we outlined our concerns about this intrusive practice, which involves extraction of data from devices of victims, witnesses…
Podcast: Judgement Day
Find out more on our website: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/4206/qa-eus-top-court-rules-uk-french-and-belgian-mass-surveillance-regimes-must-respect And make sure we can keep taking these fights to court: support.privacyinternational.org You can listen and subscribe to the podcast where ever you normally find your podcasts: Spotify Apple podcasts Google podcasts Castbox Overcast Pocket Casts Peertube Youtube Stitcher And more...
PI and EDRi urge restraint in extraordinary European Council meeting on retention
The below letter was addresses to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Viviane Reding (Commissioner for Information Society and Media) and Franco Frattini (Vice President and Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security). Your excellencies, On behalf of European Digital Rights and Privacy International we would like to express our sadness and anger at the terrorist attacks in London on 7 July. We understand the difficulty of ensuring the daily safety of all citizens and residents while at the same…


Matt and LSV review their experiences at the Mythic Championship, the MTG Arena best-of-one format, and the health of MTG as a whole.
Marshall and Luis touch on a bevy of topics, including a refresher on M19 and their War of the Spark preview card!
Here's a nice one. LSV heads into a Modern queue with Wilderness Reclamation and Mystical Teachings.
Andrea Mengucci sits down to discuss his huge win at the Mythic Invitational at PAX East in Boston, and his thoughts on the event.
Andrea Mengucci is back in the Legacy queues slinging Sinkholes, Smallpox, and unusual choices like Phyrexian Totem and Cursed Scroll!
Jump into Legacy Cube: a greatest hits collection of the best cards from across Magic history, with your host, PleasantKenobi!
Think you can guess #1?


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Glass ★★☆☆☆
M. Night Shyamalan's has got to have one of the most inconsistent filmographies in the history of cinema. When he's good, he's great (The Sixth Sense) and when he's bad, he's bloody abysmal (The Happening). His latest film, Glass, sits somewhere in between his two opposite levels of quality, with a resounding and disappointing "meh".
In 2016, Shyamalan made a comeback with Split. The psychological thriller introduced audiences to The Horde (James McAvoy), a man with 23 different personalities, as he kidnapped and imprisons three teenage girls in an isolated underground facility. As the film goes on, we learn more about the so-called "Beast", one of his personalities with super-strength and abilities. If you haven't seen the film, I strongly recommend it – it's a bloody good watch, thanks mainly to an absolutely phenomenal performance from McAvoy. But as you all know, the film ended with a shocking reveal that it was, in fact, a sequel to M. Night's Unbreakable all along. Shortly after the release of Split, Shyamalan revealed the unsurprising news that he was working on a film which would bring together the characters from both films for a showdown. The result was Glass.
Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds David Dunn (Bruce Willis) pursuing the superhuman figure of The Horde (McAvoy) in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Elijah Price/Mr Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.
While it is initially rather exciting to revisit the characters of Dunn and Price after almost 20 years, the novelty soon wears off when it becomes abundantly clear that they are both too old for this shit. The whole thing reeks of a missed opportunity – it is, quite simply, too late. Years ago, this might've been a goer, but in 2019 it hits the ground with an almighty thud. That's not to say the film is without positives. James McAvoy is, again, just stunning in the role of The Horde. He makes every single one of the personalities feel like its own layered character and it is simply staggering to watch him work in these films. A straight-up sequel to Split without this shoehorned Unbreakable link would've been the way to go because McAvoy's Horde is one of the best supernatural characters in years.
The film suffers from a feeling of opportunistic desperation, creating a cinematic universe that absolutely nobody asked for. We did not need to revisit Dunn and Price and we certainly didn't need to expand the universe they lived in – Unbreakable was a nice little self-contained slice of early 00s cinema with a lot of happy nostalgic memories attached. Bringing these characters back is akin to flogging a dead horse, and leaves such a sour taste in the mouth that it actually impacts one's happy memories of the original film. Glass is a mess. Filled with narrative cock-ups and missed opportunities, you'll spend the whole time yelling at the television in disbelief and anger at the paths the film is inexplicably taking. It's an enormous disappointment, but then again, what did we really expect from this convoluted premise from the man who brought us The Happening, After Earth and The Visit? Glass is another shattered mess from ol' M. Night.
Glass at CeX
And now Snapchat!
Labels: Australia, Ireland, UK
CeX Gameathon!!
Take your games to infinity... AND BEYOND at CeX!
I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu ☆☆☆☆☆
Tell It To The Bees ★★★★☆
The Kid Who Would Be King ★★★★☆
Last minute Father's Day gifts
E3 2019 - Part 2
Reflect is THIS WEEKEND!
Lords of Chaos ★★☆☆☆
Isn't It Romantic ★★★☆☆
Fighting With My Family ★★★★☆
Reflect Spectator Tickets Now Only £4!
Peel ★★★★☆
Left Alive ★☆☆☆☆
Creed II ★★★☆☆
Escape Room ★★★☆☆
May TV / Movie Video Round UP
May Tech Video Round UP
Gloria Bell ★★★★☆
May Phones Video Round UP!
Apple WWDC conference - A not so brief round up.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse ★★★★★
Mortal Engines ☆☆☆☆☆
May Nintendo Switch Video Round UP
Bumblebee ★★★★☆
May PlayStation Video Round UP
Hellboy 2019 ★☆☆☆☆
May Xbox Video Round UP

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Game of Thrones Season 7 Concept Art Confirms Finale Scene
Exciting new gambar have surfaced today, offering a possible glimpse at Game of Thrones season 7. The images: a piece of concept art, from the new season, depicting a moment from a major scene in the season finale.
Game of Thrones shoots VFX-heavy Daenerys scenes in Belfast studio!
Game of Thrones season seven production is supposed to membungkus, bungkus in about a month, and all location shooting appears to be over and done with.
This One-Minute kuis Will Reveal Which 'Game of Thrones' Character anda Are
Conleth bukit, hill Almost Played A Different Role On 'Game Of Thrones'
The Master of Whisperers, and bintang of "A Patch of Fog," shares some secrets.
Brendan Cowell Joins The Cast of Game of Thrones
Filming of Game of Thrones is heading into its last bulan but thankfully, casting news is still popping up! The latest addition to the tampil helps fill out the Iron Islands cast for season seven.
Kit Harington back in Iceland for lebih Game of Thrones season seven filming
Kit Harington has been sighted, coinciding with some very important filming.
Kristofer Hivju Joins Game of Thrones Filming in Iceland
As we reported yesterday, Game of Thrones has been busy with shooting in Iceland this week, shifting filming over to the pantai in Vík. Several cast members have been spotted in the country, creating an eclectic group of characters in one storyline.
Rock Band Bastille Rumored To Cameo in Game of Thrones Season Seven
Game of Thrones has a fruitful history of cameos, and the best of them are from European bands, so much so that their appearances have become a tradition of sorts.
Major Game of Thrones Characters Landing on Iceland's Black Sand Shores
Iceland filming for Game of Thrones season 7 continued this week to a new site, in the southern village of Vík.
New clue confirms Peter Dinklage's character theory for 'Avengers: Infinity War'
Peter Dinklage's 'AVengers' character revealed
diserahkan oleh kingkylo lebih dari setahun yang lalu


The Vulnerability Assessment (VA) tool is available in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.4 or later. The 'VA' tool is supported for SQL Server version 2012 and later, and can also be run on Azure SQL Database. So if you're wondering why you do not see the option in SSMS, you are most likely running an older version of SSMS (download latest SSMS version here) or running a SQL Server version older than 2012.
You see the options in this "Scan for Vulnerabilities" dialog box is minimal. It only has an option to select where to store the vulnerability report.
Click OK to being the assessment.
This result pane is pretty self-explanatory.
As you can see the top left section has "Total security checks" which is 54 and "Total failing checks" at 3. You can also see that I ran this against the WideWorldImporters database.
I'm sure the number of rules checked will increase in later versions of SQL Server and/or SSMS, but for now the number is 54.
The T-SQL "rule" query used to run against the database (in case you wanted to copy and run it yourself).
The remediation section offers advice on how to "fix" the failed check.
Each vulnerability allows you the choice of "Approve as Baseline" or "Clear Baseline." This will be saved so as you fix/clear vulnerabilities and re-run the VA tool, it doesn't count those against you.
It is light-weight and a read-only tool.
It's super-easy to run and makes the process of securing and hardening the database a no brainer.
One thing I do wish for is an option to print the report. Right now the reports are saved as .json files. What if I just want to print the report (or save it as a .pdf) and show management what a great job I'm doing?
Guess I have to keep my fingers crossed!
Awesome! Yeah, definitely worth the upgrade.
Next PostNext What is the CLIUSR Local Account?


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Krystyna Chimanienko (ur. 11 grudnia 1934 w Warszawie, zm. 27 marca 1972 tamże) – polska aktorka i piosenkarka.

Życiorys
Ukończyła w 1952 dawne Liceum Heleny Rzeszotarskiej w Warszawie, a następnie rozpoczęła studia na Wydziale Łączności Politechniki Warszawskiej. Dwa lata później nie udało jej się dostać do Państwowej Wyższej Szkoły Teatralnej, w tym samym roku realizując swoją pasję weszła w skład działającego na politechnice Studenckiego Teatru Dramatycznego. W latach 1957–1961 grała w studenckim kabarecie "Stodoła". We wrześniu 1961 zdała eksternistyczny egzamin aktorski. Była członkiem licznych grup kabaretowych, m.in. "Szpak" (1961–1962), "Olimp" (1962), "Manekin" (1962–1963). W 1963 otrzymała angaż w warszawskim Teatrze Ateneum, po dwóch latach przeszła do Teatru Komedia, a od 1967 do końca życia grała w Studenckim Teatrze Satyryków.

W 1963 roku wystąpiła podczas I KFPP w Opolu z następującym repertuarem:
19.06.63r. "Nie mam nikogo" (Z. Gozdawa, W. Stępień);
19.06.63r. "Ballada o Lili Put" (T. Prejzner, K. Dzikowski) - piosenka otrzymała wyróżnienie;
23.06.63r. "Corrida" (B. Klimczuk - B. Choiński, J. Gałkowski) - piosenka otrzymała wyróżnienie.
Jako nagrodę rzeczową otrzymała serwis kawowy.

Zginęła w wypadku samochodowym, jadąc ulicą Marszałkowską w Warszawie. Na wysokości Ogrodu Saskiego prowadzone przez nią auto wpadło na słup trakcji tramwajowej, a następnie uderzyło w ścianę pałacu Zamoyskich. Pochowana na cmentarzu Bródnowskim w Warszawie (kw. 19A-4-24).

Filmografia

Przypisy

Linki zewnętrzne

Polskie aktorki filmowe
Polskie aktorki telewizyjne
Polskie aktorki teatralne
Polskie ofiary wypadków drogowych
Pochowani na cmentarzu Bródnowskim w Warszawie
Urodzeni w 1934
Zmarli w 1972
Ludzie urodzeni w Warszawie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Nothing personal, but I really hate these games. There's loads of these 2D monster truck games out there, and they are all exactly the same. Completely unoriginal.
k9underdogg wrote Nothing personal, but I really hate these games. There's loads of these 2D monster truck games out there, and they are all exactly the same. Completely unoriginal.
I'm sorry if you don't like these games, but these are good quality cars based to some real cars.
I actually kinda like these games, and not all of them use the same balancing engines as each other, so they can vary a lot.
This is like Carmaddegon in the mini version.
Is it me, or are these ambulances just like in GTA?
They kill 200 people just to save a life?
I found a game called Kill All Zombies. It's by the same developers of this game.


text:
Q: transforming coordinates while drawing in p5.js I'm trying to figure out how to make a track for this car game I'm working on. The current issue is that when I'm drawing the track, the coordinates of the drawing get transformed relative to the coordinates of the car. Sorry, it's kind of hard to explain, but if you look at the code below you'll see what I mean. Then there's the issue of making all of the drawings stay on the newest frame, but that's an issue for another day. (Please ignore the trail the car leaves, that will be fixed once I figure out how to ensure the drawings get redrawn on the newest frame. I really am kind of confused with this JS, so any and all help is appreciated!

var MAX_VELOCITY = 3;
class Car {
  constructor(x, y, angle) {
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
    this.angle = angle;
    this.velocity = 0;
    this.accel = 0;
    this.width = 40;
    this.height = 80;
  }

  show() {
    fill(255, 0, 255);
    stroke(0);
    translate(this.x, this.y);
    rotate(this.angle);
    rect(0, 0, this.width, this.height);
  }

  move() {
    this.velocity += this.accel;
    if (this.velocity > MAX_VELOCITY) {
      this.velocity = MAX_VELOCITY;
    }
    if (this.velocity < -MAX_VELOCITY) {
      this.velocity = -MAX_VELOCITY;
    }
    this.y += this.velocity * Math.sin(this.angle + Math.PI / 2);
    this.x += this.velocity * Math.cos(this.angle + Math.PI / 2);
  }
}

function setup() {
  WINDOW_HEIGHT = 600;
  WINDOW_WIDTH = 600;
  window.canvas = createCanvas(WINDOW_HEIGHT, WINDOW_WIDTH);
  rectMode(CENTER);
  car = new Car(width / 2, 500, -Math.PI / 2 + Math.PI / 2);
  console.log("Car Created");
  var flagger = false;
}

function draw() {
  // background(100);
  car.show();
  car.move();
  // console.log("X: ", car.x);
  // console.log("Y: ", car.y)
  console.log("X: ", mouseX)
  console.log("Y: ", mouseY)
  if (car.y < car.height / 2) {
    car.y = car.height / 2;
  }

  if (car.x < car.height / 2) {
    car.x = car.height / 2;
  }

  if (car.y > height - car.height / 2) {
    car.y = height - car.height / 2;
  }

  if (car.x > width - car.height / 2) {
    car.x = width - car.height / 2;
  }

  controls();

  if (mouseIsPressed === true) {
    line(
      mouseX - car.x,
      mouseY - car.y,
      pmouseX - car.x,
      pmouseY - car.y
    );
  }
  // console.log("Velocity: ", car.velocity);
  // console.log("Acceleration: ", car.accel);
}

function controls() {
  if (keyIsDown(UP_ARROW)) {
    car.velocity += -1;
    flagger = false;
  }

  if (keyIsDown(DOWN_ARROW)) {
    car.velocity += 1;
    flagger = false;
  }

  if (keyIsDown(RIGHT_ARROW)) {
    car.angle += 0.1;
  }

  if (keyIsDown(LEFT_ARROW)) {
    car.angle -= 0.1;
  }
}
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/p5@0.10.2/lib/p5.js"></script>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="">

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>AI Car Game</title>
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<body>
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A: Use push() and pop() to store and restore the current style settings and transformations. This saves and restores the current matrix, too.
push() before the car is drawn (car.show()) and pop() after. That cause that the transformation in car.show() is applied to the car only:
function draw() {
    background(100);

    push();
    car.show();
    pop();

    car.move();

    // [...]
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Andando al lavoro è un dipinto (56x46 cm) realizzato tra il 1850 ed il 1851 dal pittore Jean-François Millet.

È conservato nella Glasgow Art Gallery di  Glasgow.

Dipinti di Jean-François Millet
Dipinti a Glasgow
Dipinti su contadini


To recap, for anyone who wasn't reading over the weekend: the deadline for nominating for this year's BSFA Awards is this coming Saturday, 16 January. BSFA members can nominate as many items as they like in the four categories — Best Novel, Best Short Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, and Best Artwork. The five items with the most nominations in each case go forward to the final ballot.
Today, the last of the categories: Best Artwork. Any single science fictional or fantastic image that first appeared in 2009 is eligible; to add your support to any of the works listed below, or to nominate anything else, email the BSFA Awards Administrator with details of what you want to nominate, and your membership number or postcode.
Cover of The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling, by Raphael Lacoste, jacket design is by David Stephenson.
Cover of Desolation Road by Ian McDonald, by Stephan Martinière, jacket design by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke.
Links are to the best-quality copies of each image that I could find; if you can improve on any of them (or if you know the artist details for any of the images that are missing them) do let me know.
I always feel like this category should have about three times as many nominations as any of the other categories, given that all you have to do to come up with nominations is look at things, despite the fact that I know full well I find myself struggling to remember bits of art at the end of the year. I think this year I may try to keep a list of things I see that impress me. Oh, and I'm also going to nominate the cover for Red Claw by Philip Palmer, which is different to anything above and (I think) nicely playful.
I have failed to nominate in this category yet but I'd like to nominate the whole of that set of Nitzan Klamer covers. It is single image only so I will back up whoever nominated the Verne one. On a similar tip, I think I will also be nominating the first one of these.
I like the Red Claw cover too.
There's nothing especially wrong with the artwork on the Denyer cover, but is there a special award for worst type treatment?
And in real life do the blurb and the author's name on the cover of The Windup Girl look like they were added in PowerPoint at the last minute?
David: be fair, it's not as bad as what the Interzone crew did to the base image on the cover of IZ225.
Also, I think the cover of Desolation Road is by Martiniere as well, or so the Pyr website suggests. I spotted it while I was on Martiniere's website looking for other recent works – I love a lot of his book covers (I am responsible for the Retribution Falls nomination), and I also like the Geosynchron cover. Is that a 2009 book?
Agree that the cover art for the Denyer book is perfectly fine (although not particularly SFnal), but the typography is awful – is the award for the cover as a whole, or just for the cover image?
And for a change from all the book/magazine covers, three comics covers I rather like: Detective Comics #857, by J. H. Williams III, Invincible Iron Man #20, by Salvador Larroca and Rian Hughes, and Transformers: All Hail Megatron #9, by Trevor Hutchison.
I think Geosynchron is 2009, yes. And I like the Iron Man cover.
The two bookjackets that I nominated are both represented here incorrectly.
The cover illustration for Bruce Sterling's The Caryatids is by Raphael Lacoste, the jacket design is by David Stephenson.
The cover illustration for Ian McDonald's Desolation Road is indeed by Stephan Martinière (as Liz says), the jacket design is by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke.
Thanks for the corrections, Pete — I've updated the post.
Good link. Am I the only person left cold by the cover for Boneshaker though?
You're not, though I honestly can't figure out why it doesn't work for me. It keeps grabbing my attention and then pushing it away.
I LOVE the Boneshaker cover— beautiful and attention-grabbing! The tones are at once muted and vivid. Incredible.


The hamburgers of these two fast food giants are contrasted and compared in a persuasive essay consisting of five pages. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
Title: "McDonald's Hamburgers Are Better Than Burger King's Hamburgers"


Looking for a nuanced and intelligent approach to using program theory for programs that have simple, complicated, and/or complex aspects?
Then be sure to catch Patricia Rogers' one-day workshop on Purposeful Program Theory at the Australasian Evaluation Society conference in Adelaide, August 28th 2012.
Having just returned from the AEA meetings and come across the book The Two Second Advantage (Ranadive and Maney), I'm wondering what people think are some exciting developments in evaluation.
After years working on this with my co-author Sue Funnell, I'm looking forward to the launch of the book Purposeful Program Theory: Effective Use of Theories of Change and Logic Models in Canberra next Thursday (Yes, on St Patrick's Day).
Critiquing a partial evaluation – is a half-full glass better or worse than no drink at all?
Where do you draw the balance? Should we stop doing small evaluations that only look at a few pieces of data, to avoid the risk of misinterpretation? Or should we work harder to ensure their findings can be appropriately incorporated with other information?
Read the whole post –> Critiquing a partial evaluation – is a half-full glass better or worse than no drink at all?


text:
Syrian Christians call Australia home after generations of diaspora
By Julie Power
Updated December 24, 2016 — 6.26am first published at 12.15am
Aster Khaieo's Christmas wish is to "never leave Australia".
A neat and small lilac-trimmed townhouse in Sydney's Fairfield is now home to her Syrian Christian family – including two sons and another on the way – since they arrived in September after waiting 20 months to be approved as refugees.
Like a more famous Middle East family looking for somewhere safe to rest about 2000 years ago, her Assyrian family have been searching for a place to call home for nearly 100 years.
The family arrived with nothing.
Last year, the Khaieo family was waiting for approval to come to Australia as refugees. Now the Christian Syrian family are spending their first Christmas in Australia. Credit:James Brickwood
Yet her 29-year-old brother Akram Khaieo, a former law student and English teacher before the war, says being in "Australia is a dream come true".
Nearly two years ago, the extended Syrian Assyrian family fled their Christian village outside the small northern city of Al-Hasakah. Two nearby Christian villages had been kidnapped by ISIS. A cousin and another close relative were murdered. Videos of their execution had been posted on YouTube.
By the time the family left, the village was nearly empty: only three people are left there today. Many friends and family members have moved to Australia, while some went north to Norway and other places.
On Christmas Day, about 100 family and friends from their village from northern Syria will come together for a picnic and a reunion in a western Sydney park to try to capture some of the joy of the past.
Before the war, the family said Christmas was a time to celebrate and decorate their homes and village.
"Christmas in my village was very beautiful before the war," said Mr Khaieo.
Papa Noel – a man dressed in full costume with a big beard – would travel on horseback from home to home to deliver gifts from his sack. "Brrrring, brrring, he would ring the door, and do a full tour around the village," Mr Khaieo said. "It was amazing."
Mr Khaieo, who was granted refugee status with his parents in June, is now working at Coles in western Sydney. He learned English in school, and by watching American television shows like The Simpsons.
Mr Khaieo jokes that the family may have few options if Australia doesn't work out.
What's next? "New Zealand," he says with a laugh. "Mars!"
His Assyrian grandparents had been from Turkey, but had emigrated because the government was "killing them".
Translating from Assyrian for his sister, his parents Habib and Salma and brother-in-law Rabi Shelimoun, he said some of the family moved to Iraq and others to Iran, where history has repeated since the first massacre against Assyrians in AD339.
In about 1933, members of the family relocated to Syria, where they said relationships between Christians and Muslims were happy and peaceful until the war began in 2012.
Together the family is among the 8317 Syrians who have arrived in Australia as part of the federal government's pledge in September 2015 to take 12,000 Syrians and Iraqis displaced by conflict. Most Assyrians are Christian, and claimed to be from Mesopotamia. In Syria, there are also non-Assyrian Christians.
When the war started in 2012, the family still gathered for Christmas, but quietly in deference to Christian and Muslim friends.
"Because Christmas became very sad, because people in my country were dying and we are sad for them. We still celebrated but with small parties but no decorations. The country changed. In Syria, our friends were Muslim. I used to teach in Muslim schools, and at university my teacher was a Muslim. After the war, some armed group [of extremists] used religion as an excuse," said Mr Khaieo.
The last Christmases in Syria were cold. There was no running water, electricity or heating, he says, translating for his parents.
"Back in Syria, because all the people are leaving, we feel homesick. And we come here, and everyone is here, and we don't feel too bad any more. If we go back to our country we feel like strangers. No one we used to know is there."
The acting head of the Refugee Council of NSW Tim O'Connor said the gift of resettlement was an incredible opportunity for families like Akram's.
"The one-off increase in refugees being able to rebuild their lives in Australia shows that we can comfortably take many more refugees than we currently do," he said.
There are now 24 million refugees in the world and last year just 112,000 were permanently resettled – half of 1 per cent.
"At Christmas we also remember that there are millions of refugees who will never be resettled and Australia should be supporting those people to live with dignity in the countries they have been forced to flee to, rather than wasting billions locking innocent and vulnerable people up in offshore gulags."
Julie Power is a senior reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via Twitter or email.


St George. In spite of its name, and its association with fire-breathing monsters, there was not a dragon in sight on either of our visits here, although I did hear the odd dubious remark around our campsite from time to time! The town actually got its name when the explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell crossed the Balonne River and landed on this site on St. George's Day, April 23rd,in 1846. On our first visit, back in 2003, we were tenting and were so impressed with our stay that we decided to return.
A few things had changed this time, not the least of which was the "Wormpatch". Back then, when John had asked where was the best place to buy bait for fishing, he was told that he had to dig for his own in the Wormpatch. But this time we couldn't find it and I strongly suspect that it is now a park or part of a housing estate. Yes, St George has grown remarkably in six years and the district now has a population of around 4000 people.
Another of the changes here is at the St George Hotel. I remember our visit to the bistro for lunch and what a great place it turned out to be. The bistro was reminiscent of the old hotel foyers of the 1920's. You know the kind, lots of potted palms, ceiling fans turning slowly, a couple of high-back cane chairs in the corner. I almost expected Peter Lorre or Sidney Greenstreet to walk in, dressed in a white suit, fedora in hand. It was that kind of place.
by air conditioning, there's not a potted palm in sight, and the chairs are functional steel and plastic. Who says progress is for the better! We arrived in St George on our second visit after a 4-hour drive from Cunnamulla that included stops for animals on the road, approximately 295 kilometres (183 miles) west of here. Some of those animals took their own sweet time in getting out of the way, too, but it wasn't long before we were pulling into the driveway of the Pelican's Rest Tourist Park ([star][star][star][star][star_half]) where we'd stayed on our first visit.
The tourist park hadn't changed; still the same great folks running the place, plenty of grass and roomy van sites, and lovely amenities. We wandered off down to the Visitor Information Centre to pick up some brochures and while there we picked up a bottle or two of Dragon's Breath Sauce. This super-hot sauce makes Tabasco mild by comparison and where else, I ask you, would you expect to find such a throat-burning concoction but in a place called St George!
kilometres (a little over a mile) from town. It is Queensland's most western winery and is located on the banks of the Balonne River. Lunch in the gardens and a stroll along the river bank was what I wanted and I wasn't disappointed. It was a perfect afternoon after the long drive this morning. Returning to camp late in the afternoon, we settled in for a quiet evening, our bottle of Two Tails Sparkling Wine chilling nicely for our first night ritual, a couple of steaks sizzling on the barbecue, and some pleasant conversation with our camping neighbours. Does it get any better than this?
St George is a great base from which to explore the region and the little town of Surat is definitely worth some exploration. Only 115 kilometres (71 miles) from St George, it's a sleepy little village nestled on the banks of the Balonne River and only an hour or so drive north. We arrived in Surat and stopped for a coffee before visiting the Cobb & Co Changing Station. This is a museum dedicated to the days of old and is actually the former site of the depot where the coach drivers would change horses. Hence the name.
There's a tank inside the museum that holds the biggest Murray Cod that I have ever seen, not that I've seen one before but, as fish go, this was the granddaddy! However, our guide did point out that it isn't the biggest one that's ever been caught in these parts. I found the whole museum fascinating with its many historical artefacts, pictures, and stories; I could happily have stayed there all day. The displays of mining equipment from the early days of oil and gas exploration were remarkable and there were even newspapers from over the last hundred years or so right up until today including some interesting articles on a recent gas explosion that had almost been a major disaster in the town. In another part of the museum there was a huge display on the old Cobb & Co coaches that carried passengers and freight in this area as recently as the 1930's and a fully restored coach that was almost a hundred years old.
Behind the Changing Station is the Balonne River Gallery where local artists display their works in various exhibitions. The exhibition that we saw during our visit was called "Understorey" by local artist Victoria Arthur. Ms Arthur described her work as "A collection of sculptural pieces in clay– incorporating a variety of forms, techniques, and styles, unified by their multistorey construction, reflecting the idea that there is usually more than one layer, or level, to a structure; more than one side to a story, and always more than one way of looking at things." John and I were entranced by the exhibition but disappointed that photography was not allowed. An arch of sandstone rocks was just one of her pieces and it was as perfect a display of balance as either of us had ever seen. The intricate detail must have taken her years and a lot of patience to complete. We were almost too scared to breathe around these sculptures as each single piece was secured in place only by the next piece. As I said, perfect balance, and one wrong move, a bump against a table, a slam of the door, could have seen it all come crashing down!
beckoned. The dam, completed in 1972, holds more than 81000 megalitres (several billion gallons) of water and is one of the best fishing spots in St George, or so the locals say. After all, St George is the fishing capital of inland Queensland.
Well, John threw in his line and I got comfortable with a good book but, as I was discovering painfully, even in the late afternoon in May the Queensland sun has a bite to it. I could feel myself burning and so beat a hasty retreat to the car. Not for long, however, because then John caught his first fish. I don't know what sort of fish it was but the water was so muddy from the recent rains that there was no way he was keeping it so back in it went. Two or three more followed the same way until finally he caught a Yellowbelly which, I believe, is a golden perch. It also lived to see another day.
crossing is via the Andrew Nixon Bridge. Completed in 1953, it replaced the original timber bridge that had been built in 1890 by Andrew Nixon, the original owner of the largest property in the shire.
Queensland not far from the New South Wales border and is the administrative centre for the Shire of Balonne. Our second visit here had come to an end and it was time to say farewell to this pretty little town. From the purple and white flowered bauhinias lining Victoria Street to the brilliant display of jacaranda trees, St George really is a beautiful town and one well worth seeing. Both our visits here have been great and we were sorry to be leaving again so soon. But, who knows, perhaps one day we'll be back. I certainly hope so.


The Company Balpack s.r.o. has been founded by a solo associate Mr. Miloš Fröhlich in the year 1997 as a successor of the Company Bamako Pack spol. s r.o. The Company is specialised for the production, service, sale and negotiation of sale of wrapping machines for industry and agriculture, purchase and sale of different packing material. The Company is located in Dolní Břežany (district Praha západ), about 20 kms from the centre of Praha, in its own premisses, with a very good access for lorries and also nearby the highways in all directions.
The company owns two warehouses (totally 400 m2) and a workshop (430 m2) on the area of 4000m2. In the building of the warehouse, there are the offices, sanitary facilities and the store for cash sales.


text:
Silence From The MOF As The MACC Investigates Itself?
More significant than what has so far been said about Malaysia's Spy Lady, Hasanah Abdul Hamid, who was sprung last week from shocking charges of theft of public money by an equally shocking DNAA decision, is the astonishing secrecy with which matters have been handled.
In short, the Ministry of Finance have shown a level of disinterest in the theft of its own money that is reminiscent of the days when Najib was in charge (could this be because Najib is reportedly back in charge?). As a result, no police report has been made and the MACC has been left to investigate its own alleged involvement in that theft.
There has been confusion surrounding the present incarceration of three MACC officers who were remanded on September 14th for 6 days by a magistrates court over the astonishing allegation they had substituted US$6 million that had been held under their custody since 2018 with counterfeit notes. The three are reputed to be senior and close advisors to the very head of the anti-corruption body, Azam Baki.
Sarawak Report is reliably informed that the only police report filed so far in the case was back in 2018 when Hasanah, the ex-director-general of the Malaysian External Intelligence Organisation (MEIO), reported that the cash, which was confiscated $100 notes after being found hidden in her house, was not hers to take.
She was later charged with filching a total of $12.1m brought into the country through KL airport in April-May of 2018. The reporting indicated the money was derived from the thefts from 1MDB and meant to be used influence the election, which Hasanah had already realised her boss was going to lose. She spent a chunk of it on a batch of hugely expensive watches and secreted the rest.
Back last October when the case came to trial the court was informed by prosecutors that Hasanah "had received contributions amounting to US$12.1 million" from an external party and "misappropriated the funds by instructing her officers to make six luxury watches purchases, made payments to third parties and transported the remaining monies out without handing them over to the division nor the government." However, Hasanah had already placed her report saying the money was not hers too confiscate.
Following the disgraceful DNAA this month Sarawak Report has learned it was decided the money should indeed be returned to where it belonged, namely the Ministry of Finance which is the owner of 1MDB. It was following that request that thunder struck.
According to inside informants the cash had, as per protocol, been checked note by note when it was confiscated by the MACC using a currency checking machine to authenticate the notes and register each serial number. There was not question but that the horde was genuine cash in US dollars back then in 2018.
Yet what was passed back to the MOF by the same anti-corruption body turned out to be forged notes.
It is at this point that the MOF would have been expected to call the police and make a report. Today DAP's Gobind Sing has made that very point and asked why so far there has no police involvement or investigation into this shocking development?
Sources have told Sarawak Report that the men at the ministry have kept silent and allowed the MACC head Azam Baki to keep this investigation into his close subordinates within his very own organisation.
The MACC case number FA-89RE-135-09/2021 was duly filed this month and three senior figures remanded. However, the widespread concern throughout the MACC and beyond is that there is a strong determination to bury this matter and allow the missing $6 million to simply add to the many other missing billions that have been stolen by Malaysia's senior officials from the public they are entrusted to serve.
After all, if the senior leading figures of the state include those charged and convicted of stealing billions of dollars and these very same fellows are now being seen by the entire world not only to be escaping imprisonment but being elevated once more by PN 2.0 to positions of honour, authority and trust, those on the lower rungs will expect to see their cut.
Malaysians threw out a criminal organisation in 2018 that had been posing for many years as the premier political party in the land. The UMNO prediction that it could soon utilise its mafia network to restore itself to office is for now fulfilled. However, their foot soldiers follow by example and having seen the top guys help themselves can only have concluded they too should exploit their opportunity to steal also.
So far, it would appear those in charge at the Ministry of Finance and the PN 2.0 government have not dared to counter that attitude. After all, its not just dollars but many many other secrets that the MACC have been looking after and everyone also knows what a close confidant Malaysia's Spy Lady has continued to be of her old boss Najib Razak, who now claims to have been re-appointed to a 'role in government' namely to advise the Ministry of Finance.
Return to old times? The Ex-spy chief is reported to have been a frequent visitor to Najib's home in recent moths, earning her a slot at the top of the get out of jail list?


NORCROSS, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--McLarens, a leading, global independent insurance services provider, today announced the acquisition of American Environmental Group, LLC ("AEG"). Under the terms of the agreement, AEG will become a wholly owned subsidiary of McLarens; financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
AEG adds an additional level of expertise to McLarens' existing risk management and loss adjusting services. AEG offers a full suite of indoor air quality testing and environmental consulting services, supporting the insurance industry, environmental remediation and restoration specialists, and corporate risk managers across a range of industries and government agencies. AEG specializes in the assessment of indoor air quality exposures, identification of hazards, "Scope of Work" recommendations of corrective plans, and Post Remediation Verification Reports, confirming the property has been brought back to pre-existing conditions. In addition, the company's Environmental Technicians and Industrial Hygienists work with a vast array of market segments, such as corporate risk managers and real estate portfolio owners to help ensure their facilities and buildings are compliant with indoor air quality federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
McLarens is a leading global provider of loss adjusting and risk management services. The company's international footprint, which includes offices and operations strategically located in 39 countries, enables it to provide streamlined consistent service to global customers, while at the same time delivering local expertise and responsive service. Founded in 1931, the company's focus has historically been claims management services for complex, commercial and niche markets, as well as auditing and pre-risk surveying. The company's expert adjusters have an average of over 20 years' claims experience, operating across a range of industries with specialties including: Property, Crisis Management, Natural Resources, Construction & Engineering, Natural Resources, Agriculture, Aviation, Casualty, Marine, FAJ & Specie, Global TPA Services. To complement our claims services, McLarens began expanding its suite of risk management services in 2019, with the acquisition of American Environmental Group, which offers a range of indoor air quality and environmental consulting services.
Headquartered in Westlake Village, CA, American Environmental Group is a premier environmental consulting company. The firm offers a range of indoor air quality and environmental consulting services aimed at helping clients understand and manage their indoor environment, especially regarding worker or occupant exposure to potentially hazardous materials, particularly after property losses, such as fires or floods. The firm works closely with insurance companies, corporate risk managers, real estate portfolio managers, homeowners, business owners and property managers, as well as construction, remediation and development companies to provide environmental consulting and testing services throughout the United States.


beauty of nature, and camping is one of the most immersive ways to experience nature up close. Alongside enjoying the pristine wonders that only nature can offer, camping can bring important insights into how fragile the environment is becoming in the modern era and what we can do to help preserve it.
If it's your first time, camping can be a bit tricky to get right, but once you get the hang of it you can enjoy a seamless and environmentally-aware camping experience to remember for years to come.
As vast and boundless as nature can feel, it's still vitally important to do everything you can to preserve it. Even the smallest bit of litter or mess can soon accumulate and have dire consequences for the environment. Foreign food items and pieces of debris consumed by wildlife can cause sickness at best and death at worst. This scourge can travel up the food chain, as animals eat other sick animals-causing even more widespread damage.
Campfires are an important part of camping, yet a lot of care needs to be taken to construct a campfire that is both safe and environmentally-friendly. Personal Creations' guide contains important techniques to help you minimize your impact on the environment, such as starting fires on existing fire rings to avoid damaging other areas unnecessarily.
One of the biggest mistakes campers make is to leave a campfire extinguished without cooling down the ground below it. Even if your fire seems totally out, the ground can still remain hot and dangerous. Be sure to douse your fire with plenty of water and make sure the ground below is cool before leaving the area.
Camping should be all about having a good time without damaging your environment. Families with children can use a camping trip as method of showing kids just how beautiful and inspiring nature is and how vital it is we ensure it remains that way. Much of what we do in life comes from the lessons handed to us at a young age, so there's no better way to instill a sense of respect and admiration towards nature in young ones than letting them see the grandeur of our world up close. Try pointing out the beauty and strength of the trees, the perseverance of a river as it cuts around rocks, or the miracle of photosynthesis as young flowers bloom.
With all this information in your mind, you can now head out into the wilderness knowing that you're well prepared and ready to have a fantastic, eco-friendly experience.
This is a guest post written by Sherry Chen from Personal Creations.


The extraordinarily beautiful African Basslet (Liopropoma africanum) is probably one of the rarest fish you'll ever see in the aquarium trade. It first made its appearance onto the American aquarium scene only a couple of years ago, eventually selling for $2000, but it's availability has been so limited that most hobbyists have never even heard about it, let alone seen a video of the rare beauty. The fish is so rare, in fact, that 2010 was the last time the basslet was ever seen stateside as far as we can tell. Fortunately for rare fish junkies, this Indian Ocean native has resurfaced, this time in the tanks of Japan-based B-Box Aquarium who wasted no time showing off their new prize in a video format. In the brief clip, the L. africanum isn't doing anything amazing, but nervously floats in its holding chamber. Despite the lack of action, the fish still manages to amaze us and we hope if brightens up your Friday.
We've had one at Old Town Aquarium for over a year now. It spends all day hiding behind rocks, so it goes unnoticed unless someone asks me what our most expensive fish is. We're only asking $1000 for it. That's kind of cheap.


text:
The Computer Arts Society (CAS) was founded in 1968, in order to encourage the creative use of computers in the arts.

Foundation
The three founder members of the Society – Alan Sutcliffe, George Mallen, and John Lansdown – had been involved with computing and its related concepts for some time.  They knew Jasia Reichardt, the curator of Cybernetic Serendipity (1968) and had participated in or advised on aspects of the exhibition. Sutcliffe was involved with the exhibition through his collaboration with composer Peter Zinovieff and Electronic Music Studios (EMS).  Mallen was working with the English cybernetician Gordon Pask at Systems Research and assisted on the production of the interactive robotic work Colloquy of Mobiles shown at the exhibition.  Although not mentioned in the catalogue credits, Reichardt knew and respected Lansdown, who from 1963, had used computing techniques in architectural design and planning.

The original idea for a society dedicated to the computer arts (which was to become the Computer Arts Society) was instigated by Sutcliffe, at the IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) Congress in August 1968 in Edinburgh.  Sutcliffe and Zinovieff had won second prize with ZASP, their piece of computer-composed music.  Members of the Congress suggested to Sutcliffe that he might like to convene a meeting of people working in a similar field whilst they were all together at the Congress, as most had not had a chance to meet like-minded persons outside their own team before.  Sutcliffe collated the names of interested individuals and the group formed out of this, with the first meetings in London held in a room belonging to University College London, in or near Gower Street in September 1968.  Subsequent meetings were often held at the offices of Lansdown's architectural practice (he became the Secretary with Sutcliffe the Chairman and Mallen, Treasurer.)

The Computer Arts Society was founded to encourage the creative use of computers and to allow the exchange of information in this area.  It was recognised that this was an area where there had been increasing activity, but with little formal publication of methods and results and little communication between artists in different fields (music, visual, performing arts, and so on).

Early activities
At this time Sutcliffe was a programmer at International Computers Limited (ICL) in Bracknell, Berkshire with the official title of Manager of New Series Branch.  His area of expertise and responsibility covered what today is called research and development of software.  He has commented that ICL was always supportive of his outside artistic endeavours, offering for example, allocation of time on the mainframes, which he undertook mostly outside of peak hours.  As the Bracknell branch of ICL did not initially have a mainframe computer, Sutcliffe would occasionally travel to the Putney, London branch.  This was located across the River Thames from EMS and this facilitated his collaboration with Zinovieff.  Sutcliffe brought the paper tape of a music program he had written at ICL to Zinovieff to "realise" and thus began their collaboration, with Sutcliffe assisting the Studio by writing software for the synthesizers they produced. Zinovieff is recognised as having revolutionised electronic and avant-garde music and EMS was used by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Stockhausen and Pink Floyd among others.

CAS supported practitioners through a network of meetings, conferences, practical courses, social events, exhibitions and occasionally, through funding. It ran code-writing workshops, held several important exhibitions, co-operated with the Scottish Arts Council at the Edinburgh Festival and produced a bulletin.  PAGE was initially published from April 1969 until 1985 and was named after the concept of paging (the use of disk memory as a virtual store which had been introduced on the Ferranti Atlas Computer). It featured major British and international computer artists and hosted some fundamental discussions as to the aims and nature of computer art.  Its first editor was Gustav Metzger (who named the journal), thereby establishing from the beginning an association with the avant-garde. Metzger was 'excited' to discover CAS and 'people coming together' as he had 'felt quite isolated.' As early as 1961, Metzger had stated that '…the artist may collaborate with scientists, engineers.' As many members were outside London or overseas, PAGE was an important disseminator of information.

In 1969, CAS organised Event One, an early digital art exhibition held at the Royal College of Art in London.

CAS had international input early on in its history. A Dutch Branch (CASH) was formed in 1970 in Amsterdam and CAS US, formed in 1971 was based in the Mathematics Department of Eastern Michigan University. An early issue was devoted to the American branch activities and included 'A proposal and manifesto' by Stan Vanderbeek, pioneer of light shows and computer animation. By 1970, the CAS membership list listed three hundred and seventy-seven members in seventeen countries, including fifteen libraries and institutional members.

During the early years of its existence, the Society acquired a large number of works by pioneers in the field, including Manuel Barbadillo, Charles Csuri, Herbert W. Franke, Edward Ihnatowicz, Ken Knowlton, Manfred Mohr, Georg Nees, Frieder Nake, Lillian Schwartz and Alan Sutcliffe. The artworks, and the archives of the Society itself, were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2007. Works by Sutcliffe are also held by the Kunsthalle Bremen, which included them in an exhibition entitled Ex machina: early computer graphics up to 1979.

Current status
The Computer Arts Society is now a Specialist Group of the British Computer Society. It holds its own meetings in London and supports the EVA Conferences in London too.

CAS collaborates with the Lumen Prize for digital art. It also supports the EVA Conferences held annually in central London at the BCS offices.

References

Bibliography
 Catherine Mason, A Computer in the Art Room: The origins of British computer art 1950–1980. JJG Publishing, 2008. .
 Paul Brown, Charlie Gere, Nicholas Lambert, and Catherine Mason (editors), White Heat Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960–1980. The MIT Press, Leonardo Book Series, 2008. .

External links
Computer Arts Archive website
List of works given to the Victoria and Albert Museum

1968 establishments in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1968
Computer clubs
Cultural organisations based in London
BCS Specialist Groups
Arts in London
Computer art
British contemporary art


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Tripping in Calabria
A PIECE OF MEDITERRANEAN LANDSCAPE
For foreign visitors there is joy to be had on local trains in the sultry south, where the pace of life is as leisurely and bewitching as the narrow-gauge railways
Suppose you have some summer days to spare. Suppose you have a fondness for trains. Here's the idea. Do the southern coast of Calabria, Italy. You're not sightseeing. Just accepting the sun-struck languor of the hills and beaches, the odd mix of hospitality and indifference that characterises the locals, the general invitation to a warm, wine-fed fatalism.
Then, do it bit by bit, as you feel and as it comes. Not worrying too much about timetables (no one else will), or even about precise destinations.
Map of Calabria
SLOW AND PLEASANT TRIP
But arriving in Calabria is difficult. Using trains here is considered eccentric. There's no line to link directly the opposite sides of Calabria, from the west to the east, or from the south to the north coast, and crossing the land north to south requires several hours and three changes to go 200 km.
Vineyards of Lametia
Much of the network was built in the 19th century to bring goods and merchandises down from the mountains and makes little sense now. I remember once in Lametia Terme Centrale, puzzled by the mismatch between the information on the ticket machines and that on the departure board, I asked a railway worker if there actually was a train to Sibari that day. Without taking his cigarette from his mouth, he advised me that if he were going to Sibari, he would never use the train.
So here's an easier solution. Instead of attempting directly all Calabria tripping, take the line that snakes round the bottom of Italy's boot, all the way from Reggio Calabria on the western toe (linked by trains to Milan) to Taranto on the eastern heel.
Seafront of Reggio Calabria, in the evening…
That's about 500km of single-track railway. As long as you keep the sparkling sea to your right and thirsty vegetation to your left, you can't go wrong.
This time, using the trains along the coast, the travel will be light. Very light. The idea is to do everything, aside from the trains, on foot. You have a small backpack with two or three T-shirts, underwear, shorts, swimming gear, washing kit.
You really don't need anything else. Your sun hat is on your head, your sandals on your feet, your shades on your nose. What we're trying to do is divest ourselves of our ordinary obsession with organisation and control. Italy's southern railways are peculiarly conducive to this. Tell yourself before starting: I will never complain about a train being late, or even departing early, or from an unexpected platform. I will be patient. I will be steady and slow as sunshine on a stuccoed wall.
Ancient amphitheater in Sibari
ON THE EAST COAST
If you have the time and inclination, from Reggio Calabria you could make your way by rail and ferry to Palermo and start with another region, Sicily (the Milan-Palermo train actually boards the ferry).
However, that time I chose to do the long line, much of it single-track, running along the north coast from Reggio Calabria to my original destination, Sibari (to see the temple in its archaeological park).
Doing this trip, I once spent a scorching day at the cutely named Isola Capo Rizzuto, just outside Le Castella, a magnificent village with a marvelous Castle, positioned in front of the coast on an artificial island, as if it had been born directly from the Ionian waters.
To the north of Isola Capo Rizzuto, there is the wonderful long coastal railway that goes from Le Castella on the coast to spectacular Crotone, a stream of houses toppling from a high ridge into sweet valleys in front of the Ionian sea. And of course there's the wonderful ride up the east coast from Crotone to Sibari, under the sandy slopes of Cirò Marina, where a wonderful wine (so called Cirò Red Wine) is produced, and where from many decades re-flourishes an ancient tradition of wine making (dating back to Greeks and Phoenicians).
Crotone, facing east across the Ionian Sea, is a surprise. The huge chemical factory to the north – one of the endless failed attempts to industrialise the south – closed in 1990. No bus awaits arriving passengers. Your half-hour walk into town is hot work. But when you get there, what rewards!
Sight of Crotone
The place to stay here is Hotel Concordia (doubles from around €70), where New Grub Street writer George Gissing resided in 1897, and fellow novelist Norman Douglas 10 years later. From their descriptions of the railways in their respective travel books, By the Ionian Sea and Old Calabria, it doesn't seem much has changed. Having seen your booking made an hour before, the manager is at the door to greet you by name as you approach. He recognises an Englishman a mile off, but can't believe you don't have a car. "Nobody travels by train."
Before arriving in Sibari, my ideal destination, and so onward into the Bay of Taranto, the big, squarish arch under Italy's boot, you find, first, north-east, Corigliano Calabro, then north-west is Taranto itself, where a much grander collection of Greek art awaits.
City of Corigliano Calabro
The sway of the train and play of light and shade induce a pleasant stupor. Empty sands and blue seas. Bleached-white riverbeds. Mile after mile of olive groves and kiwi plants. I now remember Stazione di Torre Melissa. Vineyards. Grey rock promontories. Stazione di Cirò. The train guard's whistle. A squat tower on a low hillside. Cacti and scorched grass. Stazione di Crucoli. A short stop in Crucoli village in the wine shop of Linardi wines, the time for a good glass of Red Cirò in the company of the owner, Roberto Linardi, in person. I read Graffiti and no sign of railway personnel anywhere. In English someone has scrawled other signs…
My train along the coast, near Torretta di Crucoli
Stop wherever you want. Or don't stop. Depending how many days you have. But don't miss the beach of Corigliano. Just a few hundred kilometers from the coastal town, you cross a swing bridge that divides a huge inland lagoon to the left from the open sea to the right and at once you're in an antique metropolis of dark narrow streets and people sitting out on kitchen chairs looking in through the windows at their own TVs in rooms whose walls are nothing but bare stones piled up centuries ago. Men and women call to each other across and along the streets with strange cries and coded whistles, a fluid repertoire of gestures that very probably haven't changed in many generations. I know of nowhere in Italy where an ancient past seems so alive.
Do you want to go on? There's no line now along the west side of the bay to Taranto and Calabria at the tip of Italy's heel. But you can take the train toward Brindisi, changing region, get off at Francavilla Fontana and link up with the Ferrovie Sud Est, a local network that somehow contrives never to run along the coast but will take you to Otranto, and Galliano del Capo, just a short bus-ride from the wonderful Santa Maria.
TRIPPING TO REGGIO CALABRIA
The difficult-to-find Sibari railway station in Calabria made me come back to Reggio Calabria.
Your daily routine is as follows. Lunch in the hotel. Morning stroll and swim. Breakfast under sunshades along the seafront, which the Italian Poet D'Annunzio considered the more beautiful kilometer of Italy. Car at rent in the mid-afternoon, to kill the hottest hours, going to Scilla, ten minutes of road. On board you can use your phone to book a place in whatever upcoming town takes your fancy – nothing beats an unplanned adventure.
Another destination could be, on the oppositeside of Reggio and Scilla, Melito di Porto Salvo on Calabria's south coast, perhaps, where Garibaldi landed in 1860 to start his triumphal march to Naples. Or Brancaleone-Marina, further round the coast, where novelist Cesare Pavese was sent into internal exile for anti-Fascist activity in 1935. He complained bitterly, but it's hard to imagine a bluer sea or whiter beach.
You'll find the small stations of these villages mostly deserted. The locals prefer their cars. It hardly matters that the ticket machine is out of order because you've sorted yourself on the internet. A single, diesel-driven carriage appears in a shimmer of August heat. It may be only 10 minutes late, but it looks like it's coming from another age. Inside, a rattling air-conditioner just about keeps the temperature bearable. A couple of hawkers with cheap merchandise to sell on the beach get their packs stuck in the swing doors. One is wearing five blue sombreros on his head. A group of 10-year-olds run up and down the aisle. No business travellers. No other tourists.
I then visited the Castle of Scilla under the Aspromonte mountains: a tour of north-western Calabria.
Scilla and its castle
The centre is a labyrinth of narrow alleys climbing up and around a steep conical hill, each thread of street crisscrossed above with drying laundry and inhabited below by folks playing cards and drinking wine outside the bead curtains that protect their doors. At a corner a man is sharpening knives on a grindstone he turns with pedals and a chain.
At the top of the hill a castle houses a museum of Greek artefacts, for you are now in Magna Grecia, that part of Italy colonised by the Greeks in 700BC. The Castle of Scilla is magic, positioned on a very high rock, and it watches the sea for miles and miles…
In the tiny museum you can wonder at winged horses, pretty mermaids, a tiny rabbit-shaped container that once held cosmetic oil for a woman's skin. Brightest of all is a gold diadem fashioned into a circle of leaves and berries, emblem of the goddess Hera, whose ruined temple boasts just one standing column on the cliffs to the south of the town.
The bay of Scilla, with its beachside bars
Come early evening, lying on your back in the calm, warm sea, taking in the great sweep of the bay, it's not hard to imagine the Greek galleys at anchor in their scores, conquering and trading as the British would do a couple of thousand years later. Right now, though, there are just a few rusty fishing boats and the tinkle of a band grinding out 1960s covers in a beachside bar.
ON WESTERN COAST
From Scilla, you can now take a train going to the north, along the western coast of Calabria.
From there, I quietly arrived to Tropea, a village located on a small high rock plateau, full of tiny ancient houses, in front of a alike-Caribbean sea…
Here I tasted the most famous onion of Italy. Due to its unique sweetness, Tropea onion is the most celebrated and appreciated onion, even abroad. It grows, typically, on the cliffs that descend from Mount Poro towards the sea between Cape Vaticano, Zambrone, Tropea and Briatico, in the provinces of Cosenza and Vibo Valentia, but the larger origin land of this onion is the coastal medium-high Tyrrhenian of Calabria, the areas of the provinces of Cosenza, Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia, where the cultivars belong to fresh and aerated soils, overlooking the sea, with conditions of humidity, typical of the area of the upper-middle of the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria.
The streets are full of tourists and I love this mess, the air is full of scents of Origan, the wild herb which grows spontaneously under the Calabria sun, nearby the plateau of Mount Poro, a splendid place near to the major touristic attractions of Calabria: Capo Vatican and Tropea.
A generous land…
The word origan comes from the Greek "oros", which means mountain and "ganos" which means splendor. Its meaning is, therefore, "mountain splendor", and these two adjectives and qualities has been attributed to the plant for its grace and abundance of its flowers. This perfume recalls the wild and generous character of this land…
Still, if Italian State Railways tried your patience, Ferrovie Sud Est will transport you into a surreal heat haze of unexpected connections and sudden cancellations in which you will very likely spend hours entirely alone with a garrulous ticket collector delighted to have found someone to talk to. Everywhere signs inform you of the generous contributions of the ever beneficent EU. In any event, if you're returning home via overnight couchette from Lecce to Milan, make sure you set off with a good few hours to spare. Then put your head down on a Trenitalia pillow and let the rails lull you into a last Mediterranean reverie.
Posted on July 31, 2019 December 1, 2019 Categories Company Vision, MediterraneanTags calabria, calabrian, Company Vision, culture, economy, export, gastronomy, italiantaste, italy, mediterraneanLeave a comment on Tripping in Calabria
The Calabrian olive tree, from the Bourbons until today
CALABRIA: A GARDEN OF OLIVE TREES
The presence of the olive tree, this centuries-old plant that turns the Calabrian countryside of Puglia and Campania to green, has been for centuries the peculiarity of the Calabrian lands and of the entire South. Their presence in our territories is so strong that we imagine that it is spontaneous vegetation, nothing more wrong!
The olive tree for centuries needs care so that it grows luxuriant and produces its fruit.
For millennia, in fact, the work of planting the olive trees, including the harvest, involved entire Calabrian families.
A secular tree
The endless expanses of olive groves are the result of centuries of land transformation and how the Calabrians are linked to this plant. The Calabrian territory has been, at least under the botanical aspect, shaped by the wise hands of the peasants who devote themselves to this millenary activity with self-denial.
What has been said so far represents the concrete demonstration that the fruits of these natural monuments have given the Calabria Region the possibility of entering the European commercial logic since the second half of the seventeenth century, intercepting the developments and transformations of the international market.
Magic light under the olive trees
Starting from the mulberry tree and the renowned silk production, we arrived at the cultivation of olive trees and, finally, of citrus fruits.
Unlike what happened for the production of cereals, the cultivation of olive trees helped the territory, to guarantee greater stability to the lands oppressed by the fragile hydrogeological conditions (typical in Calabria the floods). In Calabria, or rather in Calabria, the olive-growing has spread rapidly, creating highly specialized areas, such as the areas of Gioia Tauro and Rosarno, reaching, then, up to the slopes of Aspromonte.
A strongly man-made landscape
Also on the Ionian side, in Rossano and Cirò, there has been an overwhelming rise of this plant. The production of oil grew so greatly that, in some cases, the traditional and secular Apulian supremacy was actually surpassed by Calabria (it is often said, since the end of the eighteenth century, that "when Puglia rests Calabria produces").
THE DEVELOPMENT UNDER BOURBONS' KINGDOM
The first strong signs of the flourishing of Calabrian olive growing were recorded Starting in 1735. The author of this renewal was King Charles III of Bourbon, who assisted by Minister Tanucci, implemented a series of reforms that renewed the Kingdom of Naples.
The Bourbons
The writer Giuseppe Maria Galanti, in one of his work ("Writings on Calabria, a meticulous investigation of the socio-economic conditions of Southern Italy between the last decade of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries") wrote:
"Generally olive groves are hoed and are fattened, and the use is that each owner usually keeps or uses small herds of sheep to fertilize. Where there are no sheep, fertilizers are the lupines. In Catanzaro and its contrada the use of the ancient "trappeto" [a olive press] continues. The oil is preserved either in clay pots or in tanks made of Genoa stone ". Evidence of the very noteworthy diffusion of the olive tree is a series of documents of the time such as, in particular, notarial deeds concerning rents or restitution of olive groves or trappeti.
Modern reconstruction of an ancient trappeto
Among the many, we report that, related to the land of Cannavà, one of the most fertile and extensive in the municipality of Catanzaro; here, the Duke of Cardinale, Luciano Serra, had planted an olive grove of 2000 barrels of oil (hl. 10.460). The olive trees, of remarkable dimensions, had a yield equal to about 14 hectoliters of olives (24 tomoli)… and the closed horizon of the dark olive grove and the gloomy air of the immense plain is enlivened somewhat by the fragrance of a squared garden of about 15 hectares. The trappeti are in the village, but the pomace goes to the old trappeto to be washed, which is a building occupying 72 ares of land with millstones 10 and presses 24″.
According to some sources, at that time, the Calabrian olive oil production came alone to represent the value equal to one third of all the olive oil production of the Kingdom of Bourbons. The enormous olive oil production of Calabria is analyzed by another scholar, Grimaldi, in his "Statistical studies on the agricultural and manufacturing industry of Calabria Ultra II", published at Borel and Bompard's Book-typographic Establishment, Naples 1845.
A flourishing agricultural economy
Further, Grimaldi, in his "Meridional Question, studies and texts of Borzomati", wrote:
"Extended cultivation and useful to the Province is that of the olive trees: it was derelict during the decade from 1806 to 1815 so that the olive groves, in part, were destroyed, and, in part, were substituted by many woods. Once the trade was revived, the ancient olive groves began to be taken care of, new plantations were made, and at present almost every site is progress.
Although in 14 municipalities, the olive tree is cultivated throughout the province, of which the qualities called ogliarole and rotondelle, which give abundant oil, and celline, of which less is obtained but of better quality, abound. . In general, they are not taken care of and are abandoned to themselves […].
Fertilizers are not applied to olive groves at all. …]. Pruning is made in winter, in some sites it is not done, in others it gets hurt […].The olive harvest is generally done when these are perfectly ripe, except for very few owners who carry it out before reaching this point. The fruit is partly harvested from the ground and the remainder on the tree is dropped by perturbing the branches. In addition to the damage that comes from the system of cutting down and collecting mature olives, there is the other that derives from keeping them before harvesting for about a month piled up and pressed in places that are often humid and low […].
Olive oil mills, commonly called trappeti, are defective. In fact, the grindstone is a hand and a half wide and with a little sharp cut, so in addition to being heavy and slow moving, it requires a lot of effort to be moved and the shredding of the olives is not well done.
Life of the village and olive-growing
The olive oil product is 19,523 barrels, that is cantaja [a certain unity of measure of that time] 107.287 and rolls [idem] 57 and 1/3, and it is little less than doubled in the last decade, since, before 1835, the average product was 10.623 barrels; the price is 55 ducats each barrel. Finally the olive groves can be considered as occupying 312.368 moggia [a land unity measure] of the territory of the province, and are mostly in the district of Catanzaro and in that of Crotone".
It is clear that the famous Calabrian writer Grimaldi was thoroughly familiar with the situation of the Calabria countryside.
AFTER NAPOLEON
There was a phase of blockade under the Napoleon, but growth resumed in the years to come.
Napoleonic age
Calabria began to export more and more olive oil, not only in the other provinces of the Kingdom, but also and above all in the main European countries.
The Calabrian olive oil was highly sought after by the industries of Northern Europe, especially by the soap factories of Marseille and by the English textile industries.
Cloth olive oil, the olive oil for clothes, as it was called in the Anglo-Saxon lands, was intended not for food consumption, but used for processing fabrics in factories and for lubricating machinery. This is why the Calabrian landowners were not interested in the refinement or improvement of the finished product.
Today, olive growing is the fundamental sector of agriculture in the region. In terms of income, it represents 25% of gross salable production.
A growing regional economy
There are more than 160,000 Calabrian olive farms. Their contribution to direct and induced employment is significant. The development of the crop is essentially linked to the resolution of technical and economic problems summarized below:
– Restructuring of olive groves
– Conservation of part of the plants to meet environmental and landscape needs.
– Removal of old plants that are no longer profitable and replanting of new cultivars.
– Production rebalancing through the containment of the phenomenon of the alternation of the production cycle and the pest control.
– Reduction of production costs with particular reference to that of collection.
– Production of oil with low acidity and good organoleptic characteristics, that is directly edible.
Posted on July 27, 2019 December 21, 2019 Categories Calabria, Fruits, Olive OilTags ancient, calabria, calabrian, culture export mediterranean, history, italiantaste, oil, oliveLeave a comment on The Calabrian olive tree, from the Bourbons until today


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Chuck Norris Turns 80 — Glimpse at Action Movie Star's Five Decades in the Entertainment Industry
By Odette Odendaal
On Tuesday, legendary actor and martial artist Chuck Norris turned 80 years old. A life filled with extraordinary achievements, a big family, and also boasts with a string of satirical joke factoids in his honor.
Born in 1940, the actor's name only changed from Carlos Ray Norris to his nickname Chuck when he served in the Airforce at the age of 18. Stationed in South Korea at the Osan Air Base at the time, he began his martial arts training, which in turn led to his one-of-a-kind career.
Chuck Norris attends the "The Expendables 2" premiere on August 15, 2012, in Hollywood, California. | Source: Getty Images.
HOW HIS ACTING CAREER STARTED
After leaving the service in 1962, Chuck became a karate instructor and became the first-ever westerner to hold the 8th-degree black belt in taekwondo. Spreading his wings further, Chuch then went to Hollywood, where he started training celebrities in martial arts.
It led to his first role, although a minor one in the 1969 film "Wrecking Crew," it was followed by his casting in the movie "The Way of the Dragon" with Bruce Lee in 1972 - the first in a line of over 23 films wherein he starred as the hero.
He notably appeared in movies such as "Forced Vengeance," "Good Guys Wear Black," "The Delta Force," and Code of Silence," while he also became a regular on television screens in the CBS television series "Walker, Texas Ranger" which ran for eight seasons during the 1990s.
HE HAS HEART
A charitable man, Chuck became a supporter of various charities, including United Way and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, during his career and even started his own called Kickstart Kids, whereby children learn discipline and respect through karate.
The actor has five children of his own from three different relationships. After marrying his classmate Dianne Holechek in December 1958, the couple welcomed their first child and son Mike four years later.
CHUCK'S BIG FAMILY
An extramarital affair led to the birth of Chuck's daughter in 1963, while Dianne gave birth to their second child together, Eric, the following year.
After separating in 1988, Dianne and Chuck divorced in 1989, having been married for 30 years, but he found love again with the former model Gena O'Kelley a decade later. The pair tied the knot in November 1998, and Gena, who is 23 years his junior, gave birth to twins in August 2001.
Chuck Norris arrives at Lionsgate Films' 'The Expendables 2' premiere on August 15, 2012, in Hollywood, California. | Source: Getty Images.
Chuck credited his mom as a significant influence in life during an interview back in 2004, when he said that she made sure they understood the value of having God in their lives growing up, as he explained:
"She influenced me spiritually and instilled in me a sense of responsibility that carried over in my later adult life. She always told me 'God has plans for you."
The year after the interview, jokes that became known as the "Chuck Norris Facts" began circulating. Centered around Chuck's superhero strength and heroism, he didn't quite understand in the beginning whether it was to make fun of him or not.
However, Chuck soon joined in on the fun once he became aware that the jokes stemmed from admiration, as his co-star on "Walker, Texas Ranger," Sheree J. Wilson once told Fox News:
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"It turned out that people really admired him. Revered him. Like Chuck Norris doesn't do push-ups, he pushes the earth down. They're just so funny."
THE REASON CHUCK STEPPED OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT
Having been absent from television screens in recent years, it's reported that Chuck Norris hung up his acting hat to take care of his wife, Gena.
In 2013, Gena had health issues that required testing, and when she went for an MRI scan, it apparently had an adverse effect on her, prompting Chuck to give his full attention to her needs.
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